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With the passing of my good friend of thirty-plus years, Dr. Jonathan \u2018Jon\u2019 D. Smele, on 12 September 2026, we mark the loss of one of the foremost experts of Russia in the revolutionary period, and especially of the Russian Civil War. Jon’s first monograph, Civil War in Siberia<\/a> <\/em>(Cambridge, 1997) is a massive and definite study of the Kolchak regime. His final monograph, The Russian Civil Wars, 1916-1926<\/a> <\/em>(Oxford, 2015) offers an original and challenging periodisation and interpretation of a conflict that Jon placed in a nationality framework. In between these seminal books, Jon’s penchant for encyclopaedic knowledge found its outlet in several essential reference works, The Russian Revolution and Civil War, 1917-1921: An Annotated Bibliography<\/a><\/em>(London, 2003) and Historical Dictionary of the Russian Civil Wars, 1916-1926<\/a> <\/em>(2 vols, New York, 2015). Jon was a fine and distinguished editor, co-editing Kolchak i Sibir <\/em>(2 vols, New York, 1988) and The Russian Revolution 1905: Centenary Perspectives<\/a> <\/em>(London, 2005). He made an important contribution as Editor of the journal Revolutionary Russia <\/em>(2002-2011). Jon combined patience, attention to detail, and sound scholarly advice. Trusted and valued for his knowledge, Jon\u2019s curiosity and passion for new research made him a wonderful correspondent. Here was an Editor who actually read and empathised with the author\u2019s endeavours and could reach his own independent evaluation. There was nothing mechanistic about Jon as Editor. Reading a decade of his editorship, the only constant is the commitment to originality. If this meant publishing a single author on a single theme several times over several issues, then so be it. Jon was also receptive to publishing articles by amateur historians and encouraged younger scholars to begin their publication career withRevolutionary Russia<\/em>. Jon\u2019s respect for the Study Group and for its journal, initially Sbornik<\/em> and subsequently Revolutionary Russia<\/em>, is evident from his own articles in the journal, of which there are many, including an account of the first thirty years of the Study Group in a 2005 issue. Jon’s interest in Russian history in la longue dur\u00e9e<\/em> inspired him, along with Michael Melancon, to co-found the Bloomsbury History of Modern Russia series.<\/p>\n Jon undertook a BA in International History and Politics at the University of Leeds (1977-80). His interest in Russian and Soviet history, and in particular the Russian Civil War, took off when he joined the MPhil in Soviet and East European Studies at the University of Glasgow (1981-83). This course offered instruction in Russian, as well as a host of options covering the history, economics, politics, and international relations of the USSR. It was taught within the Institute of Soviet and East European Studies, famous as the home of the journal Soviet Studies<\/em>, and for ideological analyses and debates of the Soviet system, most notably between Alec Nove and Hillel Ticktin. It was an exciting intellectual and publishing environment in which Jon focused on historical studies under James \u2018Jimmy\u2019 D. White and Evan Mawdsley, writing his MPhil thesis on Kolchak, a topic suggested by Jimmy. Alas, Glasgow did not have the funds to keep Jon on for his PhD. This opportunity arrived through a scholarship that Roger Pethybridge had arranged and advertised. Jon applied, was successful, and began his doctoral research in 1984. The PhD was awarded at the University of Wales (Swansea) in 1991.<\/p>\n Whilst still working on his PhD, Jon started work as a Temporary Lecturer in Russian History at the University of Edinburgh (1988-1991). This was followed by a year as Teaching Fellow in Modern European History at the University of Aberdeen (1991-1992), and two years as a Temporary Lectureship at Queen Mary, University of London (1992-1994). It was Queen Mary that offered Jon a permanent post in 1994, in which he was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 1999, and where he remained until retirement on grounds of ill-health in June 2020. He made his home in Glasgow, while commuting to Queen Mary and making his mark as a valued colleague who fulfilled key administrative and teaching roles across the BA and MA programmes. An insight into his inspirational lectures can be gleaned from the audiobook that he wrote and narrated, The Russian Revolution: From Tsarism to Bolshevism <\/em>(2009). Jon was a much-appreciated PhD supervisor, as is clear from the acknowledgements in the theses by Benjamin Wells on the Union of Regeneration, 1917-1991 (2004), Robert Henderson on Vladimir Burtsev and the Russian Revolutionary Emigration, 1891-1905 (2008), and Heather Campbell on Bolshevism, Islamism, nationalism, 1918-1923 (2014). Jon was also extremely generous with his time as External Examiner of course provisions at Aberdeen and Luton, and of PhDs at SSEES, Oxford, and elsewhere.<\/p>\n Outside of academia, Jon was a font of insight into contemporary popular and alternative music. In 1986 in Bristol Jon and his partner Robina were part of the now legendry EEC Punk Rock Mountain project that organised indie band gigs at the George and Railway pub. Jon\u2019s further credits include contributions to first issue of The Pastels fanzine Pastelism <\/em>(1988) that features an interview with The Teenage Fanclub, a substantial article on Daniel Johnston, and a pen portrait of Jon as a member of Pastelism\u2019s <\/em>\u2018one big happy family\u2019. Jon\u2019s expertise on Bob Dylan was acknowledged in June Skinner Sawyers, Bob Dylan: New York <\/em>(Berkeley, CA, 2011, vii), a manuscript he reviewed for the publisher and corrected many errors.<\/p>\n Post-retirement, following a period of being in and out of hospital, Jon took up permanent residency at the Aisla Craig Care Home in Cessnock, Glasgow.\u00a0 Jon lived with his illness with great bravery and stoicism, showing keen interest in new publications in Russian history, any news of the profession, sporting passions, and above all his family whom he loved unconditionally. He retained his identity as a scholar. The door to his room bore a copy of the front cover of The Russian Civil Wars<\/em>. Jon was delighted by the special issue of Revolutionary Russia, 34(2), 2021<\/a><\/em> in his honour, and by the appreciation of his scholarship of the Russian Civil War in V.I. Goldin, Grazhdanskaia\u00a0voina v Rossii\u00a0<\/em>(Moscow, 2025, vol. 1, p. 163). Jon is survived by his wife Robina and daughter Lola. They set-up a tribute page at https:\/\/jonathansmele.muchloved.com<\/a><\/p>\n Ian D. Thatcher<\/p>\n Professor of History<\/p>\n Ulster University<\/p>\n Jon Smele, 1958-2026 With the passing of my good friend of thirty-plus years, Dr. Jonathan \u2018Jon\u2019 D. Smele, on 12 September 2026, we mark the loss of one of the foremost experts of Russia in the revolutionary period, and especially of the Russian Civil War. Jon’s first monograph, Civil War in Siberia (Cambridge, 1997) is […] Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":217,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2631","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/projects.history.qmul.ac.uk\/cerees\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2631","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/projects.history.qmul.ac.uk\/cerees\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/projects.history.qmul.ac.uk\/cerees\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projects.history.qmul.ac.uk\/cerees\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/217"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projects.history.qmul.ac.uk\/cerees\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2631"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/projects.history.qmul.ac.uk\/cerees\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2631\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2634,"href":"https:\/\/projects.history.qmul.ac.uk\/cerees\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2631\/revisions\/2634"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/projects.history.qmul.ac.uk\/cerees\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projects.history.qmul.ac.uk\/cerees\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projects.history.qmul.ac.uk\/cerees\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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