doi:10.7916/0rb0-ae34Oral history interview with Stephen F. Cohen, 2017Cohen, Stephen Foral historiesmixed materialCollege teachersSoviet Union Study and teachingRussia (Federation) Study and teachingCohen, Stephen FHarriman InstituteStephen Cohen discusses his early history, drawing a number of parallels between rural Kentucky (where he grew up) and the Soviet Union including the moral complexity of life in the two places. He describes how an experience traveling in the USSR almost by accident led to his interest in Russian studies. He relates his time at Indiana University, his move to Columbia University and his time at the Harriman Institute (then called the Russian Institute) in the 1960s, including his interactions with Institute faculty of the time and relations between Institute figures and the government or Foreign Service. Cohen then discusses his experiences teaching at Princeton University and Columbia University and changes in academia during his career. He argues for the importance of interdisciplinarity for area training and of a comprehensive understanding of area history. Cohen refutes the notion of the 1980s as a "golden age" of Soviet studies and assess the Harriman Institutes prospects in the field into the future. Cohen discusses the ideological underpinnings of Soviet and Russian studies and changing attitudes in the field towards Marxism-Leninism. Cohen then speaks to the protests of 1968 and his interactions with various New York revolutionary movements. He details daily and family life as a graduate student both at Columbia and during a language exchange to Moscow in the mid-1960s. Cohen then describes how his overall impressions and attitudes towards Russia have changed over the course of his life and career