History Professor Honorary Member of Russian Group

Dr. Russell Martin, Westminster College associate professor of history, was recently awarded honorary membership in the Russian Imperial Union-Order (RIU-O), the oldest and most distinguished Russian émigré monarchist organization in the world.

"The RIU-O was founded in Paris by Russian exiles and has spent the last 79 years serving the legitimate heirs to the Russian throne encouraging and maintaining the best traditions and cultural expressions of pre-revolutionary Russia," Martin said. "George Fedorov, current chairman of the RIU-O, and the RIU-O Supreme Council bestowed this rare honor for my work over the years, especially my recent work on producing a translation of the Official Webpage of the Imperial House (www.imperialhouse.ru).

"I was touched by this honor, and was especially humbled when I learned that in its nearly 80 years, the RIU-O has given this honor only a handful of times," Martin said.

Martin recently gave a lecture at the Mercer County Medical Society's monthly meeting.

"The topic of my lecture was on the physical descriptions and physical examinations for health, fertility and virtue of prospective brides for Russian tsars in the 16th and 17th centuries," Martin said. "It seemed like a good topic to present to a gathering of doctors! I believe strongly that the ivory-tower' research of scholars has to be packaged in ways both interesting and accessible to the broader public."

"Events like this one help to make the sometimes arcane work of professors--and what can be more arcane' today than medieval Russia!?--a bit more available, and therefore valuable, to the public," he said. Historians more and more have to write and lecture not just for themselves, but for everyone, if we want society to benefit from our research."

Martin appeared on A&E Biography in a broadcast on Ivan the Terrible as an expert on the controversial ruler. He is the co-founder of the Muscovite Biographical Database, a Russian-American computerized register based in Moscow of early modern Russian notables. The Neville Island, Pa., native is not only fluent in Russian, but also reads Old Church Slavonic, French, German, Latin, and Polish.

Martin, who has been with Westminster College since 1996, earned his bachelor's degree from the University of Pittsburgh, and his master's and Ph.D. from Harvard University.

Contact Martin at (724) 946-6254 or e-mail martinre@westminster.edu for more information.

Dr. Russell Martin