Robert Conquest

Robert Conquest was born in Malvern, Worcestershire, the son of an American businessman and a Norwegian mother. He was educated at Winchester College, the University of Grenoble, Oxford University, where he was an exhibitioner in modern history and took his bachelor's and master's degrees in Philosophy, Politics and Economics, and his doctorate in Soviet history. In 1937, after a year studying at the University of Grenoble and traveling in Bulgaria, he returned to Oxford and joined the Communist Party. When When World War II began, he became an intelligence officer in the Light Infantry. In 1940, he married Joan Watkins, with whom he had two sons. In 1944, while posted to Bulgaria as a liaison officer to the Bulgarian forces fighting under Soviet command, he met Tatiana Mihailova, who later became his second wife. After the war, he became the press officer at the British embassy in Sofia, Bulgaria, where he witnessed the gradual rise of Soviet communism in the country, and he became disillusioned with communism. He returned to London, helping Tatiana escape at the same time, divorced his first wife and married Tatiana. He joined a branch of the Foreign Office, then left in 1956 to become a freelance writer and historian. His first books, Power and Politics in the USSR and Soviet Deportation of Nationalities, were published in 1960. In addition to historical works, he also publ…