Pitirim Sorokin
| Pitirim Alexandrovich Sorokin | |
|---|---|
Sorokin, 1934
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| Native name | Питирим Александрович Сорокин |
| Born | 4 February [O.S. 21 January] 1889 Turiya village, Vologda Governorate |
| Died | 11 February 1968 (aged 79) Winchester, Massachusetts |
| Citizenship |
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| Nationality | Russian |
| Fields | sociology |
| Institutions | |
| Alma mater | Saint Petersburg State University |
| Spouse | Elena Petrovna Sorokina (née Baratynskaya) (1894–1975) |
Pitirim Alexandrovich Sorokin (/səˈroʊkɪn, sɔː-/;Russian: Питири́м Алекса́ндрович Соро́кин, 4 February [O.S. 21 January] 1889, Turiya village, Vologda Governorate – 11 February 1968, Winchester, Massachusetts) was a Russian American sociologist born in modern-day Komi Republic of Russia. An academic and political activist, he emigrated from the Soviet Union to the United States in 1923. In 1930, at the age of 40, Sorokin was personally requested by the president of Harvard University to accept a position there. At Harvard, he founded the Department of Sociology. He was a vocal critic of his colleague Talcott Parsons. Sorokin was an ardent opponent of Communism, which he regarded as a "pest of man." He is best known for his contributions to the social cycle theory.
Pitirim Sorokin was born to a Russian father and Komi mother in the small village of Turja (then in the Yarensk uyezd in the Vologda Governorate, Russian Empire, now Knyazhpogostsky District, Komi Republic, Russia). In the early 1900s, supporting himself as an artisan and clerk, Sorokin attended the Saint Petersburg Imperial University where he earned his graduate degree in criminology and became professor. Sorokin was an anti-communist, during the Russian Revolution he was a member of the Socialist Revolutionary Party. This was also the time he met and married Dr. Helen Baratynskaya, with whom he would later have two sons. During the Russian Revolution, Sorokin was a secretary to Prime Minister Alexander Kerensky who was a leader in the Russian Constituent Assembly. After the October Revolution, Sorokin continued to fight communist leaders, and was arrested by the new regime several times before he was eventually condemned to death by Lenin himself. After six weeks in prison, he was set free and went back to teaching at the University of St. Petersburg. In 1918, he went on to become the founder of the sociology department at the University of St. Petersburg. In 1922, Sorokin was again arrested and this time exiled by the Soviet Government. He emigrated in 1923 to the United States and was naturalized in 1930. Sorokin was professor of sociology at the University of Minnesota (1924–30) and at Harvard University (1930–59).
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