Nicholas Timasheff

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Nicholas Sergeyevitch Timasheff (1886–1970) was a Russian sociologist, professor of jurisprudence and writer.

Timasheff originally taught at the University of Petrograd. He emigrated to the United States following an alleged involvement with the Tagantsev Conspiracy in 1920. This investigation led to the death of 61 alleged participants, including the poet Nikolay Gumilyov. He took up a similar position at Harvard University, and—a former student of Leon Petrażycki—was one of the original developers of the Sociology of law discipline.

Timasheff was the author of various works, including The Great Retreat: The Growth and Decline of Communism in Russia (published 1946) in which he argued that the Bolsheviks made a conscious retreat from socialist values during the 1930s, instead returning to traditional ones like patriotism and the family.