 He then studied European history at St. Antony's College, Oxford, before earning a PhD in modern Russian history at Cambridge.He taught at the University of Essex as a Lecturer, Senior Lecturer, and then Reader from 1966 to 1984, before joining SSEES, where he held the established chair of Russian History from 1984 to 2007.He also held a Leverhulme Research Professorship in Russian History at SSEES from 1999 to 2004.