DEREK WATSON is an Honorary Research Fellow of the Centre for Russian and East European Studies, University of Birmingham, UK. He studied history at Sheffield University where he was awarded a PhD degree. After thirty years of teaching and holding senior administrative positions in higher education, he retired in 1991 to concentrate on research and writing. He is the author of
Molotov and Soviet Government: Sovnarkom 1930-41 and a number of articles on Soviet history, including foreign policy.