Mission & History

The University of Michigan Center for Russian and East European Studies is dedicated to advancing and disseminating interdisciplinary knowledge about the peoples, nations, and cultures of Russia, Central and Eastern Europe, and Eurasia, past and present. Through its own academic programs and its support of area-focused training and scholarship across U-M's schools and colleges, CREES helps meet the nation's ongoing need for experts with deep contextual knowledge who are proficient in the region's languages. Through its outreach programs, CREES serves as a local, state, Midwest, and national resource on the region, providing instructional and informational services to the public, K-12 and postsecondary educators, media, government, business, and other constituencies.

Russian and East European Studies at the University of Michigan: Historical Timeline

1927: Instruction in Russian language is introduced at the University of Michigan.

1939: The Department of Russian is established with a four-year curriculum.

1945: The Department of History appoints Andrei Lobanov-Rostovsky as its first professor of Russian history.

1946-47: The Committee on the Program in Russian Studies is established in the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts to administer Bachelor's and Master's Degree Programs in Russian Studies.

1952: The Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures is established and begins offering a Master's Degree Program in Russian.

1958: A Ph.D. Program in Slavic Languages and Literatures is initiated.

1958: An interdepartmental survey course on the Soviet Union is introduced.

1959: The University of Michigan is designated a Slavic Language and Area Center under Title VI of the National Defense Education Act by the U.S. Office of Education.

April 1961: The Committee on the Program in Russian Studies is re-designated the Center for Russian Studies.

Fall 1961: The Center's Master's Degree Program in Russian Studies is replaced by a Graduate Certificate Program in Russian Studies designed to provide graduate students with multi-disciplinary training in Russian area studies as they pursue M.A. or Ph.D. disciplinary degrees.

January 1, 1967: The Center's name is changed to Center for Russian and East European Studies to recognize U-M's increasing research and training on Eastern Europe.

1969-70: The Center's Bachelor's Degree Program in Russian Studies is replaced by a Bachelor's Degree Program in Russian and East European Studies.

1973: The Center's Master's Degree Program in Russian and East European Studies is introduced.

1973: The Nicolaus Copernicus Endowment is established at the University of Michigan to mark the 500th anniversary of the Polish astronomer's birth and as the repository for funds to support Polish studies at U-M in perpetuity.

mid-1970s: CREES embarks on a long-range effort leading to the establishment of joint or dual graduate-level degree programs with the Department of Communication, School of Business Administration, Law School, and Institute for Public Policy Studies.

1991: The CREES endowment campaign tops $1 million, thereby fulfilling the goal of the Mellon Foundation's matching grant award to the Center.

1993: The University of Michigan International Institute is established, with CREES among its constituent units.

1995: The Dual Master's Degree Program in Russian and East European Studies and Natural Resources and Environment introduced, the first of its kind in the U.S.

1997: CREES and other area centers move from Lane Hall into the International Institute's new quarters in the School of Social Work Building.

2000: CREES receives approval to offer Undergraduate Academic Minors in Russian Studies and in East European Studies and a Graduate Certificate in Russian and East European Studies.

2008: CREES becomes an affiliate of the Weiser Center for Europe and Eurasia, a new unit at the International Institute that works in common association with the Center for European Studies-European Union Center, CREES, and the Weiser Center for Emerging Democracies.