Pitirim Sorokin

Pitirim Sorokin
Питирим Сорокин
Sorokin in 1917
Born4 February [O.S. 23 January] 1889
Died10 February 1968(1968-02-10) (aged 79)
NationalityRussian
Citizenship
Alma materSaint Petersburg Imperial University
SpouseElena Petrovna Sorokina (née Baratynskaya) (1894–1975)
ChildrenPeter Sorokin, Sergei Sorokin
Awards55th President of American Sociological Association
Scientific career
FieldsSociology
Institutions
Doctoral studentsRobert K. Merton
The picture of the book cover for one of Sorokin's more famous works

Pitirim Alexandrovich Sorokin (/səˈrkɪn, sɔː-/;[1] Russian: Питири́м Алекса́ндрович Соро́кин; 4 February [O.S. 23 January] 1889 – 10 February 1968) was a Russian American sociologist and political activist, who contributed to the social cycle theory.

Sorokin was a professor at Saint Petersburg Imperial University. He was repressed by Vladimir Lenin's communist regime, which led Sorokin to flee to Czechoslovakia with the help of Thomas Masaryk and Edouard Benes.[2] He became a professor of sociology at the University of Minnesota in 1924.[2] In 1930, he was hired as head of the newly formed department of sociology at Harvard University.[2]

A member of the Socialist Revolutionary Party in Russia, he was arrested multiple times by both the Czarist regime and the communist regime.

  1. ^ "Sorokin". Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary.
  2. ^ a b c Simpson, Richard L. (1953). "Pitirim Sorokin and His Sociology". Social Forces. 32 (2): 120–131. doi:10.2307/2573709. ISSN 0037-7732. JSTOR 2573709.