Robert Conquest, Hoover Institution research fellow and renowned historian of Soviet politics and foreign policy, will be honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President George Bush on Wednesday, November 9, in Washington, D.C.
Conquest is one of 14 recipients of the medal, the nation's highest civil award, which was announced on November 3 by the White House.
Established by Executive Order 11085 in 1963, the medal may be awarded by the president "to any person who has made an especially meritorious contribution to (1) the security or national interests of the United States, or (2) world peace, or (3) cultural or other significant public or private endeavor."
Robert Conquest is known for his authorship of the landmark book The Great Terror: Stalin's Purge of the Thirties. More than 35 years after its publication, it remains one of the most influential studies of Soviet history and has been translated into more than 20 languages. He also is the author of the acclaimed Harvest of Sorrow, Stalin and the Kirov Murder, The Great Terror: A Reassessment, Stalin: Breaker of Nations, and Reflections on a Ravaged Century. His most recent book is The Dragons of Expectation (W.W. Norton).
Also receiving the award are
Boxer Muhammad Ali
Actress Carol Burnett
Software designers Vinton Cerf and Robert Kahn
Singer Aretha Franklin
Economist Alan Greenspan
Actor Andy Griffith
Radio personality Paul Harvey
Former congressman and veterans' activist Sonny Montgomery
Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff General Richard B. Myers
Golfer Jack Nicklaus
Baseball player and baseball team manager Frank Robinson
Paul Rusesabagina, whose heroic actions during the 1994 Rwandan genocide inspired the movie Hotel Rwanda
