Introduction

This special issue of the journal is to mark the retirement of Jonathan ‘Jon’ D. Smele in June 2020 from Queen Mary, University of London. Jon has made fundamental contributions to our general understanding of the Russian Civil War and to our comprehension of the Kolchak regime in Siberia. He has also produced deeply researched reference volumes. These intellectual achievements are discussed in Evan Mawdsley’s article in this issue. Jon is also familiar to the field and to readers of this journal as its editor from 2002–11. Editing a major journal is a large responsibility. Jon stepped naturally into the role, combining patience, attention to detail, and sound scholarly advice. Trusted and valued for his knowledge, Jon’s curiosity and passion for new research made him a wonderful correspondent. Here was an editor who actually read and empathized with the author’s endeavours and could reach his own independent evaluation. There was nothing mechanistic about Jon as editor. Reading a decade of his editorship, the only constant is the commitment to originality. If this meant publishing a single author on a single theme several times over several issues, then so be it. Jon was also receptive to publishing articles by amateur historians and encouraged younger scholars to begin their publication career with Revolutionary Russia. Jon’s respect for the Study Group and for its journal, initially Sbornik and subsequently Revolutionary Russia, is evident from his own articles in the journal, of which there are many, including an account of the first thirty years of the Study Group in a 2005 issue. His penchant for editorial roles also includes being founding co-editor, along with Michael Melancon, of the Bloomsbury History of Modern Russia series. Jon undertook a BA in International History and Politics at the University of Leeds (1977–80). His interest in Russian and Soviet history, and in particular the Russian Civil War, took off when he joined the MPhil in Soviet and East European Studies at the University of Glasgow (1981–83). This course offered instruction in Russian, as well as a host of options covering the history, economics, politics, and international relations of the USSR. It was taught within the Institute of Soviet and East European Studies, famous as the home of the journal Soviet Studies, and for ideological analyses and debates of the Soviet system, most notably between Alec Nove and Hillel Ticktin. It was an exciting intellectual and publishing environment in which Jon focused on historical studies under James ‘Jimmy’ D. White and Evan Mawdsley, writing his MPhil thesis on Kolchak, a topic suggested by Jimmy. Alas, Glasgow did not have the funds to keep Jon on for his PhD. This opportunity arrived through a scholarship that Roger Pethybridge had arranged and advertised. Jon applied, was successful, and began his doctoral research in 1984. The PhD was awarded at the University of Wales (Swansea) in 1991. Whilst still working on his PhD, Jon started work as a Temporary Lecturer in Russian History at the University of Edinburgh (1988–91). This was followed by a