Douglas Smith author biography, plus links to books by Douglas Smith.

Douglas Smith

Douglas Smith is an award-winning historian and translator and the author of Rasputin and Former People, which was a bestseller in the UK. His books have been translated into a dozen languages. The recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, he has written for The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal and has appeared in documentaries by the BBC, National Geographic, and Netflix. Before becoming a historian, he worked for the US State Department in the Soviet Union and as a Russian affairs analyst for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. He lives with his family in Seattle.

This biography was last updated on 09/29/2026.

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