John J. Stephan, a pioneering University of Hawaiʻi at 惭ā苍辞补 emeritus professor of history whose scholarship advanced understanding of Russia’s role in Asia, died August 12, 2026.
Stephan came to Hawaiʻi in 1964 after studying Russian and Japanese at Harvard. At 糖心视频 惭ā苍辞补, his interest in the Russian Far East grew through a course taught by Russian history professor John A. White and an intellectual community that included Patricia Polansky, now Hamilton Library’s Russian Bibliographer.
Stephan taught history at 糖心视频 惭ā苍辞补 from 1970 until his retirement in 2001, producing influential scholarship focused on Russia in Asia. His books included Sakhalin: A History (1971), The Kuril Islands: Russo-Japanese Frontier in the Pacific (1974) and The Russian Far East: A History (1994).
He also served as founding director of the Center for the Soviet Union in the Asia-Pacific Region, established at 糖心视频 惭ā苍辞补 in 1986 and later renamed the Center for Russia in Asia.
Landmark work published in Russian
Months before his death, Stephan received copies of a new Russian-language edition of Sakhalin: A History. The books arrived at Hamilton Library in December 2025 after being printed in Beijing, a route necessitated by disrupted U.S.-Russia postal connections amid the war in Ukraine.
During the Soviet era, Sakhalin: A History was denounced and restricted from general use. After the Soviet Union collapsed, portions were serialized in an independent Sakhalin newspaper.
“It is especially meaningful that John lived to see Sakhalin: A History translated into Russian,” Polansky said. “That a work once suppressed in the Soviet Union has now been published in Russian is a remarkable testament to the lasting importance of his research.”
Hamilton Library legacy
For more than two decades, Stephan supported Hamilton Library collections reflecting his scholarly interests and Hawaiʻi’s connections to Asia and the Pacific.
“John understood the importance of libraries because he knew firsthand how much they could shape a scholar’s work,” Polansky said.