Samuel N. Harper spent the bulk of Russia's
pre-revolutionary years among the intelligentsia of
St. Petersburg and
Moscow while funded by Charles Crane to teach Russian at the University of Chicago for half of the year, often collaborating on his studies with
Bernard Pares. After his father's death, he was assisted by his mother Ella Paul in sorting and archiving his and his father's work – hence meticulous records of the founding of the university, the Russian program, and early 20th-century Russian materials remain in the university's archives. Harper briefly attended
Columbia University between 1909 and 1911. He fell short of finishing his PhD dissertation when Pares suggested for him to come to
University of Liverpool to teach Russian while closer to the country itself. The arrangement was short-lived – it became clear that Pares and Harper found themselves on opposing political sides with regard to Russia, Harper later supporting the more moderate reforms of the
February Revolution and Pares eventually becoming a public supporter of
Stalin. Harper abandoned the post in 1913. He returned to teaching at the University of Chicago as an assistant professor on Russian Language and Institutions in 1914. He briefly served as Special Assistant to the U.S. State Department, Russian Division from 1918 to 1922, and on the committee that concerned itself with the authenticity of the
Sisson Documents. == Selected bibliography ==