Mr. X's Legacy

by Matt Getty

November 1, 2008

Donald Graves ’53 established the scholarship for Russian studies at Dickinson after a 35-year government career providing insight into the Soviet Union for the CIA, the State Department and the U.S. Embassy in Moscow.

Long before he became "Mr. X," the State Department's premier Soviet Union expert during the Cold War, Donald Graves '53 knew that understanding Russia was vital for America. The realization came when he was just a teenager serving in the U. S. Army Signal Corps, helping to intercept Soviet radio transmissions in occupied Germany after World War II.

"Being on the front lines of the Cold War, he really saw the Soviet Union as the existential threat to the U.S.," explains Graves' son Richard. "He felt an obligation there because he saw that all the experts and translators we were relying on were from eastern Europe, and they had a different perspective on the issue."

That realization led Graves to Dickinson, where, armed with the GI Bill, he began the Russian studies that would take him to Moscow, the CIA and the State Department. At the height of the Cold War he was widely regarded as America's top Kremlinologist, his work so important and sensitive that a wellknown 1982 Washington Post profile could refer to him only as "Mr. X."

During his retirement, however, Graves often worried that America wasn't paying enough attention to the former superpower. "After the Soviet Union fell, everyone stopped paying attention to Russia," recalls Richard. "My dad thought that was just a critical mistake. He'd always say, 'Russia isn't going away. Their economy may be collapsing, people may think they're democratizing, but that isn't the way they operate. … Not paying attention to Russia is going to come back to haunt us.' " Those concerns led Graves back to Dickinson.

"He felt like Dickinson had given him his start," says Richard, noting that his father believed the college's strength in global education made it an ideal training ground for the "next generation" of Russia experts. "But he worried that the rising cost of college might prevent the next great analyst from getting their own start in the field." So in March 2008 he made a gift to the college to establish the endowed Donald Graves '53 Scholarship Fund for students studying Russian language and culture.

If Caitlin Rice '09 is any indication, it looks like Mr. X's gift is working exactly as he planned. The first recipient of the scholarship, Rice is a Russian major who has twice studied abroad in Moscow and shares Graves' concern for understanding the re-emerging global power.

"A lot of my friends joke with me and say, 'Isn't the Cold War over?' " she says, noting that Russia's recent resurgence makes Graves look prophetic. "But it's not about the 'Cold War.' There's a fundamental difference in the way our two countries see things. … I think there are a lot of opportunities to find common ground, but we just see things through different lenses."

When she learned that the alumnus behind her scholarship was once considered the State Department's foremost Russia authority, Rice felt driven to write a letter to both thank Graves and let him know that he was a "living example of what [she] hope[d] to become."

Unfortunately, Graves died of cancer this summer before Rice's letter arrived. But the fact that his legacy continues at Dickinson is both a comfort and an honor for his family. "It's really gratifying to see that his work will be carried on in this way," says Richard. "My dad believed in investing in the next generation to handle the great crises that America would be facing. This was his way of doing that."

And the importance of that investment definitely isn't lost on Rice.

"The Russian language is my passion," says Rice, who plans to pursue a diplomatic career in either the State Department or the United Nations. "But I want to make sure I use it productively. I don't want it to be just for business or tourism. I feel like I owe it to Mr. Graves to do something to make a real difference with the chance I've been given."