Nina Bogdan

Nina Bogdan's parents immigrated to America after World War II and she was born and raised in San Francisco, California. She earned degrees in Russian language and literature, international relations, and political science at San Francisco State University and UC Davis. In her first career, Nina worked as a Russian-English translator, first for a government agency and later as an independent contractor.

In 2010, Nina and a co-author published "Russian San Francisco," an "Images of America" series book chronicling Russian community history in San Francisco through photographs. Nina was also researching her family history at that time. That research involved traveling to Ukraine, her father's birthplace; Russia, where her maternal ancestors had lived; and China, where her mother was born. In 2013, she self-published "The Desolation of Exile: A Russian Family's Odyssey," currently available only as an e-book.

Her research interests led her back to formal study, and she earned a PhD in U.S. History at the University of Arizona in 2021. Her new book, "Before We Disappear into Oblivion: San Francisco's Russian Diaspora from Revolution to Cold War" (McGill-Queen's University Press) is now available. The book explores the formation of the Russian community in San Francisco, its expansion in the post-World War I era, and the processes contributing to the development of Russian American identity into the post-World War II period.