Stuart Douglas Goldman

Goldman spent his first 21 years in Brooklyn and was proud of it, a product of the city's excellent public schools, notably Erasmus Hall H.S. and Brooklyn College. Upon graduation, he married his first true love, Marilyn Gavrin. They enjoyed a happy and eventful life together for more than sixty years. His professional training was as an historian, earning a Master's Degree at Colgate University and a PhD at Georgetown. His interests included modern political, diplomatic, and military history, U.S., European, and East Asian, with a particular focus on Russia and the Soviet Union. He began a conventional academic career, teaching history first at Wilson College, then at the Pennsylvania State University. His research on Soviet-Japanese conflict in the 1930s opened the door to East Asia, which he walked through with the help of a one-year post-doctoral research fellowship in Tokyo. After nine years he left university teaching and returned to Washington, D.C. and a career at the Congressional Research Service (CRS), the research and analytical arm of Congress, where he became the senior specialist in Soviet/Russian political and military affairs. He contributed to many published Congressional Committee Prints and wrote scores of published CRS reports and many hundreds of analytical memoranda for Members of Congress. He traveled frequently to Europe, Russia, and Asia with Congressional and staff delegations and as a guest speaker on behalf of the State Department. He was the point-man in the 1990s for the CRS program to help the Russians create a parliamentary research service in support of a functioning parliamentary system, a worthy but ultimately unsuccessful endeavor. After 30 years at CRS, Goldman retired in 2009 and took up the pen again as an historian. He wrote many feature articles and short pieces for World War II magazine. His book, NOMONHAN, 1939: The Red Army's Victory That Shaped World War II, was nominated for the Collins Prize for book-of-the-year in military history and has influenced subsequent interpretations of the immediate outbreak of the war.

In Stuart’s own words, “The most important things in life to me are: FAMILY, FAMILY and again FAMILY. Nothing is more important to me than my family. And I have been blessed with a truly wonderful family. Lucky me! Lucky us!

After family comes friendship. Life is short and friends are precious. We must cherish our friends. One of the most important things in life is knowing the right thing to do... and DOING IT.”

To honor and celebrate Stuart’s memory, funeral services will be held at 12:30pm on April 28, 2026, at National Funeral Home & Memorial Park in Falls Church, VA. Burial will follow at King David Memorial Gardens. The funeral service will be webcast at https://www.dignitymemorial.com/obituaries/12844551. A link to the webcast will be provided closer to the time of service.

In lieu of flowers, please consider donating to the Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation.