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Paul Avrich, a historian of the anarchist movement that played a role in the Russian Revolution and flourished in America in the 19th and early 20th centuries, died on Feb. 16 at Mount Sinai Hospital. He was 74 and lived in Manhattan.

The cause was complications from Alzheimer's disease, said his wife, Ina Avrich.

Named distinguished professor of history at Queens College in 1982, Dr. Avrich, whose field was Russian history, wrote 10 books, mainly about anarchism, the belief that society is better off without the constraints of government.

Dr. Avrich became the confidant of well-known figures in the anarchist movement.

"He considered himself a scholar, teacher and chronicler of the movement and had great sympathy and affection for them," his wife said. Dr. Avrich took issue with the prevalent image of the anarchist as violent and amoral.

"Every good person deep down is an anarchist," he was quoted as saying in the announcement by Queens College of his elevation to distinguished professor. Three of the 20th century's literary giants, James Joyce, George Bernard Shaw and Eugene O'Neill, were anarchists in their youth, Dr. Avrich said, and he had hoped to write a book about O'Neill.

In an interview with The New York Times in 1972, he said that the Vietnam War and the women's movement had reignited interest in the concept of personal freedom over government control. He added: "In America, such individuals and groups were in a sense pioneers of social justice. Many of the anarchists in this country and in the world have either been neglected or scorned, and I would like to play a role in resurrecting them."

The subjects of his books included the Kronstadt naval base rebellion of 1921, an uprising of sailors against the Bolshevik regime that left more than 10,000 dead or wounded; the Haymarket Riot of 1886, in which seven Chicago police officers were killed by a bomb thrown at a workers' gathering; and the Sacco and Vanzetti case. He interviewed hundreds of adherents of the movement for one book, "Anarchist Voices: An Oral History of Anarchism in America."

Born in Brooklyn to Rose Zapol Avrich, an actress in the Yiddish theater, and Murray Avrich, a dress manufacturer, he graduated from Cornell and earned his master's and doctoral degrees at Columbia. His dissertation was on the labor movement in the Russian Revolution, and after Khrushchev opened the country to exchange students, he went to the Soviet Union to do research.

In New York, his interest intensified when he met a number of anarchist thinkers at a meeting called by Freie Arbeiter Stimme (Free Voice of Labor), an anarchist Yiddish newspaper.

Mrs. Avrich said her husband collected letters, papers, books and photos of leading anarchists and donated a collection of 20,000 items to the Library of Congress. He even named his cats for the anarchists Piotr Kropotkin and Mikhail Bakunin.

Dr. Avrich spent his entire academic career at Queens College, where he began as a Russian history instructor in 1961 and retired in 1999. He was also on the faculty of the City University Graduate Center.

In addition to his wife, he is survived by two daughters, Jane and Karen Avrich of Manhattan, and a sister, Dorothy Avrich of Miami.

Historian of anarchism in the US and the Soviet Union

The common fate of anarchists, suggested Paul Avrich, who has died aged 74, was to be neglected or scorned. But what he wanted to do was to play a role in resurrecting them. So, as professor of history at Queens College and the graduate school at the City University of New York, he passed on to students an "affection and sense of solidarity with anarchists as people, rather than as militants". He also challenged the prevalent image of anarchists as violent and amoral.

Russian Anarchists (1967) was followed by Kronstadt 1921 (1970) and in 1972, Russian Rebels: 1600-1800. He then moved into American anarchism with The Haymarket Tragedy (1984). This focused on the campaign for the eight-hour day in Chicago in 1886 during which seven policemen were killed by a bomb, and for which four innocent anarchists were executed - one cheated the gallows by killing himself, and another three served sentences until pardoned by the state governor. Sacco and Vanzetti: The Anarchist Background (1991) established that the two men, executed in 1927 in Massachusetts, were serious revolutionaries rather than "philosophical anarchists".

Avrich was born in Brooklyn, New York, into a Jewish family originally from Odessa. He graduated from Cornell University in New York State in 1952 and took his PhD from Columbia University in New York City in 1961.

In the early 1960s Avrich had taken advantage of liberalisation in the Soviet Union to research his dissertation on the Russian revolution and the factory committees there. The material he uncovered on the 1921 insurrection at the Russian naval base of Kronstadt - which was suppressed by the Bolsheviks and left more than 10,000 dead or wounded on both sides - was the basis for Kronstadt 1921 and much of his work on anarchists in the Russian revolution.

Back in New York he researched amongst surviving Soviet exiles, many of whom he met at the anarchist Yiddish Freie Arbeiter Stimme (Free Voice of Labour) meetings and established lifelong friendships with many of them.

Avrich's other work included The Modern School Movement: Anarchism and Education in the United States (1980) which dealt with the radical schools inspired by the ideas of the Spanish anarchist educationalist Francisco Ferrer i Guardia, which survived from 1910 to 1960.

His last important work was the extraordinary Anarchist Voices: An Oral History of Anarchism in America (1995) based on interviews gathered over 30 years. Avrich was nominated several times for the Pulitzer prize, and in 1984 he won won the Philip Taft Labor History award.

He is survived by his wife Ina and his daughters Jane and Karen.

Paul Avrich, historian, born August 4 1931; died February 17 2006