Nicholas P. Vakar (1894–1970) was a Russian-born American historian, scholar, and professor specializing in Slavic studies and Russian history. He is primarily recognized for his foundational academic work regarding the history and national identity of Belarus.
Vakar was an émigré who left Russia following the 1917 Revolution and the subsequent Civil War. He lived in France for several decades, where he was active in the Russian intellectual community in exile, before relocating to the United States.
His most influential work, Belorussia: The Making of a Nation, was published by Harvard University Press in 1956. This text provided one of the first comprehensive historical analyses of the Belarusian people and their political development available in the English language. He also authored A Bibliographical Guide to Belorussia (1956), which served as a reference for Western researchers studying the region.
In his professional career, Vakar served as a professor of Russian at Wheaton College in Norton, Massachusetts. He was also an associate of the Russian Research Center at Harvard University. His scholarship focused on the socio-political movements of Eastern Europe, the evolution of Soviet society, and the linguistic and cultural history of the Slavic peoples.
