Since the crisis in Ukraine began, the Russia scholar Stephen F. Cohen has cast himself in the role of the unbowed dissenter, whose sharp criticisms of America’s foreign policy in the region have earned him denunciations as “Putin’s American toady,” as The New Republic put it, and worse.
But Mr. Cohen is also a man of means, whose wife’s charitable foundation has donated large amounts of money to support Russian studies, which have been hard hit by declining government funding.
Now, his largess and his divisive reputation have collided, opening a rift in the main scholarly association covering the post-Soviet world and spurring charges that the polarizing politics of the Ukraine crisis are stifling free speech and compromising the group’s scholarly mission.
The affair began amicably enough two years ago, when Mr. Cohen and his wife, Katrina vanden Heuvel, the editor and publisher of The Nation, began discussions with the Association for Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies, about ways to support research.
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“The frustration caused by Stephen Cohen’s pieces and statements on television is deep and quite serious,” Mr. Plokhii said. “The concerns are not so much about politics per se, as about the partisan nature of his interventions, the way he just blames one side.”
Mr. Cohen rejected that characterization, saying his intent has been to give “a balanced picture” by offering a “factually, historically correct” account of the Russian perspective on Ukraine. “That doesn’t make me pro-Russian,” he said.
Others defended Mr. Cohen’s scholarship, if not his conclusions. “I don’t agree with many of Cohen’s recent positions on Ukraine,” said Michael David-Fox, a professor at Georgetown, who signed the letter. “It’s precisely because he is in a minority that this is an especially important case.”
A version of this article appears in print on January 29, 2015, on page C1 of the New York edition with the headline: Scholars At Odds On Ukraine . Order Reprints| Today’s Paper|Subscribe
