Donald Rayfield

Donald Rayfield
Born	(1942-02-12) 12 February 1942 Oxford, United Kingdom
Occupations	Professor of Georgian and Russian languages, Translator
Known for	Stalin and His Hangmen
Notable work	Kvachi Kvachantiradze A Man Was Going Down the Road The Literature of Georgia: A History A Comprehensive Georgian-English Dictionary Edge of Empires: A History of Georgia

Patrick Donald Rayfield OBE (born 12 February 1942) is an English academic and Emeritus Professor of Russian and Georgian at Queen Mary University of London.¹ He is an author of books about Russian and Georgian literature, and about Joseph Stalin and his secret police. He is also a series editor for books about Russian writers and intelligentsia. He has translated Georgian, Russian and Uzbek poets and prose writers.

In March 2025, Donald Rayfield declined an award from the Writers' House of Georgia. Speaking at an event in London, he stated that he could not accept any gift associated with the Georgian Dream party.²

• Dead Souls, translation of Gogol's 1842 novel (Garnett Press, 2008; New York Review Books, 2012)
• Kolyma Stories (first half of the complete set), translation of Varlam Shalamov's stories (New York Review Books, 2018)
• Sketches of the Criminal World: Further Kolyma Stories (second half of the complete set), translation of Varlam Shalamov's stories (New York Review Books, 2020)
• Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk: Selected Stories of Nikolai Leskov (New York Review Books, 2020)

• A Man Was Going Down the Road - Otar Chiladze (2012) ISBN 0956468306
• Avelum - Otar Chiladze (2013) ASIN B00DG9QLZ0
• The Story of My Life - Akaki Tsereteli (2013) ASIN B00COQSC7Q
• Kvachi Kvachantiradze - Mikheil Javakhishvili (2015) ISBN 1564788792
• Unveiling Vazha Pshavela - Vazha Pshavela, Ana Kordzaia-Samadashvili, edited by Andro Semeiko (2019) ISBN 9780956468345

• The Devils' Dance - Hamid Ismailov (2018) - with poetry translated by John Farndon
• Manaschi - Hamid Ismailov (2021)