These pieces are published for their scholarly worth, and also because they eloquently and inspiringly embody a broad and humane intelligence. Schapiro's most famous book was The Communist Party of the Soviet Union, first published in 1960 with a revised and expanded edition in 1970. He was chairman of the Institute for the Study of Conflict in 1970. He wrote many books about communism, particularly in the context of the Soviet Union. After his death, some of his scattered articles were collected in the volume Russian Studies (1987). Schapiro also translated into English the novel Spring Torrents by Ivan Turgenev.
Leonard Bertram Naman Schapiro was a British academic and scholar of Russian politics. He taught for many years at the London School of Economics, where he was Professor of Political Science with Special Reference to Russian Studies.