My partner, Chris Binns, who has died aged 74, was an inspiring lecturer with wide cultural and intellectual interests, and a warm-hearted man with a great sense of humour.

He was born in Chard, Somerset, son of Max Binns, a journalist, and his wife, Margaret (nee Perris). He attended Devonport high school for boys in Plymouth. After a disrupted childhood due to the early death of his father, Chris read classics at Oxford. From there, a travelling scholarship enabled him to visit Greece, and thus began his lifelong love of the country and its landscape.

After graduating in 1965, he took a teaching diploma and went to teach classics at Daniel Stewart’s college, Edinburgh, where he founded Stewart’s College Review, a more literary complement to the main college magazine; it continues to flourish. During this time Chris enrolled on a government-sponsored diploma course in Russian at Strathclyde University. He went on to gain a first-class degree in Russian language and literature at Edinburgh University while still teaching full-time.

By 1974 his interests had extended to the social sciences and he began postgraduate research on secular rituals in the Soviet Union. His research trips introduced him to the grim realities of Soviet life – he was sustained by friendships and his growing passion for music. On the second trip, a supposed friend, in fact a KGB agent, tried to recruit him. Friendly conversations turned into veiled threats. Returning to the UK, he came to the attention of MI5 and was interviewed by officers on several occasions. They told him not to return to the Soviet Union and not to tell any friends, family or colleagues about this. He found the secrecy very stressful – particularly when colleagues asked about his plans for further research.

In 1980 Chris secured a lectureship in the department of government at Manchester University, where we met in 1986. Never entirely happy there, he took early retirement in 1993 without any clear plans. The next few years, spent teaching Russian and post-Soviet studies at the London School of Economics, were the most fulfilling of his professional life. He loved the international diversity of the students and the stimulating academic environment. He supervised postgraduate students, which led to several wedding invitations, including in Russia, and taught for short periods in Hungary, the Caucasus and Kazakhstan.

After the LSE, Chris learnt German and ran adult education classes for the Glossop Guild on subjects reflecting both his existing specialisms – Russia and the classical world – and new topics that interested him.

In 2005 we bought a small village house in Crete near the mountains he loved. A planned anniversary climb up Mount Dikti in 2014 was cancelled when he realised he was ill. He was diagnosed with bowel cancer. We married very quietly in 2016 – amusing the registrar by reading The Owl and the Pussycat, especially “[they] were married next day by the turkey who lives on the hill”.

He is survived by me and by 10 nephews and nieces.