Donald Graves, 79; State Dept. Cold War Analyst

In 1986, his insights led him to predict that the Soviet Union would collapse internally in the near future. This analysis, which contradicted the Reagan administration's foreign policy positions, was not welcomed. Mr. Graves was removed as head of Soviet internal affairs, although he continued to work in the intelligence field. He later returned to the bureau under the first Bush administration.

Born April 10, 1929, in Bennington, Vt., he grew up next door to the poet Robert Frost. He enlisted in the Army Signal Corps after high school, and served in occupied Germany after World War II, where he worked on intercepts of Soviet radio transmissions.

After his discharge, Mr. Graves graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pa., and received a master's degree in Russian studies from Harvard University in 1955. He moved to Washington and joined the CIA, where he edited "The Survey of the Soviet Press."A decade later, he was transferred to the State Department.

From 1974 to 1976, Mr. Graves was at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow as first secretary and head of the internal affairs branch of the political section. Upon his return to Washington, he became head of the Bureau of Intelligence and Research's Soviet internal affairs division, a job he held until 1986. Just before his 1992 retirement, he took a posting in Baku, Azerbaijan, with the Foreign Service reserve corps, but he spent most of his adult life in Washington.

His support of those struggling against Soviet oppression led Mr. Graves to secretly assist Norton Dodge, a Maryland college professor, to collect 20,000 works by dissident Soviet artists and smuggle them out of the Soviet Union during the 1960s and 1970s. The art, now on display at Rutgers University, and its retrieval were the subject of author John McPhee's "The Ransom of Russian Art" (1994).

His close reading of newspapers continued in retirement, and he volunteered thousands of hours to the Reading for the Blind & Dyslexic program and the Goodwill Book Nook.

A sailor, master furniture craftsman and home renovator, Mr. Graves was a Boy Scout leader and oversaw the Landon School's annual azalea sale and planted numerous gardens with rare trees. He also enjoyed classical and jazz music at the Smithsonian and was a member of the National Museum of the American Indian. He also lectured on Soviet affairs at colleges and universities.

His marriage to Louise I. Shelley ended in divorce.

Survivors include two children, Hester Graves of Ann Arbor, Mich., and Richard Graves of Washington; and a brother.