William Haydn Mervyn Matthews (July 25, 1932 – November 26, 2017) was a British expert on Soviet society, writer, and broadcaster.
He was born in Swansea and his early years are described in his 2002 memoir Mervyn's Lot. He took a degree in Russian at Manchester University, then moved to St Catherine's College, Oxford, then St Antony's College for work on his Ph.D.
Falling in love with his future wife from the Soviet Union cost him his career. He was accepted as a research fellow at Moscow University, but expelled from the Soviet Union in 1964 for "anti-Soviet propaganda and speculation". St Antony's College annulled his research fellowship for political troublemaking, after which he moved to the University of Nottingham. He eventually settled as reader in the University of Surrey's linguistic and regional studies department.
Matthews is the father of Owen Matthews, a British expert on Soviet society. His wife was Lyudmila Bibikova, born in Kharkiv, Soviet Ukraine. Their relationship across the "Iron Curtain" holds a notable place in Anglo-Soviet relations in the 1960s. It was explored by Owen in Stalin’s Children and by Mervyn in Mila and Mervusya.
Bibikova's father, Boris Bibikov, was a Communist Party official and was executed in 1937.