Mark Solonin

Mark Solonin (born May 29, 1958, in Kuybyshev, USSR) is a Russian historian, and author who writes about the history of World War II.^[1][2] An aviation engineer by training, Solonin has gone on to write numerous books on the Second World War. Since 2016 Solonin has resided in Estonia.^[3]

Early life

Mark Semionovich Solonin was born in Kuybyshev, USSR on May 29, 1958. Solonin's father had served with the Soviet Army in the Second World War, which lead to a long-standing interest in the conflict. Solonin grew up with a strong interest in history, and was a successful student. Graduating from secondary school with gold honours, he decided to study aviation because he felt politics would interfere with his potential career in history.^[4]

Career

Solonin's studies focus on the opening weeks of the Soviet-German War, known as the Great Patriotic War, with the goal of finding a reason why Stalin's Soviet Union, after years of preparation for a large-scale war, having reinforced its army with the best up-to-date weaponry and, finally, having amassed the biggest army size in the world, suffered a crushing defeat in the summer of 1941. The author-proposed answer is that the reason for the catastrophe lies beyond the sphere of tactics, strategy or German's notorious "first strike". In his opinion, the Soviet Union and its military were unprepared for the war in terms of morale and organization - after the first shots were fired, the Red Army became an ungovernable mob of armed people, which swiftly abandoned their weapons and turned into endless columns of unarmed prisoners-of-war. To support this conclusion ("sensational and scandalous" as the Russian editor put it), he provides his own hour-by-hour analysis of military operations of the first days of the war.

Regarding World War 2 he argues that "A European war became unavoidable. It began precisely one week after the signing of the pact." ^[5]

Solonin has written seven books that have been sold over 270 000 copies in Russia. Every book contains hundreds of source references (both from Soviet/Russian and Germany military archives), comparative tables on planning, weaponry and armor, author-drawn schemes of military operations. His works have been translated into Polish, Germany, Czech, Estonian, Lithuanian and Romanian.

Solonin criticized the new Russian culture minister and revisionist historian Vladimir Medinsky as "a propagandist of the shameless Goebbels variety".^[6]

Bibliography

• Solonin, Mark (2006). На мирно спящих аэродромах [At The Sleeping Airfields] (in Russian). Moscow: Eksmo. ISBN 5-699-15695-X.
• Solonin, Mark (2007). 23 июня: „День М [June 23: M-Day] (in Russian). Moscow: Eksmo. ISBN 978-5-699-22304-6.
• Solonin, Mark (2008). 25 июня. Глупость или агрессия? [June 25: Foolishness or Aggression?] (in Russian). Moscow: Eksmo. ISBN 978-5-699-25300-5.
• Solonin, Mark (2008). Мозгоимение: Фальшивая история Великой войны [The Fake History of the Great War] (in Russian). Moscow: Eksmo. ISBN 978-5-699-28327-9.
• Solonin, Mark (2008). 22 июня. Анатомия катастрофы [June 22. Anatomy of Catastrophe] (in Russian). Moscow: Eksmo. ISBN 978-5-699-30295-6.
• Solonin, Mark (2011). Новая хронология катастрофы [A New Chronology Of The 1941 Invasion] (in Russian). Moscow: Eksmo. ISBN 978-5-699-51036-8.
• Solonin, Mark (2013). Июнь 41-го. Окончательный диагноз [June 1941: The Final Diagnosis] (in Russian). Moscow: Eksmo. ISBN 978-5-699-67335-3.

See also

• Soviet offensive plans controversy
• Battle of Białystok–Minsk
• Operation Barbarossa

References

External links

• Web page of Mark Solonin