Mark Solonin

Mark Solonin (born May 29, 1958, in Kuybyshev, USSR) is a Russian historian of World War II, an aviation engineer by training.

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 empire, after years of preparation for the Big War, having reinforced his 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". 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. This conclusion ("sensational and scandalous" as the Russian editor put it) is proved by a thorough hour-by-hour analysis of military operations of the first days of the war. He argues that "A European war became unavoidable. It began precisely one week after the signing of the pact."

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".

Works

• «На мирно спящих аэродромах…» (“At the Airfields That Seemed to Be Asleep”) — Moscow: «Яуза», «Эксмо». 2006. ISBN 5-699-15695-X
• «23 июня: „День М“» (“June 23 : M-Day”)— Moscow: «Яуза», «Эксмо». 2007 ISBN 978-5-699-22304-6
• «25 июня. Глупость или агрессия?» (“June 25 : foolishness or aggression”) — Moscow: «Яуза», «Эксмо». 2008. ISBN 978-5-699-25300-5
• «Мозгоимение» ("Screwing the Brains") — Moscow: «Яуза», «Эксмо». 2008. ISBN 978-5-699-28327-9; laureate of the competition 15 Russian books of the year, October 2008
• «22 июня. Анатомия катастрофы» ("June 22. Catastrophy`s Anatomy") — Moscow: «Яуза», «Эксмо». 2008. ISBN 978-5-699-30295-6
• "Новая хронология катастрофы" ( "New Chronology of the disaster" ) — Moscow: «Яуза», «Эксмо». 2011. ISBN 978-5-699-51036-8
• "Июнь 41-го. Окончательный диагноз" ("June 41. The final diagnosis") — Moscow: «Яуза», «Эксмо». 2013. ISBN 978-5-699-67335-3
• "Die Sowjetunion und Finnland: Vom Friedensvertag zum Krieg" (publication in "Uberfall auf Europa. Neun russishe Historiker belasten Stalin") - Germany, publishing house «Pour le Merite», 2009. ISBN 978-3-932381-53-9
• "Die drei Plane des Genossen Stalin" (publication in "Die Rote Walze") - Germany, publishing house «Pour le Merite», 2011. ISBN 978-3-932381-60-7

See also

• Soviet offensive plans controversy
• Battle of Białystok–Minsk
• Operation Barbarossa
• KV-1 tank
• Mechanized corps (Soviet)
• T-34 tank

External links

• Web page of Mark Solonin