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Viktor Suvorov

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In this name that follows Eastern Slavic naming customs, the patronymic is Bogdanovich and the family name is Rezun.

Viktor Suvorov
(2007)
(2007)
Native name
Владимир Богданович Резун
Виктор Суворов
BornVladimir Bogdanovich Rezun
(1947-04-20) 20 April 1947 (age 77)
Barabash, Primorsky Krai, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union (now Russia)
Notable worksAquarium, Icebreaker

Viktor Suvorov (Виктор Суворов, real name is Vladimir Bogdanovich Rezun, Russian: Владимир Богданович Резун; born 20 April 1947) is a former Soviet GRU officer who is known as an author of non-fiction books about World War II, GRU and Soviet Army. He defected to the United Kingdom in 1978.

While living the UK, Suvorov began his writing career, publishing his first non-fiction books in the 1980s about his own experiences and the structure of Soviet military, intelligence, and secret police. He writes in Russian. A number of his books have been translated into English, including his semi-autobiographical The Liberators (1981).

In his Icebreaker, M Day and several follow-up books Suvorov argued that Stalin planned to use Nazi Germany as a proxy (the “Icebreaker”) against the West. The books are based on his analysis of Soviet military investments, diplomatic maneuvers, Politburo speeches and other circumstantial evidence.

Biography

Suvorov, born Vladimir Bogdanovich Rezun, comes from a military family of mixed Ukrainian-Russian descent. He may have been born and was definitely raised in Ukraine's Cherkasy, where his Ukrainian father served. The family subsequently settled in Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic after the father's retirement. According to Suvorov, he studied in Suvorov Military Schools in Russia: one in Voronezh (from 1958 to 1963), and later transferring to one in Kalinin (from 1963 to 1965).[1]

From 1965 to 1968, Suvorov completed Frunze Red Banner Higher Military Command School in Kiev. In 1968, he served in the 145th Guards Motor Rifle Regiment, 66th Guards Training Motor Rifle Division, of the Carpathian Military District in Ukraine, participating in the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia. In 1970 and 1971, he served in the Volga Military District Headquarters, and later with the 808th Independent Army Reconnaissance Company (Spetsnaz).

After attending the Military Diplomatic Academy from 1971 to 1974, Suvorov joined the Soviet mission to the United Nations Office at Geneva, working undercover for the Soviet military intelligence service (Glavnoye Razvedyvatel'noye Upravleniye; GRU). He was promoted to the rank of captain.[citation needed][1] He drew from all these experiences in his later writing about the institutions.[citation needed]

On 10 June 1978, Suvorov defected to the United Kingdom. At the time, he was married to Tatiana Korzh. The couple had a son, Aleksandr, and a daughter, Oksana. They were smuggled out of Switzerland to Britain by British intelligence. There Suvorov worked as an intelligence analyst for the government and as a lecturer.[1][2]

Publications

Suvorov soon drew from his experience and research to write non-fiction books in Russian about the Soviet Army, military intelligence, and special forces. He used the pseudonym "Viktor Suvorov" when he published these works.

His published books include

Suvorov also wrote several fiction books set in the pre-World War II era in the Soviet Union. The first one, Control, was followed by Choice, and the last and most recent title was Snake-eater (2010).

The Third World War: The Untold Story. According to Suvorov, he was among the military and intelligence experts consulted by British General Sir John Hackett as he was writing his alternate history novel, The Third World War: The Untold Story (1982).[8] This book was the sequel to the 1978 original The Third World War: August 1985 and incorporated political and technological changes that had been underway since Hackett's first novel.[9] Hackett wrote it in the style of non-fiction, and based in an alternative history in which a Soviet/NATO war takes place in Germany, beginning in 1985 before reunification.

Works about World War II

Main article: Soviet offensive plans controversy

Suvorov has written ten books about the outbreak of the Nazi-Soviet War in 1941 and the circumstances related to it. The first such work was Icebreaker (1980s), followed by M Day, The Last Republic, Cleansing, Suicide, The Shadow of Victory, I Take it Back, The Last Republic II, The Chief Culprit, and Defeat.

In his Icebreaker, M Day and several follow-up books Suvorov argued that Stalin planned to use Nazi Germany as a proxy (the “Icebreaker”) against the West. For this reason, Stalin provided significant material and political support to Adolf Hitler, while at the same time preparing the Red Army to "liberate" the whole of Europe from Nazi occupation. Suvorov argued that Hitler had lost World War II from the time when he attacked Poland: not only was he going to war with the powerful Allies, but it was only a matter of time before the Soviet Union would seize the opportune moment to attack him from the rear. According to Suvorov, Hitler decided to direct a preemptive strike at the Soviet Union, while Stalin's forces were redeploying from a defensive to an offensive posture in June 1941. Although Hitler had an important initial tactical advantage, that was strategically hopeless because he subjected the Nazis to having to fight on two fronts. At the end of the war, Stalin achieved only some of his initial objectives by establishing Communist regimes in Eastern Europe, China and North Korea. According to Suvorov, this made Stalin the primary winner of World War II, even though he was not satisfied by the outcome, being intended to establish Soviet domination to the whole continent of Europe.

Most historians agreed that the geopolitical differences between the Soviet Union and the Axis made war inevitable, and that Stalin had made extensive preparations for war and exploited the military conflict in Europe to his advantage. However, there was a debate among historians as to whether Joseph Stalin planned to attack Axis forces in Eastern Europe prior to Operation Barbarossa. Some historians, such as Gabriel Gorodetsky and David Glantz authored books refuting this claim. But it received some support from others, such as Valeri Danilov, Joachim Hoffmann, Mikhail Meltyukhov, and Vladimir Nevezhin.

Other works

About the Cold War-era Soviet Union

  • The Liberators: My Life in the Soviet Army, 1981, Hamish Hamilton, ISBN 0-241-10675-3
  • Inside the Soviet Army, 1982, Macmillan Publishing.
  • Inside Soviet Military Intelligence, 1984, ISBN 0-02-615510-9
  • Aquarium (Аквариум), 1985, Hamish Hamilton, ISBN 0-241-11545-0, memoir
  • Spetsnaz. The Story Behind the Soviet SAS, 1987, Hamish Hamilton, ISBN 0-241-11961-8
  • Devil's Mother (Майката на дявола), 2011, Sofia, Fakel Express, ISBN 978-954-9772-76-0

About the outbreak of the Nazi-Soviet War

About Soviet historical figures

  • Shadow of Victory (Тень победы), 2003. This questions the status and image of General Georgy Zhukov, known for his defense of the Soviet Union and later victory in the Battle of Berlin. The first book of a trilogy under the same name.
  • I Take It Back (Беру свои слова обратно), is also about Georgy Zhukov. this is the second book of the "Shadow of Victory" trilogy.

Fiction

  • Control (Контроль), novel
  • Choice (Выбор), novel
  • Snake-eater (Змиеядеца), novel (Sofia, Fakel Express, 2010), ISBN 978-954977269-2

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c Виктор Суворов, Биография. Internet Archive.
  2. ^ Obituary: "Sir Dick Franks". Saboteur with the Special Operations Executive who went on to become Chief of MI6 during the Cold War, Daily Telegraph, 19 October 2008
  3. ^ The Liberators, 1981, Hamish Hamilton Ltd, ISBN 0-241-10675-3
  4. ^ Inside the Soviet Army, 1982, Macmillan Publishing Co.
  5. ^ Inside Soviet Military Intelligence, 1984, ISBN 0-02-615510-9
  6. ^ Aquarium (Аквариум), 1985, Hamish Hamilton Ltd, ISBN 0-241-11545-0
  7. ^ Spetsnaz. The Story Behind the Soviet SAS, 1987, Hamish Hamilton Ltd, ISBN 0-241-11961-8
  8. ^ The Third World War: The Untold Story ISBN 0-283-98863-0
  9. ^ The Third World War ISBN 0-425-04477-7
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