Mark Solonin

Mark Solonin is a Russian historian and author of many books on the Second World War, focusing on the Red Army's defeats in 1941.

born 1958Books on the Second World WarResearch on Red Army defeats in 1941View of Stalin's planned offensive war

Born: 29 May 1958, Samara
Occupation: non-fiction writer, opinion journalist, military flight engineer, historian
Education: Samara State Aerospace University

Mark Solonin was born in 1958 in Samara

Mark Semionovich Solonin was born on May 29, 1958, in Kuybyshev in the Soviet Union. His father had served in the Soviet Army in the Second World War, and Solonin became interested in history as a boy.

He finished secondary school with a gold medal. He chose to study aviation engineering instead of history, so that Soviet politics would not interfere with his career.

His work deals with the opening phase of the Soviet-German War. He argues that the Red Army stopped working as an organized force in 1941, pointing to mass surrender, desertion and abandoned weapons. He also holds that Stalin was preparing an offensive war against Germany in 1941.

He has criticized the Russian Minister of Culture Vladimir Medinsky. He moved to Estonia in 2016 and to Ukraine in 2019, and he has lived in Kyiv since 2022.