Viktor Suvorov
Viktor Suvorov | |
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Icebreaker | |
Spouse | Tatiana Korzh |
Vladimir Bogdanovich Rezun (Russian: Владимир Богданович Резун; Ukrainian: Володи́мир Богда́нович Рєзу́н; born 20 April 1947), known by his pseudonym of Viktor Suvorov (Виктор Суворов) is a former
After defecting to the United Kingdom in 1978, Suvorov began his writing career, publishing his first books in the 1980s about his own experiences and the structure of the Soviet military, intelligence, and secret police. He writes in Russian with a number of his books translated into English, including his semi-autobiographical The Liberators (1981). In the USSR, according to Suvorov and according to an interview with the former head of the GRU, he was sentenced to death in absentia.[1][2]
In his
Suvorov also wrote a number of fiction books about the Soviet Army, military intelligence and the pre-war history of the USSR. The trilogy Control, Choice and Snake-eater was a bestseller and was approached for movie adaptations. According to Novye Izvestia, an online newspaper, the circulation of some of Suvorov's books exceeds a million copies.[3]
Early years
Suvorov, born Vladimir Bogdanovich Rezun, comes from a military family of mixed Ukrainian-Russian descent; his father, Bogdan Vasilyevich Rezun, was a veteran of WWII and a Ukrainian, while his mother Vera Spiridonovna Rezun (Gorevalova) is Russian. According to his own statements, Suvorov considers himself, his wife and children to be Ukrainians. He was born in the village of Barabash, Primorsky Krai; raised in Ukraine's Cherkasy, where his father served. The family subsequently settled in Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic after his father's retirement.
According to Suvorov, he went to first grade in the village of Slavyanka (Primorsky Territory), then studied in the village of Barabash. In 1957, after graduating on four classes, at the age of 11 he entered the Suvorov Military School in Voronezh (from 1958 to 1963). In 1963, the school was disbanded, and the students, including Rezun, were transferred to the Kalinin (now Tver) Suvorov Military School (from 1963 to 1965).[4] In 1965, Rezun graduated from said school and was admitted without examinations to the second year of the Kyiv Higher Combined Arms Command School then named after General Mikhail Frunze (now Odesa Military Academy).
Prague Spring invasion
In 1968, Suvorov graduated with honours from the Frunze Red Banner Higher Military Command School in Kyiv. At the same year, he served in
The book was Suvorov's first after his defection and in it he narrates his eyewitness account of the invasion, recounting the daily life within the Soviet Army. He points to deficiencies in readiness and in mindset.[5] Suvorov mentions that middle-ranking officers struggled to impress their superiors, something that does not contribute to military effectiveness or discipline - instead fostering on officers a behavior of cunning and deceit in order to climb the ranks.
At the age of 19 he was admitted to the
Espionage in Geneva and defection
Geneva station
From 1971-1974, Suvorov studied at the Military Diplomatic Academy,[6] known as "the Conservatory" and located in Moscow. The Academy trained officers for work abroad as intelligence operatives or "scouts" (razvedchiki in the Russian language). These worked often "under diplomatic cover" ("jackets", in the jargon of Soviet intelligence operatives), and also as "illegals", meaning intelligence operatives not under diplomatic cover or (quasi-declared) commercial cover.
For four years, Suvorov worked in the Geneva GRU as an employee of the legal residency of military intelligence under the cover of the Permanent Mission of the USSR at the European United Nations Office at Geneva. According to the autobiographical book "Aquarium", he received the rank of major while working in residency. The same title was named in an interview of 1992 with the newspaper Krasnaya Zvezda by then head of the GRU, Colonel general Yevgeny Timokhin.
Defection
On 10 June 1978 he disappeared from his Geneva apartment with his wife and two children. According to Suvorov himself, he made contact with
Since 1981, he has been writing under the pseudonym Viktor Suvorov, having written his first three books in English: The Liberators, Inside the Soviet Army and Inside Soviet Military Intelligence. The author explains the choice of pseudonym by the fact that his publisher recommended that he choose a Russian surname of three syllables, evoking a slight "military" association among Western readers. According to Viktor himself, he teaches tactics and military history at a British military academy and lives in Bristol.
Family
- Grandfather - Vasily Andreevich Rezunov (later changed his surname to Rezun) (1892 - 5 February 1978) worked all his life as a Makhnovist, hid it all his life, he hated the Soviet power very, very fiercely". He died on 5 February 1978.
- Father - Bogdan Vasilyevich Rezun, (1921 - December 1998), military man, artilleryman. He served in the 72nd Guards Mortar Regiment of the Order of Alexander Nevsky in the 5th Army of the Far Eastern Military District. Dismissed from the army in 1959 with the rank of major. He worked as a director of a cinema. He died in December 1998.
- Mother - Vera Spiridonovna Rezun (Gorevalova), born in 1918, during WWII she was an army nurse of the 3329th field evacuation hospital of the 1st Baltic Front.
- Brother - Alexander Bogdanovich Rezun, born in 1945, soldier. For 27 years he served in the Soviet Strategic Missile Forces in the Transcaucasian Military District. He retired to the reserve in 1991 with the rank of lieutenant colonel.
- Wife - Tatiana Stepanovna (Korzh), born in 1952. They have been married since 1971.
- Two children - daughter Oksana, born in 1972, son Alexander, born in 1976.
- Two grandchildren.
While studying at the Military Diplomatic Academy, he lived with his family at the address Moscow, Azovskaya st., 15.[7]
Publications
Non-fiction
Suvorov drew on his experience and research to write non-fiction books in Russian about the Soviet Army, military intelligence, and special forces. He publishes these works under the pseudonym "Viktor Suvorov."
- The Liberators,[9] includes his eyewitness account about the 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia by Soviet forces
- Inside the Soviet Army,[10]
- Inside Soviet Military Intelligence[11]
- Aquarium,[12] his memoir, and
- Spetsnaz,[13] about Special Forces units
Novels
Suvorov also wrote several fiction books set in the pre-World War II era in the Soviet Union.
- Control
- Choice
- Snake-eater (2010)
Works about World War II
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
In his
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
Other works
About the Cold War-era Soviet Union
- ISBN 0-241-10675-3
- Inside the Soviet Army, 1982, Macmillan Publishing.
- Inside Soviet Military Intelligence, 1984, ISBN 0-02-615510-9
- 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
- ISBN 0-241-12622-3
- Day "M"(День "М")
- ISBN 5-17-003119-X
- The Last Republic, ACT, 1997, ASIN B00271256C
- Cleansing (Очищение). Purification. Why did Stalin behead his army?, Moscow, 2002, ISBN 5-17-009254-7
- Last Republic II. Why did the Soviet Union lose the Second World War? (Последната република II), Sofia, Fakel Express, 2007, ISBN 978-954-9772-51-7
- The Chief Culprit: Stalin's Grand Design to Start World War II.. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2008 (hardcover, ISBN 978-1-59114-838-8).
- Defeat. Why was the "great victory" worse than any defeat? (Разгромът), Sofia, Fakel Express, 2009, ISBN 978-954-9772-68-5
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 (Змееед), novel (Sofia, Fakel Express, 2010), ISBN 978-954977269-2
See also
- Causes of World War II
- List of Eastern Bloc defectors
- Soviet offensive plans controversy
- Soviet–German relations before 1941
References
- OCLC 52074202.
- ^ Harding, Luke (29 December 2018). "'Will they forgive me? No': ex-Soviet spy Viktor Suvorov speaks out". The Guardian. Retrieved 15 June 2021.
- ^ a b Putintsyeva, Alla (1 September 2006). "Виктор Суворов: "За идеи в России сейчас не убивают" (Viktor Suvorov: "People don't kill for ideas in Russia now")". Novye Izvestia (in Russian). Archived from the original on 10 June 2007. Retrieved 15 June 2021.
- ^ a b Виктор Суворов, Биография. Internet Archive.
- ^ Varhall, Lt. Col. Gregory; Major Kenneth M., Currie (1983). "An Insider's Warning to the West". Air University Review. 35. US Department of the Air Force: 101–107.
- ^ "Разведчик - предателю (From scout to the traitor)". aravidze.narod.ru (in Russian). Retrieved 15 June 2021.
- ^ a b Palayda, Oleg. "Интервью с Виктором Суворовым (Interview with Viktor Suvorov)". lib.ru (in Russian). Retrieved 15 June 2021.
- Daily Telegraph (October 20, 2008). Archived from the original.
- See also: Dick Franks.
- ISBN 0-241-10675-3
- Inside the Soviet Army, 1982, Macmillan Publishing Co.
- ISBN 0-02-615510-9
- ISBN 0-241-11545-0
- ISBN 0-241-11961-8
- ^ Pavlova IV Search for the truth about the eve of World War II. // Pravda Viktor Suvorov. Yauza, 2006 352 pp. ISBN 5-87849-214-8.
- ^ [Alexander Hill]. A companion to international history 1900-2001. John Wiley & Sons, 2007. Chapter 20 Stalin and the West.
- ^ Gabriel Gorodetsky . "The Icebreaker Myth": On the Eve of the War - M .: Progress-Academy, 1995. - 352 p.
- ^ Colonel David M. Glantz . Fact and Fancy: The Soviet Great Patriotic War, 1941-1945 // Peter B. Lane, Ronald E. Marcello . Warriors and scholars: a modern war reader. University of North Texas Press (English) Russian. , 2005.
- OCLC 836636715.
- OCLC 836870454.
External links
- Official website
- Viktor Suvorov at IMDb
- Appearances by Viktor Suvorov on C-SPAN
- Works by or about Viktor Suvorov at Internet Archive
- (in English) Who Started World War II? – Stalin as a Chief Culprit.
- Viktor Suvorov's presentation at the U.S. Naval Academy, Eurasia Forum, in Annapolis, Maryland (October 7, 2009).
- Viktor Suvorov's presentation at the
- Viktor Suvorov speaks at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C. via C-SPAN2 (February 2009).
- (in Russian) Selection of online books by Viktor Suvorov and links to related online publications at the Maxim Moshkov's Library
- (in Russian) Complete up-to-date collection of Suvorov's online books (some in English), at Militera Project
- (in Russian) Viktor Suvorov, Ledokol, audio book