Viktor Suvorov


Vladimir Bogdanovich Rezun, known by his pseudonym of Viktor Suvorov, became known as a Russian writer on Soviet military history after he defected to the United Kingdom in 1978. Of Russian-Ukrainian ancestry, Suvorov attended Russian military schools, was a veteran of the armed forces, and had worked as a Soviet military intelligence officer in the Soviet Union.
While next working as an intelligence agent for 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.
Among his works is Icebreaker, based on an analysis of Soviet military investments, diplomatic maneuvers, Politburo speeches and other circumstantial evidence. He argued that Operation Barbarossa was a preemptive strike by Hitler as a response to Stalin's plans for invasion; this claim has been disputed by many historians in Germany.
Suvorov has also written a number of subsequent books about the war.

Early life

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, and later transferring to one in Kalinin.

Career

From 1965 to 1968, Suvorov completed courses at what he called the Frunze Red Banner Higher Military Command School in Kiev. This is confusing, as names have changed and the M. V. Frunze Military Academy is located in Moscow. He may have attended a regional command school in Kiev.
In 1968, he served in the 145th Motorized Rifles Regiment 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.
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. He was promoted to the rank of Captain. He drew from all these experiences in his later writing about the institutions.

Defection

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 England by British intelligence. There Suvorov worked as an intelligence analyst for the government and as a lecturer.

Personal life

Since the late 20th century, Suvorov has been an occasional columnist for the Ukrainian UNIAN news agency's web site.

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.
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, . This book was the sequel to the 1978 original and incorporated political and technological changes that had been underway since Hackett's first novel. 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

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, 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.
According to Suvorov, Stalin planned to use Nazi Germany as a proxy against the West. Although Stalin provided significant material and political support to Adolf Hitler, he was preparing the Red Army to take over control of Europe from the Nazis and establish dominance there of the Soviet Union. As it turned out, by the end of the war, Stalin achieved only some of his initial objectives: he established Communist regimes in Eastern Europe and North Korea. According to Suvorov, Stalin was still the primary winner of World War II.
Suvorov's conclusions on this topic are disputed by numerous historians. German historians particularly disputed the assertion that Operation Barbarossa was a preemptive strike by Hitler.

Works

About the Cold War-era Soviet Union