Mark Semenovich Solonin (genus. Author of a number of books and articles devoted to the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945).
Many critics attribute the writer's works on military subjects to the genre of historical revisionism - a radical revision of historical concepts that have been established in any area.
There are many interesting facts in the biography of Solonin, which we will talk about in this article.
So, before you is a short biography of Mark Solonin.
Biography of Corned beef
Mark Solonin was born on May 29, 1958 in Kuibyshev. He grew up in a simple family with an average income. His father worked as a technologist at a bearing plant, and his mother taught German at local universities.
At school, Mark received high marks in all disciplines, as a result of which he graduated with a gold medal. After that, he successfully passed the exams at the Kuibyshev Aviation Institute, choosing the faculty of aircraft engineering.
At the age of 23, Solonin defended his thesis on the topic "Unmanned aircraft of repeated use." Then he worked for about 6 years as a designer at a local design bureau.
In 1987, Mark got a job as a fireman in a boiler room. An interesting fact is that during the period of perestroika, he was one of the organizers of social and political clubs in the city. By that time, the guy had already begun to deeply research the theme of the Great Patriotic War.
Writing activity
Solonin's first articles were published through samizdat. In 1988 his works began to appear in Samara newspapers. After the collapse of the USSR, he was forced to go into small business, trying to feed his family.
From the end of the 90s to the end of 2013, Mark Solonin scrupulously studied scientific and historical documents. It is curious that he was admitted to the archives of Moscow, Podolsk and Freiburg. During this time, he managed to publish 7 books and dozens of articles.
Solonin's works have gained great popularity not only in Russia, but also in many European countries. In the spring of 2010, he was among those who signed the Russian opposition's appeal "Putin must go."
In those years, biographies Mark Semenovich often participated in scientific and historical conferences. He has given speeches in Estonia, Lithuania, Slovakia and the USA. It is worth noting that in his works the writer focuses his attention on the beginning of the Great Patriotic War.
In one of his interviews, Solonin spoke about the events of June 22, 1941: "... Stalin's participation in the war is something similar to the fact that a drunk hanyga got drunk, set the house on fire in a drunken stupor, then woke up and rushed to extinguish it ...". He is opposed to the established point of view that on the first day of the war, German troops dealt a sudden and crushing blow to the USSR.
According to Mark Solonin, enemy tanks and artillery could not hit targets located more than several tens of kilometers from the Soviet border. In addition, one must take into account the fact that 90% of the Red Army divisions were located outside this zone.
Solonin also denies the possibility of a lightning-fast airstrike due to the fact that at that time the aerial bombardment was rather ineffective. In addition, according to the writer, there were not many fighters in the Luftwaffe.
In his books, Mark Solonin recalls that the largest defeats of the Soviet troops occurred only after the first month of hostilities. The number of destroyed aircraft of the USSR (800 ships) on the first day of the war, he calls absolutely unreasonable. This is due to the fact that aircraft abandoned at airfields were retroactively entered into this list.
During the biography of 2010-2011. Solonin presented a 2-volume documentary study of the reasons and circumstances of the defeat of the air force of the western border districts, based on many authoritative documents.
The author criticized the actions of the USSR leadership, which urged the people not to panic and refused to announce a general mobilization (mobilization began only on June 23).
Mark Solonin's views have a mixed assessment in society. A number of historians, journalists and other scientists call him one of the greatest modern historians, while other authoritative experts, on the contrary, accuse him of falsification and superficial judgment of many events.
Many Russian experts reproach Solonin for allegedly setting himself the goal of justifying the Nazi aggression against the Soviet Union, slandering, or even refuting the feat of the Soviet people.
Mark Solonin today
In 2014-2016. Solonin presented several articles on the topic of Russia's aggression towards Ukraine. In them, he once again criticized the policies of Vladimir Putin.
Since 2016, the writer has lived in Estonia, where he is a co-owner and chief designer of Pyroheat OU. A couple of years later, he became a member of the Russian Free Historical Society.
Not so long ago, Mark Semenovich criticized the new Russian Minister of Culture and Doctor of Historical Sciences Vladimir Medinsky, comparing his actions with the propaganda of Joseph Goebbels.
Solonina Photos
