Mikhail Ivanovich Meltyukhov (russian: Russian: Михаил Иванович Мельтюхов, ), (born 14 March 1966), is a Russian military historian.

Works

Meltyukhov was born in

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 millio ...

. In 1995, he defended the dissertation “Contemporary Historiography on Pre-history of the

German-Soviet War The Eastern Front of World War II was a theatre of conflict between the European Axis powers against the Soviet Union (USSR), Poland and other Allies, which encompassed Central Europe, Eastern Europe, Northeast Europe (Baltics), and Sout ...

” on

historiography Historiography is the study of the methods of historians in developing history as an academic discipline, and by extension is any body of historical work on a particular subject. The historiography of a specific topic covers how historians ha ...

concerning the beginning of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. Since then, he has published several studies, many of which are notable for the critical review of the official

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...

conceptions of World War II. Some important works in this direction are ''On the Verge of the Great Patriotic War: the Debate Goes on'' and '' Stalin's Missed Chance'' and ''"Soviet-Polish Wars: Military and Political Standoff in 1918-1939"''. Meltyukhov also contributed to a recently-published collection of articles on

Viktor Suvorov Vladimir Bogdanovich Rezun (russian: link=no, Владимир Богданович Резун; born 20 April 1947), known by his pseudonym of Viktor Suvorov () is a former Soviet GRU officer who is the author of non-fiction books about World ...

's ideas. Meltyukhov supported some ideas of Suvorov in general but criticised him for inaccuracies. Meltyukhov's latest work, ''Stalin's Liberation Campaign'', dealt with

Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secretar ...

's attempts to regain 'lost territories' of the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

like Bessarabia. He presents a hypothesis that it was precisely during the

Soviet occupation of Bessarabia The Soviet invasion and occupation of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina took place from June 28 to July 3, 1940, as a result of an ultimatum by the Soviet Union to Kingdom of Romania, Romania on June 26, 1940, that threatened the use of force. Be ...

that

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...

decided to invade the Soviet Union because he realised that the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army ( Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, afte ...

could quickly cut Germany from its oil reserves in Romania by a strike on Bessarabia. That thesis had been put forward earlier by

, who described Soviet preparations for the strike. An English version of some of his work has been published as "Disputes over 1941" by M I Mel'tiukhov in the series ''Russian Studies in History''. Meltyukhov's ''Soviet-Polish Wars: Military and Political Confrontation in 1918-1939'' was criticised by the Polish historian Andrzej Nowak. According to Nowak, Meltyukhov interpreted Polish-Soviet conflicts as “fragments of eternal Western aggression against Russia.” Russian and Soviet aggressions “are presented as purely defensive postures”, which presents Soviet crimes in occupied Poland “as a ‘peacekeeping mission’”Andrej Nowak, ''Od imperium do imperium. Spojrzenia na historię Europy Wschodniej'', Arcana, Kraków 2004, , p. 258-271 In his 2004 book, Nowak lists in detail biases and inaccuracies concerning Polish-Russian relations in Meltyukhov's book by primarily pointing out that Poland is always portrayed as an aggressor and that many instances of Russian aggression toward Poland are ignored. Meltyukhov's study '' Stalin's Missed Chance'' has also been valued positively for covering Soviet military plans before the outbreak of German-Soviet war in 1941 by relying on documents that had been inaccessible. In 2020, Meltyukhov contributed to the Russian Federal archival project "Crimes of the Nazis and their accomplices against the civilian population of the USSR during the Great Patriotic War 1941-1945". Meltyukhov was also a professor at Moscow Technological University.

References

Bibliography

*М. И. Мельтюхов, Д. М. Проэктор'' Блицкриг в Европе, 1939 - 1941. Польша.'' AST, Terra Fantastica, 2004. , 5-7921-0416-6 *Современнная отечественнная историографии предистории Великой Отечественнной войны (1985–1995). Дисссертация. Москва, 1995 *Канун Великой Отечественнной войны: дискуссия продолжается. Москва, 1995 *Упущенный шанс Сталина. Советский Союз и борьба за Европу: 1939-1941 (Документы, факты, суждения). - М.: Вече, 2000 (second edition was published in 2004) *Освободительный поход Сталина. Яуза, Эксмо, 2006. *Преддверие Великой Отечественной войны 1939-1941 гг.: становление великой державы. in: Правда Виктора Суворова. Переписывая историю Второй Мировой. Яуза, 2006 c. 31-108. *Великая Отечественная катастрофа. Трагедия 1941 года. 2007. (a collection of articles, authors: Meltyukhov, Solonin,

, M.Baryatinsky, Y.Mukhin)

External links

Electronic version of “Stalin's Missed Chance” (in Russian)
* (in Russian).
A list of publications by Meltyukhov
at ozon.ru *
Interview with Mikhail Meltyukhov and Viktor Suvorov

Radio Free Europe Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) is a United States government funded organization that broadcasts and reports news, information, and analysis to countries in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Caucasus, and the Middle East where it says tha ...

December 3, 2002 *
Criticism of Meltyukhov's work
{{DEFAULTSORT:Meltyukhov, Mikhail 1966 births Writers from Moscow Living people 20th-century Russian historians 21st-century Russian historians Russian military historians