Boris Sokolov (; born January 2, 1957, in Moscow) is a historian and a

Russian literature Russian literature refers to the literature of Russia, its Russian diaspora, émigrés, and to Russian language, Russian-language literature. Major contributors to Russian literature, as well as English for instance, are authors of different e ...

researcher (he a has Candidate of Science degree in History and Habilitat Doctor of Science in Philology). In 1979 he graduated from the department of geography of the

Moscow State University Moscow State University (MSU), officially M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University,. is a public university, public research university in Moscow, Russia. The university includes 15 research institutes, 43 faculties, more than 300 departments, a ...

, specialising in economic geography. His works have been translated into Japanese, Polish, Latvian and

Estonian Estonian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Estonia, a country in the Baltic region in northern Europe * Estonians, people from Estonia, or of Estonian descent * Estonian language * Estonian cuisine * Estonian culture See also

...

. He has also translated literary works from various languages. During

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

times, he worked at the Institute of World Literature. Subsequently, he served as a professor of

social anthropology Social anthropology is the study of patterns of behaviour in human societies and cultures. It is the dominant constituent of anthropology throughout the United Kingdom and much of Europe, where it is distinguished from cultural anthropology. In t ...

at Russian State Social University. From the 1990s onwards, he has turned to subjects on Russian 20th century history, publishing studies on

Lavrentiy Beria Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria ka, ლავრენტი პავლეს ძე ბერია} ''Lavrenti Pavles dze Beria'' ( – 23 December 1953) was a Soviet politician and one of the longest-serving and most influential of Joseph ...

Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Dzhugashvili; 5 March 1953) was a Soviet politician and revolutionary who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin, his death in 1953. He held power as General Secret ...

Vyacheslav Molotov Vyacheslav Mikhaylovich Molotov (; – 8 November 1986) was a Soviet politician, diplomat, and revolutionary who was a leading figure in the government of the Soviet Union from the 1920s to the 1950s, as one of Joseph Stalin's closest allies. ...

and

Leonid Brezhnev Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev (19 December 190610 November 1982) was a Soviet politician who served as the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1964 until Death and state funeral of Leonid Brezhnev, his death in 1982 as w ...

. He is one of the Russian historians alongside those who are critically reviewing the part of the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

in the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. In 2016, he was expelled from the Free Historical Society for ''“inappropriate handling of historical sources and incorrect quoting of other people's works.”''

Criticism

Historical errors

Sokolov is one of the experts of the film “ The Soviet Story”, which caused controversial assessments and accusations of manipulation and falsification S. Milovanov, in his Ph.D. thesis, counts Sokolov among those who are now resuscitating the ''“myths of Hitler's propaganda"''. Without naming it specifically, he even refers to false documents distributed by the Nazis. Many of Russian historians, sociologists and publicists consider the data on the losses of the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...

during the

Great Patriotic War The Eastern Front, also known as the Great Patriotic War (term), Great Patriotic War in the Soviet Union and its successor states, and the German–Soviet War in modern Germany and Ukraine, was a Theater (warfare), theatre of World War II ...

, given in the publications of B.V. Sokolov, to be unreliable.''Литвиненко (Орлов) В.'
К науке отношения не имеет. О «подсчётах» боевых потерь в ходе Великой Отечественной войны доктора филологии Бориса Соколова
// Независимое военное обозрение, 28.09.2001 In 1990, in his book “The Price of Victory,” Sokolov estimated that 14.7 million Soviet military personnel died. Since 1993, B.V. Sokolov estimates the total number of Soviet military deaths in 1941-1945 at 26.4 million people. Academician of the

Russian Academy of Sciences The Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS; ''Rossíyskaya akadémiya naúk'') consists of the national academy of Russia; a network of scientific research institutes from across the Russian Federation; and additional scientific and social units such ...

, sociologist Gennady Osipov described B.V. Sokolov as ''“the most tireless “professional” falsifier,”'' and called his calculations absurd, since ''“over all the years of the war, 34.5 million people were mobilized (taking into account the pre-war number of military personnel) , of which about 27 million people were direct participants in the war. After the end of the war, there were about 13 million people in the Soviet Army. Of the 27 million participants in the war, 26.4 million could not have died”''. On May 12, 2016, he was expelled from the Free Historical Society for ''“inappropriate handling of historical sources and incorrect quoting of other people's works.”''

Other

In September 2008 he had to resign under pressure of the Administration of then-President Dmitry Medvedev. After publishing the article 'Did Saakashvili lose?', he wrote numerous monographs, e.g. on

Gogol Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol; ; (; () was a Russian novelist, short story writer, and playwright of Ukrainian origin. Gogol used the grotesque in his writings, for example, in his works " The Nose", " Viy", "The Overcoat", and " Nevsky Prosp ...

, Sergei Esenin, and

Mikhail Bulgakov Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov ( ; rus, links=no, Михаил Афанасьевич Булгаков, p=mʲɪxɐˈil ɐfɐˈnasʲjɪvʲɪdʑ bʊlˈɡakəf; – 10 March 1940) was a Russian and Soviet novelist and playwright. His novel ''The M ...

(Sokolov was the author of the ''Bulgakov Encyclopedia'', published in 1996). He denies the anthropogenic nature of

global warming Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes ...

Bibliography

*Б. В. Соколов ''Булгаков. Энциклопедия.'' Алгоритм, 2003. *Б. В. Соколов ''Вторая мировая. Факты и версии'' *Б. В. Соколов ''Оккупация. Правда и мифы'' Moscow, AST, 2002
online version
*Третий Рейх. ''Мифы и действительность'' Эксмо, Яуза, 2005 *Б.В. Соколов ''Правда о Великой Отечественной войне'' (Сборник статей). – СПб.: Алетейя, 1999

*Соколов Б.В. Неизвестный Жуков: портрет без ретуши в зеркале эпохи. (Unknown Zhukov by B.V. Sokolov) – Мн.: Родиола-плюс, 2000 – 608 с. («Мир в войнах»). .

*Б. В. Соколов. Михаил Булгаков: Загадки судьбы. Москва: Вагриус, 2008. *Б. В. Соколов. Михаил Булгаков: Загадки творчества. Москва: Вагриус, 2008. *Б.В. Соколов. Тухачевский. Москва: Молодая гвардия, 2008. *Sokolov, B.V.: World War II Revisited: Did Stalin Intend to Attack Hitler?- In: Journal of Slavic Military Studies 11 (1998), H. 2, p. 113–141 *B.V. Sokolov. How to Calculate Human Losses during the Second World War // Journal of Slavic Military Studies, 2009, September, Vol. 22, pp. 437–458 *Б. В. Соколов. Врангель. — М.: Молодая гвардия, 2009—512 с ("Жизнь замечательных людей") *Б.В. Соколов Рокоссовский. — М.: Молодая гвардия, 2010—560 с ("Жизнь замечательных людей") *Б.В. Соколов. Кто воевал числом, а кто - умением. М.: Яуза-пресс, 2011-288 с. *Б.В. Соколов. Россия и СССР на бойне. Людские потери в войнах XX века. М.: Яуза-пресс, 2013-448 с. *Sokolov Boris V. The Role of the Soviet Union in the Second World War: A Re-examination (Helion Studies in Military History #14). London: Helion Publishers, 2013. 148 p. *Sokolov Boris V. Marshal K.K. Rokossovsky: The Red Army's Gentleman Commander. London: Helion Publishers, 2015.496 p. *Sokolov Boris V. Myths and Legends of the Eastern Front: Reassessing the Great Patriotic War. Transl by Richard W Harrison Barnsley South Yorkshire: Pen & Sword Military, 2019. 400 p. *Б.В. Соколов. Людские потери России и СССР в войнах XX-XXI вв. М.: Новый хронограф, 2022. 768 с. ISBN 9785948815183

References

External links

Books by B.V.Sokolov (in Russian)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sokolov, Boris 20th-century Russian historians Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Academic staff of Russian State Social University 21st-century Russian historians Moscow State University alumni People from Moscow