Edvard Stanislavovich Radzinsky (; born September 23, 1936) is a Russian historian, playwright, television personality, and

screenwriter A screenwriter (also called scriptwriter, scribe, or scenarist) is a person who practices the craft of writing for visual mass media, known as screenwriting. These can include short films, feature-length films, television programs, television ...

. He authored more than forty history books that are popular in Russia.

Biography

Edvard Stanislavovich Radzinsky was born in

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

on September 23, 1936, to playwright and his wife Sofia. He studied in the Moscow Archive Institute and is a trained historian. In 1955 Radzinsky married actress Alla Geraskina, a daughter of popular Soviet playwright and writer Lia Geraskina. Their son Oleg was born in 1958. Radzinsky divorced Alla in 1964. He then married Tatiana Doronina, one of the leading Soviet actresses of the 60s-70s. They divorced later. He is married to actress Elena Denisova.

Career

Radzinsky became a writer of popular non-fiction books on historical subjects, publishing more than forty. He has specialized in books about figures and times of Russian history. Since the 1990s, he has written the series ''Mysteries of History''. Books translated into English include his biographies of Tsars Nicholas II and Alexander II,

Rasputin Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin ( – ) was a Russian mystic and faith healer. He is best known for having befriended the imperial family of Nicholas II, the last Emperor of Russia, through whom he gained considerable influence in the final ye ...

, and

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 ...

. His book '' Stalin: The First In-depth Biography Based on Explosive New Documents from Russia's Secret Archives'' (1997) was based on research in Russian and Soviet archives made newly available after 1991. He explored numerous controversies about Joseph Stalin, including the existence of a fuller text of

Lenin's Testament Lenin's Testament is a document alleged to have been dictated by Vladimir Lenin in late 1922 and early 1923, during and after his suffering of multiple strokes. In the testament, Lenin proposed changes to the structure of the Soviet governing bod ...

, the alleged involvement of Stalin as an agent of the Tsarist secret police, and the role of Stalin in the death of his wife and the murder of

Sergey Kirov Sergei Mironovich Kirov (born Kostrikov; 27 March 1886 – 1 December 1934) was a Russian and Soviet politician and Bolshevik revolutionary. Kirov was an early revolutionary in the Russian Empire and a member of the Bolshevik faction of the Russ ...

. In the book Radzinsky drew on documents from the archives to support the finding that Soviet command had plans for a preemptive strike against Nazi Germany in 1941.Radzinsky cited a document preserved in the Military-Memorial Center of the Soviet General Staff, which was a draft of a plan for military strategy in case of war with Germany, drawn up by

Georgy Zhukov Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov ( 189618 June 1974) was a Soviet military leader who served as a top commander during World War II and achieved the rank of Marshal of the Soviet Union. During World War II, Zhukov served as deputy commander-in-ch ...

, dated May 15, 1941, and signed by Aleksandr Vasilevsky and

Nikolai Vatutin Nikolai Fyodorovich Vatutin (; 16 December 1901 – 15 April 1944) was a Soviet Union, Soviet military commander during World War II who was responsible for many Red Army operations in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, Ukrainian SSR as th ...

. The document stated: "In view of the fact that Germany at present keeps its army fully mobilized with its rear services deployed, it has the capacity of deploying ahead of us and striking a sudden blow. To prevent this I consider it important not to leave the operational initiative to the German command in any circumstances, but to anticipate the enemy and attack the German army at the moment when it is in the process of deploying and before it has time to organize its front and the coordination of its various arms". According to the book, Stalin was poisoned by order of

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 ...

. His book includes an interview with a former bodyguard of Stalin, who stated that on the night of Stalin's death, the bodyguards were relieved of duty by an

NKVD The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (, ), abbreviated as NKVD (; ), was the interior ministry and secret police of the Soviet Union from 1934 to 1946. The agency was formed to succeed the Joint State Political Directorate (OGPU) se ...

officer named Khrustalev. This same officer was briefly mentioned in ''Memories'', the memoir of Stalin's daughter Svetlana Alliluyeva.

Books

English

* '' Stalin: The First In-depth Biography Based on Explosive New Documents from Russia's Secret Archives'', Anchor, (1997) * ''The Last Tsar : The Life and Death of Nicholas II'', 1993, Anchor, , (2005) * ''Alexander II: The Last Great Tsar'' (2005) * ''Tsar : The Lost World of Nicholas and Alexandra'' * ''The Rasputin File'' (2001, Anchor, US) * ''Rasputin: The Last Word'' (2001, Allen & Unwin, Australia)

Russian

* «Ипатьевская ночь» © AST, 2007 г. * «На Руси от ума одно горе» © AST, 2006 г. * «Начало театрального романа»: Сборник пьес © Издательство «ВАГРИУС», 2004 г. * Собрание сочинений (в восьми томах) © Издательство «ВАГРИУС», 1998—2003 г. * «Загадки жизни и смерти». Подарочное издание © Издательство «ВАГРИУС»,2003 г. * «Княжна Тараканова» © Издательство «ВАГРИУС», 2003 г. * «Загадки истории». Подарочное издание © Издательство «ВАГРИУС», 2002 г. * ''

Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French general and statesman who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led Military career ...

: life after death'' «Наполеон: жизнь после смерти» © Издательство «ВАГРИУС», 2002 г. * «Игры писателей» © Издательство «ВАГРИУС», 2001 г. * «Загадки любви» © Издательство «ВАГРИУС», 1999, 2000 гг. * «Загадки истории» © Издательство «ВАГРИУС», 1999, 2000 гг. * «Кровь и призраки русской смуты» © Издательство «ВАГРИУС», 1998, 2000 гг. * «Гибель галантного века» © Издательство «ВАГРИУС», 1999 г. * «…и сделалась кровь» © Издательство «ВАГРИУС», 1998 г. * «Властители дум» © Издательство «ВАГРИУС», 1999 г. * «Театр» © Издательство «Искусство», 1986 г. * ''Conversations with

Socrates Socrates (; ; – 399 BC) was a Ancient Greek philosophy, Greek philosopher from Classical Athens, Athens who is credited as the founder of Western philosophy and as among the first moral philosophers of the Ethics, ethical tradition ...

References

External links

His personal website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Radzinsky, Edvard Russian dramatists and playwrights Russian male dramatists and playwrights Soviet dramatists and playwrights Soviet male writers Honorary members of the Russian Academy of Arts 20th-century Russian historians 1936 births Living people Stalinism-era scholars and writers International Writing Program alumni Iran's Book of the Year Awards recipients 21st-century Russian historians