Mikhail Ivanovich Meltyukhov (, ; born 14 March 1966) is a Russian military historian.

Works

Meltyukhov 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 ...

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

historiography Historiography is the study of the methods used by historians in developing history as an academic discipline. By extension, the term ":wikt:historiography, historiography" is any body of historical work on a particular subject. The historiog ...

concerning the beginning of

World War II 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 ...

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

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 ...

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'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 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 ...

's attempts to regain 'lost territories' of the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

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

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...

decided to invade the Soviet Union because he realised that 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 ...

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