Dmitri Volkogonov

1928 - 1995

photo credits: Wikimedia Commons

country of citizenship: Russia, Soviet Union

native language: Russian

languages spoken, written or signed: Russian

educated at: Орловское бронетанковое училище, V. I. Lenin Military-Political Academy

occupation: politician, historian, university teacher, military personnel, military historian, member of the State Duma

award received: Order of the Red Star, Order of the Badge of Honour, Order "For Merit to the Fatherland" III class, Order of the Red Banner of Labour, Order "For Service to the Homeland in the Armed Forces of the USSR", 3rd class, Medal "For Distinction in Guarding the State Border of the USSR", Medal "For Strengthening of Brotherhood in Arms", Medal "For Construction of the Baikal-Amur Railway", Lenin Komsomol Prize, Medal "Veteran of the Armed Forces of the USSR", Medal "For Impeccable Service", 3rd class, Medal "For Impeccable Service", 2nd class

position held: member of the State Duma

Dmitri Antonovich Volkogonov (Russian: Дми́трий Анто́нович Волкого́нов; 22 March 1928 – 6 December 1995) was a Soviet and Russian historian and colonel general who was head of the Soviet military's psychological warfare department. After research in secret Soviet archives (both before and after the dissolution of the union), he published a biography of Joseph Stalin and Vladimir Lenin, among others such as Leon Trotsky. Despite being a committed Stalinist and Marxist–Leninist for most of his career, Volkogonov came to repudiate communism and the Soviet system within the last decade of his life before his death from cancer in 1995. Through his research in the restricted archives of the Soviet Central Committee, Volkogonov discovered facts that contradicted the official Soviet version of events, and the cult of personality that had been built up around Lenin and Stalin. Volkogonov published books that contributed to the strain of liberal Russian thought that emerged during Glasnost in the late 1980s and the post-Soviet era of the early 1990s. Source: Wikipedia (en)