Viktor Suvorov

Viktor Suvorov (, real name is Vladimir Bogdanovich Rezun, ; born 20 April 1947) is a former Soviet GRU officer who is known as an author of non-fiction books about World War II, GRU and Soviet Army. 
After defecting to the United Kingdom in 1978, Suvorov began his writing career, publishing his first non-fiction books in the 1980s about his own experiences and the structure of Soviet military, intelligence, and secret police. He writes in Russian. A number of his books have been translated into English, including his semi-autobiographical "The Liberators" (1981).
In his Icebreaker", "M Day and several follow-up books Suvorov argued that Stalin planned to use Nazi Germany as a proxy (the “Icebreaker”) against the West. The books are based on his analysis of Soviet military investments, diplomatic maneuvers, Politburo speeches and other circumstantial evidence. His ideas were extensively debated by historians. 
Biography.
Suvorov, born Vladimir Bogdanovich Rezun, comes from a military family of mixed Ukrainian-Russian descent. He may have been born and was definitely raised in Ukraine's Cherkasy, where his Ukrainian father served. The family subsequently settled in Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic after the father's retirement. According to Suvorov, he studied in Suvorov Military Schools in Russia: one in Voronezh (from 1958 to 1963), and later transferring to one in Kalinin (from 1963 to 1965).
From 1965 to 1968, Suvorov completed Frunze Red Banner Higher Military Command School in Kiev. In 1968, he served in the 145th Guards Motor Rifle Regiment, 66th Guards Training Motor Rifle Division, of the Carpathian Military District in Ukraine, participating in the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia. In 1970 and 1971, he served in the Volga Military District Headquarters, and later with the 808th Independent Army Reconnaissance Company ("Spetsnaz").
After attending the Military Diplomatic Academy from 1971 to 1974, Suvorov joined the Soviet mission to the United Nations Office at Geneva, working undercover for the Soviet military intelligence service (Glavnoye Razvedyvatel'noye Upravleniye; GRU). He was promoted to the rank of captain. He drew from all these experiences in his later writing about the institutions.
On 10 June 1978, Suvorov defected to the United Kingdom. At the time, he was married to Tatiana Korzh. The couple had a son, Aleksandr, and a daughter, Oksana. They were smuggled out of Switzerland to Britain by British intelligence. There Suvorov worked as an intelligence analyst for the government and as a lecturer.
Publications.
Suvorov soon drew from his experience and research to write non-fiction books in Russian about the Soviet Army, [[GRU|military intelligence]], and [[Spetsnaz|special forces]]. He used the pseudonym "Viktor Suvorov" when he published these works.
His published books include 
Suvorov also wrote several fiction books set in the pre-World War II era in the Soviet Union. The first one, "Control", was followed by "Choice", and the last and most recent title was "Snake-eater" (2010).
Works about World War II.
Suvorov has written ten books about the outbreak of the Nazi-Soviet War in 1941 and the circumstances related to it. The first such work was "[[Icebreaker (Suvorov)|Icebreaker]]" (1980s), followed by "[[M-Day (book)|M Day]]", "The Last Republic", "Cleansing", "[[Suicide (Viktor Suvorov book)|Suicide]]", "The Shadow of Victory", "I Take it Back", "The Last Republic II", "The Chief Culprit", and "Defeat".
In his [[Icebreaker (Suvorov)|Icebreaker]]", "[[M-Day (book)|M Day]] and several follow-up books Suvorov argued that [[Stalin]] planned to use [[Nazi Germany]] as a proxy (the “Icebreaker”) against the West. For this reason, Stalin provided significant material and political support to [[Adolf Hitler]], while at the same time preparing the [[Red Army]] to "liberate" the whole of Europe from Nazi occupation. Suvorov argued that Hitler had lost [[World War II]] from the time when he attacked Poland: not only was he going to war with the powerful [[Allies of World War II|Allies]], but it was only a matter of time before the [[Soviet Union]] would seize the opportune moment to attack him from the rear. According to Suvorov, Hitler decided to direct a preemptive strike at the Soviet Union, while Stalin's forces were redeploying from a defensive to an offensive posture in June 1941. Although Hitler had an important initial tactical advantage, that was strategically hopeless because he subjected the Nazis to having to fight on two fronts. At the end of the war, Stalin achieved only some of his initial objectives by establishing Communist regimes in [[Eastern Europe]], China and [[North Korea]]. According to Suvorov, this made Stalin the primary winner of World War II, even though he was not satisfied by the outcome, having intended to establish Soviet domination over the whole continent of Europe.
Most historians agreed that the geopolitical differences between the Soviet Union and the Axis made war inevitable, and that Stalin had made extensive preparations for war and exploited the military conflict in Europe to his advantage. However, there was [[Soviet offensive plans controversy|a debate among historians]] as to whether Joseph Stalin planned to attack Axis forces in Eastern Europe prior to [[Operation Barbarossa]]. A number of historians, such as [[Gabriel Gorodetsky]] and [[David Glantz]] disputed or rejected this claim. But it received some support from others, such as [[Valeri Danilov]], [[Joachim Hoffmann]], [[Mikhail Meltyukhov]], and [[Vladimir Nevezhin]].
External links.
[[Category:1947 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:People from Khasansky District]]
[[Category:Russian people of Ukrainian descent]]
[[Category:Soviet intelligence personnel who defected to the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Pseudonymous writers]]
[[Category:GRU officers]]
[[Category:20th-century Russian writers]]
[[Category:21st-century Russian writers]]
[[Category:Russian military historians]]