Dmitri Volkogonov
Encyclopedia
Dmitri Antonovich Volkogonov (Дмитрий Антонович Волкогонов in Russian
) (22 March 1928, Chita – 6 December 1995, Moscow
) was a Russia
n historian
and officer.
, Doctor of History, Colonel General
(1986), Volkogonov was the head of the Institute of Military History at the Ministry of Defense of the Soviet Union
between 1988 and 1991. He was director of the arm of the Soviet military concerned with "psychological warfare
", writing a manual on this subject for Soviet forces (The Psychological War). He also presided over a number of governmental and presidential committees.
Long known in Western military circles as one of the hardest of hard-liners, Volkogonov began, by the middle of Leonid Brezhnev
's rule, to have serious doubts about the Soviet regime. At first these only concerned Joseph Stalin
, whose purge
s led to the deaths of both of Volkogonov's parents. He spent nearly twenty years compiling a revisionist (by Soviet standards) biography. Though he forthrightly described Stalin's alleged crimes, he remained an admirer of Vladimir Lenin
and (following the Nikita Khrushchev
line) believed that Stalinism was a perversion of true Leninism. (His views on Lenin changed after he went back into the archives to do his biography of Lenin. It was then that he read that Lenin too had murdered thousands of his opponents.) That his book would be controversial was obvious to others, especially his superior, to whom he showed the book once it was completed. After reading "Joseph Stalin" he told Volkogonov that he was, in effect, attacking not just Stalin but also Lenin. Volkogonov's wife also begged him not to publish the book and he did hold it back for a time, fearful of the consequences. Once the book was published, these consequences were not slow in coming. He was fired in 1991 from his job as director of the Institute of Military History at the Ministry of Defense of the USSR by Mikhail Gorbachev
.
Once the Soviet Union's collapse was complete, Volkogonov combined his historical work with political activity in the newly established Russian state. Following the failed coup attempt of 1991
, Volkogonov was appointed Defense Advisor to Russian leader Boris Yeltsin
. By then he was already afflicted with the cancer that would kill him in 1995. Before he died, he contributed much to the so-called "liberal" strain of Russian thought that was condemned during the Soviet period. Volkogonov was one of the leaders of the movement to call for a separation between Soviet and Russian historical identities. The independent streak that had come to the fore in the Eighties continued until the end of his life. He opposed the use of force in ethnic disputes and criticized Yeltsin for "having taken the advice of wrong-headed counselors" in the decision to invade Chechnya.
Volkogonov is most famous for his trilogy Leaders (Вожди, or Vozhdi), which consists of the three books about Vladimir Lenin
(Lenin: A New Biography), Leon Trotsky
(Trotsky: The Eternal Revolutionary) and Joseph Stalin
(Stalin: Triumph and Tragedy) and Autopsy for an Empire: the Seven Leaders Who Built the Soviet Regime (Russian title: Sem Vozhdei), 1998. Although his works have been attacked by critics in the West for various flaws of scholarship and writing, the English editions were essentially condensed versions of the much longer Russian originals (as acknowledged by their translator and editor Harold Shukman).
With regard to Alger Hiss
, Volkogonov wrote him a letter on October 14, 1992, in reply to a request to check Soviet files for mentions of Hiss. In his letter, Volkogonov reported that although the files mentioned Hiss as a diplomat a number of times, no reference to Alger Hiss as a Soviet intelligence agent occurred in any of the files at any time. Later Volgokonov repudiated what the American press took as his exoneration of Hiss. The New York Times reported:
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
) (22 March 1928, Chita – 6 December 1995, Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
) was a Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n historian
Historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...
and officer.
Biography
A Doctor of PhilosophyDoctor of Philosophy
Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated as Ph.D., PhD, D.Phil., or DPhil , in English-speaking countries, is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities...
, Doctor of History, Colonel General
Colonel General
Colonel General is a senior rank of General. North Korea and Russia are two countries which have used the rank extensively throughout their histories...
(1986), Volkogonov was the head of the Institute of Military History at the Ministry of Defense of the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
between 1988 and 1991. He was director of the arm of the Soviet military concerned with "psychological warfare
Psychological warfare
Psychological warfare , or the basic aspects of modern psychological operations , have been known by many other names or terms, including Psy Ops, Political Warfare, “Hearts and Minds,” and Propaganda...
", writing a manual on this subject for Soviet forces (The Psychological War). He also presided over a number of governmental and presidential committees.
Long known in Western military circles as one of the hardest of hard-liners, Volkogonov began, by the middle of Leonid Brezhnev
Leonid Brezhnev
Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev – 10 November 1982) was the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union , presiding over the country from 1964 until his death in 1982. His eighteen-year term as General Secretary was second only to that of Joseph Stalin in...
's rule, to have serious doubts about the Soviet regime. At first these only concerned Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
, whose purge
Purge
In history, religion, and political science, a purge is the removal of people who are considered undesirable by those in power from a government, from another organization, or from society as a whole. Purges can be peaceful or violent; many will end with the imprisonment or exile of those purged,...
s led to the deaths of both of Volkogonov's parents. He spent nearly twenty years compiling a revisionist (by Soviet standards) biography. Though he forthrightly described Stalin's alleged crimes, he remained an admirer of Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and communist politician who led the October Revolution of 1917. As leader of the Bolsheviks, he headed the Soviet state during its initial years , as it fought to establish control of Russia in the Russian Civil War and worked to create a...
and (following the Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev led the Soviet Union during part of the Cold War. He served as First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964, and as Chairman of the Council of Ministers, or Premier, from 1958 to 1964...
line) believed that Stalinism was a perversion of true Leninism. (His views on Lenin changed after he went back into the archives to do his biography of Lenin. It was then that he read that Lenin too had murdered thousands of his opponents.) That his book would be controversial was obvious to others, especially his superior, to whom he showed the book once it was completed. After reading "Joseph Stalin" he told Volkogonov that he was, in effect, attacking not just Stalin but also Lenin. Volkogonov's wife also begged him not to publish the book and he did hold it back for a time, fearful of the consequences. Once the book was published, these consequences were not slow in coming. He was fired in 1991 from his job as director of the Institute of Military History at the Ministry of Defense of the USSR by Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev is a former Soviet statesman, having served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 until 1991, and as the last head of state of the USSR, having served from 1988 until its dissolution in 1991...
.
Once the Soviet Union's collapse was complete, Volkogonov combined his historical work with political activity in the newly established Russian state. Following the failed coup attempt of 1991
Soviet coup attempt of 1991
The 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt , also known as the August Putsch or August Coup , was an attempt by a group of members of the Soviet Union's government to take control of the country from Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev...
, Volkogonov was appointed Defense Advisor to Russian leader Boris Yeltsin
Boris Yeltsin
Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin was the first President of the Russian Federation, serving from 1991 to 1999.Originally a supporter of Mikhail Gorbachev, Yeltsin emerged under the perestroika reforms as one of Gorbachev's most powerful political opponents. On 29 May 1990 he was elected the chairman of...
. By then he was already afflicted with the cancer that would kill him in 1995. Before he died, he contributed much to the so-called "liberal" strain of Russian thought that was condemned during the Soviet period. Volkogonov was one of the leaders of the movement to call for a separation between Soviet and Russian historical identities. The independent streak that had come to the fore in the Eighties continued until the end of his life. He opposed the use of force in ethnic disputes and criticized Yeltsin for "having taken the advice of wrong-headed counselors" in the decision to invade Chechnya.
Volkogonov is most famous for his trilogy Leaders (Вожди, or Vozhdi), which consists of the three books about Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and communist politician who led the October Revolution of 1917. As leader of the Bolsheviks, he headed the Soviet state during its initial years , as it fought to establish control of Russia in the Russian Civil War and worked to create a...
(Lenin: A New Biography), Leon Trotsky
Leon Trotsky
Leon Trotsky , born Lev Davidovich Bronshtein, was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and theorist, Soviet politician, and the founder and first leader of the Red Army....
(Trotsky: The Eternal Revolutionary) and Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
(Stalin: Triumph and Tragedy) and Autopsy for an Empire: the Seven Leaders Who Built the Soviet Regime (Russian title: Sem Vozhdei), 1998. Although his works have been attacked by critics in the West for various flaws of scholarship and writing, the English editions were essentially condensed versions of the much longer Russian originals (as acknowledged by their translator and editor Harold Shukman).
Criticism
Volkogonov is not without criticism from colleagues. One British historian, summarizing Volkogonov's criticisms of Stalin's military role in WWII, then notes "A number of officers at the Institute of Military History who had fought on the Eastern Front were critical of Volkogonov's writings on the war because he had never set foot on a battlefield. He was, they said, an 'armchair-general'."With regard to Alger Hiss
Alger Hiss
Alger Hiss was an American lawyer, government official, author, and lecturer. He was involved in the establishment of the United Nations both as a U.S. State Department and U.N. official...
, Volkogonov wrote him a letter on October 14, 1992, in reply to a request to check Soviet files for mentions of Hiss. In his letter, Volkogonov reported that although the files mentioned Hiss as a diplomat a number of times, no reference to Alger Hiss as a Soviet intelligence agent occurred in any of the files at any time. Later Volgokonov repudiated what the American press took as his exoneration of Hiss. The New York Times reported:
The Russian official who was reported to have cleared Alger Hiss of spying for the Soviet Union says that he was "not properly understood," and that he only meant to say he found no evidence of the charges in the K.G.B. documents to which he had access.
The official, Gen. Dmitry A. Volkogonov, a military historian who has been closely involved in studying various Soviet-era archives, said that at Mr. Hiss's request he had searched through K.G.B. files for the 1930's and 1940's, and in them he found only one mention of Mr. Hiss, in a list of diplomats at the United Nations.
"I was not properly understood," he said in a recent interview. "The Ministry of Defense also has an intelligence service, which is totally different, and many documents have been destroyed. I only looked through what the K.G.B. had. All I said was that I saw no evidence."
...As the general said, even if he had scoured all the voluminous archives of the K.G.B., the Defense Ministry and the Communist Party, there were also untold files that were destroyed in the upheavals after Stalin's death...
"Hiss wrote that he was 88 and would like to die peacefully, that he wanted to prove that he was never a paid, contracted spy," General Volkogonov said. "What I saw gives no basis to claim a full clarification. There's no guarantee that it was not destroyed, that it was not in other channels...
"This was only my personal opinion as a historian," he said. "I never met him, and honestly I was a bit taken aback. His attorney, Lowenthal, pushed me hard to say things of which I was not fully convinced."
Works
- Mythical "threat" and the real danger to peace, Novosti Press, 1982
- The Psychological War, Progress Publishers, 1986
- The army and social progress, Progress Publishers, 1987
- Psychological War, Imported Pubn, 1987
- Stalin: Triumph and tragedy, Grove Weidenfeld, 1991 ISBN 978-0802111654
- Lenin: A New Biography, Free Press, 1994 ISBN 978-0029334355
- Trotsky: The Eternal Revolutionary, Free Press, 1996 ISBN 978-0684822938
- The Rise and Fall of the Soviet Empire: Political Leaders from Lenin to Gorbachev, HarperCollins Publishers, 1998 ISBN 978-0002557917
- Autopsy for an Empire: the Seven Leaders Who Built the Soviet Regime, Free Press, 1999 ISBN 978-0684871127
Sources
- Autopsy for an Empire: the Seven Leaders Who Built the Soviet Regime, and Editor's Preface, Harold Shukman (http://homepages.nyu.edu/~th15/volk2.html)
- From Stalinist to anti-communism, F. Kreisel (http://www.mit.edu/people/fjk/essays/volkogonov.html)