Bibliography
"First f all I’d like to express my appreciation to Mark Solonin, to remove my hat and to bow before him. When I read his book, I felt like Salieri would feel for Mozart... Mr. Solonin accomplished a heroic scientific achievement. It will become a golden brick for the foundation of the history of the war which will be written in the future”.
Victor Suvorov, historian, publicist (interview for Izraeli radio station, 15 March 2005)
“I must admit that the book is striking. Not only the facts are sensational and the text is written perfectly, but overall it impresses a haunting feeling that hereby, in your presence and with your help, the author extracts from the rubble of minute detail and trifles something which really matters…”
S. Gedroyts, literary critic (Zvezda magazine, St. Petersburg 12/2006)
“Solonin speaks the language of facts, and often these facts are well-known to the general public. But when they are collected all together, it makes my hair stand…Remember the usual way of depicting the 22nd of June in films? Our warrior with a rifle and a Molotov cocktail throws himself under a German tank and the steel monster dies in flames. The Germans control the mechanical force of war enginery and we possess the power of the will and the spirit. Mr. Solonin’s most frightening conclusion is that war didn’t go that way in reality. In fact, it was just the opposite”.
Leonid Radzichovsky, famous russian publicist and journalist
“Airfields in peaceful slumber” is the most detailed analysis of what happened to our aviation on the 22nd of June. Nothing has been published so far even to match it. This is a priceless contribution to the history of our aviation…”
Dmitry Zakharov, historian and TV-journalist, “Price of Victory” program on Radio 'Echo of Moscow'
“The most powerful literature impression of 2006”.
Michail Veller, writes, philosopher and publicist
“A revolutionary new step in evaluating the events of 1941. With its persuasive arguments and logics Mark Solonin’s book became the first work to consolidate the efforts made in the wake of Suvorov’s books… This is the model with which the real study of this war’s history begins".
N. Volsky, historian and publicist (“Lebed” magazine almanac #525)
The books are scientific studies covering specific issues of the World War II history, mostly German – USSR military conflict. Every work contains several thousands source referrals, comparative tables on planning, weaponry and armor, information on political negotiations and outbreak of the conflict, author-drawn schemes of military operations. The style and the easy manner of narration make the works understandable for general public, not only historians. So far, the works have acclaimed popularity in the Russia, which is best displayed by the number of reprints: the first book, “22nd of June”, has been reprinted 10 times and total circulation: 97 000 copies sold. For Russian military history literature - a specialized market - that is an astonishing figure. Books have become bestsellers owning to a “problematic approach” and author’s clearly defined point of view.
The central issue of the listed works is why Stalin’s empire, after years of preparation for the Big War, having concentrated all resources of the richest country in the world, having reinforced his army with the best up-to-date weaponry, aviation and, finally, having amassed the biggest army size in the world, suffered a crushing defeat in the summer of 1941. The author-proposed answer is that the reason for the catastrophe lies beyond the sphere of tactics, strategy or German’s notorious “first strike”. The Soviet Union and its military were unprepared for the war in terms of morale and organization. The people in the army were not resolved to sacrifice themselves for Stalin vs Hitler clash over the “loot”. Thus despite colossal technical and labor effort spent the Red Army did not become an adequate instrument for a long bloody conflict.
Mass desertion, surrender and abandonment of arms (rifles as well as heavy tanks) dominated in the Soviet ranks. To put it plainly, it wasn’t two armies colliding on the battlefield, but clockwork German military and a panicked uncontrolled crowd of armed Soviets, quickly turning into a multitude of prisoners and deserters. This conclusion (“a scandalous sensation” as the editor put it ) is proved by a thorough hour-by-hour analysis of military operations of the first days of the war, an analysis of personnel and weapons losses of the Red army. That led to a further thesis of two separate wars, the first being Stalin's conquest for hegemony in Europe which he began by invading Poland on 17th of September 1939, and the Great Patriotic war which started when the battered Russian nation realized that the people can only be saved by defeating Hitler. Thus, in general, Mark Solonin’s works are an attempt to counter the propaganda-created myth of “unequalled unity of the Party and people” and “absolute mass heroism” with a neutral reconstruction of the “two wars”. Most of the analysis is done in the first book, “22nd of June”.
“At the Airfields that Seemed to Be Asleep” views the 1941 military catastrophe as it touched the Soviet Air Forces. The first part of the book gives a brief course on aerodynamics, construction theory, weapons and WWII air tactics. The second part puts this theory in Soviet – German setting. The author, an aviation constructor by education and profession, performs a comparative analysis of military planes of France, Germany, Great Britain and the USSR. A similar analysis is given in regard of combat engagements: Soviet-German front of 1941 against battles for French skies in May 1940 and “Battle for Britain” in 1940.
“23rd of June: M-Day” concludes the research of summer 1941 tragic events and provides answers to all questions which rose after the first two books were published. This work dwells mostly on Soviet Union material and technical preparation to the world war, and especially on strategic military planning. By developing Victor Suvorov’s (a renowned modern historian) idea, Mark Solonin demonstrates that Stalin prepared a large-scale invasion to Europe, which had to commence in July 1941. A scrupulous analysis of documents and recollections of the participants of the events led to a hypothesis that Stalin changed the date in the very last moment and decided to initiate the assault on the 23rd of 1941. And without knowing that fact Hitler made an anticipatory strike - only one day in advance of Stalin.
“25th of June: foolishness or aggression?” The idea separating "the two wars" led to an examination of the 2nd Soviet-Finnish war (25th of June 1941 - 5th of September 1944), followed by a book "25th of June: foolishness or aggression", which has been published at the end of 2007. By including state archive information and some of the documents which have been made public only recently, the book pours light on endless, though fruitless attempts Stalin made to conquer Finland. The climax of this reckless and aggressive policy was brought about by the June 25th mass air strike against military and civilian targets in Finland. It led to a new chain of unjustified losses and casualties.
Mark Solonin's complete Bibliography:
“Barrel and Hoops or When the Great Patriotic war really started” (445 pages, Drobogych, publishing house “Vozrozhdenie”, April 2004)
“22nd of June or When the Great Patriotic war really started” (509 pages, Moscow, publishing house «Jauza-EKSMO», first printed in January 2005)
“At the Airfields That Seemed to Be Asleep” (572 pages, Moscow, publishing house «Jauza-EKSMO», first printed in April 2006)
“A simple reason for the Great catastrophe” (publication in almanac "The Great Patriotic Catastrophe-1", Moscow, publishing house «Jauza-EKSMO», May 2007)
“23rd of June: M-Day” (507 pages, Moscow, publishing house «Jauza-EKSMO», first printed in June 2007)
“25th of June: foolishness or aggression” (640 pages, Moscow, publishing house «Jauza-EKSMO», first printed in December 2007)
“Strike against the airfields: myths and facts” (publication in almanac "The Great Patriotic Catastrophe-3" Moscow, publishing house «Jauza-EKSMO», December 2007)
“Screwing the Brains” (317 pages, Moscow, publishing house «Jauza-EKSMO», first printed in May 2008). This book had won the "Fifteen Best Russian Books of the Year" competition and will be mailed to the universities around the world.
“The USSR – Finland: March 1940 – June 1941” (publication in "Uberfall auf Europa. Neun russishe Historiker belasten Stalin", publishing house «Pour le Merite», 2009)
“June 22" and "June 23” has been published in the Ukraine, Poland, Estonia, coming soon in Lithuania, Slovakia, Czech Republic
