1922–2000
○ Died
Soviet military historian who first broke the official silence on Winter War casualties, revealing 53,522 dead
In issue 22 of Ogoniok (1989), his article 'Neznamenitaya voina' (The Un-famous War) became the first public challenge to Molotov's 1940 figure of 48,475 dead, revealing the true toll of 53,522.
A military historian who fought in the Great Patriotic War and served in the Soviet Military Administration in Germany, Semiryaga devoted his career to the war history of the USSR. In 1989, in the magazine Ogoniok, he became the first to publicly break the official Soviet line on Winter War losses, revealing 53,522 dead; he went on to publish the secret protocol to the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact and Katyn massacre documents for the first time, opening long-sealed archives. His final major work, published posthumously, tackled the last Soviet taboo: collaborationism under Nazi occupation.
Activities and affiliations
Career Timeline
- 1939Conscripted into the Red Army
- 1941–1945Fought in the Great Patriotic War (Don, Stalingrad, 3rd Ukrainian, 1st Belorussian Fronts)
- 1945–1950Served in the Soviet Military Administration in Germany
- 1953Candidate of Historical Sciences (the Lusatians)
- 1962Doctor of Historical Sciences
- 1967Researcher, Institute of Military History; responsible editor of vol. 9 of History of the Second World War; USSR State Prize
- 1989First public disclosure of real Winter War casualties in Ogoniok
- 1992Published Secrets of Stalin's Diplomacy
Related historical events
- 1939.11–1940.03The Winter WarHistorian who first disclosed true casualtiesIn 1989, he revealed in Ogoniok magazine that the Winter War's actual death toll was 53,522, shattering the official Soviet line.
- 1941–1945The Great Patriotic WarGreat Patriotic War soldierHe fought in the Great Patriotic War on the Don, Stalingrad, 3rd Ukrainian and 1st Belorussian Fronts.
The Sorbian Phase and the Start of His Scholarly Career, 1953–1955
Semiryaga's scholarly starting point was not the history of the Second World War but ethnography. Conscripted into the Red Army in 1939, he fought through the Great Patriotic War and after its end served in the Soviet Military Administration in Germany; he then studied at the Military Institute of Foreign Languages and Moscow State University and taught at military academies in Leningrad and Kharkiv. That his degree came from the USSR Academy of Sciences' Institute of Ethnography rather than a defence-ministry body was an unusual route for a career officer.
At the N. N. Miklukho-Maklai Institute of Ethnography of the USSR Academy of Sciences he defended his candidate of historical sciences dissertation in 1953 on the subject 'The Lusatians: A Historical-Geographical Sketch', and in 1955 he published his book Luzhichane (The Lusatians) on the same question. The Lusatian Sorbs are a West Slavic minority of Lusatia in eastern Germany, and his was among the early book-length Soviet studies of this community in the post-war Soviet occupation zone and the GDR. That a man whose birthplace, citizenship and military career all tied him to the war and to the Soviet administration of Germany entered scholarship through the study of a German-speaking minority is an important clue to his formation.
This phase shows where his interests were heading. From the late 1950s he shifted to modern military history, above all partisan struggle against the fascist occupiers and the Resistance movement, and in 1962 he received his doctorate for 'The Solidarity of the Working People in the Struggle against Fascism, 1939-1945'. The problems of occupation and liberation he had met at the front and in Germany carried over into work on Resistance and mass movements in Western and Eastern Europe, and the German question returned in his 1995 book on the Soviet Military Administration, which combined archival material with personal impressions. The Sorbian study stands as the first stage of that long trajectory.