A historian who recalculated the Winter War casualty record
Yuri Kilin is a Petrozavodsk historian whose research examines Karelia and the Soviet Union’s foreign and military policy. He led a 2006–2009 project that critically reconciled official records of Red Army losses in the Winter War and reopened the question of how the dead should be counted. His 2012 figure of 138,533 Soviet dead became the latest major revision in the debate over the war’s human cost.
Career Timeline
- 1961Born in Karelia
- 1983Graduated from the History Faculty of Petrozavodsk State University
- 1983–1986History teacher in a secondary school
- 1986–1989Postgraduate researcher at the Leningrad Branch of the Institute of History of the USSR
- 1989–1992Researcher at the Karelian Branch of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR
- 1992–현재Professor at Petrozavodsk State University
- 2000Received a Doctor of Historical Sciences degree
- 2006–2009Led a project revising Red Army loss records from the Winter War