Igor Bunich
Encyclopedia
Igor Bunich is a Russia
n historian known for offering a number of revisionist interpretations of Russian history. He is most famous for claiming that Joseph Stalin
was actively preparing to invade western Europe in 1941 before any suggestion of the German
eastward assault in Operation Barbarossa
.
Igor Bunich published three volumes with the title "Operatsia Groza" — "Operation Thunderstorm" — the first one in 1994, the last one 2004.In these books he communicates a plan of Stalin for an invasion of whole western Europe: "Operation Thunderstorm". It can be found in the so called "Osobaya Papka", a file which contains about 100,000 Top Secret
documents. In this file it is document Nr.103202/06. The paper is signed by Marshal Semyon Timoshenko
and the chief of the General Staff at that time Merezkov. It is dated 18 September 1940, three months before the German "Operation Barbarossa
" was signed. After Georgy Zhukov
became chief of the general staff in February 1941, the plan was called MP 41 (Mobilisatsyonni Plan 41). Bunic points to the Russian military archives, where it can be found (ZAMO, f. 15A, op.2154, d.4,l. 199-287). This document contains information about the Soviet military power in June 1941: 300 divisions, 8 million soldiers, 27,500 tanks, 32,628 airplanes. The total number of the German warplanes at that time was only about 6,000 although the majority of the Soviet aircraft was obsolete.
Bunich is not the only Russian historian who questioned the thesis of the "cowardly attack of the Wehrmacht
against the peace loving Soviet Union
". In 1989 appeared the book "Ledokol
" (Icebreaker) by Viktor Suvorov
, who's real name was Vladimir Bogdanovich Resun, in which advanced this theory. In February 1992, even the official military-historical Journal of the Russian forces — "Voenno-istorichesky Zhournal" — http://www.mil.ru published an article with the heading "Unquestionable Facts of the War's Beginning", where a speech by Zhdanov, one of Stalin's intimates, expressed that the Soviet Union had already started an "aggressive foreign policy
" in 1939, with the decision to attack Finland
. This article also mentions that the defense efforts of the Soviet Union were impeded by the prevailing aggressive thinking of the Soviet General Staff. These plans were extending to 1943 and to such an extent, that no effective measures against the German assault could be taken.
Bunich does not at all intend to polish up the image of Adolf Hitler
. His first intention is to analyze who is guilty of having caused the immense human losses of Russia in World War II
. He discovered a document, in which the total number of killed Russian soldiers is said to be 30.5 million — 8.5 million of them directly killed in battle, 22 million died after from their wounds, one half of them through tetanus
. In Bunich's view Stalin is not the main responsible for these human losses, but Zhukov. Stalin was a statesman but not a soldier, in strategic questions he had to rely on the advice of his generals, and Zhukov was not a very talented one. For example he gave order to pile up heaps of ammunition under the bare sky in Soviet occupied Poland to a kind of Egyptian pyramids, which could be easily detected by the scout planes of the "Fliegerabteilung" of Admiral Wilhelm Canaris
' "Abwehr
" patrolling over this region as early as a month before the German attack. The Germans got a good picture of this monstrous mass of men and material and later easily destroyed it.
Bunich's "Operatsia Groza'" is full of yet unknown facts about the Third Reich. For example he reveals why Reinhard Heydrich
was replaced as the head of the "SD" ("Sicherheitsdienst") by Walter Schellenberg
and was made instead the Governor General of Bohemia: This happened because his major rival Admiral Canaris showed Hitler the file of "Chaijm Aaron Heydrich", Heydrich's grandfather, a first violinist in the Vienna "Hofoperette" - and who was Jewish.
Bunich mentions a remarkable talk between Walter Schellenberg and the Soviet ambassador to Germany, Dekanosov, which took place in March 1941. Both men were secret-service veterans this, in addition to a lot of drinks, created a friendly atmosphere between them. Dekanosov asked Schellenberg: "We heard that there exists a plan called Operation Barbarossa which means a German assault against us". Schellenberg remained quiet for a while and then said: "This is correct, this plan exists and it was elaborated with great thoroughness. We communicated this plan through secret channels to the Americans and the British, to make them believe that we are preparing to attack you. If they believe it, we have a good chance to succeed with our "Operation Seelöwe". - But, we also know about Your "Operation Grom"" ("Grom" means thunder and "Grosa" thunderstorm). Dekanosov informed Stalin about this talk with Schellenberg - and Stalin decided to believe Schellenberg!
Only days before "Barbarossa" began, it turned out that Merezkov, its author, betrayed "Grosa" to the Germans. According to Bunich, the German invasion of June 22, 1941 succeeded in the beginning because large segments of the Red Army surrendered or fled into forests and deserted. Adding to the confusion was Stalin's order to initiate the "Grosa" plan to attack.
Also, some people gradually realized that Adolf Hitler and the Germans saw them as "sub humans" (Untermenschen). On that ground the resistance movement came into being and Stalin was able to lead this war known as the Great Patriotic War.
On the backside of the cover of "Operatsiya Grosa" Bunich mentions that Stalin had decided to start his attack against western Europa on July 10, 1941.
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 known for offering a number of revisionist interpretations of Russian history. He is most famous for claiming that 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...
was actively preparing to invade western Europe in 1941 before any suggestion of the German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
eastward assault in Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa was the code name for Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II that began on 22 June 1941. Over 4.5 million troops of the Axis powers invaded the USSR along a front., the largest invasion in the history of warfare...
.
Igor Bunich published three volumes with the title "Operatsia Groza" — "Operation Thunderstorm" — the first one in 1994, the last one 2004.In these books he communicates a plan of Stalin for an invasion of whole western Europe: "Operation Thunderstorm". It can be found in the so called "Osobaya Papka", a file which contains about 100,000 Top Secret
Top Secret
Top Secret generally refers to the highest acknowledged level of classified information.Top Secret may also refer to:- Film and television :* Top Secret , a British comedy directed by Mario Zampi...
documents. In this file it is document Nr.103202/06. The paper is signed by Marshal Semyon Timoshenko
Semyon Timoshenko
Semyon Konstantinovich Timoshenko was a Soviet military commander and senior professional officer of the Red Army at the beginning of the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941.-Early life:...
and the chief of the General Staff at that time Merezkov. It is dated 18 September 1940, three months before the German "Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa was the code name for Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II that began on 22 June 1941. Over 4.5 million troops of the Axis powers invaded the USSR along a front., the largest invasion in the history of warfare...
" was signed. After Georgy Zhukov
Georgy Zhukov
Marshal of the Soviet Union Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov , was a Russian career officer in the Red Army who, in the course of World War II, played a pivotal role in leading the Red Army through much of Eastern Europe to liberate the Soviet Union and other nations from the Axis Powers' occupation...
became chief of the general staff in February 1941, the plan was called MP 41 (Mobilisatsyonni Plan 41). Bunic points to the Russian military archives, where it can be found (ZAMO, f. 15A, op.2154, d.4,l. 199-287). This document contains information about the Soviet military power in June 1941: 300 divisions, 8 million soldiers, 27,500 tanks, 32,628 airplanes. The total number of the German warplanes at that time was only about 6,000 although the majority of the Soviet aircraft was obsolete.
Bunich is not the only Russian historian who questioned the thesis of the "cowardly attack of the Wehrmacht
Wehrmacht
The Wehrmacht – from , to defend and , the might/power) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the Heer , the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe .-Origin and use of the term:...
against the peace loving 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....
". In 1989 appeared the book "Ledokol
Icebreaker (Suvorov)
Icebreaker: Who Started the Second World War?, by Viktor Suvorov is a 1987 documentary book, which alleges that World War II started as a result of Joseph Stalin's ploy to "liberate" the working class of Europe and eventually the whole world.-Suvorov's thesis:Suvorov challenges the widely-accepted...
" (Icebreaker) by Viktor Suvorov
Viktor Suvorov
Viktor Suvorov is the pen name for Vladimir Bogdanovich Rezun , a former Soviet and now British writer of Russian and Ukrainian descent who writes primarily in Russian, as well as a former Soviet military intelligence spy who defected to the UK...
, who's real name was Vladimir Bogdanovich Resun, in which advanced this theory. In February 1992, even the official military-historical Journal of the Russian forces — "Voenno-istorichesky Zhournal" — http://www.mil.ru published an article with the heading "Unquestionable Facts of the War's Beginning", where a speech by Zhdanov, one of Stalin's intimates, expressed that the Soviet Union had already started an "aggressive foreign policy
Foreign policy
A country's foreign policy, also called the foreign relations policy, consists of self-interest strategies chosen by the state to safeguard its national interests and to achieve its goals within international relations milieu. The approaches are strategically employed to interact with other countries...
" in 1939, with the decision to attack Finland
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
. This article also mentions that the defense efforts of the Soviet Union were impeded by the prevailing aggressive thinking of the Soviet General Staff. These plans were extending to 1943 and to such an extent, that no effective measures against the German assault could be taken.
Bunich does not at all intend to polish up the image of Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
. His first intention is to analyze who is guilty of having caused the immense human losses of Russia in World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. He discovered a document, in which the total number of killed Russian soldiers is said to be 30.5 million — 8.5 million of them directly killed in battle, 22 million died after from their wounds, one half of them through tetanus
Tetanus
Tetanus is a medical condition characterized by a prolonged contraction of skeletal muscle fibers. The primary symptoms are caused by tetanospasmin, a neurotoxin produced by the Gram-positive, rod-shaped, obligate anaerobic bacterium Clostridium tetani...
. In Bunich's view Stalin is not the main responsible for these human losses, but Zhukov. Stalin was a statesman but not a soldier, in strategic questions he had to rely on the advice of his generals, and Zhukov was not a very talented one. For example he gave order to pile up heaps of ammunition under the bare sky in Soviet occupied Poland to a kind of Egyptian pyramids, which could be easily detected by the scout planes of the "Fliegerabteilung" of Admiral Wilhelm Canaris
Wilhelm Canaris
Wilhelm Franz Canaris was a German admiral, head of the Abwehr, the German military intelligence service, from 1935 to 1944 and member of the German Resistance.- Early life and World War I :...
' "Abwehr
Abwehr
The Abwehr was a German military intelligence organisation from 1921 to 1944. The term Abwehr was used as a concession to Allied demands that Germany's post-World War I intelligence activities be for "defensive" purposes only...
" patrolling over this region as early as a month before the German attack. The Germans got a good picture of this monstrous mass of men and material and later easily destroyed it.
Bunich's "Operatsia Groza'" is full of yet unknown facts about the Third Reich. For example he reveals why Reinhard Heydrich
Reinhard Heydrich
Reinhard Tristan Eugen Heydrich , also known as The Hangman, was a high-ranking German Nazi official.He was SS-Obergruppenführer and General der Polizei, chief of the Reich Main Security Office and Stellvertretender Reichsprotektor of Bohemia and Moravia...
was replaced as the head of the "SD" ("Sicherheitsdienst") by Walter Schellenberg
Walter Schellenberg
Walther Friedrich Schellenberg was a German SS-Brigadeführer who rose through the ranks of the SS to become the head of foreign intelligence following the abolition of the Abwehr in 1944.-Biography:...
and was made instead the Governor General of Bohemia: This happened because his major rival Admiral Canaris showed Hitler the file of "Chaijm Aaron Heydrich", Heydrich's grandfather, a first violinist in the Vienna "Hofoperette" - and who was Jewish.
Bunich mentions a remarkable talk between Walter Schellenberg and the Soviet ambassador to Germany, Dekanosov, which took place in March 1941. Both men were secret-service veterans this, in addition to a lot of drinks, created a friendly atmosphere between them. Dekanosov asked Schellenberg: "We heard that there exists a plan called Operation Barbarossa which means a German assault against us". Schellenberg remained quiet for a while and then said: "This is correct, this plan exists and it was elaborated with great thoroughness. We communicated this plan through secret channels to the Americans and the British, to make them believe that we are preparing to attack you. If they believe it, we have a good chance to succeed with our "Operation Seelöwe". - But, we also know about Your "Operation Grom"" ("Grom" means thunder and "Grosa" thunderstorm). Dekanosov informed Stalin about this talk with Schellenberg - and Stalin decided to believe Schellenberg!
Only days before "Barbarossa" began, it turned out that Merezkov, its author, betrayed "Grosa" to the Germans. According to Bunich, the German invasion of June 22, 1941 succeeded in the beginning because large segments of the Red Army surrendered or fled into forests and deserted. Adding to the confusion was Stalin's order to initiate the "Grosa" plan to attack.
Also, some people gradually realized that Adolf Hitler and the Germans saw them as "sub humans" (Untermenschen). On that ground the resistance movement came into being and Stalin was able to lead this war known as the Great Patriotic War.
On the backside of the cover of "Operatsiya Grosa" Bunich mentions that Stalin had decided to start his attack against western Europa on July 10, 1941.