Edvard Stanislavovich Radzinsky (russian: Э́двард Станисла́вович Радзи́нский) (born September 23, 1936) is a Russian playwright, television personality,

screenwriter A screenplay writer (also called screenwriter, scriptwriter, scribe or scenarist) is a writer who practices the craft of screenwriting, writing screenplays on which mass media, such as films, television programs and video games, are based. ...

, and the author of more than forty popular history books.

Biography

Edvard Stanislavovich Radzinsky was born in

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-ei ...

on September 23, 1936 to playwright Stanislav Radzinsky and his wife Sofia. He studied in the Moscow Archive Institute and is a trained historian. In 1955 Radzinsky married actress Alla Geraskina, a daughter of popular Soviet playwright and writer Lia Geraskina. Their son Oleg was born in 1958. Radzinsky divorced Alla in 1964. He later married Tatiana Doronina, one of the leading Soviet actresses of the 60s-70s. They divorced later. He is married to actress Elena Denisova.

Career

Radzinsky became a writer of popular non-fiction books on historical subjects, publishing more than forty. He has specialized in books about figures and times of Russian history. Since the 1990s, he has written the series ''Mysteries of History''. Books translated into English include his biographies of Tsars

Nicholas II Nicholas II or Nikolai II Alexandrovich Romanov; spelled in pre-revolutionary script. ( 186817 July 1918), known in the Russian Orthodox Church as Saint Nicholas the Passion-Bearer,. was the last Emperor of Russia, King of Congress Pol ...

and Alexander II, Rasputin, and

Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet Union, Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as Ge ...

. His book '' Stalin: The First In-depth Biography Based on Explosive New Documents from Russia's Secret Archives'' (1997) was based on research in Russian and Soviet archives made newly available after 1991. He explored numerous controversies about Joseph Stalin, including the existence of a fuller text of Lenin's Testament, the alleged involvement of Stalin as an agent of the Tsarist secret police, and the role of Stalin in the death of his wife and the murder of

Sergey Kirov Sergei Mironovich Kirov (né Kostrikov; 27 March 1886 – 1 December 1934) was a Soviet politician and Bolshevik revolutionary whose assassination led to the first Great Purge. Kirov was an early revolutionary in the Russian Empire and memb ...

. According to Radzinsky, Stalin may have been poisoned by order of

Lavrentiy Beria Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria (; rus, Лавре́нтий Па́влович Бе́рия, Lavréntiy Pávlovich Bériya, p=ˈbʲerʲiə; ka, ლავრენტი ბერია, tr, ; – 23 December 1953) was a Georgian Bolshevik ...

. His book includes an interview with a former bodyguard of Stalin, who stated that on the night of Stalin's death, the bodyguards were relieved of duty by an

NKVD The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (russian: Наро́дный комиссариа́т вну́тренних дел, Naródnyy komissariát vnútrennikh del, ), abbreviated NKVD ( ), was the interior ministry of the Soviet Union. ...

officer named Khrustalev. This same officer was briefly mentioned in ''Memories'', the memoir of Stalin's daughter Svetlana Alliluyeva. Radzinsky drew on documents from the archives to support the hypothesis by historian

Viktor Suvorov Vladimir Bogdanovich Rezun (russian: link=no, Владимир Богданович Резун; born 20 April 1947), known by his pseudonym of Viktor Suvorov () is a former Soviet GRU officer who is the author of non-fiction books about World ...

that Stalin had prepared plans for a preemptive strike against Nazi Germany in 1941.Radzinsky cited a document preserved in the Military-Memorial Center of the Soviet General Staff, which was a draft of a plan for military strategy in case of war with Germany, drawn up by

Georgy Zhukov Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov ( rus, Георгий Константинович Жуков, p=ɡʲɪˈorɡʲɪj kənstɐnʲˈtʲinəvʲɪtɕ ˈʐukəf, a=Ru-Георгий_Константинович_Жуков.ogg; 1 December 1896 – ...

, dated May 15, 1941, and signed by Aleksandr Vasilevsky and Nikolai Vatutin. The document stated: "In view of the fact that Germany at present keeps its army fully mobilized with its rear services deployed, it has the capacity of deploying ahead of us and striking a sudden blow. To prevent this I consider it important not to leave the operational initiative to the German command in any circumstances, but to anticipate the enemy and attack the German army at the moment when it is in the process of deploying and before it has time to organize its front and the coordination of its various arms". As is known, Germany invaded the Soviet Union first.

Books

English

* '' Stalin: The First In-depth Biography Based on Explosive New Documents from Russia's Secret Archives'', Anchor, (1997) * ''The Last Tsar : The Life and Death of Nicholas II'', 1993, Anchor, , (2005) * ''Alexander II: The Last Great Tsar'' (2005) * ''Tsar : The Lost World of Nicholas and Alexandra'' * ''The Rasputin File'' (2001, Anchor, USA) * ''Rasputin: The Last Word'' (2001, Allen & Unwin, Australia)

Russian

* «Ипатьевская ночь» © AST, 2007 г. * «На Руси от ума одно горе» © AST, 2006 г. * «Начало театрального романа»: Сборник пьес © Издательство «ВАГРИУС», 2004 г. * Собрание сочинений (в восьми томах) © Издательство «ВАГРИУС», 1998—2003 г. * «Загадки жизни и смерти». Подарочное издание © Издательство «ВАГРИУС»,2003 г. * «Княжна Тараканова» © Издательство «ВАГРИУС», 2003 г. * «Загадки истории». Подарочное издание © Издательство «ВАГРИУС», 2002 г. * ''

Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader wh ...

: life after death'' «Наполеон: жизнь после смерти» © Издательство «ВАГРИУС», 2002 г. * «Игры писателей» © Издательство «ВАГРИУС», 2001 г. * «Загадки любви» © Издательство «ВАГРИУС», 1999, 2000 гг. * «Загадки истории» © Издательство «ВАГРИУС», 1999, 2000 гг. * «Кровь и призраки русской смуты» © Издательство «ВАГРИУС», 1998, 2000 гг. * «Гибель галантного века» © Издательство «ВАГРИУС», 1999 г. * «…и сделалась кровь» © Издательство «ВАГРИУС», 1998 г. * «Властители дум» © Издательство «ВАГРИУС», 1999 г. * «Театр» © Издательство «Искусство», 1986 г. * ''Conversations with

Socrates Socrates (; ; –399 BC) was a Greek philosopher from Athens who is credited as the founder of Western philosophy and among the first moral philosophers of the ethical tradition of thought. An enigmatic figure, Socrates authored no t ...

References

МкЗ

External links

His personal website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Radzinsky, Edvard Russian dramatists and playwrights Russian male dramatists and playwrights Soviet dramatists and playwrights Soviet male writers 20th-century male writers Honorary Members of the Russian Academy of Arts 20th-century Russian historians 1936 births Living people Stalinism-era scholars and writers International Writing Program alumni Iran's Book of the Year Awards recipients 21st-century Russian historians