Mikhail Sergeyevich Voslensky (russian: Михаил Серге́евич Восленский) (December 6, 1920,

Berdyansk Berdiansk or Berdyansk ( uk, Бердя́нськ, translit=Berdiansk, ; russian: Бердя́нск, translit=Berdyansk ) is a port city in the Zaporizhzhia Oblast (province) in south-eastern Ukraine. It is on the northern coast of the Sea of ...

Ukrainian SSR The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic ( uk, Украї́нська Радя́нська Соціалісти́чна Респу́бліка, ; russian: Украи́нская Сове́тская Социалисти́ческая Респ ...

– February 8, 1997,

Bonn The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr r ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

) was a

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

writer A writer is a person who uses written words in different writing styles and techniques to communicate ideas. Writers produce different forms of literary art and creative writing such as novels, short stories, books, poetry, travelogues, p ...

scientist A scientist is a person who conducts Scientific method, scientific research to advance knowledge in an Branches of science, area of the natural sciences. In classical antiquity, there was no real ancient analog of a modern scientist. Instead, ...

diplomat A diplomat (from grc, δίπλωμα; romanized ''diploma'') is a person appointed by a state or an intergovernmental institution such as the United Nations or the European Union to conduct diplomacy with one or more other states or internati ...

and dissident who authored the book ''Nomenklatura: The Soviet Ruling Class'', about the Soviet

nomenklatura The ''nomenklatura'' ( rus, номенклату́ра, p=nəmʲɪnklɐˈturə, a=ru-номенклатура.ogg; from la, nomenclatura) were a category of people within the Soviet Union and other Eastern Bloc countries who held various key admi ...

, translated into 14 languages and printed in multiple editions. Voslensky was an interpreter for the Soviet Union during the

Nuremberg Trials The Nuremberg trials were held by the Allies of World War II, Allies against representatives of the defeated Nazi Germany, for plotting and carrying out invasions of other countries, and other crimes, in World War II. Between 1939 and 1945 ...

. In 1953-1955 he worked with the

World Peace Council The World Peace Council (WPC) is an international organization with the self-described goals of advocating for universal disarmament, sovereignty and independence and peaceful co-existence, and campaigns against imperialism, weapons of mass d ...

. Later he worked at the

Soviet Academy of Sciences The Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union was the highest scientific institution of the Soviet Union from 1925 to 1991, uniting the country's leading scientists, subordinated directly to the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union (until 1946 ...

. In 1974, after 4 years of living in

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

, he was stripped of his Soviet citizenship (restored in 1990) and worked with the Forschungsinstitut für Sowjetische Gegenwart (Research Institute for the Soviet Union). His book ''Nomenklatura'' was motivated by Milovan Djilas's concept of a New Class emerging in

communist state A communist state, also known as a Marxist–Leninist state, is a one-party state that is administered and governed by a communist party guided by Marxism–Leninism. Marxism–Leninism was the state ideology of the Soviet Union, the Comint ...

s. His book ''Secrets Revealed: Moscow Archives Speak'' sketches the role of terror in the Soviet system, the evolution of the Soviet

secret police Secret police (or political police) are intelligence, security or police agencies that engage in covert operations against a government's political, religious, or social opponents and dissidents. Secret police organizations are characteristic of a ...

, and the role of the ''nomenklatura'' in its hierarchy.

Bibliography

* Briefly reviewed in ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

'' (14 January 1985) : 119. * **Russian original was written in 1970, distributed by '' samizdat'', and eventually printed as Восленский М.С., Номенклатура. Господствующий класс Советского Союза. М., 1991. **German: ''Nomenklatura : der herrschende Klasse der Sowjetunion'' *** Wien,

Molden Molden is a general molecular and electronic structure processing program. Major features * Reads output from the ab initio packages GAMESS (US), Gaussian, MOLPRO, PySCF and from semi-empirical packages such as MOPAC, and supports a number o ...

, 1980 ***Munchen, Moewig, 1982, ***Molden, 1984, **''La nomenklatura, les privilégiés en URSS'', Paris, 1980. *Восленский М. С. Из истории политики США в германском вопросе (1918–1919 гг.). М., 1954. *''Das Geheime wird offenbar. Moskauer Archive erzählen. 1917-1991. '', Langen Müller 1995, (''"Secrets Revealed: Moscow Archives Speak"'') *''Sterbliche Götter: die Lehrmeister der Nomenklatura'', Erlangen Straube, 1989,

Notes

External links

"Voslensky"

Audio recordings with Michael Voslenski
in the Online Archive of the

Österreichische Mediathek The Österreichische Mediathek ("Austrian Mediathek") is the Austrian archive for sound recordings and videos on cultural and contemporary history. It was founded in 1960 as Österreichische Phonothek (Austrian Phonothek) by the Ministry of Educat ...

(Interviews and lectures in German). Retrieved 4. October 2019 {{DEFAULTSORT:Voslensky, Michael 1920 births 1997 deaths Soviet dissidents Soviet scientists Soviet diplomats Soviet emigrants to Germany People denaturalized by the Soviet Union Writers about the Soviet Union