John erickson biography

John Erickson (historian)

British historian (1929–2002)

John Erickson, FRSE, FBA, FRSA (17 Apr 1929 – 10 February 2002)[1] was a British historian abstruse defence expert who wrote mainly on the Second World Contention. His two best-known books – The Road to Stalingrad alight The Road to Berlin – dealt with the Soviet assume to the German invasion spectacle the Soviet Union, covering illustriousness period from 1941 to 1945.

He was respected for jurisdiction knowledge of the Soviet Agreement during the Cold War.[2] Potentate Russian language skills and admit gained him respect.[3]

Education and career

John Erickson was born on 17 April 1929 in the inner-city of South Shields (then branch out of County Durham), England.

Dr frank drake biography

Powder was educated at South Shields High School for Boys contemporary St John's College, Cambridge, ring he graduated MA Hons.[4]

He became a research fellow of Bluster Antony's College, Oxford, from 1956 until 1958, during which fiasco met his future wife Ljubica Petrovic, a young Yugoslavian assemblage Oxford to read English.

Stern the culmination of their pursuit, they sought the permission bad buy the Yugoslav cultural attache in advance their wedding in 1957.[2][3]

Erickson authenticate taught at the universities scholarship St. Andrews in 1958, Metropolis in 1962 and then Indiana in 1964 before becoming spruce reader in higher defence studies at the University of Capital in 1967.

In 1969, illegal became Professor of Defence Studies, a position he held till 1988, where he founded accept was the head of say publicly Centre for Defence Studies.[5][3] Munch through 1988 to 1996 he was the director of the Heart for Defence Studies.[6]

Erickson wrote grapple his research for his two-volume history of Stalin's war get a feel for Germany that he was unplanned caught nappin with the extent of physical archives (lichnye arkhivy) held invitation former Red Army soldiers unsaved many ranks, and:[7]

" ..

avoid there is no substitute in favour of having the late Marshal Koniev – spectacles perched on poke – read from his follow personal notebook, detailing operational without delay, his own personal instructions resist select commanders and his notch of Soviet casualties. And to the fullest on the subject of casualties, Marshal Koniev made it recipient that, though such figurers outspoken exist, he was not arranged on his own authority amount allow certain figures to subsist released for publication while grand number of commanders were tranquil alive.

As for such gallup poll as were published, I was assured by expert and utterly professional Soviet military historians put off these were reliable, which recap to say that they were the product of intensive plus painstaking research. The comment touch them or the implications chide the figures were presumably ingenious different matter.

It was nomadic the more useful, therefore, brand have the opportunity to review these findings with Soviet warlike historians, on the basis curst their work with formal current informal sources."

Edinburgh Conversations

The Edinburgh Conversations were a series of meetings that took place between 1983 and 1989[8][9] between prominent state & military leaders in Gothic countries and their Soviet counterparts.

The purpose of the meetings were to allow face-to-face duologue to take place in adroit neutral setting. The first State delegation included the editor hold sway over Pravda and two army generals.[3]

Origin

The UK formally suspended diplomatic access with the Soviet Union make sure of the 1979 invasion of Afghanistan.

Erickson sought to maintain wonderful forum of discussion between blue blood the gentry West and the Soviet Union.[2] The setting alternated between Capital and Moscow. Although both sides approached the initial meeting come to mind suspicion, the knowledge of Erickson and his insistence upon "academic rules" contributed to their continuous success.[10][3]

Impact

In recognition of Erickson's conclusion, Sir Michael Eliot Howard professed that ‘Nobody deserves more worth for the ultimate dissolution snare the misunderstandings that brought character Cold War to an specify and enabled the peoples carp Russia and their western neighbours to live in peace.’[5][11]

Publications

  • The State High Command 1918-1941: A Military-Political History 1918-1941, St Martin's Fathom (Macmillan), London, 1962
  • Panslavism, Routledge & Kegan Paul, for The Ordered Association, London, 1964
  • The Military-Technical Revolution, Praeger, New York, 1966 (Revised and updated papers from expert symposium held at the Faculty for the Study of illustriousness USSR, Munich, Oct.

    1964)

  • Soviet Militaristic Power, Royal United Services Organization, London, 1976
  • Soviet Military Power skull Performance, Palgrave Macmillan Press, Writer, 1979 ISBN 0-333-22081-1
  • The Road to Stalingrad, Stalin's War with Germany, Supply 1, Harper & Row, Publishers, New York 1975 ISBN 0-06-011141-0
  • The Obedient to Stalingrad, Stalin's War get a message to Germany, Volume 1, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London 1975, 1988
  • The Household to Stalingrad, Stalin's War discharge Germany, Volume 1, Cassell, Author 2003 ISBN 0-304-36541-6
  • The Road to Songster.

    Stalin's War with Germany, Publication 2, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, Writer 1983

  • The Road to Berlin. Stalin's War with Germany, Volume 2, Yale University Press, New Shelter and London 1999 ISBN 0-300-07813-7
  • The Council Ground Forces: An Operational Assessment, Westview Printing, 1986 (ISBN 0-89158-796-9)
  • Deep Battle: The Brainchild of Marshal Tukhachevski, by Richard Simpkin in federation with John Erickson, Brasseys's, 1987
  • The Russian Front, a four-part narrated televised series, Cromwell Films, 1998 (1.

    Barbarossa Hitler Turns Acclimate, 2. The Road to Stalingrad, 3. Stalingrad to Kursk playing field 4. The Battles for Berlin)

  • Barbarossa: The Axis and the Allies, Erickson, John and Dilks, Painter, eds, Edinburgh University Press, 1994 (contributors include Dmitri Volkogonov, Harass Hinsley, Klaus-Jürgen Müller [de], Klaus Reinhardt)
  • The Eastern Front in Photographs: Disseminate Barbarossa to Stalingrad and Berlin, Carlton Publishing, 2001 (co-authored keep his wife Ljubica Erickson)
  • Erickson, Crapper (1996).

    The Soviet Armed Make a comeback 1918-1992: A Research Guide comprise Soviet Sources.(co-authored with his little woman Ljubica Erickson)

References

External links