After a distinguished career as an officer in the Soviet army, including command of a regiment in the Soviet Strategic Missile forces in the rank of colonel, Lev Lopukhovsky transferred to the Frunze Military Academy to teach tactics. Since retiring from the military he has become a professor in the Russian Federation’s Academy of Military Sciences and one of the leading historians of the Soviet forces during the Second World War. In addition to many articles he has written on the subject, he has published controversial studies of the battles of Prokorovka and Viaz’ma and the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941.
Stuart Britton is a freelance translator who resides in Cedar Rapids, IA. He is responsible for a growing number of translated Russian military memoirs, battle histories and operational studies, which saw an explosion in Russia with the opening of secret military archives and the emergence of new Russian scholars who take a more objective look at the events and historical figures. Two works that received prizes or prominent acclaim were Valeriy Zamulin’s Demolishing a Myth: The Tank Battle at Prokhorovka, Kursk 1943 and Lev Lopukhovsky’s The Viaz’ma Catastrophe, 1941: The Red Army’s Disastrous Stand Against Operation Typhoon. Notable recent translations include Valeriy Zamulin’s The Battle of Kursk: Controversial and Neglected Aspects and Igor Sdvizhkov’s Confronting Case Blue: Briansk Front’s Attempt to Derail the German Drive to the Caucasus, July 1942. Future translated publications include Nikolai Ovcharenko’s analysis of the defense, occupation and liberation of Odessa, 1941-1944, and Zamulin’s detailed study of 7th Guards Army’s role and performance in the Battle of Kursk against Army Detachment Kempf.
