Viktor Mikhailovich Gilensen passed away on November 8, 2001. With his death, we lost a gifted researcher, an experienced teacher, a well-educated interlocutor, a person who infected with his energy, alien to indifference, ready to share the troubles and joys of colleagues and friends with heartfelt participation. Another thread of the memory of the Patriotic War, which V. M. Gilensen passed through the bloody battles at the Kursk Bulge and Koningsberg, ended the war with a heavy feat of a front-line intelligence officer, was cut off. We have lost a deep analyst-political scientist, who managed to understand the secret meaning of Stalin's policy much earlier than many others and at the same time remain loyal to the Motherland, national science and high spiritual values. Viktor Mikhailovich was born in Moscow on July 5, 1924. In 1941, he graduated from high school. Without inheriting the profession of his parents (his father was a chemist, and his mother was a doctor), he entered the tank building faculty of the Bauman Moscow State Technical University and in July 1942, at the age of 18, he volunteered for the army (he served in the border troops, participated in combat operations). From 1946 to 1952, he served in the central office of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which later determined the nature of his research interests. After the war, Viktor Mikhailovich did not continue his military - technical education, and in 1952 he graduated in absentia from the History Department of Moscow State University. He was discharged and taught until 1967, combining school work with scientific research. Since 1961. Viktor Mikhailovich began to actively publish in the Military History Journal and in Voprosy Istorii. His attention is still focused on the war, but not on the fighting, but on the secret political plans of Nazi Germany and the activities of Western intelligence agencies; he was painfully lacking in archival sources. Over the years, his field of interest expanded an ... Читать далее