Samsonov, Aleksandr Mikhailovich

Born Dec. 26, 1907 (Jan. 8, 1908), in Nizhny Novgorod, now the city of Gorky. Soviet historian. Corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1964). Member of the CPSU since 1943.

Samsonov graduated from the history department of Leningrad State University in 1931. He taught at various higher educational institutions and was on the staff of the Museum of the History of Religion and Atheism of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR in Leningrad. In 1948 he became a research worker at the Institute of History of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. From 1961 to 1970, Samsonov was director of the Publishing House of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (now the Nauka Publishing House). In 1970 he became a senior research worker at the Institute of the History of the USSR of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR and editor in chief of the journal Istoricheskie zapiski (Historical Notes). His principal works deal with the history of the Great Patriotic War of 1941–45.

Samsonov has been awarded three orders and several medals.