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Mikhail Suprun Михаил Николаевич Супрун (born 5 April 1955 in Severodvinsk) is a Russian historian and professor of the Pomor State University named after M. V. Lomonosov. In 2009 he was arrested in connection with a book he wrote on what Open Democracy has called a "trumped up charge".
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Academic career
Mr.Suprun graduated from the Pomor State University (now The Northern Arctic Federal University), then – from the Leningrad branch of the Institute of History of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, and later from the Institute of Russian History of the Academy of Sciences in Moscow, where he defended his doctoral dissertation on “Lend-lease and the Northern Convoys”. As senior visitor he lectured and made a research at the Moscow State University (1989), Oxford University (1994), George Washington University (1998-1999), the Krakow Jagiellonian University (2000), the University of Tromsø (2003), the Institute of History of the Polish Academy of Sciences (2009). He is the author of over 180 scientific works, including 14 books as well as the compiler, editor and author of the year-books "The Northern Convoys: studies, memoirs and documents" (Moscow-Arkhangelsk, 1991-2001) and "The Forced Labor and the Political Exile in the North of Russia" (SPtb -Arhangelsk , 2003-2010). Leader of the archeological expedition “Echo of the war”, member of the editorial board of “The Journal of Slavic Military Studies’ He received a PhD in 1984. In 1996 he earned the title of Doctor Habilitated from the Institute of Russian History, Russian Academy of Sciences.
Arrest
In 2009 Suprun was arrested by the FSB for his investigations into the fate of Germans imprisoned in the Soviet Union during the Second World War and after the war. This has been dubbed the "Arkhangelsk Affair". Suprun is accused of infringing Article 137 of the Russian Criminal Code, which prohibits the exposing of "personal or family secrets" of victims of Soviet repression if their consent has not been given. Police Colonel Alexander Dudarev, head of the Internal Ministry archives of the Arkhangelsk Region, is also being prosecuted for giving Suprun permission to access the archives in order to do his research.
Trial
In September 2011 the trial of Suprun and Dudarev began behind closed doors. The case was adjourned in December before a verdict was given, according to the charity Memorial in order to avoid negative publicity before Russia's parliamentary elections.