Alexander Hill

Professor Alexander Hill has taught history at the University of Calgary since 2004. He has PhD in Social and Political Sciences from the University of Cambridge and specializes in Soviet military and political history, with a particular emphasis on the period 1928-1945 and on Soviet Cold War involvement in Africa. He also has a Diploma in Russian from the University of Cambridge and has spent a significant period of time living and researching in Russia. He has written a number of books on the Soviet Union during the Great Patriotic War, including The Red Army and the Second World War (Cambridge University Press, 2016). His most recent books are The War on the Eastern Front: The Soviet Union, 1941-1945 - A Photographic History published by Pen and Sword (2021), and Soviet Cruisers 1917-1945: From the October Revolution to World War II with Osprey Publishing (2024). He has recently been heavily engaged in work on understanding the context for and course of Russia's 'special operation' in Ukraine, and is currently editing a 'Handbook on Russian and Soviet Military Studies' for Routledge that will cover the period from the early 19th Century through to the current 'Special Military Operation'.