Born in 1954.

1976 — Degree in History, Rostov State Teacher Training Institute, History.

1988 — Doctoral programme in Historiography, USSR Academy of Sciences Institute of Soviet History. Candidate of Sciences (PhD) in Historiography (1989) and Doctor of Sciences in National History Institute of Russian History of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Thesis Title: Terrorism in the Russian revolutionary movement: ideology, ethics, psychology (second half of the XIX — beginning of the XX centuries) (1998).

1995–1998 Professor at the Rostov State Teacher Training Institute.

1999–2013 — Leading researcher at the Institute of Russian History, Russian Academy of Sciences.

Since 2010, he has worked at HSE, director of the International Centre for the History and Sociology of World War II and its consequences.

Since 2014 — distinguished professor of the Faculty of Humanities.

Lives in Moscow.