Vladimir Dmitriyevich Sokolov[a] (2 March 1913 – 19 January 1992), also known under the pen name of Samarin,[b] was a Russian Axis collaborator, journalist, writer, researcher and educator.
Following his work as a propagandist for Nazi Germany as one of the writers of the Rech newspaper, he fled to the United States and became a senior lector of Russian language studies at Yale University from 1949 to 1976.
In 1921, as a student, he witnessed the crushing of the Tambov rebellion by the Red Army with the usage of chemical weapons, an experience which had a great effect on his personal views.
According to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, under the leadership of Oktan and Sokolov, Rech was "likely the most anti-Semitic of all collaborative newspapers published on occupied territory [of the Soviet Union].
All means, without exclusion of most gruesome, were utilized by them and their road to global dominance is covered with blood of millions of people...Significant role in corruption and zhidovisation of highest levels of English society was played by freemasonry, a powerful Jewish organization enveloping all countries with its activities.
The type of influence of freemasonry in England can be judged by the fact that the king himself is a member of freemason lodge.Throughout 1943, as the Red Army retook Oryol, Sokolov and the rest of Rech's staff fled west, first towards Bryansk before settling in Babruysk in modern-day Belarus.
Sokolov's monograph, titled Civilian Life Under German Occupation, 1942-44, minimised the role of collaborators by stating that Russians viewed the Nazis as liberators and the Soviet Union as an alien conspiracy.
[1] During the 1950s, Sokolov worked for both Columbia University as a writer and the Federal Bureau of Investigation as an informant on potential Soviet infiltrators in American chapters of the NTS.
The trial opened with testimony from Holocaust historian Robert Herzstein, who stated that Sokolov had participated in "ideological and psychological warfare" on behalf of the Nazis.
Also involved in the case was future Chief Justice of the United States John Roberts, who sought to keep Reagan and then-Attorney General William French Smith from intervening.