 In 1976, he founded the first reenactment group of the Napoleonic era.In February 1989, the Federation of Military History Clubs of the USSR was created and Sokolov became its president.In subsequent years, Sokolov continued to lead the association of clubs involved in reenactment (Military-Historical Association of Russia (1996), All-Russian Military-Historical Social Movement (2006))..

On 9 November 2019, Sokolov was detained on suspicion of the murder of , his 24-year-old lover, his graduate student at St. Petersburg State University and his co-author of scholarly works.