As you know, only descendants can judge the role of a person in history. Therefore, today no one can say with certainty whether Grachev Pavel Sergeevich was right when he performed certain actions at a time when he held the most important government posts and gave orders on which the fate of thousands of people depended. At one time, his brilliant career aroused the envy of many colleagues, while many often forgot what the first Russian had to go through before he got into the highest echelons of power.
Childhood and early years
Grachev Pavel Sergeevich was born in January 1948 in the village of Rvy, in the Tula region. His father was a simple mechanic, and his mother was a milkmaid. The future military leader was a fidget and showed interest in sports, and most of all he liked basketball. After graduating from 11 classes, he entered the famous RVVD command school, deciding to link his life forever with the army.
The young man studied diligently and more than once received the praise of commanders. In 1969, Grachev Pavel Sergeevich received a diploma with honors, and he was awarded the rank of lieutenant and the qualification of a referent-translator.
Service in the ranks of the USSR Armed Forces
Grachev Pavel Sergeevich, whose biography and career until 1980 were quite typical for young military men who are his peers, at the age of 21, he was appointed to the post of commander of a reconnaissance platoon in one of the units stationed on the territory of the Lithuanian SSR.
Then for four years he was sent to serve in his native Ryazan school, where he held various positions and worked directly with cadets. In 1975, Grachev became the commander of the training battalion of the 44th training airborne division, and in 1978 he continued his education at the Military Academy. M. V. Frunze.
Afghanistan
The end of Pavel Grachev's studies at the Academy. M. V. Frunze coincided with the beginning of the last local war in the history of the USSR. The young promising commander, who showed great promise, was immediately sent to Afghanistan, where he spent the next three years. During this period, he continues his career growth, and after returning to his homeland, he is ahead of schedule awarded the rank of colonel.
1985-1991
The second trip of Pavel Grachev to Afghanistan ends with the withdrawal of the limited contingent of Soviet troops, which also included the 103rd Guards Airborne Division under his command.
In commemoration of the merits of the military leader during the hostilities in May 1988, he was awarded the title of Hero Soviet Union. Following the old saying “Live for a century - learn for a century”, Grachev Pavel Sergeevich again goes to study and enters the Military Academy of the General Staff, after which he is appointed to the post of deputy, and then the USSR.
Transfer to Yeltsin's team
The turning point in Grachev's biography was after which he had to make important political decisions more than once. In particular, he, along with Generals Gromov and Achalov, refused to submit to the State Emergency Committee and ordered his subordinates to take the White House under their protection. Upon the return of M. Gorbachev from the Crimean Foros, Grachev was appointed first deputy, and a few days later he was awarded the rank of colonel general.
The career growth of the military leader did not stop there. In particular, in May 1992, Boris Yeltsin signed a decree according to which the Minister of Defense Russian Federation Grachev Pavel Sergeevich was appointed, whose photo has repeatedly appeared on the pages of newspapers in connection with operations in zones of local conflicts on the territory of the former USSR.
Chechen War
Until now, disputes about the role played by Grachev Pavel Sergeevich (Hero of the Soviet Union) during the events in the Caucasus in the first half of the 90s have not subsided. In particular, he was subjected to fierce criticism, since in June 1992 he ordered to transfer to Dzhokhar Dudayev half of all the weapons belonging to the Russian army, which were stored on the territory of Chechnya. According to Grachev, the ammunition still could not be taken out. However, the fact remains that after only two and a half years these weapons were used against Russian soldiers.
At the same time, in 1994, Grachev did not manage to avoid a conflict with Yeltsin, who considered that a week was enough time to muster military forces and enter Chechnya. An experienced commander tried to reason with the president that this was too short a time, but they did not listen to him. Pavel Sergeevich even met in Chechnya with the heads of the so-called Ichkeria, before the Russian troops entered their territory, but, unfortunately, this did not give any results.
The military leader retired at the age of 59 and took up social activities. Prior to that, he was actually betrayed by Yeltsin - in accordance with the latter's pre-election agreements with General
Personal life
Throughout his life, Pavel Grachev had a reliable rear. His wife - Lyubov Alekseevna - learned with him all the hardships of the fate of an officer's wife, with her eternal moving and exhausting expectations of her husband from dangerous business trips. In addition, there were many rumors about her husband's infidelity, but Lyubov Alekseevna did not believe them, and Pavel Sergeevich Grachev always remained her only love.
The military leader's family suffered the loss of their beloved husband and father, who died in September 2012 at the age of 64.
Pavel Sergeevich Grachev was the most famous and scandalous Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation. He held this post from 1992 to 1996. Coming from a simple worker-peasant family (his father is a locksmith, his mother is a milkmaid), he went through a difficult path to the very pinnacle of power and did a lot to ensure that he was remembered in this post for a long time.
Achievement list
Pavel Grachev was born in the Tula region in 1948. After school, he went to the Airborne Forces School in Ryazan. Upon graduation, he served in a reconnaissance company in Kaunas (Lithuania), then on the territory of the Russian Federation. In 1981 he graduated from the Frunze Military Academy in absentia. Served in Afghanistan. For his service he was awarded the Golden Star of the Hero. Then he was listed in various command positions.
Since the end of 1990, with the rank of major general, he became commander of the USSR Airborne Forces. After 2 months, he was awarded a more appropriate rank of lieutenant general. During military service, Grachev proved himself only positively. He was repeatedly wounded, shell-shocked, participated in the testing of new equipment, made over 600 parachute jumps, etc.
Grachev's actions during the putsch
During the August events in Moscow in 1991, Pavel Grachev first carried out the orders of the State Emergency Committee. Under his command, the 106th Airborne Division entered the capital and took under guard the main objects. It happened on August 19th. After 2 days, Grachev sharply changed his mind about the events, expressed his disagreement with the GKChP about the use of force to seize power and went over to the side of the president.
He gave the order to use "to protect" the White House heavy armored vehicles and personnel under the command of Alexander Lebed. Later, during the investigation of the GKChP case, Grachev stated that he was not going to give the order to storm the White House. On August 23, the president appointed Pavel Grachev as first deputy defense minister. At the same time, the lieutenant general was promoted. From that moment on, his career quickly took off.
As minister
In May 1992, Pavel Sergeevich became the Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation and received the rank of Army General. During an interview with a Trud newspaper correspondent, Grachev admitted that he did not consider himself worthy of such a high position (experience, they say, is not enough). But Yeltsin convinced him. In his new post, Pavel Grachev formed the entire cabinet, selecting people from those who served in Afghanistan.
The minister opposed the imminent withdrawal of troops from the Baltic states, Central Asia and Transcaucasia, rightly believing that for military personnel it is first necessary to create conditions at home, and then transfer them to a new place of service. Grachev sought to strengthen the Russian army by forbidding the formation of politicized organizations in its ranks.
There were contradictory, even strange steps during his command. For example, Grachev ordered that almost half of the weapons of the Russian army be placed at the disposal of Dudayev's militants. The minister explained this by the fact that it was not possible to withdraw weapons from the territories occupied by Dudayev. A couple of years later, the separatists fired at Russian soldiers with these machine guns.
Attitude towards Grachev
At first, the personality and actions of Pavel Sergeevich did not cause much debate. In 1993, the attitude of the opposition towards the minister changed dramatically. After the October riots in Moscow, Grachev clearly demonstrated that he was ready to raise an army against the civilian population. Shortly before that, he stated the exact opposite: the army should not interfere in the solution of internal political conflicts.
Grachev opposed the introduction of troops into Chechnya. For this he was criticized by both Chernomyrdin and Yeltsin himself. At the same time, the minister personally led the fighting in Chechnya, and rather unsuccessfully. After several crushing defeats he returned to Moscow.
Grachev was heavily criticized for many of his actions and statements. For example, at the beginning Chechen war he threatened to restore order in Chechnya in two hours with one parachute regiment, and when asked how much time he needed to prepare, he replied: "Three days."
In January 1995, Grachev said that "eighteen-year-old boys" in Chechnya were dying "with a smile", referring to the dead Russian soldiers.
In 1993, in order to relieve himself of responsibility, he asked Yeltsin for written permission to open fire on the White House if necessary. After the Grozny "successes" Grachev began to advocate the gradual reduction of the army and its transfer to a contract basis.
Scandals
In 1997, Pavel Grachev was appointed advisor to the general director of Rosvooruzhenie. The following year, he became an adviser to the general director of the Rosoboronexport company. In 2007, Grachev was fired from his last post due to the "abolition" of this and some other posts.
One of the loudest scandals was the case of corruption in the top military leadership of units located in Germany. It was in the early 90s. Alexander Lebed said that Grachev was involved in this case and acquired several Mercedes abroad with the money obtained by dishonest means. In this case, Grachev was not held accountable, but he did not dispute his guilt in any way.
From the very beginning
Born on January 1, 1948 in the village of Rvy, Leninsky district, Tula region, in a working-class family, Russian.
In 1969 he graduated from the Ryazan Higher Airborne School, in 1981 - the Military Academy. Frunze (with honors), in June 1990 - the Academy of the General Staff.
In 1969-71 he served as commander of a reconnaissance platoon of an airborne division in the city of Kaunas, Lithuanian SSR. In 1971-72 he was the commander of a platoon of cadets of the Ryazan Higher Airborne Command School, in 1972-75 he was the commander of a company of cadets of the Ryazan Higher Airborne Command School. From 1975 to 1978 - commander of a training airborne battalion of a training airborne division.
In 1978-81 he was a student of the Military Academy named after M.V. Frunze.
From 1981 to 1983 he was in Afghanistan: in 1981-82 - deputy commander of a separate 354th airborne regiment as part of a limited contingent of Soviet troops in Afghanistan, in 1982-83 - commander of a separate 354th airborne regiment.
From 1983 to 1985 - Chief of Staff of the 7th Division in Kaunas, Lithuanian SSR.
In 1985 he was returned to Afghanistan, until 1988 he was commander of the 103rd Guards Airborne Division named after the 60th anniversary of the USSR. In total, he served in Afghanistan for 5 years and 3 months. For merits in the Afghan campaign, he was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union ("for the performance of combat missions with minimal casualties"). The award took place after the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan.
After studying (in 1988-90) at the Academy of the General Staff, in 1990 he became deputy commander, and from December 30, 1990 - commander of the Airborne Forces (VDV).
Demonstrated personal loyalty to the Minister of Defense of the USSR Dmitry Yazov and called him "dad".
In January 1991, he ensured the implementation of the order of the Minister of Defense of the USSR Yazov on the introduction of two regiments of the Pskov Airborne Division into Lithuania. The pretext was to assist the military enlistment offices of the republic in the forced recruitment of draft evaders into the army. On the eve of the Vilnius events in January 1991, Grachev spoke out in the Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper against the use of landing troops in interethnic conflicts. In his opinion, this is the business of the KGB and the Ministry of Internal Affairs. For this statement, he received a scolding from Marshal Yazov, however, without any consequences for his career. At the beginning of 1991, Grachev did not actually participate in directing the actions of the paratroopers in the Baltic states, whose activities during this period were coordinated by General Vladislav Achalov.
On August 19, 1991, following the order of the State Emergency Committee on the introduction of troops into Moscow, he ensured the arrival of the 106th Tula Airborne Division in the capital and its taking under the protection of strategically important objects. At the first stage of the coup attempt, he acted in accordance with the instructions of Marshal Yazov: he trained paratroopers, together with the KGB special forces and the Interior Ministry troops, to storm the building of the RSFSR Armed Forces. At the same time, he maintained contacts with the Russian leadership, in particular with Yuri Skokov, with whom he was on friendly terms for a long time.
On the afternoon of August 20, together with other high-ranking military men (in particular, Air Marshal Shaposhnikov, Generals Vladislav Achalov and Boris Gromov), he expressed his negative opinion to the leaders of the State Emergency Committee about the plan to capture the White House, and then informed the Russian leadership that the landing units were not will storm the White House (according to General Achalov, Grachev said he was sick, when Achalov and Gromov, convinced that the storming of the White House would lead to huge casualties, went to report their point of view to the member of the State Emergency Committee, General Valentin Varennikov. According to the memoirs of General Alexander Lebed, Grachev conveyed through him to the White House a message about the time of the alleged assault on the White House - and not information that the Airborne Forces will not participate in the assault).
Not having confidence that the military would follow the order, the State Emergency Committee canceled the initial decision and the order to storm was not issued. Grachev himself subsequently claimed that he "refused to participate in the storming of the Russian White House."
After the failed coup attempt, Grachev received an offer from Yeltsin to take the post of Minister of Defense of the RSFSR (not provided for by the then state structure of the republic) instead of Konstantin Kobets, who was appointed to this position on August 19. Together with a group of military men, Grachev convinced Yeltsin not to create a republican ministry of defense, so that a split along national lines would not occur in the armed forces of the USSR. Instead of the ministry, the State Committee of Russia for Defense Issues with a staff of about 300 people was created - a coordinating body between the USSR Ministry of Defense and Russian government structures.
On August 23, 1991, Grachev was appointed chairman of the Russian State Committee for Defense Affairs with a promotion from major general to colonel general and became the first deputy minister of defense of the USSR. After the formation of the CIS, Grachev became, respectively, Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Joint Armed Forces of the CIS (CIS Joint Armed Forces).
At this time, General Grachev acted as a supporter of a unified armed forces. He stated that the army should not interfere in resolving the internal problems of the state, no matter how acute they may be. He opposed possible purges in the army.
On April 3, 1992, Grachev was appointed First Deputy Minister of Defense of Russia (whose duties were temporarily performed by Russian President Yeltsin). In early May, Grachev was temporarily entrusted with the direct leadership of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation with the right to issue directives, orders and orders for the Armed Forces - with the simultaneous assignment of the military rank of army general.
Under control Russian ministry defense units of the armed forces stationed in Russia, the Baltic states, Transcaucasia, some regions of Central Asia, outside the former USSR. The senior leadership of the ministry was formed mainly from veterans of Afghanistan. One of the deputy ministers was the former commander of the Soviet troops in Afghanistan, who signed the pre-putch "Word to the People" Boris Gromov.
One of Grachev's first orders as defense minister was to allow Russian troops stationed in zones of interethnic conflicts to open fire to kill in the event of an attack on military units. Grachev opposed the accelerated withdrawal Russian troops from Poland and the Baltic states, justifying this by the fact that Russia does not yet have the resources necessary to solve the social problems of servicemen and their families.
For the first time after his appointment, Grachev was almost not criticized by the national-patriotic and communist opposition, many of whose leaders considered him an ideologically close person to themselves. However, in the future, especially after the statement in the fall of 1992 about the support of the President by the army, the attitude of the opposition towards Grachev changed to sharply critical. The "Union of Officers" held a "trial of honor" over Grachev.
He sought to prevent the weakening of unity of command in the army, its politicization. They were banned from the All-Russian Officers' Assembly, an independent trade union of military personnel, some politicized officers were dismissed from the army, for example, the leader of the "Union of Officers" Stanislav Terekhov.
In 1993, in his speech at the Supreme Soviet of Russia after the March statement of the President on the "introduction of a special procedure for governing the country," Grachev, like other power ministers, proclaimed his loyalty to the Constitution, at the same time clearly made it clear that he was on the side of Yeltsin. Before the April referendum, he announced that he would vote in support of the President.
In May 1993, he was introduced by Yeltsin's order to the working commission to finalize the presidential draft of the Constitution of Russia.
In April 1993, the Russian prosecutor's office opened an investigation into a case of corruption in a group of Russian troops in Germany, in which, according to his opponents, Grachev was also involved.
Against Grachev, as well as against other senior military commanders (Shaposhnikov, Kobets, Volkogonov, etc.), accusations were repeatedly made of privatization in 1992 at low prices of state dachas of the former USSR Ministry of Defense in the village of Arkhangelskoye near Moscow.
In September 1993, after presidential decree No. 1400 on the dissolution of parliament, Grachev declared that the army should obey only President Yeltsin and "would not interfere in political battles until the moment when political passions turn into a nationwide confrontation." On October 3, when bloody riots began in Moscow (the capture of the mayor's office, the storming of Ostankino, etc.), after some delay, he summoned troops to Moscow, who the next day, after tank shelling, stormed the parliament building.
In October 1993, he attended the pre-election congress of the People's Patriotic Party (leader Alexander Kotenev) and expressed his support for it.
On October 20, 1993, by presidential decree, he was appointed a member of the Russian Security Council.
In the press, both national-patriotic and communist ("Tomorrow", "Soviet Russia"), and radical-democratic ("Moskovsky Komsomolets"), Grachev was repeatedly accused of patronizing General BurlakovA>, whose name is associated with rampant corruption in the Western Group of Forces in Germany. In the newspaper "Tomorrow" Grachev was given the nickname "Pasha-Mercedes" - for his love for cars of the corresponding brand. After the assassination on October 17, 1994, of Dmitry Kholodov, an employee of the Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper, who repeatedly wrote about corruption in the army, the editors of the newspaper actually blamed Grachev for this murder: “General democracy is on the alert! Destroying everyone who does not fit into its statutory framework becomes a priority task. Gentlemen Grachev, Burlakov and others like them, hiding in the wide pockets of lampas trousers, large and small sins of their activities, sooner or later will receive their own, if not from justice, then from the Lord God. Grachev himself suggested that the murder of Kholodov "was conceived as a provocation against the Minister of Defense, the GRU and the Armed Forces as a whole."
In November 1994, a number of regular officers of the Russian army (mainly tankers and pilots from the military units of the Moscow Military District), with the knowledge of the leadership of the Ministry of Defense, signed contracts with the Federal Counterintelligence Service and were sent to Chechnya to participate in hostilities on the side of the opposition to Chechen President Dzhokhor Dudayev. Several Russian officers were captured by Dudayev. The Minister of Defense, denying his knowledge of the participation of his subordinates in the hostilities on the territory of Chechnya, called the captured officers deserters and mercenaries. In support of his non-involvement in the events in Chechnya, he said that Grozny could be taken in two hours by the forces of one airborne regiment. Later, the participation of Russian officers in the storming of Grozny was documented. In response to rumors of Grachev's imminent resignation, Boris Yeltsin called him the best defense minister of recent decades.
On November 30, 1994, by decree of the President of the Russian Federation, he was included in the Leadership Group for the disarmament of gangs in Chechnya. In December 1994 - January 1995, from headquarters in Mozdok, he personally led the military operations of the Russian army in the Chechen Republic.
After the failure of several offensive operations in Grozny he returned to Moscow. Since that time, he has been subjected to continuous criticism in the State
Duma and in the periodicals of the entire political spectrum - both for belonging to a group of politicians and military men advocating a forceful solution to the Chechen problem, and for the losses and failures of Russian troops in Chechnya. Responding to criticism, in a television program he named the chairman of the Defense Committee in State Duma of the first convocation, Sergei Yushenkov, a "bastard", and human rights activist Sergei Kovalev, a traitor.
Many officers who actively advocated military reform sharply criticized Grachev for actually refusing to reform and for
a policy pursued, in their opinion, only in the selfish interests of the highest generals.
Considered an enemy of Generals Boris Gromov and Alexander Lebed, who both left the army in 1994-95 largely because of their relationship with Grachev.
In early May 1995, Grachev approached the government with a proposal to transfer control over the arms trade to his department. He believed that this would allow Russia to maintain its position in the global arms market. Grachev blamed the overblown bureaucratic system and, above all, the Rosvooruzhenie company, which not only fails to explain to buyers “whom to order weapons and who will supply order", but also creates a situation where manufacturing enterprises "do not receive part of their profits".
With the appointment of Alexander Lebed as Secretary of the Security Council, on June 18, 1996, he was relieved of his post as Minister of Defense.
In February 1997, at a meeting of the State Duma, the head of the Defense Committee, Lev Rokhlin, stated that the former leadership of the Ministry of Defense, without official government orders, carried out a free supply of 84 T-72 tanks, 40 infantry fighting vehicles, as well as spare parts worth 7 billion rubles to Armenia. On April 2, he also delivered a detailed report on this issue at a closed session of parliament. According to Lev Rokhlin, the total amount of Russian losses exceeded $ 1 billion. According to the results of the audit, the head of the President's Main Control Directorate, Vladimir Putin, said that there were indeed violations, but "during the audit, we did not find documents that would indicate that Grachev gave direct instructions, orders in this regard.
In June 1997, a message appeared about the possibility of appointing Grachev as Russian ambassador to NATO headquarters.
On December 18, 1997, he assumed the duties of chief military adviser to the General Director of the Rosvooruzhenie company, Yevgeny Ananyev, but he began to officially fulfill his duties only from April 27, 1998. (In 2000, the organization was renamed Rosoboronexport).
According to the Kommersant newspaper, the cost of repairing Grachev's office at Rosvooruzhenie was $150,000.
In April 2000, he was elected president of the Regional Public Fund for Assistance and Assistance to the Airborne Troops "VDV - Combat Brotherhood".
On February 26, 2001, he appeared as a witness at the trial in the case of Dmitry Kholodov. He admitted that at one time he ordered the commander of the Airborne Forces, Podkolzin, to "deal" with Kholodov, but did not mean the murder of a journalist. Grachev also stated that he was sure that the defendants were not involved in the murder.
On March 11, 2002, it became known that Grachev had been appointed chairman of the General Staff commission to inspect the 106th Tula Airborne Division. According to the Kommersant newspaper, this appointment meant that the likelihood of Grachev returning to the army was very high. (Kommersant, March 12, 2002)
On March 24, 2004, a second trial began in the Moscow District Military Court in the case of the murder of journalist Kholodov. The court interrogated Grachev, who again stated that he had not given the order to kill Kholodov. According to the version of the Prosecutor General's Office, Pavel Popovskikh, head of the Airborne Forces intelligence, took Grachev's statements, calling for "to shut up the mouth and break off the legs of the journalist Kholodov," as an indication from his superiors and decided to physically eliminate him. On October 17, 1994, the journalist was given a token from the locker at the Kazansky railway station, in which there was a diplomat with "sensational documents about the Ministry of Defense." He brought the case to the editorial office, and when he opened it, there was an explosion, from which he died."
He spoke in favor of a phased reduction in the armed forces, calculated for the period until 1996. The final size of the Russian army, in his opinion, should be 1-1.5 million people. He believes that the army should be recruited according to a mixed principle, with a subsequent transition to a contract basis.
Hero of the Soviet Union. He was awarded two orders of Lenin, the Order of the Red Banner, the Red Star, "For Service to the Motherland in the Armed Forces of the USSR", the Afghan Order of the Red Banner.
Master of sports in skiing.
Wife Lyubov Alekseevna. Two sons. The eldest, Sergey, born in 1970, a soldier, graduated from the same Airborne Forces school that his father, the youngest, graduated from.
Valery, born in 1975 - cadet of the Security Academy of the Russian Federation.
Grachev: Kholodov probably assembled the bomb himself
At the Moscow Military Court at the trial of the murder of journalist Dmitry Kholodov former head Defense Ministry Pavel Grachev said that when he ordered to deal with journalists who defame the army, he did not mean their physical elimination. As the correspondent of Graney.Ru reports from the courtroom, Grachev emphasized that if any of his subordinates misinterpreted his order, then "this is their problem."
To a direct question whether Grachev gave the order to "deal with" Kholodov, former minister answered the following: “Firstly, I don’t see anything criminal in this word “understand”. Secondly, I did not order the journalist to be killed.” The general explained that at the board meeting they were ordered to deal with every journalist on every article discrediting the army. "To figure it out," according to Grachev, meant "to talk to every journalist, to find the source of that rubbish" that denigrates the army, and "to set the author on the right path." With this noble goal, the Minister of Defense took journalists with him on all his business trips and, as far as possible, reported to them. At the collegium, where he spoke about the need to deal with journalists, there were representatives of the command of the Airborne Forces, who "heard everything." As for the accused former head of the intelligence department of the Airborne Forces, Pavel Popovskikh, according to Grachev, his position was too low, and he could not attend the collegiums.
At the court session, it was announced that Pavel Grachev was a suspect in a separate criminal case on the murder of Dmitry Kholodov, but this case was closed. There was no limit to the surprise of the former minister: "So, a criminal case was opened against me? So, I was a criminal?" Grachev was sure that the investigators were interrogating him as a witness, and not as a suspect.
Then the ex-minister was explained: the suspicions against him were based on the testimony of Colonel Popovskikh. The colonel claimed that the minister asked him to deal with the journalists. Grachev turned to Popovskikh and asked: "Did you testify like that?" The defendant replied: "No." At the same time, the former minister acknowledged that he separately addressed the command of the Airborne Forces with instructions to talk with Kholodov, since the journalist had repeatedly visited the 45th regiment of the Airborne Forces (the commander of the special detachment of this regiment, Vladimir Morozov, and two of his deputies are defendants in the case) and "wrote well about situations in the regiment.
The former minister also explained why he forbade Kholodov to attend meetings of the Ministry of Defense, interview Grachev himself and attend his press conferences. According to the general, after one meeting, he met with Kholodov in the lobby and directly asked the journalist why he preferred to write lies about the situation in the army. To this, according to Grachev, Kholodov replied: "I personally have no complaints against you, but I get good money for my articles and will continue to write." When asked who could confirm these words, the ex-minister replied: “people were walking around”, but whether anyone can confirm, he doesn’t know.
Grachev confirmed that his reaction to Kholodov's publications was negative. "My colleagues and I" believed that Kholodov's articles were custom-made, Grachev said, they discredited the army, Grachev himself and members of his family, in particular, the minister's son. In his opinion, the customer of the articles could be Chief Editor"MK" Pavel Gusev.
In the fall of 1996, Grachev, who had already retired, was asked for a meeting by media tycoon Vladimir Gusinsky. The former minister "reluctantly agreed." Gusinsky said he wanted to apologize to Grachev. He offered to do it publicly, in front of the press. The entrepreneur refused. Then Grachev decided to find out what, in fact, they were apologizing to him for. It turns out that during the events of October 1993, Gusinsky "and his colleagues" decided that Grachev could get into a tank, drive into the Kremlin and establish a military dictatorship. When this did not happen, Gusinsky decided that "something did not work out for Grachev", but he could try again. "They decided that I didn't think it through, didn't finish it, but I can think it through and finish it," the former head of the Defense Ministry explained. And then it was decided to start a campaign to discredit Grachev in the media. The task was entrusted to Pavel Gusev, Grachev claims.
According to the former minister, Gusev personally told him that he had found a certain soldier and, for $1,000, asked him to tell that he, a soldier, allegedly saw "these guys (the defendants - ed.) preparing a suitcase." Grachev is sure that "these guys" could not prepare a crime in this way, because they were too good professionals. He does not know which explosive device was used to kill the journalist. "Maybe Dima
he made it himself," Grachev suggested.
Grachev also remembered the scandalous broadcast on Vladimir Pozner's program "We" in December 1993. 15 minutes before the broadcast, when the head of the Ministry of Defense was sitting in the dressing room, his security guard ran up to him and said that Kholodov had come to the checkpoint with some woman. When the woman was asked to open the bag with which she came, it turned out that her son's head was there, she brought it to show, "so that everyone would know what order is in the army." Upon learning of this, Grachev wanted to refuse to participate in the program, but Posner persuaded him to stay. According to Grachev, the woman was not allowed into the studio. Kholodov was there, but he did not try to ask him questions about it.
Representatives of the injured party - the parents of Dmitry Kholodov - asked Grachev to remember if the minister spoke on this program about internal enemies of the army and did not mention Kholodov among them. Grachev admitted that he mentioned enemies, but he does not remember whether he named Kholodov. Then the victims said: their son was going to speak on the air with questions to the minister, but he pointed to Kholodov and said - now, he is an enemy of the army. This episode did not air. Grachev denied this statement. Here the judge stepped forward and stated that the court was looking at the full recording of the program. Indeed, the head of the Ministry of Defense stated there: the army has internal enemies, "for example, Kholodov."
Representatives of the victims asked Grachev to point out any article by Kholodov that contained lies about Grachev and the army. Grachev refused. He added that the lie that Kholodov wrote about the minister's son was enough, after which he was forced to end his military career. To the question of the victims why Kholodov was not sued, Grachev replied - "it was useless." According to him, he talked with Kholodov himself and asked his press secretary to influence the journalist, but all this was in vain. "Why didn't Kholodov sue me?" Grachev asked. The victims noted that Grachev publicly accused Kholodov only after the death of the journalist.
Finally, Grachev said that his resignation from the post of defense minister was not related to the "Kholodov case." He explained: Lebed, having become the secretary of the Security Council, insisted that the minister of defense should also report to him. Grachev could not endure this and resigned.
Dmitry Kholodov died on October 17, 1994 in the building of the editorial office of Moskovsky Komsomolets as a result of the explosion of a booby trap, which was placed in a briefcase-diplomat. The prosecutor's office accuses six people of murdering the 27-year-old correspondent: the former head of the intelligence department of the Airborne Forces Pavel Popovskikh, the commander of the special detachment of the 45th regiment of the Airborne Forces Vladimir Morozov, his two deputies Alexander Soroka and Konstantin Mirzayants, the deputy head of the Ross security company Alexander Kapuntsov and businessman Konstantin Barkovsky. According to investigators, he organized the murder of the Popovskys "out of careerist motives."
The ease, even swagger, with which the ex-Minister of Defense behaved in court, addressing either the judge, or the accused, or the public, suggests that Pavel Sergeevich has long since moved away from the fright of those days when the public was almost I am sure that Pasha-Mercedes was involved in the death of journalist Dmitry Kholodov. Of course, the fright passed long before the current appearance of the ex-minister in court. But there was a wariness - as if something did not work out. Therefore, he did not communicate with the press, at the first trial he answered like a soldier briefly and clearly. And suddenly such emancipation. He even allowed himself to transparently hint that Kholodov died while carrying out some hellish anti-Grachevsky plan of MK editor Pavel Gusev and tycoon Vladimir Gusinsky. [...]
Letter to Yeltsin
According to the director of Rybinsk Motors JSC Valery Shelgunov, the day before the summing up of the results of the tender for the sale of a state-owned 37% stake in Rybinsk Motors JSC, scheduled for December 29, 1995, Defense Minister Pavel Grachev and Chairman of the State Defense Committee Viktor Glukhikh signed a joint appeal to President Yeltsin asking to intervene. The authors of the letter drew attention to the fact that their position is shared by the head of the administration of the Yaroslavl region, the presidential plenipotentiary in the region, the State Committee for Defense Industry, the Ministry of Defense, the chairman of the Federation Council, the Accounts Chamber, general designers and chairmen of several State Duma committees. The letter was signed by Grachev in the hospital and could not personally deliver it to Yeltsin. It went through the office of aides to the President.
According to the management of JSC Rybinsk Motors, the letter did not fall into the hands of Yeltsin, but went to Viktor Chernomyrdin. In January 1996, V. Glukhikh was removed from his post.
According to Valery Voskoboinikov, a joint letter from Defense Minister Pavel Grachev and Chairman of the State Committee for Defense Industry Viktor Glukhikh was the reason for the withdrawal from the loans-for-loans auctions of the Arseniev Aviation Company Progress, the Ulan-Ude and Irkutsk APO, the Design Bureau named after. Sukhoi.
Russian military figure.
May 18, 1992
September 23, 2012
Grandson - Pavel (born 2009).
Granddaughter - Natalia.
23.09.2012
Grachev Pavel Sergeevich
Russian military leader
Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation (1992-1996)
First Russian general Army (May 1992)
Chairman of the Russian State Committee for Defense Affairs (1991)
First Deputy Minister of Defense of the Soviet Union (since December)
Hero of the Soviet Union
Army General
Military Figure
News & Events
The assault on Grozny by the forces of the Chechen opposition
The November assault on the city of Grozny by the forces of the Chechen opposition took place on November 26, 1994, during the conflict in the self-proclaimed Chechen Republic of Ichkeria. The assault troops received active assistance from the Russian military. The purpose of the assault was to overthrow Chechen President Dzhokhar Dudayev. The operation ended in failure.
Russian military figure.
Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation (1992-1996).
The first Russian army general (May 1992). Hero of the Soviet Union.
Chairman of the Russian State Committee for Defense Issues (1991).
First Deputy Minister of Defense of the Soviet Union (December 1990 to August 1991).
Commander of the Airborne Forces of the Soviet Union (December 1990 to August 1991).
Pavel Grachev was born on January 1, 1948 in the village of Rvy, Tula Region. The boy grew up in a worker-peasant family. His father worked as a mechanic, and his mother as a milkmaid. After graduating from high school in 1964, a year later he was drafted into the armed forces. After demobilization, he entered the Ryazan Higher Airborne Command School, which he graduated with a gold medal in the specialties "platoon commander of the airborne troops" and "referent-translator with German language". In 1968, Pavel became the master of sports of the Soviet Union in cross-country skiing.
From 1969 to 1971, Grachev served as commander of a reconnaissance platoon of a separate reconnaissance company of the 7th Guards Airborne Division in the Lithuanian city of Kaunas. He was later promoted to platoon leader. In 1972, he was promoted to commander of a company of cadets of the Ryazan Higher Airborne Command School. In 1975 he became the commander of a training airborne battalion of a training airborne division.
Further, since 1978, Pavel Sergeevich was a student of the Mikhail Frunze Military Academy, from which he graduated with honors in 1981. Then he was sent to Afghanistan, where he took part in hostilities. From 1981 to 1982 he served with the rank of deputy commander. In 1982, he was appointed commander of the 345th Guards Separate Airborne Regiment as part of the Limited Contingent of Soviet Troops in Afghanistan.
Returning from Afghanistan in 1983, Grachev was again sent to Lithuanian Kaunas as chief of staff, deputy commander of the 7th Guards Airborne Division. In 1984, he was advanced to the rank of colonel.
From 1985 to 1988, when re-assigned to the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan, he served as commander of the 103rd Guards Airborne Division as part of the Limited Contingent of Soviet Troops. Grachev received the next military rank of major general on October 1, 1986.
Decree of the Supreme Council of Russia for the performance of combat missions with minimal casualties and for the professional command of a controlled formation and the successful actions of the 103rd Airborne Division, in particular, to occupy the strategically important Satukandav Pass, Khost province during the military operation "Magistral" on May 5 1988 Major General Grachev was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
After returning from Afghanistan, he continued to serve in the airborne troops in various command positions. On December 30, 1990, Grachev was appointed commander of the USSR Airborne Forces. In total, during his military service, he made 647 parachute jumps, some of them when testing new equipment. Also, in the amount of eight times he was shell-shocked and wounded. In February 1991, Pavel Sergeevich was awarded the next military rank of lieutenant general.
The Russian military leader, on August 19, 1991, complied with the order of the State Emergency Committee on the introduction of troops into Moscow, and also ensured the arrival of the Tula 106th Guards Airborne Division, which took under protection the strategically important objects of the capital, into the city. On the afternoon of August 20, 1991, together with Air Marshal Yevgeny Shaposhnikov, generals Vladislav Achalov and Boris Gromov, he expressed his negative opinion to the leaders of the State Emergency Committee about the plan to seize the Supreme Soviet of Russia by force.
Then he established contacts with the Russian leadership. By his order, the tanks and personnel at the disposal of General Alexander Lebed were sent to the White House to protect it. According to the memoirs of Valentin Varennikov, in his testimony in the “GKChP case”, Grachev stated that no one was going to storm the Russian parliament. Subsequently, he received a promotion: August 23, 1991 by Decree of the President of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics Mikhail Gorbachev was appointed First Deputy Minister of Defense of the USSR - Chairman of the State Committee of Russia on Defense Issues.
Pavel Sergeevich, on August 31, 1991, was relieved of his post as commander of the airborne troops. On October 29, 1991, by decree of the President of Russia Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin, Grachev's appointment as chairman of the State Committee of Russia on Defense Issues was confirmed, but two weeks later, due to the resignation of the Council of Ministers of Russia, he became acting chairman of this state committee.
From February to June 1992, he was First Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Joint Armed Forces of the CIS, Chairman of the State Committee of the Russian Federation for Defense Issues. On April 3, 1992, Pavel Grachev assumed the post of First Deputy Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation. In his post, he was responsible for interaction with the High Command of the Joint Armed Forces of the CIS on the management of military formations under the jurisdiction of the Russian Federation.
Since May 1992, Grachev has been entrusted with the direct control of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. On May 7, 1992, Pavel Sergeevich, the first in Russia after the collapse of the USSR, was awarded the rank of army general. WITH May 18, 1992 He took up the post of Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation, in which he served for four years.
In May 1993, he was included in the working commission to finalize the draft of the new Constitution of Russia. In November of the same year, he was appointed a member of the country's Security Council.
The following year, 1994, Pavel Grachev was included in the group for directing actions to disarm bandit formations in Chechnya. From December 1994 to January 1995, from headquarters in Mozdok, he personally led the military operations of the Russian army in the Chechen Republic. After the failure of several offensive operations in Grozny, he returned to Moscow.
By decree of the President of Russia Boris Yeltsin dated June 17, 1996, he was placed at the disposal of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief. On December 18, 1997, according to a special decree of the President, he assumed the duties of an adviser CEO Rosvooruzhenie company. Since April 1998, he became the chief military adviser to the general director of the Federal State Unitary Enterprise "Rosvooruzhenie" - "Rosoboronexport", officially taking up his duties.
In April 2000, Pavel Grachev was elected president of the Regional Public Fund for Assistance and Assistance to the Airborne Troops "VDV - Combat Brotherhood".
Later, on April 25, 2007, Grachev was dismissed from the group of advisers to the general director of Rosoboronexport. In the same year, he assumed the position of chief adviser, head of the group of advisers to the general director of the Omsk Production Association "Radio Plant named after Alexander Popov". At the end of 2007, he was transferred to the reserve.
On the night of September 12, 2012, Grachev was hospitalized in serious condition in the 50th cardiology intensive care unit of the Central Military Clinical Hospital named after Alexander Vishnevsky in Krasnogorsk.
Despite the treatment, Pavel Sergeevich Grachev died September 23, 2012 from acute meningoencephalitis. He was buried with military honors at the Novodevichy cemetery of the capital.
Wife - Gracheva Lyubov Alekseevna (d. July 2018).
Son - Sergey (born 1970), officer of the Russian Armed Forces.
Son - Valery (born 1975), studied at the Academy of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation.
Grandson - Pavel (born 2009).
Granddaughter - Natalia.
Pavel Sergeevich Grachev was born on January 1, 1948 in the village of Rvy, Tula Region. He graduated with honors from the Ryazan Higher Airborne Command School (1969) and the Frunze Military Academy (1981). In 1981-1983, as well as in 1985-1988, Grachev took part in the fighting in Afghanistan. In 1986 he was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union "for the performance of combat missions with minimal casualties." In 1990, after graduating from the Military Academy of the General Staff, Grachev became deputy commander, and from December 30, 1990 - commander of the USSR Airborne Forces.
In January 1991, Grachev, on the orders of the Minister of Defense of the USSR Dmitry Yazov, introduced two regiments of the Pskov Airborne Division into Lithuania (according to a number of media reports, under the pretext of assisting the military registration and enlistment offices of the republic in forced recruitment into the army).
On August 19, 1991, Grachev, following the order of the State Emergency Committee, ensured the arrival of the 106th Tula Airborne Division in Moscow and its taking under the protection of strategically important objects. According to media reports, at the beginning of the putsch, Grachev acted in accordance with Yazov's instructions and trained paratroopers, together with KGB special forces and Interior Ministry troops, to storm the building of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR. On August 20, Grachev, along with other high-ranking military officers, informed the Russian leadership about the intentions of the State Emergency Committee. A version was also voiced in the media, according to which Grachev warned Boris Yeltsin about the impending coup on the morning of August 19.
On August 23, 1991, Grachev was appointed chairman of the RSFSR State Committee for Defense and Security with a promotion from major general to colonel general and became the first deputy minister of defense of the USSR. After the formation of the CIS, Grachev became Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Joint Armed Forces of the CIS (CIS Joint Armed Forces), Chairman of the State Committee of the Russian Federation for Defense Issues.
In April 1992, Grachev was appointed First Deputy Minister of Defense of Russia, in May he first became Acting Minister and then Minister of Defense in the government of Viktor Chernomyrdin. In the same month, Grachev was awarded the rank of army general. Grachev, according to a number of media reports, himself admitted to having no experience, so he surrounded himself with experienced and authoritative deputies, mostly "Afghan" generals.
Grachev's role in the operation to withdraw Russian troops from Germany was ambiguously assessed by the media. Noting the complexity and scale of the military operation (it became the largest of those committed in peacetime), the press also indicated that corruption and embezzlement flourished under the guise of preparing and conducting the withdrawal of troops. However, none of the highest military officials who served in Germany were convicted, although several trials took place.
In May 1993, Grachev joined the working commission to finalize the presidential draft of the Russian constitution. In September 1993, after presidential decree number 1400 on the dissolution of the Supreme Council, he declared that the army should be subordinate only to Russian President Yeltsin. On October 3, Grachev summoned troops to Moscow, who the next day, after tank shelling, stormed the parliament building. In October 1993, Grachev was awarded the Order "For Personal Courage", as stated in the decree - "for courage and bravery shown during the suppression of an armed coup attempt on October 3-4, 1993." On October 20, 1993, Grachev was appointed a member of the Russian Security Council.
In 1993-1994, several extremely negative articles about Grachev appeared in the press. Their author, Moskovsky Komsomolets journalist Dmitry Kholodov, accused the minister of involvement in a corruption scandal in the Western Group of Forces. October 17, 1994 Kholodov was killed. A criminal case was opened on the fact of the murder. According to investigators, to please Grachev, the crime was organized by retired Airborne Colonel Pavel Popovskikh, and his deputies were accomplices in the murder. Subsequently, all the suspects in this case were acquitted by the Moscow District Military Court. Grachev was also involved in the case as a suspect, which he learned about only when the decision to terminate the criminal case against him was read out. He denied his guilt, pointing out that if he spoke about the need to "deal with" the journalist, he did not mean his murder.
Best of the day
According to a number of media reports, in November 1994, a number of regular officers of the Russian army, with the knowledge of the leadership of the Ministry of Defense, took part in hostilities on the side of forces in opposition to Chechen President Dzhokhar Dudayev. Several Russian officers were captured. The Minister of Defense, denying his knowledge of the participation of his subordinates in the hostilities on the territory of Chechnya, called the captured officers deserters and mercenaries and said that Grozny could be taken in two hours by the forces of one airborne regiment.
On November 30, 1994, Grachev was included in the leadership group for the disarmament of gangs in Chechnya, in December 1994 - January 1995, he personally led the military operations of the Russian army in the Chechen Republic from headquarters in Mozdok. After the failure of several offensive operations in Grozny, he returned to Moscow. Since that time, he has been subjected to continuous criticism both for the desire for a forceful solution to the Chechen conflict, and for the losses and failures of Russian troops in Chechnya.
On June 18, 1996, Grachev was dismissed (according to a number of media reports, at the request of the appointed assistant to the president for national security and Secretary of the Security Council Alexander Lebed). In December 1997, Grachev became chief military adviser to the general director of the Rosvooruzhenie company (later Rosoboronexport). In April 2000, he was elected president of the Regional Public Fund for Assistance and Assistance to the Airborne Forces "VDV - Combat Brotherhood". In March 2002, Grachev headed the commission of the General Staff for a comprehensive inspection of the 106th airborne division stationed in Tula.
On April 25, 2007, the media reported that Grachev was dismissed from his post as chief military adviser to the director general of FSUE Rosoboronexport. Colonel General Vladislav Achalov, the chairman of the Union of Russian Paratroopers, with reference to whom the media disseminated this information, said that Grachev was removed from the post of adviser "in connection with organizational events." On the same day, the press service of Rosoboronexport specified that Grachev was relieved of his post as adviser to the director of the Federal State Unitary Enterprise and seconded to the Russian Ministry of Defense to resolve the issue of further military service as early as February 26, 2007. The press service explained this personnel decision by the abolition of the institution of secondment of military personnel to Rosoboronexport from January 1, 2007. Information about Grachev's resignation appeared in the media a day after the death of the first Russian president, Yeltsin, who appointed the ex-minister of defense to the post of adviser to the state-owned company by a special decree.
In June 2007, Grachev was transferred to the reserve and appointed chief adviser - head of the group of advisers to the general director of the production association A. S. Popov Radio Plant in Omsk.
On September 12, 2012, Grachev was taken to the intensive care unit of the Vishnevsky military hospital in Moscow, and on September 23 he died. The next day it became known that the cause of death was acute meningoencephalitis.
Grachev had a number of state awards. In addition to the Star of the Hero and the Order "For Personal Courage", Grachev was awarded two Orders of Lenin, the Orders of the Red Banner, the Red Star, "For Service to the Motherland in the Armed Forces of the USSR", and the Afghan Order of the Red Banner. He was a master of sports in skiing; Headed the board of trustees of the CSKA football club.
Grachev was married, he had two sons - Sergey and Valery. Sergei graduated from the Ryazan Higher Airborne Command School.
