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{{Short description|Soviet general (1948–2012)}}{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2014}}{{family name hatnote|Sergeyevich|Grachev|lang=Eastern Slavic}}

factoids

Tula Oblast, Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic>RSFSR, USSR2012231df=y}}Krasnogorsk, Moscow Oblast>Krasnogorsk, Moscow Oblast, RussiaCommunist Party of the Soviet Union>CPSU (1969–91)| spouse = | alma_mater = | signature = | allegiance = {{USSR}}{{RUS}}| serviceyears = 1965–199630px) General of the Army| branch = Russian Airborne TroopsSoviet Airborne Troops Ministry of Defence (Russia)>Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation| unit = | battles = Soviet–Afghan War First Chechen War| awards = Hero of the Soviet Union| relations = | laterwork = Павел Грачёв}}| native_name_lang = ru}}Pavel Sergeyevich Grachev (; 1 January 1948 – 23 September 2012), sometimes transliterated as Grachov or Grachyov, was a Russian Army General and the Defence Minister of the Russian Federation from 1992 to 1996; in 1988 he was awarded Hero of the Soviet Union gold star. As Defence Minister, Grachev gained notoriety because of his military incompetence displayed during the First Chechen War and the persistent allegations of involvement in enormous corruption scandals.

Life and career

In the Soviet Union

Grachev, born in 1948 in Tula Oblast, RSFSR, joined the Soviet Army's airborne troops in 1965 and finished the Ryazan Guards Higher Airborne Command School. In 1972, he joined the Soviet Communist Party.WEB, Russian Crisis: The main players: General Grachev,weblinkweblink 25 May 2022, subscription, live, The Independent, 1993-10-04, 2016-08-12, After commanding parachute platoons, companies and battalions in the 1970s, he attended the Frunze Military Academy and the General Staff Academy, graduating in 1981. During the Soviet–Afghan War, Grachev commanded the 345th Independent Guards Airborne Regiment from 1982 to 1983, and was in command of the 103rd Guards Airborne Division in Afghanistan in the last years of the Soviet involvement from 1985 to 1988.WEB, ru:Грачёв Павел Сергеевич,weblink www.warheroes.ru, 2015-12-25, ru, Grachev Pavel Sergeyevich, In December 1990, he was appointed commander of the Soviet airborne troops. In August/December 1991, Grachev became the Soviet Union's First Deputy Minister of Defence during its break-up.

In the Russian Federation

For a period of time, in the early-to-mid-1990s, Grachev was a close friend of the President of Russia Boris Yeltsin,War Scare: Russia and America on the Nuclear Brink by Peter Vincent Pry. and held the post of the Minister of Defence of the Russian Federation from May 1992 to June 1996. Grachev took part in the Soviet coup attempt of 1991 and the events of the Russian constitutional crisis of 1993, during which he supported Yeltsin. In November 1994 Yeltsin called Grachev "the best defense minister of the decade."The War in Chechnya: Implications for Military Reform and Creation of Mobile Forces {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080612123354weblink |date=12 June 2008}}Grachev was involved in the case of corruption in the Western Group of Forces in 1993-1994. Accusations were repeatedly made against Grachev in the Russian media in the illegal acquisition of imported Mercedes cars, which were issued with the help of the command of the Western Group of Forces.WEB, Сергей Ищенко, 2010-12-10, «Паше-Мерседесу» и не снилось,weblinkweblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20120111123440weblink">weblink 2012-01-11, Свободная Пресса, полковник Игорь Конашенков None of these accusations was disputed by Grachev in court, but he was also not held accountable.In late 1994 through 1996, Grachev played a key role in initiating and leading the First Chechen War. He was one of authors of the idea to use force to "restore constitutional order" in the breakaway republic of Chechnya and publicly promised to swiftly crush the Chechen separatist forces "in a couple of hours with a single airborne regiment."Botched operation. (Russian troops in Chechnya) (Editorial), The Nation, January 1995.Why the Russian Military Failed in Chechnya {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070928120605weblink |date=28 September 2007}}, Foreign Military Studies Office, December 1996. He was rumoured to have launched the disastrous storming of Grozny while drunk during the celebrations of his 1 January birthday.Grozny rebels braced for final assault, The Independent, 13 January 1996. As TIME commented in 1995: "Grachev had remarked recently that only an 'incompetent commander' would order tanks into the streets of central Grozny, where they would be vulnerable (...) Yet at the end of December he did it."weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20071013100354weblink">Why It All Went So Very Wrong, TIME, 16 January 1995. Eventually, in July 1996, following his re-election, Yeltsin sacked the disgraced Grachev. The First Chechen War soon ended with more than 100,000 soldiers and civilians having lost their lives.Grachev was suspected of being involved in the murder of Dmitry Kholodov, a Moskovsky Komsomolets journalist, in October 1994. At a criminal trial in a military court, where the defendants were officers of the 45th Guards Spetsnaz Brigade, in 2001 the ex-minister was forced to testify as a witness. The process ended with the acquittal of all defendants, the crime remained unsolved.WEB,weblink Генерал эпохи Ельцина. Биография Павла Грачёва :: Общество :: Top.rbc.ru, 2012-09-25, WEB,weblink Грачёв относился к Холодову «неплохо», 2001-02-27, In December 1997, Grachev was appointed a senior military adviser to Rosvooruzhenie State Corporation, the Russian arms export monopoly. On 25 April 2007, Grachev was fired from this position.{{in lang|ru}} Экс-министр обороны Павел Грачев, уволен сегодня с должности советника гендиректора «Рособоронэкспорта», которую он занимал на протяжении последних 10-ти лет., Ekho Moskvy, 25.04.2007.Grachev died on 23 September 2012 of acute meningoencephalitis,WEB,weblink ru:Названа причина смерти экс-министра обороны Павла Грачева, 24 September 2012, Interfax, ru, 24 September 2012, in the Vishnevsky Military Hospital in Krasnogorsk.WEB,weblink Pavel Grachev, Yeltsin-Era Defense Minister, Dead At 64, 23 September 2012, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 23 September 2012, He was 64.

Popular culture

The archival footage of Grachev saying "tank regiments are commanded by total idiots; you send in the infantry first, then the tanks" is shown on TV in the 2002 film House of Fools.

Further reading

• Ostrovsky, Alexander (2011). Глупость или измена? Расследование гибели СССР. (Stupidity or treason? Investigation of the death of the USSR) {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220830215714weblink |date=30 August 2022}} Ðœ.: Форум, Крымский мост-9Д, 2011. — 864 с. ISBN 978-5-89747-068-6.
• Ostrovsky, Alexander (2014). Расстрел «Белого дома». Чёрный октябрь 1993 (The shooting of the "White House". Black October 1993) {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210531015952weblink |date=31 May 2021 }} — Ðœ.: «Книжный мир», 2014. — 640 с. ISBN 978-5-8041-0637-0

References

{{Reflist|2}}

External links

• weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20070929094534weblink">Grachev: Here for a While, The Moscow Times, 13 July 1995.
• weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20070930191909weblink">Pavel Grachev: Disgraced but Indispensable, The Jamestown Foundation, 3 May 1996.
• Pavel Grachev {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081013154200weblink |date=13 October 2008 }}, RusNet, 03.12.2003.

{{Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict}}{{Chechen wars}}{{Army Generals (Russia)}}{{Authority control}}