Sergei Fedorovich Akhromeev

Sergei Fedorovich Akhromeev was a worthy military commander and was highly respected in the army and in the party. He started the war in 1941 as an assistant commander of the platoon of the Marine Corps, and completed it with the battalion commander. In 1979-1988, he was the first deputy head, and then the chief of the General Staff and the 1st deputy minister of defense of the USSR. He led the planning of military operations in Afghanistan at all stages, including the withdrawal of troops. At the talks on arms reduction, Akhromeev was the main expert, and Gorbachev admitted that without Ahromeev, these negotiations would have been less successful.

Akhromeev Sergey Fedorovich was born May 5, 1923 in the village of Windray Spassky district of Tambov province (now Torbeevsky district, Republic of Mordovia) in the family of a peasant. The life of a peasant son, fatherless, grew up on the streets of Moscow. His father was dekulakized (he died in Central Asia in the late 1940s), and after a divorce from her husband in 1928 her mother left for Moscow with her children, where she got a job at the Krasny Bogatyr factory. In 1940, S.F. Akhromeev graduated from the 10th grades of the Naval Special School No. 381 of Moscow and entered the Higher Naval School. M.V. Frunze in the city of Leningrad (now St. Petersburg).

The beginning of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945 he was at the naval base of the Baltic Fleet in Libava (now Liepaja, Latvia), where he practiced after the first course of the naval school. In September - December 1941, as part of the combined cadet infantry battalion of the Higher Naval School named after. M.V. Frunze and the Naval Boundary School of the NKVD participated in the defense of Leningrad.

From January to March 1942, Mr .. Sergei Fedorovich was on treatment in the hospital after a wound in the leg and frostbite received on the Leningrad front, and then was sent to continue his studies at the Naval Academy. M.V. Frunze, evacuated by that time to the city of Astrakhan. From May to August 1942 he was a cadet practicing in the Black Sea Fleet, commanding the calculation of guns on the ship.

In August 1942, in connection with the advance of the enemy in the Caucasus and the Volga, as well as a large incomplete command staff in the infantry, the cadets of the 1st and 2nd courses of the naval school were sent to the 2nd Astrakhan Infantry School, where a two-month training course for lieutenants. In October of the same year, S.F. Akhromeev was awarded the rank of lieutenant. From October to November 1942, Lieutenant Akhromeev, commanding a platoon of submachine gunners of the 152nd Independent Rifle Brigade, participated in the Battle of Stalingrad, fought in the Kalmyk steppes in the Khalkhut area, Yashkul, Ulan Erge.

Then he served as adjutant to the senior battalion, assistant chief of staff in the 197th Army Reserve Rifle Regiment of the 28th Army on the Stalingrad and Southern fronts. In April 1943 he was awarded the rank of senior lieutenant. From July 1943, S.F. Akhromeev is the adjutant of the senior motorized rifle and machine-gun battalion of the 140th Tank Brigade, later reorganized into the 14th self-propelled artillery brigade of the 28th and then the 5th Shock Armies on the Southern and Fourth Ukrainian Fronts. In July-December 1943, he participated in the breakthrough of enemy defense on the river Mius, in the liberation of Donbass, and in battles in Tavria. In August 1943, he received a concussion.

In the presentation on S.F. Akhromeev to the next military rank "captain", which he received in October 1943, noted: "Tactically competent commander. In the battles for the liberation of the Donbass and Zaporozhye region from the enemy skillfully and in a timely manner brought the military orders and orders of the commander to subordinates. Being in the battle formations of the mouth, his personal example and courage inspired the battalion's personnel to exploit. For the courage and bravery shown in the battles against the German fascist invaders, he was awarded the Order of the Red Star ".

Since July 1944, Sergei Fyodorovich temporarily served as the commander of the motor battalion of submachine gunners of the 14th self-propelled artillery brigade of the reserve of the Supreme Command of Kharkiv, and then of the Moscow military districts. From November 1944 to June 1945, he came to the Higher Officer School of Self-Propelled Artillery of armored and mechanized troops of the Red Army, specializing in "Chief of Staff of the Self-Propelled Artillery Regiment".

After graduation from the officer school he served as deputy commander of the 2nd self-propelled artillery battalion SU-76 of the 14th self-propelled artillery brigade, and then commanded the 2nd tank battalion of the 14th separate tank regiment of the Training Center for Self-Propelled Artillery of Armored and Mechanized Forces Moscow Military District. In February 1947, S.F. Akhromeev was appointed commander of the ISU-122 battalion of the 14th heavy tank and self-propelled regiment of the 31st Guards Mechanized Division of the Transcaucasian Military District.

In July 1952 he graduated with a gold medal command department of the Military Academy of Armored and Mechanized Forces. I.V. Stalin (during his studies he was awarded military ranks - major and lieutenant-colonel) and was appointed to the post of chief of staff of the 190th tank-self-propelled regiment of the 39th Army of the Primorsky Military District. In the attestation to the graduate of the academy, the conclusion was made: "In terms of his business and political qualities, he is worthy of leaving an adjunct of the department of tactics of higher formations at the academy or to the post of chief of the operational division of the division."

Since March 1955, S.F. Akhromeev served in the Far Eastern Military District as: Chief of Staff of the 63rd Mechanized Regiment of the 39th Army, a senior officer of the 3rd Division of the Combat Training Directorate of the Staff of the Military District, commanders of the 76th, and later of the 184th Panzer Regiments, Deputy Commander 47 the Guards Motorized Rifle Division, the Chief of Staff of the 46th Panzer Division of the 5th Army. In December 1956 he was awarded the military rank of colonel.

In the attestation of the commander of the tank regiment, SF. Akhromeev, compiled in 1957, stated: "A competent, industrious, energetic and enterprising regiment commander. Correctly teaches and educates his subordinates. With a firm hand he brings order and discipline to the regiment. Combat and political training is good in part, and the fire training of tankmen is excellent. "

In December 1960, S.F. Akhromeev was transferred to the Belarusian Military District, where he commanded the 36th, and then the 45th Guards Training Panzer Divisions. In April 1964 he was awarded the military rank of Major-General and sent to study at the Military Academy of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the USSR.

In July 1967, after graduating with the gold medal of the Academy of the General Staff, he was appointed chief of staff - first deputy commander of the 8th Panzer Army of the Carpathian Military District, and in October 1968 - commander of the 7th Tank Army in the Belorussian Military District.

In 1969, S.F. Akhromeev was awarded the rank of Lieutenant-General.

In May 1972, S.F. Akhromeev was transferred to the post of chief of staff - First Deputy Commander of the Far Eastern Military District. In January 1974, the commander of the troops of the Far Eastern Military District, General of the Army (later Marshal of the Soviet Union) VI. Petrov in his attestation to his deputy wrote: "Firmly knows the theory and practical issues of organizing and conducting front operations. He evaluates the operational situation deeply, makes correct conclusions and justified proposals. At the strategic training "Vostok-72" and the strategic staff training training "Vostok-73" successfully coped with the tasks ... Conclusion: I am worthy of appointment to the post of Chief of the Main Operations Directorate of the General Staff. Deeply convinced that Comrade. Akhromeev S.F. and with this high duty will cope with honor. "

In March 1974, Lieutenant-General S.F. Akhromeev was appointed chief of the Main Operations Directorate of the General Staff (since 1976 and deputy chief of the General Staff) of the USSR Armed Forces, and in October of the same year he was awarded the rank of colonel-general.

In the second half of the 1970s, the Main Operations Directorate was a sort of headquarters within the General Staff. His functions included planning the use of the army and navy, building them, deploying and improving them, as well as operational training of the top staffs. In addition, the Main Operational Administration was the main military expert organization for the political leadership of the Soviet state in international negotiations on the reduction of nuclear and conventional weapons.

In the attestation on S.F. Akhromeev, drafted in 1978 by the Chief of the General Staff, Marshal of the Soviet Union N.V. Ogarkov, it was noted: "The main operational management manages confidently, has good organizational skills. He has thoroughly studied and is well aware of the state and prospects for the development of our Armed Forces and probable adversary. A strong-willed and determined general. Responsibility and difficulties in work are not afraid. "

In his speeches in the press, Akhromeyev stressed that the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the USSR, was one of the first to clearly understand the danger of preserving the huge arsenal of nuclear and conventional weapons accumulated over many years of confrontation between the two military-political blocs - the Warsaw Pact and NATO. In 1975-1976, after the Helsinki meeting on security and cooperation in Europe, he initiated a project to "freeze military spending", by reducing the serial deliveries of weapons to the troops and the fleet, which the military-political leadership of the country recognized premature.

In early 1979, S.F. Akhromeev, as a military specialist, participated in the preparation of the Treaty on the Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms (SALT-2), signed by the Secretary-General of the CPSU Central Committee, L.I. Brezhnev and US President J. Carter in June 1979, but which was not ratified by the US Senate in connection with the entry of Soviet troops into Afghanistan.

In February 1979, S.F. Akhromeev was appointed First Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the USSR Armed Forces, and in April of that year he was awarded the military rank of Army General. Heading the operational group of the Ministry of Defense of the USSR on the territory of the Turkestan Military District, he was engaged in the formation, combat coordination and provision of units and formations of a group of Soviet troops preparing to enter Afghanistan.

Since December 1979, S.F. Akhromeev, as the chief of staff of the Operational Group of the USSR Ministry of Defense in Afghanistan, solved military and political issues related to the coordination of military operations of a limited contingent of Soviet troops and Afghan government forces, as well as assistance in building the army of the DRA. From 1980 to 1982, he was repeatedly on lengthy business trips in Afghanistan.

In 1981, he was awarded the Lenin Prize for research and development of new systems for automated control of the Armed Forces. In May 1982, S.F. Akhromeev was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union with the award of the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal for the displayed military skill, personal courage and heroism in carrying out measures to provide international assistance to the D.R.Afghanistan and to ensure the security of the USSR. Simultaneously, during this period, S.F. Akhromeev was secretary of the Soviet Defense Council, where he participated directly in the preparation of documents on the further development and improvement of the Soviet Armed Forces.

In March 1983, S.F. Akhromeev was awarded the military rank of Marshal of the Soviet Union. He became the only commander in the history of the Soviet Armed Forces, who became the Marshal of the Soviet Union, being the first deputy, and not the chief of the General Staff. In September 1984, S.F. Akhromeev was appointed Chief of the General Staff of the USSR Armed Forces, First Deputy Minister of Defense of the USSR.

In the second half of the 1980s, the General Staff, in cooperation with other military command and control agencies, planned and conducted cardinal changes in the Soviet Armed Forces that were conditioned by the policy of "restructuring" of the state's domestic and foreign policy adopted in 1985 by the political leadership of the USSR. S.F. Akhromeev believed that in the new conditions the range of the General Staff's activity expanded significantly: it became not only the "brain of the army" but also a generator of new ideas, a body that worked out proposals for interested government departments on the most important military-political and military-technical issues.

The new Military Doctrine of the USSR, which was defensive in nature, was developed in the General Staff with the participation of S.F. Akhromeev and adopted in May 1987. The basis of military construction was the principle of reasonable sufficiency for defense within the limits of maintaining military parity between the USSR and the United States and its allies, and its effectiveness was primarily associated with qualitative parameters - both in terms of weapons and military equipment and personnel of the Armed Forces.

In the years 1988-1989. The General Staff planned and planned, jointly with the command and staff of the Southern forces, the Turkestan Military District and the 40th Army, the gradual withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan, and also carried out a complex of measures to increase the combat capability of the Afghan army so that it could independently conduct combat operations with anti-government forces. Immediately after the appointment of B.V. Gromov to the post of commander of the 40th Army, chief of the General Staff S.F. Akhromeev told him: "It is necessary to do everything to reduce the risk for soldiers and officers. The life of young children is the most precious thing that we have in Afghanistan. In addition, from our side all efforts should be directed to the withdrawal of the limited contingent of Soviet troops. Moreover, - said the marshal, - it will be an organized conclusion, not an escape. "

In April 1986, after the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, S.F. Akhromeev was involved in the organization and conduct of the mobilization deployment of troops, their transfer by air and railroad to the area of the catastrophe. The personnel of the Armed Forces carried out: radiation reconnaissance, decontamination of the terrain, shelter of contaminated wastes, participated in the burial of the emergency block.

In the second half of the 1980s, interstate negotiations on arms reduction and control over the sphere of military activity intensified. S.F. Akhromeev, as a specialist in military matters, participated in meetings between the leader of the Soviet state, MS. Gorbachev and US presidents R. Reagan, and then George W. Bush in Reykjavik, Washington and Moscow, in Malta, as a result of which agreements on disarmament issues in Europe were reached.

In 1988, the first in the history of relations between the US and USSR in Berne (Switzerland), the defense ministers of these states was held in March, and in September the first official visit to Washington by the chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the USSR. Personal contacts between the Minister of Defense of the USSR D.T. Yazov and the US Secretary of Defense F. Carlucci, as well as the Chief of the General Staff S.F. Akhromeev and the chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee, Admiral U. Crowe, contributed to the strengthening of mutual trust in the issues of arms reduction.

From 1984 to 1988 S.F. Akhromeev was elected a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR from the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic. Since 1981 he is a candidate, and since 1983 - a member of the CPSU Central Committee. In December 1988, S.F. Akhromeev, on his personal request related to the state of health, was relieved from his post by the Chief of the General Staff, and he was appointed Inspector General of the Group of Inspectors General of the Ministry of Defense of the USSR.

For about 15 years S.F. Akhromeev served in the General Staff, four of them being the boss. He headed the General Staff at a decisive time, when the search for new forms and ways to ensure the security of the Soviet state in the situation of destroying ties with the Warsaw Pact allies and the transition from open confrontation to a policy of compromises and agreements between the USSR and the US. Marshal of the Soviet Union Yazov and General of the Army Gareev characterized S.F. Akhromeev in joint service, as a man and commander of high honor and dignity, who always remained faithful to the oath and duty.

In the years 1989-1990, S.F. Akhromeev was a military advisor to M.S.Gorbachev - Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR and Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, since March 1990, the President of the USSR. He worked on the development and analysis of proposals on the most important issues of military policy, as well as negotiating with the United States and NATO states concerning nuclear and conventional weapons.

In 1989, at the First Congress of People's Deputies of the USSR, S.F. Akhromeev was elected to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. From the parliamentary rostrum, he actively resisted attacks on the army and navy, calls for the collapse of the Soviet Union and the dismantling of the socialist system, attempts to falsify the history of the Great Patriotic War. In 1989, at the Congress, he sharply opposed Sakharov, who accuses the army command that Soviet soldiers taken prisoner by the resistance forces were killed in Afghanistan. And most importantly, he can not imagine the Soviet Union in any other way than the Empire, which was threatened by "irresponsible separatists."

In June 1991 Akhromeev submitted a statement to the president about his resignation and frankly said that under the current conditions of treachery, defamation of the military, hasty, ill-considered, and most importantly, unilateral disarmament, has no right to hold a post near the president and not will participate in the destruction of the army and state. M.S.Gorbachev was puzzled by this turn of affairs and asked Sergei Fedorovich to wait and work.

In the book "Through the eyes of the marshal and diplomat. A critical look at the foreign policy of the USSR before and after 1985" Akhromeev noted: "Six years of perestroika (1985-1991) for the Armed Forces were not easy and even dramatic. The author, as a military man, back in 1986, knowing about the abruptly changing course of our foreign policy and reforms in the economy, suggested that the army and navy are facing difficult days and great trials. However, most of us, military leaders, did not at all expect that perestroika would take such a spontaneous, destructive, and often anti-socialist character ... "

On August 23, 1991, he wrote: "I have the conviction that we are already losing the Fatherland, without having created anything else in its place. But in these three concepts - the state, the people, the armed forces - for me, as for millions of other people, is the meaning of life. It turns out that he is now lost. Finally, we need to really think about this, come to our senses and save our Motherland, while a confrontation of hostile forces is going on over its living body. "

Akhromeev was not a member of the State Emergency Committee, and he learned of the establishment of this Committee only on the morning of August 19. He hastily flew to Moscow on 19 August 1991, where he joined the State Emergency Committee. On the same day he met with the vice-president of the USSR Gennady Yanayev and joined the staff of the State Emergency Committee, where he conducted work on collecting and analyzing information on the military-political situation in the country. The defeat of the State Emergency Committee was already decided on the afternoon of August 21, and the Russian prosecutor's office announced that all participants in the Emergency Committee would be brought to the strictest responsibility.

After the failure of the coup, Akhromeyev committed suicide in his Kremlin office, hanging himself with a length of curtain cord. Marshal and Hero of the USSR, deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR and Deputy Minister of Defense of the USSR, Sergei Akhromeev committed suicide on August 24, 1991. It happened in his own office in the Kremlin. An hour before, Mikhail Gorbachev announced his resignation as Secretary General of the CPSU and proposed The Central Committee had to dissolve itself. The next day, Nikolai Kruchina jumped from the fifth floor out of the window of his apartment, on Plotnikov Street.

"I can not live when my Motherland perishes and everything that I considered to be the meaning of my life collapses, my age and my whole life give me the right to leave. I fought to the last. ... Everything I devoted my entire life to building is crumbling... Always for me the main duty was the warrior and citizen. You were in second place. Today, for the first time, I put the debt in front of you in the first place. I ask you to survive these days courageously. Support each other. Do not give rise to malice for enemies" said a suicide note of Akhromeyev. Others speculated that Akhromeev was either killed or forced to hang himself in his Kremlin office quietly, so as not to attract attention before the time. The way that the marshal "eliminated", suggests the "specialization" of his killers. They certainly were connected with the criminal world.

Sergei Fyodorovich supposedly wrote, he was "a bad master to prepare a suicide weapon." The cable, on which Akhromeev wanted to hang himself, supposedly broke off. The marshal fell to the floor and stayed unconscious for about 20 minutes. Then he woke up and again began to gather with the spirit, intending to bring it to the end. strange. When killing by strangulation, and then imitating suicide through hanging on the victim's neck, there are two strangulation strips. Since they can not coincide in any way, the first strangulation was depicted as a failed suicide attempt. Otherwise, how to explain the fact of the second strip on the neck - just an allegedly unsuccessful attempt for the first time.

In the evening of the same day, the body of the marshal of the Soviet Union was found in his private office. A brigade of investigators led by Proshkin was brought to the scene, who arrived in the Kremlin at 23:27 and recorded what he saw on the video. Marshal was sitting at the window of the office on the floor. His neck was stretched with a synthetic twine, the free end of which was attached to the handle of the window frame. At the same time, there was an ideal order in his office, no signs of struggle were found. At his workplace, Akhromeev left his death letters and notes - only 6 pieces.

Sergei Fedorovich had supposedly finished work on the text of the speech for the session of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, which was scheduled for August 26. He discussed it with his daughter ( she even saved a draft). Akhromeev intended to bring to the attention of the deputies the murderous, as he believed, facts of treachery by some high-ranking officials of the USSR against the interests of the state. By one theory, Akhromeev, was threatened with repression of his family, and offered the only way out: suicide.

Akhromeyev became the second of three suicides that remain inextricably linked to the three victims of the White House. And could history dream of a better symbol than this trio of perpetrators: Akhromeev, the military, Kruchin, the apparatchik-party member, and Boris Pugo, Minister of the Interior who had worked in the KGB. Pugo and his wife appeared to have committed suicide by self-inflicted gun shot to the head.

The family of the Akhromeevs categorically do not believe in the suicide of the marshal. Marshal Akhromeev was not a person who would be hung. As an officer, he would have shot himself. He had a personal weapon, hanging is considered a shameful death, and for the generation of Akhromeev twice shameful (Stalin introduced the gallows for traitors to his homeland).

Pravda did not even honor the marshal Akhromeyev, an adviser to the president, former chief of staff, even an obituary. He was not buried near the Kremlin wall, as the family had the right to hope. He was hurriedly buried in a cemetery in the countryside. On September 1, 1991, on the night after the funeral, the burial place of Akhromeev SF was subjected to a vandalistic attack. Akhromeev's grave was ripped apart. Officially it was stated that in order to steal the marshal's uniform. Some think the body was kidnapped. Because the investigation into the facts of the death was still underway, and on the body one could find many things. Not only strangulation, but traces of numerous burns, cuts of pieces of skin, mutilated genitals ...??