Pavel Sergeyevich Grachev (russian: Па́вел Серге́евич Грачё́в; 1 January 1948 – 23 September 2012), sometimes transliterated as Grachov or Grachyov, was a Russian

Army General Army general is the highest ranked general officer in many countries that use the French Revolutionary System.　 In countries that adopt the general officer four rank system, it is rank of general commanding an army in the field, but in coun ...

and the Defence Minister of the Russian Federation from 1992 to 1996; in 1988 he was awarded

Hero of the Soviet Union The title Hero of the Soviet Union (russian: Герой Советского Союза, translit=Geroy Sovietskogo Soyuza) was the highest distinction in the Soviet Union, awarded together with the Order of Lenin personally or collectively for ...

gold star. As Defence Minister, Grachev gained notoriety because of his

military incompetence Military incompetence refers to incompetencies and failures of military organisations, whether through incompetent individuals or through a flawed institutional culture. The effects of isolated cases of ''personal'' incompetence can be disproporti ...

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 Tula Oblast (russian: Ту́льская о́бласть, ''Tulskaya oblast'') is a federal subject (an oblast) of Russia. It is geographically in the European Russia region of the country and is part of the Central Federal District, covering ...

, RSFSR, joined the

Soviet Army uk, Радянська армія , image = File:Communist star with golden border and red rims.svg , alt = , caption = Emblem of the Soviet Army , start_date ...

airborne troops Airborne forces, airborne troops, or airborne infantry are ground combat units carried by aircraft and airdropped into battle zones, typically by parachute drop or air assault. Parachute-qualified infantry and support personnel serving in a ...

in 1965 and finished the

Ryazan Guards Higher Airborne Command School The General V.F. Margelov Ryazan Guards Higher Airborne twice Red Banner Order of Suvorov Command School (RGVVDKU) () is a military educational institute of the Russian Ministry of Defense, situated in Ryazan, about southeast of Moscow. It was f ...

. In 1972, he joined the

Soviet Communist Party "Hymn of the Bolshevik Party" , headquarters = 4 Staraya Square, Moscow , general_secretary = Vladimir Lenin (first)Mikhail Gorbachev (last) , founded = , banned = , founder = Vladimir Lenin , newspaper ...

. After commanding parachute platoons, companies and battalions in the 1970s, he attended the

Frunze Military Academy The M. V. Frunze Military Academy (russian: Военная академия имени М. В. Фрунзе), or in full the Military Order of Lenin and the October Revolution, Red Banner, Order of Suvorov Academy in the name of M. V. Frunze (rus ...

and the General Staff Academy, graduating in 1981. During the

Soviet–Afghan War The Soviet–Afghan War was a protracted armed conflict fought in the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan from 1979 to 1989. It saw extensive fighting between the Soviet Union and the Afghan mujahideen (alongside smaller groups of anti-Sovie ...

, Grachev commanded the

345th Independent Guards Airborne Regiment The 345th Guards Airborne Regiment (345th PPD) of the Soviet Airborne Forces, and after 1992, the Russian Airborne Forces, was active from 1944 to 1998. History It was formed on 30 December 1944 at Lapichi, Osipovichi district, Mogilev Oblast, ...

from 1982 to 1983, and was in command of the

103rd Guards Airborne Division The 103rd Separate Guards Airborne Brigade is an airborne brigade of the Belarusian Special Forces. Its predecessor unit was the 103rd Guards Airborne Division (russian: 103-я гвардейская воздушно-десантная орден� ...

in Afghanistan in the last years of the Soviet involvement from 1985 to 1988. 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 A defence minister or minister of defence is a cabinet official position in charge of a ministry of defense, which regulates the armed forces in sovereign states. The role of a defence minister varies considerably from country to country; in som ...

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 The president of the Russian Federation ( rus, Президент Российской Федерации, Prezident Rossiyskoy Federatsii) is the head of state of the Russian Federation. The president leads the executive branch of the federal ...

Boris Yeltsin Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin ( rus, Борис Николаевич Ельцин, p=bɐˈrʲis nʲɪkɐˈla(j)ɪvʲɪtɕ ˈjelʲtsɨn, a=Ru-Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin.ogg; 1 February 1931 – 23 April 2007) was a Soviet and Russian politician wh ...

, and held the post of the

of the

Russian Federation Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

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 The 1993 Russian constitutional crisis, also known as the 1993 October Coup, Black October, the Shooting of the White House or Ukaz 1400, was a political stand-off and a constitutional crisis between the Russian president Boris Yeltsin and ...

, 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
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." He was rumoured to have launched the disastrous storming of Grozny while drunk during the celebrations of his 1 January birthday. As ''TIME'' commented in 1995: "Grachev had remarked recently that only an 'incompetent commander' would order tanks into the streets of central

Grozny Grozny ( rus, Грозный, p=ˈgroznɨj; ce, Соьлжа-ГӀала, translit=Sölƶa-Ġala), also spelled Groznyy, is the capital city of Chechnya, Russia. The city lies on the Sunzha River. According to the 2010 census, it had a po ...

, where they would be vulnerable (...) Yet at the end of December he did it." Eventually, in July 1996, following his

re-election The incumbent is the current holder of an office or position, usually in relation to an election. In an election for president, the incumbent is the person holding or acting in the office of president before the election, whether seeking re-ele ...

, Yeltsin sacked the disgraced Grachev. The First Chechen War soon ended with more than 100,000 soldiers and civilians having lost their lives. In December 1997, Grachev was appointed a senior military adviser to Rosvooruzhenie State Corporation, the Russian arms export

monopoly A monopoly (from Greek el, μόνος, mónos, single, alone, label=none and el, πωλεῖν, pōleîn, to sell, label=none), as described by Irving Fisher, is a market with the "absence of competition", creating a situation where a speci ...

. On 25 April 2007, Grachev was fired from this position. Grachev died on 23 September 2012 of acute

meningoencephalitis Meningoencephalitis (; from ; ; and the medical suffix ''-itis'', "inflammation"), also known as herpes meningoencephalitis, is a medical condition that simultaneously resembles both meningitis, which is an infection or inflammation of the menin ...

, in the Vishnevsky Military Hospital in Krasnogorsk. 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''.

References

External links

The Moscow Times ''The Moscow Times'' is an independent English-language and Russian-language online newspaper. It was in print in Russia from 1992 until 2017 and was distributed free of charge at places frequented by English-speaking tourists and expatriates s ...

'', 13 July 1995.
Pavel Grachev: Disgraced but Indispensable

The Jamestown Foundation The Jamestown Foundation is a Washington, D.C.-based conservative defense policy think tank. Founded in 1984 as a platform to support Soviet defectors, its stated mission today is to inform and educate policy makers about events and trends, wh ...

, 3 May 1996.
Pavel Grachev

RusNet RusNet is the largest IRC network in Russia, Ukraine, and most of the ex-USSR, founded in 1997 through merge of the leading local IRC networks SibNet, VolgaNet, OdNet, and LvNet. In 2008, RusNet became the 10th most popular IRC Network in the ...