Aleksandr Yakovlevich Ryabenko (, 25 August 1915 – March 1993) was a Soviet

KGB The Committee for State Security (, ), abbreviated as KGB (, ; ) was the main security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 to 1991. It was the direct successor of preceding Soviet secret police agencies including the Cheka, Joint State Polit ...

general who was responsible for personal security of

Leonid Brezhnev Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev (19 December 190610 November 1982) was a Soviet politician who served as the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1964 until Death and state funeral of Leonid Brezhnev, his death in 1982 as w ...

Biography

Ryabenko graduated from a road transport college. He first met Brezhnev in 1938, when he was assigned as his personal driver. They split up during World War II, in which Ryabenko fought as

paratrooper A paratrooper or military parachutist is a soldier trained to conduct military operations by parachuting directly into an area of operations, usually as part of a large airborne forces unit. Traditionally paratroopers fight only as light infa ...

while Brezhnev served as political commissar. After the war, Ryabenko became Brezhnev's close friend and head of his security. In 1956, when Brezhnev decided to examine a

uranium mine Uranium mining is the process of extraction of uranium ore from the earth. Over 50,000 tons of uranium were produced in 2019. Kazakhstan, Canada, and Australia were the top three uranium producers, respectively, and together account for 68% of w ...

shaft, the visitors had a shortage of protective suits. Ryabenko wore none and received a high dose of radiation. On 24 October 1960 he got exposed to the toxic chemical

unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine Unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine (abbreviated as UDMH; also known as 1,1-dimethylhydrazine, heptyl or Geptil) is a chemical compound with the formula H2NN(CH3)2 that is primarily used as a rocket propellant. At room temperature, UDMH is a colorle ...

, shortly after the

Nedelin catastrophe The Nedelin catastrophe or Nedelin disaster, known in Russia as the Catastrophe at Baikonur Cosmodrome (), was a launch pad accident that occurred on 24 October 1960 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Soviet Kazakhstan. As a prototype of the R- ...

, in which a ballistic rocket exploded on the launch pad. As a result, Ryabenko was hospitalized for two months with a heart attack. On 9 February 1961 he was with Brezhnev when their plane was attacked by hijacked French jet fighters above the

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern Eur ...

. On 23 March 1982, a platform with people collapsed above Brezhnev and his entourage at a factory near

Tashkent Tashkent (), also known as Toshkent, is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Uzbekistan, largest city of Uzbekistan. It is the most populous city in Central Asia, with a population of more than 3 million people as of April 1, 2024. I ...

. Both Brezhnev and Ryabenko received

concussion A concussion, also known as a mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), is a head injury that temporarily affects brain functioning. Symptoms may include headache, dizziness, difficulty with thinking and concentration, sleep disturbances, a brief ...

s. After Brezhnev's death in 1982 Ryabenko supervised security of dachas of Soviet leaders.Medvedev, 183 He retired in 1987 and died in March 1993, aged 77. Ryabenko married shortly after World War II, to Lilya, his fiancee from 1940. They had two sons, elder Vadim (born before 1946) and younger Yury.

References

Bibliography

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ryabenko, Aleksandr 1915 births 1993 deaths Bodyguards of Leonid Brezhnev KGB officers