Pavel Grachev

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Russian Defence Minister Pavel Grachev speaking in the State Duma in 1994. Photo by Mikhail Evstafiev

Pavel Sergeyevich Grachev (Russian: Павел Сергеевич Грачёв) (b. January 1, 1948) is a Russian Army General and Hero of the Soviet Union (1988).

[edit] Soviet Army career

He graduated from the Ryazan Airborne Military Command School, the Frunze Military Academy and the General Staff Academy.

During the Soviet war in Afghanistan, was in command of the Soviet 103rd Guards Airborne Division in Afghanistan in the last years of the war.

In December of 1990, he was appointed commander of the country's Airborne troops.

In August - December of 1991, Pavel Grachev was the First Deputy Minister of Defence of the USSR.

[edit] Defence Minister of Russia

For a period of time, in the mid 1990s, Grachev was a close friend of Russian President Boris Yeltsin, and held the post of the Minister of Defence of the Russian Federation from May of 1992 until June of 1996.

Grachev took part in the Soviet coup attempt of 1991 and the Russian constitutional crisis of 1993.

In 1994 he played a key role in starting the war in the breakaway Republic of Chechnya, promising to swiftly crush the Chechen armed drive for independence with "just two airborne regiments", a famous quote that could have cost him his post after Russia lost the war two years later.

[edit] Corruption accusations

Grachev was accused of being personally involved in major military corruption scandals, which was not proven in court, that occurred during the withdrawal of the Soviet troops from East Germany, and were the focus of a series of articles published by the investigative journalist Dmitry Kholodov, who was killed by a suitcase bomb.