On April 20, 1950, Alexander Lebed was born, a lieutenant general who, after retiring, went into politics and, until his death in 2002, managed to serve as the governor of the Krasnoyarsk Territory and secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation.

Alexander Lebed was born in Novocherkassk. Since childhood, he was fond of sports, in particular, he played boxing and chess. After school, I was unable to enter flight school because I was too tall. Then he entered the Novocherkassk Polytechnic University, after which he was sent to the Novocherkassk Permanent Magnet Plant as a grinder. There he met his future wife Inna Alexandrovna.

In 1969, Lebed entered the Ryazan Higher Airborne Command School. Thus began his military career. After college, he served as commander of a training platoon, and then a company. In the early 1980s, he went to serve in Afghanistan, from where he was soon transferred due to health reasons.

After graduating from the Military Academy, from June to September 1985, Alexander Lebed served as deputy regiment commander in Ryazan. From September 1985 to December 1986, he commanded a parachute regiment in Kostroma. From December 1986 to March 1988 he was deputy division commander in Pskov. From March 1988 to February 1991, Lebed commanded the Tula Airborne Division, with which he participated in combat operations and peacekeeping operations: in Baku (November 1988), Tbilisi (April 1989), Baku (January 1990). In 1990, Alexander Lebed was awarded the rank of major general.

In 1992, the general participated in the settlement of the Transnistrian conflict. Under the call sign "Colonel Gusev" he arrived in Tiraspol on an inspection trip from the Russian Ministry of Defense. Through Lebed’s efforts, it was possible to stop the armed conflict and the death of civilians. Later, during the transfer of the general from Transnistria, Moldovan President Mircea Snegur traveled to Moscow, trying to get his transfer canceled as a “guarantor of stability in the region.”

He became interested in politics at the end of “perestroika”: in 1990 he was elected as a delegate to the XXVIII Congress of the CPSU and the founding congress of the Communist Party of the RSFSR (CP RSFSR), at which he was elected a member of its central committee of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the RSFSR.

In October 1995, he organized and led the all-Russian public movement “Honor and Motherland”; in December, the movement nominated him as a candidate for deputy of the State Duma. As a result of the elections in the same year, he became a deputy of the State Duma of the 2nd convocation.

In 1996, Alexander Lebed ran for the presidency of the Russian Federation. In the first round he took third place. In the second round of elections, he supported Boris Yeltsin, receiving during this pre-election agreement on June 18 the post of Secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation “with special powers”, and became Assistant to the President of the Russian Federation for National Security.

At a meeting with NATO Secretary General Javier Solana

From June 18 to October 17, 1996, Lebed was Secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, Chairman of the Commission on Higher Military Positions, Highest Military and Highest Special Ranks of the Council on Personnel Policy under the President of the Russian Federation, then Plenipotentiary Representative of the President of Russia in the Chechen Republic. With his participation, the Khasavyurt Agreements - “Principles for determining the foundations of relations between the Russian Federation and the Chechen Republic” - were developed and signed.

Aslan Maskhadov and Alexander Lebed, Khasavyurt

With Dmitry Rogozin

With Archbishop Anthony of Krasnoyarsk and Yenisei

Shirvani Basayev and Alexander Lebed play chess

In November 1996, Lebed traveled to the United States and became the first Russian politician to visit the Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church abroad. In February 1997, at the invitation of the French Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Lebed traveled to France and made a report at the chamber. During the trip, he visited the house where his ideal, the founder of the Fifth French Republic, General de Gaulle, lived. At the same time, Lebed met Alain Delon. They became friends, and the actor came to support Lebed during the election campaign in the Krasnoyarsk Territory.

Since May 1998 - Governor of the Krasnoyarsk Territory. During his leadership of the region, he had conflicts with large industrialists who worked on the territory of the subject.

Until November 2001, he was a member of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation ex officio, resigned in accordance with the new federal law “On the procedure for forming the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation.”

The crash site of the helicopter carrying Lebed

Alexander Lebed died on April 28, 2002 in a Mi-8 helicopter crash in the area of ​​Lake Oyskoye, on the Buibinsky Pass (Krasnoyarsk Territory), where he and his administration staff were flying to the opening of a new ski slope. He was buried at the Novodevichy cemetery in Moscow.

Lebed Alexander Ivanovich

Lieutenant General, Secretary of the Security Council, who in August 1996 signed the agreements in Khasavyurt that ended the First Chechen War. In 1998-2002 - governor of the Krasnoyarsk Territory.

Biography

After graduating from school (1967), he tried several times to enter aviation schools, where he was not accepted due to his height and other medical indicators.

In 1969-1973 he studied at the Ryazan Higher Airborne School, where his commander was Pavel Grachev.

After serving in Afghanistan (1981-1982), he entered and graduated with honors Military Academy named after M.V. Frunze (1985).

In 1985-1988 he served as deputy commander and commander of airborne divisions in Kostroma, Pskov, and Tula.

In 1988 he participated in preventing the Armenian pogrom in Baku, in 1989 - 1990 he participated in the suppression of anti-Soviet protests in Baku and Tbilisi.

During the August 1991 putsch, Lebed went over to the side of Boris Yeltsin, giving the order to defend the White House, where the Supreme Council was located.

In June 1992, General Lebed was appointed commander of the 14th Guards Combined Arms Army stationed in Transnistria. Thanks to his efforts, it was possible to end the armed conflict.

During the First Chechen War

Dismissal from the army

In the winter of 1994-1995, Alexander Lebed disagreed with Pavel Grachev on the conduct of the operation in Chechnya.

General Lebed called the introduction of troops into Chechnya in December 1994 “stupidity and stupidity,” saying that servicemen of the 14th Army “under no circumstances” will participate in military operations in Chechnya.”

Answering a question about the possibility of moving to the leadership of the Ministry of Defense and leading the operation in the North Caucasus, Lebed replied that “if the conversation is about the withdrawal of Russian troops from Chechnya, then I am ready to lead this operation.”

In the summer of 1995, having disagreed with the order to disband the 14th Army and reorganize it into a peacekeeping Operational Group of Russian troops as part of the Joint Peacekeeping Forces in Transnistria, General Lebed submitted his resignation.

On June 15, 1995, he was released from his post and early dismissed from the Armed Forces.

Political activity

In October 1995, he headed the public movement "Honor and Motherland", and in December 1995 he became a deputy of the State Duma of the 2nd convocation.

In January 1996, he participated in the presidential elections and supported Boris Yeltsin in the second round.

On June 17, 1996, Alexander Lebed received an offer from Boris Yeltsin to take the post of Secretary of the Security Council. Lebed also insisted on the resignation of the Ministry of Defense Pavel Grachev, with whom he refused to work, and the appointment of Igor Rodionov in his place.

On the evening of the same day, Lebed reported that he had prevented an attempt by “circles close to the former Minister of Defense” to organize “GKChP No. 3” after the removal of Grachev and “gave the command to the Central Command Post of the General Staff not to transmit orders and instructions from the dismissed Grachev.”

On June 18, Lebed officially took office as Secretary of the Russian Security Council “with special powers” ​​and also became Assistant to the Russian President for National Security.

On August 10, 1996, on the fourth day after the separatists took Grozny and captured Gudermes and Argun, Lebed was appointed plenipotentiary representative of the Russian President in Chechnya.

On August 11, Lebed met with Aslan Maskhadov, agreeing to resolve issues related to the cessation of hostilities and the beginning of the withdrawal of federal forces.

On August 16, at a press conference dedicated to the results of his trip to Chechnya, Lebed demanded that Boris Yeltsin remove Interior Minister Anatoly Kulikov from his post and entrust the Security Council Secretary with command of a group of federal troops in Chechnya: “You, Boris Nikolayevich, face a difficult choice - either Lebed , or Kulikov...", "...two birds cannot get along in one den."

On August 17, General Konstantin Pulikovsky signed an order to cease hostilities throughout the republic.

Khasavyurt agreements

On August 31, Alexander Lebed and Aslan Maskhadov met in Khasavyurt, Dagestan, and signed a joint statement on " "Principles for determining the foundations of the relationship between the Russian Federation and the Chechen Republic."

The “principles” provided for the withdrawal of the Russian army from the republic and the signing of a political agreement between Russia and Chechnya on the “deferred” status of the Chechen Republic until the end of 2001.

The agreements with the separatists and the recognition of the de facto independence of Ichkeria were sharply criticized by the left opposition and the Minister of Internal Affairs.

Criticism and resignation

On October 2, 1996, the Duma heard reports from Alexander Lebed and Anatoly Kulikov. Kulikov, in particular, stated that “the Khasavyurt agreements are a fiction, a cover for unilateral, unlimited concessions in the most humiliating and destructive forms”, that “in the army and law enforcement agencies it is already open at different levels, from private to general, they are talking about the next a round of national treason" and compared the logic of agreement supporters with the logic of Vlasov and Petain.

Follow up

In 1998, Alexander Lebed won the gubernatorial elections in the Krasnoyarsk Territory. In his post, he tried to carry out reforms in the region, unsuccessfully fought with the oligarchs - Vladimir Potanin, who headed Norilsk Nickel, and Anatoly Bykov, who controlled the Krasnoyarsk Aluminum Plant, criticized the management system in the country, etc.

On April 28, 2002, the governor died in a Mi-8 helicopter crash in the area of ​​Lake Oyskoye.

Notes

1. Lebed A.I. It's a shame for the state... M.: "Moskovskaya Pravda", 1995. P.10.
2. Lebed A.I. It’s a shame for the state... M.: “Moskovskaya Pravda”, 1995. P.13.
3. Lebed A.I. It’s a shame for the state... M.: “Moskovskaya Pravda”, 1995. P.54-160.
4. Lebed Alexander Ivanovich // Panorama, July 1998.
5. Lebed Alexander Ivanovich // Panorama, July 1998.
6. Lebed A.I. It’s a shame for the state... M.: “Moskovskaya Pravda”, 1995. P.382-406.
7. Press conference of General A.I. Swan. Tiraspol 1992 // Youtube, September 1992.
8. Lebed Alexander Ivanovich // Panorama, July 1998.
9. Lebed Alexander Ivanovich // Panorama, July 1998.
10. Lebed Alexander Ivanovich // Panorama, July 1998.
11. Lebed Alexander Ivanovich // Panorama, July 1998.
12. Pavel Grachev - “Komsomolskaya Pravda”: “I regret that I agreed to become Minister of Defense” // Komsomolskaya Pravda, 09/23/2012.
13. Presidential Decree of July 17, 1996 No. 1035 “On the Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation” // Yeltsin Center.
14. Lebed Alexander Ivanovich // Panorama, July 1998.
15. Lebed Alexander Ivanovich // Panorama, July 1998.
16. Lebed Alexander Ivanovich // Panorama, July 1998.
17. Chronicle of an armed conflict. Comp. A.V. Cherkasov and O.P. Orlov. M.: Human Rights Center "Memorial". P.83-84.
18. Lebed Alexander Ivanovich // Panorama, July 1998.
19. Lebed Alexander Ivanovich // Panorama, July 1998.
20. Alexander Lebed died in a plane crash // Lenta.ru, 04/28/2002.

In the city of Novocherkassk, Rostov region, in a family of workers. After graduating from high school in 1967, he tried to enter the Kachin Flight School, but did not pass the medical examination. After that, he worked for a year as a grinder at the Novocherkassk permanent magnet plant.

After repeated failure with the Kachinsky School (he didn’t pass the “sitting height” test) and an unsuccessful attempt to enter the Armavir Aviation School, he worked for a year as a loader in the Central Grocery Store of Novocherkassk. In the summer of 1969, after another failure with the Armavir Aviation School, he entered the Ryazan Airborne Command School.

He graduated from the Ryazan Higher Airborne Command School named after Lenin Komsomol in 1973, and the Military Academy named after M.V. Frunze in 1985.

In 1973-1981, Alexander Lebed was a platoon commander, a company commander of the Ryazan Higher Airborne Command School (VVDKU).

From February 1991 to June 1992, he was deputy commander of the Airborne Forces (Airborne Forces) for combat training and military educational institutions. During the coup attempt on August 19-21, 1991, following the order of the commander of the Airborne Forces, the battalion of the Tula Airborne Forces under the command of Alexander Lebed took the building of the Supreme Council of the RSFSR under guard.

From June 1992 to May 1995, Lebed commanded the 14th Army stationed in Transnistria. Involved in eliminating armed conflict in the region.

In June 1995, he was transferred to the reserve with the rank of lieutenant general.

Since December 1995, he was a deputy of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation in the Tula single-mandate electoral district. Since January 1996, he became a member of the State Duma Committee on Defense.

In 1996, Alexander Lebed ran for the post of President of the Russian Federation and took 3rd place in the first round (14.71% of voters - about 11 million people) voted for him.

From June 18 to October 17, 1996, Lebed was Secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, Assistant to the President of the Russian Federation for National Security, Chairman of the Commission on Higher Military Positions, Higher Military and Higher Special Ranks of the Council on Personnel Policy under the President of the Russian Federation, then Plenipotentiary Representative of the President of Russia in the Chechen Republic Republic. With his participation, the Khasavyurt Agreements - “Principles for determining the foundations of relations between the Russian Federation and the Chechen Republic” - were developed and signed.

On May 17, 1998, Alexander Lebed was elected governor of the Krasnoyarsk Territory (he officially took office on June 5, 1998).

He was a member of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation (from 1998 to November 2001; resigned as a member of the Federation Council in accordance with the new law “On the procedure for forming the Federation Council”).

He led the interregional public organization "Peacekeeping Mission in the North Caucasus", established on June 27, 1998 in Pyatigorsk. By early 1999, the mission had released 43 people.

He was the organizer and leader of the Russian People's Republican Party (RNRP).

During his years of service, Alexander Lebed was awarded the Order of the "Red Banner of Battle", the "Red Star" - for Afghanistan, "For Service to the Motherland" of the 2nd and 3rd degree, the cross "For the Defense of Transnistria", and medals.

The material was prepared based on information from open sources

Alexander Lebed went down in Russian history as a military man and politician, whose activities occurred at a turning point in the life of the country. He participated in operations known throughout the world: Afghan, Transnistrian and Chechen. He didn’t have to stay long as a governor and solve the problems of a peaceful region. The tragic death interrupted the flight of the Swan in its midst.

Childhood and youth

Lebed Alexander Ivanovich began his life’s journey on April 20, 1950 in Novocherkassk. By nationality - Russian. True, his dad, Ivan Andreevich, came from Ukraine. He came to Russia as a member of the family of an exiled kulak. After exile, war and demobilization, he settled in Novocherkassk, where he worked as a “trudovik” at a school. Alexander's mother, Ekaterina Grigorievna, was born a Don Cossack. She worked at the telegraph office.

Having received his school certificate in 1967, Alexander Lebed tried to make his childhood dream come true - to become a conqueror of the skies. Three times he entered the flight schools of Armavir and Volgograd, but was not accepted. The medical commission has time and again rendered a verdict: “sitting height exceeds the norm.”

In between jobs, he worked as a loader and worker at the permanent magnet plant in Novocherkassk (position: grinder).

Military career

In 1969, luck smiled on the stubborn guy. Alexander Lebed was enrolled in the Ryazan Higher Airborne Command School. Upon completion, the young and full of zeal specialist remains to work within the walls of his alma mater, where he commands first a platoon, and then a company.

Of course, Lebed, as a professional military man, could not avoid Afghanistan. From 1981 to 1982, he fought against the “dushmans” as a battalion commander. Returned home after concussion.

The war did not push Alexander Ivanovich off his chosen path. On the contrary, he decides to realize himself even more fully in this field and becomes a student at the Military Academy. Frunze immediately upon returning from Afghanistan. In 1985 he graduated with honors. And the nomadic barracks life began, which Lebed Alexander Ivanovich managed to “eat up” to his fill.

In 1985, he replaced the regiment commander in Ryazan, in 1986 he commanded the Kostroma parachute regiment, until 1988 he served as deputy commander of the Pskov division and until 1991 inclusive he commanded the airborne division in Tula. In this post, A. Lebed had the opportunity to participate in the Azerbaijani and Georgian peacekeeping operations.

In 1990, the efforts and devotion of Alexander Ivanovich were rewarded - he was elevated to the rank of major general.

Swan politician

And troubled times were coming in the USSR. Collapse was approaching. The prominent military figure could not stay away from the turbulent political events. However, he did not forget about his profession, successfully combining one with the other.

In 1990, Alexander Lebed was elected as a delegate to the 28th Congress of the Communist Party and the founding congress of the Communist Party of Russia. And soon he managed to become a member of the Central Committee of the latter.

At the end of the winter of 1991, Lebed replaced the commander of the airborne troops for universities and combat training. Summer brought everyone, including him, a lot of trials.

When the putsch “struck” in August, Alexander Lebed first carried out the commands of the State Emergency Committee. But he quickly reorients himself and turns his weapon towards the rebels. Most likely, if not for his actions, a lot of bloodshed would have been unavoidable.

The next year also turned out to be difficult for Lebed. In June 1992, he arrived on the territory of Tiraspol to stabilize the situation (an armed conflict was in full swing there). And in September 1993 he was even elected to the Supreme Council

In the early summer of 1995, after a conflict with Pavel Grachev over Chechen issues, Alexander Lebed submitted his resignation and was prematurely transferred to the reserve. In the same year, he became the head of the All-Russian movement “Honor and Motherland” and a deputy of the State Duma of the second convocation.

In 1996, he was nominated as a candidate for the post of President of the Russian Federation. And the result of the election race was pleasing - Lebed came third, receiving 14.7 percent of the vote. In the second round, he supported Yeltsin, for which Boris Nikolayevich, having won, thanked him with the position of Secretary of the Security Council and Assistant to the Russian President on National Security Issues.

In this post he participated in ending the military conflict in Chechnya. He was dismissed by Yeltsin's decree in mid-autumn of the same year 96.

Governor of the Krasnoyarsk Territory: a new round in the biography

In May 1998, retired Lieutenant General Alexander Lebed was elected to this position. Citizens remembered him for his numerous loud statements regarding the situation in the region and in the state in general. In particular, he informed the whole world that the organizer of terrorist acts in Russia could well be its government...

Personal life

Alexander Lebed had one marriage, concluded in February 1971. He met his wife Inna Aleksandrovna Chirkova in his early youth - while working as a grinder at a magnet factory in Novocherkassk. The couple gave birth to and raised three children: sons Alexander and Ivan and daughter Ekaterina.

Tragedy: how Alexander Lebed died

The leadership of one of the Siberian regions of Russia was the last mission of this courageous and straightforward man, who devoted most of his life to military affairs. Perhaps his seditious speeches or simply evil fate played a role... But on April 28, 2002, the governor of the Krasnoyarsk Territory, Alexander Lebed, died.

It so happened that the sky he had dreamed of since childhood ruined him. Together with his subordinates, the governor flew to open the ski slope. Their helicopter crashed over the village of Aradan. According to the official version, he crashed into a power line.

The pilots remained alive and had already served their sentences. And Alexander Lebed, whose death then shocked the whole country, remained only in memories and reminders. Thus, today one of the streets of Novocherkassk bears the name of the general. Another one like this is located in Kuragino. The cadet corps in the regional center and even the top of the Ergaki ridge in the Western Sayan Mountains were named in honor of Lebed.

Born in Novocherkassk into a working-class family.

In 1973 Graduated from the Ryazan Higher Airborne Twice Red Banner School named after. Lenin Komsomol.
Then he served there as commander of a training platoon.
1981-1982- was the commander of a parachute battalion of a limited contingent of Soviet troops in Afghanistan.
1982-1985- Studied at the Military Academy. M. Frunze, graduated with honors.

He was appointed deputy commander of the parachute regiment, then commander of the parachute regiment in Kostroma.
1986 - early 1988- Deputy commander of the airborne division in Pskov.
Since March 1988- commander of the Tula airborne division.

He took part in operations in “hot spots” on the territory of the USSR:
late 1988 - early 1989. — Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict in Baku;
April 1989 - clashes in Tbilisi;
early 1990— unrest in Baku and a number of other cities of Azerbaijan.

1990- delegate to the 28th Congress of the CPSU and the founding congress of the Russian Communist Party. He was elected a member of the Central Committee of the Russian Communist Party (RCP Central Committee).
1990- received the rank of major general.
February 1991. - Appointed Deputy Commander of the Airborne Forces (Airborne Forces) for combat training and universities.
In August 1991 During the failed coup attempt, he participated in organizing the security of the building of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR in Moscow.
June 23, 1992 arrived in Tiraspol to eliminate the armed conflict in the region. Soon he was appointed commander of the 14th Guards Combined Arms Army in Transnistria.
June 1995 - discharged to the reserve with the rank of lieutenant general.
December 1995— Elected as a deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation from the Tula electoral district.

Participated in the presidential elections of the Russian Federation on June 16, 1996; gained 14.7% of the votes and dropped out of the election campaign.

June 18, 1996 appointed Secretary of the Security Council, Assistant to the President of the Russian Federation for National Security.
In July 1996 appointed Chairman of the Commission on Higher Military Positions and Higher Special Ranks of the Council on Personnel Policy under the President of the Russian Federation.
Summer 1996 led the Russian delegation in negotiations on the cessation of hostilities and the withdrawal of federal troops from Chechnya.
Autumn 1996 removed from the post of Secretary of the Security Council.

May 17, 1998 elected governor of the Krasnoyarsk Territory, receiving about 60% of the votes in the second round of voting.
June 5, 1998 took office.

On April 28, 2002, he tragically died as a result of a plane crash of an Mi-8 helicopter in the Ermakovsky district of the Krasnoyarsk Territory.

Order of the Red Banner of Battle, Red Star, “For Service to the Motherland in the Armed Forces of the USSR” II and III degrees, medal “For Courage in a Fire”, silver personalized medal of Honfleur (France, 1997), cross “For the Defense of Transnistria” , golden double-headed eagle (the highest award of the Russian Academy of Arts) for active participation in the development of culture in the Krasnoyarsk region.
Winner of the Peace Prize of the Hesse Institute for Peace and Conflict Research for peacekeeping activities to end hostilities in Transnistria and Chechnya.
Laureate of the Foundation of St. Andrew the First-Called Foundation - for the revival of the cadet movement.

Spouse: Lebed Inna Alexandrovna.
Children: sons Alexander and Ivan, daughter Ekaterina.