Valentin Varennikov | |
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 Varennikovc. 2000s | |
| Native name | Валентин Иванович Варенников |
| Born | (1923-12-15)December 15, 1923 |
| Died | May 6, 2009(2009-05-06) (aged 85) |
| Allegiance | Soviet Union |
| Branch | Soviet Army |
| Service years | 1941–1991 |
| Rank | Army general |
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| Other work | member of the Russian parliament |
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Valentin Ivanovich Varennikov (Russian:Валентин Иванович Варенников) (December 15, 1923 – May 6, 2009)[1] was a Soviet/RussianArmy general and politician, best known for being one of the planners and leaders of theSoviet–Afghan War, as well as one of the instigators of the1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt.
Valentin Varennikov was born to a poorCossack family inKrasnodar. His father, who fought in theRussian Civil War, graduated from the Moscow industrial institute and was a manager. His mother died in 1930 when he was seven. In 1938, Varennikov lived inArmavir, where he graduated from high school in 1941.[2]
In August 1941, Varennikov was drafted by the Armavir city military registration and enlistment office into the ranks of theRed Army. He attended theCherkassk Infantry School, which was then evacuated toSverdlovsk following the start ofOperation Barbarossa. From October, the first military recruitment began to train. After an accelerated graduation from the school in the summer of 1942, Varennikov was among the few graduates to be appointed the commander of a training platoon in the reserve rifle brigade stationed inGorky, and only in October 1942 he ended up on theStalingrad Front as commander of amortar platoon of 120-mm regimental mortars of the138th Rifle Division. He fought in theBattle of Stalingrad for 79 days and nights. In November 1942, Varennikov was appointed battery commander, and in December of the same year he participated in the destruction of the encircled units of theGerman 6th Army commanded byField MarshalFriedrich Paulus.
In January 1943, he was wounded. After recovering, he returned to duty, enlisted in the operational department of the35th Guards Rifle Division of the8th Guards Army. Since March 1943, he was the commander of the mortar battery of the 100th Guards Rifle Regiment, and in the spring of 1944 Varennikov was appointed Deputy Commander of the 100th Guards Rifle Regiment of the35th Guards Rifle Division of artillery. He participated in theBattle of the Dnieper, and fought for the liberation ofBelarus andPoland. When the 8th Guards Army was transferred to the1st Belorussian Front Varennikov and his regiment took part in theOperation Bagration. In late July and early August 1944, he entered Polish soil in theVistula–Oder offensive and fought for the capture of a bridgehead on theVistula south ofWarsaw inMagnuszew. There he was seriously wounded and was treated in a hospital for four months. After his recovery, he returned to the 100th Guards Rifle Regiment of the35th Guards Rifle Division as deputy regiment commander of artillery, and in mid-January 1945 he participated in the offensive of Soviet troops from theBaltic to theCarpathians. He took part in the battles for the bridgehead in the area of the city ofKustrin on theOder. In March 1945, Varennikov was wounded for the third time in the battles for Kustrin.
In March 1945, he was assigned as Chief of Artillery of the 101st Guards Rifle Regiment of the35th Guards Rifle Division. From April to May, Varennikov finished theGerman–Soviet War in theBattle of Berlin as one of the commanders of the Soviet soldiers who captured theReichstag.
During the war he was wounded three times and was decorated four times. In June 1945, he took part in theMoscow Victory Parade of 1945 and immediately before the parade, being the chief of the guard of honor, he received theVictory Banner. He ended the war with the rank ofcaptain.
Varennikov stayed inEast Germany as an officer of the Soviet troops, stationed there until 1950.
In 1954 he graduated from theFrunze Military Academy inMoscow. Later he graduated from theGeneral Staff Academy. In 1960 he became deputy commander of a motor rifle division. From 1962 to 1966 Varennikov commanded the54th Motor Rifle Division of theLeningrad Military District. In 1964 armed forces inspectors tested the division, and it was awarded as one of the six top divisions of the Ground Forces of the USSR Armed Forces by order of the Minister of Defence.[3] In August 1965 he was enrolled in theGeneral Staff Academy. From 1967 to 1969 he commanded the 26th Army Corps of theLeningrad Military District.
In 1969 Varennikov took charge of the3rd Shock Army, and in 1971 he was appointed as the First Deputy Commander-in-Chief of theGroup of Soviet Forces in Germany. On 1973, he became the commander of theCarpathian Military District. From 1979 to 1984, he served as the Head of the Main Operations Directorate and First Deputy Chief of theGeneral Staff of the Armed Forces of the USSR.
Between 1984 and 1985, Varennikov worked with the Soviet military mission inAngola, then in the throes of a bloodycivil war. In a sharp contrast with the official policy of only permitting Soviet military advisers to serve in non-combat roles, Varennikov supported allowing the advisers to fight alongside their Angolan allies in the event they came under attack.[4] He was the senior Soviet general officer in Angola duringOperation Askari, and personally advised Angolan PresidentJosé Eduardo dos Santos on defensive measures to counter theSouth African Defence Force's incursion. During theChernobyl Disaster of 1986, Varennikov was the main organizer of the work of military units in deployment of troops to the location of the catastrophe, to help in recovery efforts.[4]
During the last few years of theSoviet–Afghan War, Varennikov was the personal representative inKabul of the Soviet Defence Minister and held negotiations with theUnited Nations Good Offices Mission in Afghanistan and Pakistan members who oversaw the pullout from the country of Soviet troops between 1988 and 1989. Varennikov continued to defend the war even after theSoviet withdrawal in 1989.[5]
By decree of the Presidium of theUSSR Armed Forces of March 3, 1988, he was awarded the titleHero of the Soviet Union for successful command and control of troops duringOperation Magistral.
In 1989 General Varennikov was namedCommander-in-chief of Ground Forces and Deputy Minister of Defence.
In 1991, during theAugust coup attempt he joined forces opposing Soviet leaderMikhail Gorbachev. After the coup's failure Varennikov was arrested, tried, and prosecuted for treason together with other coup plotters. He was acquitted by theSupreme Court of Russia in 1994, as the court concluded he had merely followed orders and had acted "only in an interest of preserving and strengthening his country".[6] He was the only member of the group of accused plotters who refused to accept anamnesty.
In 1995 Varennikov, as a member of theCommunist Party of the Russian Federation, was elected deputy of theState Duma, thelower house of theRussian parliament. In the Duma Varennikov presided over the Committee on Veterans' Affairs. In 2003 he joined theRodina bloc as one of its leaders.
In February 2008, Varennikov was officially accepted as fellow of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences (Armenian branch) and member of theInternational Academy Ararat. He was the president and founder of theInternational League for Human Dignity and Security, an international NGO present in more than 40 countries.[7]
Varrenikov's 7-volume memoirs were published in 2001 under the titleThe Unrepeatable (Неповторимое). In May 2005, Varennikov travelled toChina and participated in the launch of the Chinese translation of his memoirs' first volume under the titleMan, War and Dream (人，战争，梦想), at the Russian Embassy inBeijing.[8]
Varennikov was one of Russia's most outspoken defenders ofJoseph Stalin. During 2008, Varennikov presented the case for Stalin as Russia's greatest historical figure on theName of Russia television project. Stalin won third place. According to Varennikov: "We became a great country because we were led by Stalin."[9]
Varennikov was married to Elena-Olga Tikhonovna (1923-2005). They had two sons. One of his sons, Vladimir Varennikov, is a retiredlieutenant general in theRussian Ground Forces, an Afghan war veteran and also aRodina deputy in the Russian Parliament (Duma).[10]
Valentin Varennikov lived in Moscow, where he died on May 6, 2009, aged 85, at the Main Military Clinical Hospital named after N.N.Burdenko following complications after a complex operation performed in January 2009 at theS.M. Kirov Military Medical Academy inSt. Petersburg. He is buried with full military honors at theTroyekurovskoye Cemetery in Moscow.
 | Order of the Red Banner (Afghanistan) |
 | Order of the Saur Revolution (Afghanistan) |
 | Medal "From the grateful Afghan people" (Afghanistan) |
 | Medal "In commemoration of the 10th anniversary of the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan" (Belarus) |
 | Order of The People's Republic of Bulgaria, 1st class, twice (Bulgaria) |
 | Patriotic Order of Merit in silver (East Germany) |
 | Brotherhood in Arms Medal (East Germany) |
 | Order of the National Flag, 2nd class (North Korea) |
 | Order of Polonia Restituta, 2nd class (Poland) |
This article incorporates material from Russian Wikipedia
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