Russian military man and politician Alexander Lebed fought in Afghanistan, participated in establishing peace in Chechnya, was a direct participant in the events of 1991, served as governor of the Krasnoyarsk Territory in 1998-2002.
Alexander Lebed was born in the city of Novocherkassk, Rostov region in 1950. His father was in camps, went through the Great Patriotic War, after the war he worked as a labor teacher at school. Alexander's mother worked at the telegraph office.
Since childhood, Sasha has been boxing, skiing and playing chess perfectly. And he had a cherished dream: to become a pilot. For three years in a row, with enviable persistence, he stormed the Armavir Flight School in the hope of enrolling in it, but he was finally rejected due to being too tall.
Then Alexander entered the Polytechnic, and at the same time worked as a grinder at the plant. But the dream of the sky did not leave, so he applied to the Ryazan Airborne School, and after graduating from it, here he took the position of the commander of a training company. A little later, Alexander Lebed graduated from the Military Academy. Frunze, having received a diploma with honors.
Military career
When the war broke out in Afghanistan, Lebed was sent there to command a battalion of paratroopers. After the withdrawal of Russian troops from this country, Alexander Ivanovich worked as the commander of parachute regiments in several military units. Before perestroika, he took part in hostilities with his soldiers in Azerbaijan and Georgia.
By 1990, Alexander Lebed had already served with the rank of Major General and had 5 military awards.
In 1991, he took part in a coup d'état in Moscow on the side of Boris Yeltsin. After the coup, General Lebed took part in the elimination of the armed conflict in Transnistria. Its goal was to preserve the army and weapons of the Russian Ministry of Defense.
When the reorganization of the troops began in the country, he did not agree with this idea and submitted a letter of resignation. In 1995, Lieutenant General Lebed was transferred to the reserve.
Political career
In 1995, Alexander Lebed was elected to the State Duma and planned to nominate himself for the post of President of Russia. And, probably, he would, because in the first round he was in the top three, but later he expressed support for Boris Yeltsin, and took the post of secretary of the Russian Security Council under the new president. And also became the Assistant to the President for National Security.
However, he soon became involved in a large-scale political scandal: General Lebed was accused of preparing a military coup, and he was forced to resign.
However, Alexander Ivanovich was not going to stand aside from state affairs, and put forward his candidacy for the post of governor of the Krasnoyarsk Territory. He won the election with 59% of the vote, and in 1998 became governor. The elections were held with a scandal, with criminal cases, but Lebed held on to this post.
The population of the region had different attitudes towards the new governor: someone scolded him for not knowing the features of the region, someone supported him. However, everyone saw that Lebed was trying to ensure that the business was not criminal, that the workers were paid their wages on time, so that the money earned in the region remained in the local budget.
On April 28, 2002, Governor Alexandra Lebed planned to inspect the new ski slope. However, the helicopter carrying the governor and members of the regional administration crashed. According to one version, it collided with a power line, according to another, it was blown up. The crash killed everyone in the helicopter.
Personal life
Alexander Lebed met his future wife while still working at the plant. In 1971, Inna Aleksandrovna became his wife - they got married.
Their family has three children: a daughter and two sons, they gave their father three grandchildren.
Alexander Ivanovich was an adherent of healthy lifestyles: he gave up alcohol, went in for jogging and skiing. Also in his free time he liked to read Russian classics.
Lebed himself became the author of two books: "The Ideology of Common Sense" and "It's Offensive for the Power."
