28 Facts About Alexander Lebed

Lieutenant General Alexander Ivanovich Lebed was a Soviet and Russian military officer and politician who held senior positions in the Airborne Forces before running for president in the 1996 Russian presidential election.

Alexander Lebed served four years in the latter position, until his death following an Mi-8 helicopter crash.

From 1988 until 1991, General Alexander Lebed served as the commander of the 106th Guards Airborne Division, and later became the deputy head of the Russian Airborne Troops.

General Alexander Lebed held the position until his death in the 2002 helicopter crash.

Alexander Lebed was born in the Cossack town of Novocherkassk, in the Rostov Oblast, in 1950.

Alexander Lebed's father was a carpenter who was sentenced to seven years in a Gulag labor camp for arriving late to work twice, and witnessed the Novocherkassk massacre in 1962.

Alexander Lebed was determined to become a paratrooper and joined the Ryazan Guards Higher Airborne Command School in 1969, becoming a cadet platoon and company commander while he was there.

In 1982, as an officer of the Soviet Airborne Forces, Alexander Lebed became a battalion commander in Afghanistan during the Soviet war there.

Alexander Lebed held this position until 1982 at which point he attended the Frunze Military Academy.

In 1988, Alexander Lebed became the commander of the 106th Guards Airborne Division.

The event, along with his past service record, ensured that Alexander Lebed was the most popular military officer in Russia during that time, and by 1994 he was considered to be a favorite candidate for potentially running against Yeltsin in the 1996 Russian presidential election.

General Alexander Lebed ended up joining the centrist, nationalistic political movement known as the Congress of Russian Communities.

Alexander Lebed retired from the army in 1995 in order to enter politics and won a State Duma seat in December of that year.

Shortly after winning a seat in the State Duma, Alexander Lebed officially launched his long-anticipated campaign for the Russian presidency in the 1996 election.

Alexander Lebed ran as a "law and order" candidate promising to curb both street crime and government corruption, as well as promising to end the unpopular First Chechen War that had been started by President Yeltsin in 1994.

Shortly after taking office as chairman of the Security Council, following Yeltsin's victory against Zyuganov in the July 1996 runoff, Alexander Lebed led negotiations with the Chechen President, Aslan Maskhadov.

Alexander Lebed was given authority as President Yeltsin's representative and the resulting agreement became known as the Khasavyurt Accords.

Alexander Lebed was fired from the Security Council by President Yeltsin in October 1996, following an internal conflict within the government between Lebed and a faction that included president's chief of staff, Anatoly Chubais, Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin, and Interior Minister Kulikov.

Chubais was worried about the potential of Alexander Lebed becoming Yeltsin's successor, as he was the most popular member of the administration, especially after ending the Chechen war.

Alexander Lebed's visit to the United States in January 1997 was viewed as an effort to win over American business interests as the best successor to Yeltsin, and included a meeting with Donald Trump at Trump Tower.

On 7 September 1997, Alexander Lebed alleged during an interview that a hundred Soviet-made suitcase-sized nuclear weapons designed for sabotage "are not under the control of the armed forces of Russia".

Alexander Lebed ended up winning the election for governor, defeating the incumbent Valery Zubov, despite being a complete outsider.

However, in 2000 Alexander Lebed decided against running for president because he was satisfied with his position as the governor of Krasnoyarsk Krai.

Alexander Lebed was survived by his wife, Inna, two sons, a daughter, and his brother Aleksey.

Aleksey Alexander Lebed served as Head of the Republic of Khakassia from 1997 to 2009.

Alexander Lebed did not consider Ukraine and Belarus to be separate countries from Russia, nor did he consider the Ukrainian and Belarusian languages separate from the Russian.

General Alexander Lebed was strongly against the expansion of NATO into Eastern Europe initially, but by 1997 had changed his attitude to be more accepting of the idea.

However, in March 1997 Alexander Lebed stated that he believed its expansion would destabilize the alliance and that it was the result of Cold War thinking, which would cause Russia to become authoritarian in response.