1. Valentin Varennikov was born to a poor Cossack family in Krasnodar.
27 Facts About Valentin Varennikov
1. 2.
Valentin Varennikov's father, who fought in the Russian Civil War, graduated from the Moscow industrial institute and was a manager.
3.
Valentin Varennikov's mother died in 1930 when he was seven.
4.
In 1938, Varennikov lived in Armavir, where he graduated from high school in 1941.
5.
Valentin Varennikov attended the Cherkassk Infantry School, which was then evacuated to Sverdlovsk following the start of Operation Barbarossa.
6.
Valentin Varennikov fought in the Battle of Stalingrad for 79 days and nights.
7.
In November 1942, Valentin Varennikov was appointed battery commander, and in December of the same year he participated in the destruction of the encircled units of the German 6th Army commanded by Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus.
8.
Since March 1943, he was the commander of the mortar battery of the 100th Guards Rifle Regiment, and in the spring of 1944 Valentin Varennikov was appointed Deputy Commander of the 100th Guards Rifle Regiment of the 35th Guards Rifle Division of artillery.
9.
Valentin Varennikov participated in the Battle of the Dnieper, and fought for the liberation of Belarus and Poland.
10.
Valentin Varennikov took part in the battles for the bridgehead in the area of the city of Kustrin on the Oder.
11.
In March 1945, Valentin Varennikov was wounded for the third time in the battles for Kustrin.
12.
Valentin Varennikov ended the war with the rank of captain.
13.
Valentin Varennikov stayed in East Germany as an officer of the Soviet troops, stationed there until 1950.
14.
From 1962 to 1966 Valentin Varennikov commanded the 54th Motor Rifle Division of the Leningrad Military District.
15.
In 1969 Valentin Varennikov took charge of the 3rd Shock Army, and in 1971 he was appointed as the First Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany.
16.
Between 1984 and 1985, Valentin Varennikov worked with the Soviet military mission in Angola, then in the throes of a bloody civil war.
17.
Valentin Varennikov was the senior Soviet general officer in Angola during Operation Askari, and personally advised Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos on defensive measures to counter the South African Defence Force's incursion.
18.
Valentin Varennikov continued to defend the war even after the Soviet withdrawal in 1989.
19.
In 1989 General Valentin Varennikov was named Commander-in-chief of Ground Forces and Deputy Minister of Defence.
20.
Valentin Varennikov was acquitted by the Supreme 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".
21.
Valentin Varennikov was the only member of the group of accused plotters who refused to accept an amnesty.
22.
In February 2008, Valentin Varennikov was officially accepted as fellow of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences and member of the International Academy Ararat.
23.
Valentin Varennikov was the president and founder of the International League for Human Dignity and Security, an international NGO present in more than 40 countries.
24.
In May 2005, Valentin Varennikov travelled to China and participated in the launch of the Chinese version of his book Man, War and Dream, at the Russian Embassy in Beijing.
25.
Valentin Varennikov was one of Russia's most outspoken defenders of Joseph Stalin.
26.
One of his sons, Vladimir Valentin Varennikov, is a retired lieutenant general in the Russian Ground Forces, an Afghan war veteran and a Rodina deputy in the Russian Parliament.
27.
Valentin Varennikov is buried with full military honors at the Troyekurovskoye Cemetery in Moscow.