On April 27, as a result of an accident on a Moscow street, Hero of the Russian Guard, Lieutenant Colonel Anatoly Lebed, was killed. The bitter irony is that this combat officer of the airborne troops went through several wars: he fought in Afghanistan, in the former Yugoslavia, carried out counter-terrorist operations in Chechnya and Dagestan, participated in hostilities in Georgia in 2008, and at the same time survived in the most terrible conditions, and his life was taken not by an enemy bullet or a shell fragment, but a capital street. This once again suggests that there is a war going on on the streets and avenues of Russian cities, where virtually everyone is against everyone. And this war in recent years has claimed more than 30,000 lives, one of which was the life of officer Lebed.
Anatoly Lebed himself was born in 1963 in the small Estonian town of Valga. Since 1981 he has been in the Armed Forces. Anatoly Vyacheslavovich graduated from the Lomonosov Aviation Technical Military School in 1986 and was sent to Afghanistan in the same year. The first stage of his military career ended in 1994, when an order was received for units withdrawn from Afghanistan to settle in the city of Berdsk. According to the officer himself, he decided that it was pointless to continue military service at that time, since there was no support for the army from the state and society.
However, Anatoly Lebed decided not to retreat from the military profession and after a few years he returned to the Armed Forces. Then there was the war in the Balkans, and the operation to neutralize the gangs of Ruslan Gelayev, and a mine explosion in the mountains near the Chechen Ulus-Kert, as a result of which the officer received a serious injury to his foot. However, even the amputation, which made Lebed an invalid of the 2nd group, did not affect his decision to continue to carry out the duty of a Russian officer. Already on a prosthesis, Lebed continued to participate in military operations, during one of which an officer's unit captured a terrorist base in the North Caucasus. For his courage and unparalleled heroism in the Caucasus, Anatoly Lebed received the title of Hero of the Russian Federation from the President. The Gold Star became a real recognition of the numerous merits of the Airborne Forces officer and became an award that was added to the three Orders of Courage, three Orders of the Red Star and other awards. In 2008 Anatoly Lebed was awarded the Order of St. George (IV degree) for a military operation to force Georgia to peace.
Anatoly Lebed was a real Russian officer - an example for his subordinates, and for many bosses, by the way, too. The soldiers of the 45th reconnaissance regiment of the Airborne Forces compared their commander with the pilot Maresyev and at the same time said that Lebed not only flies without a leg, but also fights in the Caucasian mountains.
It is on such people that the Russian army rests, it is they who can and should be cited as an example to those who say that the Russian army is endless corruption, hazing and ignorance. Lieutenant Colonel Anatoly Lebed is a man who came to the Armed Forces not for his own glory or material gain. Lebed always said that he did everything in his life voluntarily and did not understand those who were sure that their children should be hidden from service in the Armed Forces.
In 2010, the Ogonyok magazine published a noteworthy interview with Anatoly Vyacheslavovich, in which, when asked by a journalist about why Lebed looks positively at conscription military service, because in the army (quote) "boys are being killed", the officer said remarkable words: we guys are being killed in doorways, in restaurants, in clubs and in school toilets. We have an army - who is this? This is the people. What a society, such an army. " These words can also be addressed to those who see the army as a kind of separate formation that has nothing to do with public life.
The death of Lieutenant Colonel Lebed is a truly irreplaceable loss for the Russian army, and therefore for the society of which the army is a part. And, regrettable as it may seem, but it is this death that once again underlines the idea of a military officer that today the probability of death in Russia is extremely high, not at all during military service. A new front in Russia has long been a road that literally mows tens of thousands of human lives.
Eternal memory to the Hero of Russia Anatoly Lebed - the man who personified and embodies the image of a real Russian officer.
