Russia's only vice president: stood with Yeltsin against the coup, then fell to Yeltsin's tanks
During the shelling of the White House on 4 October 1993, Rutskoy shouted live on radio: "If the pilots can hear me, get your combat machines up! This gang has settled in the Kremlin.… Save the perishing democracy!"
One of the last Heroes of the Soviet Union and the only vice president Russia ever had. A combat pilot who flew 485 sorties in the Su-25 over Afghanistan, was shot down twice and captured, and received the Hero of the Soviet Union title in 1988. Elected RSFSR vice president in 1991 as Yeltsin's running mate, he helped organize the White House defense during the August coup, delivered a letter to Lukyanov demanding a medical examination of Gorbachev, and persuaded Patriarch Alexy II to declare the Church's support for Yeltsin. He later broke with Yeltsin over economic policy and power concentration, sided with the parliament, and was proclaimed acting president during the 1993 constitutional crisis before being arrested when tanks shelled the White House.
Career Timeline
- 1971Graduated from Barnaul Higher Military Aviation School
- 1980Graduated from Gagarin Air Force Academy
- 1985–88Afghanistan: commander, 378th Independent Attack Aviation Regiment; deputy commander, 40th Army Air Force
- 1988Awarded Hero of the Soviet Union
- 1990RSFSR People's Deputy, member of the Supreme Soviet
- 1990Graduated with distinction from the General Staff Academy
- 1991.7–1993.10Vice President of the RSFSR/Russian Federation
- 1993.9–10Proclaimed acting president by parliament; arrested
- 1996–2000Governor of Kursk Oblast