The last Soviet defence minister and final Marshal of Aviation
On 25 December 1991, as Gorbachev's nuclear briefcase was transferred to Yeltsin, Shaposhnikov told the press: "The nuclear button is in reliable hands."
A career officer who rose from fighter pilot to Commander-in-Chief of the Soviet Air Force over three decades, Shaposhnikov played a decisive role in the August 1991 coup when, as air force chief, he proposed to Defence Minister Yazov that troops be withdrawn from Moscow and the Emergency Committee be dissolved. After the coup's collapse Gorbachev appointed him the Soviet Union's last Defence Minister, and on 26 August 1991 he was promoted Marshal of Aviation, the final person in Soviet history to receive a rank bearing the word 'marshal.' He oversaw the transfer of nuclear command from Gorbachev to Yeltsin, served as CIS Joint Armed Forces Commander-in-Chief and later as Secretary of Russia's Security Council, before heading Aeroflot and advising Sukhoi.
Career Timeline
- 1963Graduates Kharkov Higher Military Aviation School, commissioned as fighter pilot
- 1969Graduates Gagarin Air Force Academy
- 1985–1987Commander, Air Forces of the Odessa Military District
- 1987–1988Commander, Air Forces of the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany
- 1990–1991Commander-in-Chief of the Soviet Air Force and Deputy Minister of Defence
- 1991.8–1992.2Minister of Defence of the USSR (last)
- 1992–1993Commander-in-Chief, CIS Joint Armed Forces
- 1993.6–9Secretary of the Security Council of Russia
- 1995–1997General Director of Aeroflot
- 1997–2004Adviser to the President of Russia on aviation and space