1946–2009
○ Natural causes
Russian general-major and insider historian of the Afghan war
He wrote Tragedy and Valour of Afghanistan (1995) from his vantage point as closest aide in the Operational Group in Afghanistan, drawing on little-known and secret archival material and on the testimony of participants.
Aleksandr Lyakhovsky was a Russian military figure and military-historical writer, born in Tbilisi on 5 February 1946 and dead in Moscow on 3 February 2009. He graduated with the gold medal from the Baku Higher Combined-Arms Command School in 1968 and took part in the events in Czechoslovakia, then graduated with distinction from the Frunze Military Academy in 1977 and spent eight years at the General Staff Main Operations Directorate on military cooperation with African countries. From 1987 to 1989 he served in the USSR Defence Ministry Operational Group in Afghanistan as the closest aide to its head, Varennikov, until the withdrawal ended, and in 1990 became first deputy chief of the Operations Directorate of the Ground Forces Main Staff. He retired to the reserve in 2002 at the rank of general-mayor.
Activities and affiliations
Career Timeline
- 1968Graduated from the Baku Higher Combined-Arms Command School and entered Soviet service
- 1968Participated in the Soviet operation in Czechoslovakia
- 1977Graduated from the Frunze Military Academy and became a senior officer in the General Staff’s Main Operations Directorate
- 1985–1987Studied at the Voroshilov General Staff Academy
- 1987–1989Served with the Soviet Defense Ministry Operational Group in Afghanistan, becoming Varennikov’s principal aide
- 1990First deputy chief of the Soviet Ground Forces General Staff Operations Directorate
- 1995Published Tragedy and Valor of Afghanistan
- 2002Retired from active service
Related historical events
Insider chronicler of the Afghan war
Aleksandr Antonovich Lyakhovsky (Александр Антонович Ляховский) was born on 5 February 1946 in Tbilisi, Georgian SSR, and died in Moscow on 3 February 2009, two days short of his 63rd birthday. His death was reported as sudden, on information from a source close to the family. His service years ran from 1964 to 2002.
He was a Soviet and Russian military figure and military-historical writer, and a member of the Union of Writers of Russia. In summer 1964, after the 83rd Tbilisi secondary school, he entered the Baku Higher Combined-Arms Command School, graduated with the gold medal in July 1968 and was posted to the Carpathian Military District. From August to November 1968 he took part in the events in Czechoslovakia, then served at Mukachevo as a motor-rifle platoon and company commander and in the divisional operations section. In October 1971 he was posted to the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany (6th Tank Division), and in 1974 he entered the Frunze Military Academy, graduating with distinction in 1977. As a senior officer-operator of the General Staff Main Operations Directorate he worked for eight years on military cooperation with African countries, visiting Ethiopia (1983) and Angola (1984, twice).
After studying at the Voroshilov General Staff Academy in 1985-1987, he joined the USSR Defence Ministry Operational Group in Afghanistan in 1987 at Varennikov's request and worked as the closest aide to its head until the withdrawal of Soviet troops was completed. In 1990 he became first deputy chief of the Operations Directorate of the Ground Forces Main Staff; in the 1990s he took part in normalising the situation in Armenia, South Ossetia, the Baltics, Tajikistan and the North Caucasus and handled support for combat operations in Chechnya. In 2000-2001 he was in Angola as consultant on operational questions to the deputy chief of the Angolan General Staff, and in March 2002 he retired to the reserve. He held the rank of general-mayor.
His writing centres on the Afghan war. He published Tainy afganskoy voyny (1991, with V. Zabrodin), Tragediya i doblest' Afgana (February 1995, Iskona), Plamia Afgana (1999), Grazhdanin. Politik. Voin. on Ahmad Shah Massoud (2007, with V. Nekrasov) and Igra v Afganistan (2009, with S. Davitaia), and wrote scripts for documentary films. In September 1995 he took part in a US-Russian symposium in Oslo under the Norwegian Nobel University. Plamia Afgana was positively assessed by soldiers who had served in Afghanistan.
Tragediya i doblest' Afgana was an insider study by a general-mayor who had been the closest aide to the head of the Operational Group and was in the thick of events, written from little-known and secret material in closed archives and the testimony of those who made key military decisions, aiming at a maximally objective picture of the Afghan war. In 2009 the special Artyom Borovik prize for the best work on the Afghan war was awarded to him posthumously for that book, and the prize was received by his widow Tatiana.
His awards were the Order of the Red Star, the Order 'For Service to the Motherland' III degree, three orders of the Republic of Afghanistan and medals; the medal count is given as 16 by Russian Wikipedia and 15 by the NVO obituary, a discrepancy that remains unresolved. He died suddenly on the morning of 3 February 2009 in Moscow; no source indicates execution, death in custody or an alternative death year. His documented national designation is the civic label 'Russian' (rossiysky), covering service from the USSR to Russia; because birth in Tbilisi is not evidence of ethnicity, no separate ethnic origin is documented.