Soviet air defence chief who ordered the KAL 007 shootdown
On 1 September 1983, Far Eastern Military District commander Tretyak received the order from the General Staff to 'destroy' the intruding airliner and passed it down the chain of command without hesitation.
A Soviet Army General (1976) and Hero of the Soviet Union (1945) who commanded a regiment at age 21 during the Great Patriotic War. After serving as commander of the Belorussian Military District (1967–1976) and the Far Eastern Military District (1976–1984), he became Deputy Minister of Defence (1986–1991) and Commander-in-Chief of the Soviet Air Defence Forces (1987–1991). On 1 September 1983, as commander of the Far Eastern Military District, he relayed the order from the General Staff to destroy Korean Air Lines Flight 007 after it entered Soviet airspace, resulting in the deaths of all 269 people on board. Also named a Hero of Socialist Labour (1982), he embodied the arc of the late Soviet military elite and was dismissed immediately after the August 1991 coup attempt.
Activities and affiliations
- 1941–1945 Military command · Soviet Union · Military and defence
Career Timeline
- 1941–1945Great Patriotic War: platoon, company, battalion commander, 29th Guards Rifle Division; CO, 93rd Guards Rifle Regiment
- 1956–1957Commander, 26th Guards Rifle Division
- 1960–1964Chief of Staff & First Deputy Commander, 3rd Combined Arms Army, Group of Soviet Forces in Germany
- 1964–1967Commander, 4th Army, Transcaucasian Military District
- 1967–1976Commander, Belorussian Military District
- 1976–1984Commander, Far Eastern Military District
- 1984–1986Commander-in-Chief, Far East High Command
- 1986–1987Deputy Minister of Defence & Chief Inspector, USSR Ministry of Defence
- 1987–1991Deputy Minister of Defence & Commander-in-Chief, Soviet Air Defence Forces
Related historical events
Air Defence Commander-in-Chief and Warsaw Pact air defence (1987–1991)
On 11 June 1987 Tretyak was appointed Deputy Minister of Defence and Commander-in-Chief of the Air Defence Forces, a post he held until 31 August 1991. Besides directing the defence of Soviet airspace, he also served as a deputy to the Commander-in-Chief of the Warsaw Pact Joint Armed Forces, commanding the air defence forces of the treaty's member states. Despite the problems in airspace surveillance and interception exposed by the 1983 shootdown of Korean Air Lines Flight 007, he kept this key military post until he handed it over to his successor, Prudnikov.
After the August 1991 military coup in Moscow he was removed as Commander-in-Chief of the Air Defence Forces on 31 August, and he retired that November. As the Soviet Union itself was dissolved, the post of Commander-in-Chief of the Air Defence Forces disappeared along with the Soviet armed forces. In retirement he served as an adviser to the Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Air Defence Forces; he lived in Moscow, died on 3 May 2007 and was buried at Troyekurovskoye Cemetery. So ended a military career that ran from combat command in the Soviet-German war to the top of Soviet air defence in the Cold War.