The deputy defence minister who, at Tbilisi, pushed for force without waiting for the Politburo
"A decision must be adopted here on the scene": to the Georgian Defence Council, Tbilisi, 8 April 1989
A career officer who rose from Suvorov military school to the top of the Soviet Army, Kochetov was promoted to Army General in 1988 and appointed First Deputy Minister of Defence in January 1989. That April he was dispatched to Tbilisi, where he told the Georgian Defence Council that 'the magnitude of the crisis is not fully appreciated in Moscow' and that 'a decision must be adopted here on the scene,' opening the path to the use of force without Politburo clearance. The crackdown on 9 April killed 21 people, and subsequent documentary research established that Kochetov was acting on Yazov's instructions and that Gorbachev had not been informed in advance.
Activities and affiliations
Career Timeline
- 1952Graduated Lvov Infantry School; platoon and company commander, GSVG
- 1965Graduated Frunze Military Academy; regimental commander, North Caucasus MD
- 1973Graduated General Staff Academy; commander, 24th 'Iron' Division
- 1977–1979Commander, 7th Guards Army
- 1982–1985Commander, Southern Group of Forces (Hungary)
- 1985–1988Commander, Transcaucasus Military District
- 1988–1989Commander, Moscow Military District
- 1989–1991First Deputy Minister of Defence, USSR
Related historical events
The 1989 Tbilisi operation and responsibility
At a Moscow meeting on 7 April 1989, officials approved the reinforcement of Interior Ministry and Defence Ministry forces requested by the Georgian Communist Party leadership. The following day, Georgian party and security officials met in Tbilisi with military commanders, including Deputy Defence Minister Konstantin Kochetov, who had arrived from Moscow. According to the official account reported by the BBC, the meeting decided to disperse the demonstrators, while command of the operation was assigned to Igor Rodionov, commander of the Transcaucasian Military District. The decision was not recorded in minutes or a written order, making it difficult for the subsequent parliamentary inquiry to reconstruct who attended and how the decision was made.
Before dawn on 9 April, troops dispersed demonstrators on Rustaveli Avenue in front of the government building. The parliamentary commission’s reconstruction placed troops at Lenin Square by 3:30 a.m.; at 4:05, four armored personnel carriers led the advance pushing people away. As the crowd was compressed and escape routes obstructed, rubber truncheons and toxic substances were used in serious violation of instructions, and small infantry shovels were also deployed. The BBC account identifies Rodionov as the operation’s commander while reporting Kochetov’s presence at the meeting that decided on dispersal. Kochetov’s role can therefore be described as participation in the decision process as a senior Defence Ministry official, not as field commander.
The First Congress of People’s Deputies established an inquiry commission. The 24-member body chaired by Anatoly Sobchak questioned party and military leaders, witnesses, medical personnel and soldiers, and examined military, state-security and party records. In its report to the Congress in December 1989, the commission judged the use of force excessive and concluded that political means of resolving the conflict had not been exhausted. The inquiry brought the military crackdown and the way the decision had been made into parliamentary scrutiny.