The last supreme commander of the Warsaw Pact forces
"As it historically happened, Army General Lushev proved to be the last Commander-in-Chief of the Warsaw Pact Joint Armed Forces" — a post created in 1955 that quietly expired with him 36 years later.
Born to a peasant family in Arkhangelsk, he entered combat in 1942 as a rifle platoon commander on the Volkhov and Leningrad fronts, was wounded twice during the Sinyavin offensive, and forged his command experience in the crucible of the Great Patriotic War. After the war he transitioned to armoured forces and built the core of his career in the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany, rising to become its commander-in-chief in 1985 under Gorbachev. Appointed First Deputy Minister of Defence in 1986 and Supreme Commander of the Warsaw Pact Joint Armed Forces in 1989, he became the last officer to hold that post when the alliance dissolved in 1991. He was decorated as a Hero of the Soviet Union (1983), held the rank of Army General (1981), and served on the CPSU Central Committee and in the Supreme Soviet.
Activities and affiliations
- 1941–1945 Military command · Soviet Union · Military and defence
Career Timeline
- 1941–1945Serves as platoon and company commander on the Volkhov and Leningrad fronts, wounded twice
- 1950s–1960sServes in armoured forces, commands a tank regiment and a tank division
- 1969–1975First deputy commander then commander of the 1st Guards Tank Army, East Germany
- 1975–1985Commands the Volga, Central Asian, and Moscow military districts in succession
- 1985–1986Commander-in-Chief of the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany
- 1986–1989First Deputy Minister of Defence of the USSR
- 1989–1991Supreme Commander of the Warsaw Pact Joint Armed Forces (last)
- 1991–1992Military inspector-adviser, Group of Inspectors General, then retires
Related historical events
Last Supreme Commander of the Warsaw Pact Joint Armed Forces (1989-1991)
On 24 January 1989 Lushev was appointed Supreme Commander of the Joint Armed Forces of the Warsaw Pact member states, concurrently serving as a First Deputy Minister of Defence of the USSR, an office he had held since June 1986. The post had commanded and controlled the combined forces of the member states, and its holder was customarily also a First Deputy Minister of Defence. His tenure coincided with the actual dismantling of the alliance's military machinery: as the communist governments of Central and Eastern Europe were toppled one after another in 1989-1990, the Pact lost its substance as a military and political alliance.
Lushev succeeded Marshal Kulikov, who had held the post from 1977 to 1989, and his chief of staff from 1989 to 1991 was Army General Lobov. On 25 February 1991 the member states decided to abolish the Pact's military structures, and on 1 July 1991, in Prague, a protocol fully terminating the treaty was signed, ending the alliance after 36 years. Lushev became the last officer to hold the supreme command; from April 1991 he served in the Group of General Inspectors of the Ministry of Defence as a military inspector-adviser, and retired in January 1992.