The first firefighter at Chernobyl, who climbed onto the roof of Unit 3 without being told of the radioactive danger
'Everything turned out okay. We will live until we're a hundred'... from a letter to his wife, written from his Moscow hospital bed as radiation destroyed his body.
Volodymyr Pravyk was a Soviet firefighter and lieutenant in the MVD who commanded the Third Watch of Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant's Fire Brigade No. 2 (ВПЧ-2). When Reactor 4 exploded on 26 April 1986, his unit was first to respond: within two minutes Pravyk was on the scene, and at 01:56 he led a team onto the roof of Unit 3 to prevent the fire from spreading to the still-operational reactor, working in fields later estimated at over 6,000 roentgens per hour. He received the highest confirmed radiation dose of any Chernobyl victim, 1,520 REM (nearly triple a lethal dose), and died of acute radiation syndrome in Moscow on 11 May 1986, never having been told of the radioactive danger.
Career timeline
1979–1982Graduated from Cherkasy Fire-Technical Academy
1982Commissioned as lieutenant in MVD Fire Service
1982–1986Commander of Third Watch, Militarized Fire Brigade No. 2 (ВПЧ-2), Chernobyl NPP
1986.04.26First responder to Chernobyl disaster; fought fires on Unit 3 roof
1986.05.11Died of acute radiation syndrome in Moscow
The architect and poet shot dead rushing a BMP as the troops pulled back, the last of the coup's three martyrs
In a video recording, Ilya stands before a tank and shouts at the soldiers: 'What are you doing? People are dying!'
A Moscow Architectural Institute graduate who worked as an architect and wrote poetry posthumously collected in Yevtushenko's Strophes of the Century. During the August 1991 coup, in the early hours of 21 August, he rushed at a BMP in the Tchaikovsky Tunnel after another armored vehicle had been set ablaze and the troops were pulling back; he was shot in the head and died at the scene. Posthumously made a Hero of the Soviet Union, Krichevsky was one of the coup's only three fatalities, and his Jewish funeral, with a rabbi and an Orthodox priest officiating together, became a public symbol of the new Russia's multi-ethnic identity.
Career timeline
1980Graduated Moscow Secondary School No. 744
1986Graduated Moscow Architectural Institute; architect, State Project Institute No. 6
1986–1988Served in the Soviet Army (tank troops, junior sergeant)
A Russian general shaped by obedience and uncompromising war
In August 1991, three protesters died when the armored column he commanded collided with a barricade in a Moscow tunnel.
Sergey Surovikin is a Russian military commander who began as a late-Soviet officer and rose to the highest levels of the post-Soviet armed forces. During the August 1991 coup attempt, he led a Taman Division BMP battalion into a Moscow tunnel where three protesters died in the confrontation; he was detained, but charges were dropped on the grounds that he had followed orders. He later commanded in Afghanistan, Chechnya, Syria, and Ukraine, gaining recognition for operational effectiveness alongside scrutiny over civilian harm. His career traces one route by which the Soviet command structure survived its state’s dissolution and reappeared in Russia’s militarized power.
Career timeline
1987Graduated from the Omsk Higher Combined-Arms Command School; platoon and company commander in the Taman Guards Motor Rifle Division
1989–1991Served in Afghanistan; commander of the 1st Motor Rifle Battalion, Taman Division
1991Commanded a BMP battalion deployed in Moscow during the August coup; detained after the tunnel clash and later cleared
1995–2002Studied at the Frunze Military Academy and General Staff Academy; held commands in Tajikistan and Chechnya
2017–2021Commanded Russian forces in Syria; appointed Aerospace Forces commander-in-chief and promoted to Army General
2022–2023Commanded Russia’s Southern Group and then the joint force in the invasion of Ukraine
2023–presentDeputy commander of the joint force; later removed as Aerospace Forces chief and placed at the Defence Ministry’s disposal
Afghan war veteran, the youngest and last Hero of the Soviet Union, killed confronting an armored vehicle during the August coup
He jumped onto a BMP armored vehicle to throw canvas over its observation slits. The gunner spun the turret and threw him off, but he got up, ran after it, and climbed on again.
A Guards sergeant who served in Afghanistan and worked as a forklift driver in Moscow after demobilization. In the early hours of 21 August 1991, he answered Rutskoy's call for 'Afghan brothers' and joined the defense of the Russian White House; in the Tchaikovsky Tunnel he tried to blind a BMP armored vehicle by covering its observation slits with canvas and was crushed to death, becoming one of the coup's only three fatalities. Posthumously awarded Hero of the Soviet Union and the Medal 'Defender of a Free Russia' No. 1.
Career timeline
1986–1989Service in the VDV, combat tour in Afghanistan (Guards Sergeant)
1989–1991Forklift driver, 'Interior' production association, Moscow
1991.08.21Killed in the Tchaikovsky Tunnel defending the White House during the August coup
