Viktor Petrovich Dubynin (russian: Виктор Петрович Дубынин) was a prominent

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

and Russian military figure, an

Army General Army general is the highest ranked general officer in many countries that use the General officer#French (Revolutionary) system, French Revolutionary System.　 In countries that adopt the general officer four rank system, it is rank of genera ...

, and a

Hero of the Russian Federation Hero of the Russian Federation (russian: Герой Российской Федерации, Geroy Rossiyskoy Federatsii), also unofficially Hero of Russia (russian: link=no, Герой России, Geroy Rossii), is the highest honorary title ...

(posthumously). Born in 1943, Viktor Dubynin had been in service with the

Soviet Army uk, Радянська армія , image = File:Communist star with golden border and red rims.svg , alt = , caption = Emblem of the Soviet Army , start_date ...

since 1961. In 1964 he graduated from the Far Eastern Tank Academy, then from the Rodion Malinovsky Armored Forces Academy in 1978, and finally from the General Staff Academy in 1984. From 1986 to 1987 he served as commander of the Soviet

40th Army The 40th Army (, ''40-ya obshchevoyskovaya armiya'', "40th Combined Arms Army") of the Soviet Ground Forces was an army-level command that participated in World War II from 1941 to 1945 and was reformed specifically for the Soviet–Afghan War fro ...

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

. From 1989 to 1992 he was the (penultimate) commander of the Soviet

Northern Group of Forces The Northern Group of Forces (; ) was the military formation of the Soviet Army stationed in People's Republic of Poland, Poland from the end of World War II, Second World War in 1945 until 1993 when they were withdrawn in the aftermath of the fal ...

in Poland. On 10 June 1992, Dubynin was appointed by President

Boris Yeltsin Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin ( rus, Борис Николаевич Ельцин, p=bɐˈrʲis nʲɪkɐˈla(j)ɪvʲɪtɕ ˈjelʲtsɨn, a=Ru-Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin.ogg; 1 February 1931 – 23 April 2007) was a Soviet and Russian politician wh ...

as Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. On the 5 October, he became Russia's first General of the Army since the

Collapse of the Soviet Union The dissolution of the Soviet Union, also negatively connoted as rus, Разва́л Сове́тского Сою́за, r=Razvál Sovétskogo Soyúza, ''Ruining of the Soviet Union''. was the process of internal disintegration within the Sov ...

. At that moment Dubynin was already suffering from terminal cancer, so the then-Minister of Defense

Pavel Grachev Pavel Sergeyevich Grachev (russian: Па́вел Серге́евич Грачё́в; 1 January 1948 – 23 September 2012), sometimes transliterated as Grachov or Grachyov, was a Russian Army General and the Defence Minister of the Russian Fed ...

had to visit him at his hospital ward in order to hand Dubynin's shoulder boards over to him. Dubynin died on 22 November 1992 after his long struggle with cancer. His grave is at

Novodevichy cemetery Novodevichy Cemetery ( rus, Новоде́вичье кла́дбище, Novodevichye kladbishche) is a cemetery in Moscow. It lies next to the southern wall of the 16th-century Novodevichy Convent, which is the city's third most popular tourist ...

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dubynin, Viktor 1943 births 1992 deaths Burials at Novodevichy Cemetery Generals of the army (Russia) Soviet colonel generals Soviet military personnel of the Soviet–Afghan War Military Academy of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Soviet Union alumni Heroes of the Russian Federation Deaths from cancer in Russia Deputy Defence Ministers of Russia