Nikolai Ogarkov

Nikolai Vasilyevich Ogarkov
Native name Николай Васильевич Огарков
Nickname(s) "Formidable soldier"
«грозный солдат»
Born (1917-10-30)30 October 1917
Molokovo, near Tver, Russia
Died 23 January 1994(1994-01-23) (aged 76)
Moscow, Russian Federation
Allegiance  Soviet Union
Years of service 1938-1994
Rank Marshal of the Soviet Union
Commands held Soviet General Staff
Awards

Nikolai Vasilyevich Ogarkov (Russian: Николай Васильевич Огарков; 30 October 1917 in the village of Molokovo, Tver Governorate – 23 January 1994) was a prominent Soviet military personality. He was promoted to Marshal of the Soviet Union in 1977. Between 1977 and 1984, he was Chief of the General Staff of the USSR. He became widely known in the West when he became the Soviet military's spokesman following the shootdown of Korean Air Lines Flight 007 near Moneron Island in September 1983. He was fired by General Secretary Konstantin Chernenko in 1984 for his association with Grigory Romanov (see below).

The Revolution in Military Affairs and Ogarkov's Ousting

In 1984, Romanov was Gorbachev's main rival for the succession of the ailing Konstantin Chernenko. Romanov had been trying to force a crisis of succession where his control of the armed forces, via Ogarkov, would have tipped a split within the Politburo to his favor. Furthermore, the Politburo was worried about Ogarkov's rapid ascension: Ogarkov had already weakened the power of the Main Political Administration, the organisation tasked with keeping the military under party control, and he had gained access to the Defense Council, though not as a voting member.[1] Ogarkov was a strong advocate of reconstructing the huge, unwieldy Soviet military machine into a smaller, more compact strike force based around advanced technology. In a candid exchange with an American journalist in 1982, he had admitted that "Soviet technology is a generation or two behind America. In your country, even small children play with computers. We do not even have them in every office of the Defense Ministry. And for reasons you well know, we cannot easily make computers available in our society. Economic reforms are sorely needed, but they will most likely also entail political reforms." This openness was in sharp contrast with the bombastic anti-American rhetoric he displayed during the aftermath of the KAL-007 shootdown. Aside from Ogarkov's belief that fundamental changes needed to be made to the Soviet socioeconomic status quo, he also ran afoul of army officers who believed in a more traditional World War II style of warfare. In a 1984 article in the army newspaper Krasnaya Zvezda, Ogarkov outlined his vision for modernizing the Soviet military. Romanov, who was preparing for a diplomatic mission, could not protect Ogarkov from being dismissed from his positions for "unpartylike tendencies".[2] Ogarkov was later made operational commander of the Western theater of the Soviet strategic forces, i.e. of the forces directly posed against NATO forces.

Awards

Legacy

In 2003, a regional museum was opened in Molokovo. The museum is named after Ogarkov and presents expositions about his life.[3]

References

  1. ↑ Zemcov, Ilja: Chernenko: The Last Bolshevik: The Soviet Union on the Eve of Perestroika. Transaction Publishers, 1988. ISBN 0887382606
  2. ↑ Mitchell, Judson: Getting to the Top in the USSR: Cyclical Patterns in the Leadership Succession Process. Hoover Institution Press, 1990. ISBN 0817989226
  3. ↑ Культура (in Russian). Администрация Молоковского района. Retrieved 19 July 2013.
  4. ↑ Clarke, Richard A. (2007). Breakpoint. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. p. 80. ISBN 978-0-399-15378-5.
Military offices
Preceded by
Viktor Kulikov		 Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Soviet Union
7 January 1977-September 1984 		Succeeded by
Sergey Akhromeyev
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