There are heroes who remain in the memory of the people for a long time. Because they differ from others in that they live not for themselves, but for others, trying to make people's lives better. This was General Lev Yakovlevich Rokhlin, a favorite of ordinary soldiers and Russia's hope for a better life. This dream was not destined to come true: in the prime of life, the general’s life was cut short.
Night tragedy
In the evening issues of all Russian television channels on July 4, 1998, the main news was the assassination of General Lev Rokhlin and the arrest of his wife Tamara Rokhlina, who was the main suspect. The country froze in shock: a military general who went through Afghanistan, Nagorno-Karabakh, Chechnya, having been injured, was killed in his sleep in bed at his summer house in the village of Klokovo. Lev Yakovlevich was a legendary person who was deservedly respected by ordinary citizens and feared in power. His straightforward and honest character helped him in the battles, but on the sidelines of the authorities was an obstacle and made a lot of enemies.
The whole country buried Lev Rokhlin: the miners were the first to leave their position in front of the government building, where they went on strike. They pounded helmets on the asphalt and chanted: “Yeltsin is a killer!” No one believed in the version that Tamara Rokhlina shot her husband in a dream. The events that unfolded at that time in Russia pushed to the hypothesis that this was a political murder: the military general was very popular among the people and quickly gained real strength. The army and the people could follow him, and this was a real danger to the existing government.
And we will sweep away any Rokhlins!
The suspicion that the death of Lev Rokhlin was beneficial to the Kremlin was compounded by Yeltsin’s statement shortly before the fateful events:
I felt that there is some kind, you see, the fortress begins and we will swept these, of course, Rokhlins. Here. Such, you know, anti, anti-destructive, constructive actions. No, we don’t need these.
To Yeltsin’s statement, General Rokhlin replied that he could be killed, but never swept away. Everyone who knew Lev Yakovlevich closely noted his difficult character: straightforward, intractable, quick-tempered, meticulous, with a heightened sense of justice. He did not tolerate sloppiness and betrayal. Of course, the backstage games of great power were not to the taste of a combat general; he believed that one could manage in honest and fair ways. Fortunately, he had a great command experience behind him, where he realized his principles of decency. This somewhere idealistic attitude to life was laid down in early childhood.
Tukha-matyuha
Lev Yakovlevich Rokhlin was born on June 6, 1947 in the city of Aralsk in the Kazakh SSR. Leo never knew his father. He was taken from home on a popular accusation at the time - an enemy of the people. Nothing is known about his future fate, he disappeared somewhere in the vastness of the Gulag, like thousands of other people. Mother, left alone with three young children in her arms, while Levushka was only eight months old, with the stigma of “Family of the enemy of the people”, lived in very difficult conditions. Growing up, Leo saw his mother exhausting herself to feed her family. Then he promised himself that he would do everything in his power to ease the fate of his mother. So the character of the future general begins to take shape.
At school, Leo did not occupy a leading position, was quiet, silent, and studied well. Well, just some kind of tukha-matyuha. For the first time he showed what he was capable of when a new girl appeared in the classroom. He liked her so much that he wanted to meet her. However, there were high school students who decided to move the hapless cavalier. But little remained of the quiet honors pupil, Leo fought with a group of guys not for life, but for death. After which no one could call him Tyukha-Matyukha.
Tamara
After graduating from school with a gold medal, Lev Rokhlin went to work at the factory, then there was military service. Demobilized, he decides to enter the Odessa Shipbuilding Institute. He was not accepted to the institute because of a brawl during exams in which Leo filled the face with a hamish insolent man. The decision to become a military came spontaneously, at the station, where he talked with a graduate of the Tashkent military school. Leo leaves for Tashkent and enters the school.
As a cadet at a military school, he met a girl who did not leave him indifferent. Tamara worked as a nurse in a hospital. Love inspired and pushed for reckless actions. A poor student like Lev Rokhlin then, to impress the bride and her parents, he sells watches, the only valuable thing, and buys a big teddy bear. With this gift, he comes to Tamara's house to meet her parents. Soon the young lovers got married, they had a daughter and a son.
Hard test
In Turkmenistan, where the family moved to a new duty station, Lev Rokhlin’s son, one year old, develops encephalitis. The boy suffered a clinical death and remained disabled for life. The mental development of Igor Rokhlin, the son of Lev Rokhlin, was lagging behind the norm, he was constantly tormented by severe epileptic seizures. Tamara Rokhlina leaves her job and devotes all her time to her son. Living with a mentally ill child is a difficult test for parents. To see how your child is tormented every day, and not be able to help him - not everyone can stand it. Naturally, in such a situation, disruptions are inevitable for a woman caring for a sick child.
If the family’s psychological atmosphere is difficult, it is difficult for a man to be in such an environment, he prefers to leave. The future general went headlong to work, often he only came home to spend the night. As the daughter of Lev Rokhlin Elena says in an interview: “We rarely saw the father: he left early and arrived very late.” This behavior of her husband offended Tamara. When she needed support and help, her husband was at work, giving all his energy to strangers: boy soldiers.
Afghanistan
Heavily worried about his son Igor, Lev Yakovlevich Rokhlin, in powerlessness, somehow helps him to give all of himself to those whom he can save. Officers and soldiers did not like him in the army, considering him a tycoon who muzzled everyone with military tactical training. There was no rest from him, day or night. But Rokhlin very clearly understood the meaning of the phrase once said by the commander Alexander Suvorov: “It is difficult to learn, easy in battle.” It is the acquired skills that will save lives. He was convinced of it on his own military experience.
The military career of Lev Rokhlin is a path through the advanced hot wounds of the planet: Afghanistan, Nagorno-Karabakh, Chechnya. In all the places where Rokhlin had to command, his nature was revealed as a real commander. In Afghanistan, he commanded the 860th separate motorized rifle regiment. In June 1983, he received an order to check the area where the stripping was carried out. It was already clear to Rokhlin, without any verification that the section of mountains that had been subjected to airstrikes would show nothing. The Mujahideen will only wait for the intelligence group to shoot everyone.
Pain for life
But the order is subject to execution. Naturally, the groups did not return from the assignment. And when the high authorities reproached Rokhlin that they supposedly did a poor job with the execution of the order, he, in spite of all ranks, laid out in anger all that he thought: “What task - this is the result.” In this case, not very literary words were used. All his life he will worry about the guys who died then because of a stupid order.
For disrespect for the authorities, he is removed from his post, but they are not sent to the USSR, but are appointed deputy commander of the 191st motorized rifle separate regiment. Not even a year had passed before the former commander of the 191st motorized rifle regiment during the attack of the Mujahideen cowardly fled in a helicopter, leaving his regiment. The command in that battle was assumed by Lev Rokhlin, he fought along with the soldiers, then he was officially reinstated as commander.
War is inevitable
In all the places where he had to serve Rokhlin, he invariably cared for officers and soldiers. There are many stories that the general was not bothered by any external surroundings, nor fame, nor criticism. For him, the main thing was always one thing - to save the lives of children for whom he carried not formal, but real responsibility. He was rooting for his people. Successful for Rokhlin was that battle in which there were minimal losses, and it is better if they are not at all.
In 1993, he commanded the Volgograd 8th Guards Army Corps. And, without changing his principles, he brought people to exhaustion. Then everyone hated him. And he only said: "You see, there will be a war, it is inevitable." And when the First Chechen campaign began in 1994, the fighters of General Rokhlin understood how right their commander was when the acquired skills literally every day pulled them out of the clutches of death. At the same time, servicemen from other units died in large numbers due to the illiteracy of the commanders and their unpreparedness.
Dad
The soldiers fell in love with their general and called him dad, dad for his eyes. Lev Yakovlevich was an example of a commander leading people. He lived in the same difficult conditions in which the soldiers lived: in mud, darkness and cold. The general was no different from the ordinary: an army pea jacket, a cap with ear flaps with deflated valves, boots. He could be seen in battle, riding on the armored personnel carrier’s armor in his cracked glasses and drawing something on the tablet.
When the general was asked to lead the assault on Grozny, he agreed with one condition: "I will fight only those I choose." Having examined the combat units, he sent many home under the pretext that he did not need cannon fodder, thus saving the lives of unshielded young soldiers who were only called up for military service. Thanks to military tactics developed by Rokhlin, many soldiers returned home from the war.
Power strike
Lev Rokhlin, after the capture of Grozny, sent his corps home. And he was going to return to Chechnya. But the popular general became a prominent figure and was very attractive for promoting the political party Our Home - Russia. He was invited to join the party and go to the State Duma elections. Here the general saw an opportunity to help the army at a high level and agreed. In addition, he was promised to help officers with apartments that had served in the GDR for a long time, and returned to Russia after the fall of the Berlin Wall.
In the State Duma, he is appointed as chairman of the defense committee. After reviewing the documents, he begins to understand the scale of the collapse of the army. He cannot allow this. His belief in fair politics is failing. Lev Rokhlin begins the struggle against Yeltsin’s power, but the politically naive general goes into frontal attacks and is defeated. He leaves the NDR and the State Duma and creates his party "Movement in Support of the Army, Defense Industry and Military Science (DPA)."
Revolt?
20 years have passed since the murder. The life and death of Lev Rokhlin left numerous questions and puzzles. Why and who killed the general? During the murder investigation, there were 4 versions in the work:
- Domestic homicide. The suspect is Rokhlin's wife.
- Theft. The suspects are Rokhlin's guard.
- Chechen trace. The suspects are Chechen fighters.
- The political footprint. Suspects - …
An investigation into the version of contract killings for political reasons showed that there was a lot of material talking about Rokhlin’s preparations for military operations that would lead to impeachment of President Yeltsin, canceling the results of privatization and returning the country to its former positions. Rokhlin was the most radical opposition to power. His bold statements at rallies and calls for the overthrow of traitors could not go unnoticed. They were afraid of him. The riot was to take place on July 20, 1998, and on July 3 he was very conveniently killed. But the version has not been proven.
Wife or thieves?
When they arrested Tamara Rokhlina, she confessed to the murder of her husband, but when she saw her daughter, she managed to say:
I take it upon myself, I do not want your death. They threatened me, I will do as they tell me, because I love you very much.
After that, having calmed down a bit and regained consciousness, Tamara will change her testimony. She will tell that three masked men broke into the house, beat her and, threatening her and her son, killed Leo. Rokhlina suspected her husband’s guards in the attack, who posed for the money raised for the election campaign. Suspicion took place, because one of the guards suddenly became rich after the death of Rokhlin. But no one brought this version to the end.
