Lev Rokhlin

Lev Yakovlevich Rokhlin (Russian: Лев Яковлевич Рохлин; 6 June 1947 – 3 July 1998) was a Kazakh-born Russian lieutenant general and politician who served as a member of the State Duma from 1995 until his 1998 murder. Rokhlin reached the top of the Russian military, quickly rising through the ranks during and after the Soviet–Afghan War. After the Soviet Union dissolved, he served as a commander of Russian forces during the First Chechen War. Later, he started a political career and became a member of the Russian State Duma and chairman of the State Duma's Defense Committee.

Lev Rokhlin was the youngest of three children in the family of World War II veteran and dissident Yakov Lvovich Rokhlin. In 1948, eight months after the birth of his son, Yakov was arrested and apparently died in a Gulag prison. Lev's mother, Ksenia Ivanovna Goncharova, brought up three children alone.

Ten years later the Rokhlin family moved to Tashkent. Rokhlin studied there at school #19 in Old Town. After he graduated, he worked at the Tashkent Aviation Production Association, then was drafted into the army.

In 1970 he graduated from the Tashkent Higher Military Command School with honors, then served in the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany in Wurzen. Then he studied at the Frunze Military Academy, and after completing his studies served in the Arctic and in the Leningrad, Turkestan, Transcaucasian Military Districts, as deputy commander of a corps.

From 1982 to 1984 he served in Afghanistan, initially as commander of the 860th Motor Rifle Regiment at Fayzabad, Badakhshan. In June 1983 he was removed from this position after a failed operation and appointed deputy commander of the 191st Motor Rifle Regiment in Ghazni. But in less than a year he was reappointed to his previous position. He was wounded twice, and the second time was evacuated to Tashkent.

He graduated from the Military Academy of the General Staff with honors.

In March 1987 Rokhlin was appointed commander of the 152nd Motor Rifle Division, 31st Army Corps, in Kutaisi, a cadre division.

In November 1988 Rokhlin became commander of the 75th Motor Rifle Division of the 4th Army in Nakhchivan. In early 1990 the division was transferred to the Soviet Border Troops of the KGB, and Rokhlin was promoted to major general in February of the same year.