By apt definition of Karl von Clausewitz, war is a continuation of politics with the help of guns. Historical experience indicates that the great commanders successfully engaged in political activities. Nowadays, we can recall some US presidents who have reached high ranks in military service. The recent history of Russia also has similar precedents. First Vice-President of the Russian Federation Alexander Vladimirovich Rutskoi rose to the rank of general.
Way to heaven
Most of the boys who grew up in the Soviet Union dreamed of becoming pilots or sailors. Among them was Alexander Rutskoi. The biography of the future general took shape in the traditional sequence. The child was born on September 16, 1947 in the family of a military man. Father, colonel of such troops, a war veteran who reached Berlin, raised his son in the army. They did not shout at the boy, they did not flog the belt. Alexander from young nails was accustomed to work, accuracy and discipline.
After the eighth grade, in 1964, as an independent teenager, he went to work as a locksmith. Rutsky was taken to an aircraft repair plant. At the same time he worked in a flying club. The young man watched how pilots and specialists servicing aircraft live. Alexander did not hide his love for airplanes. When he was drafted into the army, he asked for aviation. The place of service was assigned to him in the city of Kansk in the Krasnoyarsk Territory, where the school of radio shooters was stationed.
A year later, he filed a report on the instance and received a referral to the famous Barnaul Military Pilot School. Higher military education opened the way to Rutskoi aviation. In 1971, the newly made lieutenant arrived for further service as an instructor at the Valery Chkalov Aviation School. This was followed by the appointment of a group of Soviet troops, which was located on the territory of the GDR.
