Vasily Savvin
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Vasily Savvin | |
|---|---|
| Native name | Василий Нестерович Саввин |
| Born | 30 April 1939 |
| Died | 24 February 2020 (aged 80) Saint Petersburg, Russia |
| Buried | |
| Allegiance |  Soviet Union Russia |
| Branch | Internal Troops of the Soviet Union Internal Troops of Russia |
| Service years | 1956–1993 |
| Rank | General-Polkovnik |
| Awards | Order of the Red Star Order "For Service to the Homeland in the Armed Forces of the USSR", 3rd Class |
Vasily Nestorovich Savvin (Russian: Василий Нестерович Саввин; 30 April 1939 – 24 February 2020) was a Soviet and later Russian military officer who held a number of posts in country's Gendarmerie, reaching the rank of general-polkovnik. His career culminated with the command of the Internal Troops of the Soviet Union, becoming their last commander, and the first commander of their successor organization, the Internal Troops of Russia.
Savvin's career with the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD) began when he joined the Internal Troops in 1956, subsequently graduating with honours from the Ministry's military school, and rising through the ranks commanding platoons, companies and then battalions. He was transferred to the far north in 1969, serving at Murmansk in staff roles that took him from chief of staff and then commander of regiments, and then divisions, at first in the Arctic and then in Siberia. He eventually became head of the Internal Affairs Directorate for Siberia, and then the North-West and the Baltic States, before being appointed commander of the MVD's entire internal forces in September 1991. He saw out the dissolution of the Soviet Union in this post, and the reformation of the former Soviet organization as the Internal Troops of Russia in January 1992. He held the position until his retirement in 1993, and subsequently settled in Saint Petersburg, where he died in 2020.
Savvin was born into a peasant family on 30 April 1939 in Dobrino, Liskinsky District, in Voronezh Oblast, then part of the Russian SFSR, in the Soviet Union.[1][2] His father was killed in 1941 while fighting at the front during the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union.[2] After sitting seven years of his schooling, he worked for a time on a collective farm, completing his studies with evening classes.[1][2]
Savvin joined the Internal Troops of the Soviet Union, part of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD), in 1956. He studied at the S. M. Kirov Ordzhonikidze Military School of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, graduating with honours in 1959.[1] He was first assigned to command a platoon in Riga, and then a company. He became a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1961, and enrolled as a student in the M. V. Frunze Military Academy in 1964. After graduating, again with honours, in 1967, he was appointed to command a battalion in Leningrad.[1][2]
