Stolen valor, Russian style:
by Denis Davydov
[REGNUM] During the assault on the Avdeevka fortified area in the DPR, fighters from one of the brigades operating in this direction made an unexpected discovery in a Ukrainian dugout. The Ukrainian Armed Forces servicemen decorated the premises with a Soviet Army lieutenant general's jacket with award bars - obviously taken from somewhere.
It so happened that among those who got the uniform item were former searchers, people passionate about history, who were interested in its belonging. And out of habit, they showed the find to their colleagues.
The next few days were devoted to deciphering the pads, in which the correspondent of the IA Regnum also took part. And in the end we managed to determine that the owner of the uniform was awarded two military orders - the Red Banner and the Red Star, which was awarded to "military personnel, employees of state security agencies and other citizens of the USSR for services in the defense of the country, ensuring state security and strengthening defense capability, both in wartime and in peacetime."
The general received another order for length of service - "For Service to the Motherland in the USSR Armed Forces" 3rd degree. In addition, he was a full Cavalier of the medal "For Impeccable Service" and had a number of anniversary awards.
Based on this combination, it can be stated with a high degree of probability that the uniform of the legendary commander of the Dzerzhinsky Division (OMON), Igor Rubtsov, a native of Avdeevka, who died in 2023, was found in the Ukrainian dugout.
That is, Igor Nikolaevich was still alive when his jacket ended up in the hands of Ukrainian soldiers who most likely robbed a local museum - transferring such things to museums in the hero's birthplace (including school museums) has always been a common practice.
On April 6, the day of the general’s funeral, the press service of the Russian National Guard reported that “he belonged to that bright galaxy of military leaders of the internal troops of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs and the internal troops of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs, whose lot it was to defend the territorial integrity and sovereignty of our state during the collapse of the USSR, interethnic conflicts and the repulse of terrorist threats.”
His authority was always reflected in the phrase of one of his senior officers: "The situation is heating up? We need to send Rubtsov..." In the 90s, he held the position of deputy commander of the Internal Troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia for emergency situations.
His service began in 1963 at the Ordzhonikidze Military School of the Ministry of Public Order of the RSFSR, which trained personnel for the internal troops. Having become a platoon commander in the 2nd Regiment of the Separate Motorized Rifle Division of Special Purpose named after F.E. Dzerzhinsky, he eventually became its commander; the longest part of Rubtsov's officer service is associated with the division.
F.E. Dzerzhinsky refers to Felix Dzerzhinsky AKA Iron Felix, a Polish noble who helped establish the original Soviet secret police, Cheka.
Under his leadership, a special purpose training company was formed, which later grew into the Vityaz detachment.
Since 1988, he and his subordinates have visited all the hot spots of the USSR and Russia: during the conflicts in Armenia and Azerbaijan, during the Ossetian-Ingush conflict, and in military operations on the territory of the Chechen Republic.
In 1997, in an interview for the magazine of the Internal Troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs “On duty”, the general shared memorable events:
Baku, Yerevan, Fergana, Nagorno-Karabakh are one thing. Chechnya is different. And we had to endure a lot everywhere. In May 1995, we conducted a special operation in Old Bakayurt. The result was stunning for me as the head of the VOG (military operational group. - Ed.) and for my subordinates. Having routed the militants, we managed to capture several anti-aircraft missile launchers, hundreds of small arms and more than 200 thousand rounds of ammunition. Such things are not forgotten."
In general, he is a legendary man.
However, attempts to find his descendants (it is known that Rubtsov has a son, also a veteran of the Ministry of Internal Affairs) have not been successful. Since the end of May of this year, we have been trying to get help from the All-Russian Public Organization of Veterans of Internal Affairs Bodies, but nothing has happened in the past two months. The last thing we managed to find out is that the Chairman of the Council of Veterans of Law Enforcement Troops, Pyotr Rovensky, left on business.
The army men who keep the general's jacket also reported that "everything has died down" along the veterans' line.
As Alexey Yasinsky, a representative of the 68th Army Corps, told Regnum, the artifact is in his custody and is currently an exhibit of the closed SVO museum. At the same time, the officer expressed his willingness to hand over the item to his relatives if they are found, and declined to comment further.
So we sincerely hope that at least this publication will help the difficult task of finding members of Lieutenant General Rubtsov's family and making a decision about the future fate of the item, which has already received its own interesting biography.
Well, the search is not limited to the jacket.
As the well-known Donetsk searcher Alexander Maltsev, former head of the RPO "Donbass", told the agency, in the same area, in Avdeevka, fighters found a set of awards and documents of junior sergeant Fyodor Doronin. Also stolen by the VSSU in his son's apartment.
A fighter of the 24th Border Regiment of the NKVD troops, a fellow countryman of Rubtsov, was awarded the medal "For Military Merit" for "personally killing three enemy soldiers with his own weapon. Being in a group for the liquidation of small armed groups of the enemy that had left the Iasi-Kishinev encirclement, he also acted bravely to destroy them. While serving in the rear guard of the active Red Army, he demonstrated the ability to detain hostile criminal elements, as a result of which he has a number of valuable detentions to his credit."
The second military award is the medal "For the Capture of Vienna".
As has already been established, the hero's son Alexander remained in Avdeevka and was wounded in August 2022 after stepping on a "Lepestok" mine. His further fate is still unknown, but we really hope that in this case we will be able to find the veteran's relatives and give them what is rightfully theirs.