Leonty Shevtsov

Colonel General Leonty Shevtsov
Леонтий Шевцов
Shevtsov in 2019
Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs
In office August 1997 – April 1999
Personal details
Born	(1946-03-14) March 14, 1946 North Kazakhstan Region, Kazakh SSR, Soviet Union
Military service
Allegiance	Soviet Union Russia
Branch/service	Soviet Army Russian Ground Forces Internal Troops of Russia
Years of service	1964–2007
Rank	Colonel general
Commands	Internal Troops 1st Guards Tank Army
Battles/wars	First Chechen War

Leonty Pavlovich Shevtsov (Russian: Леонтий Павлович Шевцов; born 14 March 1946) is a retired Russian colonel general. He served in a number of senior positions, including as the Commander-in-Chief of the Internal Troops of Russia from 1997 to 1998 and as a Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs from 1997 to 1999.

After becoming an officer in the Soviet Army he commanded units at every level from a platoon to a field army. During the early 1990s, he was the commander of the 1st Guards Tank Army, the deputy chief of the Main Operations Directorate at the Russian General Staff, and the chief of staff of the Joint Group of Forces in Chechnya. Shevtsov became the Deputy for Russian Forces at the NATO military headquarters from 1995 to 1997, when Russia deployed one brigade for the NATO peacekeeping mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina, so that the Supreme Allied Commander Europe, a U.S. general, could have operational control over the Russian brigade through him. Shevtsov was later the head of the Internal Troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the late 1990s after returning to Russia.

Early life and education

Leonty Shevtsov was born on 14 March 1946 in the village of Stepnoye, Timiryazev District, in the North Kazakhstan Region of the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic.

Shevtsov joined the Soviet Army in 1964. His military education includes graduating from the Tashkent Higher Combined Arms Command School in 1968, the Frunze Military Academy in 1977, and the General Staff Academy in 1990.

Military career

He was first stationed with the Western Group of Forces in Germany before being sent to serve in Siberia. After attending the Frunze Military Academy in the mid-1970s he spent his service in the Soviet Far East until 1988. During those years he commanded units from the platoon to the division level. Shevtsov then attended the General Staff Academy and after graduating he was sent to the Western Group of Forces in Germany. He commanded the 1st Guards Tank Army from 1992 to 1993, during which time he oversaw its relocation from Germany to Smolensk, Russia.

In March 1993 Shevtsov became the Deputy Chief of the Main Operations Directorate, General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. When Lieutenant General Anatoly Kvashnin was appointed to lead the Joint Group of Federal Forces in Chechnya in December 1994, he chose to have Shevtsov as his chief of staff. Shevtsov and the General Staff only had a couple of weeks to plan for the operation. During the early phase of the First Chechen War he was responsible for planning and implementing the military operations there and took part in the battles of Grozny, Argun, Gudermes, and Shali. Shevtsov remained in the role of chief of staff in Chechnya until April 1995, and in June 1995 he was also succeeded as the Deputy Chief of the Main Operations Directorate by Lieutenant General Yuri Baluyevsky.

NATO

In late 1995, when the Dayton Agreement was negotiated to end the Bosnian War, the U.S. wanted Russia to participate in the deployment of a peacekeeping force to separate the warring factions and ensure the implementation of the agreement. Three months of negotiations took place to determine the political framework under which Russian troops would be operating, which involved talks between U.S. Defense Secretary William J. Perry and Russian Defense Minister Pavel Grachev. At the ministerial level, a decision was made to send Russian General Staff officers to NATO on 8 October 1995, and Colonel General Shevtsov was chosen to lead the Russian Ministry of Defense Operational Group to be sent there. The exact solution was worked out by him and U.S. Army General George Joulwan, the NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR).

Shevtsov and a delegation of five Russian officers arrived at the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) in Mons, Belgium, on 15 October 1995. As part of their arrangement to integrate the Russian force into the NATO mission command structure, a new position was created at SHAPE called the Deputy to the Supreme Allied Commander Europe for Russian Forces. They worked out the details for the Russian participation in the NATO peacekeeping mission and established the framework for it at the operational and strategic level. That included a permanent group of officers to represent the Russian General Staff at SHAPE and maintain contact between them, led by the Deputy for Russian Forces. Shevtsov was the first Deputy and the head of the Russian Ministry of Defense Operational Group at SHAPE. The Russian 1st Separate Airborne Brigade that was deployed to Bosnia on 12 January 1996 was under the tactical command of Multi-National Division North, led by U.S. Major General William Nash, while being under the operational control of Supreme Allied Commander Europe through Shevtsov, the Deputy for Russian Forces. It was the first deployment of Russian military forces under NATO command.

There were regular meetings between Shevtsov, Joulwan, and their staffs at SHAPE during the mission. Russia continued its participation in the mission when in late 1996 the Implementation Force in Bosnia became the Stabilization Force. According to Joulwan, the cooperation between NATO and Russia at SHAPE and in Bosnia contributed to the development and signing of the NATO–Russia Founding Act at the 1997 Paris summit. Shevtsov was awarded the Legion of Merit by the U.S. for his work at SHAPE. Speaking about the NATO-Russian military-to-military cooperation, he said "We military have set an example for our politicians by demonstrating that the question of Russian participation in a peacekeeping operation in Bosnia-Herzegovina jointly with the Americans ... can be successfully solved."

Interior Ministry

After a year and a half at the NATO military headquarters, he returned to Russia and was appointed the Commander of the Internal Troops in August 1997. The appointment of Shevtsov, an army general with no experience in the Interior Ministry, was interpreted as helping bring the Internal Troops under the control of the Defense Ministry and of his ally, General Anatoly Kvashnin, who was then the Chief of the General Staff. It was also to begin reform in the Internal Troops, which had up to that point been unaffected by the reforms taking place in the Armed Forces. The reforms that Shevtsov implemented at the Internal Troops included creating high-readiness units, raising the professionalism of officers, and improving combat training and material conditions. He was succeeded in that role by Pavel Maslov in May 1998.

After commanding the Internal Troops, from May 1998 to April 1999 he led the Main Directorate of the Interior Ministry in the North Caucasus. Shevtsov was also a Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs during the time that he led the Internal Troops and the Interior Ministry in the North Caucasus. After that, until his retirement in 2007, he was the inspector of the main command of the Internal Troops. Several years later, when the National Guard of Russia was created from the Internal Troops, he became an advisor to its commander, Viktor Zolotov.

Awards

Domestic

• Order "For Merit to the Fatherland", 4th class
• Order of Military Merit
• Order "For Service to the Homeland in the Armed Forces of the USSR", 2nd and 3rd classes

Foreign

• United States: Legion of Merit

References

• Thomas, Timothy L. (September–October 1996). "Russian Lessons Learned in Bosnia". Military Review. 76 (5): 38–43.
• Zisk, Kimberly Marten (Summer 1999). "Contact Lenses: Explaining U.S.-Russian Military-to-Military Ties". Armed Forces & Society. 25 (4): 579–611. JSTOR 45346330.