World War II In August 1941, Varennikov was drafted by the Armavir city military registration and enlistment office into the ranks of the
Red Army. He attended the
Cherkassk Infantry School, which was then evacuated to
Sverdlovsk following the start of
Operation Barbarossa. From October, the first military recruitment began to train. After an accelerated graduation from the school in the summer of 1942, Varennikov was among the few graduates to be appointed the commander of a training platoon in the reserve rifle brigade stationed in
Gorky, and only in October 1942 he ended up on the
Stalingrad Front as commander of a
mortar platoon of 120-mm regimental mortars of the
138th Rifle Division. He fought in the
Battle of Stalingrad for 79 days and nights. In November 1942, Varennikov was appointed battery commander, and in December of the same year he participated in the destruction of the encircled units of the
German 6th Army commanded by
Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus. In January 1943, he was wounded. After recovering, he returned to duty, enlisted in the operational department of the
35th Guards Rifle Division of the
8th Guards Army. Since March 1943, he was the commander of the mortar battery of the 100th Guards Rifle Regiment, and in the spring of 1944 Varennikov was appointed Deputy Commander of the 100th Guards Rifle Regiment of the
35th Guards Rifle Division of artillery. He participated in the
Battle of the Dnieper, and fought for the liberation of
Belarus and
Poland. When the 8th Guards Army was transferred to the
1st Belorussian Front Varennikov and his regiment took part in the
Operation Bagration. In late July and early August 1944, he entered Polish soil in the
Vistula–Oder offensive and fought for the capture of a bridgehead on the
Vistula south of
Warsaw in
Magnuszew. There he was seriously wounded and was treated in a hospital for four months. After his recovery, he returned to the 100th Guards Rifle Regiment of the
35th Guards Rifle Division as deputy regiment commander of artillery, and in mid-January 1945 he participated in the offensive of Soviet troops from the
Baltic to the
Carpathians. He took part in the battles for the bridgehead in the area of the city of
Kustrin on the
Oder. In March 1945, Varennikov was wounded for the third time in the battles for Kustrin. In March 1945, he was assigned as Chief of Artillery of the 101st Guards Rifle Regiment of the
35th Guards Rifle Division. From April to May, Varennikov finished the
German–Soviet War in the
Battle of Berlin as one of the commanders of the Soviet soldiers who captured the
Reichstag. During the war he was wounded three times and was decorated four times. In June 1945, he took part in the
Moscow Victory Parade of 1945 and immediately before the parade, being the chief of the guard of honor, he received the
Victory Banner. He ended the war with the rank of
captain.
Post war career Varennikov stayed in
East Germany as an officer of the Soviet troops, stationed there until 1950. In 1954 he graduated from the
Frunze Military Academy in
Moscow. Later he graduated from the
General Staff Academy. In 1960 he became deputy commander of a motor rifle division. From 1962 to 1966 Varennikov commanded the
54th Motor Rifle Division of the
Leningrad Military District. In 1964 armed forces inspectors tested the division, and it was awarded as one of the six top divisions of the Ground Forces of the USSR Armed Forces by order of the Minister of Defence. In August 1965 he was enrolled in the
General Staff Academy. From 1967 to 1969 he commanded the 26th Army Corps of the
Leningrad Military District. In 1969 Varennikov took charge of the
3rd Shock Army, and in 1971 he was appointed as the First Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the
Group of Soviet Forces in Germany. On 1973, he became the commander of the
Carpathian Military District. From 1979 to 1984, he served as the Head of the Main Operations Directorate and First Deputy Chief of the
General Staff of the Armed Forces of the USSR. Between 1984 and 1985, Varennikov worked with the Soviet military mission in
Angola, then in the throes of a bloody
civil war. In a sharp contrast with the official policy of only permitting Soviet military advisers to serve in non-combat roles, Varennikov supported allowing the advisers to fight alongside their Angolan allies in the event they came under attack. He was the senior Soviet general officer in Angola during
Operation Askari, and personally advised Angolan President
José Eduardo dos Santos on defensive measures to counter the
South African Defence Force's incursion. During the
Chernobyl Disaster of 1986, Varennikov was the main organizer of the work of military units in deployment of troops to the location of the catastrophe, to help in recovery efforts. By decree of the Presidium of the
USSR Armed Forces of March 3, 1988, he was awarded the title
Hero of the Soviet Union for successful command and control of troops during
Operation Magistral. In 1989 General Varennikov was named
Commander-in-chief of Ground Forces and Deputy Minister of Defence. ==Involvement in the August Coup==