Lev Rokhlin. Ordered to forget

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

On the night of July 2–3, 1988, General Rokhlin, who was in opposition to the existing government and was very popular among the people, was shot dead at his own dacha in the village of Klokovo. The investigation established that his wife Tamara shot because of another family quarrel. However, most people are sure that this is not a domestic murder and Tamara Rokhlina was not involved in the death of her husband.

Combat General

Lev Yakovlevich Rokhlin was born in Central Asia into a family of exiles. After becoming a soldier, he fought in Afghanistan, where he commanded a motorized rifle regiment and was wounded twice. After studying at the Academy of the General Staff, he becomes the chief of the military garrison in Volgograd. During the First Chechen campaign, he commanded the 8th Guards Corps. Participated in the capture of Grozny and the storming of the presidential palace of Dudayev.

Officers and soldiers recalled Rokhlin as a real general who did not hide behind their backs. He is one of the few army officials who, in the course of the Chechen campaign, remained with an unblemished reputation. Together with General Babichev, he negotiated an armistice with Chechen commanders. He refused the title "Hero of Russia", saying: "In a civil war, commanders cannot gain glory. The war in Chechnya is not Russia's glory, but its misfortune."

Since 1995, he has been a member of the Our Home Russia party, but in 1997 he left it and headed his own political force: the Movement in Support of the Army, Defense Industry and Military Science. He was one of the main oppositionists of Boris Yeltsin, whom he accused of high treason and the collapse of the army. According to the testimony of friends and colleagues, he planned to overthrow the president and establish a military dictatorship in Russia to restore order in the country.

Discrepancies in the case

Lev Yakovlevich was found dead in a bed on the second floor. At the same time, there was a bullet mark in the kitchen of the first floor at a height of two meters from the floor. It is doubtful that Rokhlin was not awakened by the roar of the first shot fired indoors and in the middle of the night.

The autopsy of the victim was carried out by the forensic expert of the Ministry of Defense Viktor Kalkutin, who came to the conclusion that the bullet hit exactly the part of the brain that is responsible for respiratory function, heart function and physical activity. With such an injury, instant death occurs. The specialist believes that this may be a coincidence, but this is where snipers and professional killers are aiming.

During the examination of the suspect Tamara Rokhlina, numerous injuries were found on her body, and there were no prints of the general's wife on the pistol. The investigation did not reveal any trace of the murder weapon at all.

Most likely there were strangers in the Rokhlins' house on the night of July 2–3. Evidence of this is the open front door immediately after the murder and three burnt bodies found in the forest belt closest to the village. The police believe that this is a coincidence, however, it is difficult to believe in it. Most likely, this is how the organizers of the murder of Lev Yakovlevich covered their tracks and eliminated the direct perpetrators.

The political version of the murder

In the summer of 1998, a rally of miners was held near the Government House, over which the black banner of the Salvation Army was raised. The action attracted the attention of the whole country. Rokhlin also came to the miners several times, and on his last visit he was accompanied by the Cossack chieftain Kudinov.

Lev Yakovlevich wanted to support the workers' rally and bring twenty thousand people to Moscow. Retired officers, defense industry workers from Tula and Smolensk, the Rostov Cossacks, together with the miners, must force Yeltsin and the government to resign. Rokhlin did not hide his plans and wanted to start the action immediately after the end of the World Youth Games in Moscow.

Elena Lyapicheva, author of General Rokhlin - Always with Russia, who was personally acquainted with Lev Yakovlivech, believes that the authorities were afraid of the rally, in which not grandmothers and city madmen participate, but adult men from all over Russia, could end in a coup. The general was monitored by counterintelligence and knew about family quarrels in the Rokhlin family. The former security officers decided to remove an influential general from the "chessboard" and throw the blame on his wife.

Wife version

Tamara Rokhlina was kept in a pre-trial detention center for a year and a half, and her son Igor, a lifelong invalid of group I, was left without care. The woman claimed that the killers were wearing masks and threatened her with the death of her son if she did not take the blame. The court, without direct evidence, sentenced Tamara Rokhlina to 8 years in prison. In her last speech at the court on November 15, 2000, she stated that "my husband was going to peacefully throw the Kremlin temporary workers off the neck of the mucked people."

The woman believes that the direct perpetrator of the murder is the general's guards. After the tragedy, huge money collected by Rokhlin's associates disappeared from the dacha, and when the storm subsided, the bodyguard of the murdered Alexander Pleskachev became a successful businessman. To the lawyers' questions: what did you do on the night of the murder and why did not the general's guard, the dacha watchman and the driver hear the sounds of shots, they did not give a clear answer.

After Rokhlin's death, there was no man left in the country with the same credit of trust from the people. The opposition became faceless and the robbery of Russia continued. It is noteworthy that documents concerning the "Uranium deal" with the United States, which he was going to announce at a meeting of the State Duma, disappeared from the general's house.