Ilya Starinov

Colonel Ilya Grigoryevich Starinov (Илья Григорьевич Старинов) (July 20 (N.S. August 2), 1900, village of Voynovo, today's Oryol Oblast - November 18, 2000) was a Soviet military officer.

He served with the Republican forces during the Spanish Civil War and was one of the leaders of the Soviet partisan movement during the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945. He is known as the "grandfather of the Russian spetsnaz". Primary conception of strategy and tactic of application of the special forces real belongs to the Russian military theorist Michael Svechnykov (Stalin killed him in 1938), and could to starting from the bold dream about victory in an unequal fight because had dependence with Russian military traditional readiness to the unequal fight, but practical realization was begun by the "grandfather of the Russian spetsnaz" Ilya Starinov. They were like-minded persons.

Honours and awards

 * Two Orders of Lenin
 * Order of the October Revolution
 * Five Orders of the Red Banner
 * Order of the Patriotic War 2nd class
 * Order of Friendship of Peoples (Russian Federation)
 * Order of Courage (Russian Federation)
 * Medal of Zhukov (Russian Federation)
 * Medal "Partisan of the Patriotic War" 1st class
 * Medal "For Distinction in Guarding the State Border of the USSR"
 * Medal "For the Defence of Stalingrad"
 * Medal "For the Defence of Moscow"
 * Medal "For the Defence of the Caucasus"
 * Medal "For the Victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945"
 * Jubilee Medal "Twenty Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941-1945"
 * Jubilee Medal "Thirty Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941-1945"
 * Jubilee Medal "Forty Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941-1945"
 * Medal "For Valiant Labour in the Great Patriotic War 1941-1945"
 * Medal "Veteran of the Armed Forces of the USSR"
 * Jubilee Medal "XX Years of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army"
 * Jubilee Medal "30 Years of the Soviet Army and Navy"
 * Jubilee Medal "40 Years of the Armed Forces of the USSR"
 * Jubilee Medal "50 Years of the Armed Forces of the USSR"
 * Jubilee Medal "60 Years of the Armed Forces of the USSR"
 * Jubilee Medal "70 Years of the Armed Forces of the USSR"
 * Medal "In Commemoration of the 800th Anniversary of Moscow"
 * Medal "In Commemoration of the 1500th Anniversary of Kiev"
 * Jubilee Medal "50 Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941-1945" (Russian Federation)