Lebed had a problematic history with respect to human rights. He had demonstrated that he personally regarded violence to be a means of persuasion, and had acted accordingly while a general. In the years leading up to the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Lebed was involved in military efforts to suppress ethnic unrest. This included, in the spring of 1989, an effort to quash unrest in Georgia in which more than twenty people were killed and dozens wounded when spetsnaz troops commanded by Lebed used sapper shovels and chemical weapons on crowds. In the winter of 1990, Lebed carried out orders to impose martial law in the Azerbaijani capital of Baku by using armored personnel carriers to transport troops who shot, stabbed to death, and crushed hundreds of Azerbaijanis. Lebed recanted on his previous use of force in this manner, reflecting that, "I know for sure that constitutional order cannot be restored by using air force, tanks and artillery. We used military power in Tbilisi, Baku, Vilnius. Where are they today-Georgia, Azerbaijan, Lithuania? Everything we tried to keep by force was lost. Now everything is being done in order to lose Chechnya."