At the age of 19 he was admitted to the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU). From 1970-1971 he was an officer in the intelligence department of the headquarters of the Volga Military District (in the city of Kuibyshev), and later with the 808th Independent Army Reconnaissance Company ("Spetsnaz"). Since 1970 - in the nomenclature of the Central Committee of the CPSU, where he came under the patronage of the commander of the Carpathian Military District, Lieutenant General of Tank Forces (later - General of the Army) Gennady Obaturov, known for suppressing anti-communist uprisings in Hungary in 1956 and later Czechoslovakia in 1968 with ruthless efficiency, for which the general received the Order of the Red Banner.