caption serviceyears branch death_place death_date birth_place allegiance awards battles birth_date nickname rank image article_title name
ilya starinov 1918-1956 soviet army moscow , russia 18 november 2000 voinovo , oryol oblast , russian empire soviet union order revolution order of the red banner x 5 order of of the patriotic war -lrb- 2nd class -rrb- order of courage lenin x 2 order of the october russian war ii civil war spanish civil war winter war world 8 february 1900 grandfather of spetsnaz colonel starinovig.jpg ilya starinov
 ilya grigoryevich starinov
ilya starinov

colonel ilya grigoryevich starinov -lrb- -rrb- -lrb- july 20 -lrb- n.s. august 2 -rrb- , 1900 , village of voynovo , today 's oryol oblast -- november 18 , 2000 -rrb- was a soviet military officer .
starinov joined the red army in 1918 and participated in the russian civil war .
in 1921 he attended a military college for railway troops and served with the soviet railway troops in the 1920s .
he joined the staff of the ukrainian military district in 1930 and took part in planning partisan warfare .
in 1933 he was posted to moscow and joined the staff of the gru .
in september 1933 he attended the military transport academy where he became acquainted with michael svechnykov .
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 '' .
the russian military theorist michael svechnykov , executed by stalin in 1938 , had previously proposed the use of very well-trained forces in unequal combat situations .
this idea was realised by ilya starinov .
the two men thought similarly about the use of such forces .
in 1945 starinov joined the military archive , but was moved to lvov where he took part in the conflict with the ukrainian nationalist insurgency .
he held several staff posts after 1946 , concentrating on developing insurgency tactics .
starinov retired from active service in 1956 , but continued lecturing at military academies and took part in writing the official history of the partisan war .
