Sergei Shoigu facts for kids

In this article, the patronymic is Kuzhugetovich and the family name is Shoigu.

Quick facts for kids Hero of the Russian Federation General of the Army Sergei Shoigu
Сергей Шойгу
Official portrait, 2014

Minister of Defence
In office 6 November 2012 – 12 May 2024
President	Vladimir Putin
Prime Minister	Dmitry Medvedev Mikhail Mishustin
Preceded by	Anatoly Serdyukov
Succeeded by	Andrey Belousov
Chairman of the Council of Ministers of Defense of the CIS
Incumbent
Assumed office 11 December 2012
Preceded by	Anatoly Serdyukov
Governor of Moscow Oblast
In office 11 May 2012 – 6 November 2012
Deputy	Ruslan Tsalikov
Preceded by	Boris Gromov
Succeeded by	Ruslan Tsalikov (acting)
Leader of United Russia
In office 1 December 2001 – 27 November 2004 Serving with Yury Luzhkov and Mintimer Shaimiev
Preceded by	Party established
Succeeded by	Boris Gryzlov
Deputy Prime Minister of Russia
In office 10 January 2000 – 18 May 2000
Prime Minister	Vladimir Putin Mikhail Kasyanov (acting)
Leader of Unity
In office 15 October 1999 – 1 December 2001
Minister of Emergency Situations
In office 17 April 1991 – 11 May 2012
President	List Boris Yeltsin Vladimir Putin Dmitry Medvedev Vladimir Putin
Prime Minister	List Ivan Silayev Oleg Lobov (acting) Boris Yeltsin (as President) Yegor Gaidar (acting) Viktor Chernomyrdin Sergey Kiriyenko Viktor Chernomyrdin (acting) Yevgeny Primakov Sergei Stepashin Vladimir Putin Mikhail Kasyanov Viktor Khristenko (acting) Mikhail Fradkov Viktor Zubkov Vladimir Putin Viktor Zubkov (acting) Dmitry Medvedev
Preceded by	Office established
Succeeded by	Vladimir Puchkov
Member of the Security Council of Russia
Incumbent
Assumed office November 2012

Personal details
Born	Sergei Kuzhugetovich Shoigu (1955-05-21) 21 May 1955 (age 68) Chadan, Tuvan Autonomous Oblast, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
Political party	Communist Party of the Soviet Union (1977–1991) Independent (1991–1995) Our Home – Russia (1995–1999) Unity (1999–2001) United Russia (2001–present)
Spouse	Irina Shoigu
Children	Yulia Kseniya
Parent	Kuzhuget Shoigu (father)
Relatives	Larisa Shoigu (sister)
Alma mater	Krasnoyarsk Polytechnical Institute
Awards	Hero of the Russian Federation Order of St. Andrew (with swords)
Signature
Military service
Allegiance	Russia
Branch/service	Military Council of the Civil Defence Troops
Years of service	1991–present
Rank	General of the Army

Sergei Kuzhugetovich Shoigu (born 21 May 1955) is a Russian politician and military officer who served as Minister of Defence of Russia from 2012 to 2024. Shoigu has served as the chairman of the Council of Ministers of Defense of the Commonwealth of Independent States since 2012.

Shoigu was the Minister of Emergency Situations from 1991 to 2012. He briefly served as the governor of Moscow Oblast in 2012.

Early life and education
Early career
Minister of Emergency Situations (1991–2012)
Minister of Defence (2012–2024)
Personal life
- Family
- Hobbies
Honours
- Russian
- Foreign
Images for kids
See also

Early life and education

Shoigu was born on 21 May 1955 in Chadan, Tuvan Autonomous Oblast, to an ethnic Tuvan father, newspaper editor Kuzhuget Shoigu (1921–2010) and a Ukrainian-born Russian mother, Alexandra Yakovlevna Shoigu (1924–2011). Alexandra Shoigu grew up in the Donbas town of Kadiivka and had traumatizing experiences while under detention of the German occupation forces during World War II. Later in her career she became member of the Tuva Regional Council of People's Deputies. Kuzhuget Shoigu rose to secretary of the Tuvan Regional Committee of the Communist Party, becoming a major figure in the Communist power structure of the republic.

After graduating from Kyzyl Number 1 School in the Tuvan ASSR, Shoigu studied at the Krasnoyarsk Polytechnic Institute. Shoigu graduated in 1977 with a degree in civil engineering.

Early career

Shoigu worked in construction projects nationwide for the next decade, advancing from low levels to become an executive. In 1990, Shoigu moved to Moscow from Siberia, and was appointed deputy chairman of the State Architecture and Construction Committee of the Russian Federation.

Minister of Emergency Situations (1991–2012)

Shoigu as Minister of Emergency Situations, 2003

Shoigu and Vladimir Putin in April 2008

In 1991, Yeltsin appointed him head of the newly established Russian Rescue Corps, responsible for the rescue and disaster response system. The Rescue Corps replaced the previous Soviet civil defense system and soon absorbed the 20,000-strong militarized Civil Defense Troops of the Ministry of Defense, with Shoigu being appointed chairman of the State Committee of the Russian Federation for Civil Defense, Emergency Situations, and Disaster Response. Civil Defense remained a quasi-military organization in continuation of Soviet practice and Shoigu was politically involved, such as an unsuccessful attempt to evacuate Russian-backed Afghan President Mohammad Najibullah in 1992 and the intended distribution of weapons from the Civil Defense stocks to Yeltsin supporters during the October 1993 coup. In keeping with the militarized nature of Russian civil defense, Shoigu received the rank of major general in 1993, and was promoted swiftly to lieutenant general in 1995, colonel general in 1998, and to army general, in practice the highest Russian military rank, in 2003. The committee was renamed the Ministry of Emergency Situations (MChS) in 1994, making Shoigu a government minister. He became popular because of his hands-on management style and high visibility during emergency situations, such as floods, earthquakes and acts of terrorism. Under Shoigu, the responsibilities of the ministry were expanded to take over the Russian State Fire Service in 2002, making the MChS Russia's third-largest force structure.

Minister of Defence (2012–2024)

Shoigu in 2015

On 6 November 2012, Shoigu was appointed Minister of Defence by Putin, succeeding Anatoly Serdyukov, who had implemented sweeping reforms of the Russian Armed Forces in response to performance in the Russo-Georgian War. According to expert Sergey Smirnov, the so called "Petersburg group" of siloviki (Sergei Ivanov, Sergey Chemezov and Viktor Ivanov) had wanted one of its associates to succeed Serdyukov, but Putin was reluctant to strengthen the clan and opted for the neutral Shoigu. As defence minister, Shoigu on multiple occasions has accompanied Putin during weekend breaks that the pair would spend at undisclosed locations in the Siberian countryside.

Serdyukov was unpopular with senior military leaders and seen by them as a civilian with no military background, something that Shoigu attempted to address by symbolically tying himself to the military through wearing an army general's uniform, reviving historical units dissolved under the reforms, and reinstating officials dismissed by Serdyukov. Furthermore, Shoigu appealed for support for reform within the army rather than taking a confrontational stance, appointed deputy ministers of defense from the military, and removed Serdyukov-appointed civilian tax service officials from the top echelons of the Ministry of Defense.

As defence minister, Shoigu continued aspects of Serdyukov's attempts at modernizing the Russian Armed Forces through reform. This included the creation of the Special Operations Forces Command to facilitate rapid intervention in conflicts within the perceived Russian sphere of influence and counterterrorism efforts. Serdyukov's goals of increasing the share of the Russian Armed Forces made up of professional contract servicemen rather than conscripts continued under Shoigu. However, the demographic challenge of a decreasing pool of military-aged and -eligible males forced him to increase national conscription quotas in early 2013, including even North Caucasians perceived as a security risk by authorities such as Chechens. This followed on from Serdyukov's initiatives of reducing available draft exemptions.

In November 2012, Shoigu decided to resurrect the tradition of Suvorov and Nakhimov cadets participating in the 9 May parade.

In July 2013 Shoigu ordered commanders to begin every morning in the barracks with a rendition of the Russian anthem, to compile an obligatory military-patriotic book reading list and to take responsibility for the preparation of demobilization albums (a type of memento scrapbook, which in Russian military tradition is given to conscripts upon completion of their service). In August 2013 he ordered all Defense Ministry civilian workers, other staff and management employees to wear uniforms.

Personal life

Shoigu and Putin during their vacation in Tuva on 20 July 2013

According to The Siberian Times, Shoigu is a polyglot who is known to speak eight languages other than Russian fluently, including English, Japanese, Chinese, Tuvan, and Turkish.

Family

Shoigu with his daughter Kseniya Shoygu [ru] and Vladimir Putin on 30 July 2022

Sergei Shoigu was born to Kuzhuget Sereevich Shoigu (1921–2010) and Alexandra Yakovlevna Shoigu (née Kudryavtseva, 1924–2011). His father was born Shoigu Seree oglu Kuzhuget. His name order was changed because of a passport error, according to the Tuva official line. More likely, he Russified the name from Turkic oglu 'son of...'. Kuzhuget was an editor of a regional newspaper. He later worked in the Communist Party and for the Soviet authorities. He was the secretary of the Tuva Party Committee. He retired with the rank of first deputy chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Tuva ASSR.

Shoigu's father led the Tuvan State Archives. He spent six years as the editor of the newspaper Pravda. He wrote the novels Time and People, Feather of the Black Vulture (2001), Tannu Tuva: the Country of Lakes and Blue Rivers (2004).

Shoigu's mother Alexandra was born in the village of Yakovlev in the Oryol Oblast. From there, shortly before the Great Patriotic War, her family moved to Kadiivka in the Luhansk Oblast, Ukraine. A zootechnician, Alexandra was an Honored Worker of Agriculture of the Republic of Tuva. From 1979 she was the head of the Planning Department of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic. She was repeatedly elected deputy of the Supreme Soviet (parliament) of the Tuva ASSR. Sergei's great uncle, Seren Kuzhuget, was the commander of the Tuvan People's Revolutionary Army from 1929 to 1938.

Sergei has two sisters: Larisa Kuzhugetovna Shoigu (1953–2021), who was a deputy of the State Duma; and Irina Zakharova (born 1960), a psychiatrist.

Shoigu married Irina Alexandrovna Shoigu (née Antipina). She is president of the business tourism company Expo-EM. They have two daughters, Yulia (1977) and Kseniya (1991).

Hobbies

Shoigu, Putin and Arkady Dvorkovich on 16 May 2015

Shoigu enjoys studying the history of Russia, especially Peter the Great's time and the era between 1812 and 1825 (which includes the French invasion of Russia and the Decembrist revolt).

Shoigu collects Indian, Chinese, and Japanese swords and daggers. He enjoys bard songs and plays the guitar. He does water color paintings and graphics. He enjoys carpentry, and has shown some of his work to Putin.

Honours

Shoigu, Alexander Bastrykin, Valery Gerasimov and other prominent figures of the Putin regime at the award ceremony on 8 December 2022

Russian

Hero of the Russian Federation
Order of St Andrew with swords
Order of Merit for the Fatherland 1st class
Order of Merit for the Fatherland 2nd class
Order of Merit for the Fatherland 3rd class
Order of Alexander Nevsky
Order of Honour
Order for Personal Courage (USSR)
Medal "For the Return of Crimea"
Medal Defender of a Free Russia
Medal "In Commemoration of the 850th Anniversary of Moscow"
Medal "In Commemoration of the 300th Anniversary of Saint Petersburg"
Medal "In Commemoration of the 1000th Anniversary of Kazan"
Three Medals "For Strengthening Military Cooperation" (Ministry of Defence)
Medal "For Diligence in Engineering Tasks" (Ministry of Defence)
Medal "200 Years of the Ministry of Defence" (Ministry of Defence)
Medal of Great Awareness in Geo-political Affairs (Foreign Ministry)
Medal "200 Years of the Ministry of Internal Affairs" (MVD)
Medal "For Merit of the Stavropol Territory"
Honoured Rescue Worker of the Russian Federation
Order of Rightitude (Ministry of Internal Affairs – for services to being correct on the territory of the Russian Federation)
Order of "Merit of the Altai Territory"
Honorary Citizen of Kemerovo Oblast
Honorary Citizen of Tula Oblast

Foreign

Medal of the Order of Courage (Abkhazia)
First Class of the Order of Friendship (Kazakhstan)
Medal of the Order "Danaker" (Kyrgyzstan)
Military Class of the Order pro Merito Melitensi
Medal of the Order of the Red Banner (Mongolia)
Grand Commander of the Order of the Union of Burma (Myanmar) Sithu class
Grand Cross with silver star of the Order of Ruben Dario (Nicaragua)
First Class of the Order of the Serbian Flag (Serbia)
Medal of the Uatsamonga Order (South Ossetia)
Military Commonwealth Medal (Syria)
Medal of the Friendship Order (Vietnam)

Images for kids

Shoigu, Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev at the Moscow Victory Day Parade, May 2014
Shoigu, Putin, Nikolai Patrushev and Dmitry Rogozin at a meeting of the Military-Industrial Commission of Russia on 19 September 2015
Shoigu and Dvornikov (2nd from the left) alongside other Russian advisors at Khmeimim Air Base, June 2016
Shoigu with Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu, October 2017
Shoigu meets U.S. National Security Advisor John R. Bolton in Moscow in October 2018.
Members of the Council of Ministers of Defense of the CIS at the meeting in Moscow in November 2021
Putin meeting with Shoigu in April 2022, after Russia's defeat at the Battle of Kyiv
Shoigu at the SCO defence ministers' meeting in New Delhi, India, 28 April 2023
Shoigu inspects T-90M tanks ready for combat in Ukraine, June 2023.
Shoigu with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Pyongyang, North Korea, 27 July 2023
Sergei Shoigu, President of Russia Vladimir Putin and Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov at the Center-2019 military exercises. Orenburg Oblast, 2019.