[2] After graduating from college, he served as commander of a motorized rifle platoon of the Soviet Army.

[2] By the dissolution of the Soviet Union, he was commander of the 99th Motorized Rifle Division of the Far Eastern Military District in the Magadan Oblast.

[3] During that summer and that fall, he was the First Deputy Commander of the 40th Kazakh Combined Arms Army.

[2] In October 1992, he was appointed to the post of Commander of the 1st Army Corps, headquartered in Semipalatinsk.

He was dismissed from this post in February 1994, being appointed Commander of the Ground Forces and First Deputy Minister of Defense of the Republic of Kazakhstan.