[2] From 1989 to 1992 he was the (penultimate) commander of the Soviet Northern Group of Forces in Poland.

On 10 June 1992, Dubynin was appointed by President Boris Yeltsin as Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.

On the 5 October, he became Russia's first general of the army since the Collapse of the Soviet Union.

At that moment Dubynin was already suffering from terminal cancer, so the then-Minister of Defense Pavel Grachev had to visit him at his hospital ward in order to hand Dubynin's shoulder boards over to him.

Dubynin died on 22 November 1992 after his long struggle with cancer.