The Chechen war through the eyes of a resident of Grozny. Black Sea Marines in Chechnya Alexander Ardyshev – Seradzhi Dudayev
September 11, 1999, Marine reconnaissance officers Black Sea Fleet under the overall command of the then Major Vadim Klimenko, they arrived in the area immediately adjacent to the borders of Ichkeria, free from all laws - both human and state. The Black Sea troops, first of all, were given three weeks for additional training, replenishment and exchange of combat experience with other special forces.
There a real war began for them.Chechnya has fought hundreds of thousands of people in uniform. The Russian military has acquired the skills of a large-scale anti-terrorist operation. It’s another matter when, due to the obvious unpreparedness of the “linear” units of the mother infantry, internal troops it was necessary to throw reconnaissance and special forces into battle, which were clearly not intended for military operations.
They themselves tell how the Black Sea “black-beret” scouts fought.
Along the “Gyurza” trail
From the memoirs of Hero of Russia Lieutenant Colonel Vladimir Karpushenko and Major Denis Ermishko.
The first thing that pleasantly surprised the “black berets” in the fall of 1999 in the burning Northern Caucasus was the attitude of the command, officers, warrant officers and soldiers from other branches of the military towards them. The Marine Corps has been valued since the time of the first Chechen campaign, and among the Russian soldiers who underwent baptism of fire in Dagestan and Chechnya there was not even a hint of any kind of bravado - they say, you, the Black Sea people, have not even smelled gunpowder yet, but here we are! On the contrary, the general opinion was something like this: we received excellent reinforcements, excellent fighters who would never let us down.
The Black Sea soldiers found acquaintances among the special forces. Captain Oleg Kremenchutsky fought in Chechnya during the first campaign. He has a special opinion about the enemy:
The enemy is experienced, cautious, well prepared, acts smartly and cunningly. There is one peculiarity - “spirits” will never start a battle if they do not have an escape route. Their tactics are as follows: using ambush actions to inflict the greatest damage and escape with minimal losses. By the way, their intelligence work is excellent. Any Chechen is essentially their agent.
Three weeks passed in a tense rhythm. Before lunch there was combat training, after which equipment maintenance took place until late in the evening.
The scouts eagerly absorbed any information about the enemy, about the strengths and weaknesses of our units, about the capabilities of our aviation and artillery. After all, success, and sometimes your life, depends on interaction with brothers in arms.
And then Denis Ermishko, commander of the second platoon with the call sign "Gyurza", did not leave the battles with his scouts for seven months. Detachments of field commanders Raduev, Basayev, Khattab acted against the Black Sea people... The scouts had to deal with. a well-trained, experienced, cruel and dangerous opponent:
We had to fight with Arabs, Afghans, and mercenaries of Slavic origin. Among them we did not meet amateurs. There were neither fools nor fanatics among them. By and large, we fought with militants trained according to all the rules of the modern Russian military school, often trained by our former officers, armed with the same weapons as us.
Long months of fighting passed at the limit of human strength. On the map, an ordinary reconnaissance exit was easily and simply indicated by a pencil line, covering only 10-15 kilometers. But the paper kilometers were multiplied tenfold by countless combing of the green stuff, endless ascents and descents in ravines, hills, gorges, crossing rapid mountain streams and rivers. And all - under the vigilant surveillance of hostile eyes, under the sights of machine guns, grenade launchers, sniper rifles, under fire from a difficult-to-detect enemy.
Later, when the company returned from Chechnya, the command asked the intelligence officers for data on military clashes with “spirits.” The Marines thought and suddenly realized one simple thing: in Chechnya, not only did they not have time, it never even occurred to them to count the number of battles. The Marines were just doing their job. But in order not to violate the established order and reporting, captain Vladimir Karpushenko counted the number of the most memorable military skirmishes with the enemy. There were about thirty of them. Every day, reconnaissance groups of Black Sea residents went out on missions. And so all 210 days of the Chechen epic of the Marines.
The "spirits" carefully prepared an ambush for the scouts. Radio interception showed that the intensity of enemy negotiations had increased sharply. Captain Karpushenko literally felt the danger with his skin and even pointed with his hand - look, there, in the fishing line, is an ideal place for an ambush. At that very second, it was from there that the bandits opened fire.
Junior Sergeant Nurulla Nigmatulin from Bashkiria received a bullet as soon as he jumped from the armor of the armored vehicle... He was the first of seven Black Sea reconnaissance soldiers to die. A cheerful fellow who got along well with everyone in the company, an excellent machine gunner - he was destined by fate to die for Russia in the mountains of Chechnya, far from his homeland. Sergeant Alexey Anisimov, the radio operator, immediately picked up Nurulla’s machine gun. And, I want to believe, he was able to avenge his dead brother.
Alexey, by the way, later served business card Marines. For communication, he was sent to one of the special forces units airborne troops. Then the landing commander asked Denis Ermishko in surprise: “Are all of you such rex-wolfhounds?” This caused considerable surprise. Alexey Anisimov is certainly an excellent radio operator, good scout, courageous, reliable and cold-blooded. But with all this, it is far from the “universal combat vehicle” that it seemed to the special forces.
The first death of a subordinate seemed to divide the life of Denis-Tyurza." He realized with all his being what actually stood behind the phrase he had heard more than once: the commander dies every time his soldiers die, and the commander, saving the lives of his subordinates, protects his own life. For fate sometimes gives them, regardless of shoulder straps, one fate for all.
Captain Alexei Milashevich's company from the Northern Fleet Marine Battalion went to the mountains to carry out a combat mission. The Black Sea Marines, to ensure that the northerners went on a mission, sent their detachment group: senior lieutenant I. Sharashkin, senior sailor G. Kerimov and sailor S. Pavlikhin.
On December 30, 1999, the Marines saddled Hill 1407, already nicknamed ominous. This name of the nameless height was explained very simply - from its top fire was constantly fired at our troops. And by all indications, it was there that the militants had something like a base with a developed defense system. Battalion commander Lieutenant Colonel Anatoly Belezeko uttered a non-statutory phrase on air in the evening:
Lekha, get away from the hill.
Milasevic replied:
- "Cube", I'm "Carbine", Everything is fine. Night. let's hold on...
Perhaps no one will ever know what Captain Milosevic’s mistake was. And was there even a miscalculation? But at about 8.30 am the “polar bears” were surrounded by “spirits”. The fierce battle lasted an hour and a half. The scouts saw perfectly well how their fellow Marines were being crushed by bandits with fire, knocking the “black berets” one after another beyond the brink of life. Even the day before, the Black Sea men took up a position on the top of a neighboring hill. The battlefield is only two kilometers away in a straight line. But where can you get wings to fly and help your friends? It takes eight hours to get along the slopes and through the forests to the place of the bloody battle. And only if you’re in a hurry and don’t particularly pay attention to ambushes and shelling. The Marines' hearts were torn from pain, impotent hatred, and anger.
The soul of the detachment went to heaven drop by drop, and each one was the life of one of the twelve warriors of the “black infantry”.
When the first group of Black Sea soldiers reached the battlefield, the officer reported on the radio:
- "Cube", "Cube", all - "two hundredths".
The company commander of the northerners lay facing the enemy. He fired until his last breath. And not a single “black beret” even tried to utter a word about mercy. The seriously wounded senior lieutenant Igor Sharashkin ordered the few surviving Marines to leave him and retreat. He lay bleeding. The bullets set fire to a nearby haystack. The officer was burning, unable to crawl away from the stack. The bandits stood nearby and laughed, they say; Don’t rely on mercy, we won’t finish you off...
On that hill, “Gyurza” lost his college classmate, senior lieutenant Yuri Kuragin.
Since then, the height has been called Matrosskaya.
What is special about our soldier and how much has he changed in recent years? - Denis Ermishko repeats my question, - I know what a Russian soldier was like before, only from books, films and stories of veterans. How is he fighting now?
“Gyurza” speaks sparingly, his assessments are devoid of any verbal heaps. In the depths of his soul, the Russian man has retained his eternal kindness. But as soon as a Russian, as they say, has only once been punched in the teeth, washed with blood, seen the death of friends, heard the screams of wounded comrades, he is transformed. In battle, our soldier is cold-blooded, merciless, cunning and cautious, capable of outplaying the most skilled enemy, has an excellent command of weapons, and is constantly learning to fight even better.
On the next mission to the mountains, one of the Marines was seriously wounded. It was not possible to bring him to his location. The fighting friends bandaged the wounded man, took him to a relatively quiet place, and covered him with fallen leaves. And then they held a defense around him until help arrived. Not one of them even had the thought of leaving their comrade, moving away so as not to risk their lives.
When preparing to go on a mission, the scouts tried to take as much ammunition and grenades as possible instead of dry rations. Food was limited, only the bare minimum. It happened that the exit was delayed. And the reconnaissance groups ate pasture in the forest for two or three days. But the next time out, everything repeated itself. Ammunition came first, food was taken with us last. In battle, the life of a soldier and the success of the combat mission depend on the number of cartridges.
In the photographs, no matter how hard you try, you will not see scouts in bulletproof vests. Undoubtedly, more reliable individual protection for an infantryman from shrapnel and bullets than a bulletproof vest has not yet been invented. But the scouts thought differently. The strength and success of reconnaissance group warriors lies in their maneuverability, their ability to quickly move over rough terrain. And if you carry a heavy and uncomfortable armored vehicle for more than one, not two - tens of kilometers in the mountains, then how mobile and maneuverable will the reconnaissance officer be in a short-lived combat encounter, where speed of action decides everything?
Denis Ermishko, having gone through the war, was personally convinced that all textbooks, manuals, instructions, combat documents on intelligence training were truly written in blood, absorbing the experience of generations.
But the Russian soldier, it seems, remained the same, as if woven from the best fighting and human qualities.
Major Ermishko belongs to that generation of young officers who did not experience any special “peacekeeping” illusions regarding the role and place of the Russian army at the present stage of development of the Fatherland.
The year he entered the school, 1994, coincided with the beginning of the first Chechen campaign. The shame of August 96, when Grozny, abundantly watered with Russian blood, was abandoned without a single shot, all the cadets felt deeply. The school battalion commander, an experienced Afghan combat officer, said then:
We will not leave Chechnya so easily. Get ready to fight, guys. Combat is an officer's element.
Denis was preparing himself for a real war. A red diploma of graduation from college is only one detail reflecting this preparation. First class in boxing, excellent command of hand-to-hand combat techniques, permanent job over himself, training his already tenacious memory, exercising in the art of tactics... In a word, he did not allow himself to relax.
Time flew by unnoticed in the conversation. In parting, I asked one last question to the reconnaissance company commander, who was awarded the Order of Courage and the Medal “For Courage” - if he had a choice, could he return to another hot spot?
To be honest, I’m fed up with the war and up to my throat. And I know how dirty and dangerous it is. But if necessary, I will fulfill my duty to the end.
Nehero of Russia
From the memoirs of Lieutenant Colonel Vadim Klimenko.
Only a few orders recognize the merits of a warrior. The stern plowmen of any war, without error and more accurately than all the “jewelers” from higher headquarters, will determine to the granular extent everything truly precious, by blood, the contents of any award. After all, warriors do not measure the honorable value of any award in gold and silver. And the modest medal “For Courage” from the “forties, fatal” ones, according to the unspoken front-line hierarchy, is sometimes listed as much more significant than other “post-war” orders on the invisible scales of valor.
Three times during battles in the unrecognized war in the Chechen Republic, the commander of the tactical group of the Black Sea Fleet, Lieutenant Colonel Vadim Klimenko, was nominated for the high rank of Hero of Russia. “Black Berets” under his command covered the warehouses of “spirits” with weapons. In one of these caches a tank and a self-propelled artillery mount were waiting in the wings. “Striped devils” from intelligence took part in the seizure of the camp for training Khattab’s militants. Dozens of times the Black Sea people fought to the death with an experienced and superbly trained enemy. Thousands of kilometers have been walked and traveled along mountain paths and roads, slimy from soldiers’ blood, during THAT undeclared, but almost ten-year war.
Is it about the reward? After all, you survived and were not even wounded. There, on the passes of the mountainous republic, he found friendship tested in the face of death. A friend and fighting brother, Major Vladimir Karpushenko, became a Hero of Russia - for them all, both living and dead.
For Lieutenant Colonel Vadim Klimenko, as a scout, the moment of supreme happiness was the meager words of recognition after the battle of the special forces elite from Vympel - and among the “ordinary” troops there are professionals equal to us. People like you, Vadim and your scouts.
The true greatness of the Russian soldier, no matter how sophisticated the Goebbel-Udugov propaganda at all times, is in his human heart. The piercing incident will forever be etched in Vadim’s memory of that war. In frosty January 2000, late in the evening, the reconnaissance group was returning from a search. The cold and fatigue seemed unbearable. All I wanted was to sleep and grab something from a long-forgotten hot meal.
At the pass, the scouts saw a stalled tractor, in the trailer of which were Chechens - women, old people, children. It soon became clear: refugees were returning home from Ingushetia. The special officer, he was with the Black Sea men at the exit, suggested to Klimenko - let’s help, take them home. Wherever we take them, there are plenty of our own inside the combat vehicle. And if you put them on the “armor,” you can freeze the children. And it can fit ten or twelve people. We decided not to guess, but to ask the Chechens themselves. The old man with a long beard, white as a harrier, agreed, because rather than wait for help from nowhere, it was better to go with the Russian soldiers. While the busy mothers were moving with their little boys onto the armored vehicle, Vadim went up to one old woman and helped throw a sack of things onto the top of the armored personnel carrier. Suddenly, he heard a little boy about four years old literally burst into hysterical crying.
The commander decided to calm the crying boy by “using” a remedy universal for all times and peoples - chocolate. He literally pushed away the outstretched hand with a tile of a delicacy unheard of for ordinary Chechen children. The elder politely and calmly told Vadim - don’t be surprised, Russian. In the fall, during the bombing, your attack aircraft scared the child so much that he experiences an animal fear of the Russian military.
A lump of bitterness and sympathy for the small man who had already experienced so much rolled up in Vadim’s throat. The elder noticed his condition and said, “You, commander, probably have the same thing growing at home.”
That evening, exhausted from fatigue, the scouts made a fifteen-kilometer detour while they took everyone home. The last to get to her home, as if glued to a high rock, was a mother of about seventeen, with already three children. The Marines tried to help her bring her things and “heirs” to the doorstep. Nota flatly refused. Relatives will not “understand” if they find out that the Russians helped her.
In war, the first thing you encounter is a feeling of fear for your life and that of your comrades. Only the insane are not afraid. Then, suddenly you realize how much this very fear “gets” you, how it interferes with your life. Little by little, day after day, by force of will, you convince yourself - stop feeling afraid, it’s time to get used to danger, treat it more calmly. Then, after the first losses, embitterment appears, a desire to avenge the death of friends and comrades. And here you try not to give free rein to your feelings. In battle, they are the worst adviser. But your mind carefully evaluates everything that is happening around. When the wave of emotions subsides, you begin to wonder about the meaning of war... And you understand that it is unlikely that any other path than the current one is possible: destroy the gangs and build a peaceful life, no matter how impossible it may seem.
About the enemy... There, in Serzhen-Yurt, in the Khattab camps, they came across training manuals from Arab instructors. The simplicity and clarity of the instructions and all kinds of instructions made it possible, within a short period of time, to train even a young child as a demolitionist, marksman, or grenade launcher. The entire training system was based on one thing - to overcome your fear, your pain, your weakness, no matter what the risk. The “spirits” do not even know about such a well-known concept to all Russian commanders as the safety of military service. The main thing for them was and remains to prepare a real warrior at any cost. And they perceive injuries and mutilations in the classroom as nothing more than an indispensable attribute of learning, where there cannot be even a hint of conventionality. But is it not in the laconic wisdom of our regulations and instructions that the combat experience of millions of soldiers and officers of the Great Patriotic War, Afghanistan, and countless local conflicts is contained?
The "Czechs", especially the Arab mercenaries, with courage worthy of respect, pulled out from under the very heavy fire their dead and wounded. One day, in the fog, the reconnaissance group came upon unsuspecting “spirits”. The sniper took out two people with two shots - the first one on the spot, the second one wounded in the neck. Then, desperately, in front of a tenfold superior enemy, they fought off their dead and wounded. The courage of the mercenaries has an explanation. If a Muslim killed in battle is not buried on the same day, then his comrades will have to answer to his teip, clan, and family. But, unlike the feds, you won’t be able to escape their revenge.
The “Black Berets” did not abandon their own under any circumstances. Only they went into the fire, driven not by fear of blood feud, but by the great feeling of Russian military brotherhood.
From the memoirs of officer Pavel Klimenko
The period of three months “cut” at headquarters for the Black Sea marines of the second “Chechen” wave ended in June 2000. The “Northern” battalion, with attached Black Sea reconnaissance soldiers, left the passes and mountain forests of the republic, still smoldering with the fire of battles, drenched in their own and enemy blood. Ahead, on an armored personnel carrier with the lucky number 013, the column of “black berets” was led by the reconnaissance platoon commander, senior lieutenant Pavel Klimenko. There, high in the mountains, there was still snow. And on the plain the summer heat was already beginning.
A year before, if someone had predicted to the platoon commander that you would know first-hand the pain of losing your people, you would tramp hundreds and hundreds of kilometers until exhaustion on reconnaissance exits, each of which could be your last, then Pavel simply did not believe it. Although, in his native St. Petersburg Higher Military Combined Arms Command School, platoon commander Senior Lieutenant Rogozhenkoved almost every day repeated to the cadets like a prayer, get ready to fight in the Caucasus. He knew you didn't have to be a seer to see where is he going Ichkeria, independent of Russian laws. For the first Chechen campaign, the platoon was awarded two Orders of Courage. As part of the combined regiment of “polar bears,” the lieutenant took the building of the Council of Ministers and Dudayev’s palace, which were filled to capacity with firing points. I wonder what the platoon commander would say if he found out now that it was he, Pavel Klimenko, in the vanguard of the “Chechen” battalion of his native 61st Kerkenes, a hundred times famous, brigade?
However, the brotherhood of the amphibious assault is not distributed among the fleets. It must have been such a coincidence, but in Chechnya, among the “polar bears,” I met an acquaintance from an internship during my final year of college. The company sergeant major, senior warrant officer Bagryantsev, greeted him as if he were his own, and both were delighted. But the old servant did not fail to remind him how much he had suffered with Pavel. He was a cadet, undoubtedly a good one, but, as they say, with character, with his own “special” opinion on any life and career issue. And the foreman, with his experience, in the opinion of the valiant Marine Corps officer, gave “too much” importance of “little things” to the detriment of real combat training.
Time will later put all the emphasis in its place. The senior warrant officer, with his pedantry and pickiness, will be right. In battle he will prove himself to be by no means a coward; later he will be deservedly rewarded. And the foreman was concerned with the life of his subordinates all 24 hours a day, outside of the field conditions. Pavel is still largely grateful to him for the science he taught, which was not prescribed in any textbook, the name of which is experience.
For some reason, fate tests the young officer with its inscrutable “tests.” After all, now he is very close to his native place, to the village of Ozek-Suat, where his father and mother live, by local standards - just a stone’s throw away. Before the war, many friends and relatives studied and lived in Grozny. It’s a pity that we weren’t able to visit the city we knew from childhood. Although, what is it possible to find out there now after several years of war. Pavel considers himself lucky. He was not wounded in the war, he did not even receive a scratch. Quite easily, without nightmares, nervous breakdowns, post-combat syndromes, he returned to peaceful life. When you are 22 years old, the danger is not felt as acutely as when you are older. His wife “helped” in many ways, giving birth to a son, Nikita, almost immediately upon his return to Sevastopol. When at home small child, desired son, then all other experiences always go somewhere aside. Senior Lieutenant Klimenko received a promotion and took command of a company. So, there was simply no time for “perestroika” from a military to a peaceful way.
Soon after the end of hostilities, the brave “black berets” experienced a previously unknown feeling of fear. The train with equipment and personnel on the way to Novorossiysk had to travel eight hours through the territory of Chechnya. By that time, the Marines, with the exception of eight traveling guards, had surrendered their weapons. For the first time in hostile territory, they found themselves without Kalashnikovs, machine guns, or sniper rifles. The machine gun was an integral part of Marine uniforms for several months. They didn’t leave him for a second. And, when going to bed, they placed the AK so that instantly, only by removing the safety, they could open fire.
The price of a soldier’s life in war is calculated in a special “currency” that is little understood in peaceful life. Ammo at a critical moment in the battle means more to you than all the gold in the world. And a working machine gun that hits without missing a beat is more valuable than super-sophisticated audio-video equipment. However, even the seasoned "Beteer" there in the mountains, none of the "striped devils" would exchange for the newest Mercedes, which captivates connoisseurs with the shape of its lines.
For eight hours the paratroopers in the train were painfully silent. Here, on a land that had been at war for many years, a person could not be both unarmed and calm for his life; only a machine gun gave him the right to meet the morning of the coming day. The border of Chechnya was crossed by the black beret infantry on time. Not a single shot was fired from the hostile steppes. Although the field commanders, with their well-functioning reconnaissance, probably knew which echelon was with whom and where it was going. The formidable fame of excellent warriors played the role of a psychological “body armor.” And even the most desperate militants did not dare to get involved even in the end with the “polar bears” together with the “Black Sea devils”.
Combat experience will prove to be a measure of many values in service for Klimenko. However, as with everything, he will be critical of many things. After all, it’s not the job of amphibious assault to “saddle” peaks; naval soldiers are intended for other purposes. But, most importantly, it became clear that in our time of high technology, the role of infantry is only increasing. Like in that movie - “And private infantry Vanya will be the first to sign at the Reichstag.” When the terrorist threat literally spreads like poisonous gas through all sorts of “cracks” and “secrets,” when the enemy is not marked by a clear front line, it is the soldier—call him a special forces soldier, a reconnaissance officer, a fighter in an anti-terrorist unit—who finds himself at the forefront of the attack. And the success of the secret war that has been going on for many years depends on his personal training and equipment with modern weapons.
And the fact that the Marines today had to solve largely unusual tasks is why they are professionals, in order to carry out orders. A soldier, if he is real, does not discuss the order, but thinks about how best to carry it out.
From the memoirs of reserve lieutenant colonel Vyacheslav Krivoy.
During the four “Chechen” months, Vyacheslav was both the “incarnation” of the group’s intelligence chief and headed its headquarters, reporting directly to Major General Alexander Ivanovich Otrakovsky. The status and position of a lieutenant colonel completely allowed him to “sit out” somewhere in the headquarters tent. But that’s not his character! “Palych” was on all the main and most dangerous reconnaissance exits. He was in those searches when the warehouses of the “Czechs” were discovered; with his courage and the highest commander’s ability to fight, he earned the respect of his subordinates. The Order “For Courage” is more eloquent than all words. He doesn’t like to remember those battles. The pain for the eight dead Black Sea residents does not go away from the heart. And somewhere, latently, in the soul, notes of a funeral march sound - I didn’t save... After all, he entered the war as a mature man, the father of two almost adult children, having learned the great joy of raising both a son and a daughter. But all his soldiers who lay down on the mountain passes remained forever young. And we didn’t manage to do so much in life, it’s impossible to tell. That’s why Vyacheslav hates all talk about war. There was too much of her, damned, in his life, he had to experience too much, experience too much, not as an outside observer, but see with his mature gaze.
Life continued even under gunfire. “Maestro,” as the Marines called the chief of artillery, Lieutenant Colonel Sergei Strebkov, set off a fireworks display on the day of the Black Sea Fleet, May 13, seriously frightening one of the staff.
Once, in one village, they got into conversation with local women. It’s clear that Vyacheslav is from Odessa at heart and did not miss the opportunity to joke around here. The ladies of “free Ichkeria” also did not refuse the opportunity to laugh. The fun stopped the second one of the Marines quite accidentally said, “Hey, Doctor, Lieutenant Colonel of the Medical Service Shevchuk is with us.” By the way, he recently defended his doctoral dissertation. One Chechen woman said, “We haven’t had a doctor for a hundred years.” Once upon a time, they wrote out a prescription in Latin. You can't read anything. Would the military help?
The news that the doctor had arrived spread throughout the village with lightning speed. Five minutes later, many dozens of people lined up. We had to organize an appointment and wait until everyone in need received medical care, so rare in these parts.
From the memoirs of senior warrant officer Bakit Aimukhambetov.
In the fall of 2000, then still a sergeant - a contract soldier of the Marine Corps, Aimukhambetov will come on his first vacation. Relatives will gather in the house. The mother will begin to reproach him - they say, son, why haven’t he written for three months. He started to make excuses, saying that he was at a training exercise, and the post office at the training ground is working very poorly. His cousin Azat cut him off softly:
Don't deceive your mother, now it no longer makes sense. You, Bakit, were there, beyond the Terek, in Chechnya. I know there are no trainings for three months. And he himself also did not tell his loved ones when he fought in the first Chechen war in the reconnaissance brigade of internal troops.
Mom, of course, is in tears. They contain belated emotions, joy, her son is alive.
In September 1999, Bakit Aimukhambetov, like hundreds of his comrades, wrote a report - I wish to participate in the counter-terrorist operation in the North Caucasus. Youth is full of enthusiasm, there is a delightful recklessness in it. In September, the war seemed like a game of heroes. On December 14, 1999, everything turned upside down in his mind. At the regimental formation, it was announced that “Sergeant Nurulla Nigmatulin died a heroic death in a battle with the Chechen separatists.” Just a few weeks ago they shared equally the hardships and joys of life and naval service. And today “the same forest, the same air, the same water. Only he didn’t return from the battle.”
The second batch went to Chechnya after the new year, 2000. The soldier does not ask where he should fight for his Motherland, his job is to carry out the order. Junior Sergeant Aimukhambetov did not ask unnecessary questions when he was not on the list to replace the scouts exhausted in battles and patrols. But in the spring, when the next candidates for war were checked for fitness to perform a combat mission, the doctors put down their firm summary - you, Comrade Junior Sergeant, cannot fight. What to do if his friend Ilya Kirillov goes where there is risk and mortal danger literally nourish the soldiers with what they breathe. The doctor himself suggested the solution:
Boy, I will not give my consent to send you to war as a conscript. This is how it works in the navy and army; the commander is primarily responsible for the “conscript,” and not himself. But a contract soldier has a privilege and the right to go to a “hot spot” of his own free will.
The contract with the command of the unit was signed together with my friend Ilya.
Soldiers' bread in war is not sweet. That is why they valued the joys of simple life. They dug a longer trench in the clayey soil, creating a dining room under open air. The second pit became a kind of bathhouse, where you could wash yourself with cold water without fear of a sniper’s bullet. In the dugout, when it’s warm and the roof doesn’t leak, after a stressful day you feel like you’re in a luxury hotel with a view of the mountains. The imported water in barrels reeked of hydrogen sulfide, neither quenching thirst nor cooking food. So, first of all, they asked the scouts to notice thin strings of fontanelles, daruchets. Then, with all precautions, they cleared the source of clean water and checked whether it was poisoned, because everything happened here. The company sergeant major, senior warrant officer Alexander Kashirov, ran the housekeeping in an exemplary manner, a bathhouse, soap, clean linen, hot food - everything was on time, and he could also get something tastier from the warehouse for rations. Man, what do you need?
Somehow there was a puncture, the sentry did not notice the officer and let him through to the dugout. So that the Marines would not relax, because in war, those who sleep a lot live little, threw a smoke bomb into the doorway. The “sleepy” kingdom instantly found itself in a trench on fresh air. While they were judging and sorting, they came to their senses and were counted, recounted, but one was not found. Then, it turned out that Alexey Gribanov showed miracles of soldierly resourcefulness, put on a gas mask and continued to sleep in that incredible smoke. There was enough laughter and conversation for two weeks.
The arrangement was simple. The amphibious assault “sits” on the strong point, the company and battery of artillerymen maintain the height. Everything is without pathos and very simple. You just need to follow orders. It used to be that the Black Sea Marines were taken out on missions in his Ural by the driver Lyokha, a cool guy. Was. When the time came for Alyosha to resign, he was happy. IN last time When I got into the car, it seemed that there was no happier person. Like, I’ll go for the last time, I’ll be home in two days. And a landmine was already planted on his road...
Two and a half months during the war passed in some special dimension. Late in the evening, when we returned to Sevastopol, an incredible emotional tension subsided inside. That's it, we are home, alive, safe, unharmed. The Suvorov medal, awarded a few minutes before the formation of his comrades, surprised even him. Yes, he was in Chechnya, together with everyone else he honestly did his military work. Only, everything went without heroism, they didn’t think about heroism. A soldier in war has only thoughts in his head - don’t step on a mine, don’t get caught by a sniper, don’t fall asleep at your post, don’t let your comrade down, stay alive, return home.
Everyone has their own path in life. A year later, Bakit met a Sevastopol girl named Natasha. We got married. Soon their daughter Diana was born. Friend Ilya Kirillov also found a life partner in the white-stone city. He just left the service. Currently working for oil rigs Tyumen, and the “southern” wife, disdaining comfort, left with him for Western Siberia. Family is when everyone is together. It’s a pity, you don’t get to see your military friends who retired very often. And you will never be able to sit at the table with someone again. Fellow soldier Sergei Zyablov in his hometown in a cafe tried to rein in the “brothers” who had gone on an excessive spree. For which he received a knife in the heart.
I feel sorry for him to the point of madness, because how many times he could have laid his head on the slimy Caucasian paths, and lost his life so absurdly.
Each generation of Russian Soldiers has its own passes, battlefields, and heights. Today's lieutenants, sergeants, privates, and sailors outwardly bear little resemblance to their predecessors, those who walked the roads of defeat and victory in the Great Patriotic War, who performed their duty in Afghanistan and other “hot spots.” But in the bloody August of last year, in South Ossetia, the new generation managed, in a matter of days, to completely defeat an army created according to the best Western models, nurtured over the years by “foreign” instructors with experience from the Iraqi campaign. For the first time since the Great Patriotic War, our army was again faced with the concept of “oncoming tank battle.” And again the Russian tanker turned out to be unbending.
There is the main thing, that Russian spirit is unshakable, that military science to win, that incredible core of courage and bravery, thanks to which the enemy said about our warrior: “It’s not enough to kill a Russian marine, he must be pinned to the ground with a bayonet. Then there is a chance that it will not rise.”
Perfume
Question
Tell me, since when and why are the Mujahideen called “Spirits”?
This has been going on since the Afghan war (1979-1989). “Dushman” in their language (Dari?, Pashto?) means BANDIT. At least that's what I remember from my school days. Abbreviated as "Spirit".
Because it takes a long time to pronounce the dushman, and it doesn’t sound. They shortened it, and it turned out to be a spirit. It sounds and fits the fanaticism.
And, since our wars began to call them SPIRITS among themselves, then naturally this name was passed on along the relay race, well, you probably understand.
This is how the spirit appeared.
A small addition. Dushman is a rare dialectical or accented pronunciation of Pashto. Basically the word enemy in Pashto is pronounced dukhman. We remove mana - we get spirit.
That's right, only not a "bandit", but an "enemy".
And Afghan men told me a long time ago that they began to be called “spirits” because they appeared out of nowhere and disappeared into nowhere.
The word "spirit" did not appear immediately. At first the word "Basmachi" was used, by analogy with films and books about the establishment Soviet power in Turkestan. When you read the memoirs about the entry and the first operations, it sounds not “spirits”, but “Basmachi”, even though when these memoirs were written, the word “spirit” was already on everyone’s lips. After the introduction, our propagandists decided to introduce a new term “dushmans”, more understandable to local residents. Well, then the abbreviation “spirit” appeared, which fit well into our military vocabulary. The spirits were less fortunate; they had to pronounce a longer “shuravi”. By the way, I heard the word “Mujahid” much later, already in the Union.
And one more related question. What were the names of the spirits in the very first notes in the press, award lists and funerals dating back to the beginning of the 80th year? “Basmachi” reigned in the lexicon then, but I’m interested in what was said in official documents.
In the spring and summer of 1981, at least in 783 ORB, the word “darling” was already in full use.
They began to be called “spirits” because they appeared out of nowhere and disappeared into nowhere.
This is a literal quote from E. Kiselev’s film “Afghan Trap-2”. In my opinion, it’s so painful to speak so harshly about perfumes... They don’t deserve such respect....IMHO
At the beginning of the war, the Ikhwans were officially called “bandits”, unofficially “Basmachi” and “Ikhwans”, and “spirits” appeared a little later. Of course, from "dushman"....
P.S. And they began to call them Mujahideen later, when we had practically left there and it became clear that sooner or later the Americans would break in there. Like we fought with “bandit enemies” (seemingly for a just cause), but the amers fought with the Mujahideen (“ideological fighters for the faith” or whatever it is translated there)
Afghan Mujahideen(Arabic: مجاهد mujāhid, mujahiddin) - members of irregular armed forces motivated by radical Islamic ideology, organized into a single rebel force during the period civil war in Afghanistan in 1979-1992. Formed since 1979 from the local population with the aim of waging an armed struggle against the military presence of the USSR and the Afghan governments of Babrak Karmal and Najibullah. After the end of the war in the mid-1990s, some of the Afghan Mujahideen joined the ranks of the radical Taliban movement, while others joined the Northern Alliance units.
The word "Mujahid" is of Arabic origin ("Mujahid" plural"Mujahiddin") literally means "fighter for the faith", at the same time being the name of a jihadist or rebel. The Soviet army and the Afghan authorities called them dushmans (Dari دشمن - dušman, dushmon - “enemy”), and the Afghans called Soviet soldiers shuravi (Dari شوروی - šouravî, shuravi - “Soviet”). Soviet soldiers often, in everyday life, used to designate them slang word“spirits” is a derivative of “dushmans”.
The Dushmans wore the same traditional Afghan clothes as the local population, without outwardly standing out from them (shirts, black vests, turbans or pakol).
On the site of the Tukhchar tragedy, known in journalism as the “Tukhchar Golgotha of the Russian outpost,” now “stands a good-quality wooden cross, erected by riot police from Sergiev Posad. At its base there are stacked stones, symbolizing Golgotha, with withered flowers lying on them. On one of the stones, a slightly bent, extinguished candle, a symbol of memory, stands lonely. There is also an icon of the Savior attached to the cross with the prayer “For the forgiveness of forgotten sins.” Forgive us, Lord, that we still don’t know what this place is... six servicemen of the Russian Internal Troops were executed here. Seven more miraculously managed to escape.”
AT NAMELESS HEIGHT
They - twelve soldiers and one officer of the Kalachevskaya brigade - were sent to the border village of Tukhchar to reinforce local police officers. There were rumors that the Chechens were about to cross the river and attack the Kadar group in the rear. The senior lieutenant tried not to think about it. He had an order and he had to carry it out.
We occupied height 444.3 on the very border, dug full-length trenches and a caponier for infantry fighting vehicles. Below are the roofs of Tukhchar, a Muslim cemetery and a checkpoint. Beyond the small river is the Chechen village of Ishkhoyurt. They say it's a robber's nest. And another one, Galaity, hid in the south behind a ridge of hills. You can expect a blow from both sides. The position is like the tip of a sword, at the very front. You can stay at the height, but the flanks are unsecured. 18 cops with machine guns and a riotous motley militia are not the most reliable cover.
On the morning of September 5, Tashkin was awakened by a patrolman: “Comrade Senior Lieutenant, there seem to be...“spirits.” Tashkin immediately became serious. He ordered: “Get the boys up, but don’t make any noise!”
From the explanatory note of Private Andrei Padyakov:
On the hill that was opposite us, in the Chechen Republic, first four, then about 20 more militants appeared. Then our senior lieutenant Tashkin ordered the sniper to open fire to kill... I clearly saw how after the sniper’s shot one militant fell... Then they opened massive fire on us from machine guns and grenade launchers... Then the militias gave up their positions, and the militants went around the village and took us into ring. We noticed about 30 militants running across the village behind us.”
The militants did not go where they were expected. They crossed the river south of Height 444 and went deeper into the territory of Dagestan. A few bursts of fire were enough to disperse the militia. Meanwhile, the second group - also about twenty to twenty-five people - attacked a police checkpoint on the outskirts of Tukhchar. This detachment was led by a certain Umar Karpinsky, the leader of the Karpinsky jamaat (a district in the city of Grozny), who was personally subordinate to Abdul-Malik Mezhidov, the commander of the Sharia Guard.* The Chechens with a short blow knocked out the policemen from the checkpoint** and, hiding behind the gravestones of the cemetery, began to approach the positions of the motorized riflemen . At the same time, the first group attacked the height from the rear. On this side, the BMP caponier had no protection and the lieutenant ordered the driver-mechanic to take the vehicle to the ridge and maneuver.
"Height", we are under attack! - Tashkin shouted, pressing the headset to his ear, - They are attacking with superior forces! What?! I ask for fire support!” But “Vysota” was occupied by Lipetsk riot police and demanded to hold on. Tashkin swore and jumped off the armor. “How the f... hold on?! Four horns per brother..."***
The denouement was approaching. A minute later, a cumulative grenade arrived from God knows where and broke the side of the “box.” The gunner, along with the turret, was thrown about ten meters; the driver died instantly.
Tashkin looked at his watch. It was 7.30 am. Half an hour of battle - and he had already lost his main trump card: a 30-mm BMP assault rifle, which kept the “Czechs” at a respectful distance. In addition, communications were cut off and ammunition was running out. We must leave while we can. In five minutes it will be too late.
Having picked up the shell-shocked and badly burned gunner Aleskey Polagaev, the soldiers rushed down to the second checkpoint. The wounded man was carried on his shoulders by his friend Ruslan Shindin, then Alexey woke up and ran on his own. Seeing the soldiers running towards them, the police covered them with fire from the checkpoint. After a short firefight, there was a lull. After some time, local residents came to the post and reported that the militants had given half an hour for them to leave Tukhchar. The villagers took civilian clothes with them to the post - this was the only chance of salvation for the policemen and soldiers. The senior lieutenant did not agree to leave the checkpoint, and then the police, as one of the soldiers later said, “got into a fight with him.”****
The argument of force turned out to be convincing. Among the crowd of local residents, the defenders of the checkpoint reached the village and began to hide - some in basements and attics, and some in corn thickets.
Tukhchar resident Gurum Dzhaparova says: He arrived - only the shooting died down. How did you come? I went out into the yard and saw him standing, staggering, holding on to the gate. He was covered in blood and badly burned - no hair, no ears, the skin on his face was torn. Chest, shoulder, arm - everything was cut by shrapnel. I'll hurry him home. Militants, I say, are all around. You should go to your people. Will you really get there like this? She sent her eldest Ramazan, he is 9 years old, for a doctor... His clothes are covered in blood, burnt. Grandma Atikat and I cut it off, quickly put it in a bag and threw it into the ravine. They washed it somehow. Our village doctor Hasan came, removed the fragments, lubricated the wounds. I also got an injection - diphenhydramine, or what? He began to fall asleep from the injection. I put it in the room with the children.
Half an hour later, the militants, on the orders of Umar, began to “comb” the village - the hunt for soldiers and policemen began. Tashkin, four soldiers and a Dagestan policeman hid in a barn. The barn was surrounded. They brought cans of gasoline and doused the walls. “Give up, or we’ll burn you alive!” The answer is silence. The militants looked at each other. “Who is your eldest there? Decide, commander! Why die in vain? We don’t need your lives - we’ll feed you and then exchange them for our own! Give up!"
The soldiers and the policeman believed it and came out. And only when police lieutenant Akhmed Davdiev was cut off by a machine gun burst did they realize that they had been cruelly deceived. “And we have prepared something else for you!” — the Chechens laughed.
From the testimony of the defendant Tamerlan Khasaev:
Umar ordered all buildings to be checked. We dispersed and began to go around houses two at a time. I was an ordinary soldier and followed orders, especially since I was a new person among them; not everyone trusted me. And as I understand it, the operation was prepared in advance and clearly organized. I learned on the radio that a soldier had been found in the barn. We were given an order via radio to gather at a police checkpoint outside the village of Tukhchar. When everyone gathered, these 6 soldiers were already there.”
The burnt gunner was betrayed by one of the locals. Gurum Japarova tried to defend him - it was useless. He left surrounded by a dozen bearded guys - to his death.
What happened next was scrupulously recorded on camera by the action cameraman. Umar, apparently, decided to “raise the wolf cubs.” In the battle near Tukhchar, his company lost four, each of those killed had relatives and friends, and a blood debt hung on them. “You took our blood - we will take yours!” - Umar said to the prisoners. The soldiers were taken to the outskirts. Four “bloods” took turns cutting the throats of an officer and three soldiers. Another one broke free and tried to run away - he was shot with a machine gun. The sixth one was personally stabbed to death by Umar.
Only the next morning, the head of the village administration, Magomed-Sultan Gasanov, received permission from the militants to take the bodies. On a school truck, the corpses of senior lieutenant Vasily Tashkin and privates Vladimir Kaufman, Alexei Lipatov, Boris Erdneev, Alexei Polagaev and Konstantin Anisimov were delivered to the Gerzel checkpoint. The rest managed to sit out. Some local residents took them to the Gerzelsky Bridge the very next morning. On the way, they learned about the execution of their colleagues. Alexey Ivanov, after sitting in the attic for two days, left the village when it began to be bombed Russian aviation. Fyodor Chernavin sat in the basement for five whole days - the owner of the house helped him get out to his own people.
The story doesn't end there. In a few days, the recording of the murder of soldiers of the 22nd brigade will be shown on Grozny television. Then, already in 2000, it will fall into the hands of investigators. Based on the materials of the videotape, a criminal case will be initiated against 9 people. Of these, only two will be brought to justice. Tamerlan Khasaev will receive a life sentence, Islam Mukaev - 25 years. Material taken from the forum "BRATishka" http://phorum.bratishka.ru/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=7406&start=350
About these same events from the press:
“I just approached him with a knife.”
In the Ingush regional center of Sleptsovsk, employees of the Urus-Martan and Sunzhensky district police departments detained Islam Mukaev, suspected of involvement in the brutal execution of six Russian servicemen in the Dagestan village of Tukhchar in September 1999, when Basayev’s gang occupied several villages in the Novolaksky district of Dagestan. A videotape confirming his involvement in the massacre, as well as weapons and ammunition, were confiscated from Mukaev. Now law enforcement officials are checking the detainee for his possible involvement in other crimes, since it is known that he was a member of illegal armed groups. Before Mukaev’s arrest, the only participant in the execution who fell into the hands of justice was Tamerlan Khasaev, who was sentenced to life imprisonment in October 2002.
Hunting for soldiers
In the early morning of September 5, 1999, Basayev’s troops invaded the territory of the Novolaksky district. Emir Umar was responsible for the Tukhchar direction. The road to the Chechen village of Galaity, leading from Tukhchar, was guarded by a checkpoint manned by Dagestani policemen. On the hill they were covered by an infantry fighting vehicle and 13 soldiers from a brigade of internal troops sent to strengthen a checkpoint from the neighboring village of Duchi. But the militants entered the village from the rear, and, after a short battle, they captured the village police department and began to fire at the hill. The BMP, buried in the ground, caused considerable damage to the attackers, but when the encirclement began to shrink, senior lieutenant Vasily Tashkin ordered the BMP to be driven out of the trench and open fire across the river on the car that was transporting the militants. The ten-minute hitch turned out to be fatal for the soldiers. A shot from a grenade launcher demolished the combat vehicle's turret. The gunner died on the spot, and the driver Alexey Polagaev was shell-shocked. Tashkin ordered the others to retreat to a checkpoint located a few hundred meters away. The unconscious Polagaev was initially carried on the shoulders of his colleague Ruslan Shindin; then Alexei, who received a through wound to the head, woke up and ran on his own. Seeing the soldiers running towards them, the police covered them with fire from the checkpoint. After a short firefight, there was a lull. After some time, local residents came to the post and reported that the militants had given half an hour for the soldiers to leave Tukhchar. The villagers took civilian clothes with them - this was the only chance of salvation for the police and soldiers. The senior lieutenant refused to leave, and then the police, as one of the soldiers later said, “got into a fight with him.” The argument of force turned out to be more convincing. Among the crowd of local residents, the defenders of the checkpoint reached the village and began to hide - some in basements and attics, and some in corn thickets. Half an hour later, the militants, on the orders of Umar, began clearing the village. It is now difficult to establish whether local residents betrayed the soldiers or whether the militants’ intelligence acted, but six soldiers fell into the hands of bandits.
‘Your son died due to the negligence of our officers’
By order of Umar, the prisoners were taken to a clearing next to the checkpoint. What happened next was scrupulously recorded on camera by the action cameraman. Four executioners appointed by Umar carried out the order in turn, cutting the throats of an officer and four soldiers. Umar dealt with the sixth victim personally. Only Tamerlan Khasaev ‘blundered’. Having slashed the victim with a blade, he straightened up over the wounded soldier - the sight of blood made him feel uneasy, and he handed the knife to another militant. The bleeding soldier broke free and ran. One of the militants began to shoot in pursuit with a pistol, but the bullets missed. And only when the fugitive, stumbling, fell into a hole, was finished off in cold blood with a machine gun.
The next morning, the head of the village administration, Magomed-Sultan Gasanov, received permission from the militants to take the bodies. On a school truck, the corpses of senior lieutenant Vasily Tashkin and privates Vladimir Kaufman, Alexei Lipatov, Boris Erdneev, Alexei Polagaev and Konstantin Anisimov were delivered to the Gerzel checkpoint. The remaining soldiers of military unit 3642 managed to sit out in their shelters until the bandits left.
At the end of September, six zinc coffins were lowered into the ground in different parts of Russia - in Krasnodar and Novosibirsk, in Altai and Kalmykia, in the Tomsk region and in the Orenburg region. Parents for a long time did not know the terrible details of the death of their sons. The father of one of the soldiers, having learned the terrible truth, asked that the meager wording – “gunshot wound” – be included in his son’s death certificate. Otherwise, he explained, his wife would not survive this.
Someone, having learned about the death of their son from television news, protected themselves from details - the heart would not have withstood the exorbitant load. Someone tried to get to the bottom of the truth and searched the country for his son’s colleagues. It was important for Sergei Mikhailovich Polagaev to know that his son did not flinch in battle. He learned how everything really happened from a letter from Ruslan Shindin: ‘Your son died not because of cowardice, but because of the negligence of our officers. The company commander came to us three times, but never brought any ammunition. He only brought night binoculars with dead batteries. And we defended there, each had 4 stores...’
Executioner-hostage
The first of the thugs to fall into the hands of law enforcement agencies was Tamerlan Khasaev. Sentenced to eight and a half years for kidnapping in December 2001, he was serving time in a maximum security colony in the Kirov region when the investigation, thanks to a videotape seized during a special operation in Chechnya, managed to establish that he was one of those who participated in bloody massacre on the outskirts of Tukhchar.
Khasaev found himself in Basayev’s detachment at the beginning of September 1999 - one of his friends tempted him with the opportunity to get captured weapons during the campaign against Dagestan, which could then be sold profitably. So Khasaev ended up in the gang of Emir Umar, subordinate to the notorious commander of the ‘Islamic special-purpose regiment’ Abdulmalik Mezhidov, Shamil Basayev’s deputy...
In February 2002, Khasaev was transferred to the Makhachkala pre-trial detention center and shown a recording of the execution. He did not deny it. Moreover, the case already contained testimony from residents of Tukhchar, who confidently identified Khasaev from a photograph sent from the colony. (The militants did not hide especially, and the execution itself was visible even from the windows of houses on the edge of the village). Khasaev stood out among the militants dressed in camouflage with a white T-shirt.
The trial in the Khasaev case took place in Supreme Court Dagestan in October 2002. He pleaded guilty only partially: ‘I admit participation in an illegal armed formation, weapons and invasion. But I didn’t cut the soldier... I just approached him with a knife. Two people had been killed before. When I saw this picture, I refused to cut and gave the knife to someone else.’
‘They were the first to start,’ Khasaev said about the battle in Tukhchar. “The infantry fighting vehicle opened fire, and Umar ordered the grenade launchers to take positions. And when I said that there was no such agreement, he assigned three militants to me. Since then I myself have been their hostage.”
For participation in an armed rebellion, the militant received 15 years, for stealing weapons - 10, for participation in an illegal armed group and illegally carrying weapons - five each. For an attack on the life of a serviceman, Khasaev, according to the court, deserved the death penalty, but due to a moratorium on its use, an alternative punishment was chosen - life imprisonment.
Seven other participants in the execution in Tukhchar, including four of its direct perpetrators, are still wanted. True, as Arsen Israilov, an investigator for particularly important cases at the Office of the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation in the North Caucasus, who investigated Khasaev’s case, told a GAZETA correspondent, Islam Mukaev was not on this list until recently: “In the near future, the investigation will find out what specific crimes he is involved in. And if his participation in the execution in Tukhchar is confirmed, he may become our ‘client’ and will be transferred to the Makhachkala pre-trial detention center.
http://www.gzt.ru/topnews/accidents/47339.html?from=copiedlink
And this is about one of the guys who was brutally killed by Chechen thugs in September 1999 in Tukhchar.
"Cargo - 200" arrived on Kizner land. In the battles for the liberation of Dagestan from bandit formations, a native of the village of Ishek of the Zvezda collective farm and a graduate of our school, Alexey Ivanovich Paranin, died. Alexey was born on January 25, 1980. He graduated from Verkhnetyzhminsk primary school. He was a very inquisitive, lively, brave boy. Then he studied at Mozhginsky State Technical University No. 12, where he received the profession of a mason. However, I didn’t have time to work; I was drafted into the army. He served in the North Caucasus for more than a year. And now - the Dagestan war. Went through several fights. On the night of September 5-6 fighting machine The infantry, in which Alexey served as a gunner operator, was transferred to the Lipetsk OMON, and guarded the checkpoint near the village of Novolakskoye. The militants who attacked at night set the BMP on fire. The soldiers left the car and fought, but it was too unequal. All the wounded were brutally finished off. We all mourn the death of Alexei. Words of consolation are hard to find. On November 26, 2007, a memorial plaque was installed on the school building. The opening of the memorial plaque was attended by Alexey’s mother, Lyudmila Alekseevna, and representatives from the youth department from the region. Now we are starting to design an album about him, there is a stand at the school dedicated to Alexey. In addition to Alexey, four more students from our school took part in the Chechen campaign: Eduard Kadrov, Alexander Ivanov, Alexey Anisimov and Alexey Kiselev, awarded the Order of Courage. It is very scary and bitter when young guys die. There were three children in the Paranin family, but the son was the only one. Ivan Alekseevich, Alexey’s father, works as a tractor driver on the Zvezda collective farm, his mother Lyudmila Alekseevna is a school worker.
Together with you we mourn the death of Alexey. Words of consolation are hard to find. http://kiznrono.udmedu.ru/content/view/21/21/
April, 2009 The third trial in the case of the execution of six Russian servicemen in the village of Tukhchar, Novolaksky district in September 1999, was completed in the Supreme Court of Dagestan. One of the participants in the execution, 35-year-old Arbi Dandaev, who, according to the court, personally cut the throat of Senior Lieutenant Vasily Tashkin, was found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment in a special regime colony.
Former employee of the national security service of Ichkeria Arbi Dandaev, according to investigators, took part in the attack of the Shamil Basayev and Khattab gangs on Dagestan in 1999. In early September, he joined a detachment led by Emir Umar Karpinsky, who on September 5 of the same year invaded the territory of the Novolaksky region of the republic. From the Chechen village of Galaity, the militants headed to the Dagestan village of Tukhchar - the road was guarded by a checkpoint manned by Dagestan police officers. On the hill they were covered by an infantry fighting vehicle and 13 soldiers from a brigade of internal troops. But the militants entered the village from the rear and, having captured the village police department after a short battle, began shelling the hill. The BMP buried in the ground caused considerable damage to the attackers, but when the encirclement began to shrink, senior lieutenant Vasily Tashkin ordered the armored vehicle to be driven out of the trench and open fire across the river on the car that was transporting the militants. The ten-minute hitch turned out to be fatal for the soldiers: a shot from a grenade launcher on the BMP demolished the turret. The gunner died on the spot, and the driver Alexey Polagaev was shell-shocked. The surviving defenders of the checkpoint reached the village and began to hide - some in basements and attics, and some in corn thickets. Half an hour later, the militants, on the orders of Emir Umar, began to search the village, and five soldiers, hiding in the basement of one of the houses, had to surrender after a short firefight - in response to machine gun fire, a shot from a grenade launcher was fired. After some time, Alexey Polagaev joined the captives - the militants “located” him in one of the neighboring houses, where the owner was hiding him.
By order of Emir Umar, the prisoners were taken to a clearing next to the checkpoint. What happened next was scrupulously recorded on camera by the action cameraman. Four executioners appointed by the commander of the militants took turns following the order, cutting the throats of an officer and three soldiers (one of the soldiers tried to escape, but was shot). Emir Umar dealt with the sixth victim personally.
Arbi Dandaev hid from justice for more than eight years, but on April 3, 2008, Chechen police detained him in Grozny. He was charged with participation in a stable criminal group (gang) and attacks committed by it, armed rebellion with the aim of changing territorial integrity Russia, as well as encroachment on the lives of law enforcement officers and illegal arms trafficking.
According to the investigation materials, the militant Dandaev confessed, confessed to the crimes he had committed and confirmed his testimony when he was taken to the place of execution. In the Supreme Court of Dagestan, however, he did not admit his guilt, stating that his appearance took place under duress, and refused to testify. Nevertheless, the court found his previous testimony admissible and reliable, since it was given with the participation of a lawyer and no complaints were received from him about the investigation. The video recording of the execution was examined in court, and although it was difficult to recognize the defendant Dandaev in the bearded executioner, the court took into account that the name Arbi could be clearly heard on the recording. Residents of the village of Tukhchar were also questioned. One of them recognized the defendant Dandaev, but the court was critical of his words, given the advanced age of the witness and the confusion in his testimony.
Speaking during the debate, lawyers Konstantin Sukhachev and Konstantin Mudunov asked the court to either resume the judicial investigation by conducting examinations and calling new witnesses, or to acquit the defendant. The accused Dandaev in his last word stated that he knows who led the execution, this man is at large, and he can give his name if the court resumes the investigation. The judicial investigation was resumed, but only to interrogate the defendant.
As a result, the examined evidence left no doubt in the court’s mind that the defendant Dandaev was guilty. Meanwhile, the defense believes that the court was hasty and did not examine many important circumstances for the case. For example, he did not interrogate Islan Mukaev, a participant in the execution in Tukhchar in 2005 (another of the executioners, Tamerlan Khasaev, was sentenced to life imprisonment in October 2002 and died soon in the colony). “Almost all the petitions significant for the defense were rejected by the court,” lawyer Konstantin Mudunov told Kommersant. “So, we repeatedly insisted on a second psychological and psychiatric examination, since the first one was carried out using a falsified outpatient card. The court rejected this request. “He was not sufficiently objective and we will appeal the verdict.”
According to the defendant’s relatives, mental problems appeared in Arbi Dandaev in 1995, after Russian soldiers wounded his younger brother Alvi in Grozny, and some time later the body of the boy was returned from a military hospital, from whom they had been confiscated. internal organs(relatives associate this with the trade in human organs that flourished in Chechnya in those years). As the defense stated during the debate, their father Khamzat Dandaev achieved the initiation of a criminal case on this fact, but it is not being investigated. According to lawyers, the case against Arbi Dandaev was opened to prevent his father from seeking punishment for those responsible for the death of his youngest son. These arguments were reflected in the verdict, but the court found that the defendant was sane, and the case regarding the death of his brother had been opened a long time ago and was not related to the case under consideration.
As a result, the court reclassified two articles relating to weapons and participation in a gang. According to judge Shikhali Magomedov, defendant Dandaev acquired weapons alone, and not as part of a group, and participated in illegal armed groups, and not in a gang. However, these two articles did not affect the verdict, since the statute of limitations had expired. And here is Art. 279 “Armed rebellion” and art. 317 “Encroachment on the life of a law enforcement officer” was punishable by 25 years and life imprisonment. At the same time, the court took into account both mitigating circumstances (presence of young children and confession) and aggravating ones (the occurrence of grave consequences and the particular cruelty with which the crime was committed). Thus, despite the fact that the state prosecutor asked for only 22 years, the court sentenced the defendant Dandaev to life imprisonment. In addition, the court satisfied the civil claims of the parents of four dead servicemen for compensation for moral damage, the amounts for which ranged from 200 thousand to 2 million rubles. A photograph of one of the thugs at the time of the trial.
This is a photo of the man who died at the hands of Arbi Dandaev, Art. Lieutenant Vasily Tashkin
Lipatov Alexey Anatolievich
Kaufman Vladimir Egorovich
Polagaev Alexey Sergeevich
Erdneev Boris Ozinovich (a few seconds before his death)
Of the known participants in the bloody massacre of captured Russian soldiers and an officer, three are in the hands of justice, two of them are rumored to have died behind bars, others are said to have died during subsequent clashes, and others are hiding in France.
Additionally, based on the events in Tukhchar, it is known that no one rushed to help Vasily Tashkin’s detachment on that terrible day, not the next one, or even the next! Although the main battalion was stationed only a few kilometers not far from Tukhchar. Betrayal? Negligence? Deliberate collusion with militants? Much later, the village was attacked and bombed by aircraft... And as a summary of this tragedy and in general about the fate of many, many Russian guys in the shameful war unleashed by the Kremlin clique and subsidized by certain figures from Moscow and directly by the fugitive Mr. A.B. Berezovsky (there are his public confessions on the Internet that he personally financed Basayev).
Serf children of war
The film includes the famous video of the cutting off of the heads of our fighters in Chechnya - details in this article. Official reports are always stingy and often lie. On September 5th and 8th last year, judging by press releases from law enforcement agencies, regular battles were taking place in Dagestan. Everything is under control. As usual, losses were reported in passing. They are minimal - a few wounded and killed. In fact, it was precisely on these days that entire platoons and assault groups lost their lives. But on the evening of September 12, the news instantly spread through many agencies: the 22nd brigade of internal troops occupied the village of Karamakhi. General Gennady Troshev noted the subordinates of Colonel Vladimir Kersky. This is how they learned about yet another Russian victory in the Caucasus. It's time to receive awards. The main thing that remains “behind the scenes” is how, and at what terrible cost, yesterday’s boys survived in the lead hell. However, for the soldiers this was one of many episodes of bloody work in which they remain alive by chance. Just three months later, the brigade’s fighters were again thrown into the thick of it. They attacked the ruins of a cannery in Grozny.
Karamakhi blues
September 8, 1999. I remembered this day for the rest of my life, because it was then that I saw death.
On command post above the village of Kadar it was lively. I counted about a dozen generals alone. The artillerymen scurried about, receiving target designations. The officers on duty drove journalists away from the camouflage network, behind which radios crackled and telephone operators shouted.
...Rooks emerged from behind the clouds. The bombs slide down in tiny dots and after a few seconds turn into columns of black smoke. An officer from the press service explains to journalists that aviation is working brilliantly against enemy firing points. When hit directly by a bomb, the house splits like a walnut.
The generals have repeatedly stated that the operation in Dagestan is strikingly different from the previous Chechen campaign. There is certainly a difference. Every war is different from its bad sisters. But there are analogies. They don't just catch your eye, they scream. One such example is the “jewelry” work of aviation. Pilots and artillerymen, as in the last war, work not only against the enemy. Soldiers die from their own raids.
As a unit of the 22nd Brigade prepared for the next assault, about twenty soldiers gathered in a circle at the foot of Wolf Mountain, awaiting the command to go forward. The bomb arrived, hitting right in the thick of the people, and... did not explode. A whole platoon was born wearing shirts back then. One soldier had his ankle cut off by a cursed bomb, like a guillotine. The guy, who became crippled in a split second, was sent to the hospital.
Too many soldiers and officers know about such examples. Too many to understand: popular popular pictures of victory and reality are as different as the sun and the moon. While the troops were desperately storming Karamakhi, in the Novolaksky region of Dagestan, a special forces detachment was thrown to the border heights. During the attack, the “aligned forces” made a mistake: fire support helicopters began operating at altitude. As a result, having lost dozens of killed and wounded soldiers, the detachment retreated. The officers threatened to deal with those who shot at their own...
During the first assault on Grozny, when our tank guys were driven into the narrow streets and burned (why - this is a separate discussion), many vehicles were lost. Some burned out completely, some were captured by the Czechs, some went missing along with their crews.
Soon, rumors began to circulate among various units that some special secret tank unit began to participate in the battles, which was armed with only one serviceable T-80 vehicle with a white stripe on the turret and without a tactical number. This tank appeared in different places - in the mountains, on passes, in the greenery, on the outskirts of villages, but never in the settlements themselves, even completely destroyed.
How he got there, where from, in what way, by whose order - no one knew. But as soon as a unit of our guys, especially conscripts, got into trouble - in an ambush, under flanking fire, etc., suddenly a T-80 tank appeared from somewhere, with a white smoky stripe on the turret, burnt paint and knocked down blocks of active armor .
The tankers never made contact and did not open the hatches. At the most critical moment of the battle, this tank appeared out of nowhere, opened surprisingly accurate and effective fire and either attacked or provided cover, allowing its troops to retreat and carry out the wounded. Moreover, many saw how cumulative grenade launchers, shells, and ATGMs hit the tank without causing any visible harm.
Then the tank disappeared just as incomprehensibly, as if it had dissolved into thin air. The fact that there were “eighties” in Chechnya is quite widely known. But what is less known is that soon after the start of the campaign they were withdrawn from there, since the gas turbine engine in these parts is not at all the engine that corresponded to the theater of operations and the conditions of combat operations.
Personally, two people whom I trust unconditionally told me about their meeting with the “Eternal Tank” and if they tell something and vouch for their story, then they themselves consider it the TRUTH. This is Stepan Igorevich Beletsky, the story about the “Eternal” from which we squeezed out almost by force (the man is a realist to the core and telling something for which he himself could not find a rationalistic explanation is almost a feat for him) and one of the now former officers of the Novocherkassk SOBR, a direct witness to the battle of the “Eternal Tank” with the Czechs.
Their group, already at the very end of the First Campaign, ensured the withdrawal of the remaining medical personnel from the District Hospital of the North Caucasus Military District. We waited an extra day for the promised air cover - the weather permitted - but the helicopters never came. Either they spared fuel for them, or forgot - ultimately, they decided to go out themselves. We went out in the Urals with the 300th and medics and two armored personnel carriers.
We set out beyond zero, after midnight, in the dark, and seemed to get through cleanly, but a little less than two dozen miles before the “demarcation” line we ran into an ambush - Czechs with small arms, supported by a T-72. They turned into a fan and began to cover the Ural's retreat. But what is a battalion versus a tank? They immediately burned one, the second died and stalled. This is what I have written down from the words of my friend - this is almost a verbatim recording.
“The T-72s hit us with high explosives. It’s rocky there, when there’s a rupture the wave and the fragments go low, stone chips again. The spirit is literate, it doesn’t come close, you can’t get it from the border. At this moment, the “Eternal” appears from the dust at the site of the next explosion, right in the middle of the road, as if it had been standing there all the time - it was just not there, the “Urals” had just passed by! And he stands there as if invisible, no one except us seems to see him. And he stands, all burnt, ugly, his antennas are knocked down, he’s all torn up, he’s just moving his turret a little and shaking his trunk, like an elephant’s trunk in a zoo.
Here - bam! - gives a shot. The “Czech” has a turret sideways and to the side. Bam! - the second one gives. Spirit - into the fire! And the “Eternal” barrel blew out, stands in a white cloud, spinning on its tracks and only the crackling sound of a machine gun. After the gun, it sounds like seed husks. The spirits are in the green, we are going to the bater. They opened it, the mechanic dragged away the dead man, let’s start it up. The turret jammed, but it didn’t matter; we who were still alive jumped inside and turned around. And “Eternal” suddenly fired from his cannon, like from a machine gun, quickly and quickly like this: Bam!-Bam!-Bam!
We're on gas. Here Seryoga Dmitriev shouts - “Eternal” is gone!” I couldn’t see myself anymore, I felt bad, I started vomiting out of nervousness on myself and around me. Well, as soon as they got to their own people, they went up in smoke, you understand. Then they started a quarrel with the local cops in a rage and over booze, almost shooting the assholes.
And they didn’t tell anyone about “Eternal” then - who would believe...
https://vk.com/boevoe_sodruzhestvo?w=page-133711382_54239707
The first Chechen war, which imperceptibly turned into the second, provided analysts with a fairly large information material on the enemy opposing the Russian Armed Forces, its tactics and methods of combat, material and technical equipment, including infantry weapons. Newsreels of those years dispassionately captured the presence of the latest models of small arms in the hands of Chechen militants.
The weapons and military equipment of the armed forces of the Dudayev regime were replenished from several sources. First of all, these were weapons lost by the Russian Armed Forces in 1991-1992. According to the Ministry of Defense, the militants received 18,832 units of 5.45 mm AK/AKS-74 assault rifles, 9,307 - 7.62 mm AKM/AKMS assault rifles, 533 - 7.62 mm sniper assault rifles SVD rifles, 138 - 30-mm mounted automatic grenade launchers AGS-17 "Plamya", 678 tank and 319 heavy machine guns DShKM/DShKMT/NSV/NSVT, as well as 10,581 TT/PM/APS pistols. Moreover, this number does not include more than 2000 light machine guns RPK and PKM, as well as 7 Igla-1 man-portable air defense systems (MANPADS), an unspecified number of Strela-2 MANPADS, 2 Konkurs anti-tank guided missile systems (ATGM), 24 sets of Fagot ATGMs, 51 the Metis ATGM complex and at least 740 shells for them, 113 RPG-7, 40 tanks, 50 armored personnel carriers and infantry fighting vehicles, over 100 artillery pieces. OKNCH militants, during the defeat of the KGB of the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic in September 1991, captured approximately 3,000 small arms, and more than 10,000 units were taken by them during the disarmament of local internal affairs bodies.
The influx of weapons and ammunition to North Caucasus continued subsequently, and in 1992-1994. the number of weapons entering Chechnya has been constantly growing. And from the beginning of 1994, a large number of weapons, including the latest ones, began to come from federal structures to the forces of the anti-Dudaev opposition, then smoothly flowing into the hands of Dudayev’s supporters.
The supply of weapons to Chechnya took several routes. Along with direct purchases by the Dudayev regime in the CIS countries and the Baltic republics of standard-issue small arms, a fairly large number of a wide variety of weapons came into this region through smuggling, both from the near abroad - Georgia, Azerbaijan, and further afield - Afghanistan and Turkey. In 1991 from Turkey under the guise humanitarian aid The first batch of Soviet-style small arms (mainly produced by the GDR) was delivered to Chechnya, and some of it was transported by militants through the territory of Azerbaijan. From Afghanistan came 7.62-mm AK-74 assault rifles made in China, AKMs made in the USSR, East Germany, Poland, Egypt, Chinese Degtyarev RPD and Kalashnikov PK/PKM machine guns, as well as English 7.71-mm sniper rifles, which are completely atypical for our country. Lee-Enfield No. 4 Mk.1 (T), widely used by spooks in Afghanistan. These rifles were used by special Mujahideen sniper groups formed in Afghanistan and who arrived with their weapons in Chechnya to continue the war with the Shuravi. Large quantity domestic weapons brought with them Chechen fighters who fought in Abkhazia. Including 7.62-mm Kalashnikov assault rifles made in the GDR, which were given to the Chechens as trophies. From the same source, the militants received 5.45 mm AK-74 and 7.62 mm AKM of Romanian production, as well as 7.62 mm PK/PKM and their PKT tank variants, converted by the Georgians into manual ones.
With the beginning Chechen war a thorough supply of weapons to Chechen illegal armed groups comes not only from abroad, but also from Russia itself. Thus, at the end of May 1995, during the defeat of one of the Dudayev squads, a mortar and a batch of 5.45 mm AK-74 manufactured by the Izhevsk Machine-Building Plant in January 1995 were captured. Moreover, by that time these weapons had not even entered service with the Russian army.
Despite all the different types of small arms of illegal armed groups, their units possessed the most modern types of domestically produced weapons. As a rule, the militants were armed with 7.62 mm AK/AKM assault rifles or 5.45 mm AK/AKS-74 assault rifles, 7.62 mm SVD sniper rifles, 7.62 mm light machine guns RPK/RPK-74/PKM or 7.62-mm PKT tank machine guns and 12.7-mm large-caliber "Utes" NSV dismantled from damaged armored vehicles. The main difference between separatist formations and units federal troops was their higher saturation so effective means armed struggle, such as hand-held anti-tank grenade launchers of various models and 40-mm under-barrel grenade launchers GP-25.
Sensitive defeats in the winter and spring of 1995 forced the Dudayevites to develop new battle tactics. The transition of fire contact with federal troops from point-blank ranges, characteristic of the battles of the initial period of the Chechen war, to a distance of 300-500 m became the main thing for the militants. In this regard, priority was given to the 7.62 mm AK-47/AKM assault rifles, which have a higher lethality of the bullet compared to the 5.45 mm AK-74 assault rifles. The importance of long-range weapons designed for the 7.62 mm rifle cartridge has increased significantly, allowing concentrated fire at point targets at a distance of 400-600 m (Dragunov SVD sniper rifles) and a distance of 600-800 m (Kalashnikov PK/PKM machine guns). Enemy reconnaissance and sabotage groups repeatedly used special types of weapons available only in the special forces of the federal troops: 7.62 mm AKM with silent-flameless firing devices (silencers) PBS-1, PB and APB pistols. However, the most popular among militants were the latest models of domestic silent weapons: the 9-mm VSS sniper rifle and the 9-mm AC sniper assault rifle. Since this weapon is used in the federal troops only by special forces units (in deep reconnaissance companies of the special forces of the GRU General Staff, reconnaissance companies of motorized rifle and airborne units, special forces of internal troops, etc.), it can be assumed that some of it came to to the separatists as trophies or, more likely, stolen from warehouses. Silent weapon has proven itself positively on both sides. Thus, during a raid by one of the special forces units of the federal troops on January 2, 1995 in the area of the base of Chechen saboteurs located in the vicinity of Serzhen-Yurt, Russian special forces, using VSS/AS complexes, destroyed a total of more than 60 militants. But the use of SVD and VSS sniper rifles by professionally trained mobile groups of militants was costly for Russian soldiers. More than 26% of the wounds of federal troops in the fighting of the first Chechen war were bullet wounds. In the battles for Grozny, only in the 8th Army Corps, as of the beginning of January 1995, in the platoon-company level, almost all officers were knocked out by sniper fire. In particular, in the 81st motorized rifle regiment in early January, only 1 officer remained in service.
In 1992, Dudayev organized a small-scale production of the 9-mm small submachine gun K6-92 "Borz" (wolf), designed for the 9-mm cartridge of the Makarov PM pistol, on the premises of the Grozny machine-building plant "Red Hammer". Its design clearly shows many features of the Sudaev PPS submachine gun mod. 1943. However, Chechen gunsmiths competently approached the problem of creating a small-sized submachine gun and managed to use the most proven design features prototype, to develop a fairly successful example of a light and compact weapon.
The Borza automatic system operates on the principle of blowback. The fire type translator flag (aka safety) is located on the left side of the bolt box, above the pistol grip. The trigger mechanism allows both single and automatic fire. The magazine is box-shaped, double-row, with a capacity of 15 and 30 rounds. Shooting is carried out from the rear sear. The shoulder rest is metal, folding. The production of these weapons, consisting almost entirely of stamped parts, did not pose any particular problems even for the underdeveloped industry of Chechnya, which has only standard industrial equipment. But the low capacity of the production base affected not only the simplicity of the design and production volumes of the Borza (the Chechens managed to produce only a few thousand weapons in two years), but also the rather low technology of its production. The barrels are characterized by low survivability due to the use of tool, rather than special grades of steel. The cleanliness of the surface treatment of the barrel bore, not reaching the required 11-12 treatment classes, leaves much to be desired. Mistakes made during the design of the Borz resulted in incomplete combustion powder charge when firing and abundant release of powder gases. At the same time, this submachine gun fully justified its name as a weapon for paramilitary partisan formations. Therefore, “Borz”, along with similar Western-made weapons - submachine guns "UZI", "Mini-UZI", MP-5 - were used mainly by reconnaissance and sabotage groups of Dudayev's followers.
In 1995-1996 There were repeated cases of Chechen illegal armed groups using one of the newest domestic models of infantry weapons - 93-mm RPO infantry rocket flamethrowers. The portable RPO "Shmel" kit included two containers: the incendiary RPO-3 and the smoke-action RPO-D, which very effectively complemented each other in battle. In addition to them, another version of the jet has proven itself to be a formidable weapon in the mountains of Chechnya. infantry flamethrower– RPO-A with combined ammunition. The RPO-A implements the capsule principle of flame throwing, in which a capsule with a fire mixture in a “cold” state is delivered to the target, upon impact, an ignition-explosive charge is initiated, as a result of which the fire mixture ignites and its burning pieces scatter and hit the target. The cumulative warhead, being the first to pierce an obstacle, promotes deep penetration of the main warhead, filled with a fuel-air mixture, inside the target, which increases the destructive effect and makes it possible to fully use the RPO to defeat not only enemy personnel located in shelters, firing points, buildings, and creating fires at these facilities and on the ground, but also for the destruction of lightly armored and motor vehicles. The RPO-A thermobaric shot (volumetric explosion) is comparable in high-explosive effectiveness to a 122-mm howitzer projectile. During the assault on Grozny in August 1996, militants, having received detailed information in advance about the defense scheme of the Ministry of Internal Affairs building complex, were able to destroy the main ammunition supply point, located in a closed room inside the building, with two targeted shots from Bumblebees, thus depriving its defenders of almost all ammunition.
High combat characteristics this the most powerful weapon coupled with the massive use of hand-held anti-tank grenade launchers, both disposable (RPG-18, RPG-22, RPG-26, RPG-27) and reusable (RPG-7), contributed to the destruction or incapacitation of a significant number of armored vehicles of the federal troops and more severe damage to personnel. Big losses Tankers and motorized riflemen suffered from the latest domestic grenade launchers: 72.5 mm RPG-26 (armor penetration up to 500 mm), 105 mm RPG-27 (armor penetration up to 750 mm), as well as shots for RPG-7 - 93/40 mm grenades PG-7VL (armor penetration up to 600 mm) and 105/40 mm PG-7VR grenades with a tandem warhead (armor penetration up to 750 mm). The widespread use by the Dudayevites during the battle for Grozny of all anti-tank defense weapons, including RPGs, ATGMs and RPO flamethrowers, allowed them to destroy 225 units of armored vehicles of the federal troops, including 62 tanks, in just a month and a half. The nature of the defeats suggests that in most cases, fire from RPGs and RPOs was conducted almost point-blank from the most advantageous angles, with the separatists using a multi-tiered (floor-by-floor) fire system. The hulls of almost every affected tank or infantry fighting vehicle had numerous holes (from 3 to 6), which indicates a high density of fire. Grenade-throwing snipers shot at the leading and trailing vehicles, thus blocking the advance of columns in narrow streets. Having lost maneuver, other vehicles became a good target for the militants, who fired simultaneously at the tanks with 6-7 grenade launchers from the basements of the basement floors (hitting the lower hemisphere), from the ground level (hitting the driver and rear projection) and from the upper floors of buildings (hitting the upper hemisphere). When firing at infantry fighting vehicles and armored personnel carriers, grenade launchers primarily hit vehicle bodies; the militants hit the locations of stationary fuel tanks with ATGMs, grenade launchers and flamethrowers, and mounted fuel tanks with automatic fire.
In 1996, the intensity of summer fighting in Grozny increased even more. The feds gave the Dudayevites a “gift” - the militants received a railway carriage unharmed, filled to the brim with RPG-26 anti-tank grenades. In less than a week of fighting in the Chechen capital, the separatists managed to destroy more than 50 armored vehicles. Only 205th motorized rifle brigade lost about 200 people killed.
The success of the illegal armed formations is explained by the elementary simple, but at the same time highly effective tactics of the Chechens using maneuverable combat groups, consisting, as a rule, of 2 snipers, 2 machine gunners, 2 grenade launchers and 1 machine gunner. Their advantage was excellent knowledge of the location of hostilities and relatively light weapons, allowing them to move covertly and mobilely in difficult urban conditions.
According to competent sources, at the end of the first campaign, the Chechens had in their hands over 60,000 small arms, more than 2 million units of various ammunition, several dozen tanks, armored personnel carriers, infantry fighting vehicles, as well as several hundred artillery pieces of various calibers with several ammunition for them ( at least 200 shells per barrel). In 1996-1999 this arsenal has been significantly expanded. Numerous reserves of weapons and military equipment, coupled with the presence in the Chechen illegal armed formations of trained, trained personnel who know how to handle their weapons competently, soon allowed the militants to once again launch large-scale military operations.
Brother 07-01
Sergey Monetchikov
Photo by V. Nikolaychuk, D. Belyakov, V. Khabarov
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