"St. Petersburg" company
No one now remembers that in 1995, the naval tradition of the Great Patriotic War was revived - a company of marines was formed on the basis of more than twenty divisions of the Leningrad naval base. Moreover, this company had to be commanded not by a marine officer, but by a submariner ... Just like in 1941, the sailors were sent to the front almost directly from the ships, although many of them held the machine in their hands only on oath. And these yesterday's mechanics, signalmen, electricians in the mountains of Chechnya engaged in combat with well-trained and heavily armed militants.
Baltic sailors as part of the Baltic Marine Corps Battalion fleet won back in Chechnya with honor. But out of ninety-nine fighters, only eighty-six returned home ...
LIST
servicemen of the 8 Marine Corps Company of the Leningrad Naval Base who died while fighting in the Chechen Republic during the period from May 3 to June 30, 1995
1. Guard major Yakunenkov
Igor Alexandrovich (23.04.63– 30.05.95)
2. Guards Senior Lieutenant Stobetsky
Sergey Anatolyevich (24.02.72 – 30.05.95)
3. Guard sailor to / s Egorov
Alexander Mikhailovich (14.03.57 – 30.05.95)
4. Guard sailor Kalugin
Dmitry Vladimirovich (11.06.76 – 08.05.95)
5. Guard sailor Kolesnikov
Stanislav Konstantinovich (05.04.76 – 30.05.95)
6. Guard sailor Koposov
Roman Vyacheslavovich (04.03.76 – 30.05.95)
7. Guard foreman 2-th article Korablin
Vladimir Ilyich (24.09.75 – 30.05.95)
8. Guard junior sergeant Metlyakov
Dmitry Alexandrovich (09.04.71 – 30.05.95)
9. Guard senior sailor Romanov
Anatoly V. (27.04.76 – 29.05.95)
10. Guards senior sailor Cherevan
Vitaly Nikolaevich (01.04.75 – 30.05.95)
11. Guard sailor Cherkashin
Mikhail Alexandrovich (20.03.76 – 30.05.95)
12. Guard Senior Sailor Shpilko
Vladimir Ivanovich (21.04.76 – 29.05.95)
13. Guard Sergeant Yakovlev
Oleg E. (22.05.75 – 29.05.95)
Eternal memory to the dead, honor and glory alive!
Captain 1 rank V. tells (call sign "Vietnam"):
- I, the submariner, became the commander of the company of the marines. In early January, 1995, I was the commander of a diving company of the Baltic Fleet, at that time the only one in the entire Navy. And then suddenly came the order: from the personnel of the Leningrad Naval Base to form a company of marines to be sent to Chechnya. And all the infantry officers of the Vyborg regiment of antiamphibious defense, which should have gone to war, refused. I remember the command of the Baltic Fleet then threatened to put them in prison for this. So what? They put at least someone? .. And they told me: “Do you have any military experience? Take the company. Answer for her head. "
On the night of the eleventh to the twelfth of January 1995, I accepted this company in Vyborg. And in the morning you have to fly to Baltiysk.
As soon as he arrived at the barracks of the company of the Vyborg regiment, he built sailors and asked them: "Do you know that we are going to war?" And then half the mouth falls into a swoon: "Ka-a-ak? .. What kind of a war! ..". Then they understood how they were all deceived! It turned out that some of them were offered to enroll in the flight school, someone was driving to another place. But what is interesting is that for such important and responsible cases, for some reason, the very “best” sailors were selected, for example, with “aerial attacks” of disciplinary or even former offenders.
I remember a local major rushing up: “Why did you tell them that? How will we hold them now? ” I told him: “You shut your mouth ... We'd rather collect them here, than I would later put them there. Yes, by the way, if you do not agree with my decision, I can change with you. Any questions?". The major had no more questions ...
Something unimaginable began to happen with the personnel: someone was crying, someone had fallen into a stupor ... Of course, there were just overpants. Of the one hundred and fifty, there were about fifteen people. Two of them even rushed out of the unit. But I don’t need these, I wouldn’t take these myself anyway. But most of the guys were ashamed before their comrades, and they went to war. In the end, ninety-nine people went to war.
The next morning I built a company again. The commander of the Leningrad Naval Base, Vice Admiral Grishanov, asks me: "Do you have any wishes?" I answer: “Yes. Everyone here is going to die. ” He: “What are you talking about ?! This is a reserve company! .. ”. I: “Comrade Commander, I know everything, it’s not the first time I see a marching company. Here, people still have families, but no one has apartments. ” He: "We did not think about it ... I promise, we will solve this issue." And then he kept his word: all the families of the officers of the apartment received.
We arrive in Baltiysk, in the brigade of marines of the Baltic Fleet. The brigade itself at that time was in a half-collapsed state, so that the mess in the brigade multiplied by the mess in the company resulted in a mess in the square. Neither eat well nor sleep. And after all, this was only the minimum mobilization of one fleet! ..
But, thank God, by that time the old guard of Soviet officers remained in the navy. They started the war on themselves and pulled out. But in the second "walk" (as the Marines call the period of hostilities in the mountainous Chechnya from May to June 1995 of the year. - Ed.), Many officers from the "new" already went to war for apartments and orders. (I remember one more officer in Baltiysk asking for my company. But I had nowhere to take him. I then asked him: “Why do you want to go?” He: “I don’t have an apartment ...”. Me: “Remember : they don’t go to war for apartments. ”Later this officer died.)
The deputy commander of the brigade, Lieutenant Colonel Artamonov told me: "Your company will fly to the war in three days." And I had to take the oath of one hundred twenty people without a machine gun! But those who had this machine gun also left not far from them: almost no one knew how to shoot anyway.
Somehow settled, went to the landfill. And at the landfill of ten grenades, two do not explode, out of ten rifle cartridges, three do not shoot, just rotted. All these, if I may say so, ammunition were the 1953 release of the year. And cigarettes, by the way, too. It turns out that the oldest NZ was raked for us. With guns - the same story. In the company they were still the newest - 1976 release of the year. By the way, the captured machines, which we then took from the "spirits", were produced by 1994 of the year ...
But as a result of “intensive training”, on the third day we held classes in the combat firing of the department (under normal conditions it is necessary to do this only after a year of study). This is a very difficult and serious exercise, which ends with a combat grenade launcher. After such a “study,” all my hands were broken by shrapnel - this is because I had to pull down those who got up on their feet at the wrong time.
But studying is still half the trouble ... Here goes the company for lunch. I spend the "Shmon". And I find under the beds ... grenades, explosives. This is the guys eighteen! .. Weapon for the first time saw. But they didn’t think at all and didn’t understand that if it all exploded, they would have blown the barracks to pieces. Later, these fighters told me: "Comrade commander, we do not envy you, as you had to do with us."
From the landfill we arrive at one in the morning. Fighters unfed, and no one in the brigade especially to feed and is not going to ... Somehow still managed to get something edible. And so I fed officers in general with my own money. I had two million rubles with me. It was then a relatively large amount. For example, a pack of expensive imported cigarettes cost a thousand rubles ... I imagine what a sight it was when we, after a training ground with guns and knives, fell into a cafe at night. All in shock: who are they? ..
Representatives of different national diasporas often started to redeem their fellow countrymen: give up the boy, he is a Muslim and should not go to war. I remember those approaching on a Volkswagen Passat, calling in the command post: "Commander, we need to talk to you." Came with them to the cafe. They ordered such a table there! .. They say: "We will give you money, give us the boy." I listened to them carefully and answered: "No money is needed." I call the waitress and pay for the whole table. And I say to them: “Your boy will not go to war. I don't need such figs there! ” And then the guy became uncomfortable, he already wanted to go with everyone. But I told him clearly then: “No, I don’t need this one for sure. Free ... ".
Then I saw how common misfortune and common difficulties bring people together. Gradually, my motley company began to turn into a monolith. And then in the war I did not even command, but simply threw a glance - and everyone understood me perfectly.
In January, 1995, at the military airfield in the Kaliningrad region, we were loaded onto a plane three times. Twice the Baltic States did not give permission for the passage of aircraft over their territory. But for the third time, they still managed to send the “Ruevskaya” company (one of the mouths of the brigade of the marines of the Baltic Fleet. - Ed.), But we are not here again. Our company was preparing until the end of April. In the first "run" on the war from the whole company I got one, went for a replacement.
On the second “run,” we had to fly 28 on April 1995 of the year, but it turned out only 3 in May (again, because of the Balts, who did not let planes pass). Thus, the "TOFIKI" (Pacific Fleet Marines. - Ed.) And the "Northerners" (Northern Fleet Marines. - Ed.) Arrived before us.
When it became clear that we are facing a war not in the city, but in the mountains, in the Baltic Brigade, for some reason, the mood was so high that there would be no more dead - they say, this is not the terrible January 1995 of the year. There was some kind of false impression that a victorious walk in the mountains was ahead. But for me it was not the first war, and I had a premonition of how things will actually be. And then we actually learned how many people in the mountains died during shelling, how many - during the shooting of the columns. I really hoped that no one would die. I thought: "Well, the wounded will probably be ...". And I firmly decided that before sending I would definitely take the company to the church.
And in the company, many were unbaptized. Among them is Seryoga Stobetsky. And I, remembering how my baptism changed my life, really wanted him to be baptized. I myself was baptized late. Then I came back from a very scary business trip. The country collapsed. My family has broken up. It was not clear what to do next. I found myself at a dead end in life ... And I remember well how after baptism my soul calmed down, everything fell into place, and it became clear how I would live on. And when later I served in Kronstadt, several times I sent sailors to help the abbot of the Kronstadt Cathedral of the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God clean up the garbage. The cathedral at that time stood in ruins - after all it was blown up twice. And then the sailors began to bring me the royal gold pieces of gold, which they found under the ruins. They ask: "What to do with them?". Imagine: people find gold, a lot of gold ... But it was never in their minds to take it for themselves. And I decided to give these gold coins to the abbot. And it was to this church that I then came to baptize a son. At this time there was a priest, Father Svyatoslav, a former "Afghan". I say: “I want to baptize a child. But I myself am a little believer, I don’t know prayers ... ”. And I remember his speech literally: “Seryoga, were you under water? Have you been to war? So you believe in God. Free! And for me this moment became a turning point, I finally turned to the Church.
Therefore, before being sent to the “second run,” I began to ask Seryoga Stobetsky to be baptized. And he firmly answered: "I will not be baptized." I had a hunch (and not only me) that he would not return. I didn't even want to take him to the war at all, but I was afraid to tell him about it - I knew that he would go anyway. Therefore, I worried about him and really wanted him to be baptized. But nothing can be done here by force.
Through local priests, I turned to the then Metropolitan of Smolensk and Kaliningrad Cyril with a request to come to Baltiysk. And, most surprisingly, Vladyka Cyril left all his urgent business and came specifically to Baltiysk to bless us for the war.
Just went Light Week after Easter. When I talked with Vladyka, he asked me: “When are you going?”. I answer: “In a day or two. But there are unbaptized in the company. ” And about twenty boys who were unbaptized and wanted to be baptized, Vladyka Cyril personally baptized. Moreover, the guys had no money even for crosses, which I told Vladyka about. He replied: "Do not worry, everything is free for you here."
In the morning, almost the entire company (there were only those who served in the guard and in dresses) was with us at the liturgy in the cathedral in the center of Baltiysk. The liturgy was led by Metropolitan Kirill. Then I built a company at the cathedral. Vladyka Cyril came out and sprinkled the fighters with holy water. I also remember asking Metropolitan Kirill: “We are going to fight. Probably a sinful thing? ” And he replied: "If for the motherland, then no."
In the church, they gave us icons of St. George and the Mother of God and crosses, which were put on almost everyone who did not have them. With these icons and crosses a few days later we went to war.
When we were escorted, the commander of the Baltic Fleet, Admiral Yegorov, ordered us to lay the table. A company was built at the Chkalovsk airfield, the fighters were given tokens. Lieutenant Colonel Artamonov, the deputy commander, took me aside and said: “Seryoga, come back, please. Will you have cognac? ” I: “No, not necessary. Better when I get back. ” And when I went to the plane, I rather felt than I saw Admiral Egorov cross me ...
At night, we flew to Mozdok (military base in North Ossetia. - Ed.). There is a mess. I gave my own command to put a safeguard just in case, get sleeping bags and go to bed right next to the takeoff. The guys managed to get a little nap before the upcoming restless night already in positions.
4 May we were transferred to Khankala. There we sit on the armor and the column go to Germenchug under Shali, at the position of the battalion "TOFikov."
We arrived at the place - there is no one ... Our future positions more than a kilometer in length are scattered along the Dzhalki River. And I have only a little more than twenty fighters. If then the "spirits" attacked immediately, then we would have to be very hard. Therefore, we tried not to detect ourselves (no shooting) and began to slowly settle down. But it never even occurred to anyone to sleep this first night.
And rightly so. That night, the sniper fired at us for the first time. We hid bonfires, but the fighters decided to smoke. The bullet passed only about twenty centimeters from Stas Golubev: he was standing in a trance for some time with his eyes in a tint, and his ill-fated cigarette fell on a bronik and smoked ...
In these positions, we were constantly bombarded from the side of the village and from some unfinished factory. But the sniper at the plant then we from AGSa (automatic grenade launcher. - Ed.) Still removed.
The next day the entire battalion arrived. It became like fun. Engaged in additional equipment positions. I immediately set the usual routine: lifting, charging, divorce, physical training. Many people looked at me with great surprise: in the field, charging looked somehow, to put it mildly, exotic. But after three weeks, when we went to the mountains, everyone understood what, why and why: daily exercises gave the result - on the march I did not lose a single person. But in other companies, fighters who were not physically prepared for wild exertion simply fell from their feet, fell behind and were lost ...
In May, 1995 was declared a moratorium on the conduct of hostilities. Everyone paid attention to the fact that these moratoria were announced exactly when the “spirits” needed time to prepare. There were still gunfights - if we were shot, we would answer. But we did not go forward. But when this truce was over, we began to move in the direction of Shali – Agishty – Mahkety – Vedeno.
By that time, there were data from both airborne reconnaissance and short-range reconnaissance stations. Moreover, they turned out to be so accurate that with their help they managed to find shelter in the mountain for tank. My scouts confirmed: indeed, at the entrance to the gorge in the mountain, a shelter with a meter layer of concrete was equipped. The tank leaves this concrete cave, shoots towards the Grouping and leaves back. It is useless to shoot artillery on such a structure. We got out of this situation: they called Aviation and dropped some very powerful aerial bomb onto the tank.
24 May 1995, artillery preparation began, absolutely all the trunks woke up. And on the same day, seven minutes already flew to our location from our same "non" (self-propelled mortar. - Ed.). I can’t say exactly for what reason, but some mines, instead of flying along a calculated trajectory, started to tumble. A trench was dug along the road at the site of the former drainage system. And the mine gets right into this trench (Sasha Kondrashov is sitting there) and explodes! .. I think with horror: there must be a dead body ... I run up - thank God, Sasha is sitting, holding on to his leg. The splinter broke off a piece of stone, and with this stone a part of the muscle on his leg vomited. And this is on the eve of the battle. He doesn't want to go to the hospital ... They sent me anyway. But he caught up with us under the Oak-Yurt. Well, that no one else hooked.
On the same day a “hail” comes to me. A captain of the Marine Corps runs out of it, “TOFovets”, asks: “May I stay with you?”. I answer: "Well, wait ...". It never occurred to me that these guys would start shooting! .. And they drove off about thirty meters to the side and were launching a volley! .. It seemed to me that I was hit with a hammer in my ears! I told him: "What are you doing! ..". He: "So you allowed ...". They themselves laid cotton wool ears ...
On May 25 almost all of our company was already at the TPU (rear control center. - Ed.) Battalion south of Shali. Only the 1 platoon (reconnaissance) and the mortar bombers were pushed forward close to the mountains. Mortars advanced because the regimental "nony" and "Acacia" (self-propelled howitzer. - Ed.) Could not shoot close. The "spirits" used this: they would hide behind the near mountain, where the artillery could not reach them, and made forays from there. It was here that our mortars came in handy.
Early in the morning we heard a fight in the mountains. It was then that the "spirits" bypassed the 3 th amphibious assault company "TOFikov" from the rear. We ourselves feared such a detour. The next night, I did not go to bed at all, but walked in circles in my own positions. On the eve of us came the fighter "northerner", but mine did not notice him and missed. I remember being terribly angry - I thought that I would just kill everyone! .. After all, if the “northerner” calmly passed, then what about “spirits”? ..
At night, I sent sergeant Edik Musikayev's castle guard with the guys ahead to see where we were supposed to go. They saw two downed "spiritual" tanks. The guys brought a couple of captured automata with them, although usually the “spirits” were taken away after the fight. But here, probably, the skirmish was so fierce that these machines either abandoned or lost. In addition, we found grenades, mines, captured the "spiritual" machine gun, a weapon from the BMP smoothbore mounted on a self-made chassis.
26 May 1995, the active phase of the offensive began: "TOFIKI" and "Northerners" fought forward along the Shali gorge. The “spirits” prepared very well for the meeting of ours: they had equipped layered positions - dugout systems, trenches. (Later we even found old dugouts from the times of the Patriotic War, which the “spirits” converted to firing points. And here’s something else was especially bitter: the militants “magically” knew exactly the time of the start of the operation, the location of the troops, and preemptive tank artillery attacks.)
It was then that my fighters for the first time saw the returning MTLB (multi-purpose light armored tractor. - Ed.) With the wounded and the dead (they were taken right through us). They matured in one day.
"TOFIKI" and "northerners" rested ... They did not fulfill the task for this day even by half. Therefore, in the morning of May 27, I receive a new team: together with the battalion, advance to the area of the cement plant under Duba-Yurt. The command decided not to send our Baltic battalion across the gorge to the forehead (I don’t even know how much we would have left under such a development of events), but to send it around to go to the “spirits” to the rear. The battalion was given the task of passing through the right flank through the mountains and first taking Agishty and then Mahket. And it was precisely to such actions of ours that the fighters were completely unprepared! And the fact that they were already in the mountains in the rear would go as much as a whole battalion, and in a nightmare they could not dream! ..
By thirteen o'clock 28 in May, we moved to the area of the cement plant. Paratroopers from the 7 division of the Airborne Forces also approached here. And here we hear the sound of "turntables"! In the gap between the trees of the gorge a helicopter appears, painted with some dragons (this was clearly seen through binoculars). And everyone, without saying a word, opens fire from grenade launchers in that direction! It was far to the helicopter, about three kilometers, and we could not reach it. But the pilot seemed to see this barrage fire and quickly flew away. More we did not see "spiritual" helicopters.
According to the plan the scouts of the paratroopers were to be the first to go. They are followed by the 9-I company of our battalion and becomes a checkpoint. For 9, our 7 company is also becoming a checkpoint. And my 8 company must go through all checkpoints and take Agishty. For reinforcement, they gave me a "mortar", a sapper platoon, an art corrector and an aircraft manufacturer.
Seryoga Stobetsky, the commander of the 1 reconnaissance platoon, and I begin to think about how we will go. Began to prepare for the exit. They gave extra classes on “Fizo” (although we already had them every day from the very beginning). We also decided to hold a speed shop competition. After all, with each fighter with ten to fifteen stores. But one shop, if you pull the trigger and hold, takes off in about three seconds, and life literally depends on the speed of reloading in battle.
At that moment, everyone already knew very well that what lay ahead was not the skirmishes that we had the day before. Everything spoke of this: around the burnt wrecks of tanks, wounded people come out through dozens of positions, take out the dead ... Therefore, before reaching the initial one, I went to each fighter to look into his eyes and wish good luck. I saw how some people twisted their stomach with fear, someone pissed off at all ... But I do not consider these manifestations to be something shameful. Just remember well your fear of the first battle! In the area of the solar plexus, it hurts as if you were hit in the groin, but only ten times stronger! It is both acute and aching, and dull pain ... And you can’t do anything with it: at least you walk, you even sit, and it hurts so much under your thumb! ..
When we went to the mountains, I had about sixty kilograms of equipment — a bullet-proof vest, a machine gun with a grenade launcher, two BK (ammunition sets - Ed.) Grenades, one and a half BK ammunition, grenades for the podstvolnik, two knives. Fighters are loaded the same way. But the guys from 4-second grenade-machine-gun platoon dragged their AGSs (automatic grenade launcher. - Ed.), "Cliffs" (heavy caliber machine gun NSV caliber 12,7 mm. - Ed.) And plus each two mortar mines - another ten kilograms !
I build a company and determine the order of battle: first, the 1 reconnaissance platoon goes, then the sappers and the “mortar”, and the 4 platoon closes. We are walking in complete darkness along the goat trail, which was marked on the map. The trail is narrow, only a cart could pass through it, and even with great difficulty. I said to my own: "If someone shouts, even if wounded, I will come and strangle myself ...". So we walked very quietly. Even if someone fell, the maximum that could be heard was a muffling.
On the way, we saw "spiritual" caches. Fighters: "Comrade Commander! ..". I: “To leave, do not touch anything. Forward!". And it is right that we didn’t get into these caches. Later we learned about the "two hundredths" (lost. - Ed.) And the "three hundredths" (wounded. - Ed.) In our battalion. Fighters 9-th company climbed into dugouts rummaging. And no, in order to first throw the dugout with grenades, but went stupidly, into the open ... And here's the result - the bullet-hitter from Vyborg Volodya Soldatenkovu bullet hit below the bulletproof vest. He died of peritonitis, he was not even taken to the hospital.
All the time of the march, I ran between the vanguard (reconnaissance platoon) and the rearguard ("mortar"). And our column stretched for almost two kilometers. When once again I came back, I met reconnaissance paratroopers, who were walking around with ropes. I told them: “It's great, boys!” After all, they went light! But it turned out that we were ahead of everyone, the 7 and 9 companies remained far behind.
Reported to the battalion commander. He says to me: "So go to the end first." And at five in the morning with my reconnaissance platoon I took a high-rise 1000.6. This was the place where the 9-I company checkpoint was supposed to stand up and accommodate the battalion's TPU. At seven o'clock in the morning my entire company approached, and at about half past seven scout troopers arrived. And only at ten in the morning the battalion commander arrived with a part of another company.
Only on the map we walked about twenty kilometers. Exhausted to the limit. I remember well how all the blue-green came from Seryoga Starodubtsev from the 1 platoon. He fell to the ground and lay for two hours without moving at all. And this guy is young, twenty years old ... What to say about those who are older.
All plans have gone astray. The battalion commander tells me: “You go forward, in the evening you occupy the height before Agishtami and report”. Come forward. Scout-paratroopers passed and moved further along the road indicated on the map. But the maps were of the sixties, and this path was marked on it without bending! As a result, we got off and went on another, new road, which was not on the map at all.
The sun is still high. I see a huge village in front of me. I look at the map - this is definitely not Agishty. I say to the aircraft carrier: “Igor, we are not where we should be. Let's figure it out. ” As a result, figured out what came to the Mahketah. From us to the village a maximum of three kilometers. And this is the task of the second day of the offensive! ..
I get in touch with the battalion commander. I say: “Why do I need these Agishty? I return to them almost fifteen kilometers! And I have a whole company, "mortar", and even sappers, we are two hundred people in all. Yes, I never fought with such a crowd! Come on, I'll take a break and take Mahketa. ” Indeed, by that time the fighters could not pass more than five hundred meters in a row. Indeed, on each - from sixty to eighty kilograms. The fighter will sit down, but he himself can no longer stand up ...
Combat: "Back!". The order is an order - we turn around and go back. The first went reconnaissance. And as it turned out, we were right on the spot where the "spirits" emerged. "TOFIKI" and "northerners" pressed on them in two directions at once, and the "spirits" departed in two groups of several hundred people on both sides of the gorge ...
We returned to the bend from which we went the wrong way. And then the battle begins behind - our 4 grenade-machine-gun platoon was ambushed! It all started with a direct collision. The fighters, bending under the weight of everything they were dragging on themselves, saw some “bodies”. Ours make two conditional shots into the air (in order to somehow distinguish ours from others, I ordered a piece of vest to be sewn onto the arm and the leg and agreed with my own on the “friend-foe” signal: two shots in the air - two shots in response) . And in return, we get two shots to kill! The bullet hits Sasha Ognev in the arm and interrupts the nerve. He screams in pain. Medic Gleb Sokolov with us turned out to be a fine fellow: “spirits” are beating him, but he is bandaging a wounded man at this time! ..
Captain Oleg Kuznetsov rushed to the 4-th platoon. I told him: “Where! There is a platoon commander, let him understand. You have a company, a “mortar” and sappers! ” I put up a barrier of five-six fighters with the commander of the 1 platoon Seryoga Stobetsky on the skyscraper, the rest I give the command: “Move back and dig in!”.
And here the battle begins already with us - this is from below they fired at us from the grenade launchers. We walked along the ridge. In the mountains like this: who is higher, he won. But not at this time. The fact is that huge burdocks were growing down below. From above, we see only green leaves from which pomegranates fly, and the “spirits” through the stems see us perfectly.
Just at that moment, the last fighters from the 4 platoon were walking past me. I still remember how Edik Kolechkov walked. He walks along a narrow ledge of a slope and carries two PCs (Kalashnikov machine gun. - Ed.). And then bullets start flying around him! .. I shout: “Get left! ..”. And he was so exhausted that he could not even turn away from this ledge, he just set his legs apart so as not to fall, and therefore continues to go straight ...
There is nothing to do upstairs, and with the soldiers I enter these damned mugs. Volodya Shpilko and Oleg Yakovlev were extreme in the chain. And here I see: a grenade explodes alongside Volodya, and he falls ... Oleg immediately rushed to pull Volodya out and at the same time died immediately. Oleg and Volodya were friends ...
The fight lasted about five to ten minutes. We did not reach the baseline just three hundred meters and moved to the position of the 3 platoon, which was already dug in. The paratroopers stood next to them. And here comes Seryoga Stobetsky, he himself is blue-black, and says: "Spiers" and "Bull" are not ... ".
I create four groups of four or five people, Zhenya Metlikin's sniper (nickname “Uzbek”) was planted in the bushes just in case and went to drag out the dead, although this, of course, was an obvious adventure. On the way to the battlefield, we see the “body” that flickers in the forest. I am looking through binoculars - and this is the "spirit" in a homemade armor plate, all hung with body armor. So, they are waiting for us. Come back.
I ask the commander of the 3-th platoon Gleb Degtyarev: "Your all?". He: "There is no one ... Metlikina ...". How was it possible to lose one in five people? This is not one of the thirty! .. I come back, go out on the trail - and then they start shooting at me! .. That is, the "spirits" were really waiting for us. I'm back again. I shout: “Metlikin!”. Silence: “Uzbek!”. And then he just rises from under me. I: “And why are you sitting, do not you leave?”. He: “And I thought it was the“ spirits ”that came. Maybe they know my name. But about the "Uzbek" just can not know. So I went out. "
The outcome of this day was this: after the first battle, the “spirits” I myself counted only sixteen corpses that were not carried away. We lost Tolik Romanov and was wounded in the hand of Ognev. The second battle - seven corpses of the "spirits", we have two dead, no one was injured. We were able to pick up the bodies of the two dead the next day, and Tolik Romanova only after two weeks.
Twilight has come. I report to the battalion commander: a “mortar” on a high-rise on the initial, I am over them in three hundred meters. We decided to spend the night at the same site where we were after the fight. The place seemed convenient: on the right in the course of our movement - a deep cliff, on the left - a smaller cliff. In the middle is a hill and a tree in the center. I decided to settle down there - to me from there, as if Chapaev, everything around was clearly visible. Were digging, set security. It seems everything is quiet ...
And then the reconnaissance major from the paratroopers began to make a fire. He wanted to bask near the fire. I: "What are you doing?". And then when he went to bed, he again warned the major: “Carcasses!”. And after all on this kosmerok mines in several hours and flew. So it happened: some burned the fire, and others died ...
Somewhere in three nights I woke Degtyarev: “Your shift. I need to sleep a little bit. Remain for a senior. If the attack from below - do not shoot, only grenades. " I take off my body armor and taxiway (backpack paratrooper. - Ed.), I close them and lie on the hill. In RD, I had twenty grenades. These grenades saved me later.
I woke up from a sharp sound and a flash of fire. Two mines from the “cornflower” burst right next to me (Soviet automatic mortar of 82 mm caliber. Cassette loading, four mines are placed in the cassette. - Ed.). (This mortar was installed on the "UAZ", which we then still found and blew.)
I immediately went deaf in my right ear. I can't understand anything at the first moment. Around the wounded moan. Everybody is yelling, shooting ... Almost simultaneously with the explosions, they started firing at us from two sides, and also from above. It can be seen that the "spirits" wanted to take us by surprise immediately after the shelling to take. But the fighters were ready and this attack was immediately repulsed. The fight turned out to be transient, lasted only ten to fifteen minutes. When the "spirits" realized that they couldn’t take us, they simply withdrew.
If I had not gone to bed, then perhaps such a tragedy would not have happened. Indeed, before these two damned mines there were two sighting shots from a mortar. And if one mine arrives, it is already bad. But if two - this means that they take in the "fork". For the third time two mines flew in a row and fell just five meters from the fire, which became a guide for the “spirits”.
And only after the shooting stopped, I turned and saw ... At the site of the mine explosions there were a lot of wounded and dead ... Immediately six people were killed, more than twenty were seriously injured. Look: Seryoga Stobetsky lies dead, Igor Yakunenkov is dead. Of the officers, only Gleb Degtyarev and I were left alive, plus the aircraft master. It was terrible to look at the wounded: Seryoga Kulmin had a hole in his forehead and his eyes were flat and flowed out. Sashka Shibanov has a huge hole in his shoulder, Edik Kolechkov has a huge hole in his lungs, a shard flew in there ...
RD himself saved me. When I began to pick it up, several fragments spilled out of it, one of which fell directly into the grenade. But the grenades were, naturally, without fuses ...
I remember very well the very first moment: I see Seryog Stobetsky torn. And then from my inside everything starts to rise to the throat. But I say to myself: “Stop! You are the commander, take everything back! ”. I do not know how much effort, but it turned out ... But I could only approach him at six o'clock in the evening, when I calmed down a bit. And he ran all day long: the wounded groan, the soldiers must be fed, the shelling continues ...
Almost immediately the seriously wounded began to die. Vitalik Cherevan died especially terribly. A part of his body was torn off, but for about half an hour he still lived. Eyes are glass. Sometimes something human appears for a second, then they become glazed again ... His first cry after the explosions was: "Vietnam", help! .. ". I was addressed to "you"! And then: "Vietnam", shoot ... ". (I remember how, at one of our meetings, his father grabbed my breasts, shook me, and kept asking: "Why didn’t you shoot him, well, why didn’t you shoot him? .. could ...)
But (here is the miracle of God!) Many of the wounded, who were supposed to die, survived. Sergei Kulmin was lying next to me, head to head. He had such a hole in his forehead that his brain was visible! .. So he did not just survive - he even had his eyesight restored! True, now walks with two titanium plates in the forehead. And Misha Blinov had a hole ten centimeters in diameter over her heart. He also survived, he now has five sons. And Pasha Chukhnin from our company has four sons now.
We don’t have water for myself, even for the wounded — zero! .. I had with me both pantacid tablets and chlorine tubes (disinfectants for water. - Ed.). But there is nothing to disinfect ... Then they remembered that the day before they were walking through impassable dirt. The fighters began to strain this dirt. What turned out to be very difficult to call water. Muddy slurry with sand and tadpoles ... But there was no other one anyway.
For a whole day they tried to help the wounded somehow. On the eve we crushed the “spiritual” dugout, which contained dried milk. They lit a fire, and this "water", extracted from the mud, began to be stirred with dry milk and given to the wounded. We ourselves drank the same water with sand and with tadpoles for a sweet soul. I told the fighters in general that the tadpoles were very useful - squirrels ... No one even had disgust. At first, pantacid was thrown into it for disinfection, and then it was drunk just like that ...
A group does not give the go-ahead for evacuation "turntables." We are in a dense forest. Helicopters have nowhere to sit down ... During the regular talks about the "turntables" I remembered: I also have an aircraft manufacturer! "Where is the aircraft carrier?" We are looking, we are looking for, but we can’t find it on our patch at all. And then I turn around and see that he dug a full-length trench with his helmet and is sitting in it. I do not understand how he took the land from the trench! I couldn’t even get through there at all.
Although helicopters were not allowed to hover, one commander of the "turntables" still said: "I will hang." I gave the sappers a command to clear the site. We had explosives. We blew old trees into trees, in three girths. They began to prepare three wounded to be sent. One, Aleksey Chach, a splinter hit his right leg. He has a huge hematoma, can not walk. I prepare it for shipment, and I leave Sergei Kulmin with a broken head. The nurse in horror asks me: "How? .. Comrade commander, why aren't you sending him?" I answer: “I will definitely save these three. But "heavy" - I do not know ... ". (For the fighters it was a shock that the war had its own terrible logic. First of all, those who can be saved are saved here.)
But our hopes were not destined to come true. We never evacuated anyone with helicopters. In the grouping, "turntables" gave the final retreat and instead sent them two columns to us. But our battalion drivers on the BTRs did not make it. And only in the end by the night came to us five BMD paratroopers.
With so many wounded and dead, we could not move a single step. And towards evening, the second wave of retiring militants began to seep through. They bombarded us from grenade launchers from time to time, but we already knew how to act: we simply threw grenades from top to bottom.
I got in touch with the battalion commander. While we were talking to him, some Mamed intervened in the conversation (the connection was open, and any scanner caught our radio stations!). I started carrying some kind of nonsense about ten thousand dollars, which he will give us. The conversation ended with the fact that he offered to go one on one. I: “And not weakly! I will come. " The fighters dissuaded me, but I came to the appointed place really alone. But no one has appeared ... Although now I understand well that for my part it was, to put it mildly, recklessly.
I hear the hum of the column. Gonna go meet. Fighters: "Comrade commander, just do not leave, do not leave ...". It is clear what's the matter: the dad leaves, they are scared. I understand that it seems impossible to go, because as soon as the commander left, the situation becomes uncontrollable, but there is no one to send more! .. And I did go and, as it turned out, I did well! The paratroopers got lost in the same place as we did when they almost reached Makhketov. We did meet, though with very big adventures ...
Our medic, Major Nitchyk (call sign “Dose”), the battalion commander and his deputy Seryoga Sheyko came with the column. Somehow driven into our little patch of BMD. And here the shelling begins again ... Combat: "What is it that you have going on here?" After the shelling, the “spirits” themselves have already reached. They probably decided to slip between us and our “mortar”, which was dug in about three hundred meters on a high-rise. But we are already smart, we don’t shoot from machine guns, but just throw grenades down. And then our machine-gunner Sasha Kondrashov suddenly rises and gives an endless queue from the PC in the opposite direction! .. I run up: “What are you doing?”. He: "Look, they have already reached us! ..". And indeed, I see that the "spirits" - about thirty meters. There were many, several dozen. They wanted, most likely, to pick us up and surround us. But we drove them away with grenades. They could not break through here either.
I walk with a limp all day, I can not hear, although I do not stutter. (It seemed to me so. Actually, as the fighters told me later, I even stuttered!) And I was not thinking at all at the time that this was a concussion. All day running around: the wounded die, you need to prepare the evacuation, it is necessary to feed the soldiers, shelling go. In the evening I try to sit down for the first time - it hurts. Hand touched his back - blood. Paratrooper: "Well, lean over ...". (This major has a great combat experience. Before that, I was horrified to see Edik Musikayev shred him with a scalpel and say: “Do not be afraid, the meat will increase!”) And with his hand he pulled a fragment from my back. Then such a pain pierced me! For some reason, it gave way to the nose most of all! .. The major gives a fragment to me: “On, you will make a key chain”. (The second fragment was found only recently during an examination at the hospital. He is still sitting there, stuck in the spine and just a little bit did not reach the canal.)
The wounded were loaded onto the BMD, then the dead. I gave their weapons to the commander of the 3 platoon, Gleb Degtyarev, and left him for the eldest. And I myself went with the wounded and dead to the regiment's medical battalion.
We all looked terrible: all killed, tied up, in blood. But ... while all in polished shoes and cleaned with weapons. (By the way, we have not lost a single trunk, we even found automatic weapons of all our dead.)
Twenty-five people turned out to be wounded, most of them seriously wounded. Passed them to the doctors. It remained the most difficult - sending the dead. The problem was that some didn’t have any documents with them, so I ordered my fighters to write each one’s hand and put the notes with the last name in their pants pocket. But when I began to check, it turned out that Stas Golubev had mixed the notes! I immediately imagined what would happen when the body arrived at the hospital: one thing was written on the arm, and another thing was written in the piece of paper! I juggle the shutter and think: I will kill him now ... I myself am surprised now with my rage at that moment ... Apparently, that was the reaction to the tension, and the contusion affected. (Now Stas does not hold any resentment towards me for this. Still, they were all boys and were afraid to approach the bodies at all ...)
And here the medical colonel gives me fifty grams of alcohol with ether. I drink this alcohol ... and I almost don't remember anything more ... Then everything was like in a dream: either I washed myself, or I was washed ... I only remembered: there was a warm shower.
I woke up: I lay on a stretcher in front of the “turntable” in a clean blue RB (single linen. - Ed.) A submariner and I were loaded into this “turntable”. The first thought: "What about the company? ..". After all, the commanders of platoons, offices and castle platoon either died or were injured. Only the fighters remained ... And as soon as I imagined what was going to happen in the company, the hospital immediately dropped for me. I shout to Igor Meshkov: “Stop the hospital!”. (It then seemed to me that I was screaming. In fact, he hardly heard my whisper.) He: “I have to leave the hospital. Give the commander! ". And the stretcher begins to pull back from the helicopter. The captain, who took me in a helicopter, does not give me a stretcher. "Bag" customizes its armored personnel carrier, leads on the KVTT "spinner" (heavy machine gun. - Ed.): "Give the commander ...". Those freaked out: "Yes, take it! ..". And it so happened that without my documents my documents flew into the MOSN (a special-purpose medical detachment - Ed.), Which then had very serious consequences ...
As I later learned, this was the case. Flip-flop arrives at Mosen. My documents are in it, and the stretcher is empty, there are no bodies ... And my torn pieces are lying next to me. In Mosen decided that since there is no body, then I burned out. As a result, a telephone message came to Peter addressed to the deputy commander of the Leningrad naval base, Captain I rank Smuglin: “The lieutenant commander such and such died”. But Smuglin knows me from the lieutenants! He began to think how to be, how to bury me. In the morning I called Captain I rank Toporov, my immediate commander: “Prepare the cargo for two hundred.” Toporov then told me: “I come into the office, take out cognac - they shake right next to my hand. Pour into a glass - and then the call. Fraction, set aside - it is alive! ”. It turned out that when Sergey Stobetsky's body arrived at the base, they began to look for mine. And my body, of course, no! They called Major Rudenko: “Where is the body?”. He replies: “What a body! I saw him myself, he is alive! ”
And that's what really happened to me. I took a submachine gun in my blue underwear of a submariner, sat down with soldiers on an armored troop-carrier and went to Agishty. Combat already reported that I was sent to the hospital. When he saw me, he was delighted. There is also Yura Rudenko returned with humanitarian aid. His father died, and he left the war to bury him.
I come to my. In the company mess. There is no security, the weapons are scattered, the fighters are "razgulyaevo" ... Gleb say: "What a mess?!.". He: "Why, our circle!" That's all for the relaxation ... ". I: “So relax for the fighters, but not for you!”. He began to restore order, and everything quickly returned to its former course.
Then just came the humanitarian aid that Yura Rudenko brought: bottled water, food! .. The fighters drank this sparkling water in packages - the stomach was washed. This is after that water with sand and tadpoles! I myself drank six bottles of water at a time. I do not understand how all this water in my body has found a place for itself.
And here they bring me a package that the young ladies gathered in the brigade in Baltiysk. And the package is addressed to me and Stobetsky. In it - my favorite coffee for me and chewing gum for him. And here such an anguish came over me! .. I received this package, but Sergey no longer ...
We got up near the village of Agishty. “Tofiki” on the left, “northerners” on the right occupied the dominant heights on the way to the Machat, and we were going backwards - in the middle.
At that time only thirteen people were killed in the company. But further, thank God, it was no longer in my company of the dead. Of those who remained with me, I began to re-re-form the platoon.
1 June 1995, we replenish ammunition and advance to Kirov-Yurt. There is a tank with a mine trawl in front, then "Shilka" (self-propelled anti-aircraft installation. - Ed.) And a battalion of armored personnel carriers, I - on the head. I have the following task: the column stops, the battalion turns around, and I stormed the 737 high-rise from Mahketov.
Just before the skyscraper (it was a hundred meters away), a sniper fired at us. Three bullets whistled beside me. They shout on the radio: “It hits you, it hits you! ..”. But the sniper didn’t get at me for another reason: the commander usually sits not at the commander’s place, but above the driver. And this time I intentionally sat on the commanding position. And although we had an order to remove the stars from epaulets, I did not remove my stars. The battalion commander made remarks to me, and I told him: “Fuck off ... I’m not an officer and I’m not going to shoot stars.” (After all, officers with stars went to the Great Patriotic War even at the front line.)
We go in Kirov-Yurt. And we see a completely unreal picture, as if from an old fairy tale: the water mill is working ... I am in command - increase the speed! I look - on the right, about fifty meters down, there stands a destroyed house, the second or third from the beginning of the street. Suddenly, a boy of ten or eleven runs out of it. I give the command on the column: "Do not shoot! ..". And then the boy throws a grenade at us! Grenade falls into the poplar. (I well remembered that he was double, he was spreading out with a slingshot.) The grenade bounces off, rebounds, falls under the boy and breaks it ...
And the “dushars” are so tricky! They come to the village, and there they are not given food! Then they from this village give a volley in the direction of the Group. Grouping, of course, is responsible for this village. On this basis it is possible to determine: if the village is destroyed, it means that it is not “spiritual”, and if it is whole, then they are. For example, Agishty were almost completely destroyed.
Over Makhketami "turntables" are locking up. Aviation passes from above. The battalion begins to unfold. Our company goes forward. We assumed that we would most likely not meet any organized resistance and there could only be ambushes. We went to the skyscraper. "Spirits" was not on it. Stopped to determine where to stand.
From above it was clearly visible that the houses in Macheta were whole. Moreover, here and there were real palaces with towers and pillars. It was clear from all over that they were built recently. On the way, I remembered such a picture: a big country house is sound, a grandmother with a little white flag stands near it ...
Soviet money was still in use in Makhetah. The locals told us: “Since 1991, we have children who don’t go to school, there are no kindergartens, and no one gets a pension. We are not against you. Thanks, of course, that they saved us from the militants. But you have to go home. ” It is literally.
Local immediately began to treat us with compotes, but we were wary. The aunt, the head of the administration, says: "Do not be afraid, you see - I am drinking." I: "No, let the man drink." I understood that there was a triad power in the village: the mullah, the elders and the head of the administration. And the head of the administration was precisely this aunt (she graduated from technical school in St. Petersburg at the time).
2 Jun resorts to me this "chapter": "Ours are robbing ours!" Before that, of course, we walked around the courtyards: we looked, what kind of people, are there any weapons. We go behind it and see the oil painting: representatives of our most numerous law-enforcement structure take out carpets and all that stuff from the palaces with columns. And they did not come on armored personnel carriers, which they usually drove, but on infantry fighting vehicles. Yes, and dressed under the infantry ... I so marked their eldest - Major! And he said: "Appear here again - I will kill! ..". They did not even try to resist, they were instantly blown away by the wind ... And I said to the local ones: “To write on all the houses -“ The economy of “Vietnam”. DKBF. And the next day, these words were written on each fence. Combat even offended me about this ...
At the same time, under Vedeno we captured a convoy of armored vehicles, about a hundred units - infantry fighting vehicles, tanks and BTR-80. The very Hochma was that the BTR with the inscription “Baltic Fleet”, which we received from the Group first, was in this column! .. It wasn’t even erased this inscription and the letter “B” on all wheels, stylized under the Vietnamese hieroglyph ... On the front of the dashboard it was written: "Freedom to the Chechen people!" and "God is with us and the flag of St. Andrew!".
We dig deeply. And they started 2 June, and 3 in the morning already finished. Designated landmarks, sectors of fire, agreed with the mortar. And by the morning of the next day the company was completely ready for battle. Then we only expanded and strengthened our positions. For all our stay here, the fighters have never sat down with me. We settled all day long: we dug trenches, connected them with message trenches, built dugouts. Made a real pyramid for weapons, all surrounded by boxes of sand. We continued digging until we left this position. Lived according to the Charter: rise, physical charge, morning divorce, guard. Fighters cleaned their shoes regularly ...
Above me, I hung the St. Andrew's flag and a home-made "Vietnamese" flag, made from the Soviet leader in the "Leader of Socialist Competition". We must remember that it was during the time: the collapse of the state, some gangster groups against others ... Therefore, I did not see the Russian flag anywhere, and everywhere was either the St. Andrew’s flag or the Soviet flag. Infantry generally went with red flags. And the most valuable thing in this war was a friend and comrade near, and nothing more.
"Spirits" were well aware how many people I have. But besides shelling, they no longer dared to do anything. The "spirits", after all, the task was not heroically to die for their Chechen homeland, but to report back for the money received, so they simply did not confuse themselves to where they would probably be killed.
And on the radio comes a message that militants attacked an infantry regiment near Selmenhausen. Losses from ours - more than a hundred people. I was at the infantry and I saw what kind of organization they had there, unfortunately. After all, there every second fighter was taken prisoner not in battle, but because they got into the habit of chickens from the locals. Although the guys themselves were humanly completely understandable: there was nothing to eat ... They were seized by these local residents to stop this theft. And then they called: "Take your own people, but only so that they no longer go to us."
We have a team - not to go anywhere. And how not to go anywhere, when they constantly bombard us, and various “shepherds” come from the mountains. We hear the neighing of horses. We walked around constantly, but I did not report anything to the battalion commander.
They began to come to me local "walkers". I tell them: we go here, but we don’t go there, we do it, but we don’t do it ... After all, we were constantly attacked by a sniper from one of the palaces. We, of course, responded by firing from all that we had in that direction. Somehow comes Isa, the local "authority": "I was asked to say ...". I told him: “As long as they shoot at us from there, we will also hammer.” (A little later we made a sortie in that direction, and the question of shelling from this direction was closed.)
Already 3 June in the middle gorge we find a field mined "spiritual" hospital. It was evident that the hospital had recently acted - blood is visible all around. Equipment and medicine "perfume" thrown. I have never seen such medical luxury at all ... Four gasoline generators, water tanks connected by pipelines ... Shampoos, disposable shaving machines, blankets ... And what kind of medicines were there! .. Our doctors simply wept with envy. Blood substitutes - made in France, Holland, Germany. Dressings, surgical threads. And we have nothing but promedol (anesthetic. - Ed.), And it really wasn't there. The conclusion suggests itself: what kind of forces are thrown against us, what finances! .. And what does the Chechen people have to do with this? ..
I got there first, so I chose what was most valuable to me: bandages, disposable sheets, blankets, kerosene lamps. Then he called the colonel of the medical service and showed all this wealth. His reaction, like me. He just fell into a trance: stitched materials for vessels of the heart, modern medicines ... After that we were in direct contact with him: he asked me to let me know if I could find something else. But I had to contact him for a completely different reason.
Near the river Bass there was a faucet, from where the locals took water, so we drank this water without fear. We drive up to the crane, and then one of the elders stops us: “Commander, help! We have trouble - a woman gives birth sick. The elder spoke with a strong accent. Nearby stood a young guy as a translator, suddenly something would be incomprehensible. Nearby I see foreigners in jeeps from the “Doctors without Borders” mission, like the Dutch in conversation. I to them - help! They: "Not-ee ... We only help the rebels." I was so taken aback by their answer that I didn’t even know how to react. He called the medical colonel on the radio: "Come, you need help with childbirth." He immediately came to the "pill" with one of his own. Seeing the woman in labor, he said: “And I thought you were joking ...”.
Put the woman in the "pill". She looked scary: all yellow ... Her birth was not the first, but probably there were some complications in connection with hepatitis. The colonel gave birth himself, but he gave me the child and began to put some droppers on the woman. From the habit, it seemed to me that the child looked very creepy ... I wrapped it in a towel and held it in my arms until the colonel was released. This is the story that happened to me. I did not think, I did not guess that I would participate in the birth of a new citizen of Chechnya.
From the beginning of June, a cooker worked somewhere at the TPU, but hot food practically did not reach us - we had to eat dry rations and pasture. (I taught the fighters to diversify the ration of dry rations - the stew for the first, second and third - at the expense of pasture. The tarragon was brewed like tea. You could cook soup from rhubarb. And if you add grasshoppers there - rich such soup turns out, and the protein again And before, when we were standing in Germenchug, we saw a lot of hares around. You go with a machine gun behind you - the hare jumps out from under your feet! Those seconds while you take the machine gun, you spend it - and the hare is gone ... Only the machine gun was removed - they are again here. I spent two days at least one tried It’s useless to eat, but quit this occupation ... I taught the boys still to eat lizards and snakes. Catching them turned out to be much easier than shooting hares. The pleasure from such food is, of course, not enough, but what to do is something you need ...) It’s also a problem with water: it was muddy all around, and we drank it only through bactericidal sticks.
One morning, the locals arrived with the local district lieutenant. He even showed us some red crusts. They say: we know that you have nothing. Here the terms of the cows go. A cow with painted horns can shoot down - this is a collective farm. But do not touch the unpainted ones - these are personal. “Good” seemed to be given, but somehow it was difficult for us to step over ourselves. Then all the same, near Bass, one cow was filled up. They killed someone, but what to do with it? .. And here comes Dima Gorbatov (I put him to cook). He is a village boy and, in front of an astounded public, he completely butchered a cow in a few minutes! ..
We have not seen fresh meat for a very long time. And then kebab! Another clipping in the sun hung out, wrapped with bandages. And after three days, dried meat turned out - no worse than in the store.
What bothered us was the constant night shelling. Return fire, of course, we did not immediately open. Let's note where the shooting came from and slowly go to the area. Here, the Esbe'erk helped us very much (RRF, short-range reconnaissance radar. - Ed.).
One evening, we and the scouts (we were seven people), trying to go unnoticed, went towards the sanatorium, from where they had shot at us the day before. They came - we find four "beds", near a small mined warehouse. We did not clean up anything - we just set our traps. It worked at night. It turns out that we did not go in vain ... But we didn’t begin to check the results, for us it was mainly that there was no more shooting from this direction.
When this time we returned safely, for the first time in a long time I felt satisfied - after all, the work I was able to do began. Besides, now I didn’t have to do everything myself, but something could already be entrusted to someone else. Only a week and a half has passed, and people have been replaced. War learns fast. But it was then that I realized that if we hadn’t pulled the dead, but left them, then the next day no one would go into battle. In war, this is the most important thing. The guys saw that we are not leaving anyone.
Our sorties were constant. Once left the armored personnel carrier below and climbed into the mountains. They saw the apiary and began to examine it: it was converted into a mine class! Immediately, in the apiary, we found the lists of the company of the Islamic battalion. I opened them and did not believe my eyes - everything, like ours: 8-i company. In the list of information: name, surname and from what place it comes. Very interesting part of the department: four grenade launchers, two snipers and two machine gunners. Ran with these lists for a whole week - where to give? Then he handed over to headquarters, but I am not sure that I reached this list where necessary. All this was a damn.
Not far from the apiary, they found a pit with an ammunition depot (one hundred and seventy boxes of sub-caliber and high-explosive tank shells). While we were examining all this, the battle began. We began to beat the machine gun. The fire is very dense. And Misha Mironov, a country boy, as an apiary saw, became not himself. He lit fumes, got frames with honeycombs, bees like a branch. I told him: "Myron, shoot!". And he entered into a rage, jumps, does not throw a frame with honey! We have nothing special to answer - the distance is six hundred meters. We jumped on an armored troop-carrier and went along the Bass. It became clear that the fighters, though from far away, but herded their mine class and ammunition (but then our engineers still bombed these shells).
We returned to ourselves and pounced on honey, and even with milk (local people allowed us to milk one cow occasionally). And after the snakes, after the grasshoppers, after the tadpoles, we experienced simply indescribable pleasure! .. Sorry, but there was no bread.
After the apiary, I told Gleb, the commander of the reconnaissance platoon, said: “Go, look at everything around you”. The next day, Gleb reports to me: "I kind of found a caches." Come on. We see in the mountain a cave with cement formwork, it went fifty meters deep. The entrance is masked very carefully. You will only see him if you come close.
The whole cave is filled with mines and explosives boxes. Opened the box - there are new anti-personnel mines! In our battalion we had only the same old ones as our automata. There are so many boxes that it was impossible to count them. Only one plasticite, I counted thirteen tons. The total weight was easy to determine, since the plastic boxes were marked. There was also an explosive for the Snake Gorynych (a demining machine for an explosion. - Ed.), And squibs for it.
And in my company the plastic was bad, old. To make something of him blind, it was necessary to soak it in gasoline. But, of course, if the fighters begin to soak something, then surely some nonsense will happen ... And here it is fresh. Judging by the packaging, 1994 year of release. From greed, I took four sausages for myself, five meters each. Scored and electric detonators, which we also did not have a trace. Caused the sappers.
And then came our regimental intelligence. I told them that the day before we found a militant base. There were about fifty "spirits." Therefore, we did not come into contact with them, only the place marked on the map.
The scouts on three armored personnel carriers pass by our 213-th checkpoint, enter the gorge and begin to shoot KPVT on the slopes! I still thought to myself: “Wow, intelligence went ... Immediately identified myself.” It seemed to me something wild then. And my worst forebodings were justified: in a few hours they were covered just in the area of the point that I showed them on the map ...
The engineers were doing their own thing, preparing to undermine the explosives warehouse. Dima Karakulko, deputy commander of our battalion for armament, was also here. I handed him a smooth-bore cannon found in the mountains. “Spirits” of her, apparently, from the wrecked BMP, were removed and put on a self-made platform with a battery. An unsightly thing, but you can shoot from it, aiming at the trunk.
I was going to go to my 212 station. Then I saw that the sappers brought crackers for blasting the electric detonators. These crackers operate on the same principle as a piezo lighter: when a button is mechanically pressed, a pulse is generated, which drives the electric detonator. Only a flapper has one serious drawback - it works for about one hundred and fifty meters, then the impulse fades. There is a “twist” - it acts on two hundred and fifty meters. I, Igor, the platoon commander of the sappers, say: “Did you go there yourself?”. He: "No." I: "So go, look ...". He returned, I see - already unraveling the "vole". They kind of unwound a full reel (this is more than a thousand meters). But when they blew up the warehouse, they were still covered with earth.
Soon we set the table. We again have a feast - honey and milk ... And then I turned and I can not understand anything: the mountain on the horizon begins to slowly climb up along with the forest, with trees ... And this mountain is about six hundred meters wide and about the same height. Then came the fire. And then I was thrown a few meters away by a blast wave. (And this happens at a distance of about five kilometers to the explosion site!) And when I fell, I saw a real mushroom, like in educational films about atomic explosions. It was this: the sappers blew up the "spiritual" warehouse of explosives, which we discovered earlier. When we sat down at the table again in my meadow, I asked: “Where do the spices come from, pepper?”. But it turned out that it was not pepper, but ashes and earth that fell from the sky.
After some time, the air flashed: "The scouts were ambushed!". Dima Karakulko immediately took the sappers, who had previously been engaged in preparing the warehouse for the explosion, and went scouting pull! But they also went to the APC! And they also fell into the same ambush! Yes, and what the sappers could do - they have four stores per person and that's all ...
The battalion commander told me: “Seryoga, you are covering the exit, because it is not known where and how our people will come out!”. I was standing right between the three gorges. Then the scouts and sappers in groups and one by one went through me. There was a big problem with the release: there was a fog, it was necessary to make sure that people did not shoot their own ones.
Gleb and I raised our 3 platoon that was standing at the 213 block and what was left of the 2 platoon. To the ambush site from the checkpoint was two or three kilometers. But ours went on foot and not along the gorge, but through the mountains! Therefore, when the “spirits” saw that it was no longer possible to cope with these, they shot and moved away. Then ours did not have a single loss either killed or wounded. We probably knew that former experienced Soviet officers fought on the side of the militants, because in the previous battle I clearly heard four single shots - this was from Afghanistan meant a signal to withdraw.
With intelligence turned out like this. "Spirits" saw the first group on three armored personnel carriers. Hit Then they saw another, also on the APC. They hit again. Our guys, who drove away the "spirits" and were the first on the ambush site, told us that the sappers and Dima himself had been shooting to the last from armored personnel carriers.
The day before, when Igor Yakunenkov died from a mine break, Dima kept asking me to take him on some sally, because he and Yakunenkov were godfathers. And I think that Dima wanted “spirits” to take revenge personally. But then I firmly told him: “Do not go anywhere. Mind your own business". I understood that Dima with the sappers had no chance to pull out the scouts. He himself was not prepared to perform such tasks, and the sappers too! They studied to another ... Although, of course, well done, that rushed to the rescue. And not cowards were ...
Scouts killed not all. All night my men fought the rest. The last of them came out only on the evening of the seventh of June. But from sappers who went with Dima, only two or three people survived.
In the end, we pulled out absolutely everyone: the living, the wounded, and the dead. And this again very well affected the mood of the fighters - once again they made sure that we are not leaving anyone.
On the ninth of June the information about the assignment of titles came: Yakunenkovu - Major (turned posthumously), Stobetsky - Senior Lieutenant early (also posthumously). And what is interesting: the day before we went to the source for drinking water. Returning - there is a very old woman with pita bread in her hands and Isa is near. Tells me: “Happy holiday to you, commander! Just do not tell anyone. And passes the bag. And in the bag - a bottle of champagne and a bottle of vodka. Then I already knew that those Chechens who drink vodka were given a hundred sticks on their heels, and those who sold two hundred. And the next day after that, congratulations to me ahead of time (ahead of schedule for a week) were given the title, as my fighters joked, “a major of the third rank”. This again indirectly proved that the Chechens knew absolutely everything about us.
On the tenth of June, we went to another raid, on the high-rise 703. Of course, not directly. First, the APCs went supposedly for water. The fighters slowly load the water on an armored troop-carrier: oh, they poured it, then again it’s necessary to smoke, then pocketed with the local ones ... And at that time the guys and I went down the river carefully. First found trash. (He is always taken away from the parking, so that even if the enemy stumbles upon him, he would not be able to accurately determine the location of the parking itself.) Then we began to notice the recently trodden paths. It is clear that the militants are somewhere nearby.
We walked quietly. We see "spiritual" security - two people. Sit, rumble about something else. It is clear that they should be shot silently so that they could not make a single sound. But there was no one to send the sentries to me - they did not teach the sailors on the ships this. Yes, and psychologically, especially for the first time, this is a very terrible thing. Therefore, I left two people (a sniper and a soldier with a gun for silent shooting) to cover me and went myself ...
Protection removed, we go further. But the "spirits" still alerted (maybe a branch was cracked or some other noise) and ran out of the caches. And this was a dugout, equipped according to all the rules of military science (the entrance was a zigzag, so that it was impossible to put everyone inside with one grenade). My left flank almost came right up to the caches, it remains five meters before the “ghosts”. In this situation, the winner is the one who rotates the first shutter. We are in a better position: they didn’t wait for us, but we were ready, so we shot them first and put everyone in place.
I showed Misha Mironov, our main beekeeper, a melliferous plant, and in combination with a grenade thrower, at the window in the caches. And he managed to shoot from an eighty-meter-long grenade launcher so much that he fell right into this window! So we filled up and the machine gunner, who hid in the caches.
The result of this transient battle: the "spirits" have seven corpses and I do not know how many wounded since they left. We have - no scratches.
And the next day, again from the same direction, a man came out of the forest. I shot from a sniper rifle in that direction, but not specifically at him: what if it is "peaceful." He turns and runs back into the forest. I can see into the sight - behind his back the machine gun ... So he turned out to be no peaceful at all. But it was not possible to remove it. Gone.
Locals sometimes asked us to sell them weapons. One time they ask the grenade launchers: "We will give you vodka ..." But I sent them very far. Unfortunately, the sale of weapons was not such a rarity. I remember back in May I come to the market and see how the soldiers of the Samara Special Forces soldiers sell grenade launchers! .. I am to their officer: "Is this what is happening?". And he: "Easy ...". It turns out that they took out the head of the grenade, and in its place inserted a simulator with plastic. I even had a recording on the camera of the phone, how to “spirit” such a “charged” grenade launcher tore off the head, and the “spirits” themselves filmed.
June 11 comes to me Isa and says: “We have a mine. Help demining. ” My checkpoint is very close, up to two hundred meters. Let's go to his garden. I looked - nothing dangerous. But he still asked to pick it up. We stand talking. And with Isa were his grandchildren. He says: "Show the boy how the grenade launcher shoots." I shot, and the boy was scared, I almost cried.
And at that moment, on a subconscious level, I felt rather than saw flashes of shots. I instinctively kid in a bunch of grabs and fell with him. At the same time I feel two blows to the back, two bullets hit me ... Isa does not understand what the matter is, she rushes to me: “What happened? ..” And then the sounds of shots reach. And I had a spare titanium plate in my pocket on the back of the vest (I still have it). So both bullets pierced through this plate, but did not go further. (After this incident, full respecting of us began on the part of peaceful Chechens! ..)
16 June, the fight begins at my 213-m checkpoint! "Spirits" move to the checkpoint from two directions, there are twenty of them. But they do not see us, they look in the opposite direction, where they are attacking. And from this side, the “spiritual” sniper hits us. And I see the place where it works! We go down on the Basu and stumble on the first escort, about five people. They did not shoot, but simply covered the sniper. But we went to the rear of them, so they instantly shot all five at close range. And then we notice the sniper himself. Next to him are two more submachine gunners. We threw them too. I shout to Zhenya Metlikina: “Protect me! ..”. It was necessary that he cut off the second part of the "spirits" that we saw on the other side of the sniper. And I rush for the sniper. He runs, turns, shoots me with a rifle, runs again, turns around again and shoots ...
From a bullet to dodge completely unreal. It was useful that I could run after the shooter in such a way as to create him maximum difficulties in aiming. As a result, the sniper never got into me, although he was armed with the full program: besides the Belgian rifle, the AKSU submachine gun behind his back, and on his side a twenty-shot nine-millimeter “beretta”. This is not a gun, but just a song! Nickel-plated, two-handed! .. He snatched the "Beretta" when I almost caught up with him. Here a knife was useful to me. I took the sniper ...
Led him back. He was limping (I wounded him with a knife in the thigh, as it should be), but he was walking. By this time, the battle had stopped everywhere. And from the front our "spirits" shooed, and from the rear we hit them. “Spirits” in such a situation almost always go away: they are not woodpeckers. I realized that even during the fighting in January 1995 in Grozny. If, during their attack, you do not leave the position, but you stand or, better yet, go forward, they leave.
The mood of all was elevated: the “spirits” were driven away, the sniper was taken, all were safe. And Zhenya Metlikin asks me: "Comrade commander, and who in the war you most dreamed of?". The answer is: "Daughter." He: “But think for it: this bastard could have left your fatherless father! Can I cut off his head? ” I: "Marrying, back off ... We need him alive." A sniper is lame next to us, and this conversation is listening ... I well understood that the "spirits" swaggering only when they feel safe. And this one, as soon as we took it, became a norny mouse, no arrogance. And on the rifle serifs he has about thirty. I didn’t even count them, there was no desire, because behind each notch there is someone’s life ...
While we were leading the sniper, Zhenya spent all these forty minutes and with other proposals addressed me, for example: “If you can’t have a head, then let him at least cut off his hands. Or I'll put a grenade in his pants ... ". Of course, we were not going to do anything. But the sniper was already psychologically ready for questioning at the regimental special ...
According to the plan, we had to fight until September 1995. But then Basayev took hostages in Budennovsk and, among other conditions, demanded that paratroopers and marines be withdrawn from Chechnya. Or, as a last resort, withdraw at least marines. It became clear that we will be deduced.
By mid-June, we had only the body of the deceased Tolik Romanov in the mountains. True, for some time there was a ghostly hope that he was alive and went out to the infantry. But then it turned out that the infantrymen had his namesake. We had to go to the mountains, where there was a fight, and take Tolik.
Before that, I asked the battalion commander for two weeks: “Let me go and pick him up. I do not need platoons. I'll take two, so a thousand times easier to walk through the forest than a column. ” But until the middle of June, I did not receive “good” from the battalion commander.
But now they are taking us out, and I finally got permission to go for Romanov. I build a checkpoint and say: “I need five volunteers, I am the sixth.” And… not a single sailor takes a step forward. I came to my dugout and thought: “How is it?”. And only an hour and a half later it dawned on me. I take the connection and tell everyone: “You probably think that I am not afraid? But I have something to lose, I have a little daughter. And I'm afraid a thousand times more, because I'm also afraid for all of you. Five minutes pass and the first sailor comes up: "Comrade commander, I will go with you." Then the second, third ... Only a few years later, the fighters told me that until that moment they perceived me as some kind of combat Robot, a superman who does not sleep, is not afraid of anything and acts like an automaton.
And the day before, on my left hand, a “branch udder” jumped out (hydradenitis, purulent inflammation of the sweat glands. - Ed.), A reaction to the injury. It hurts unbearably, all night tormented. Then I felt on myself that with any gunshot wound I had to go to the hospital to clean the blood. And since I had a wound in my back on my feet, I started some kind of internal infection. Tomorrow into battle, and I had huge boils in my armpit, and boils in my nose. I recovered from this infection with burdock leaves. But more than a week from this infection suffered.
We were given MTLB, and at five-twenty in the morning we went to the mountains. On the way, I came across two militant patrols. Each had about ten people. But the “spirits” did not join the battle and left without even firing back. It was here that they threw the "UAZ" with that damned "cornflower" from which mines we have suffered so many people. "Cornflower" at that time was already broken.
When we arrived at the scene of the battle, we immediately realized that we had found the body of Romanov. We did not know whether Tolik’s body was mined. Therefore, two sappers first pulled him off the cat. There were doctors with us who collected what was left of him. We have collected things - a few photos, a notebook, pens and a cross Orthodox. It was very hard to see all this, but what to do ... It was our last debt.
I tried to restore the course of those two fights. That's what happened: when the first battle started and Ognev was wounded, our guys from the 4 platoon scattered in different directions and started shooting back. They fired for about five minutes, and then gave the command of the castle platoon to withdraw.
Gleb Sokolov, a medical orderly of the company, at this time was bandaging Ognev's hand. A mob of ours with machine guns ran down, on the way, they blew up a "cliff" (heavy caliber machine gun NSV caliber 12,7 mm. - Ed.) And AGS (automatic grenade launcher. - Ed.). But due to the fact that the commander of the 4 platoon, the commander of the 2 platoon and his “deputy” fled in the front ranks (they ran so far that they didn’t even come to our infantry, but to the infantry) cover the waste of all and shoot for fifteen minutes ... I think that at that moment, when he got up, a sniper and hit him in the head.
Shreds fell off a fifteen-meter cliff. Down there was a fallen tree. He hung on it. When we went downstairs, his things were pierced through with bullets. We walked around the cartridges, like on the carpet. It seems that the "spirits" of his already dead were riddled with anger.
When we took Tolik and left the mountains, the battalion commander told me: “Seryoga, you are the last to leave the mountains”. And I pulled out all the remains of the battalion. And when there was no one left in the mountains, I sat down, and I felt so sickening ... Everything seemed to be running out, and therefore the first psychological return came, some kind of relaxation, or something. I sat for about half an hour and went out - my tongue was on my shoulder, and my shoulders were lower than my knees ... The battalion shouted: “Are you doing well?”. It turns out that during those half an hour, when the last fighter came out, but I wasn’t, they almost turned gray. Chukalkin: "Well, Seryoga, you give ...". And I did not think that they could worry about me that way.
I wrote awards to the Hero of Russia for Oleg Yakovlev and Anatoly Romanov. After all, Oleg until the last moment tried to pull out his friend Shpilko, although they were beaten with grenade launchers, and Tolik covered his comrades' retreat with his life. But the battalion commander said: "Hero's fighters are not supposed to." Me: “How not to be? Who said that? They both died saving their comrades! .. ”. Combat as cut off: "According to the order is not supposed to order from the group."
When Tolik's body was brought to the location of the company, the three of us on an armored troop-carrier drove behind the "UAZ", on which that damned "cornflower" stood. For me it was a matter of principle: because of him, so many of ours died!
"Uazik" we found without much difficulty, there were about twenty cumulative anti-tank grenades in it. Here we see that the UAZ cannot go under its own power. Something stuck in his hands, so the "spirits" and threw him. While we were checking whether he was mined, while the cable was hooked, it was obvious that some noise had been made, and the fighters began to make this noise. But we somehow slipped through, although the last section was driving like this: I was driving a “UAZ” and the BTR was pushing me from behind.
When we left the danger zone, I could not spit out or swallow - all my mouth was tied up by the experience. It is now I understand that UAZ did not cost the lives of two boys who were with me. But, thank God, it cost ...
When we went down to our own, in addition to the "UAZ", the BTR was also completely broken. Does not go at all. Here we see the St. Petersburg RUBOP. We tell them: "Help with BTR." They: "And what is this for your" UAZ? ". We explained. They are on the radio to someone: "UAZ" and "cornflower" in the Marines! ". It turns out that two RUBOP squads were hunting for “cornflower” for a long time - after all, he shot not only at us. Began to negotiate, as in St. Petersburg, they will cover the clearing about this. They ask: "How old were you?" We answer: "Three ...". They: "How are the three? ..". And they were engaged in this search two officer groups of twenty-seven people in each ...
Next to RUBOP, we see correspondents of the second television channel, they arrived at the TPU battalion. They ask: "What can we do for you?" I say: "Call my parents' house and tell me that you saw me at sea." Then my parents said to me: “They called us from television! They said they saw you on a submarine! ”And my second request was to call Kronstadt and tell the family that I was alive.
We after these races in the mountains on the armored personnel carrier for the "UAZ" five of us went to Bass to plunge. I have four shops with me, the fifth one is in the machine gun and one grenade in the grenade launcher. The fighters are generally only one store. We are swimming ... And then the battalion of our battalion is undermined!
"Spirits" passed along the Bass, mined the road and rushed in front of the armored personnel carrier. Then the scouts said that it was revenge for the nine shot at TPU. (We had one alcoholic man on the TPU. We arrived somehow peaceful, got out of the car-nine. And he was cool ... He took it and shot the car for nothing from the machine gun).
A terrible confusion begins: ours take us with the guys as "spirits" and start shooting. My men in shorts jump, barely dodging bullets.
I Oleg Ermolaev, who was next to me, I give the command to leave - he does not leave. I shout again: “Go away!”. He takes a step back and stands. (The fighters only later told me that they had appointed Oleg my “bodyguard” and told me not to leave a single step away from me.)
I see the outgoing "spirits"! .. It turned out that we were in their rear. That was the task: to somehow hide from the fire, and not to let the "spirits" go. But, unexpectedly for us, they began to leave not into the mountains, but through the village.
In war, the one who fights better wins. But the personal fate of a particular person is a mystery. No wonder they say that "bullet is a fool." This time, a total of sixty people were shooting at us from four sides, about thirty of whom were their own, who took us for "spirits". In addition to this, we were hit by a mortar. Bullets were flying around like bumblebees! And no one even hooked! ..
Reported to Major Sergei Sheiko, who remained behind the battalion commander, about the "UAZ". At first they didn’t believe me at TPU, but then they examined and confirmed: it’s the one with the “cornflower”.
And on June 22 some lieutenant colonel comes to me along with Sheiko and says: “This“ UAZ ”is“ peaceful ”. From Mahketov came for him, he must be given away. ” But the day before I felt what the matter could end, and I ordered my guys to mine the "UAZ". I lieutenant colonel: "I will definitely give it back! ..". And I look at Seryoga Sheyko and say: “You yourself understood what you ask of me?”. He: "I have such an order." Then I give my fighters a flick, and the "UAZ" in the eyes of the amazed public takes off into the air! ..
Sheiko says: “I will punish you! I remove from the command post! ”. I: “But there is no longer a checkpoint ...”. He: "Then you will be today the operational duty officer at the TPU!". But, as they say, there would be no happiness, but misfortune helped, and in fact I just slept for the first time that day - I slept from eleven in the evening until six in the morning. After all, all the days of the war had not been a single night before, when I would have gone to bed before six in the morning. Yes, and I usually slept only from six to eight in the morning - and that's all ...
We are starting to prepare for the march to Khankala. And we were located about a hundred and fifty kilometers from Grozny. Just before the start of the movement, we receive an order: to hand over weapons and ammunition, leave one store and one rifle grenade from an officer, and the fighters should have nothing at all. The order is given orally by Seryoga Sheiko. I immediately take the front stand and report: “Comrade Guard Major! 8-I company ammunition surrendered. " He understood…". And then he himself reported to the top: "Comrade Colonel, we have all surrendered." Colonel: "Just passed?". Seryoga: "Exactly, passed!" But everyone understood everything. A sort of psychological etude ... Well, who would think of what the insurgents and I had done in the mountains, go one hundred and fifty kilometers across Chechnya without a weapon! .. We arrived without incident. But I am sure: only because we did not surrender the weapons and ammunition. After all, the Chechens knew everything about us.
27 June 1995, the download began in Khankala. The paratroopers came to shmon us - weapons, we searched for ammunition ... But we prudently got rid of everything superfluous. I was only sorry for the “beretta” trophy, I had to leave ...
When it became clear that the war was ending for us, the battle for rewards began at the rear. Already in Mozdok, I see the rear man - he writes a bonus list for himself. I told him: "What are you doing? ..". He: "If you will speak here, I will not give you a certificate!". I: “Yes, it's you who came here for help. And I pulled out all the boys: both the living, and the wounded, and the dead! .. ” I was so wound up that after this our “conversation” the personnel officer was taken to the hospital. But what is interesting is that he designed everything that he received from me as a concussion and acquired additional benefits for it ...
In Mozdok, we experienced stress cleaner than at the beginning of the war! We go and marvel - people walk ordinary, not military. Women, children ... We have lost the habit of it all. Then I was taken to the market. There I bought a real kebab. We also made kebabs in the mountains, but there was neither salt nor spices there. And then the meat with ketchup ... Tale! .. And in the evening the light in the streets caught fire! A marvel is wonderful, and only ...
We approach the career filled with water. The water in it is blue, transparent! .. And on the other side of the kids running! And we were what, in that and flopped into the water. Then we undressed and, as decent, in shorts, swam to the other side, where people swam. On the edge of the family: Ossetian dad, child-girl and mother - Russian. And then the wife starts to shout loudly at her husband for not taking the child water for drinking. After Chechnya, it seemed to us to be utterly wild: how is this woman commanding a man? Nonsense! .. And I involuntarily say: “Woman, what are you shouting? See how much water is around. ” She tells me: "Are you contused?" I answer: "Yes." A pause ... And here she sees a token on my neck, and it finally reaches her, and she says: "Oh, excuse me ...". It already comes to me that I drink water from this career and I am glad that it is clean, but not they. They will not drink it, and to give the child water for sure. I say: "That you will excuse me." And we left ...
I am grateful to fate that she brought me to those with whom I ended up in the war. I am especially sorry for Sergei Stobetsky. Although I was already a captain, and he was only a young lieutenant, I learned a lot from him. Plus, he behaved like a real officer. And sometimes I caught myself thinking: “Was I the same at his age?” I remember when the paratroopers came to us after the explosion of the mines, their lieutenant approached me and asked: “Where is Stobetsky?”. It turns out that they were in the school in the same platoon. I showed him the body, and he said: "Of our platoon of twenty-four people, only three are left alive today." It was the release of the Ryazan Airborne School 1994 of the year ...
It was very hard then to meet with the relatives of the victims. It was then that I realized how important it is for my relatives to get at least some thing as a keepsake. In Baltiysk, I came to the house to the wife and son of the deceased Igor Yakunenkov. And there are the rear men sitting there and talking so emotionally and vividly, as if they had seen everything with their own eyes. I could not stand it and said: “You know, do not believe what they say. They were not there. Take it to memory. ” And I give Igor a flashlight. You should have seen how they gently took this scratched, broken flashlight in their hands! And then his son began to cry ...
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