The beginning of 1990's is not the most peaceful time for Russia. The seizure of buses and planes with hostages, incessant ethnic conflicts, difficult crime situation ...All these factors prompted the country's leadership to create a number of special forces in the state security system, whose main task was the anti-terrorist cover of the territories assigned to them. The place of registration of one of them was the capital of the Kola Peninsula.
Experience
On July 5, 1994, in accordance with the Presidential Decree, three regional departments were formed as part of the Special Operations Department of the Federal Counterintelligence Service. The city of Murmansk, a strategically important port and base of the nuclear icebreaker, was determined to be the location of the 10th department. fleet.
Despite the fact that the Decree was signed in the summer, the date of birth of the detachment is considered to be 4 in November of the same 1994 of the year. It was on that day that a major, and now FSB Colonel-General Sergey Shishin, a border guard, who had passed through Afghanistan, was appointed then the head of the department. Under him, the division got its name - "Killer Whale". The area of responsibility of the special forces is the Murmansk and Arkhangelsk Regions, the Republic of Komi and the Nenets Autonomous District.
Selection to the department was not easy and quick. The first of its employees were fighters from the freelance anti-terrorist group of the FGC Office for the Murmansk region. Head UFSK Gennady Gurylev allowed to take staff from other departments. People came from a citizen. A great job in recruiting was carried out by the deputy head of the department, Lieutenant Colonel Yury Myasoedov. Thanks to his efforts, the backbone of the unit was assembled.In 1996, Yury Myasoedov replaced Sergey Shishin, the head of the department, who was transferred to Moscow.
Almost immediately began preparations for the upcoming combat work. Everything from scratch! There was no special equipment, no means of communication, no equipment. There were problems with the base. The leadership of the Murmansk region allocated to the special forces a building that was abandoned for two years. Repairs had to do it yourself. However, there was no time for the buildup. In March, 1995, almost all employees of the department went to the Chechen business trip.
Already in the first years of its existence, the special forces had to perform a variety of tasks related to the fight against organized crime and drug trafficking. The development of experience contributed to the constant exercises, for example, "Atom-1997", to prevent the seizure of the nuclear icebreaker "Siberia" and the Kola nuclear power plant. Employees of Department “B” of the ATC FSB, the legendary Vympel, also took part in them. This unit, after returning to the FSB, from reconnaissance and sabotage work was redirected to the antiterrorist cover of strategically important objects.
Terrorists in the Arctic
The experience gained in the course of hostilities and in the course of the exercise soon had to be applied in real life. For only one week of August 1998, the “Killer Whales” had to perform two most complex operations at once and not anywhere, but in the North of Russia.
Early in the morning of September 5, 1998, in the village of Rogachevo on the Novaya Zemlya archipelago, forty schoolchildren and seven teachers were taken hostage. Five sailors of military service killed the guard and escaped from the guardhouse, where they were held for serious disciplinary offenses. After that, they went to a local school.
... The team from Murmansk ROSN came to fly to Novaya Zemlya and take measures to free the hostages. Negotiations began on the spot. Gradually, the sailors began to let the children go, in the evening of the same day all the criminals were rendered harmless.
During the operation, not one hostage was hurt, one terrorist was injured. And ten days later, all those who rescued hostages in Novaya Zemlya were awarded the Medal of the Governor of the Murmansk Region "For Valiant Service in the Polar Region".
No one could have imagined that a week later the special forces would again have to demonstrate their skills ... September 11 in the Closed Rocky was a tragedy. The sailor of the military service, Alexander Kuzminykh, shot eight co-workers and barricaded themselves in the torpedo compartment of the “Vepr” nuclear submarine, threatening to blow up the boat.
Special Forces officers arrived at the base of the submarine almost immediately after the alarm was announced, ironically, they were in the Rocky on exercises. The operation lasted almost a day. The initiative taken by the employees of RUSN has had a positive effect - the terrorist was destroyed.
Killer whales also worked outside the Murmansk region, in other regions of the North-West, fulfilling the tasks assigned to them.
Fight in Tangi-Chu
In the summer of 1999, the Second Chechen campaign began with the invasion of gangs by Sh. Basayev and Khattab in Dagestan. Dozens of military operations remained behind the special forces soldiers from Murmansk, one of the most well-known was participation in the storming of the village of Komsomolskoye in March 2000.
The Urus-Martan district of the Chechen Republic was assigned to the Murmansk RUSN. Light trips were not. Two employees, Pavel A. and Andrei Ch. Lost their legs, another employee was left without an eye.
In 2001, the head of the department, Yury Myasoedov, was seriously injured; he had to transfer to a new place of service. Colonel Igor Kondakov has become a new division commander.
... Late in the evening of April 15, the 2002 of the year happened irreparable. The head patrol of the FSB special forces moved through the village of Tangi-Chu in the Urus-Martan district of the Chechen Republic. Towards the special forces was a gang that descended from the mountains for the night in the village. There was a transient battle.
Captain Andrei Nikolaev, a unit sniper, was immediately fatally wounded, but continued to fire at the militants. Trying to evacuate him from the battlefield, the senior warrant officer Andrei Drozd was seriously wounded. He was able to get into the car by himself, but he was not taken to the hospital. Andrei died on board the helicopter that had flown in for evacuation. Captain Nikolaev died at the hospital in Grozny the next day.
It seemed that the guys were buried the whole city, and in the stalls there were not enough flowers ...
They are remembered ... In the building of the department, as well as in educational institutions of Kola and Monchegorsk, memorial plaques were opened in memory of the victims. In the autumn of 2002, on the initiative of the Murmansk branch of the International Organization of Special Purpose Veterans Vympel, the first sniper tournament in memory of Andrey Nikolayev was held. Won his employee ROSN Yuri L., also a sniper.
These competitions have become traditional and since 2008 have been held as part of the sporting events of the FSB of Russia. Snipers from all over Russia, including representatives of the special services center of the FSB, take part in the tournament. Twice, in 2008 and 2010, the winners were employees of Office “A” - the famous “Alpha”.
The song “Guys” is dedicated to the children’s memory, written by Murmansk bard Igor Koltsov. The song “Kasatki” was also created by him, but another author performs it - Sergey Mezentsev.
There was also a non-combat loss in the department - in the spring of 2009, when performing scheduled parachute jumps, captain Andrey Lebedev was killed.
Very often, during business trips to the North Caucasus, regional special forces perform tasks as part of joint operational-combat groups, shoulder to shoulder with colleagues from the A and B departments of the FSB Special Purpose Center. Friendly relations developed between Murmansk citizens and employees of 6, the “mining” department of the “B” Department. One of the "vampelovets" - Lieutenant Colonel Mikhail Myasnikov, candidate master of sports in mountaineering, during the joint missions to the mountains did the work of an instructor.
6 December 2008 of the year Mikhail died in Makhachkala on duty - during the battle he covered a grenade. He was posthumously awarded the title Hero of Russia. In memory of him, “Kasatki” shot a clip, and in 2010, a memorial plaque was made, which was fixed on Shkhara mountain in Kabardino-Balkaria.
At the location of the unit, in the hall, hangs the wheel - a gift from the Office "A" for the 10 anniversary of the department.
Men's work
Weekday special forces - this is a permanent workout. In the cold waters of the Kola Bay and in the Khibiny Mountains, at the Military Survival Center of the Ministry of Defense and aboard atomic icebreakers, at the base of the FSB Special Purpose Center ...
In the 2003 year, groups that specialize in mountaineering and parachute training were selected from the best-trained staff. The diving specialists of the department conduct training throughout Russia, even in the bays of Vladivostok.
A separate topic is the veterans of the unit. For many years Colonel Leonid Serdyukov and Konstantin Sergienko served in the department, to this day Colonel Yury Khomchik is in the ranks. Under their leadership, more than one generation of special forces officers has changed.
Over the years of the department’s existence, its employees more than forty times went on business trips to the North Caucasus, participated in more than 120 special operations and a thousand operational combat actions, destroyed and detained more than five hundred criminals.
Twenty gentlemen of the Order of Courage, two dead and more than twenty injured ... And dozens of saved lives. Yes, they only dream of peace!
The author is the creator in the social network VKontakte of the group “In Memory of Special Forces of the FSB Special Forces Who Perished in the Performance of Service Duty”.