This strange and terrible war
TWO RUSSIAN officers - Yuri Lobanov and Vladislav Glebov, like hundreds of other company, platoon, combatants, did not make a career in the Chechen war. Not gained by and large and fame. Countless times risking themselves and losing their comrades, they did not know that all this would turn out to be in vain. Our army was not allowed to win then. They were loyal, but they were loyal, they would say briefly in ancient Laconic. But why, remembering the past and finding words for the story, they still, against all odds, do not consider entering the army into Chechnya unnecessary, but rather regret the other?First trouble
1994 year. In early December, the 8 Army Guards Corps were unloaded in Kizlyar. The position of “deputy commander” of the corps intelligence battalion was then senior lieutenant, and now Major Vladislav Glebov took literally five days before the charges.
December 8, recalls Vladislav, Commissar built officers. He said straight: this is war. And asked to decide who goes with the body further. A few refuseniks replaced and went forward to hell in the mouth.
We crossed Sunzha, conducted combat coordination, and finally moved to the village of Petropavlovskaya.
An armored group of two armored personnel carriers and tank, in which Glebov was also with the battalion commander Major Dmitry Grebenichenko, reached a small height not far from the village. To ours - four kilometers, to the village - half as much. They dug in, began to observe. As soon as they got in touch with their radio, the militants immediately got on the air.
“Russians, go home before we cut you off ...” sophisticated threats began to fall.
The scouts were shocked. No one could have imagined that the Chechens would work for interception.
Night fell. And with her came the first trouble. Sergeant Antonov was killed by a sniper's bullet. The breath of war was getting closer.
Through binoculars, they saw how more than two dozen Chechen tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, and armored personnel carriers, crawling over the bridge, were leaving in the direction of Grozny. It was this bridge that was to by all means capture and protect corps intelligence from the blast.
Here the bullet flew ...
NEGOTIATIONS of the Deputy Commander Colonel Viktor Skopenko and the elders about the unimpeded passage of troops along the edge of the stanitsa did not succeed. Moreover, one of the Chechens tried to strike the colonel with a knife. The blow was taken by the captain who was nearby, the blade slid over his body armor. The clash became inevitable.
The scouts, having gone to the bridge, noticed in time how the militants undermined it. Then, when they leave, the scouts will manage to bite the wire and save the crossing.
The main forces of the battalion - about eighty people in white camouflages, dismounting, began to make their way secretly to the village under cover of night. Three hundred meters from the village they were found and shelled. The battle began. The scouts were supported by fire tanks and armored personnel carriers. A little later, several howitzers came out on a direct lead. Outskirts of the village was covered with thick clouds of smoke. However, the militants were finally suppressed only by the next morning.
“Of course, it was possible to cover the village with“ Gradom ”and solve all the problems at once,” Glebov recalls, “but in the village there were some civilians with whom the militants, in fact, covered themselves up like a shield. So we had to make jewelry fire, only on the firing points ...
Task reconnaissance was completed. Wounded in this “humane” battle turned out, of course, quite a few. Dead one. Company Chief Senior Ensign Viktor Ponomarev. Hero of Russia posthumously. When in the midst of the battle in the rear of the reconnaissance baton, the “UAZ”, who had taken the gunfire, suddenly flew, from which Viktor Ponomarev closed the clover ...
Who are we fighting with?
31 December 1994, when the country was preparing to celebrate the New Year, our troops entered Grozny.
“The calculation was for surprise and darkness,” recalls the scouting commander. - Before that, so many practiced driving with the lights off, without knocking down columns.
A dozen reconnaissance armored personnel carriers rushed to the city center. In parallel, there were others. Having seen the tanks moving towards six hundred meters ahead, the battalion commander decides to turn off and walk along the next street - ours in Grozny did not yet exist. Finding that they had gone far from the main forces, they entrenched themselves. In the city, it looked like this: the armored personnel carriers pressed against two pre-combed five-story buildings on both sides of the road. The scouts spread out in empty apartments and prepared for battle.
... the hospital complex was stormed fiercely. They took, entrenched, went on the defensive. A few days later, about two dozen of our soldiers who were in captivity were brought to the corps headquarters, which was then located at the cannery. They were all castrated and ... released - to frighten.
On January 3, Glebov was wounded. He got lucky. First, a miracle managed to keep the foot, and second, did not get into the most brutal battles with heavy losses. Arriving home from the hospital in Volgograd, Glebov, walking on crutches, buried more than a dozen comrades. Together with the coffins and the wounded from Chechnya in the city pulled the refugees. And each - with his maimed fate. A refugee woman at the funeral of the regiment's chief of staff burst into tears: why didn’t you, you didn’t come before, we were waiting for you! The militants raped her together with her old mother and then threw her out of the apartment. Having buried a mother who could not stand the mockery, she came to the military. Where was she to go yet ?!
Without slim columns and victorious marches
FOR MAYOR, and then Senior Lieutenant Yuri Lobanov, the war began in mid-January. The regiment, in which Lobanov had a chance to fight, at first, he himself supplemented other parts with his own people, and when his turn came to fight, he also collected a thread with the world.
He took the position of the castle. There were as many as two officers in the battalion. The soldiers were altogether from parts of the Far Eastern Military District. The first and last combat coordination was conducted, like many then, near Tolstoy-Yurt.
... the middle of January. The battalion receives the task of capturing several commanding heights along the ridge that is in the southern outskirts of Grozny. Lt. Col. Kononov, who led the regiment commander's operation, left one company in reserve. The others, having waited for the night, dismounted and in groups, disguised in the dense thickets of the mountain spines, moved to their heights.
The group of Senior Lieutenant Lobanov, led by special forces paratroopers who knew the terrain, reached the height of 420.0. “Spiritual” entrenchments on her were still lukewarm — cigarette butts were everywhere. Twenty people remain with Lobanov, the rest go on. Before this, a company officer on a walkie-talkie reports in clear text - they have come.
- “Wind”, “Wind”, repeat your coordinates, - suddenly heard on the air.
“We are not jealous of you guys, the“ Czechs ”have spotted you,” the paratroopers threw at parting.
Zamkombata Lobanov orders to take all-round defense. He himself, with the senior lieutenant-artilleryman and one soldier, decides to make his way to the checkpoint - there is no such thing above. Risk, of course, but where would you better see the positions of the militants? In the trenches with the soldiers will remain two officers.
... Trigopunkt. In spite of the night, all positions, both his own and others, are in full view. Under the mountain, not far from the village, Chechen guns and tanks. Lobanov and Senior Lieutenant Savitsky are in a hurry to put them on the map. Soon, from the “Zelenka”, the machine gun starts beating on them, then a few more ... The fire is so dense that all three roll head over heels on a steep slope.
Once in the saving thickets, lay down. Chechens, there are more than twenty, are looking for them.
Here is one of the militants coming down in their direction. Yuri Lobanov felt that he felt his breath. One more step, - a thought flashed through the lightning, - and I shoot. But here Dudayev call. You can take a breath.
- And I have a birthday today. It is foolish to die on such a day, right? - interrupting the silence, whispers the soldier lying to the left of Lobanov.
- How many?
- Twenty three.
Yuri counts twenty-three rounds.
- Sorry, nothing more to give ...
Waiting continues. Militants, as if feeling their presence, do not leave. Shooting comes from afar. Not otherwise, as the main group took the fight. The battle goes on and somewhere to the right.
According to the checkpoint, our artillery begins to thresh. “It will be stupid if from its own ...” Lobanov thinks. He sees how a splinter falls near Savitsky and today, it is ridiculous to remember this, he covers his head with a map. And then Lobanov thought that he was hurt in the leg. No, thank God, it only hit a stone thrown by the explosion.
... It will become clear later that that night the militants will knock out battalion groups from almost all the skyscrapers they occupied. Ours, unable to withstand the tension of the first battle, will sometimes randomly retreat downward. Only the reserve left by Lieutenant-Colonel Kononov will save them from certain death. When all the "bempumps" and the three assigned tanks come out in direct fire and support ours with fire, the Chechens, having forgotten about the retreating, will try to set fire to the armored vehicles. They probably paid more for it ...
Cowardice and valorLIGHTED. After lying in wait for their fate for several hours, all three finally decide: come what may - go, or rather run into a psychic attack.
Scattered meters fifteen from each other - and running up, back to the point! We ran. But there is no one. Trying to get to the main group, we walked fifteen kilometers through the rear of the Dudayev village. When, nevertheless, we reached the trenches, they found only a split machine gun, bloodied bandages, gutted soldiers' bags and scattered biscuits from sukhpaykov ...
Later they learn that the battle will barely start, the two remaining officers will leave the soldiers and flee shamefully.
The regiment commander in a rage threatens to put them on trial, but the case is closed. One pope will be the general of the Ukrainian army. In short, they will be fired.
Cowardice and valor in war is always there.
Their soldiers, having not received the command to depart, judging by the abundance of cartridges, would fight to the last, for about an hour they would shoot at the attacking Dudayevites. Wounded, they will be captured. After another two months, another regiment will stumble upon their corpses on the outskirts of the village. All with signs of torture - broken legs and arms and finished in the head ...
But Lobanov, with Savitsky and Lavrentiev, will reach their own, delivering the map safely and securely.
“You, probably, infantry, confused something, my guys crawled everything, there is no artillery there,” the paratrooper will say, hurriedly pereravaya intelligence information in his map.
- Come on, he served himself in the landing. And your guys, apparently, were looking badly, ”will answer Lobanov, who later received the medal“ For Courage ”for this raid.
That battle had another hero, about which it is impossible not to say. Private Turchinsky, a soldier from that group abandoned by the scared officers, still survived. For three days he wandered around the rear of the Dudayevites, many put out of the machine gun, even knocked out a car from a grenade launcher. When he finally came out to one of our parts and told everything, they did not believe him. However, all exactly confirmed by local residents.
However, the battalion still won its victory in that first battle. Left in reserve, the company went to the rescue of their own, attacked Dudayev in their positions. And so unexpected that they did not even have time to collect playing cards. Their game was played forever. The impetuous battle that turned into hand-to-hand combat ended with the destruction of the militants. And it turned out that they won not someone, but the group of the Chechen special forces Borzs. One of the dead had documents of the deputy commander of the detachment. The former Soviet major "Afghan", the Order of the Red Star was screwed on the inside pocket of camouflage.
All that remains of the marines company
In May, the 95-th 245-th regiment began to prepare for fighting in the mountains. The fighters had rested by that time, replenished their ranks with mercenaries, and waited until the mountains were covered with greenery.
Fights inflamed with new force.
Lobanov's battalion was tasked to get on the mountain road to the village of Elistanzhi, to gain a foothold there and wait for the main forces to arrive. A company of marines will follow the same road.
“No, we will not pass along the road of the road, there must be an ambush there, they will burn us,” Major Vladimir Vasilyev, the battalion commander, shook his head. - We proceed differently.
The second option for reaching Elistanzhi seemed like an adventure - to climb along the bed of a mountain river. A week earlier it would have been impossible: the melt waters of a turbulent mountain river would have destroyed technology. Now her level was noticeably asleep.
... moved with the dawn. Walked along the bottom of the canyon, just like in American Westerns. From above hung the shore, crushed the unknown. Oh, what a suitable place to ambush! And to the shore, if something happens, do not press it, they will shoot from the other. And the gun BMP so cool you can not lift. Two hours of the road seemed like an eternity. Feeling - as if by that light, by the world of the dead you go.
When the coast became low and flat, five people suddenly ran out to meet them. Undressed and barefoot, in torn telnik instead of form - they are the only ones left from the company of marines that went on rocade ...
They were taken to armor and not stopping - go ahead. Here it is - Elistanzhi. Thank God, come down.
“Prima” on the armor
BREAKING a motor, the first BMP emerged from the river right on the outskirts of the village. On the contrary - a few cars with militants. Immediately they fired. Those who are clearly not expecting the Russians are running into the saving “Zelenka”. While the tank got out and hit the mountain forest with high-explosive fragmentation, one of the militants managed to shy from the grenade launcher. The grenade got into the BMP of the company sergeant. There would be everyone in the “box” and the end, but a cardboard box with “Prima” cigarettes tied to the armor would help out.
“Tying crates and shells from under the shells and cartridges to the armor of tanks and infantry fighting vehicles from the first days of the war,” recalls Yuri, “at least some semblance of active counter-cumulative armor. They hung everything that could somehow protect our incomplete equipment. Chechen grenade and gutted a box of cigarettes. Without a smoke, however, remained, but alive.
Only mountains can be worse than mountains
VETERANS- “Afghans”, crawling across the Chechen mountains, were unanimous: in Afghanistan it was easier. The Chechen mountains covered with forest, unlike the bald Afghan, harbored much more danger.
A fierce battle, in which an already drained battalion suffered heavy losses and lost half of the remaining equipment, flared up on the road leading to Vedeno. Ahead - climb the mountain road. There, having passed a few hundred meters ahead, she started a battle of a reconnaissance company. The battalion was ready to go to the rescue. Behind - the main forces of the regiment. No one, of course, knew that the militants descended mountain paths to bombard the battalion from above. Probably, only the case was saved from a catastrophe. Mortar gunners went up a couple of hundred meters to draw water from a mountain spring ... They took the first blow, not allowing the Chechens to shoot the battalion at close range.
The fire from above was so dense that it pressed the infantrymen who had already seen the views to the ground. Column and managed to somehow hide behind the machines of people thrashed from RPGs, machine guns and machine guns. Worked and snipers.
Lobanov, who was in the middle of the column, looked around and saw a battered infantry fighting vehicle far behind: the battalion's car was on fire.
Lobanov ran to the head of the column. In the middle of her tank stood still.
- Tankist, why not shoot? - Yuri shouted, blocking the noise of battle.
The tank was quiet as on a pedestal. Tankmen Lobanov managed to “wake up” only with an automatic burst of cars.
But on the following infantry fighting vehicles, the forward-moving castle, he saw a completely different picture. Having forgotten about fear, the grenade bombers got up on the armor of the AGSs welded to the towers. In the excitement of battle, straightening up to their full height, they frantically thrashed the Zelenka. And none of them who were not hiding behind the machines, did not even get hooked.
In the end, the battalion, or rather, what was left of it, suppressed the militant attack. Losses, of course, were heavy. Among the trophies of this fierce battle turned out to be ... and the regimental AGS captured by Dudaev six months ago in that very first battle on the skyscrapers. And now AGS has returned to its.
Soon the large Dudayev warehouse of weapons and clothing was also seized. In time, and then worn out for six months of the war. Together they dressed in Turkish camouflage and Soviet gerbil.
Thank you, soldier!
FATE, sending Major Lobanov cruel trials in that war, was nevertheless favorable to him. In fact, he came out of the encirclement, and accidentally stopped at a BMP twenty centimeters from a mine. And, returning from intelligence, moving away from sticking Chechens, without knowing it, ran across a minefield. And nothing. Wounded, of course. So who does not happen ...
Only here, at the end of a business trip to war, the fate of Lobanov was prepared by a heavy heart stone, probably for many years.
It was this when Vedeno was taken. A few days later we camped on a mountain platform above the village. Zamombat Lobanov with soldiers on three infantry fighting vehicles descended into the village to replenish water and food supplies. Suddenly, from the “Zelenka” opened fire. The first grenade threw Yuri off the BMP, the second rushed alongside - the life of the commander was saved by the soldier who managed to close him from the fragments. At the cost of your own life.
... I, of course, could not help but ask the major:
- And that soldier ...
- No, I never went to his parents. I could not decide ...
instead of an epilogue
Neither Glebov nor Lobanov, like thousands of such honest officers, did not hide from the war. Familiar catch phrase from the movie “Officers”: “There is such a profession - to defend the Motherland”.
Yes, they went to defend their homeland. Great and indivisible Russia. They went to the Chechen land to protect the Russian and Chechen peoples from the bandits. Having entered Chechnya and faced with the enemy, they were once again convinced that they had not come here for nothing. Surprised was more different - why they were not sent earlier?
Only then did they begin to understand everything. No, they were sent here not only to protect the integrity of the state. They were sent here for some reason. And maybe not win at all ...
Such a terrible and strange will remain in their memory this war. With mothers wandering around the battlefields, with incomprehensible truces in the midst of our offensive and television journalists glorifying Chechen thugs, with boxes of cigarettes instead of active armor.
Now both Glebov and Lobanov, like dozens of other Russian officers who have gone through the fiery Caucasian roads, study at military academies in Moscow. We hope that their invaluable experience paid with blood will be in demand in the units of constant readiness. Peace service is unlikely to shine. Chechen "self-consciousness" leaves bloody traces in Dagestan, North Ossetia, Stavropol Territory ...
And our army is simply obliged to keep the powder dry.
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