Afghan order
February 15 is the Day of Remembrance of Internationalist Soldiers, the day of the end of military operations in Afghanistan. At veterans' meetings, you can meet people who have no military awards on their chests. There is a "Internationalist Warrior" badge, "From the Grateful Afghan People" and "70 Years of the USSR Armed Forces" medals, but no military awards. How can this be? Didn't they fight, didn't they swallow Afghan dust, didn't they carry out combat missions?
Veterans' comments on the topic: "At least kill every last spirit, if your unit doesn't have a quota for medals and orders, then you can forget about awards." It is unclear how the country's military and political leadership regulated heroism in the active army.
But if there is an order, then you don't have to do anything out of the ordinary. You'll still get it if certain conditions and rules of the game are met.
Order for awards: not all "Afghans" probably even know what this is. The order for awards was a list that determined the number of awards allocated to each regiment or division.
I recall the story of my friend, driver-mechanic Seryoga Boykov. In early 1980, our regiment transferred its combat vehicles (BMD) together with their crews to the 56th Airborne Assault Brigade. My friend, driver-mechanic Sergei Boykov, also went there. I met him only 30 years later. He told me that he was a driver-mechanic of a combat vehicle of one of the battalion commanders in the brigade. Their battalion "worked" along the Iranian border.
— The battalion commander calls me, — says Sergei. He is sitting at the table, with some papers in front of him. He says to me: “Boykov, I propose to present you for ‘Courage’.” And I, — continues Seryoga, — by that time had become a bit of a wreck, and had a good relationship with the battalion commander. I ask him: “Comrade Captain, why ‘For Courage’ and not ‘Red Star’?” He thought, — he says, — that it would slip through because of his closeness to the higher-ups (laughs). And the battalion commander replies: “Look, Boykov. They are giving me four ‘Red Stars’ and ten ‘For Courage’ for the battalion: a total of 14 awards. I’ve already racked my brains. How am I supposed to distribute them? There are only fifteen officers.”
The Afghan order became a symbol of a paradoxical and sometimes unfair reward system in which true valor could go unappreciated.
Before we were discharged into the reserve, demobilized sergeants of the third battalion of the 350th Guards Airborne Regiment, the battalion commander, Guards Captain Anatoly Frolandin, gathered us. He said some warm words of farewell and announced: “I have nominated each of you for the Order of the Red Star.” And then he added something like: “I don’t know how the situation will develop further, but I will try to do everything in my power.” We didn’t quite understand what he was talking about. When we dispersed, the battalion clerk came up to me and said: “You should have seen what happened at headquarters just now. They refused to accept the awards. Frol (the battalion commander) freaked out, said to their faces everything he thought about the staff, and cursed absolutely everyone who was there.” I was surprised and asked: “What’s the problem, why aren’t they accepting them?” The clerk replies: "But they (the officers) themselves don't all have orders yet: how can they give them to you?" At the time, it seemed strange. But it turned out that it was a system.
Over 600 thousand people passed through Afghanistan. Of these, 525,5 thousand were soldiers and officers of the Soviet Army, 21 thousand were civilian personnel, 95 thousand were KGB employees, including border guards, internal troops and police.
About 200 thousand military personnel received various orders and medals (including 11 thousand posthumously), and 86 people were awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union (including 28 posthumously). Among those awarded were 110 thousand soldiers and sergeants, 20 thousand warrant officers, more than 65 thousand officers and generals, as well as over 2,5 thousand servicemen of the Soviet Army, including 1350 women.
The awarded military personnel are 110 thousand soldiers and sergeants and almost 90 thousand warrant officers, officers and generals. This is the ratio: almost one to one.
Most of the veteran conscripts who fought in the Afghan War have no combat awards on their chests, except perhaps for badges. This raises the question: why did the commanders value their services to the Motherland so "highly"? They fought on par with everyone else, but were not recognized by their platoon or company commanders. Although, judging by the ratio of awarded soldiers and officers, the commanders did not forget about themselves.
History Machine gunner of our platoon Yuri Zabotin is another example. In the spring of 1980, the company was ambushed. Yura was seriously wounded - a burst of machine gun fire pierced his abdomen. Hospital, surgery and discharge from the army with the assignment of disability. None of his fellow soldiers knew about his subsequent fate, but everyone was sure that Yura was awarded the Order of the Red Star. This was due for injury or death. And then about ten years ago, they gave me his phone number. We called each other, talked, remembered that day. I asked: "Yura, did you receive an award?" He answered: "Yes." I said: "The Red Star?" Yura answered: "No, "For Military Merit." How so? You have a serious injury, disability. "I don't know," he said, "a couple of years later they sent me "For Military Merit."
Speaking of awards, I recall the speech of the military prosecutor, who proposed sending a petition to Moscow to grant division commanders the right to award distinguished servicemen at least two medals by their order: soldiers - "For Courage", officers - "For Military Merit". This, they say, was how it was during the Great Patriotic War. The colonel gave an example from the film "Hot Snow": a general presented an order to a soldier right on the battlefield."
The answer came from Moscow: "It is not possible. There are no official military operations."
What can I say? We received a combat order, and we carried it out.
As for the assertion that military operations are not being conducted, before his death in May 1980, our regimental chief of staff, Guards Major Ivanov, managed to make a note in our military IDs on page 7: “In 1980, he participated in battles with rebel gangs while providing international assistance to the DRA.” Regimental seal and signature: Chief of Staff of military unit 65581, Guards Major Ivanov.
So officially there were no military actions, but they were legally confirmed by entries in military IDs.
From the memoirs of the deputy director of the foreign intelligence service, General Kirpichenko: “There were meetings with other ministers, including the Minister of War D. F. Ustinov. The latter held meetings leisurely, with tea parties and all sorts of distractions from the main topic. Sometimes the conversation took on a character far removed from the agenda. Once, during such a protracted digression from the topic, I began to entertain myself by counting the number and quality of the order bars of our military leaders and discovered a surprising harmony in the award system. Akhromeyev had one more order than Varennikov; Sokolov had one more order than Akhromeyev, and Ustinov had two more than Sokolov. Apparently, in the apparatus of the Central Committee of the CPSU, some special people vigilantly monitored that there were no violations of subordination. Every hero must know exactly his place in the ranks of heroes.”
P.S. The author does not set the task of exposing or insulting anyone. This essay is food for thought, nothing more.
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