"Conductor" of special forces
At the cost of his life, Eduard Sukharevsky covered the evacuation of the wounded
For almost thirty shots, the assault rifle, one after another, covers the positions of the special forces. Crumbling on the path of densely intertwined tree branches and bushes, bullets fly just a few centimeters above the heads of the fighters.
From where exactly the “devils” are beaten, it is not visible: impassable thickets and dense fire, which doesn’t even allow to look out from behind a tree - it seems that in this operation everything is against special forces. Only later will it become clear: the shelters of the “immaratoshes” were only twenty meters away ...
- Stay, Rashid! - the officer shouts, pulling away the wounded machine gunner. - Be patient, brother!
A bullet that flew into the boot from the side crushed the entire heel of a fighter. Tightly tucked above the tops of its beret, the harness is trying to hold back the blood that has already poured everything inside the shoe.
- "Three Hundred"! I have a "three hundredth"! - The commander of the border special forces, Colonel Edward Sukharevsky, managed to shout to the radio station before he fell behind the machine gun of his wounded subordinate and in response began pouring lead on the militants' position. This was his last radio broadcast ...
EVERYONE HAS ITS OWN WAR ...
I am sitting with Edward Sukharevsky’s classmates. One of them is Yaroslav, a professional athlete. With Edward, they have been best friends since the days of the entourage. Even the beds in the barracks stood nearby. There was also a third friend. Glory. Subsequently, too, the special forces officer. In 2005, he died while demining improvised explosive devices in Ingushetia.
My second companion - Oleg. The combat officer who chose the path of the special forces in the ranks of the "Alpha".
- The Edward department often participated in operations along with units of the CPS. From many of my colleagues who worked with him, I have never heard any complaints. Only positive feedback, he says.
Cadet of the Golitsyn School of the KGB of the USSR Edward Sukharevsky
- About Edward and in Tajikistan, when he served there, only good things were said. Everybody respected him. Zastava, which he commanded, was the best in the squad. He did not even want to let go to the academy. It was a pity to lose such an officer, - remembers Yaroslav.
Three years in the Border Academy - only this time for the whole service of Eduard Sukharevsky can be called calm. Before studying - six years of Tajikistan, which accounted for the most active episodes of the civil war. After - the North Caucasus, where by this time, too, there was a war.
- Colonel Edward was at thirty-four. The first of all our release. However, he never chased regalia, awards. He was not a careerist at all. Edward just did his job, surrendering to it completely. He was born a soldier. This Russian soldier! - Oleg recalls.
Speaking about the deceased friend, my interlocutors are ready to endlessly recall the episodes imprinted in their memory. Everyone has their own, different. But having gathered them together, you understand how comprehensively and purposeful people were.
- He was keen on learning tactics and strategy. I read a lot of military memoirs. All that could be useful in the service, he absorbed, like a sponge, and tried to implement it in the unit. He was often told that a good study is a real fight. He replied: “I do not want to learn in battle! I want my people to be ready by this moment! ”Says Yaroslav.
It is characterized by another episode. Having mastered skiing once, he soon included this element in the training program in his unit. And in one operation it was useful for the special forces. After disembarking from helicopters, Sukharevsky and his fighters on skis descended from the top of the mountain to the area in which the militants were hiding.
For the bandits, the appearance of special forces came as a complete surprise. Those who have at least a little experience of skiing not on a prepared track, but on real virgin soil - wild, pristine-free areas, where an avalanche can descend at any moment, meet with a break in snow cover or dense thickets of trees, when skiing is difficult to control - understand how difficult that operation was.
All his life he wanted to serve in special forces
However, hardly any of the freeriders descended from the mountains in combat gear, holding in their hands instead of ski poles weapon. Sukharevsky fighters did it.
- His department is generally referred to as "mountain", and therefore attracted to one of the most difficult operations in the high mountains of the Caucasus. Mainly for spot work.
- The fact that Edward was always in the ranks at all events, was next to his subordinates - this characterizes him in the best way possible. In fact, his position allowed him to lead the unit from the cabinet, but not from the battle formation, - explains Oleg.
Later at the meeting, the spouse of Eduard Sukharevsky will tell me:
- Edward said he would not forgive himself if something happened to one of his children. He simply could not otherwise, knowing that his guys, being in the distance, can fight, while he is at home.
An experienced combat colonel was repeatedly invited to conduct classes at the Moscow Border Institute of the Federal Security Service of Russia. He did not refuse. I found time to study with pupils of the local lyceum, maintained close relations with the Terek Cossacks, veteran movements.
The schoolmates who came to the meeting are ready to talk about him endlessly. They all remembered Edward radiating positive energy, able to unite around him all and sundry. They show me his photos. In combat gear in the mountains or on vacation with friends - the same smiling, full of energy people are looking at us from the screen of a mobile phone. Snapshots and memories - all that is left of them.
My interlocutors ask me not to write the material as if it were an officer’s biography. They ask for something else ...
“This should be an example for others, for your generation, for those who will take over from us.” It brought us up on the exploits of Soviet soldiers of the Great Patriotic War. But for you, that war is far away. Modern heroes - they are closer. Therefore, tell us not about how Sukharevsky was. Tell us about how you need to be today ...
GOLITSNSKIY THE PHYSICAL EDUCATOR
Eduard Vladimirovich was born on October 27 1972, in the city of Kadievka, Lugansk region, Ukrainian SSR. When he was seven years old, the family moved to the Ulyanovsk region in the military unit 23455. Edward went to study in the 2 class of Patrikeevskaya high school.
As they say in school, he grew up as a bright boy, he loved books, knew a lot by heart, went in for sports, and actively participated in the public life of the school.
In 1989, after graduation, Sukharevsky worked as a repairman in the 23455 military unit. In the last year before the collapse of the Soviet Union, he entered the Golitsyn Higher Border Military-Political School of the KGB of the USSR.
1990 year ... Then, swearing allegiance to one state, Edward, the son of a Soviet officer, did not know that soon there would be no “great and mighty”. The collapse of the USSR, and the August coup of 1991, and the general collapse and decline of life in the country fell at the time of study.
In 1994, Lieutenant Eduard Sukharevsky is assigned to arrive at his first duty station, the Trans-Baikal Border District. However, after a few months, a young officer was sent to guard the southern borders of the once-union republic, and now the sovereign state of Tajikistan ...
Edward gets to serve in the moto-maneuverable group of the Pyanj border detachment. A year after the dramatic events at 12 of the Moscow frontier post, but the situation in the region remained tense.
“He almost never talked about service in Tajikistan,” his friends recall. - Only some funny cases. Can you imagine? There is a war going on, caravans carry weapons from Afghanistan, outfits are constantly making fire contact, and he, surrounded by this, has not lost his positivity and vitality. He seemed to infect everyone around her ...
- Somehow we lived with him for several months. In the dugouts. With us there were still guys from the airborne assault mangroup, ”recalls the officer's wife Svetlana. - And then one night he woke me up and called me outside. I saw a big caravan. Dushmans brought weapons and drugs. After this caravan was destroyed.
One episode, where Sukharevsky’s outpost fought against the “mujahideen” on the Tajik-Afghan border, is well remembered by the officer who served under him since the 1990's. Then the border guards had to "undermine" the alarm to the rescue of the fighters of a separate group of special intelligence, which entered into battle with the enemy many times superior in forces.
- At night, the sentry reported that he had heard the shooting. Eduard and I went outside and heard that a fierce firefight was taking place somewhere nearby. We did not know that the guys from OGSR worked on our site. In general, they tried not to spread, where, when and what tasks they would perform, the officer recalls. “When we were informed that there, in the mountains, the spirits were pressing our scouts with might and main, we immediately went to the rescue of them in infantry fighting vehicles. When they arrived at the scene, Edward first opened fire from a cannon at the trickery.
As a result, the gang was completely destroyed.
“With all this, Sukharevsky just a few months ago asked him to teach him how to drive and fire from a BMP.” I graduated from the combined arms school, and with this type of technology was on "you." He grabbed it on the fly. When we had to save the scouts, to cover them with fire, many of the souls were destroyed by fire from the BMP personally Edward.
In 2000, Eduard Sukharevsky became a student of the Frontier Academy of the Federal Border Guard Service of Russia. After her graduation, the officer was not sent to a desk job for some high-status position, but in the 487 th Zheleznovodsk border detachment of special purpose.
"... HE ALREADY THEN SOMETHED SENSE"
After the disbandment of all the UNTAGs in 2005, Edward remains to serve in the Caucasus: in Ingushetia, he headed the headquarters of the 137 of the Nazran frontier detachment. Later, with the formation of management in the republic, he became head of the border security department. But he paid attention not only to his immediate duties.
Those who served with him at that time well remember how Edward organized the delivery of children of border guards to schools in neighboring North Ossetia. Sukharevsky developed entire operations, singling out armored personnel carriers and armed fighters for combat protection, constantly changing the routes of the columns.
- Edward was a great border guard. Every meter of the border section for which he was responsible, more than once walked by himself, he knew all the features of the area. Still, all his life he had dreamed of serving in special forces, ”says Svetlana Sukharevskaya.
In 2008, the cherished dream came true.
- When we started to form the current special forces, I, without hesitation, offered Edward to head the "mining" department. We were familiar with him from Tajikistan, and I knew that I could completely trust him. He immediately agreed, ”recalls Oleg N., an officer in charge of border special forces.
- He had a very strong sense of homeland. Without pathos. Not ostentatious, but real. He loved his country very much, believed in it and considered it its duty to serve it. And to serve on the edge, - Oleg characterizes the classmate.
Forming the department, Edward offered to serve many of those with whom his paths had crossed before: in Tajikistan, Chechnya, and Ingushetia. Bonded partnerships, bonded in battle, hardened by the flame of war, nothing can be more sacred.
“He often did not come to the service, but resorted, even though the distance from the house to the department is quite impressive,” recalls the wife of Eduard Sukharevsky. - Imagine, in the morning everyone arrives, stands, waits, when the car with the commander arrives, and he resorts to the service! He generally loved to run. In the evening, the mountains 5-10 kilometers - easily. Sport is very fond.
During his studies at the academy, Edward became a deeply religious man. Observed posts, constantly attended church. On the eve of his last combat operation (at Easter), he twice received the sacrament. But before that, at a confession, he had a prophetic conversation with a priest.
On the eve of departure to Dagestan, Edward Sukharevsky refused to go to study at the Academy
- He said: “In battle, I have to shoot, kill opponents. But if I myself die, how then will I have to answer for my deeds? ”And the priest answered him:“ Do not worry, you will not have to answer. You are like George the Victorious! You destroy the serpent! ”, - Svetlana recalls.
Before departing for a business trip to Dagestan, in the evening, leaving the service, Colonel Sukharevsky asked his spouse to close his office. There she saw many church candles lying.
- I did not understand why my husband so many of them ...
A few days later, these candles were burning at the head of the deceased officer ...
“You know, it seems to me that he already had a premonition of something already,” the colonel's wife tells me. - I did not know, did not understand, but I had a premonition ...
Not many people know that on the eve of their flight to Dagestan, Eduard Sukharevsky refused to go to study at the Academy. The unit already had an increased combat readiness, and he chose to go to the operation with his fighters. Leave the department at such a moment the officer simply could not.
“When Edurad Sukharevsky died, I was called by one person and shouted into the phone for a long time:“ Why was the colonel in the mountains and personally participated in the operation? ”And I answered him:“ Unlike you, he didn’t sit out in the classrooms! ” one of the officers of the border special forces.
"... HE ALREADY THEN SOMETHED SENSE"
Says officer of the Regional Special Services:
- In the morning of May 8 we flew to Kaspiysk. Upon arrival, located on the territory of one military unit. There we immediately began to prepare for the operation. According to available information, a group of militants, allegedly members of the Kizilyurt-Shamkhala sabotage and terrorist group, was located not far from the village of Shamkhal-Yagyurt of the Kumtorkolinsky district. Its elimination was our goal. Work was to be predominantly in a mountainous and wooded area.
In addition to the border special units, the special purpose center of the FSB of Russia, operational-combat groups of the Special Purpose Service of the FSB of Russia from Yessentuki and the department of support of operational activities of the territorial department of the FSB attracted to the event.
Starting from 10, the first groups began to leave in the area of the special operation to organize the blocking. At first they were employees of Alpha. Our offices left around 3 hours of the night. In place of the profits already by 5 hours. Took positions. Soon, the men of the TsNS set off to conduct search activities.
... The first clash with terrorists took place almost immediately after the deployment of Alpha groups. The "heavy", as FSB special forces soldiers are called, noticed in time the terrorists who were trying to escape along the river in an inflatable boat. A shootout ensued.
“We learned about the fact that the guys from“ Alpha ”covered the gang of militants from the message on the radio station,” said the officer of the border special forces. - Our office was located three hundred meters from the place where the exchange of fire took place. After the bandit group was destroyed, we, together with the departments of TsNS and OSOM, organized a blockage of the adjacent forest area. To conduct a sweep sent operational combat groups Essentukskogo special forces of the FSB.
As a result of the stripping operation, more militants were not found. Soon the command arrived to all divisions to turn around in a chain and comb the forest. However, it turned out to be not so easy in practice. Dense thickets of trees densely mixed with impassable tall two-three-meter bushes of wild grapes. Rotten rhizomes sticking out of the ground, and dead wood that has been carved out of the ground ... All this has become a real wall in the path of movement of the special forces soldiers.
Through these jungle it was necessary to break through in the literal sense of the word, but somewhere it was possible to crawl at all. Weapons and equipment constantly clung to protruding branches. The density of vegetation was so high that visibility did not exceed seven meters.
The situation was complicated by the fact that the special forces actually remained without a cover for snipers - the use of rifles turned out to be simply impossible. Under these conditions, the consolidated unit managed to pass about two hundred meters. All this time, the militants, lurking in ambush, waited until the special forces groups came closer: the position in which they were located was a little higher, and the view from it was much better than from the special forces.
“One of those who worked with me in the troika was the machine gunner Rashid,” says the officer of the border special forces. - I noticed how he suddenly crouched down and began to report on the radio that some movement was watching ahead. At that moment, they opened fire on him. Rashid managed to fall and give a few lines in response.
To determine the exact position, from where the special forces were fired, did not allow dense thickets. Marked only managed to district. In reality, however, only a few dozen meters separated the special forces from the militants. "Devils" shot almost point-blank, not sparing ammunition. The fire was so dense that it was almost impossible to get out of the shelter.
Slivers from the trees, severed branches, flying up to shreds of earth - a flurry of lead rain literally broke everything in its path. Each line was a length of at least thirty shots, why it seemed that the opponents fired from machine guns.
The weapon went silent for only a few seconds. But after the cries of “Allah Akbar!” And “Death to Kafirs!”, That is, “infidel,” the trunks boiled again.
Soon, one of the lines caught up with her goal: a bullet hit Rashid’s shoe, crushing his heel. Urgent evacuation was required.
- When I managed to get to Rashid, I immediately began to assist him. Tuged harness leg. At this point, the militants again switched to us. The released lineup went just a few centimeters. And here I felt that someone had pressed me to the ground with force. It was the commander ...
"CONDUCTOR" DOES NOT FEED THE SIGNS OF LIFE ... "
Since the beginning of the shootout, Eduard Sukharevsky was in the position from which his fighters were viewed. When the officer noticed that the machine gunner was injured, he without hesitation rushed to him. Falling behind a machine gun and commanding the rest of the troika fighters to urgently evacuate Rashid, he himself began to fire in the direction of the militants.
“By this time, we had already determined the area from which we were fired upon.” After the operation, there was found a caches and a small dugout, suitable only to spend the night there. But there was ammunition Nemer! Apparently, the “imamaratshi” did not intend to leave, although a rare forest began further. The terrorists chose another way, - the participant of that clash recalls.
Later it turns out that the positions at which the terrorists were located turned out to be right in the direction of the movement of the border special forces units. Deployed into the chain, the men of the other special forces were on the flanks. However, to make any maneuver in those conditions, according to the participants, was not possible.
While Rashid was evacuated, his machine gun in the hands of Colonel Sukharevsky continued to fire. The fighters, in turn, concentrated all their forces on its suppression. Squall fire with a new force again and again hit the colonel, but he continued to respond to the bandits.
He died as a true special forces fighter - in battle, saving the lives of his comrades
Eduard Sukharevsky did not intend to yield. Even when the empty links of the machine-gun belt had already accumulated to the right of the machine gun, and the box was completely empty, the officer, throwing up his automatic rifle, continued to shoot. It was not even a duel, but a real slaughter, consisting entirely of a whole swarm of burning hot lead in both directions.
The fire on the colonel of special forces was conducted so densely that one of the bullets hit the handle of the officer’s automatic rifle, leaving a mark on it. Sukharevsky did not stop it ...
When they managed to pull the wounded machine gunner to a safe distance, one of the officers who evacuated him came back. Soon the radio was interrupted by the phrase of the head of the border special forces department: "The conductor" does not show signs of life ... "" The conductor "- this was Sukharevsky's personal call sign ...
- I did not believe when I heard this. After all, I just saw how he fell behind a machine gun and ordered me to drag Rashid, heard him shooting, ”recalls the officer. - I crawled over to the head of the department and asked where Sukharevsky was now, because in the position where I had seen him the last time, he was no longer there. He showed…
The machine gun of Rashid, from which Eduard Sukharevsky covered the evacuation of the wounded subordinate, was still in its place, but already empty: the officer completely landed all the ammunition ... The “Conductor” himself lay aside, motionless, on his side with open eyes. Apparently, he tried to change the position. Before the shelter, he lacked a few meters ...
- When I crawled to Sukharevsky, I immediately began to shake him. Then he tried to find the pulse on his hand, since the commander had a scarf around his neck. Pulse was not ... After on the vest "conductor" noticed several marks from bullets. When I lifted his head, I saw the outlet. It became clear that he died instantly ... I immediately said: "Conductor" - "two hundredth" ...
As soon as the officer managed to convey information that the commander was killed, new shots immediately fell in his direction. Some bullets hit the bulletproof vest of the deceased officer. With his body, Edward, after his death, saved another comrade. Shooting from behind the body of the deceased commander, the special forces, who had gone to evacuate Sukharevsky, spent eight stores - almost all of their ammunition.
YOURSELF WITHOUT BALANCE
Soon, two submachine gunners and a "heavy" medic approached the scene of the clash. They attempted to pull out the body of the colonel, but the militants, noticing this, only intensified the fire. Later injured two more officers of the border special forces.
Only forty minutes later, after the machine-gunners of the Vympel arrived at the scene, who, acting together with the machine-gunners of the frontier special divisions, first pressed and then killed the terrorists, were they able to evacuate the body of the deceased officer.
- Practice, when the heads of departments are in the ranks, and not in the offices, in special forces today is quite common. So Sukharevsky always participated personally in all operational-combat actions. But so that the commander was in the first line of battle formation, one of the first to join the battle - this is a great rarity. When we were not on operations, he only did what he did in combat training: he studied tactics, fire ... And we were constantly monitored in this matter. He gave himself to the service completely, - recalls the officer of the border special forces, a subordinate of Sukharevsky.
Later, the head of the Special Purpose Center of the FSB of Russia, Colonel-General Alexander Tikhonov, said that Colonel Edward Sukharevsky was killed as a true special forces fighter - in battle, saving the lives of his comrades.
In turn, those fighters of the special forces of the FSB, who were 9 of May together with the "conductor", acknowledged that it turned out that their units were in that direction instead of border guards, the losses could have been much greater. The department of Sukharevsky managed to avoid them only thanks to the personal courage and bravery of the commander.
“Everyone said to Eduard that one day he will become a general.” He was supposed to be! Do you understand? - Oleg Sukhorevsky’s classmate is looking at me. - A real combat general! From the special forces! Past more than one armed conflict! Really happy for their work and worried about their fighters!
Unfortunately, war always takes the best ...
For nineteen years of personnel officer service, sixteen of which fell on “hot spots”, Edward was awarded only two military awards - the medals “For Strengthening the Combat Commonwealth” and “For the Difference in Protecting the State Border”. Both are received by him in Tajikistan.
The name of Colonel Sukharevsky was given to the Patrikeev school of the Ulyanovsk region
In September, the Order of Courage was added to them. In the award documents there was a note: “Posthumously”. The award was presented to the wife of Colonel Svetlana.
Eduard Sukharevsky left three children.
He was only forty years old ...
The special forces hero was buried on the Walk of Fame of the New-Western cemetery of the city of Penza.
30 July 2013 was named after Colonel Sukharevsky at Patrikeevsky Primary School of the Ulyanovsk Region.
Information