Frozen War
The tragic events unfolding today in the South-East of Ukraine, involuntarily, resurrect the memory of a largely similar opposition that took place exactly twenty-two years ago in the Transnistrian Moldavian Republic. The similarity is complemented by approximately the same initial causes of both conflicts — militant nationalism that came to power, draped under “the pursuit of European values”, and the desperate opposition to not just individuals, but also entire regions (then Moldova, now Ukraine) take. The similarity is complemented by the patronizing attitude of the US and the EU with the nationalist regimes, and the crimes committed by them, which is now twenty-two years later. And the warm sympathy of the patriots of Russia to the Resistance forces, starting from receiving refugees and sending humanitarian aid, as well as volunteers. Aspiring with weapons in the hands of resist the nationalist forces. Well, if you recall that the leaders of the current Donetsk People's Republic, Alexander Boroday and Igor Strelkov twenty-two years ago, still young students, volunteers fought for the freedom of Transnistria, the similarity in the events in general turns out to be almost obvious.
There are, of course, serious differences in both conflict situations, and they will definitely be said about them. But for now, nevertheless, we recall briefly history the Transnistrian conflict, about which many could forget, and the representatives of the younger generation - and not know at all.
To begin with, during the Soviet years, the Moldavian SSR (and even more so - the Ukrainian SSR) were in no way the “colonies” of Moscow - on the contrary, the level of development of these republics was significantly higher than that of the Russian Federation. Moldova did not know any serious national problems. If on the same Western Ukraine in 40-e- the beginning of 50-s. Bandera gangs were operating, then in Moldova, after the exile of the Romanian invaders in 1944, there was not even a pro-Romanian political insurrection.
Nevertheless, the winds of “perestroika” in the 80-s began to awaken including nationalist feelings among the local “national-intelligentsia”. First, ideas about the identity of the Moldovan and Romanian languages, and possible reunification with Romania, began to be worn around again. In the spring of 1988, a program was published in Nistru, published by the MSSR Writers' Union, with a program to recognize the identity of the Moldovan and Romanian languages and translate the Moldavian language into Latin graphics - like in Romania. This was followed by the "Letter 66" Moldovan writers with similar requirements. Moreover, the gentlemen (at that time still “comrades”) writers could not have been unaware that in Romania itself they switched from Cyrillic, which had been used for centuries, to Latin only in the second half of the XIX century. Moreover, it is precisely with the aim to demonstrate that Romania is a “European country” and has nothing in common with the “barbarous” Russia, even the alphabet.
And then, in the same 1988 year, the then “perestroika” ideologue Alexander Yakovlev arrived in the republic, and asked why the popular front was not yet created in Moldova, as in the Baltic republics? And in the autumn of 1988, the local “intellectuals”, supported by the “national cadres” from the Communist Party of the MSSR, began to create the local “People's Front” in imitation of the Balts. Moreover, the wretchedness of the thoughts of local nationalists was so blatant that they stupidly copied the relevant "documents" of the Baltic "colleagues" - such as the demand to cancel the notorious "Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact." Only if the Balts, through the abolition of this “pact” (in fact, 22 June 1941 of the year already canceled by history) at least sought to declare their state independence, then their Moldovan “colleagues” are not even “independence” but reunion with “Mother-Romania” ". Which, by the way, was still ruled, by appropriate methods, by such a seasoned “democrat” as Nicolae Ceausescu. And where the standard of living was already several orders of magnitude lower than in the Moldavian USSR. And so, in the fall of 1988 of the year, it was somewhat silly to organize rallies calling on “We with Romania are one people!” (And also the same “Russians: suitcase-station-Russia!”).
However, Romania and for more than two decades after the overthrow of Ceausescu did not succeed much, and remains the poorest European country. But they don’t argue about tastes - if anyone wants, let them unite even with Honduras, the benefit is a Latin American country, and all Moldovan (more precisely, pro-Romanian, because the term "Moldavian" for them is also almost a symbol of Nazis) nationalists insist that their language I do not identical with the language of the ancient Latins ...
And the first step along this dubious path was the draft law “On the state language” developed by the Supreme Council of the MSSR, published on March 30 of 1989 and proclaiming Moldovan (with Latin graphics) the only state language of the republic. Here we will have to mention one of the principal differences between the MSSR and the Ukrainian SSR (where, by the way, in 1989, a law was passed, declaring Ukrainian the only state language). Moldova is many times smaller than Ukraine in its size and population. But the Ukrainian partkhoznomenklatura was much more monolithic than Moldavian. In Moldova, a significant part of industrial enterprises (over 40% of the republic's GDP) belonged to the Left Bank, and was integrated into all-union structures. The Ukrainian industry was also perceived by its leaders, and by a large part of the population, as something completely self-sufficient. Therefore, in Ukraine, along with purely Western-Ukrainian nationalist sentiments, and in the industrial areas of the Center, the East and the South, many thought that they would live well without Moscow. The industrial and economic nomenclature of the Left Bank of Moldova, for its part, was well aware that in “free Moldova” it would take, at best, secondary positions, and if it joined Romania, it would generally be on the outskirts. Of course, it was not only in the nomenclature that the Left Bank of the Dniester was always internationalistic, up to half of it consisted of Russians and Ukrainians, and most of the local Moldovans did not want to go to any Romania. If only because they were not part of it ever - except for the period of occupation of 1941-1944gg, which left only negative impressions.
Strictly speaking, unlike the majority of “national-intellectuals,” the Moldovan peasants of the Right Bank did not particularly dream of “Mother Romania”. Experience of being part of it in 1918-1940. he was very bitter - the Romanians treated the “Bessarabians” as second-rate people and almost officially called them “myrlans” (“cattle” - to make it clearer). And although later, in the 1991 year, Moldovans of the Right Bank voted for the independence of Moldova, but they fended off the “reunification” even then. And it is not by chance that pro-Romanian “unionists” both in those years and later, categorically refused to hold a referendum on “reunification with Romania”. Even in the 1992 year, after all the events connected with the collapse of the USSR and the Transnistrian war, according to sociologists, no more than 17% of the Right Bank population would be ready to reunite. In many ways, this explains why the Transdniestrian Resistance began to take shape in the last years of “perestroika”. And it took Ukraine more years to squander the Soviet legacy and the coming to power of aggressive nationalists, so that, finally, there would be people ready to fight them.
In Moldova, strikes against a discriminatory language law began in 1989 year, involving tens of thousands of workers at hundreds of enterprises. Despite this strike wave, which, by the way, MS Gorbachev, the leader of the CPSU and the USSR, was angrily condemned, on August 31 on August 1989, the Supreme Council passed a law declaring the Moldovan language the only state language. Later this day was declared a holiday in Moldova - although it would have been fairer to call it a day of mourning for a unified Moldova. In response, the Joint Council of Labor Collectives (OSTK) in a number of cities on the Left Bank is holding a series of local referenda on the establishment of the Transnistrian Autonomous Republic. In the new composition of the Supreme Council of the MSSR, the majority was captured by nationalists and deputies representing the regions of the Left Bank, as well as the city that joined them Bendery were forced to leave the Supreme Soviet. What is significant - they were then expelled from the ranks of the Communist Party of Moldova - “for separatism”!
After the acts of physical violence began, it was not enough to “Moldovan” (then still) conscious. Considering that they have nothing to lose, the Transnistrians in the village of Parcani near Bender were held by the I Congress of Transdniestrian deputies of all levels. On June 23, the MSSR Supreme Council approved the Conclusion of a special commission on the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, in which the creation of the MSSR was declared an illegal act. In reply
The Presidium of the Tiraspol City Council proclaimed that if the MSSR was established illegally, then the left bank of the Dniester was also illegally included in it, therefore the Presidium "does not consider itself bound by any obligations to the leadership of the SSR of Moldova." And 2 September 1990, at the II Extraordinary Congress of Deputies of all levels of Transnistria, was formed the Transnistrian Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic within the USSR (PMSSR). The state languages of its declared Moldovan (with the Cyrillic alphabet), Russian and Ukrainian.
It is indicative that the creation of the Transnistrian Republic was outraged not only by the Chisinau authorities (which would have been logical though), but also by the President of the USSR Gorbachev!
So far, however, the confrontation occurred mainly on a political plane. The Kishinev nationalists simply did not have at that time even armed force — this is another fundamental difference from today's Ukraine. Transdniestrians, for their part, did not rush to create one. They naively hoped that if anything happened, they would be defended by the 14 Army of the Soviet Armed Forces stationed in the MSSR. Here, by the way, is another difference with modern Ukraine (but explaining the speed of solving the “Crimean Question” in the current February-March)
However, the development of the Moldovan-Transnistrian conflict into an openly armed phase became inevitable by the time of the final collapse of the USSR at the end of 1991. On August 27, Moldova declared itself independent (from the USSR), and on September 2, the Transdniestrian Moldavian Republic declared independence (respectively, from Moldova). In Chisinau, they did not hide their intentions to conquer Transnistria by force of arms. It is significant that when, after the Bialowieza Agreements, the question arose about the fate of the Armed Forces of the USSR, the majority of even “independent” presidents spoke in favor of maintaining their unity. First of all, by the way, Nazarbayev - for which he, of course, honor and praise. Boris Nikolayevich, however, managed to bring the idea of maintaining a unified armed forces to absurdity: on the one hand, from December 25, 1991, the Russian Federation formally existed without an army at all - until May 1992. On the other hand, the armed forces remained (though slowly dragged away into "national apartments"). It is not known which country, personally subordinate to the marshal. aviation Yevgeny Shaposhnikov, who, in turn, did not understand whom he had to obey. However, the three newly baked independent republics immediately refused to maintain a single Armed Forces, and demanded the creation of their own armies based on the units deployed in them (and not only). These were Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Moldova. As you might guess, all three republics were guided by the expectation of war with their former brothers in the Union: Ukraine - with Russia, Azerbaijan - with the Armenians, Moldova - with Transnistria.
The Moldovan leadership, primarily the president of the republic (former secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the USSR) Mircea Snegur and his defense minister Ion Costas (formerly a Soviet general), forced the withdrawal of weapons, military equipment and ammunition from those stationed in the former Moldavian SSR. The Transnistrian leadership, for its part, also tried to get some of the weapons and equipment - but he was denied this. The angry leader of Transnistria, Igor Smirnov, bluntly told General Boris Gromov, who had come from Moscow with the new 14 army commander Yuri Netkachev: “What army? Whose? THE USSR? So it is not. CIS? So it actually is not. Russia? Of Ukraine? All the weapons on the territory of the Transdniestrian Moldavian Republic belong to the people of Transnistria, and I declare the commander of the 14 Army, General Netkachev, persona non grata. ”
In truth, General Netkachev could even sympathize with humanity. In a matter of weeks, he became a person, odious on both banks of the Dniester, and even with most of his subordinates. The Moldovan side openly tidied up its army property - but nevertheless Netkachev was dissatisfied, and the local media directly accused him of transferring weapons and ammunition to the Transnistrian side. And the latter, as "unrecognized", nothing of the former union property, as it were, was supposed to. The Moldovan authorities also started a bummer with a detachment of an amphibious regiment stationed in Chisinau, the 300-m separate (ie, Netkachev is not subordinate). They also wanted to “privatize” him, but the regimental commander, combat colonel Alexei Lebed (the brother of the soon becoming famous general) frightened the rulers of Chisinau so much that they thought it would be good not to mess with him. The Russian leadership, of course, later "encouraged" Lebed and the paratroopers in their own way - relocated the regiment to Eastern Siberia, to Khakassia. And in 1998, the regiment was eliminated altogether ...
Meanwhile, on the left bank (and in Bendery), Netkachev categorically forbade transferring any weapons to the Transnistrian side. True, most of the officers and warrant officers in the garrisons on the territory of the Transdniestrian Moldavian Republic already consisted of either local or those who had apartments there, and did not want to move to the Non-Black Earth Region or Siberia. But conscript soldiers generally remained at a minimum — after the collapse of the Soviet Union, many fled to their “own republics”, many were demobilized in the spring, almost did not send new recruits — and in general, Moldovan nationalism contrasted so sharply with Transnistria’s “friendship of nations” (then Transnistria would later be called unconquered part of the USSR!), that everyone had sympathies on the side of the TMR.
The sides, meanwhile, continued to prepare for battle - although the armed clashes of supporters of Moldova and Transnistrian Moldavian Republic did not cease since the fall. At first, the Moldovan side used the forces of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (the militia hastily renamed the police, and the special militia forces - respectively, in the police department), and the so-called. "Volunteers" - armed civilians. True, even Snegur himself unflatteringly spoke of the latter: “There are a lot of volunteers who require weapons on the street, but they quickly disappear when we send them to the Ministry of the Interior to go through certain formalities.” Nevertheless, Kostaş set the task - to bring the number of Moldovan armed formations to 60 thousand people. True, it was difficult to get all the 26 thousands, and, according to knowledgeable people, mostly on paper.
From the Transnistrian side, the authorities began to form forces for the defense, with genuine enthusiasm of the majority of the population - both Russians and Moldovans. Soon, in addition to local police officers who defended the Republic, battalions of workers' guards, detachments of territorial self-defense, and the resurrected Black Sea Cossack army were formed. Then, hundreds of Cossacks began to arrive from the Don, Kuban, and even from Siberia, and other Russian volunteers (of the widest political spectrum). It is very curious that the then leader of the ultra-nationalist Ukrainian organization UNA-UNSO Dmitry Korchinsky arrived with the help of a large detachment of “lads”. Weapons and equipment were captured from military units by either women's strike committees (then a very significant force in the Republic), or by decisions of district executive committees, self-defense units and workers' guards. However, according to the memoirs of Alexander Borodaya, most often officers and ensigns exchanged weapons, ammunition and even armored vehicles for local rakiya, brandy, wine and cigarettes. Korchinsky, by the way, was frank in his memoirs that his guys started the practice of “requisitioning”, theft, buying weapons and equipment on strictly Ukrainian territory - in the former Soviet military units, and in the Ukrainian “National Guard”. Curious and another evidence Korchinsky - according to him, the president of the "independent" of Ukraine Leonid Kravchuk, and the Ukrainian "national democrats" also betrayed the Ukrainians Transnistria, like Boris Yeltsin and the Russian "democrats" - Russian. (Nobody even speaks about Transnistrian Moldavians - they were announced beforehand by Chisinau as “national traitors”). True, neither the Russian nor the Ukrainian “democrats” then took the risk of taking punitive measures against volunteers heading for Transnistria - although the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Federation and its Ukrainian counterpart at the same time began to come up with laws on “anti-mercenary”, under which fit almost all volunteers.
There was a lot of talk about volunteers from the Moldovan side - supposedly from the Baltic states, but, unfortunately, not a single factual proof. The same can be said about military experts, special services and snipers from Romania. Surely, of course, they were - but they did not fall into the hands of the living, but you would not receive confessions from the dead. The only indirect evidence of Romanian participation in the events is the fate of the head of the Moldovan terrorist group Bujor Ilie Ilascu. He committed several attacks against the leaders of Transnistria. He was caught with his accomplices, sentenced to death - but, at the insistence of Russia, he was replaced by a “tower” with accomplices for life. And after ten years, Ilascuka was released from prison (although he not only confessed to the murders committed, but did not even repent of them) - and immediately became the Romanian senator. And then he and his accomplices also obtained from the Strasbourg court that Russia (!!!) paid them hundreds of thousands of euros compensation for the years spent behind bars.
But back to the Moldovan-Transdniestrian confrontation. On May 23 “to ensure the territorial integrity of Moldova”, by Snegur’s decree, all cash units of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of National Security (MNS) were subordinated to Defense Minister Kostaş. In fact, this meant that Chisinau was concentrating all its power resources before a decisive blow. By this time, the conflict had already begun to take shape of a positional war: the theater of operations expanded and covered the left-bank villages of Rogi, Kochery, Pogreby, Koshnitsa, Pyryta, and Dorotskoe on the outskirts of Dubossary, as well as the right-bank town of Bender with the villages of Giska and Chitcani. The residential neighborhoods of the Transdniestrian regional centers Dubasari and Grigoriopol were subjected to systematic shelling. From the beginning of the year, the Moldovan formations of Dubasari tried to capture at least four times in order to cut the territory of the republic in half - but each time they were beaten off. Moreover, the systematic shelling by the artillery of Moldova on the dam of the Dubossary hydroelectric station created a real prerequisite for a colossal ecological catastrophe. And so, hundreds of tons of oil flowed out of transformers ruined by explosions into the Dniester, inspection and maintenance crews did not have the opportunity to work, and the water in the reservoir began to rise ominously ...
And if the body of the dam holding 465 of millions of cubic meters of water had been destroyed, then everything from 20 to 6 meters downstream of the Dniester would have demolished everything, including 57 settlements, to create a continuous flood zone from 2 to 12 wide kilometers, with both right and left of the Dniester.
But even here the “patriots” from Chisinau understood what such a catastrophe is fraught with (besides, a quarrel with Ukraine, which also would have resulted from the Dniester spill), was inevitable, and the Moldovan artillerymen were told to restrain their agility.
However, the most potentially explosive point on the line of the Moldova-Transdniestrian confrontation was Bender (however, in Chisinau, the city was already renamed Romanian Tigina). It was not only that Bender was a major transportation hub and one of the most important industrial centers of the region. He was not only on the right bank of the Dniester and, therefore, did not have a protective water barrier. But besides, the city had quite officially a dual power for several months already - there was a mayor ("mayor"), subordinate to Chisinau, and the Transnistrian chairman of the city executive committee, was the city police department (of course, Moldovan) and the city police department, etc.
And the Kishinev leadership decided to strike it there.
On June 18, the Parliament of Moldova adopted a resolution on the exclusively peaceful settlement of the conflict with Transnistria, and even on the establishment of a mixed commission for this purpose. In the evening, Moldovan armored vehicles, military units and units of the Ministry of Internal Affairs entered the city from several sides. Where are the special groups of the Ministry of State Security of Moldova already operating? So Saakashvili, who announced a cease-fire and the beginning of peace talks in the evening, and at midnight, began the assault on Tskhinval was not at all original. Poroshenko was also not original, declaring a “cease-fire”, which none of his fighters thought to observe. ...
And at 19.00 the Moldavian columns of armored personnel carriers, artillery, stretched along the Chisinau and Kaushan highway to Bender tanks T-55, from the nearest suburbs and villages the city included the 1st, 3rd and 4th battalions of the Moldavian army, detachments of "volunteers" and police, the "OPON" brigade. And the city, which was not accustomed to its “front-line” position, continued to live a peaceful life. Moreover, graduation evenings were in full swing in city schools ... Entrance to the city, which the Transnistrian militia blocked “just like a fireman” with the help of cargo and construction equipment, began to demolish Moldovan units with armored vehicles and artillery fire. By nine in the evening the Moldovan units, both on armored vehicles and on ordinary buses, scorching in all directions, had already penetrated to the city center. Needless to say, in this case the masses were completely killed by people who were not involved in the events. Antics began and worse - up to the massive rape of school graduates. The Moldovan side, however, is trying on this point to persistently shift responsibility to the Transnistrians. But if you think logically - then in comparatively small Bendery, where almost everyone knows each other, local police, guardsmen or militias would hardly risk such a vileness - they all hoped to continue to live in this city, but uninvited "guests."
They were quickly resisted by the chairman of the city executive committee Tom Zenkovich (a Serb by nationality) and the commander of the 2 Bender battalion of the National Guard, a former Soviet lieutenant colonel Yuri Kostenko. The latter must be said at least briefly - he was soon accused of banditry (both the Transnistrian authorities and the command of the 14 Army) and eliminated during the arrest. Summing up the eyewitnesses, it must be emphasized that he was not a gangster in the purest sense of the word, but another thing was completely unprepared for a peaceful normal life even in the unrecognized 1992 republic of the year, and would surely have it was possible to characterize as "Bandidism".
However, in June 1992, Kostenko, together with the chairman of the city executive committee, Zenkovich, showed themselves as real leaders of resistance. Having strengthened with a handful of policemen and militiamen in the building of the city executive committee, Zenkovich ordered to announce the immediate convocation of volunteers to protect the city. He was able to contact by telephone with Tiraspol, where the Supreme Soviet of the Transdniestrian Moldavian Republic and its president announced the immediate mobilization of the militia, and the nomination of all available forces to the rescue of Bender. At this time, Kostenko and his guards fought fierce battles at the city’s printing house, holding the buildings of the city police department, post office, and the guard barracks. But nevertheless, by four in the morning, almost the entire city was taken under control by Moldovan formations.
The 1 th Moldavian battalion reached the bridge across the Dniester - some sources say, the Transdniestrian defenders did not let them in, others say that the Moldovans didn’t tear themselves across the bridge, but set themselves the task of cutting off Bender from the rest of Transnistria.
Meanwhile, part of the Moldovan formations, feeling victorious, set about capturing the city’s factories - and their total looting. Later, this fact was recognized even by the Moldovan prosecutor's office - the Chisinau authorities considered the factories of Transnistria, in principle, to be their own, and their looting potentially hit them as well. Meanwhile, early in the morning several tanks captured by Transnistrian women from the 56 Division of the 14 Army (however, with crews from retired but quite experienced tankers) went to beat out the Moldovan barrier from the Bendery bridge. Further descriptions of events are very contradictory, it is impossible to understand whether it was one attack, or two, which followed one after another.
Commander of this group of tanks S.V. Vukolov himself speaks about one attack, “which, nevertheless, was“ psychic ”and“ suicidal ”, but necessary. Everyone acknowledges that two tanks were hit by anti-tank guns MT-12 "Rapier". “Captain A. Smirnov, senior lieutenant V. Bezgin, senior lieutenant V. Baltan, A, Zaruba, N. Grishin died in this attack, later ... gunner operator A. Irshenko died,” recalled Vukolov. Some argue that after the death of these two tanks, the attack choked. Others insist that the attack continued with the help of Cossack detachments Delta and Dniester that had come from Tiraspol. Moldovans claim that in addition to these forces, five T-64 tanks (also "borrowed" from the 14 Army) joined the attackers, and the Transdniestrians could still get through the Moldovan defense only by the evening of June 20. True, they do not dispute that they lost two artillery batteries.
And just at that time Mircea Snegur told Moldovans on television that “the police station was attacked by illegal formations in Bendery”, but now in Bendery (I mean in Tigina, Snegur himself did not have time to get used to this name) “the constitutional order was restored ". But it was not just wrong, but not at all - by the night of the Transnistrian, along with the militia and volunteers who had approached, they managed to break through to the city council.
Moldavian warriors have added 20 June to themselves and some more unnecessary problems. Not confining themselves to the seizure and plundering of city factories, they also bombarded the Bendery fortress, where the missile brigade and chemical battalion of the same 14 Russian army were stationed. Among the Russian military were the victims. As if not satisfied with this, the Moldovan artillery also shelled the fuel depot of the 48414 military unit of the 14 Army of Russia, which also led to the death of Russian soldiers. And although General Yuri Netkachev still ordered his subordinates to observe “neutrality” on the territory of Transdnistrian Moldavian Republic, the Transdniestrians began supporting them with fire at their own risk.
Meanwhile, street fighting continued, new reinforcements were coming from Tiraspol and from Chisinau. But by early morning on June 22, Transdniestrians and their allies were able to clear the center of the city. By the end of the day, only the south of the city remained behind the Moldovan side (in particular, the settlements south of Bender, Varnitsa and Leninsky microdistrict), and the neighborhoods located between south of Bender and the police station. By the middle of the day on June 22, a “front line” appeared in Bendery, separating the sides. On the Suvorov Hill there is a Moldovan mortar battery, which shelled the territories controlled by Transnistrians.
The sufferings of the townspeople in hell, of course, were unbearable - without food and drinking water, fragments and bullets flying from all sides, under collapsing houses, often without elementary medical care. And it is in the 35-degree heat, when the corpses lying on the streets rapidly swelled and decomposed. It is not surprising that the inhabitants rushed thousands out of the city — often where it was not known, if only they did not shoot there.
And the fighting in the city streets continued. Both sides actively used artillery and snipers, and also made raids and forays into enemy positions. In addition, the Moldovan side also attempted an air strike on the bridge over the Dniester - and used for this MiG-29, which Marshal Shaposhnikov most recently kindly presented Kostashu (from the Marshuleshty airbase). The Moldavian pilots, however, turned out to be quite mediocre and did not get into the bridge - but they destroyed the house in the Bulgarian village of Parcani along with the entire family that inhabited it - which later, with extreme embarrassment, the Moldovan military department was forced to admit. The next such departure was already waiting - and one of the MiGs, not having time to bomb, was shot down (neither the Transdniestrians nor the Russians, probably out of modesty, did not record the “Moldovan ace” at their own expense).
Finally, official Moscow decided to bring its own “share of diversity” into the situation, if only because the attacks of the opposition, not only on the streets, but also in the Supreme Soviet, which had been loyal to Yeltsin, made the Kremlin worry. And in Transdniestria as “Colonel Gusev”, General Alexander Lebed arrived to take command of the army instead of Netkachev. True, many participants in those events, especially from the Transnistrian side, claim that Lebed’s further merits in appeasing the situation are fairly exaggerated. And that the Transnistrians themselves and the volunteers who arrived to help them had already played a decisive role at the time of his arrival. There is probably a fair amount of justice in this.
And yet, as General Yuri Popov testifies, then Lebed’s associate (who broke with him after 1996 of the year), Lebed took a number of drastic measures to stop the bloodshed. When in the evening of July 29, interrupting the relative calm, the Moldovan army resumed a massive shelling of Bender from howitzers, mortars, grenade launchers and small arms, Lebed responded accordingly.
30 June he gave his order to the artillery and missile forces: “Destroy ammunition depots, fuel, and enemy artillery. Goal seek themselves. And even though the “enemy” was not directly named, already on the night of 30, June, the division of Lieutenant Colonel N. struck the rocket battery BM-21 “Grad” of Moldova on the Kitzkan springboard, and completely destroyed it. And July 1: division of Lieutenant Colonel V. in the direction of Koshnitsa - Dorotskoe destroyed the mortar battery and ammunition depot. Then 2 July: the 328 sap division destroyed the mortar battery, the observation post and the police convoy. As a result, the enemy lost up to 150-and people killed and seven cars. Already by the end of July 2: the chief of intelligence of the Army’s missile forces and artillery prepared a list of targets. Three recreation centers of the Moldovan OPON, the police and the regular army (one south of the village Slobodzia, the other in the Gerbovetsky forest, the third the rest house south of the village of Golerkani), three fuel stocks, three artillery batteries and one command post were chosen as targets for destruction.
But at that time, Defense Minister Grachev contacted Lebed from Moscow and demanded an end to “amateur performances”. In response, Lebed described the Moldovan leadership as “fascist”, and said that he did not even suggest another dialogue with the “fascists”. Grachev demanded that Lebed stop "politicizing" - but Lebed also responded that he did not consider his duty as a Russian officer to be politicking. While the two former colleagues in the Airborne Forces and Afghanistan exchanged similar barbs, Lebed gave another order, and on the night from 2 on 3 in July from 3 to 3 hours in 45 and minutes, the targets indicated above were heavily fired strike by eight artillery battalions and six mortar batteries. Eyewitnesses claimed that after such a blow, ambulances collected from all over Moldova were taken out for two days. The dead were buried here, and the relatives of the victims were later told that they all deserted from the army and are outside Moldova. A real panic arose in Chisinau, everyone was waiting for the actions of the Swan brothers and the advance of the 14 Army’s tanks from day to day. But, which is quite remarkable - this crushing blow was struck just a few hours before the meeting of Boris Yeltsin and Mircea Snegur. Moreover, if the latter had recently complained about Russia to all international agencies, starting with the UN, and even declared that “Moldova is at war with Russia,” now it was much more modest and pliable.
At the same time, in the first days of July, the following agreements were made and signed by Russia and Moldova: 1) cease hostilities and dissolve the warring forces; 2) determine the political status of Transnistria; 3) withdraw parts of the 14 Army in accordance with bilateral agreements, but only after the implementation of the first two points; 4) to form and send to Transnistria parts of the composition of the Russian troops for the peacekeeping mission.
In principle, on the basis of these points, peace continues to this day on both banks of the Dniester.
Although it was paid for a lot of victims - and human blood in the first place. Only in these tragic June days, and only from the Transnistrian side, in Bender, 498 people died, including 132 civilians, among them five children and 31 woman. Missing 87 people, died from wounds - 40 people. 1242 people were injured to varying degrees of severity. About 100 thousands of people became refugees, of which 80 000 were registered in Transnistria.
During the fighting, about 1280 houses were damaged and destroyed, of which 60 was completely destroyed. Also, 15 health facilities and 19 education facilities were destroyed, 5 multi-storey residential buildings of state housing stock, 603 public housing were partially damaged. Damaged 46 industrial enterprises, transport, construction. In general, the city suffered damage in excess of 10 000 000 000 rubles at 1992 prices of the year. True, at least now, both Moldovans and Transdniestrians claim that they have denied armed conflict with each other forever. However, the issue of a political settlement of the conflict over these twenty-two years has not actually shifted.
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