Spirits of the Chechens. Black Sea Marine Corps in Chechnya. On an unnamed height

The first and second Chechen wars, otherwise known as the "First Chechen conflict" and the "counter-terrorist operation in the North Caucasus" became, perhaps, the bloodiest pages in Russia's recent history. These military conflicts are striking in their cruelty. They brought terror and explosions of houses with sleeping people to the territory of Russia. But, in the history of these wars, there were people who, perhaps, can be considered criminals no less terrible than terrorists. These are traitors.

Sergei Orel

He fought in the North Caucasus under a contract. In December 1995, he was taken prisoner by militants. They released him a year later and sent the rescued "prisoner of the Caucasus" to Grozny. And then the unbelievable happened: a Russian soldier, languishing in cruel captivity and happily freed, stole a Kalashnikov assault rifle, uniforms and personal belongings from the military prosecutor's office, stole a Ural truck and sped off towards the militants. Here, in fact, it became clear that in captivity Orel was by no means in poverty, but allowed himself to be recruited without much trouble. He converted to Islam, studied sapper business in one of the Khattab camps, and took part in the hostilities. In 1998, with a fake passport in the name of Alexander Kozlov, he showed up in Moscow, where he controlled the construction markets. He transferred the proceeds through special contacts to the Caucasus, to support his “brothers in arms”. This business stopped only when the special services came on the trail of Orel-Kozlov. The defector was tried, and he received a serious sentence.

Limonov and Klochkov

Privates Konstantin Limonov and Ruslan Klochkov in the fall of 1995 decided to somehow go for vodka. They left their checkpoint and went to the village of Katyr-Yurt, where the militants tied them up without any problems. Once in captivity, Limonov and Klochkov did not think for a long time and almost immediately agreed to become guards in the federal prisoner of war camp. Limonov even took the name Kazbek. They performed their duties very diligently, surpassing even the Chechens themselves in cruelty. One of the captives, for example, was smashed in the head with a rifle butt. Another was thrown onto a red-hot furnace. The third was beaten to death. Both participated in the execution of sixteen Russian soldiers condemned to death by the Islamists. One of the militants personally showed them an example by cutting the throat of the first convict, and then handed the knife to the traitors as well. Those carried out the order, and then finished off the agonizing soldiers from the machine gun. All this was recorded on video. When in 1997 the federal troops cleared the area where their gang operated, Limonov and Klochkov tried to impersonate the released hostages and hoped that the most serious thing that threatened them was a term for desertion. However, the investigation made their "exploits" known to Russian justice.

Alexander Ardyshev - Seraji Dudayev

In 1995, the unit in which Ardyshev served was transferred to Chechnya. Alexander had very little to serve, just a few weeks. However, he decided to drastically change his life and deserted from the unit. It was in the village of Vedeno. By the way, it cannot be said about Ardyshev that he betrayed his comrades, since he had no comrades. During his service, he was distinguished by the fact that he periodically stole things and money from his fellow soldiers, and there was not a single one among the soldiers of his unit who would treat Ardyshev as a friend. First, he got into the detachment of the field commander Mavladi Khusain, then fought under the command of Isa Madaev, then in the detachment of Khamzat Musaev. Ardyshev converted to Islam and became Seraji Dudayev. Seraji's new job was to guard captives. Stories about how the yesterday's Russian soldier Alexander, and now the warrior of Islam Seraji, subjected his former colleagues to bullying and torture, are simply terrible to read. He beat the prisoners, shot the unwanted on the orders of his superiors. One soldier, wounded and exhausted by captivity, was forced to memorize the Koran, and when he made a mistake, he was beaten. Once, for the amusement of the militants, he set fire to gunpowder on the back of the unfortunate. He was so sure of his impunity that he did not even hesitate to show up to the Russian side in his new guise. Once he arrived in Vedeno with his commander Mavladi to settle the conflict between local residents and federal troops. Among the federals was his former boss, Colonel Kukharchuk. Ardyshev approached him to show off his new status and threatened him with reprisals.

When the military conflict ended, Seraji got his own house in Chechnya and began to serve in the border and customs service. And then one of the Chechen bandits Sadulayev was convicted in Moscow. His comrades and associates in Chechnya decided that a respected person should be exchanged. And they exchanged for ... Alexander-Seradzhi. The deserter and traitor was completely uninteresting to the new owners. To avoid unnecessary trouble, Seraji was drugged with tea with sleeping pills, and when he passed out, he was handed over to the authorities of the Russian Federation. Surprisingly, once outside of Chechnya, Seraji immediately remembered that he was Alexander and began to ask to return to the Russians and Orthodox. He was sentenced to 9 years of strict regime.

Yuri Rybakov

This man, too, was by no means wounded and unconscious in the captivity of the militants. He defected to them voluntarily in September 1999. Having undergone special training, he became a sniper. I must say that Rybakov was a good sniper. In just one month, he made 26 notches on the butt of his rifle - one for each “removed” fighter. Rybakov was taken in the village of Ulus-Kert, where federal troops surrounded the militants.

Vasily Kalinkin - Wahid

This man served as an ensign in one of the parts of Nizhny Tagil, and he was stealing big. And when it smelled of fried food, he ran away and joined the army of "free Ichkeria". Here he was sent to study at an intelligence school in one of the Arab countries. Kalinkin converted to Islam, became known as Wahid. They took him in Volgograd, where the newly-minted spy appeared for reconnaissance and preparation of acts of sabotage.

The first Chechen war, which imperceptibly passed into the second, provided analysts with quite a lot of information material on the enemy opposing the Russian Armed Forces, his tactics and methods of warfare, material and technical equipment, including infantry weapons. Newsreels of those years dispassionately captured the presence of the latest models of small arms in the hands of Chechen fighters.

Armament and military equipment of the armed forces of the Dudayev regime were replenished from several sources. First of all, it was a weapon lost by the Russian Armed Forces in 1991-1992. According to the Ministry of Defense, the militants got 18,832 units of 5.45-mm AK / AKS-74 assault rifles, 9,307 - 7.62-mm AKM / AKMS assault rifles, 533 - 7.62-mm SVD sniper rifles, 138 - 30-mm machine guns grenade launchers AGS-17 "Flame", 678 tank and 319 heavy machine guns DShKM / DShKMT / NSV / NSVT, as well as 10581 TT / PM / APS pistols. Moreover, this number did not include more than 2,000 RPK and PKM light machine guns, as well as 7 portable anti-aircraft missile systems (MANPADS) "Igla-1", an unspecified number of MANPADS "Strela-2", 2 anti-tank guided missiles (ATGM) "Competition ”, 24 sets of Fagot ATGMs, 51 Metis ATGMs and at least 740 shells for them, 113 RPG-7, 40 tanks, 50 armored personnel carriers and infantry fighting vehicles, over 100 artillery pieces. During the defeat of the KGB of the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic in September 1991, the fighters of the OKNJ seized approximately 3,000 small arms, and more than 10,000 units were taken by them during the disarmament of local internal affairs bodies.

The influx of weapons and ammunition to the North Caucasus continued later, and in 1992-1994. the number of weapons entering Chechnya has been steadily growing. And from the beginning of 1994, a large number of weapons, including the latest, began to come from federal structures to the forces of the anti-Dudaev opposition, then smoothly flowing into the hands of the Dudaevites.

The supply of weapons to Chechnya went in several ways. Along with direct purchases by the Dudayev regime in the CIS countries and the Baltic republics of standard-type small arms, a fairly large number of a wide variety of weapons came into this region by smuggling, both from neighboring countries - Georgia, Azerbaijan, and far - Afghanistan and Turkey. In 1991, under the guise of humanitarian aid, the first batch of Soviet-style small arms (mainly manufactured by the GDR) was delivered to Chechnya from Turkey, and part of it was smuggled by militants through the territory of Azerbaijan. Afghanistan received Chinese-made 7.62-mm AK-74 assault rifles, AKMs made in the USSR, East Germany, Poland, Egypt, Chinese Degtyarev RPD and PK/PKM Kalashnikov machine guns, as well as English 7.71-mm sniper rifles that are completely atypical for our country Lee-Enfield No. 4 Mk.1 (T), widely used by spooks in Afghanistan. These rifles were armed with special Mujahideen sniper groups formed in Afghanistan and arrived with their weapons in Chechnya to continue the war with Shuravi. A large number of domestic weapons were brought with them by Chechen fighters who fought in Abkhazia. Including 7.62-mm Kalashnikov assault rifles manufactured by the GDR, which the Chechens got as trophies. From the same source, 5.45-mm AK-74 and 7.62-mm AKM of Romanian production, as well as 7.62-mm PK / PKM and their tank versions of the PKT, converted by Georgians into manual ones, got to the militants.

Since the beginning of the Chechen war, Chechen illegal armed formations are being supplied with weapons not only from abroad, but also from Russia itself. So, at the end of May 95, when one of the Dudayev detachments was defeated, a mortar and a batch of 5.45-mm AK-74, manufactured by the Izhevsk Machine-Building Plant in January 95, were captured. Moreover, by that time, these weapons had not even entered service with the Russian army.

Despite all the diversity of small arms of illegal armed formations, their units possessed the most modern models of weapons of domestic production. As a rule, the militants were armed with 7.62 mm AK/AKM assault rifles or 5.45 mm AK/AKS-74 assault rifles, 7.62 mm SVD sniper rifles, and 7.62 mm RPK/RPK-74 light machine guns. PKM or 7.62-mm PKT tank machine guns and 12.7-mm large-caliber "Utes" NSV dismantled from padded armored vehicles. The main difference between the separatist formations and the units of the federal troops was their higher saturation with such effective means of armed struggle as hand-held anti-tank grenade launchers of various models and 40-mm GP-25 underbarrel grenade launchers.

Sensitive defeats in the winter-spring of 1995 forced the Dudaevites to develop a new battle tactic. The transition of fire contact with the federal troops from point-blank firing distances, typical for the battles of the initial period of the Chechen war, to a distance of 300-500 m became the main one for the militants. In this regard, priority was given to 7.62-mm AK-47 / AKM assault rifles, which have a higher damaging effect of a bullet compared to 5.45-mm AK-74 assault rifles. Significantly increased the value of long-range weapons, designed for a 7.62-mm rifle cartridge, allowing concentrated fire on point targets at a distance of 400-600 m (Dragunov SVD sniper rifles) and a distance of 600-800 m (Kalashnikov PK / PKM machine guns). Enemy reconnaissance and sabotage groups repeatedly used special types of weapons available only in the special forces of the federal troops: 7.62-mm AKM with silent-flameless firing devices (silencers) PBS-1, PB and APB pistols. However, the latest samples of domestic silent weapons were the most popular among the militants: the 9-mm VSS sniper rifle and the 9-mm AS sniper machine gun. Since these weapons are used in the federal troops only by special forces (in deep reconnaissance companies of the GRU GSh special forces, reconnaissance companies of motorized rifle and airborne units, special forces of internal troops, etc.), it can be assumed that some of them fell into separatists as trophies or, more likely, stolen from warehouses. Silent weapons have proven themselves positively on both sides. So, during a raid by one of the special forces units of the federal troops on January 2, 1995, in the area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe base of Chechen saboteurs located in the vicinity of Serzhen-Yurt, Russian special forces, using VSS / AS complexes, destroyed a total of more than 60 militants. But the use of SVD and VSS sniper rifles by professionally trained mobile militant groups cost Russian soldiers dearly. More than 26% of the wounds of federal troops in the fighting of the first Chechen war were bullet wounds. In the battles for Grozny, only in the 8th Army Corps, as of the beginning of January 1995, in the platoon-company link, almost all officers were knocked out by sniper fire. In particular, in the 81st motorized rifle regiment in the first days of January, only 1 officer remained in the ranks.

In 1992, Dudayev organized a small-scale production of a 9-mm small submachine gun K6-92 Borz (wolf), designed for a 9-mm Makarov PM pistol cartridge, on the premises of the Grozny Krasny Molot machine-building plant. In its design, many features of the Sudayev PPS submachine gun arr. 1943. However, the Chechen gunsmiths competently approached the problem of creating a small-sized submachine gun and managed, using the most developed design features of the prototype, to develop a fairly successful sample of a light and compact weapon.

Automation "Borza" works on the principle of recoil free shutter. The flag of the translator of the type of fire (aka fuse) is located on the left side of the bolt box, above the pistol grip. The trigger mechanism allows both single and automatic fire. Shop box-shaped, two-row, with a capacity of 15 and 30 rounds. Shooting is carried out from the rear sear. Shoulder emphasis metal, folding. The manufacture of these weapons, consisting almost entirely of stamped parts, did not pose any particular problems even for the underdeveloped industry of Chechnya, which has only standard industrial equipment. But the low capacity of the production base affected not only the simplicity of the design and production volumes of the Borza (the Chechens managed to produce only a few thousand weapons in two years), but also the rather low technology of its production. The barrels are characterized by low survivability due to the use of tool, rather than special steel grades. The cleanliness of the surface of the bore, not reaching the required 11-12 processing classes, leaves much to be desired. Mistakes made in the design of the Borza resulted in incomplete combustion of the powder charge during firing and abundant release of powder gases. At the same time, this submachine gun fully justified its name as a weapon for paramilitary formations of the partisan type. Therefore, "Borz", along with the same type of Western-made weapons - submachine guns "Uzi", "Mini-Uzi", MP-5 - were used mainly by reconnaissance and sabotage groups of Dudayevites.

In 1995-1996 there have been repeated cases of Chechen illegal armed formations using one of the newest domestic models of infantry weapons - 93-mm rocket-propelled infantry flamethrowers RPO. The RPO "Bumblebee" wearable kit included two containers: an incendiary RPO-3 and a smoke action RPO-D, which complement each other very effectively in battle. In addition to them, another version of the reactive infantry flamethrower, RPO-A with combined ammunition, has proven itself to be a formidable weapon in the mountains of Chechnya. In RPO-A, the capsule principle of flamethrowing is implemented, in which a capsule with a flame mixture in a "cold" state is delivered to the target, upon impact, an igniter-explosive charge is initiated, as a result of which the flame mixture ignites and its burning pieces scatter and hit the target. The cumulative warhead, breaking through the barrier first, contributes to the deep penetration of the main warhead, filled with a fuel-air mixture, into the object, which increases the lethal effect and allows full use of RPO to defeat not only enemy manpower located in shelters, firing points, buildings, and creating fires at these facilities and on the ground, but also for the destruction of lightly armored and motor vehicles. The RPO-A thermobaric shot (volumetric explosion) is comparable in terms of the effectiveness of high-explosive action to a 122-mm howitzer projectile. During the storming of Grozny in August 1996, the militants, having received in advance detailed information about the scheme of defense of the complex of buildings of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, were able to destroy the main ammunition point located in a closed room inside the building with two aimed shots of "Bumblebees", thus depriving its defenders of almost all ammunition.

The high combat characteristics of this most powerful weapon, coupled with the massive use of hand-held anti-tank grenade launchers, both disposable (RPG-18, RPG-22, RPG-26, RPG-27) and reusable (RPG-7), contributed to the destruction or incapacitation of a significant number of armored vehicles of the federal troops and more severe defeat of personnel. Heavy losses were suffered by tankers and motorized riflemen from the latest domestic grenade launchers: 72.5 mm RPG-26 (armor penetration up to 500 mm), 105 mm RPG-27 (armor penetration up to 750 mm), as well as shots for RPG-7 - 93/40 mm PG-7VL grenades (armor penetration up to 600 mm) and 105/40 mm PG-7VR grenades with a tandem warhead (armor penetration up to 750 mm). During the battles for Grozny, the widespread use by the Dudaevites of all means of anti-tank defense, including RPGs, ATGMs and RPO flamethrowers, allowed them to destroy 225 units of armored vehicles of the federal troops, including 62 tanks, in just a month and a half. The nature of the defeats suggests that in most cases the fire from RPGs and RPOs was carried out practically at point-blank range from the most favorable angles, with the use of a multi-tiered (floor-floor) fire system by the separatists. In the hulls of almost every hit tank or infantry fighting vehicle there were numerous holes (from 3 to 6), which indicates a high density of fire. Grenade snipers shot at the lead and trailing vehicles, thus blocking the advance of the columns in the narrow streets. Having lost maneuver, other vehicles became a good target for the militants, who fired simultaneously on tanks from 6-7 grenade launchers from the basements of the basement floors (hitting the lower hemisphere), from ground level (hitting the driver and aft projection) and from the upper floors of buildings (affecting the upper hemisphere). When firing at infantry fighting vehicles and armored personnel carriers, grenade launchers mainly hit the car bodies, the militants hit the locations of stationary fuel tanks from ATGMs, grenade launchers and flamethrowers, and mounted fuel tanks - with automatic fire.

In 1996, the intensity of the summer fighting in Grozny increased even more. The federals made a “gift” to the Dudaevites - the militants got a railway car, unharmed, to the eyeballs stuffed with RPG-26 anti-tank grenades. In less than a week of fighting in the Chechen capital, the separatists managed to destroy more than 50 armored vehicles. Only the 205th motorized rifle brigade lost about 200 people killed.

The success of the illegal armed formations is explained by the elementary simple, but at the same time highly effective tactics of using by the Chechens maneuverable combat groups, consisting, as a rule, of 2 snipers, 2 submachine gunners, 2 grenade launchers and 1 machine gunner. Their advantage was excellent knowledge of the place of warfare and relatively light weapons, allowing covert and mobile movement in difficult urban conditions.

According to competent sources, at the end of the first campaign, the Chechens were in possession of over 60,000 small arms, more than 2 million units of various ammunition, several dozen tanks, armored personnel carriers, infantry fighting vehicles, as well as several hundred artillery pieces of various calibers with several ammunition sets for them ( at least 200 rounds per barrel). In 1996-1999 this arsenal has grown substantially. Numerous stocks of weapons and military equipment, together with the presence in the Chechen illegal armed formations of trained, fired personnel who know how to competently handle their weapons, soon allowed the militants to again launch large-scale military operations.

Brother 07-01
Sergei Monetchikov
Photo by V. Nikolaychuk, D. Belyakov, V. Khabarov

• Articles » Arsenal
• Mercenary 18068 0

During the first assault on Grozny, when our tank guys were driven into the narrowness of the streets and burned hard (why - this is a separate conversation), many vehicles were lost. Some burned out completely, some captured the "Czechs", some went missing along with the crews.

Soon, rumors began to circulate among various units that some special secret tank unit began to participate in the battles, which was armed with only one serviceable T-80 vehicle with a white stripe on the turret and without a tactical number. This tank appeared in different places - in the mountains, on the passes, in the "green", on the outskirts of the villages, but never - in the settlements themselves, even completely destroyed.

How he got there, from where, in what way, by whose order - no one knew. But as soon as a unit of our guys, especially conscripts, got into trouble - ambushed, under flanking fire, etc., suddenly a T-80 tank appeared from somewhere, with a white sooty stripe on the turret, burnt paint and downed blocks of active armor .

Tankers never got in touch, never opened hatches. At the most critical moment of the battle, this tank appeared out of nowhere, opened surprisingly accurate and effective fire and either attacked or covered, giving its own opportunity to retreat and take out the wounded. Moreover, many saw how cumulative grenade launchers, and shells, and ATGMs fell into the tank, without causing any visible harm to it.

Then the tank just as incomprehensibly disappeared, as if dissolving in the air. The fact that there were “eighties” in Chechnya is widely known. But what is less known is that soon after the start of the campaign they were taken out of there, since the gas turbine engine in these parts is not at all the engine that corresponded to the theater of operations and the conditions of hostilities.

Personally, two people told me about their meeting with the Eternal Tank, whom I unconditionally trust and, if they tell anything and vouch for their story, it means that they themselves consider it to be TRUE. This is Stepan Igorevich Beletsky, the story about the "Eternal" from which we squeezed out almost by force (the man is a realist to the marrow of his bones and telling what he could not find a rationalistic explanation for himself is almost a feat for him) and one of the now already in the past, officers of the Novocherkassk SOBR, a direct witness to the battle of the "Eternal Tank" with the Czechs.

Their group, already at the very end of the First Campaign, ensured the withdrawal of the medical staff of the District Hospital of the North Caucasus Military District that remained with the "heavy" ones. They waited an extra day for the promised air cover - the weather allowed - the "turntables" did not come. Either the fuel was spared on them, or they forgot - in the end, they decided to go out on their own. They went out on the "Urals" with the "three hundred" and doctors and two armored personnel carriers.

We moved beyond zero, after midnight, it was dark, and seemed to slip through cleanly, but a little less than two dozen miles before the "demarcation" line ran into an ambush - Czechs with a rifle with the support of the T-72. They turned into a fan, began to cover the withdrawal of the Urals. But what is a beter against a tank? They immediately burned one, the second died - it died out. Here is what I have recorded from the words of my friend - this is almost a verbatim record.

“From the T-72 they hit us with explosives. Stony there, at break the wave and fragments go low, stone chips again. The spirit is literate, it doesn’t come close, you can’t get it out of the border. At this moment, the “Eternal” appears from the dust at the site of the next gap, right in the middle of the road, as if it had been standing there all the time - it just wasn’t there, the Urals just passed here! And he stands like an invisible man, no one but us seems to see him. And he stands, all burnt, ugly, the antennas are knocked down, he is all shabby, only a little bit leads the tower and the trunk, like an elephant with a trunk in a zoo, shakes.

Here - bam! - fires a shot. The "Czech" has a tower to the side and to the side. Bang! - gives the second. Spirit - in the fire! And the “Eternal” barrel blew out, stands in a white cloud, spins on its tracks and only machine-gun crackling. After the gun, it sounds like seed husks. Spirits in brilliant green lay down, we - to the beter. They opened it, the mechanic dragged the dead man away, let's start it. The turret jammed, but nothing, we, who remained alive, jumped inside - and turned around. And "Eternal" suddenly from his cannon, as from a machine gun, quickly, quickly like this: Bang! -Bang! -Bang!

We are on gas. Here Seryoga Dmitriev shouts - "Eternal" is gone! I didn’t see it myself, I felt bad, I started to vomit with a nervousness at myself and around. Well, as soon as they jumped to their own people, they got into the smoke, you understand. Then, with the local cops, they started a quarrel in a rage and a loaf of bread, they almost shot the assholes.

And they didn’t tell anyone about the “Eternal” then - who would believe ...

https://vk.com/boevoe_sodruzhestvo?w=page-133711382_54239707

On September 11, 1999, reconnaissance officers of the Marine Corps of the Black Sea Fleet, under the general command of the then Major Vadim Klimenko, arrived in the area immediately adjacent to the borders of Ichkeria, free from all laws - both human and state, Black Sea, first of all, were given three weeks for additional training , understaffing and exchange of combat experience with other special forces.

There, a real war began for them.Chechnya has run in battle hundreds of thousands of people in uniform. The Russian military has acquired the skills of a large-scale anti-terrorist operation. Another thing is when, due to the obvious unpreparedness of the "linear" parts of the mother infantry, the internal troops had to throw into battle reconnaissance and special forces, obviously not intended for military operations.

About how the Black Sea, "black-beret" scouts fought - they themselves tell.

The path "Gyurza"

From the memoirs of the Hero of Russia, Lieutenant Colonel Vladimir Karpushenko and Major Denis Yermishko.

The first thing that pleasantly surprised the "black berets" in the autumn of 1999 in the burning North Caucasus was the attitude of the command, officers, ensigns and soldiers from other military branches towards them. The marines have been valued since the time of the first Chechen campaign, and among the Russian soldiers who underwent baptism of fire in Dagestan and Chechnya there was not even a hint of some kind of bravado - they say, you Black Sea people have not even sniffed gunpowder, but here we are! On the contrary, the general opinion was something like this: we received excellent reinforcements, excellent fighters who would never let us down.

Among the special forces, the Chernomorians found acquaintances. Captain Oleg Kremenchutsky fought in Chechnya during the first campaign. He has a special opinion about the enemy:

The enemy is experienced, cautious, well prepared, acts smart and cunning. There is one feature - the "spirits" will never start a fight if they do not have escape routes. Their tactics are as follows: by actions from an ambush, inflict the greatest damage and leave with minimal losses for themselves. By the way, intelligence works excellently for them. Any Chechen, in fact, is their agent.

Three weeks passed in a tense rhythm. Before lunch - combat training, then maintenance of equipment took place until late in the evening.
The scouts greedily absorbed any information about the enemy, about the strengths and weaknesses of our units, about the capabilities of our aviation and artillery. After all, success, and sometimes your life, depends on interaction with brothers in arms.

And then Denis Yermishko, the commander of the second platoon with the call sign "Gyurza", did not leave the battles with his scouts for seven months. Detachments of field commanders Raduev, Basaev, Khattab acted against the Black Sea people ... The scouts had to deal with. well-trained, experienced, cruel and dangerous opponent:

We had to fight with Arabs, Afghans, mercenaries of Slavic origin. Among them, we did not meet amateurs. There were no fools or fanatics among them. By and large, we fought against militants trained according to all the rules of the modern Russian military school, often trained by our former officers, armed with the same weapons as we are.

Long months of fighting passed at the limit of human strength. On the map, an ordinary reconnaissance exit was indicated easily and simply by a pencil line, which contained only 10-15 kilometers. But the paper kilometers were multiplied tenfold by countless combing of greenery, endless ascents and descents in beams, hills, gorges, forcing swift mountain streams and rivers. And all - under the vigilant supervision of hostile eyes, under the sights of machine guns, grenade launchers, sniper rifles, under fire from an enemy that is difficult to detect.

Later, when the company returned from Chechnya, the command asked the scouts for information about combat clashes with "spirits". The marines thought about it and suddenly realized one simple thing: in Chechnya, it wasn’t that they didn’t have time, it didn’t even occur to them to count the number of battles. The Marines were just doing their job. But in order not to violate the established order and accountability, Captain Vladimir Karpushenko counted the number of the most memorable combat skirmishes with the enemy. There were about thirty of them. Every day reconnaissance groups of the Black Sea went on a mission. And so all 210 days of the Chechen epic of the marines.

"Spirits" carefully prepared an ambush for the scouts. Radio interception showed that the intensity of the enemy's negotiations had increased dramatically. Captain Karpushenko literally felt the danger with his skin and even showed with his hand - look, there, in the fishing line, is an ideal place for an ambush. At the same moment, it was from there that the bandits opened fire.

Junior sergeant Nurulla Nigmatulin from Bashkiria received a bullet as soon as he jumped off the armor of the BTEER... He was the first of the seven Black Sea scouts to die. Veselchak, who got along well with everyone in the company, an excellent machine gunner - he was destined to die for Russia in the mountains of Chechnya, far from his homeland. Sergeant Alexei Anisimov, a radio operator, immediately picked up Nurulla's machine gun. And, I want to believe, he was able to avenge the deceased brother.

Alexey, by the way, later served as the calling card of the Marines. For communication, he was sent to one of the units of the special forces of the airborne troops. Then the landing commander asked Denis Yermishko with surprise: "Do you all have such wolfhound rexes?" Which caused a lot of surprise. Alexey Anisimov is certainly an excellent radio operator, a good scout, courageous, reliable and cold-blooded. But with all this, it is far from being the "universal combat vehicle" that it seemed to the special forces.

The first death of a subordinate, as it were, divided the life of Denis-Turza. "He realized with all his essence that he was actually behind the phrase he had heard more than once: the commander dies every time his soldiers die, and the commander, saving the lives of his subordinates, protects his life, for fate sometimes gives them, regardless of their epaulettes, one fate for all.

The company of Captain Aleksey Milashevich from the marine battalion of the Northern Fleet went into the mountains to carry out a combat mission, the Chernomortsy sent their divorce group to ensure the exit of the northerners on the mission: senior lieutenant I. Sharashkin, senior sailor G. Kerimov and sailor S, Pavlikhin.

Marines on December 30, 1999 saddled hill 1407, already nicknamed sinister. This name of the nameless height was explained quite simply - from its top fire was constantly fired at our troops. And by all indications, it was there, at the militants, that there was something like a base with a developed defense system. Battalion commander Lieutenant Colonel Anatoly Belezeko uttered a hazing phrase on the air in the evening:

Lech, get off the hill.

Milashevich replied:

- "Cube", I'm "Carabiner", Everything is in order. Night. hold on...

Perhaps no one will ever find out what was the mistake of Captain Milosevic. And was there a miscalculation at all? But around 8.30 am the "polar bears" were surrounded by "spirits". The fierce battle lasted an hour and a half. The scouts perfectly saw how the bandits crushed their brothers-marines with fire, knocking out the "black berets" one by one beyond the brink of life. On the eve of the Black Sea took a position on top of a nearby hill. To the battlefield in a straight line - only two kilometers. But where can you get wings to fly and help your friends? On the slopes, through the forests, it takes about eight hours to get to the place of the bloody battle. And then if you hurry and do not particularly pay attention to ambushes and shelling. The hearts of the Marines were bursting with pain, impotent hatred, anger.

The soul of the detachment went to heaven drop by drop, and each - the life of one of the twelve warriors of the "black infantry".

When the first group of Black Sea men reached the battlefield, the officer reported on the radio:

- "Cube", "Cube", all - "two hundredths".

The company commander of the northerners was lying facing the enemy. He fired until his last breath. And not a single "black beret" even tried to utter a word about mercy. The seriously wounded senior lieutenant Igor Sharashkin ordered the few surviving marines to leave him and withdraw. He lay bleeding. The bullets set a nearby haystack on fire. The officer was on fire, unable to crawl away from the stack. The bandits stood nearby and laughed, they say; do not hope for mercy, we will not finish you ...
On that hill "Gyurza" lost his classmate at the school - Senior Lieutenant Yuri Kuragin.

Since then, the height was called Matrosskaya.

What is the peculiarity of our soldier and how much has he changed in recent years? - Denis Yermishko repeats my question, - What was the Russian soldier before, I know only from books, films and stories of veterans. How is he fighting now?

"Gyurza" speaks sparingly, his assessments are devoid of any verbal heaps. In the depths of his soul, a Russian person has retained his eternal kindness. But as soon as a Russian, as they say, gets hit in the teeth at least once, wash himself with blood, see the death of friends, hear the cries of wounded comrades - he is transformed. In battle, our soldier is cold-blooded, merciless, cunning and cautious, able to outmaneuver the most skillful opponent, excellently wields weapons, and constantly learns to fight even better.

On the next exit on a mission to the mountains, one of the Marines was seriously wounded. It was not possible to carry him to his location. Fighting friends bandaged the wounded, carried him to a relatively calm place, covered him with fallen leaves. And then they held defenses around him until help arrived in time. None of them even had the thought of leaving their comrade, moving away so as not to risk their lives.

In preparation for the mission, the scouts tried to take as many cartridges and grenades as possible instead of dry rations. Food was taken in short supply, only the most necessary minimum, It happened that the exit was delayed. And reconnaissance groups of two, three days ate pasture in the forest. But the next time it all happened again. Ammunition - in the first place, they took food with them to the very last. In battle, the life of a soldier and the success of a combat mission depend on the number of cartridges.

In the photographs, no matter how hard you try, you will not see scouts in bulletproof vests. Undoubtedly, a more reliable individual protection of an infantryman from fragments and bullets than a bulletproof vest has not yet been invented. But the scouts thought otherwise. The strength and luck of the warriors of reconnaissance groups is in maneuverability, in the ability to move quickly over rough terrain. And if you carry a heavy and uncomfortable "armor" not one, not two - tens of kilometers in the mountains, then how mobile and maneuverable will the reconnaissance officer be in a fleeting combat clash, where everything is decided by the speed of action?

Denis Yermishko, having gone through the war, was personally convinced that all textbooks, instructions, instructions, combat documents on reconnaissance training were truly written in blood, absorbed the experience of generations.

And the Russian soldier, it seems, has remained the same, as if woven from the best combat and human qualities.

Major Yermishko belongs to that generation of young officers who had no special "peacekeeping" illusions about the role and place of the Russian army at the present stage of the development of the Fatherland.

The year of entering the school, 1994, coincided with the beginning of the first Chechen campaign. The shame of August 1996, when Grozny, soaked with Russian blood, was left without a single shot, was hard for all the cadets. The school battalion commander, an experienced Afghan combat officer, said then:

We will not leave Chechnya so easily. Get ready to fight guys. Combat is the element of an officer.

Denis was preparing himself for a real war. A red diploma of graduation is just one detail that reflects this training. The first category in boxing, excellent command of hand-to-hand combat techniques, constant work on oneself, training an already tenacious memory, exercises in tactical art ... In a word, he did not allow himself to relax.

Time passed imperceptibly in the conversation. In parting, he asked the last question to the commander of the reconnaissance company, who was awarded the Order of Courage and the medal "For Courage" - if he had a choice, could he return to another hot spot?

To be honest, the war is fed up, and up to the throat. And I know how dirty and dangerous it is. But if necessary, I will fulfill my duty to the end.

Russian negero

From the memoirs of Lieutenant Colonel Vadim Klimenko.

Not only orders recognize the merits of a warrior. Severe plowmen of any war, without error and more precisely than all the "jewelers" from higher headquarters, will determine to the grain everything that is truly precious, by blood, the content of any award. After all, it is not in gold and silver that warriors measure the honorable value of any award. And a modest medal "For Courage" from the "forties, fatal" according to the unofficial front-line hierarchy is sometimes listed as much more weighty than other "post-war" orders on the invisible scales of valor.

Three times during the fighting in the unrecognized war in the Chechen Republic, the commander of the tactical group of the Black Sea Fleet, Lieutenant Colonel Vadim Klimenko, was presented with the high title of Hero of Russia. "Black berets" under his command covered the warehouses of "spirits" with weapons. In one of these caches, a tank and a self-propelled artillery mount were waiting in the wings. "Striped devils" from intelligence participated in the capture of the camp for the training of militants of Khattab himself. Dozens of times the Black Sea took a deadly battle with an experienced and superbly trained enemy. Thousands of kilometers have been traveled and traveled along the mountain paths and roads of THAT undeclared, but already almost ten-year-old war, which are slippery from soldier's blood.

Is it about the reward? After all, you survived and were not even injured. There, on the passes of the mountainous republic, he found a friendship tested in the face of death. Major Vladimir Karpushenko, friend and brother-in-arms, became a hero of Russia - for all of them, both the living and the dead.

For Lieutenant Colonel Vadim Klimenko, as a scout, a moment of supreme happiness was the stingy words of recognition after the battle of the special forces elite from Vympel - and among the "ordinary" troops there are pros equal to us. People like you, Vadim and your scouts.

The true greatness of the Russian soldier, no matter how sophisticated the Gobbel-Udugov propaganda at all times, is in his human heart. A poignant incident will forever be engraved in Vadim's memory of that war. In the frosty January of 2000, already in the late afternoon, the reconnaissance group was returning from the search. The cold, the fatigue, seemed unbearable. I wanted one thing - to sleep and grab something from a long-forgotten hot meal.

At the transshipment, the scouts saw a stalled tractor, in the trailer of which Chechens were sitting - women, old people, children. It soon became clear that the refugees were returning home from Ingushetia. The special officer, he was with the Black Sea at the exit, suggested to Klimenko - let's help, take him home. Wherever we take them, inside the combat vehicle is full of our own. And put on the "armor", so the children can be frozen. And ten or twelve people will fit. We decided not to guess, but to ask the Chechens themselves. The old man with a long and white beard, like a harrier, agreed, because rather than waiting for help from nowhere, it is better to go with Russian soldiers. While the troublesome mothers were moving with their tomboys to an armored car, Vadim approached one old woman and helped to throw a sack of things on top of the armored personnel carrier. Suddenly, he heard a little kid about four years old literally go into hysterical crying.

The commander decided to calm the crying boy, "using" a universal remedy for all times and peoples - chocolate. He literally pushed away the outstretched hand with a tile of delicacy unheard of for ordinary Chechen children. The elder politely and calmly said to Vadim - do not be surprised, Russian. In autumn, during the bombing, your stormtroopers frightened the child so much that he feels an animal fear of the Russian military.

A lump of bitterness and sympathy for the little man, who had already survived so much, rolled up to Vadim's throat. The elder noticed his condition, said - you, commander, probably have the same growing at home.

The scouts that evening, exhausted from fatigue, made a fifteen-kilometer detour until they took everyone home. The last to get to her home, as if glued to a high rock, was a mother of seventeen years old, her nose was already three children. The Marines tried to help her carry things and "heirs" to the doorstep. The note flatly refused. Relatives will not “understand” if they find out that the Russians helped her.

In war, the first thing you encounter is a feeling of fear for life - your own and your comrades. Only the insane are not afraid. Then, all of a sudden, you realize how this very fear “got” you, how it interferes with life. Gradually, day after day, by force of will, you convince yourself - stop feeling fear, it's time to get used to the danger, treat it more calmly. Then, after the first losses, bitterness appears, a desire to avenge the death of friends and comrades. And here you try not to give vent to feelings. In battle, they are the worst adviser. But your mind carefully evaluates everything that happens around. When the wave of emotions subsides, you begin to wonder about the meaning of war .... And you understand that it is hardly possible any other way than the current one: to destroy the gangs and build, as it seems impossible, a peaceful life.

As for the enemy... There, in Serzhen-Yurt, in the Khattab camps, they came across textbooks of Arab instructors. Simplicity, intelligibility of instructions and all kinds of memos made it possible, within a short period of time, to prepare even from a young child a demolition officer, shooter, grenade launcher. The whole training system was built on one thing - to overcome, no matter what the risk, your fear, your pain, your weakness. The “spirits” do not even know about such a well-known concept to all Russian commanders as the safety of military service. The main thing for them was and remains to prepare a real warrior at any cost. And injuries and injuries in the classroom are perceived by them as nothing more than an indispensable attribute of learning, where there can be no hint of a bit of conventionality. But the combat experience of millions of soldiers and officers of the Great Patriotic War, Afghanistan, countless local conflicts is not contained in the laconic wisdom of our charters and instructions?

The "Czechs", especially the Arab mercenaries, with courage worthy of respect, pulled out their dead and wounded from under the very heavy fire. Once, in the fog, the reconnaissance group came to the unsuspecting "spirits". The sniper "shot" two with two shots - the first on the spot, the second wounded in the neck. Then, desperately, in front of a tenfold superior enemy, they fought off their dead and wounded. The courage of the mercenaries has an explanation. If a Muslim who fell in battle is not buried on the same day, then his comrades will have to answer to his teip, clan, family. But from their revenge, unlike the feds, it will not be possible to get away.

The "Black Berets" did not abandon their own, under any circumstances. Only they went into the fire, driven not by the fear of blood feud, but by the great feeling of the Russian military brotherhood.

From the memoirs of officer Pavel Klimenko

The three-month period “cut” at the headquarters for the Black Sea marines of the second “Chechen” wave ended in June 2000. The "Northern" battalion with assigned Black Sea scouts left the passes and mountain forests that were soaked with their own and enemy blood, still smoldering with the fire of the battles of the republic. Ahead, on an armored personnel carrier under the number 013, which had become lucky for him, the columns of "black berets" were led by the commander of the reconnaissance platoon, Senior Lieutenant Pavel Klimenko. There, high in the mountains, there was still snow. And the summer heat was already beginning on the plain.

A year before, if someone had predicted to a platoon commander - they say, you will know firsthand the pain of losing your people, you will stomp hundreds and hundreds of kilometers to exhaustion on reconnaissance exits, each of which could be your last, then Pavel simply did not believe. Although, in his native St. Petersburg Higher Military Combined Arms Command School, the platoon commander senior lieutenant Rogozhenkov almost every day repeated to the cadets like a prayer, get ready to fight in the Caucasus. He knew that one did not have to be a visionary to see where Ichkeria, independent of Russian laws, was going. For the first Chechen campaign, the platoon commander was awarded two Orders of Courage. As part of the consolidated regiment of "polar bears", the lieutenant took the building of the Council of Ministers and Dudayev's palace stuffed to the eyeballs with firing points. I wonder what the platoon commander would say, find out now that it was he, Pavel Klimenko, in the forefront of the "Chechen" battalion of his native 61st Kerkenes brigade, a hundred times famous?

However, the brotherhood of amphibious assault is not distributed among the fleets. Such a coincidence must have happened, but in Chechnya, among the “polar bears”, I met my acquaintance from an internship at the graduation school course. The foreman of the company, the senior warrant officer Bagryantsev, met him as a native, both were delighted. But the old servant did not fail to recall how much he had suffered with Pavel. He was a cadet, no doubt a good one, but, as they say, with character, with his own “special” opinion on any life and service issue. And the foreman, with his experience, in the opinion of a gallant marine officer without five minutes, gave “too” much the importance of "little things" to the detriment of real combat training.

Time will put all the accents in their places later. The senior ensign with his pedantry and captiousness will be right. In battle, he will prove to be by no means a coward, later he will be deservedly awarded. And the foreman took care of the life of his subordinates all 24 hours a day, outside the field conditions. Pavel is still largely grateful to him for the science taught, which is not written in any textbook, the name of which is experience.

For some reason, fate tests the young officer with its inscrutable "tests". After all, now he is very close to his native places, to the village of Ozek-Suat, where his father and mother live, by local standards - within easy reach. In the same Grozny, before the war, many acquaintances and relatives studied and lived. It is a pity that we did not manage to visit the city familiar from childhood. Although what is now possible to find out after several years of war. Paul considers himself lucky. He was not wounded in the war, he did not even get a scratch. Quite easily, without nightmares, nervous breakdowns of post-combat syndromes, he returned to civilian life. When you are 22 years old, the danger is not felt as acutely as at an older age. The wife “helped” in many ways, having given birth to a son, Nikitka, almost immediately upon his return to Sevastopol. When a small child, a desired son, is at home, then all other experiences always go somewhere to the side. In the service, Senior Lieutenant Klimenko was promoted, took command of the company. So, there was simply no time for “perestroika” from a military to a peaceful way.

Shortly after the end of hostilities, the brave "black berets" experienced a previously unknown feeling of fear. The echelon with equipment and personnel on the way to Novorossiysk had to drive through the territory of Chechnya for eight hours. By that time, the Marines, with the exception of eight people on the field guard, had surrendered their weapons. For the first time in hostile territory, they found themselves without Kalashnikovs, machine guns, and sniper rifles. The machine gun was an integral part of the Marine uniform for several months. They did not part with him for a second. And, going to bed, they put the AK in such a way that instantly, only by removing the safety lock, it was possible to open fire.

The price of a soldier's life in war is compiled in a special "currency" that is obscure in civilian life. Ammo at the critical moment of the battle means more to you than all the gold in the world. And a serviceable machine gun that hits without a miss is more valuable than super-sophisticated audio-video equipment. However, even a well-worn BTEer there, in the mountains, none of the “striped devils” would have exchanged for the newest and charming connoisseurs of the Mercedes lines.

For eight hours the paratroopers in the echelon were painfully silent. Here, on the land that has been at war for many years, a person could not be both unarmed and calm for his life, only an automatic machine gave the right to meet the morning of the coming day. The border of Chechnya was crossed by the Black Beret infantry on time. Not a single shot was heard from the hostile steppes. Although the field commanders, with their excellently debugged intelligence, probably knew which echelon with whom and where to go. The formidable glory of excellent warriors played the role of a psychological "body armor". And even in the end, even the most desperate militants did not dare to get involved with the “polar bears”, coupled with the “Black Sea devils”, because it’s more expensive for themselves.

The experience of military operations will be for Klimenko the measure of many values ​​​​in the service. However, as with everything, he will be critical of many things. After all, it is not the business of the amphibious assault to “saddle” the peaks; naval soldiers are intended for other purposes. But, most importantly, it became clear - in our time of high technology, the role of the infantry is only increasing. As in that film - "And at the Reichstag, an ordinary infantryman Vanya will be the first to sign." When the terrorist threat literally spreads like poisonous gas through all sorts of "crevices" and "cache", when the enemy is not marked by a clear front line, it is the soldier - call him a spetsnaz, intelligence officer, fighter of the anti-terrorist unit - who is at the forefront of the blow. And the success of the secret war, which has been seen for many years, depends on his personal training, equipment with modern weapons.

And the fact that the Marines today had to solve largely unusual tasks - that's what professionals are for, in order to fulfill orders. The soldier, if he is real, does not discuss the order, but thinks about how best to carry it out.

From the memoirs of reserve lieutenant colonel Vyacheslav Krivoy.

For four "Chechen" months, Vyacheslav was also in the "hypostasis" of the intelligence chief of the group, and headed its headquarters, reporting directly to Major General Alexander Ivanovich Otrakovsky. The status and position of lieutenant colonel quite allowed to "sit out" somewhere in the headquarters tent. But not his character! In all the main and most dangerous reconnaissance exits, Palych went. He was in those searches when they discovered the warehouses of the "Czechs", with courage and the highest commanding ability to fight, he earned the respect of his subordinates. The Order "For Courage" is more eloquent than all words. He does not like to remember those battles. Pain for the eight dead Chernomortsy does not leave the heart. And somewhere, latently, in the soul, notes of a funeral march sound - I didn’t save .... After all, he got to the war as a mature man, the father of two almost adult children, knowing the great joy of raising both a son and a daughter. But all the soldiers who lay down on the mountain passes remained forever young. And they didn’t manage to do so much in life, you can’t tell a hundred. That's why Vyacheslav hates all the talk about the war. There was too much of her, damned, in his life, too much had a chance to experience, to experience by no means as an outside observer, to see with his mature eyes.

Life went on under the gunshots. “Maestro”, as the Marines used to call the head of artillery, Lieutenant Colonel Sergei Strebkov, on the day of the Black Sea Fleet, May 13, fired a salute, frightening one of the staff in earnest.

Once, in one village, they got into a conversation with local women. Of course, an Odessan at heart, Vyacheslav did not miss the opportunity to play pranks here. The ladies of "free Ichkeria" also did not refuse the opportunity to laugh. The fun stopped in a second when one of the marines accidentally dropped - they say, doctor, lieutenant colonel of the medical service Shevchuk is with us. By the way, he recently defended his doctoral dissertation. One Chechen woman said - yes, for a hundred years we have not had a doctor. Here, once, they wrote out a prescription in Latin. Nothing can be read. Wouldn't the military help?

The news that the doctor had arrived spread like lightning through the village. Five minutes later, many dozens of people lined up in line. I had to organize a reception and wait until all those in need received such rare medical care in these parts.

From the memoirs of senior warrant officer Bakit Aimukhambetov.

In the fall of 2000, then still a sergeant - a contract soldier of the Marine Corps Aimukhambetov will arrive on his first vacation. Relatives will gather in the house. The mother will begin to reproach - they say, son, why did not write for three months. He started to make excuses, they say, he was at the exercises, the post office works very badly at the training ground. Cousin Azat interrupted him gently:

Don't lie to your mom, it doesn't make sense now. You, Bakit, were there, beyond the Terek, in Chechnya. I know there are no exercises for three months. And he himself did not tell his relatives in the same way when he fought in the first Chechen war in intelligence of a brigade of internal troops.

Mom, of course, in tears. In them - a belated experience, joy, the son is alive.

In September 1999, Bakit Aimukhambetov, like hundreds of his comrades, wrote a report - I wish to participate in the counter-terrorist operation in the North Caucasus. Youth is full of enthusiasm, there is a delightful recklessness in it. In September, the war was presented as a game of heroes. On December 14, 1999, everything turned upside down in his mind. At the regimental formation, they announced - "Sergeant Nurulla Nigmatulin died a heroic death in battle with Chechen separatists." A few weeks ago, they shared equally the burdens and joys of life and the service of the amphibious assault. And today “the same forest, the same air, the same water. Only he did not return from the battle.

The second batch went to Chechnya after the new year 2000. The soldier does not ask where he should fight for his Motherland, his job is to follow orders. Junior sergeant Aimukhambetov did not ask too many questions when he was not on the list to replace scouts exhausted in battles and patrols. But in the spring, when the next candidates for the war were checked for fitness for a combat mission, the doctors put their solid summary - you can’t fight, comrade junior sergeant. What if his friend Ilya Kirillov goes where risk and mortal danger literally feed the soldiers that breathe. The decision was suggested by the doctor himself:

Boy, I will not give consent to send you to war as a conscript. This is how it works in the navy and in the army, the commander is primarily responsible for the "conscript", and not he himself. But the contractor has a privilege and the right to go to a “hot spot” at his own request.

The contract with the command of the unit was signed together with a friend Ilya.

Soldier's bread in the war is unsweetened. That is why they appreciated the joys of a simple life. A longer trench was dug in the clay earth, and an open-air dining room turned out. The second pit became like a bathhouse, where, without fear of a sniper's bullet, one could wash with cold water. In the dugout, when it's warm, the roof doesn't leak, and after a busy day, you get the feeling that you're in a luxury hotel overlooking the mountains. Imported water in barrels gave off hydrogen sulfide, neither to quench one's thirst, nor to cook food. So the first thing they asked the scouts to notice was the thin strings of fontanelles, darucheki. Then, with all the precautions, they cleared the source of clean water, checked whether it was poisoned, because anything happened here. The foreman of the company, senior warrant officer Alexander Kashirov, was exemplary in housekeeping, a bathhouse, soap, clean linen, hot food - all on time, and even on rations he could get something tastier in the warehouse. Man what you need!

Somehow there was a puncture, the sentry did not notice the officer, he let him go to the dugout. The one, so that not the Marines do not relax, because in the war whoever sleeps a lot, he lives little, threw a fumes in the doorway. The "sleepy" kingdom instantly found itself in a trench in the fresh air. While they judged and rowed, they came to their senses and were counted, recounted, they did not find one. Then, it turned out, Alexei Gribanov showed miracles of soldier's resourcefulness, put on a gas mask and continued to sleep in that incredible smoke. Laughter and conversations lasted two weeks.

The layout was simple. The amphibious assault "sits" at the strong point, the company and artillery battery hold the height. All without pathos and very simple. You just need to follow orders. On a mission, it happened that the Black Sea marines were taken out on their "Ural" by the driver Lyokha, a cool guy. Was. When the time came for Alyosha to quit, he rejoiced. The last time I got into the car, it seemed that there was no happier person. Like, I’ll leave for the last time, in two days I’ll be at home. And a land mine was already laid on his road ...

Two and a half months in the war passed in some special dimension. Late in the evening, when we returned to Sevastopol, an incredible mental tension subsided inside. Everything, we are at home, alive, safe, unharmed. Suvorov's medal, presented a few days later in front of his comrades, even surprised him. Yes, he was in Chechnya, together with everyone he honestly did his military work. Only, everything was done without feats, they didn’t think about heroism. A soldier in the war had only one thought in his head - don’t step on a mine, don’t get caught by a sniper, don’t fall asleep at a post, don’t let a comrade down, stay alive, return home.

Everyone has their own path in life. A year later, Bakit met a Sevastopol girl named Natasha. Got married. Soon the daughter Diana was born. Friend Ilya Kirillov also found a life partner in the white-stone city. He just left the service. Now he works on the oil rigs of Tyumen, and the “southern” wife, despising comfort, left with him for Western Siberia. A family is when everyone is together. It's a pity, with fighting friends who quit, it is possible to see each other infrequently. And with someone you will never sit at the table. Fellow-soldier Sergey Zyablov in his hometown in a cafe tried to rein in the “brothers” who had gone on a spree. For which he received a knife in the heart.

I feel sorry for him to the point of madness, because how many times could he lay down his head on the slimy Caucasian paths, and parted with his life so ridiculously.

Each generation of Soldiers of Russia has its own passes, battlefields, its own heights. The current lieutenants, sergeants and privates, sailors outwardly bear little resemblance to their predecessors, those who went through the roads of defeats and victories of the Great Patriotic War, who did their duty in Afghanistan and in other "hot spots". But in the bloody August of last year, in South Ossetia, the new generation managed, in a matter of days, to utterly defeat the army created according to the best Western models, nurtured for years by "foreign" instructors, with experience in the Iraqi campaign. For the first time after the Great Patriotic War, our army again encountered the concept of "oncoming tank battle". And again, the Russian tanker turned out to be inflexible.

But the main thing is that the Russian spirit is unshakable, that military science to win, that incredible core of courage and courage, thanks to which the enemy said about our warrior: “It’s not enough to kill a Russian marine, he must be nailed to the ground with a bayonet. Then there's a chance he won't get up."

During the first assault on Grozny, when our tank guys were driven into the narrowness of the streets and burned hard (why - this is a separate conversation), many vehicles were lost. Some burned out completely, some captured the "Czechs", some went missing along with the crews.

Soon, rumors began to circulate among various units that some special secret tank unit began to participate in the battles, in whose arsenal there was only one serviceable vehicle, the T-80, with a white stripe on the turret and without a tactical number. This tank appeared in different places - in the mountains, on the passes, in the "green", on the outskirts of the villages, but never - in the settlements themselves, even completely destroyed.

How he got there, from where, in what way, by whose order - no one knew. But as soon as a unit of our guys, especially conscripts, got into trouble - ambushed, under flanking fire, etc., suddenly a T-80 tank appeared from somewhere, with a white sooty stripe on the turret, burnt paint and downed blocks of active armor .

The tankers never got in touch, they didn't open hatches. At the most critical moment of the battle, this tank appeared out of nowhere, opened surprisingly accurate and effective fire, and either attacked or covered, giving its own opportunity to retreat and take out the wounded. Moreover, many saw how cumulative grenade launchers, and shells, and ATGMs fell into the tank, without causing any visible harm to it.

Then the tank just as incomprehensibly disappeared, as if dissolving in the air. The fact that there were “eighties” in Chechnya is widely known. But what is less known is that soon after the start of the campaign they were taken out of there, since the gas turbine engines in these parts are exactly the same engine that corresponded to the theater of operations and the conditions of hostilities.

Personally, two people told me about their meeting with the Eternal Tank, whom I unconditionally trust, and if they tell anything and vouch for their story, it means that they themselves consider it to be TRUE. This is Stepan Igorevich Beletsky, the story about the "Eternal" from which we squeezed out almost by force (the man is a realist to the marrow of his bones and telling what he could not find a rationalistic explanation for himself is almost a feat for him) and one of the now already in the past, officers of the Novocherkassk SOBR, a direct witness to the battle of the "Eternal Tank" with the Czechs.

Their group, already at the very end of the First Campaign, ensured the withdrawal of the medical staff of the District Hospital of the North Caucasus Military District that remained with the "heavy" ones. They waited an extra day for the promised air cover - the weather allowed - the "turntables" did not come. Either the fuel was spared on them, or they forgot - in the end they decided to go out on their own. They went out on the "Urals" with the "three hundred" and doctors and two armored personnel carriers.

They advanced beyond zero, after midnight, it was dark, and seemed to slip through cleanly, but a little less than two dozen miles before the "demarcation" line ran into an ambush - Czechs with riflemen with the support of the T-72. They turned into a fan, began to cover the withdrawal of the Urals. But what is a beter against a tank? They immediately burned one, the second died - it died out.

Here is what I have recorded from the words of my friend - this is almost a verbatim record.

“They hit us with explosives from the T-72. Stony there, at break the wave and fragments go low, stone chips again. The spirit is literate, it doesn’t come close, you can’t get it out of the border. At this moment, the “Eternal” appears from the dust at the site of the next gap, right in the middle of the road, as if it had been standing there all the time - it just wasn’t there, the Urals just passed here! And he stands like an invisible man, no one but us seems to see him. And he stands, all burnt, ugly, the antennas are knocked down, he is all shabby, only a little bit leads the tower and the trunk, like an elephant with a trunk in a zoo, shakes.

Here - bam! - fires a shot. The "Czech" has a tower to the side and to the side. Bang! - gives the second. Spirit - in the fire! And the “Eternal” barrel blew out, stands in a white cloud, spins on its tracks and only machine-gun crackling. After the gun, it sounds like seed husks. Spirits in brilliant green lay down, we - to the beter. They opened it, the mechanic dragged the dead man away, let's start it. The turret jammed, but nothing, we, who remained alive, jumped inside - and turned around. And "Eternal" suddenly from his cannon, as from a machine gun, quickly, quickly like this: Bang! -Bang! -Bang!

We are on gas. Here Seryoga Dmitriev shouts - "Eternal" is gone! I didn’t see it myself, I felt bad, I started to vomit with a nervousness at myself and around. Well, as soon as they jumped to their own people, they got into the smoke, you understand. Then, with the local cops, they started a quarrel in a rage and a loaf of bread, they almost shot the assholes.

And then they didn’t tell anyone about the “Eternal” - who would believe ... "