Volodya Yakut is the legendary sniper of the first Chechen. Volodya Yakut - the legendary sniper of the first Chechen war. Making a fateful decision

06.03.2020

Volodya did not have a walkie-talkie, there were no new "bells and whistles" in the form of dry alcohol, drinking straws and other junk. There was not even unloading, he did not take the body armor himself. Volodya had only an old grandfather's hunting carbine with captured German optics, 30 rounds of ammunition, a flask of water and cookies in the pocket of a padded jacket. Yes, there was a shabby hat. The boots, however, were good, after last year's fishing, he bought them at a fair in Yakutsk, right on the rafting from Lena from some visiting merchants.

This is how he fought for the third day. An 18-year-old Yakut from a distant reindeer camp. It had to happen that he came to Yakutsk for salt and cartridges, accidentally saw in the dining room on TV piles of corpses of Russian soldiers on the streets of Grozny, smoking tanks and some words about "Dudaev's snipers". It hit Volodya in the head, so much so that the hunter returned to the camp, took his earned money, and sold the washed gold. He took his grandfather's rifle and all the cartridges, stuffed the icon of Saint Nicholas into his bosom and went to fight the Yakuts for the Russian cause.

It’s better not to remember how he was driving, how he was in the bullpen three times, how many times the rifle was taken away. But, nevertheless, a month later the Yakut Volodya arrived in Grozny.

Volodya heard only about one general who was regularly fighting in Chechnya, and he began to look for him in the February thaw. Finally, the Yakut was lucky, and he got to the headquarters of General Rokhlin.

The only document besides his passport was a handwritten certificate from the military commissar stating that Vladimir Kolotov, a hunter-trader by profession, was going to war, signed by the military commissar. The paper, which got worn out on the way, had already saved his life more than once.
Rokhlin, surprised that someone came to the war of his own free will, ordered the Yakut to let him in.

Volodya, squinting at the dim light bulbs flashing from the generator, which made his slanting eyes even more blurry, like a bear, went sideways into the basement of the old building, which temporarily housed the general's headquarters.

Excuse me, please, are you that General Rokhlya? Volodya asked respectfully.
- Yes, I'm Rokhlin, - answered the tired general, inquisitively peering at a small man dressed in a worn padded jacket, with a backpack and a rifle behind his back.

Would you like some tea, hunter?
- Thank you, Comrade General. Haven't had a hot drink in three days. I won't refuse.
Volodya took out his iron mug from his backpack and handed it to the general. Rokhlin himself poured him tea to the brim.

I was told that you came to the war on your own. For what purpose, Kolotov?
- I saw on TV how our Chechens from the snipers felled. I can't stand it, Comrade General. It's embarrassing, though. So I came to bring them down. You don't need money, you don't need anything. I, Comrade General Rokhlya, will myself go hunting at night. Let them show me the place where they will put the cartridges and food, and I will do the rest myself. I'll get tired - I'll come in a week, I'll sleep in a warm day and go again. You don't need a walkie-talkie and all that ... it's hard.
Surprised Rokhlin nodded his head.

Take, Volodya, at least a new SVDashka. Give him a rifle!
- No, Comrade General, I'm going out into the field with my scythe. Just give me some ammo, I only have 30 left now...

So Volodya began his war, a sniper one.
He slept for a day in headquarters kungs, despite the mine attacks and the terrible firing of artillery. I took cartridges, food, water and went on the first "hunt". They forgot about him at headquarters. Only reconnaissance regularly brought cartridges, food and, most importantly, water to the agreed place every three days. Each time I was convinced that the parcel had disappeared.

The radio operator-"interceptor" was the first to remember Volodya at a meeting of the headquarters.
- Lev Yakovlevich, the "Czechs" have a panic on the radio. They say that the Russians, that is, we, have a certain black sniper who works at night, boldly walks through their territory and shamelessly brings down their personnel. Maskhadov even appointed 30 thousand dollars for his head. His handwriting is like this - this fellow of the Chechens hits exactly in the eye. Why only in the eye - the dog knows him ...
And then the staff remembered the Yakut Volodya.

He regularly takes food and ammunition from the cache, - the head of intelligence reported.
- And so we didn’t exchange a word with him, we didn’t even see him even once. Well, how did he leave you then to the other side ...

One way or another, they noted in the summary that our snipers also give their snipers a light. Because Volodin's work gave such results - from 16 to 30 people laid the fisherman with a shot in the eye.
The Chechens figured out that a Russian fisherman had appeared on Minutka Square. And just as all the events of those terrible days took place on this square, a whole detachment of Chechen volunteers came out to catch the sniper.

Then, in February 1995, at Minutka, thanks to Rokhlin's cunning plan, the "federals" had already crushed the "Abkhazian" battalion of Shamil Basayev by almost three-quarters of the personnel. The carbine of the Yakut Volodya also played a significant role here. Basayev promised a gold Chechen star to anyone who would bring the corpse of a Russian sniper. But the nights passed in an unsuccessful search. Five volunteers walked along the front line in search of Volodya's "beds", set up banners wherever he could appear in direct line of sight of his positions. However, it was a time when groups, on both sides, broke through the enemy’s defenses and deeply wedged into its territory. Sometimes so deep that there was no longer any chance to break out to their own. But Volodya slept during the day under the roofs and in the cellars of houses. The bodies of the Chechens - the night "work" of the sniper - were buried the next day.

Then, tired of losing 20 people every night, Basayev called out from the reserves in the mountains the master of his craft, a teacher from the camp for training young shooters, the Arab sniper Abubakar. Volodya and Abubakar could not but meet in a night battle, such are the laws of sniper warfare.
And they met two weeks later. More precisely, Abubakar hooked Volodya with a drill rifle. A powerful bullet that once in Afghanistan killed Soviet paratroopers right through at a distance of one and a half kilometers, pierced the padded jacket and slightly hooked the arm, just below the shoulder. Volodya, feeling the rush of a hot wave of oozing blood, realized that the hunt for him had finally begun.
The buildings on the opposite side of the square, or rather their ruins, merged into a single line in Volodya's optics. “What sparkled, optics?” thought the hunter, and he knew cases when a sable saw a sight sparkling in the sun and went home. The place he chose was located under the roof of a five-story residential building. Snipers always like to be at the top to see everything. And he lay under the roof - under a sheet of old tin, a wet snowy rain did not wet, which then went on, then stopped.

Abubakar tracked down Volodya only on the fifth night - tracked down his pants. The fact is that the Yakut pants were ordinary, wadded. This is the American camouflage worn by the Chechens, impregnated with a special composition, in which the uniform was invisible in night vision devices, and the domestic one glowed with a bright light green light. So Abubakar "calculated" the Yakut into the powerful night optics of his "Bur", made to order by English gunsmiths back in the 70s.
One bullet was enough, Volodya rolled out from under the roof and painfully fell back onto the steps of the stairs. "The main thing is that he didn't break the rifle," thought the sniper.
- Well, that means a duel, yes, mister Chechen sniper! - the Yakut said to himself mentally without emotion.
Volodya deliberately stopped shredding the "Chechen order". The neat row of 200s with his sniper "autograph" on his eye stopped. "Let them believe that I was killed," Volodya decided.
He himself only did what he looked out for, where did the enemy sniper get to him from.
Two days later, already in the afternoon, he found Abubakar's "couch". He also lay under the roof, under the half-bent roofing sheet on the other side of the square. Volodya would not have noticed him if the Arab sniper had not given out a bad habit - he smoked marijuana. Once every two hours, Volodya caught in the optics a light bluish haze that rose above the roofing sheet and was immediately blown away by the wind.

"So I found you, abrek! You can't do without drugs! Well ...", the Yakut hunter thought triumphantly, he did not know that he was dealing with an Arab sniper who had gone through both Abkhazia and Karabakh. But Volodya did not want to kill him just like that, shooting through the roofing sheet. Snipers didn't do that, and fur hunters didn't.
- Well, you smoke lying down, but you have to get up to go to the toilet, - Volodya decided coolly and waited.

Only three days later he figured out that Abubakar crawls out from under the sheet to the right side, and not to the left, quickly does the job and returns to the "couch". In order to "get" the enemy, Volodya had to change the shooting point at night. He couldn't do anything again; any new roofing sheet would immediately give away a new sniper position. But Volodya found two fallen logs from the rafters with a piece of tin a little to the right, about fifty meters from his point. The place was excellent for shooting, but very uncomfortable for a "couch". For two more days, Volodya looked out for the sniper, but he did not show up. Volodya had already decided that the enemy had left for good, when the next morning he suddenly saw that he had "opened up". Three seconds to aim with a slight exhalation, and the bullet went to the target. Abubakar was struck on the spot in the right eye. For some reason, against the impact of a bullet, he fell flat from the roof into the street. A large, oily stain of blood spread through the mud on the square of the Dudayev Palace, where an Arab sniper was struck down by one hunter's bullet.

“Well, I got you,” Volodya thought without any enthusiasm or joy. He realized that he must continue his fight, showing a characteristic handwriting. To prove thereby that he is alive, and that the enemy did not kill him a few days ago.

Volodya peered into the optics at the motionless body of the slain enemy. Nearby, he also saw the "Bur", which, he did not recognize, since he had not seen such rifles before. In a word, a hunter from the remote taiga!

And here he was surprised: the Chechens began to crawl out into the open to pick up the sniper's body. Volodya took aim. Three men came out and bent over the body.
“Let them pick it up and carry it, then I’ll start shooting!” - Volodya triumphed.
The Chechens really lifted the body together. Three shots were fired. Three bodies fell on the dead Abubakar.

Four more Chechen volunteers jumped out of the ruins and, throwing away the bodies of their comrades, tried to pull the sniper out. From the outside, a Russian machine gun fired, but the queues lay a little higher, without harming the hunched over Chechens.

"Oh, mabuta infantry! You're only wasting cartridges ...", Volodya thought.
Four more shots rang out, almost merging into one. Four more corpses had already formed a heap.

Volodya killed 16 militants that morning. He did not know that Basayev had given the order to get the Arab's body at all costs before it began to get dark. He had to be sent to the mountains to be buried there before sunrise, as an important and respectable Mujahideen.

A day later, Volodya returned to Rokhlin's headquarters. The general immediately received him as an honored guest. The news of the duel of two snipers has already spread around the army.

Well, how are you, Volodya, tired? Do you want to go home?
Volodya warmed his hands at the "potbelly stove".
- That's it, comrade general, you've done your job, it's time to go home. Spring work begins at the camp. The military commissar let me go only for two months. My two younger brothers worked for me all this time. It's time and honor to know...

Rokhlin nodded his head in understanding.
- Take a good rifle, my chief of staff will draw up the documents ...
- Why, I have a grandfather's. - Volodya lovingly hugged the old carbine.

The general did not dare to ask the question for a long time. But curiosity took over.
- How many enemies did you kill, did you count? They say more than a hundred ... the Chechens were talking.
Volodya lowered his eyes.
- 362 people, Comrade General. Rokhlin silently patted the Yakut on the shoulder.
- Go home, we can handle it ourselves...
- Comrade General, if anything, call me again, I'll deal with the work and come a second time!
On the face of Volodya, frank concern for the entire Russian Army was read.

By God, I'll come!

The Order of Courage found Volodya Kolotov six months later. On this occasion, the entire collective farm celebrated, and the military commissar allowed the sniper to go to Yakutsk to buy new boots - the old ones were worn out back in Chechnya. A hunter stepped on some pieces of iron.

Volodya kept repeating drunk:
- Nothing, Comrade General Rokhlya, if necessary, we will come, just tell me ...
He was sobered up in a nearby stream, but since then Volodya no longer wore his Order of Courage in public.

18-year-old Yakut Volodya from a distant deer camp, was a fisherman - a lover. It had to happen that he came to Yakutsk for salt and cartridges, accidentally saw in the dining room on TV piles of corpses of Russian soldiers on the streets of formidable, smoking tanks and some words about "Dudaev's snipers". It hit Volodya in the head, so much so that the hunter returned to the camp, took his earned money, sold the washed gold

He took his grandfather's rifle and all the cartridges, put the icon of Nikolai the saint in his bosom and went to fight.

It’s better not to remember how he was driving, how he was in the bullpen, how many times they took away a rifle. But, nevertheless, a month later, the Yakut Volodya arrived in Grozny.
Volodya heard only about one regularly fighting general, and he began to look for him in the February thaw. Finally, the Yakut was lucky, and he got to the headquarters of General Rokhlin.

The only document besides his passport was a handwritten certificate from the military commissar stating that Vladimir Kolotov, a hunter - a fisherman by profession, was going to war, signed by the military commissar. The paper, which got worn out on the way, had already saved his life more than once.

Rokhlin, surprised that someone came to the war of his own free will, ordered the Yakut to let him in.
- Excuse me, please, are you that general of the deadhead? Volodya asked respectfully.
“Yes, I am Rokhlin,” the tired general replied, peering inquisitively at a small man dressed in a worn padded jacket, with a backpack and a rifle on his back.
- I was told that you came to the war on your own. For what purpose, kolotov?
- I saw on TV how the terrorists of our snipers felled. I can't stand it, Comrade General. It's embarrassing, though. So I came to bring them down. You don't need money, you don't need anything. I, Comrade General Rokhlya, will myself go hunting at night. Let them show me the place where they will put the cartridges and food, and I will do the rest myself. I'll get tired - I'll come in a week, I'll sleep in a warm day and go again. You don't need a walkie-talkie and all that ... it's hard.

Surprised, Rokhlin nodded his head.
- Take, Volodya, at least a new svdashka. Give him a rifle!
- No, Comrade General, I'm going out into the field with my scythe. Just give me some ammo, I only have 30 left now....

So Volodya began his war, a sniper one.

He slept for a day in headquarters kungs, despite the mine attacks and the terrible firing of artillery. I took cartridges, food, water and went to the first "Hunt". They forgot about him at headquarters. Only reconnaissance regularly brought cartridges, food and, most importantly, water to the agreed place every three days. Each time I was convinced that the parcel had disappeared.

The radio operator-"interceptor" was the first to remember Volodya at a meeting of the headquarters.
- Lev Yakovlevich, the enemy has a panic on the radio. They say that we have a certain black sniper who works at night, boldly walks through their territory and shamelessly brings down their personnel. Maskhadov even appointed 30 thousand dollars for his head. His handwriting is like this - this fellow of the bandits hits exactly in the eye. Why, attention, only in the eye - the dog knows him ....

And then the staff remembered the Yakut Volodya.
“He regularly takes food and ammunition from the cache,” the head of intelligence reported.
- And so we didn’t exchange a word with him, we didn’t even see him even once. Well, how did he leave you then on the other side ....

The terrorists figured out that the federals had a fisherman-hunter on the square for a minute. And since the main events of those terrible days took place on this square, a whole detachment of volunteers came out to catch the sniper.

Then, in February 1995, for a minute, thanks to the cunning plan of Rokhlin, our troops had already ground almost three-quarters of the personnel of the so-called. "Abkhazian" battalion of Shamil Basayev. The carbine of the Yakut Volodya also played a significant role here. Basayev promised a gold Chechen star to anyone who would bring the corpse of a Russian sniper. But the nights passed in an unsuccessful search. Five volunteers walked along the front line in search of Volodya's "beds", set up streamers wherever he could appear in direct line of sight of his positions. However, it was a time when groups, on both sides, broke through the enemy’s defenses and deeply wedged into its territory. Sometimes so deep that there was no longer any chance to break out to their own. But Volodya slept under the roofs and in the basements of houses during the day. The bodies of the terrorists - the night "Job" of the sniper - were buried the next day.

Then, tired of losing 20 people every night, Basayev called from the reserves in the mountains a master of his craft, a teacher from a camp for training young shooters, a sniper - an Arab Abubakar. Volodya and Abubakar could not but meet in a night battle, such are the laws of sniper warfare.

And they met two weeks later. More precisely, Abubakar hooked Volodya with a drill rifle. A powerful bullet that once in Afghanistan killed Soviet paratroopers right through at a distance of one and a half kilometers, pierced the padded jacket and slightly hooked the arm, just below the shoulder. Volodya, feeling the rush of a hot wave of oozing blood, realized that the hunt for him had finally begun.

The buildings on the opposite side of the square, or rather, their ruins, merged into a single line in Volodya's optics. "What flashed, optics?" - Thought the hunter, and he knew cases when a sable saw a sight sparkling in the sun and went home. The place he chose was located under the roof of a five-story residential building. Snipers always like to be at the top to see everything. And he lay under the roof - under a sheet of old tin, a wet snowy rain did not wet, which then went on, then stopped.

Abubakar tracked down Volodya only on the fifth night - tracked down his pants. The fact is that the Yakut pants were ordinary, wadded. This is American camouflage, which was often worn by terrorists, impregnated with a special composition, in which the uniform was indistinctly visible in night vision devices, and the domestic uniform shone with a bright light green light. So Abubakar "calculated" the Yakut into the powerful night optics of his "drill", made to order by English gunsmiths back in the 70s.

One bullet was enough, Volodya rolled out from under the roof and painfully fell back onto the steps of the stairs. "The main thing is that I didn't smash the rifle," thought the sniper.
- Well, that means a duel, yes, mister sniper! - Yakut said to himself mentally without emotion.

Volodya deliberately stopped shredding terrorists. The neat row of 200s with his sniper "Autograph" on his eye stopped. "Let them believe that I was killed," Volodya decided.

He himself only did what he looked out for, where did the enemy sniper get to him from.
Two days later, already in the afternoon, he found Abubakar's "Layer". He also lay under the roof, under the half-bent roofing sheet on the other side of the square. Volodya would not have noticed him if the Arab sniper had not given out a bad habit - he smoked marijuana. Once every two hours, Volodya caught in the optics a light bluish haze that rose above the roofing sheet and was immediately blown away by the wind.

“So I found you! You can’t do without drugs! Well…”, the Yakut hunter thought triumphantly, he did not know that he was dealing with an Arab sniper who had gone through both Abkhazia and Karabakh. But Volodya did not want to kill him just like that, shooting through the roofing sheet. Snipers did not do this, and fur hunters did not.
- Well, you smoke lying down, but you will have to get up to go to the toilet, - Volodya decided coolly and began to wait.

Only three days later, he figured out that Abubakar crawled out from under the sheet to the right side, and not to the left, quickly did the job and returned to the "Leganka". In order to "Get" the enemy, Volodya had to change his position at night. He could not do anything again, because any new roofing sheet would immediately give away his new location. But Volodya found two fallen logs from the rafters with a piece of tin a little to the right, about fifty meters from his point. The place was excellent for shooting, but very inconvenient for "Lezhanka". For two more days, Volodya looked out for the sniper, but he did not show up. Volodya had already decided that the enemy had left for good, when the next morning he suddenly saw that he had "opened up". Three seconds to aim with a slight exhalation, and the bullet went to the target. Abubakar was struck on the spot in the right eye. For some reason, against the impact of a bullet, he fell flat from the roof into the street. A large, greasy stain of blood spread through the mud on the square of the Dudayev Palace, where an Arab sniper was struck down by a single hunter's bullet.

Volodya peered through the optics into the motionless body of the slain enemy. Nearby, he also saw the "Bur", which, he did not recognize, since he had not seen such rifles before. In a word, a hunter from the remote taiga!

And here he was surprised: the militants began to crawl out into the open to pick up the sniper's body. Volodya took aim. Three men came out and bent over the body.
"Let them pick it up and carry it, then I'll start shooting!" - Volodya triumphed.

The militants really lifted the body together. Three shots were fired. Three bodies fell on the dead Abubakar.

Four more militants jumped out of the ruins and, discarding the bodies of their comrades, tried to pull the sniper out. From the outside, a Russian machine gun fired, but the queues lay a little higher, without harming the hunched-over bandits.

Four more shots rang out, almost merging into one. Four more corpses had already formed a heap.

A day later, Volodya returned to Rokhlin's headquarters. The general immediately received him as an honored guest. The news of the duel of two snipers has already spread around the army.
- Well, how are you, Volodya, tired? Do you want to go home?

Volodya warmed his hands at the Potbelly stove.
- That's it, Comrade General, you've done your job, it's time to go home. Spring work at the camp begins. The military commissar let me go only for two months. My two younger brothers worked for me all this time. It's time and honor ... to know.

Rokhlin nodded his head in understanding.
- Take a good rifle, my chief of staff will draw up the documents ....
- Why, I have a grandfather's. - Volodya lovingly hugged the old carbine.

The general did not dare to ask the question for a long time. But curiosity took over.
- How many enemies did you kill, did you count? They say that more than a hundred ... militants were talking ....

Volodya lowered his eyes.
- 362 militants, comrade general.
- Well, go home, we can handle it ourselves now ....
- Comrade General, if anything, call me again, I'll deal with the work and come a second time!

On the face of Volodya, frank concern for the entire Russian army was read.
- By God, I'll come!

The Order of Courage found Volodya Kolotov six months later. On this occasion, the entire collective farm celebrated, and the military commissar allowed the sniper to go to Yakutsk to buy new boots - the old ones were worn out even in Grozny. The hunter stepped on some pieces of iron.

On the day when the whole country learned about the death of General Lev Rokhlin, Volodya also heard about what had happened on the radio. He drank alcohol for three days at the zaimka. He was found drunk in a hut - a temporary hut by other hunters who returned from fishing. Volodya kept repeating drunk:
- It's okay, Comrade General Rokhlya, if necessary, we will come, you just say ....

The real name of Volodya is a Yakut - Vladimir Maksimovich Kolotov, originally from the village of Iengra in Yakutia. However, he himself is not a Yakut, but an Evenk.

At the end of the first campaign, he was patched up in the hospital, and since he was officially a nobody and there was no way to call him, he simply went home.

By the way, his combat score, most likely, is not exaggerated, but underestimated ... especially since no one kept accurate records, and the sniper himself did not particularly boast about them.

After Vladimir Kolotov left for his homeland, scum in officer uniforms sold his data to terrorists, who he was, where he came from, where he went, etc. The Yakut sniper inflicted too much losses on evil spirits. Vladimir was killed by a 9 mm pistol shot in his yard, at the moment when he was chopping wood. The case has not yet been opened…”

Grozny during the First Chechen War (in the background - the Presidential Palace)

Volodya-Yakut is a fictional Russian sniper, the hero of the urban legend of the same name about the First Chechen War, who became famous for his high performance. The alleged real name is Vladimir Maksimovich Kolotov, although in the legend he is called Volodya. By profession - a hunter-fisherman from Yakutia (Yakut or Evenk by nationality, known under the call sign "Yakut").

According to legend, 18-year-old Vladimir Kolotov arrived at the beginning of the war in Chechnya to meet with General L.Ya. Rokhlin and expressed his desire to go to Chechnya as a volunteer, providing a passport and a certificate from the military registration and enlistment office. As a weapon, Vladimir chose an old Mosin rifle with a telescopic sight from the German Mauser 98k, abandoning the more powerful SVD and asking the soldiers to only regularly leave him cartridges, food supplies and water in the cache. From the ensuing radio interceptions, Russian radio operators learned that Kolotov was operating in Grozny on Minutka Square, killing 16 to 30 people a day, and all the dead had fatal hits in the eye. Shamil Basayev promised to award orders of the CRI to those who kill Kolotov, and Aslan Maskhadov also offered a monetary reward. However, the volunteers, despite the search for a sniper, died from his shots: for example, Kolotov was credited with the liquidation of almost the entire personnel of Basayev's Abkhaz Battalion.

Soon, Basayev called for help from the training camp of the Arab mercenary Abubakar, an instructor in the training of shooters who participated in the Georgian-Abkhaz and Karabakh wars. During one of the nightly skirmishes, Abubakar, armed with a British Lee-Enfield rifle, wounded Kolotov in the hand, tracking him down in the NVD (allegedly, the Russian camouflage was visible in the NVD, but the Chechen one was not, because the Chechens impregnated it with some kind of secret composition) . The wounded Kolotov decided to mislead the Chechens about his death and stop firing on the militants, while searching for Abubakar along the way. A week later, Vladimir destroyed Abubakar near the Presidential Palace of Grozny and then killed 16 more people who tried to carry away the body of an Arab and bury him before sunset. The next day, he returned to headquarters and reported to Rokhlin that he should return home on time (the military commissar let him go only for two months). In a conversation with Rokhlin, Kolotov mentioned 362 militants he had killed. Six months after returning to his homeland in Yakutia, Kolotov was awarded the Order of Courage.

According to the "official" version, the legend ends with a mention of the murder of Rokhlin and the subsequent drinking bout of Kolotov, from which he hardly got out, even for a while losing his mind, but since then he refused to wear the Order of Courage. There are also two other endings: according to one version, Kolotov was killed in 2000 by an unknown person (probably a former Chechen fighter), to whom someone sold Kolotov's personal data; according to another, he remained to work as a hunter-trader and allegedly received a meeting with the President of the Russian Federation D.A. Medvedev in 2009.

The story entitled "Volodya the Sniper" was published in the collection of short stories "I am a Russian Warrior" by Alexei Voronin in March 1995, and in September 2011 it was published in the newspaper "Orthodox Cross". The urban legend was popular in the 1990s among the military and took its place in the list of "horror stories" and other works of army folklore, but it began to actively spread on the Internet in 2011 and 2012, continuing to be published in subsequent years on various sites.

The fact of the existence of Vladimir Kolotov, who actually fought in Chechnya (as well as the existence of the Arab mercenary Abubakar) is not confirmed by any sources (including photographs that depict historical reenactors at best), and no documents were found on awarding Kolotov with the Order of Courage . There are photographs on the Internet that are described as a fragment of a meeting between Vladimir Kolotov and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in 2009, but such photos depict Vladimir Maksimov, a resident of Yakutia; another photo shows a representative of one of the peoples of Siberia, holding an SVD rifle, which turned out to be not Vladimir Kolotov, but a certain “Batokha from Buryatia, from the 21st Sofrino brigade»

Summary of the series "Sniper 2: Tungus":

The action of the military action movie "Sniper 2: Tungus (mini-series)" takes place in 1943. The Soviet sabotage group is faced with a responsible task - to capture important documents. For this, scouts are thrown behind enemy lines. They are covered by a group of female snipers led by former hunter Mikhail Kononov, nicknamed Tungus. During the operation, the scouts stumbled upon an enemy ambush and were destroyed, and the snipers were taken prisoner. The Nazis release the girls and arrange a real hunt in their wake. They do not know that at this time the well-aimed shooter Tungus begins to hunt for them.

Today the story will be about the famous knife of the northern peoples of the Republic of Sakha.

Yakut knife

The history of the Yakut knife is hidden in the darkness of centuries, there is no written or any significant evidence of the emergence of this interesting and original instrument. No explanation has been preserved why its shape is not similar to the shape of similar knives or tools of other peoples.

Archaeological excavations carried out on the territory of modern Yakutia show that the samples of knives recovered from early burial grounds and sites of an ancient person have an undoubted similarity with Yakut knives. This is indeed an ancient knife.

What was this Northern knife?

And it was completely different due to its wide functionality, Yakutsk and knives have a very large range of sizes - from the smallest to the very large. According to the style of manufacture and application, they are divided into 12 varieties. If you do not dive into all the subtleties of these forms, then you can conditionally divide the Yakuts into 3 categories:

Byhycha is a small knife with a blade length of 8 to 11 cm, such a knife has gone for children and women. However, there are a number of tasks that are easier to solve with a knife with a small blade size, so conditionally it can be attributed to a number of household ones.

The following category Bychakh is the most common utility knife, with a blade length of 11 to 17 cm.

In the third category of Yakut called Khotonoh - this guy has a blade length above 17 cm, which makes him a military weapon. Such things are now made quite rarely, since in our time it is difficult to find a use for them.

In the classification of the Yakut knife, the width of the blade also plays a role.

If it is narrow, then it is referred to as tundra knives. It’s easier to cut something or make a hole in something, which is the first thing you need in the tundra.

A knife with a wider blade is called Taiga. Such a Yakut is intended for cutting trophies or livestock, as well as for processing wood.

According to old traditions, the installation of Yakut is done like this

the blade shank is seated in a birch suvel handle and tightly secured with two wooden wedges without the use of any sealants. And additionally, a oxtail screed is made on the knife, which, when the additional dries, tightens the handle. The scabbard is made like a wooden handle and is also covered with an oxtail.

By the way, traditionally, the sheath is worn on the belt in front, and the blade is planted in them with the cutting edge up.

It is also interesting that just a few years ago, let’s say a few were interested in knives in Yakutsk, and even among sophisticated knife lovers they were not particularly popular. But at one fine moment, about the same thing happened to them as with spinners - everyone started talking about them.

Okay, things were a little different

Over time, these knives began to gain popularity very, very quickly, and today more and more craftsmen are throwing almost all their strength into the production of just such Yakut knives. About the same thing happened with the Finnish NKVD

But nevertheless, let's see what is so good about this rather strange Yakut knife.

Yes, it's just the knife that the northern peoples once invented. And it became the main tool for survival for them, this knife was used for fishing, hunting and in general as a tool for working with wood and for any household tasks. We can say that this is the Yakut vision of a universal bushcraft knife.

True, at that time, of course, such words did not yet exist.

In general, Yakut is an everyday hard worker

The most interesting and unusual in this knife is of course the blade - it is asymmetrical, the butt is straight and even, and the blade is sharp. But the sharpening of the Yakut knife is made only on one side.

And here there are some disagreements - as various Internet sources say, the knife is sharpened from the side of the lens, however, the masters who make the Yakuts in accordance with ancient traditions explain that it is necessary to sharpen from the side of the valley.

First, it's much easier. And secondly, if you sharpen the sides of the lens, then the sharpening will eventually reach the notch in the blade and the knife will no longer be fully functional.

In any case, the Yakut calmly sharpened any pebble in field conditions - this was undoubtedly a fundamental factor.

On the right side is the dollar.

For lefties, they made a knife with a fuller on the other side.

It can have a wide variety of shapes, some craftsmen prefer a recess almost to the entire area of the blade, leaving a small edge near the butt. And someone is limited to a small groove that is shifted closer to the handle, this recess is called Yos.

It is not known for certain why it was made and there are many disputes and hypotheses

According to one version, this dol knife inherited from its ancestors made of bone. In a bone cut in half, the dol remained from the bone marrow and was present on all knives made according to this principle.

According to another version, such a dol appeared as a result of the old forging technique used by the northern peoples.

According to the third version, such a dol made it possible to significantly save the metal of which there was not so much. And many more versions.

But the main feature of such a knife is that, having a one-sided sharpening, it is incredibly good at planing wood, making planing, skinning animals and other everyday tasks of that time.

And what is most interesting is perhaps the first knife in which, in fact, the dol played the role of a bloodstream

When cutting the carcass due to the large share, the contact of the knife with the meat was minimal, which made it possible to work much faster, and the blood falling on the knife flowed down the valley. How true this is is not known, but they say that it was so.

Among other things, the gutter significantly reduces the weight of the knife, and they achieved this so that the knife that fell into the water would not go to the bottom

Nevertheless, the knife was a very valuable item at that time, which was used for survival every day and I really did not want to lose it.

In conclusion, it can be noted that in Yakut families, a child at the age of 5 received his first knife and his mother was not afraid that the child might get hurt. After all, a small wound and a little blood taught the baby to be careful and accurate, and therefore rational. And the first knife was made specifically for a child's hand.

This is the real story

Video Forgotten hero, Volodya Yakut black sniper Chechen thunderstorm

From the moment Vladimir Kolotov left for the sniper position, no news has been received by the Russian army. Thanks to the efforts of scouts, he regularly replenished food and ammunition, but no one came across the eye. They even managed to forget about the strange guy from the Yakut village.

The news about Volodya came not from himself, but from the enemy. Some time later, thanks to intercepted conversations at the Russian headquarters, it became known about the commotion among the militants. For the Chechens who are in the vicinity of Minutka Square, a quiet life is over. Now the night time has turned into a pitch hell. It was after this that the Russian military remembered the Evenk hunter. The reason for the panic of the Chechens was precisely Vladimir Kolotov. The sniper was distinguished by his special handwriting - he shot in the eye. Reports of the deaths of militants came on a regular basis, on average, about 15-30 people died at the hands of a young hunter from a Yakut village every night.

In an effort to eliminate the dangerous sniper, the leadership of the Chechen fighters promised their fighters a lot of money and high awards. So, in Maskhadov's headquarters, Volodya's head was given 30,000 dollars. Shamil Basayev, in turn, promised to give a gold star to anyone who was lucky enough to kill a well-aimed shooter. This was due to the fact that the size of the battalion of one of the leaders of the Chechen militants, Vladimir Maksimovich Kolotov, was significantly battered. The sniper inflicted huge damage on manpower every night. A whole detachment was sent to neutralize the Evenk hunter, but his efforts were in vain.

FORGOTTEN SNIPER. VOLODYA-YAKUT.

18-year-old Yakut Volodya from a distant deer camp was a hunter-salter. It had to happen that he came to Yakutsk for salt and cartridges, accidentally saw in the dining room on TV piles of corpses of Russian soldiers on the streets of Grozny, smoking tanks and some words about "Dudaev's snipers." It hit Volodya in the head, so much so that the hunter returned to the camp, took his earned money, and sold the washed gold. He took his grandfather's rifle and all the cartridges, stuffed the icon of Saint Nicholas into his bosom and went to fight.

It’s better not to remember how he was driving, how he was in the bullpen, how many times they took away a rifle. But, nevertheless, a month later the Yakut Volodya arrived in Grozny.

Rokhlin, surprised that someone came to the war of his own free will, ordered the Yakut to let him in.

Excuse me, please, are you that General Rokhlya? Volodya asked respectfully.

Yes, I am Rokhlin, - answered the tired general, inquisitively peering at a small man dressed in a worn padded jacket, with a backpack and a rifle on his back.

I was told that you came to the war on your own. For what purpose, Kolotov?

I saw on TV how Chechens of our snipers felled. I can't stand it, Comrade General. It's embarrassing, though. So I came to bring them down. You don't need money, you don't need anything. I, Comrade General Rokhlya, will myself go hunting at night. Let them show me the place where they will put the cartridges and food, and I will do the rest myself. I'll get tired - I'll come in a week, I'll sleep in a warm day and go again. You don't need a walkie-talkie and all that ... it's hard.

Surprised, Rokhlin nodded his head.

Take, Volodya, at least a new SVDashka. Give him a rifle!

No need, Comrade General, I'm going out into the field with my scythe. Just give me some ammo, I only have 30 left now...

So Volodya began his war, a sniper one.

He slept for a day in headquarters kungs, despite the mine attacks and the terrible firing of artillery. I took cartridges, food, water and went on the first "hunt". They forgot about him at headquarters. Only reconnaissance regularly brought cartridges, food and, most importantly, water to the agreed place every three days. Each time I was convinced that the parcel had disappeared.

The radio operator-"interceptor" was the first to remember Volodya at a meeting of the headquarters.

Lev Yakovlevich, the "Czechs" panic on the air. They say that the Russians, that is, we, have a certain black sniper who works at night, boldly walks through their territory and shamelessly brings down their personnel. Maskhadov even appointed 30 thousand dollars for his head. His handwriting is like this - this fellow of the Chechens hits exactly in the eye. Why only in the eye - the dog knows him ...

And then the staff remembered the Yakut Volodya.

He regularly takes food and ammunition from the cache, - the head of intelligence reported.

And so we didn’t exchange a word with him, we didn’t even see him even once. Well, how did he leave you then to the other side ...

The Chechens figured out that the federals had a hunter-hunter on Minutka Square. And since the main events of those terrible days took place on this square, a whole detachment of Chechen volunteers came out to catch the sniper.

Then, in February 1995, at Minutka, thanks to Rokhlin's cunning plan, our troops had already crushed almost three-quarters of the personnel of the so-called "Abkhazian" battalion of Shamil Basayev. The carbine of the Yakut Volodya also played a significant role here. Basayev promised a gold Chechen star to anyone who would bring the corpse of a Russian sniper. But the nights passed in an unsuccessful search. Five volunteers walked along the front line in search of Volodya's "beds", set up banners wherever he could appear in direct line of sight of his positions. However, it was a time when groups, on both sides, broke through the enemy’s defenses and deeply wedged into its territory. Sometimes so deep that there was no longer any chance to break out to their own. But Volodya slept during the day under the roofs and in the cellars of houses. The bodies of the Chechens - the night "work" of the sniper - were buried the next day.

Then, tired of losing 20 people every night, Basayev called out from the reserves in the mountains a master of his craft, a teacher from a camp for training young shooters, an Arab sniper Abubakar. Volodya and Abubakar could not but meet in a night battle, such are the laws of sniper warfare.

The buildings on the opposite side of the square, or rather their ruins, merged into a single line in Volodya's optics. “What flashed, optics?” thought the hunter, and he knew cases when a sable saw a sight sparkling in the sun and went home. The place he chose was located under the roof of a five-story residential building. Snipers always like to be at the top to see everything. And he lay under the roof - under a sheet of old tin, a wet snowy rain did not wet, which then went on, then stopped.

Abubakar tracked down Volodya only on the fifth night - tracked down his pants. The fact is that the Yakut pants were ordinary, wadded. This is American camouflage, which was often worn by Chechens, impregnated with a special composition, in which the uniform was indistinctly visible in night vision devices, and the domestic uniform shone with a bright light green light. So Abubakar "figured out" the Yakut in the powerful night optics of his "Bur", made to order by English gunsmiths back in the 70s.

One bullet was enough, Volodya rolled out from under the roof and painfully fell back onto the steps of the stairs. "The main thing is that he didn't break the rifle," thought the sniper.

Well, that means a duel, yes, Mr. Chechen sniper! - the Yakut said to himself mentally without emotion.

Volodya deliberately stopped shredding the "Chechen order". The neat row of 200s with his sniper "autograph" on his eye stopped. "Let them believe that I was killed," Volodya decided.

He himself only did what he looked out for, where did the enemy sniper get to him from.

Two days later, already in the afternoon, he found Abubakar's "couch". He also lay under the roof, under the half-bent roofing sheet on the other side of the square. Volodya would not have noticed him if the Arab sniper had not given out a bad habit - he smoked marijuana. Once every two hours, Volodya caught in the optics a light bluish haze that rose above the roofing sheet and was immediately blown away by the wind.

Well, you smoke lying down, but you will have to get up to go to the toilet, - Volodya decided coolly and began to wait.

Only three days later he figured out that Abubakar crawls out from under the sheet to the right side, and not to the left, quickly does the job and returns to the "couch". In order to "get" the enemy, Volodya had to change his position at night. He could not do anything again, because any new roofing sheet would immediately give away his new location. But Volodya found two fallen logs from the rafters with a piece of tin a little to the right, about fifty meters from his point. The place was excellent for shooting, but very uncomfortable for a "couch". For two more days, Volodya looked out for the sniper, but he did not show up. Volodya had already decided that the enemy was gone for good, when the next morning he suddenly saw that he had "opened up". Three seconds to aim with a slight exhalation, and the bullet went to the target. Abubakar was struck on the spot in the right eye. For some reason, against the impact of a bullet, he fell flat from the roof into the street. A large, greasy stain of blood spread through the mud on the square of the Dudayev Palace, where an Arab sniper was struck down by a single hunter's bullet.

And here he was surprised: the Chechens began to crawl out into the open to pick up the sniper's body. Volodya took aim. Three men came out and bent over the body.

“Let them pick it up and carry it, then I’ll start shooting!” - Volodya triumphed.

The Chechens really raised the body together. Three shots were fired. Three bodies fell on the dead Abubakar.

Four more shots rang out, almost merging into one. Four more corpses had already formed a heap.

A day later, Volodya returned to Rokhlin's headquarters. The general immediately received him as an honored guest. The news of the duel of two snipers has already spread around the army.

Well, how are you, Volodya, tired? Do you want to go home?

Volodya warmed his hands at the "potbelly stove".

Everything, comrade general, has done his job, it's time to go home. Spring work begins at the camp. The military commissar let me go only for two months. My two younger brothers worked for me all this time. It's time and honor to know...

Rokhlin nodded his head in understanding.

Take a good rifle, my chief of staff will draw up the documents ...

Why, I have a grandfather's. - Volodya lovingly hugged the old carbine.

The general did not dare to ask the question for a long time. But curiosity took over.

How many enemies did you kill, did you count? They say more than a hundred ... the Chechens were talking.

Volodya lowered his eyes.

362 militants, comrade general.

Well, go home, we can handle it ourselves...

Comrade General, if anything, call me again, I will deal with the work and come a second time!

On the face of Volodya, frank concern for the entire Russian Army was read.

By God, I'll come!

The Order of Courage found Volodya Kolotov six months later. On this occasion, the entire collective farm celebrated, and the military commissar allowed the sniper to go to Yakutsk to buy new boots - the old ones had worn out in Chechnya. A hunter stepped on some pieces of iron.

On the day when the whole country learned about the death of General Lev Rokhlin, Volodya also heard about what had happened on the radio. He drank alcohol for three days at the zaimka. He was found drunk in a makeshift hut by other hunters who returned from fishing. Volodya kept repeating drunk:

It's okay, Comrade General Rokhlya, if necessary, we will come, just tell me ...

After the departure of Vladimir Kolotov to his homeland, scum in officer uniforms sold his data to Chechen terrorists, who he is, where he came from, where he went, etc. The Yakut Sniper inflicted too many losses on the evil spirits.

Vladimir was killed by a 9mm round. pistol in his yard, while chopping wood. The criminal case was never opened.

For the first time, I heard the legend of Volodya the sniper, or, as he was also called, Yakut (moreover, the nickname is so textured that it even migrated to the famous television series about those days) I heard in 1995. They told it in different ways, along with the legends of the Eternal Tank, the girl-Death and other army folklore. Moreover, the most surprising thing is that in the story about Volodya the sniper, in an amazing way, there was an almost letter-like similarity with the story of the great Zaitsev, who put Hans, a major, head of the Berlin school of snipers in Stalingrad. To be honest, I then perceived it as ... well, let's say, as folklore - on a halt - and I believed it, and I did not believe it. Then there was a lot of things, as, indeed, in any war, which you won’t believe, but turns out to be TRUE. Life is generally more complicated and more unexpected than any fiction.

Later, in the year 2003-2004, one of my friends and comrades-in-arms told me that he personally knew this guy, and that he really WAS. Whether there was that same duel with Abubakar, and whether the Czechs really had such a super sniper, to be honest, I don’t know, they had enough serious snipers, and especially in the First Campaign. And the weapons were serious, including the South African SWR, and cereals (including the B-94 prototypes, which were just going into the pre-series, the spirits already had them, and with the numbers of the first hundreds - Pakhomych would not let you lie.

How they got them is a separate story, but nevertheless, the Czechs had such trunks. Yes, and they themselves made semi-handicraft SWR near Grozny.)

Volodya-Yakut really worked alone, worked exactly as described - in the eye. And his rifle was exactly the one that was described - the old Mosin three-ruler of pre-revolutionary production, still with a faceted breech and a long barrel - an infantry model of 1891.

The real name of Volodya-Yakut is Vladimir Maksimovich Kolotov, originally from the village of Iengra in Yakutia. However, he himself is not a Yakut, but an Evenk.

At the end of the First Campaign, he was patched up in the hospital, and since he was officially a nobody and there was no way to call him, he simply went home.

By the way, his combat score is most likely not exaggerated, but underestimated ... Moreover, no one kept accurate records, and the sniper himself did not particularly brag about them.

Happy New Year to you!

About "Volodya - a sniper or Volodya Yakut"? The continuation of this story was published in the public "Arsenal. Interesting about weapons." The events take place during the presidency of Dmitry Medvedev.

“The fact that the Chechens killed him is a lie - he is still alive and well.

Valuable gifts from the President made the Kolotov family from the Yakut reindeer herding village of Iengra happy. Medvedev presented them with the Order of Parental Glory and the Order of Courage, to which one of the Kolotovs, Vladimir Maksimovich, a former sniper, was presented during the Chechen war, but the award did not immediately take place for various reasons. A well-deserved reward finally found a hero and the grateful Yakuts decided not to remain in debt.

The family of the Evenki hunter-trader immediately after the award presented the President with a panel made by rural craftswomen and a symbol of power - paizu - an imperative board with a special inscription. But the attraction of reindeer generosity did not end there either. The Kolotovs decided to give Medvedev also a reindeer, which is considered by the Evenki as a symbol of well-being and prosperity. This information was accompanied by the following commentary: "Medvedev's deer will live in Iyengra until his owner himself comes for him - this is what the local custom requires."

The President thanked the Kolotovs for the sincere gift, but did not yet take the reindeer to the Kremlin, expressing the hope that the animal would continue to live in its familiar surroundings.

For the first time, I heard the legend of Volodya the sniper, or, as he was also called, Yakut (moreover, the nickname is so textured that it even migrated to the famous television series about those days) I heard in 1995. They told it in different ways, along with the legends of the Eternal Tank, the girl-Death and other army folklore, which you, my friend, know as well as I do. Moreover, the most surprising thing is that in the story about Volodya the sniper, in an amazing way, there was an almost letter-to-letter similarity with the story of the great Zaitsev, who laid Hans, a major, head of the Berlin school of snipers in Stalingrad. To be honest, I then perceived it as ... well, let's say, as folklore - on a halt - and I believed it, and I did not believe it. Then there was a lot of things, as, indeed, in any war, which you won’t believe, but turns out to be TRUE. Life is generally more complicated and more unexpected than any fiction.

Later, in the year 2003-2004, one of my friends and comrades-in-arms told me that he personally knew this guy, and that he really WAS. Whether there was that same duel with Abubakar, and whether the Czechs really had such a super sniper, to be honest, I don’t know, they had enough serious snipers, and especially in the First Campaign. And it was serious, including the South African SWR, and cereals (including the B-94 prototypes, which were just going into the pre-series, the spirits already had them, and with the numbers of the first hundreds - Pakhomych would not let you lie.

How they got them is a separate story, but nevertheless, the Czechs had such trunks. Yes, and they themselves made semi-handicraft SWR near Grozny.

The real name of Volodya-Yakut is Vladimir Maksimovich Kolotov, originally from the village of Iengra in Yakutia. However, he himself is not a Yakut, but an Evenk.

At the end of the First Campaign, he was patched up in the hospital, and since he was officially a nobody and there was no way to call him, he simply went home.

By the way, his combat score is most likely not EXAGGERATED, but REDUCED ... Moreover, no one kept accurate records, and the sniper himself did not particularly boast about them.

Many significant events in the life of the state are often covered with legends. There are mythical characters in the First Chechen War. Among them is the sniper Volodya Yakut, who did not know a miss.

There is a version that he was a real Russian shooter Vladimir Maksimovich Kolotov. By nationality, he was allegedly Evenk or Yakut, and representatives of these nationalities are excellent hunters and shooters. Because of his origin, the sniper received the call sign "Yakut".

Legend details

According to the legend spread among the personnel of the Russian army, Volodya Yakut was very young, only 18 years old. They say that he went to fight in Chechnya as a volunteer, and before that he allegedly asked for this "permission" from General Lev Rokhlin. In the military unit, Volodya Yakut chose the Mosin carbine as a personal weapon, choosing for him an optical sight dating back to the Second World War - from the German Mauser 98k.

In general, Vladimir was remarkable for his amazing unpretentiousness and selflessness. He literally plunged into the thick of things. The only request with which Volodya Yakut turned to the soldiers of his unit was to leave him food, water and ammunition in the agreed place. The sniper was famous for some fantastic elusiveness. The Russian military learned about the place of his deployment only from radio intercepts.

The first such place was the square in the city of Grozny called "Minutka". There, the sniper shot at the separatists with amazing efficiency - up to 30 people a day. At the same time, he left something like a “brand name” on the dead. Volodya Yakut hit the victim right in the eye, leaving her no chance of survival. Aslan Maskhadov promised a considerable reward for the murder of Kolotov, and Shamil Basayev - the Order of the CRI.

There are also references to the fact that the elusive Volodya Yakut was shot down by Basayev's mercenary Abubakar. The latter managed to wound a Russian sniper in the hand. Yakut stopped shooting at the Chechens, misleading them about his death. A week later, Kolotov took revenge on the Basayev mercenary for his wound. Togo was found dead in Grozny near the Presidential Palace. The Russian sniper did not calm down after destroying Abubakar. He continued to systematically shoot the Chechens, preventing them from burying the mercenary according to the Muslim tradition until sunset.

After this operation, Yakut reported to the command that he had killed 362 Chechen separatists, and then returned to the location of his unit. Six months later, the sniper left for his homeland. Was awarded an order. According to the main version of the legend, after the assassination of General Rokhlin, Volodya went into a binge and lost his mind. Alternative versions contain the story of a meeting between a sniper and President Medvedev, as well as details of the murder of Yakut by an unknown Chechen fighter.

Real facts

There is no documentary evidence that could confirm the existence of a real person with the name and surname Vladimir Kolotov. There is also no evidence that the person in question was ever awarded an order for courage. On the Internet, you can find photographs of the meeting between Volodya Yakut and Medvedev, but in fact it captures the Siberian Vladimir Maksimov.

In view of all these facts, we have to admit that the story of Volodya Yakut is a completely fictional legend. At the same time, it cannot be denied that in the Russian army there were - and are - both snipers and the same courageous people. Volodya Yakut embodies the collective image of all these fighters. Vasily Zaitsev, Fedor Okhlopkov and many other brave soldiers who fought in Chechnya are considered its prototypes.

Some details of the legend also raise doubts: why on earth an 18-year-old boy abandoned modern weapons in favor of an old rifle; how he was able to get to a meeting with General Rokhlin, etc. All these points point to the fact of the mythologization of the image of the Russian sniper. As an epic hero, supernatural abilities, unparalleled modesty and some kind of fantastic luck are attributed to him. Such heroes inspired Russian soldiers and instilled fear in the enemy.

Later, the legendary sniper became the hero of a number of works of art. One of them is the story "I am a Russian warrior", published in the collection of Alexei Voronin in 1995. The legend is also spreading on the Internet in the form of all kinds of army fables told by "eyewitnesses".