The mystery of the death of the Maikop brigade. The regiment suffered a pogrom near Samara 81st motorized rifle regiment in Chechnya
From the description of the battle: “The combined detachment of the 81st Motorized Rifle Regiment, formed from units remaining outside the “station” ring, managed to gain a foothold at the intersection of Bogdan Khmelnitsky and Mayakovsky streets. Command of the detachment was taken over by the deputy regiment commander for work with personnel, Lieutenant Colonel Igor Stankevich ."1
- tank commander
– driver mechanic [?] private TB 6th Guards. TP Evgeniy Germanovich Efimov (military unit 71432)2
– gunner
From the memoirs of E. G. Efimov’s mother: “According to the colleagues who accompanied my son Evgeniy Germanovich Efimov to the burial place, my son died in Grozny on Mayakovsky Street on the night of January 31-1, 1995. His tank was hit by "3
I believe that the tank was at a checkpoint and was hit, and according to version 4 of Vladislav Belogrud, the tank was part of the column.
Column Formation
The commander of the RS Obs 90 TD, Captain S. Spiridonov: “On the morning of January 1, a new column was formed. It was led by the political officer, Lieutenant Colonel Stankevich. This column included vehicles with ammunition and fuel to remove the surviving equipment.<...>And on the first of the month, when we went, we were met at the very beginning. True, the Chechens did not burn the fuel tankers; they wanted to seize them. They shot at armored vehicles. The killed fuel tanker drivers were replaced by warrant officers and removed from the fire."5
A not entirely clear point: 81 infantry regiments were assigned 200 paratroopers6, presumably from the 104th Airborne Division. There is information that on January 1 they were transferred from the airport to the city,7 but there is no information yet about their participation in hostilities.
According to version 8 of Vladislav Belogrud, the column consisted of “70 soldiers and four officers.”
BMP No. 435
- BMP commander, senior lieutenant Igor Vladimirovich Bodnya
– gunner-operator private Igor Sergeevich Komissarkin (from military unit 738749)
Guards Major A. Fomin: “On January 1, the combined detachment of the regiment entered Grozny to support units entrenched in the city center. The convoy included vehicles with ammunition, fuel, as well as vehicles for transporting the wounded. The crew of BMP-2 No. 435 was faced with the task of providing passage of the column, covering it with his fire.<...>As soon as the lead vehicle entered Ordzhonikidze Square, the column of the regiment's combined detachment was fired upon. They took her into the “fire bag”, knocking out the vehicles at the “head” and “tail” of the column. The decision was made to move back. BMP-2 No. 435 took up an advantageous firing position and began to cover the column’s retreat with its fire. Having unleashed all their firepower on the militants, the crew waited for the last vehicle in the convoy to pass. The ammunition was expended. The enemy immediately concentrated fire on the BMP. After several hits, the crew began to get out of the car. Private I.S. Komissarkin was seriously wounded and his comrades pulled him out. They continued to fight with personal weapons from the ground, but the forces were unequal...
Their bodies were found by colleagues not far from the burnt car. The crew of BMP-2 No. 435 fully fulfilled their military duty as befits real men, warriors."11
Return to the checkpoint
From the description of the battle: “For two days, his group, being semi-surrounded, remaining in a bare place - an open and wide intersection of two main city streets, held this strategically important area and constantly struck at the enemy. Stankevich wisely placed the fire weapons he had. He placed the infantry fighting vehicles. (he had 9 of them), organized the "attachment" of the fire of the attached mortars to the most threatening areas. When organizing the defense of the line, even non-standard measures were taken. So, in order to protect the infantry fighting vehicles from the fire of enemy grenade launchers, the lieutenant colonel ordered... to remove from the surrounding Grozny steel gates in the courtyards and cover the combat vehicles on the sides and front with them. Stankevich’s “know-how” turned out to be successful: an RPG shot “slipped” over a sheet of metal without hitting the vehicle. People gradually began to come to their senses after the bloody New Year’s Eve. In Stankevich’s detachment The fighters who had escaped from the encirclement gradually gathered together."12
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1 Semenov D. The 81st regiment completed its task in Grozny!
2 Unknown soldier of the Caucasian War. M., 1997. P. 82.
3 Remember and bow down. Ekaterinburg, 2000. P. 158.
4 Belogrud V. Tanks in the battles for Grozny. Part 1 // Front-line illustration. 2007. No. 9. P. 42.
5 Galaktionov V. How it was // Samara newspaper. 2000. January 11. (
“Grachev said that we are mercenaries, right? Why don’t we serve in the army?! Bastard! We were just following orders!” - Nikolai Potekhin from the Guards Kantemirovskaya Tank Division tried in vain to hide the tears on his burned face with bandaged hands. He, the mechanic-driver of the T-72 tank, was betrayed not only by his own Minister of Defense: when the tank was knocked out, he, wounded, was left there to burn alive by the officer - the commander of the vehicle. The Chechens pulled the ensign out of a burning tank on November 26, 1994. Formally, the military were sent on adventures by security officers: people were recruited by special departments. Then the names of Colonel General Alexei Molyakov - the head of the Military Counterintelligence Directorate of the Federal Counterintelligence Service of the Russian Federation (FSK, as the FSB was called from 1993 to 1995) - and a certain lieutenant colonel with the sonorous surname Dubin - the head of the special department of the 18th separate motorized rifle brigade. Ensign Potekhin was immediately given a million rubles - at the exchange rate of that month, approximately $300. They promised two or three more...
“We were told that we need to protect the Russian-speaking population,” said the ensign. - We were taken by plane from Chkalovsky to Mozdok, where we began preparing tanks. And on the morning of November 26 we received an order: to move to Grozny.” There was no clearly defined task: if you go in, Dudayev’s men will run away on their own. And the infantry escort was provided by Labazanov’s militants, who went over to the opposition to Dudayev. As the participants in that “operation” said, the militants did not know how to handle weapons, and in general they quickly dispersed to rob the surrounding stalls. And then grenade launchers suddenly hit the sides... Of about 80 Russian servicemen, about 50 were captured and six died.
On December 9, 1994, Nikolai Potekhin and Alexei Chikin, along with other prisoners, were returned to the Russian side. Then it seemed to many that these were the last prisoners of that war. The State Duma was talking about the coming pacification, and at the Vladikavkaz Beslan airport I watched as plane after plane of troops arrived, as airborne battalions deployed near the airfield, setting up squads, sentries, digging in and settling right in the snow. And this deployment - from the side into the field - said better than any words that the real war was just about to begin, and that it was about to begin, since the paratroopers could not and would not stand in a snowy field for a long time, no matter what the minister said. Then he will also say that his boy soldiers “died with a smile on their lips.” But this will happen after the “winter” assault.
“Mom, take me from captivity”
The very beginning of January 1995. The assault is in full swing, and a person who has wandered into Grozny on business or stupidity is greeted by dozens of gas torches: communications have been interrupted, and now almost every house in the battle area can boast of its own “eternal flame.” In the evenings, bluish-red flames give the sky an unprecedented crimson hue, but it is better to stay away from these places: they are well targeted by Russian artillery. And at night it is a reference point, if not a target, for a missile and bomb “precision” strike from the air. The closer to the center, the more residential areas look like a monument to a long-gone civilization: a dead city, what looks like life is underground, in basements. The square in front of Reskom (as Dudayev's palace is called) resembles a landfill: stone chips, broken glass, torn cars, heaps of shell casings, unexploded tank shells, tail fins of mines and aircraft missiles. From time to time, militants jump out of the shelters and ruins of the Council of Ministers building and dash, one at a time, weaving like hares, rushing across the square to the palace... And then a boy with empty cans is rushing back; there are three more behind him. And so all the time. This is how the combatants change, water and ammunition are delivered. The wounded are taken out by “stalkers” - these usually break through the bridge and square at full speed in their Zhiguli or Moskvich vehicles. Although more often they are evacuated at night by an armored personnel carrier, which federal troops shoot at with all possible guns. It was a phantasmagoric spectacle, I watched: an armored vehicle was rushing from the palace along Lenin Avenue, and behind its stern, about five meters, mines were exploding, accompanying it in a chain. One of the mines intended for the armored car hit the fence of the Orthodox Church...With my colleague Sasha Kolpakov, I make my way into the ruins of the Council of Ministers building, in the basement we come across a room: prisoners again,
19 guys. Mostly soldiers from the 131st separate Maykop motorized rifle brigade: blocked at the railway station on January 1, left without support and ammunition, they were forced to surrender. We peer into the grimy faces of the guys in army pea coats: Lord, these are children, not warriors! “Mom, come quickly, take me from captivity...” - this is how almost all the letters they sent to their parents through journalists began. To paraphrase the title of the famous film, “only boys go into battle.” In the barracks they were taught to scrub the toilet with a toothbrush, paint the lawns green and march on the parade ground. The guys honestly admitted: rarely did any of them fire a machine gun more than twice at the firing range. The guys are mostly from the Russian outback, many don’t have fathers, only single mothers. Ideal cannon fodder... But the militants did not allow us to really talk to them; they demanded permission from Dudayev himself.
Combat vehicle crew
The sites of the New Year's battles are marked by the skeletons of burnt-out armored vehicles, around which the bodies of Russian soldiers lie, although the time has already passed for Orthodox Christmas. Birds pecked out the eyes, dogs ate many corpses to the bones...
I came across this group of damaged armored vehicles in early January 1995, when I was making my way to the bridge over the Sunzha, behind which were the buildings of the Council of Ministers and the Reskom. A terrifying sight: sides pierced with cumulative grenades, torn tracks, red turrets, even rusty from fire. On the aft hatch of one infantry fighting vehicle, the tail number is clearly visible - 684, and from the upper hatch, hanging like a crooked mannequin, are the charred remains of what was recently a living person, a split skull... Lord, what a hellish flame it was that consumed a human life! In the rear of the vehicle you can see burnt ammunition: a pile of calcined machine gun belts, burst cartridges, charred cartridges, blackened bullets with leaked lead...
Near this damaged infantry fighting vehicle there is another one, through the open aft hatch I see a thick layer of gray ash, and in it there is something small and charred. I looked closer and it looked like a baby was curled up. Also a man! Not far away, near some garages, the bodies of three very young guys in oily army quilted jackets, and all of them had their hands behind their backs, as if they were tied. And on the walls of the garages there are traces of bullets. Surely these were soldiers who managed to jump out of the wrecked cars, and they were thrown against the wall... As in a dream, I lift the camera with cotton hands and take several pictures. A series of mines exploding nearby forces us to dive behind a damaged infantry fighting vehicle. Unable to protect her crew, she still shielded me from the fragments.
Who knew that fate would later again confront me with the victims of that drama - the crew of the damaged armored vehicle: alive, dead and missing. “Three tankers, three cheerful friends, the crew of a combat vehicle,” sang in a Soviet song of the 1930s. And this was not a tank - an infantry fighting vehicle: BMP-2, tail number 684 from the second motorized rifle battalion of the 81st motorized rifle regiment. The crew is four people: Major Artur Valentinovich Belov - chief of staff of the battalion, his deputy captain Viktor Vyacheslavovich Mychko, mechanic-driver private Dmitry Gennadievich Kazakov and signalman senior sergeant Andrei Anatolyevich Mikhailov. You can say, my fellow Samara residents: after the withdrawal from Germany, the 81st Guards Motorized Rifle Petrakuvsky twice Red Banner, Orders of Suvorov, Kutuzov and Bogdan Khmelnitsky regiment was stationed in the Samara region, in Chernorechye. Shortly before the Chechen war, according to the order of the Minister of Defense, the regiment began to be called the Volga Cossack Guards, but the new name never took root.
This infantry fighting vehicle was knocked out on the afternoon of December 31, 1994, and I learned about those who were in it only later, when after the first publication of the photographs, the parents of a soldier from Togliatti found me. Nadezhda and Anatoly Mikhailov were looking for their missing son Andrei: on December 31, 1994, he was in this car... What could I tell the soldier’s parents then, what hope could I give them? We called each other again and again, I tried to accurately describe everything that I saw with my own eyes, and only later, when we met, I handed over the photographs. I learned from Andrei’s parents that there were four people in the car, only one survived - Captain Mychko. I completely accidentally encountered the captain in the summer of 1995 in Samara at the district military hospital. I talked to the wounded man, started showing him pictures, and he literally stared at one of them: “This is my car! And this is Major Belov, there is no one else..."
15 years have passed since then, but I know for sure the fate of only two, Belov and Mychko. Major Arthur Belov is that charred man on the armor. He fought in Afghanistan and was awarded the order. Not so long ago I read the words of the commander of the 2nd battalion, Ivan Shilovsky, about him: Major Belov was an excellent shooter from any weapon, a neat guy - even in Mozdok on the eve of the campaign against Grozny, he always wore a white collar and with arrows on his trousers made with a coin, and there he released a neat a beard, which is why he ran into a remark from the commander of the 90th Tank Division, Major General Nikolai Suryadny, although the regulations allow wearing a beard during combat operations. The division commander was not too lazy to call Samara via satellite phone to give the order: to deprive Major Belov of his thirteenth salary...
How Arthur Belov died is not known for certain. It seems that when the car was hit, the major tried to jump out through the top hatch and was killed. Yes, it remained on the armor. At least, this is what Viktor Mychko claims: “No one gave us any combat mission, just an order over the radio: to enter the city. Kazakov sat at the levers, Mikhailov was in the stern, next to the radio station, providing communications. Well, I’m with Belov. At twelve o'clock in the afternoon... We didn't really understand anything, we didn't even have time to fire a single shot - neither from a cannon, nor from a machine gun, nor from machine guns. It was absolute hell. We saw nothing and no one; the side of the car was shaking from the hits. Everything was shooting from everywhere, we no longer had any other thoughts except one - to get out. The radio was disabled by the first hits. We were simply shot at like a range target. We didn’t even try to shoot back: where to shoot if you can’t see the enemy, but you’re in full view? Everything was like a nightmare, when it seems like it lasts forever, but only a few minutes have passed. We are hit, the car is on fire. Belov rushed into the top hatch, and blood immediately poured out on me - he was cut off by a bullet, and he hung on the tower. I rushed out of the car myself...”
However, some colleagues are not eyewitnesses! - later they began to claim that the major burned alive: he fired from a machine gun until he was wounded, tried to get out of the hatch, but the militants doused him with gasoline and set him on fire, and the BMP itself, they say, did not burn at all and its ammunition did not explode. Others agreed to the point that Captain Mychko abandoned Belov and the soldiers, even “surrendered” them to Afghan mercenaries. And the Afghans, they say, took revenge on the veteran of the Afghan war. But there were no Afghan mercenaries in Grozny - the origins of this legend, like the myth of “white tights,” must apparently be sought in the basements of the Lubyaninformburo. And investigators were able to examine BMP No. 684 no earlier than February 1995, when damaged equipment began to be evacuated from the streets of Grozny. Arthur Belov was identified first by the watch on his hand and the waist belt (it was some kind of special one, bought in Germany), then by his teeth and a plate in his spine. The Order of Courage, as Shilovsky claimed, was posthumously wrested from the bureaucrats only on the third attempt.
Tomb of the Unidentified Soldier
Captain Viktor Mychko was pierced by a shrapnel in the chest, damaging his lung; there were also wounds in the arm and leg: “I stuck out up to my waist - and suddenly there was pain, I fell back, I don’t remember anything else, I woke up in the bunker.” The unconscious captain was pulled out of the wrecked car, as many claim, by Ukrainians who fought on the side of the Chechens. Apparently, they knocked out this infantry fighting vehicle. Something is now known about one of the Ukrainians who captured the captain: Alexander Muzychko, nicknamed Sashko Bily, seemed to be from Kharkov, but lived in Rivne. In general, Viktor Mychko woke up in captivity - in the basement of Dudayev's palace. Then there was an operation in the same basement, liberation, hospitals and a lot of problems. But more on that below.
Soldiers Dmitry Kazakov and Andrei Mikhailov were not among the survivors, their names were not among the identified dead, and for a long time they were both listed as missing. They are now officially declared dead. However, in 1995, Andrei Mikhailov’s parents, in a conversation with me, said: yes, we received a coffin with a body, buried him, but it was not our son.
The story is like this. In February, when the fighting in the city subsided and the damaged cars were taken off the streets, the time came for identification. Of the entire crew, only Belov was officially identified. Although, as Nadezhda Mikhailova told me, he had a tag with the number of a completely different infantry fighting vehicle. And there were two more bodies with tags of the 684th BMP. More precisely, not even bodies - shapeless charred remains. The identification epic lasted four months, and on May 8, 1995, the one whom the examination identified as Andrei Mikhailov, guard senior sergeant of the signal company of the 81st regiment, found his peace in the cemetery. But for the soldier’s parents, the identification technology remained a mystery: the military refused to tell them about it then, and they certainly didn’t conduct genetic examinations. Maybe it would be worth sparing the reader’s nerves, but you still can’t do without details: the soldier was without a head, without arms, without legs, everything was burned. He had nothing with him - no documents, no personal belongings, no suicide medallion. Military doctors from a hospital in Rostov-on-Don told the parents that they allegedly conducted an examination based on a chest x-ray. But then they suddenly changed the version: they determined the blood type using the bone marrow and, using the method of exclusion, calculated that one was Kazakov. Different, that means Mikhailov... Blood type - and nothing more? But the soldiers could have been not only from another infantry fighting vehicle, but also from another unit! Blood type is another proof: four groups and two rhesus, eight variants for thousands of corpses...
It is clear that the parents did not believe it also because it is impossible for a mother’s heart to come to terms with the loss of her son. However, there were good reasons for their doubts. In Tolyatti, not only the Mikhailovs received a funeral and a zinc coffin; in January 1995, the messengers of death came knocking on many people’s doors. Then came the coffins. And one family, having mourned and buried their dead son, received a second coffin in the same May 1995! There was a mistake, they said at the military registration and enlistment office, the first time we sent the wrong one, but this time it’s definitely yours. Who was buried first? How could you believe after that?
Andrei Mikhailov's parents traveled to Chechnya several times in 1995, hoping for a miracle: what if they were captured? They ransacked the basements of Grozny. We were also in Rostov-on-Don - in the notorious 124th medical-forensic laboratory of the Ministry of Defense. They told how they were met there by boorish, drunken “body guardians.” Several times Andrei’s mother examined the remains of the dead stored in the carriages, but did not find her son. And she was amazed that for six months no one even tried to identify these several hundred killed: “Everyone was perfectly preserved, their facial features were clear, everyone could be identified. Why can’t the Ministry of Defense take photographs, send them to districts, and compare them with photographs from personal files? Why should we, mothers, have to travel thousands and thousands of kilometers ourselves, at our own expense, to find, identify and pick up our children - again on our own pennies? The state took them into the army, it threw them into the war, and then forgot them there - living and dead... Why can’t the army, in a humane way, at least pay its last respects to the fallen boys?”
“No one set the task”
Then I learned a lot about my fellow countryman. Andrei Mikhailov was drafted in March 1994. They were sent to serve nearby, in Chernorechye, where the 81st regiment withdrawn from Germany was based. It’s a stone’s throw from Togliatti to Chernorechye, so Andrey’s parents visited him often. Service was like service, and there was hazing. But the parents are firmly convinced that no one was involved in combat training in the regiment. Because from March to December 1994, Andrei held a machine gun in his hands only three times: at the oath and twice more at the shooting range - the father-commanders were generous with as many as nine rounds. And in sergeant training, he was essentially not taught anything, although he was given badges. The son honestly told his parents what he was doing in Chernorechye: from morning to night he built dachas and garages for gentlemen officers, nothing more. He described in detail how they set up some kind of dacha, a general’s or a colonel’s: they polished the boards with a plane to a mirror shine, adjusted one to another until they worked hard. Afterwards, I met with Andrei’s colleagues in Chernorechye: they confirmed that this was the case, all the “combat” training - the construction of dachas and serving the families of officers. A week before being sent to Chechnya, the radio in the barracks was turned off and the televisions were taken out. Parents who managed to attend the departure of their children claimed that the soldiers’ military IDs were taken away. The last time his parents saw Andrei was literally before the regiment was sent to Chechnya. Everyone already knew that they were going to war, but they drove away gloomy thoughts. The parents filmed their last evening with their son on a video camera. They convinced me that when they look at the film, they see that even then Andrei’s face bore the mark of tragedy: he was gloomy, didn’t eat anything, gave the pies to his colleagues...
By the beginning of the war in Chechnya, the once elite regiment was a pitiful sight. Of the career officers who served in Germany, there were almost none left, and 66 officers of the regiment were not career officers at all - “two-year students” from civilian universities with military departments! For example, Lieutenant Valery Gubarev, commander of a motorized rifle platoon, a graduate of the Novosibirsk Metallurgical Institute: he was drafted into the army in the spring of 1994. Already in the hospital, he told how they sent him grenade launchers and a sniper at the last moment before the battle. “The sniper says: “At least show me how to shoot.” And the grenade launchers are talking about the same thing... They’re already forming a column, and I’m training all the grenade launchers...” Commander
81st Regiment Alexander Yaroslavtsev later admitted: “The people, to be honest, were poorly trained, some drove little BMPs, some shot little. And the soldiers did not fire at all from such specific types of weapons as an under-barrel grenade launcher and a flamethrower.”
Lieutenant Sergei Terekhin, the commander of a tank platoon, wounded during the assault, claimed that only two weeks before the first (and last) battle his platoon was staffed with people. And in the 81st regiment itself, half of the personnel was missing. This was confirmed by the chief of staff of the regiment, Semyon Burlakov: “We concentrated in Mozdok. We were given two days to reorganize, after which we marched to Grozny. At all levels, we reported that the regiment in such a composition was not ready to conduct combat operations. We were considered a mobile unit, but we were staffed at peacetime levels: we had only 50 percent of our personnel. But the most important thing is that there were no infantry in the motorized rifle squads, only crews of combat vehicles. There were no direct shooters, those who should ensure the safety of combat vehicles. Therefore, we walked, as they say, “bare armor.” And, again, the overwhelming majority of the platoon members were two-year students who had no idea about conducting combat operations. The driver mechanics only knew how to start the car and drive away. The gunner-operators could not fire from combat vehicles at all.”
Neither the battalion commanders, nor the company and platoon commanders had maps of Grozny: they did not know how to navigate in a foreign city! The commander of the regiment's communications company (Andrei Mikhailov served in this company), Captain Stanislav Spiridonov, in an interview with Samara journalists said: “Maps? There were maps, but they were all different, from different years, they didn’t fit together, even the street names were different.” However, the two-year platoon soldiers couldn’t read maps at all. “Then the chief of staff of the division himself got in touch with us,” Gubarev recalled, “and personally set the task: the 5th company along Chekhov - to the left, and for us, the 6th company - to the right. That's what he said - to the right. Just right."
When the offensive began, the regiment's combat mission changed every three hours, so we can safely assume that it did not exist. Later, the regiment commander, giving numerous interviews in the hospital, was unable to clearly explain who assigned him the task and what it was. First they had to take the airport, they set out - a new order, turned around - again an order to go to the airport, then another introductory order. And on the morning of December 31, 1995, about 200 combat vehicles of the 81st regiment (according to other sources - about 150) moved towards Grozny: tanks, armored personnel carriers, infantry fighting vehicles...
They knew nothing about the enemy: no one provided the regiment with intelligence data, and they themselves did not conduct reconnaissance. The 1st battalion, marching in the first echelon, entered the city at 6 am, and the 2nd battalion entered the city with a gap of five hours - at 11 am! By this time, little was left of the first battalion; the second was heading to its death. BMP number 684 was in the second echelon.
They also claim that a day or two before the battle, many soldiers were given medals - so to speak, in advance, as an incentive. The same happened in other parts. At the beginning of January 1995, a Chechen militiaman showed me a certificate for the medal “For Distinction in Military Service”, 2nd degree, which was found on a dead soldier. The document stated: Private Asvan Zazatdinovich Ragiev was awarded by order of the Minister of Defense No. 603 of December 26, 1994. The medal was awarded to the soldier on December 29, and he died on December 31 - later I will find this name on the list of dead servicemen of the 131st Maykop Motorized Rifle Brigade.
The regiment commander later claimed that when setting up the combat mission, “particular attention was paid to the inadmissibility of the destruction of people, buildings, and objects. We only had the right to return fire." But the mechanic-driver of the T-80 tank, junior sergeant Andrei Yurin, when he was lying in a Samara hospital, recalled: “No, no one set a task, they just stood in a column and went. True, the company commander warned: “At the slightest chance, shoot! There’s a child on the road - push.” That's the whole task.
Control of the regiment was lost in the very first hours. Regimental commander Yaroslavtsev was wounded and dropped out of action; he was replaced by Burlakov, who was also wounded. Lieutenant Colonel Vladimir Aidarov took the reins next. The survivors almost unanimously spoke very unflatteringly about him. The softest of all is Lieutenant Colonel Ivan Shilovsky, commander of the 2nd battalion: “Aidarov showed obvious cowardice during the fighting.” According to the battalion commander, upon entering Grozny, this “regiment commander” placed his infantry fighting vehicle in the arch of a building near Ordzhonikidze Square, set up a guard and sat there the entire time of the battle, losing control of the people entrusted to him. And the divisional deputy commander, trying to regain control, shouted on the air: “Aidarov [pip-pip-pip]! And you, coward, where have you hidden?!” Lieutenant Colonel Shilovsky claimed: Aidarov “later ran away from the city at the first opportunity, abandoning his people.” And then, when the remnants of the regiment were taken out to rest and put in order, “the regiment was ordered to re-enter the city to support the units already entrenched there. Aidarov dissuaded the officers from continuing hostilities. He persuaded them not to enter the city: “You won’t get anything for this, motivate this by the fact that you don’t know the people, there aren’t enough soldiers. And I’ll be demoted for this, so you’d better...”
The regiment's losses were terrible; the number of dead was not made public and remains unknown to this day. According to the data of the former chief of staff of the regiment, posted on one of the sites, they died
56 people and 146 were injured. However, according to another authoritative, although far from complete, list of losses, the 81st Regiment then lost at least 87 people killed. There is also evidence that immediately after the New Year’s battles, about 150 units of “cargo 200” were delivered to the Kurumoch airfield in Samara. According to the commander of the communications company, out of 200 people of the 1st battalion of the 81st regiment, 18 survived! And out of 200 combat vehicles, 17 remained in service - the rest burned out on the streets of Grozny. (The regiment's chief of staff admitted the loss of 103 units of military equipment.) Moreover, the losses were suffered not only from the Chechens, but also from their own artillery, which since the evening of December 31 had been hammering around Grozny completely aimlessly, but did not spare shells.
When the wounded Colonel Yaroslavtsev was lying in the hospital, one of the Samara journalists asked him: how would the regiment commander act if he knew what he knows now about the enemy and the city? He replied: “I would report on command and act according to the order given.”
A criminal case has been transferred to the Kuibyshevsky District Court of Samara against a group of natives of the Caucasus accused of attacking a military camp and military personnel of the 81st motorized rifle regiment of the Volga-Ural Military District.
The emergency happened on January 20 last year in the village of Kryazh, where the regiment’s units were stationed. On that day, several Dagestanis living in Samara, unidentified by the investigation, decided to visit a fellow countryman who was undergoing military service. They tried to enter the territory of the military camp through checkpoint No. 2. The checkpoint duty officer, Private Sazhin, tried to block their path. A fight ensued. The reconnaissance platoon commander, Senior Lieutenant Zinoviev, who happened to be nearby, intervened. As a result, the uninvited guests were escorted out.
However, at about 19:00 on the same day, a crowd of approximately two dozen natives of Dagestan arrived at the checkpoint. The investigation was able to identify only the most active of them - Sadullaev, Shogenov and Abdurakhmanov. Moreover, as it turned out, Abdurakhmanov previously served first in a reconnaissance company, and then in the anti-aircraft missile division of the 81st regiment. For a military crime, a Dagestani man was sent to a disciplinary battalion by a military court. And only recently he was transferred to the reserve.
Judging by the shouts, the Caucasians intended to settle scores with Senior Lieutenant Zinoviev. The attackers blocked the squad on duty at the checkpoint, threatening them with knives. The telephone connection with the regiment duty officer, Captain Belov, was cut off. And the reconnaissance company burst into the barracks without hindrance.
From the testimony of the company duty officer, Sergeant Antsirov: “I heard orderly Sultanov shout: “Duty officer, get out!” I went out into the corridor and saw about 20 people of Caucasian nationality entering the company location, who pushed Senior Lieutenant Rakhmanin and the orderly away from the door. "There was an internal telephone on the bedside table, the receiver of which had been torn off. The Caucasians were looking for Senior Lieutenant Zinoviev, beating everyone they came across."
A group of raiders also raided the repair company. There, too, they beat soldiers, rummaged through their pockets, and took money, cell phones, and other valuables. A total of 18 servicemen were injured.
The raid lasted no more than half an hour. After this, the Dagestanis calmly left the regiment's location.
Sadullaev, Shogenov and Abdurakhmanov were charged under Articles 213 (hooliganism), 161 (robbery) and 116 (beatings) of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation in the investigation, which lasted for about a year.
Opinions
Alexander Sharavin, reserve colonel, director of the Institute of Political and Military Analysis:
If in “hot spots” military units are seriously fortified and those on duty serve there in bulletproof vests, helmets and never leave their machine guns for a minute, then ordinary military camps, unfortunately, are poorly protected from attack. Of all the means of notification - the antediluvian telephone. I think that it is high time to equip all checkpoints of military units with alarm buttons, as is done in banks. And illegal entry into a military facility, especially with aggressive intentions, should be considered a particularly serious crime.
Alexander Samodelov, lieutenant colonel:
In principle, it is not difficult to get into many of our military units. Whether with good or evil intentions. Unless in Chechnya the 42nd Division reliably protects itself. At the end of the 90s I served in Dagestan. Thus, at night, even militants entered the 136th Motorized Rifle Brigade stationed in Buinaksk through breaks in the fence as if they were entering their own home. It also happened with weapons. Soldiers were kidnapped. I remember in 1998, straight from the military camp of the brigade, bandits in camouflage took away privates Stepanov, Erzhanov and Aleev. They were transported to Chechnya and then returned for ransom. Now there isn’t such a mess there either, it’s still a hot spot. But in the depths of Russia, military camps are not so carefully guarded.
81st Guards Motorized Rifle Petrokovsky Twice Red Banner, Orders of Suvorov, Kutuzov and Bogdan Khmelnitsky Regiment - Guards Motorized Rifle Regiment of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. Battles and Operations: Operation Danube. The first Chechen war.
Regimental history
In accordance with the order of the Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation No. 036 dated June 15, 1994, the regiment stationed on the territory of the Volga Cossack Army was given the traditional Cossack name "Volga Cossack" B - as part of the “North” group, the regiment took part in the assault on Grozny.
Awards and titles
| Partially inherited awards | Year, month, day, numbers of decrees |
|---|---|
| For mastering art. Dorokhovo and the city of Mozhaisk, the 210th motorized rifle regiment was awarded the Order of the Red Banner | Decree of the Presidium of the USSR Armed Forces of May 3, 1942 |
| For the liberation of the city Lviv The 17th Guards Mechanized Red Banner Brigade was awarded the Order of Suvorov, 2nd degree | Decree of the Presidium of the USSR Armed Forces of August 10, 1944 |
| For the capture of the cities of Ratibor, Biskau, the 17th Guards Mechanized Red Banner, Order of Suvorov brigade was awarded the Order of Kutuzov, 2nd degree | Decree of the Presidium of the USSR Armed Forces of April 26, 1945 |
| For the capture of the cities of Cottbus, Lübben, Zossen, Beelitz, Luckenwalde, Trebbin, Troenbritzen, Zana, Marienfelde, Rangsdorf, Diedersdorf, Teltow, the 17th Guards Mechanized Red Banner, Orders of Suvorov and Kutuzov brigade was awarded the Order of Bogdan Khmelnitsky, 2nd degree | Decree of the Presidium of the USSR Armed Forces of May 26, 1945 |
| For taking over the city Berlin The 17th Guards Mechanized Red Banner, Orders of Suvorov, Kutuzov and Bogdan Khmelnitsky brigade was awarded the Order of the Red Banner | Decree of the Presidium of the USSR Armed Forces of June 4, 1945 |
Command
Regimental commanders
- 03/19/1958 - 10/1960 Guard Lieutenant Colonel Kirillov Ivan Vasilievich
- 08.10.1960 - 09.1964 Guard Colonel Rozantsev Alexey Trofimovich
- 09/16/1964 - 1968 Guard Lieutenant Colonel Ryzhkov Nikolai Mikhailovich
- 1969-1971 - Guard Lieutenant Colonel Vladimir Ivanovich Komarov
- 1969-1969 - Guard Lieutenant Colonel Anatoly Petrovich Antonov
- 06/28/1971 - 08/1976 Guard Lieutenant Colonel Galiev Rifkhat Nurmukhametovich
- 08/13/1976 - 1979 Guard Major Rogushin Sergey Pokopyevich
- 1979 - 07.1981 Guard Major Gennady Alekseevich Kruglov
- 07/10/1981 - 11/1983 Guard Lieutenant Colonel Stepanov Anatoly Vasilievich
- 11/15/1983 - 07/1985 Guard Major Bespalov Boris Georgievich
- 07/13/1985 - 07/1988 Guard Lieutenant Colonel Makadzeev Oleg Borisovich
- 07/03/1988 - 1990 Guard Lieutenant Colonel Negovora Vladimir Alekseevich
- 1990 - 05.1991 Guard Lieutenant Colonel Borisenok Sergey Vladimirovich
- 05/17/1991 - 01/1995 Guard Lieutenant Colonel Yaroslavtsev, Alexander Alekseevich
- 01/17/1995 - 11/1997 Guard Colonel Aidarov Vladimir Anatolyevich
- 11.29.1997 - 1998 Guard Colonel Stoderevsky Yuri Yurievich
- 1998-2000 Guard Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vladimirovich Gerasimenko
- 09/30/2000 - 01/2004 Guard Lieutenant Colonel Kovalenko, Dmitry Ivanovich, Major General Deputy Commander of the 49th Army
- 01/10/2004 - 12/2005 Guard Colonel Yankovsky Andrey Ivanovich
- 12/20/2005 - 02/2008 Guard Lieutenant Colonel Shkatov Evgeniy Evgenievich
- 02/13/2008 - 08/2009 Guard Colonel Milchakov Sergey Vitalievich
Commanders of the 23rd Separate Guards Motorized Rifle Brigade
- 08/03/2009 - 2011 Colonel Yankovsky Andrey Ivanovich
- 2011-2011 Colonel Ignatenko Alexander Nikolaevich
- from 2012 - 11.2013 Colonel Tubol Evgeniy Viktorovich
- 11.2013 and to the present time. Colonel Stepanishchev Konstantin Vladimirovich
Chiefs of Staff - First Deputy Regiment Commanders
- 1957-1958 Lieutenant Colonel Tsivenko Nikolai Mikhailovich
- 1959-1960 Lieutenant Colonel Rozantsev Alexey Timofeevich
- 1961-1962 Lieutenant Colonel Lakeev Mikhail Ivanovich
- 1963-1967 Lieutenant Colonel Efankin Boris Fedoseevich
- 1968-1970 Lieutenant Colonel Berdnikov Evgeniy Sergeevich
- 1971-1972 Lieutenant Colonel Gubanov Nikolai Ivanovich
- 1973-1974 Major Yachmenev Evgeniy Alekseevich
- 1974-1975 Major Kalinin Vitaly Vasilievich
- 1975-1977 Captain Shtogrin Zinoviy Ivanovich
- 1977-1979 Major Dryapachenko Nikolai Alekseevich
- 1980-1983 Major Bespalov Boris Georgievich
- 1983-1984 Major Shirshov Alexander Nikolaevich
- 1984-1987 Lieutenant Colonel Mikhailov Valery Georgievich
- 1995 VRIO kmsp guards. Lieutenant Colonel Stankevich, Igor Valentinovich
- 1987-1991 Major Egamberdiev Bakhadir Abdumannabovich
- 1991-1992 Major Samolkin Alexey Nikolaevich
- 1994 - g. Lieutenant Colonel Zyablitsev Alexander Perfirievich
- 1994 - g. Lieutenant Colonel Burlakov Semyon Borisovich
- 1995 - g. Lieutenant Colonel Alexandrenko Igor Anatolyevich
- 1996-1997 Major Vechkov Kirill Vladimirovich
- 1998 - g. Major Kuzkin Vladimir Alexandrovich
- 1999-2001 Lieutenant Colonel Medvedev Valery Nikolaevich
- 2002 - g. Lieutenant Colonel Minnullin Nail Raufovich
- 2003-2004 Lieutenant Colonel Yarovitsky Yuri Davydovich
- 2005-2006 Lieutenant Colonel Stepanishchev Konstantin Vladimirovich
- 2007-2008 Lieutenant Colonel Zakharov Sergei Vladimirovich
23rd Guards Separate Motorized Rifle Brigade
| Heroes of the Russian Federation | ||
|---|---|---|
| p/p | Full Name | Title, position(s) during awards. Dates of Decrees of the President of the Russian Federation. |
| 1. | Kirichenko, Grigory Sergeevich | guard senior warrant officer, senior technician of the 1st company of the 81st Guards. SME (06/21/1995, Medal No. 173) |
| 2. | Stankevich, Igor Valentinovich | guard lieutenant colonel, assistant commander of the 81st Guards. SME for educational work (10/19/1995, Medal No. 238) |
Memory
Lists of dead and missing soldiers
The list of those killed in the 81st Motorized Rifle Regiment (90th Guards TD) is given on the website “Dedicated to the memory of military personnel...”
Links to materials about the regiment's participation in the first Chechen war
March 81st Guards SME
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Notes
Links to the history of the regiment
Separate
mechanized
brigades
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mechanized
brigadesAn excerpt characterizing the 81st Guards Motorized Rifle Regiment
“That’s it,” said Dolokhov. “And then like this,” he said, and lifted the collar near her head, leaving it only slightly open in front of her face. - Then like this, see? - and he moved Anatole’s head to the hole left by the collar, from which Matryosha’s brilliant smile could be seen.
“Well, goodbye, Matryosha,” Anatole said, kissing her. - Eh, my revelry is over here! Bow to Steshka. Well, goodbye! Goodbye, Matryosha; wish me happiness.
“Well, God grant you, prince, great happiness,” said Matryosha, with her gypsy accent.
There were two troikas standing at the porch, two young coachmen were holding them. Balaga sat down on the front three, and, raising his elbows high, slowly took apart the reins. Anatol and Dolokhov sat down with him. Makarin, Khvostikov and the footman sat in the other three.
- Are you ready, or what? – asked Balaga.
- Let go! - he shouted, wrapping the reins around his hands, and the troika rushed down Nikitsky Boulevard.
- Whoa! Come on, hey!... Whoa, - you could only hear the cry of Balaga and the young man sitting on the box. On Arbat Square, the troika hit a carriage, something crackled, a scream was heard, and the troika flew down Arbat.
Having given two ends along Podnovinsky, Balaga began to hold back and, returning back, stopped the horses at the intersection of Staraya Konyushennaya.
The good fellow jumped down to hold the horses' bridles, Anatol and Dolokhov walked along the sidewalk. Approaching the gate, Dolokhov whistled. The whistle responded to him and after that the maid ran out.
“Go into the yard, otherwise it’s obvious he’ll come out now,” she said.
Dolokhov remained at the gate. Anatole followed the maid into the yard, turned the corner and ran onto the porch.
Gavrilo, Marya Dmitrievna’s huge traveling footman, met Anatoly.
“Please see the lady,” the footman said in a deep voice, blocking the way from the door.
- Which lady? Who are you? – Anatole asked in a breathless whisper.
- Please, I've been ordered to bring him.
- Kuragin! back,” Dolokhov shouted. - Treason! Back!
Dolokhov, at the gate where he stopped, was struggling with the janitor, who was trying to lock the gate behind Anatoly as he entered. Dolokhov, with his last effort, pushed the janitor away and, grabbing the hand of Anatoly as he ran out, pulled him out the gate and ran with him back to the troika.Marya Dmitrievna, finding a tearful Sonya in the corridor, forced her to confess everything. Having intercepted Natasha’s note and read it, Marya Dmitrievna, with the note in her hand, went up to Natasha.
“Bastard, shameless,” she told her. - I don’t want to hear anything! - Pushing away Natasha, who was looking at her with surprised but dry eyes, she locked it and ordered the janitor to let through the gate those people who would come that evening, but not to let them out, and ordered the footman to bring these people to her, sat down in the living room, waiting kidnappers.
When Gavrilo came to report to Marya Dmitrievna that the people who had come had run away, she stood up with a frown and folded her hands back, walked around the rooms for a long time, thinking about what she should do. At 12 o'clock at night, feeling the key in her pocket, she went to Natasha's room. Sonya sat in the corridor, sobbing.
- Marya Dmitrievna, let me see her for God’s sake! - she said. Marya Dmitrievna, without answering her, unlocked the door and entered. “Disgusting, nasty... In my house... Vile little girl... I just feel sorry for my father!” thought Marya Dmitrievna, trying to quench her anger. “No matter how difficult it is, I’ll tell everyone to be silent and hide it from the count.” Marya Dmitrievna entered the room with decisive steps. Natasha lay on the sofa, covering her head with her hands, and did not move. She lay in the same position in which Marya Dmitrievna had left her.
- Good, very good! - said Marya Dmitrievna. - In my house, lovers can make dates! There's no point in pretending. You listen when I talk to you. - Marya Dmitrievna touched her hand. - You listen when I talk. You have disgraced yourself like a very lowly girl. I would do that to you, but I feel sorry for your father. I'll hide it. – Natasha did not change her position, but only her whole body began to jump up from silent, convulsive sobs that choked her. Marya Dmitrievna looked back at Sonya and sat down on the sofa next to Natasha.
- He’s lucky that he left me; “Yes, I will find him,” she said in her rough voice; – Do you hear what I’m saying? “She put her big hand under Natasha’s face and turned her towards her. Both Marya Dmitrievna and Sonya were surprised to see Natasha’s face. Her eyes were shiny and dry, her lips were pursed, her cheeks were drooping.
“Leave... those... that I... I... will die...” she said, with an angry effort she tore herself away from Marya Dmitrievna and lay down in her previous position.
“Natalya!...” said Marya Dmitrievna. - I wish you well. You lie down, just lie there, I won’t touch you, and listen... I won’t tell you how guilty you are. You know it yourself. Well, now your father is coming tomorrow, what will I tell him? A?
Again Natasha's body shook with sobs.
- Well, he will find out, well, your brother, groom!
“I don’t have a fiance, I refused,” Natasha shouted.
“It doesn’t matter,” continued Marya Dmitrievna. - Well, they’ll find out, so why leave it like that? After all, he, your father, I know him, after all, if he challenges him to a duel, will it be good? A?
- Oh, leave me alone, why did you interfere with everything! For what? For what? who asked you? - Natasha shouted, sitting up on the sofa and looking angrily at Marya Dmitrievna.
- What did you want? - Marya Dmitrievna cried out again, getting excited, - why did they lock you up? Well, who stopped him from going to the house? Why should they take you away like some kind of gypsy?... Well, if he had taken you away, what do you think, he wouldn’t have been found? Your father, or brother, or fiancé. And he’s a scoundrel, a scoundrel, that’s what!
“He’s better than all of you,” Natasha cried, standing up. - If you hadn’t interfered... Oh, my God, what is this, what is this! Sonya, why? Go away!... - And she began to sob with such despair with which people only mourn such grief, which they feel themselves to be the cause of. Marya Dmitrievna began to speak again; but Natasha shouted: “Go away, go away, you all hate me, you despise me.” – And again she threw herself on the sofa.
Marya Dmitrievna continued for some time to admonish Natasha and convince her that all this must be hidden from the count, that no one would find out anything if only Natasha took it upon herself to forget everything and not show to anyone that anything had happened. Natasha didn't answer. She didn’t cry anymore, but she began to feel chills and trembling. Marya Dmitrievna put a pillow on her, covered her with two blankets and brought her some lime blossom herself, but Natasha did not respond to her. “Well, let him sleep,” said Marya Dmitrievna, leaving the room, thinking that she was sleeping. But Natasha was not sleeping and, with fixed, open eyes, looked straight ahead from her pale face. All that night Natasha did not sleep, and did not cry, and did not speak to Sonya, who got up and approached her several times.
The next day, for breakfast, as Count Ilya Andreich had promised, he arrived from the Moscow region. He was very cheerful: the deal with the buyer was going well and nothing was keeping him now in Moscow and in separation from the countess, whom he missed. Marya Dmitrievna met him and told him that Natasha had become very unwell yesterday, that they had sent for a doctor, but that she was better now. Natasha did not leave her room that morning. With pursed, cracked lips, dry, fixed eyes, she sat by the window and restlessly peered at those passing along the street and hurriedly looked back at those entering the room. She was obviously waiting for news about him, waiting for him to come or write to her.
When the count came up to her, she turned restlessly at the sound of his man’s steps, and her face took on its former cold and even angry expression. She didn't even get up to meet him.
– What’s wrong with you, my angel, are you sick? - asked the count. Natasha was silent.
“Yes, I’m sick,” she answered.
In response to the count's worried questions about why she was so killed and whether anything had happened to her fiancé, she assured him that nothing was wrong and asked him not to worry. Marya Dmitrievna confirmed Natasha’s assurances to the Count that nothing had happened. The count, judging by the imaginary illness, by the disorder of his daughter, by the embarrassed faces of Sonya and Marya Dmitrievna, clearly saw that something was going to happen in his absence: but he was so scared to think that something shameful had happened to his beloved daughter, he He loved his cheerful calm so much that he avoided asking questions and kept trying to assure himself that nothing special had happened and was only grieving that due to her ill health their departure to the village had been postponed.From the day his wife arrived in Moscow, Pierre was preparing to go somewhere, just so as not to be with her. Soon after the Rostovs arrived in Moscow, the impression that Natasha made on him made him hasten to fulfill his intention. He went to Tver to see the widow of Joseph Alekseevich, who promised long ago to give him the papers of the deceased.
When Pierre returned to Moscow, he was given a letter from Marya Dmitrievna, who called him to her place on a very important matter concerning Andrei Bolkonsky and his fiancee. Pierre avoided Natasha. It seemed to him that he had a feeling for her stronger than that which a married man should have for the bride of his friend. And some kind of fate constantly brought him together with her.
"What happened? And what do they care about me? he thought as he got dressed to go to Marya Dmitrievna. Prince Andrei would come quickly and marry her!” thought Pierre on the way to Akhrosimova.
On Tverskoy Boulevard someone called out to him.
- Pierre! How long have you arrived? – a familiar voice shouted to him. Pierre raised his head. In a pair of sleighs, on two gray trotters throwing snow at the tops of the sleigh, Anatole flashed by with his constant companion Makarin. Anatole sat upright, in the classic pose of military dandies, covering the bottom of his face with a beaver collar and bending his head slightly. His face was ruddy and fresh, his hat with a white plume was put on one side, revealing his hair, curled, pomaded and sprinkled with fine snow.
“And rightly so, here is a real sage! thought Pierre, he sees nothing beyond the present moment of pleasure, nothing disturbs him, and that is why he is always cheerful, content and calm. What would I give to be like him!” Pierre thought with envy.
In Akhrosimova’s hallway, the footman, taking off Pierre’s fur coat, said that Marya Dmitrievna was being asked to come to her bedroom.
Opening the door to the hall, Pierre saw Natasha sitting by the window with a thin, pale and angry face. She looked back at him, frowned and with an expression of cold dignity left the room.
- What's happened? - asked Pierre, entering Marya Dmitrievna.
“Good deeds,” answered Marya Dmitrievna: “I’ve lived fifty-eight years in the world, I’ve never seen such shame.” - And taking Pierre’s word of honor to remain silent about everything that he learns, Marya Dmitrievna informed him that Natasha refused her fiancé without the knowledge of her parents, that the reason for this refusal was Anatole Kuragin, with whom her wife set Pierre up, and with whom she wanted to run away in the absence of his father, in order to get married secretly.
Pierre, with his shoulders raised and his mouth open, listened to what Marya Dmitrievna was telling him, not believing his ears. The bride of Prince Andrei, so deeply loved, this formerly sweet Natasha Rostova, should exchange Bolkonsky for the fool Anatole, already married (Pierre knew the secret of his marriage), and fall in love with him so much as to agree to run away with him! “Pierre couldn’t understand this and couldn’t imagine it.”
The sweet impression of Natasha, whom he had known since childhood, could not combine in his soul with the new idea of her baseness, stupidity and cruelty. He remembered his wife. “They are all the same,” he said to himself, thinking that he was not the only one who had the sad fate of being associated with a nasty woman. But he still felt sorry for Prince Andrey to the point of tears, he felt sorry for his pride. And the more he pitied his friend, the more contempt and even disgust he thought about this Natasha, who was now walking past him in the hall with such an expression of cold dignity. He did not know that Natasha’s soul was filled with despair, shame, humiliation, and that it was not her fault that her face accidentally expressed calm dignity and severity.
- Yes, how to get married! - Pierre said in response to Marya Dmitrievna’s words. - He couldn’t get married: he’s married.
“It’s not getting any easier hour by hour,” said Marya Dmitrievna. - Good boy! That's a bastard! And she waits, she waits for the second day. At least he will stop waiting, I must tell her.
Having learned from Pierre the details of Anatole's marriage, pouring out her anger on him with abusive words, Marya Dmitrievna told him what she had called him for. Marya Dmitrievna was afraid that the count or Bolkonsky, who could arrive at any moment, having learned the matter that she intended to hide from them, would challenge Kuragin to a duel, and therefore asked him to order his brother-in-law on her behalf to leave Moscow and not dare show himself to her on the eyes. Pierre promised her to fulfill her wish, only now realizing the danger that threatened the old count, Nikolai, and Prince Andrei. Having briefly and precisely stated her requirements to him, she released him into the living room. - Look, the count doesn’t know anything. “You act like you don’t know anything,” she told him. - And I’ll go tell her that there’s nothing to wait for! “Yes, stay for dinner if you want,” Marya Dmitrievna shouted to Pierre.
Pierre met the old count. He was confused and upset. That morning Natasha told him that she had refused Bolkonsky.
“Trouble, trouble, mon cher,” he said to Pierre, “trouble with these motherless girls; I'm so anxious that I came. I'll be honest with you. We heard that she refused the groom without asking anyone anything. Let’s face it, I was never very happy about this marriage. Let's say he is a good person, but well, against his father's will there would be no happiness, and Natasha will not be left without suitors. Yes, after all, this has been going on for a long time, and how can it be without a father, without a mother, such a step! And now she’s sick, and God knows what! It’s bad, Count, it’s bad with daughters without a mother... - Pierre saw that the Count was very upset, he tried to shift the conversation to another subject, but the Count again returned to his grief.
Sonya entered the living room with a worried face.
– Natasha is not entirely healthy; she is in her room and would like to see you. Marya Dmitrievna is with her and asks you too.
“But you are very friendly with Bolkonsky, he probably wants to convey something,” said the count. - Oh, my God, my God! How good everything was! - And taking hold of the sparse temples of his gray hair, the count left the room.
Marya Dmitrievna announced to Natasha that Anatol was married. Natasha did not want to believe her and demanded confirmation of this from Pierre himself. Sonya told Pierre this as she escorted him through the corridor to Natasha’s room.
Natasha, pale, stern, sat next to Marya Dmitrievna and from the very door met Pierre with a feverishly shining, questioning gaze. She did not smile, did not nod her head to him, she just looked stubbornly at him, and her gaze asked him only about whether he was a friend or an enemy like everyone else in relation to Anatole. Pierre himself obviously did not exist for her.
“He knows everything,” said Marya Dmitrievna, pointing at Pierre and turning to Natasha. “Let him tell you whether I was telling the truth.”
Natasha, like a shot, hunted animal looking at the approaching dogs and hunters, looked first at one and then at the other.
“Natalya Ilyinichna,” Pierre began, lowering his eyes and feeling a feeling of pity for her and disgust for the operation that he had to perform, “whether it’s true or not, it shouldn’t matter to you, because...
- So it’s not true that he is married!
- No, its true.
– Was he married for a long time? - she asked, - honestly?
Pierre gave her his word of honor.
– Is he still here? – she asked quickly.
- Yes, I saw him just now.
She was obviously unable to speak and made signs with her hands to leave her.Pierre did not stay for dinner, but immediately left the room and left. He went around the city to look for Anatoly Kuragin, at the thought of whom all the blood now rushed to his heart and he had difficulty catching his breath. In the mountains, among the gypsies, among the Comoneno, it was not there. Pierre went to the club.
In the club everything went on as usual: the guests who had come to dine sat in groups and greeted Pierre and talked about city news. The footman, having greeted him, reported to him, knowing his acquaintance and habits, that a place had been left for him in the small dining room, that Prince Mikhail Zakharych was in the library, and Pavel Timofeich had not arrived yet. One of Pierre's acquaintances, between talking about the weather, asked him if he had heard about Kuragin's kidnapping of Rostova, which they talk about in the city, is it true? Pierre laughed and said that this was nonsense, because he was now only from the Rostovs. He asked everyone about Anatole; one told him that he had not come yet, the other that he would dine today. It was strange for Pierre to look at this calm, indifferent crowd of people who did not know what was going on in his soul. He walked around the hall, waited until everyone had arrived, and without waiting for Anatole, he did not have lunch and went home.
Anatole, whom he was looking for, dined with Dolokhov that day and consulted with him on how to correct the spoiled matter. It seemed to him necessary to see Rostova. In the evening he went to his sister to talk with her about the means to arrange this meeting. When Pierre, having traveled all over Moscow in vain, returned home, the valet reported to him that Prince Anatol Vasilich was with the countess. The Countess's living room was full of guests.
Pierre, without greeting his wife, whom he had not seen since his arrival (she hated him more than ever at that moment), entered the living room and, seeing Anatole, approached him.
“Ah, Pierre,” said the countess, approaching her husband. “You don’t know what situation our Anatole is in...” She stopped, seeing in her husband’s low-hanging head, in his sparkling eyes, in his decisive gait that terrible expression of rage and strength that she knew and experienced in herself after the duel with Dolokhov.
The Russian Army, as a military formation that inherits the traditions of the Soviet Army, has many heroes, both among people and among entire units. One of these units is the 81st motorized rifle regiment (MSR), called Petrakuvsky. The full name of the regiment consists of a list of many military awards, which are a real testament to its valor and glory, and looks like this - the 81st Guards Petrakuv twice Red Banner Order of Suvorov, Kutuzov and Bogdan Khmelnitsky motorized rifle regiment.
The history of the Petrakuvsky regiment can be divided into several stages, which smoothly flow into one another and stretch to the present day. In this article we will try to consider the regiment’s combat path, focusing special attention on the last heroic and at the same time inglorious battle, which is still fresh in people’s memory - the storming of Grozny in the first Chechen campaign of 1994-95.
BEGINNING: PRE-WAR YEARS
The time leading up to World War II was a period of great political change in Europe, with saber-rattling from two European predators - Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. Be that as it may, either the Union was preparing for aggression, or it was preparing to repel aggression from other countries (read Germany), but in any case, an urgent reorganization of the army was carried out. This reorganization affected both the equipping of existing units with new types of weapons and the creation of new units, formations and even armies.
Against the backdrop of such a process in the army, the 81st Petrakuvsky Motorized Rifle Regiment was created. True, at the time of creation it had a different serial number. It was the 210th Infantry Regiment as part of the 82nd Division. The regiment was formed in the late spring of 1939, and the regiment's home base was the Ural Military District. This year for the Soviet Union was characterized by military operations in Manchuria, so the 81st Petrakuvsky Regiment (we will call it by its more familiar name) was hastily transported to Khalkhin Gol, along with its native 82nd Infantry Division.
Here the Petrakuvsky regiment received its first baptism of fire, receiving gratitude from the command. Tension in the region did not subside even after the end of hostilities, and it was decided to leave the units that fought in Manchuria in a new location. So the 81st Petrakuvsky Regiment moved from the Urals to Mongolia, to the city of Choibalsan.
START: WAR
The 81st (210th) motorized rifle regiment met the beginning of the Great Patriotic War at its permanent location in Mongolia. And only in the fall of 1941, when the situation on the Western Front was very tense, the 81st Regiment, as part of its native division, received the order to go into the thick of things - into the battle for Moscow. The 81st Motorized Rifle Regiment fought its first battle with the German invaders on October 25, 1941, in the area of the station village of Dorokhovo. The battles for Moscow were long and bloody, only in the spring of 1942 were significant successes achieved. Many units received government awards. Among these units was the 210th motorized rifle regiment, which received the right to be called a guards regiment for courage and heroism in the battles for Moscow. At the same time, the regiment received a new serial number; from March 18, 1942, it was called the 6th Guards Motorized Rifle Regiment. A little later, the regiment was awarded the Order of the Red Banner.
On June 17, 1942, the 6th Guards Motorized Rifle Regiment was reorganized into the 17th Guards Mechanized Brigade. The brigade was part of the 6th Mechanized Corps of the 4th Tank Army. The further military journey was no less glorious than its beginning in this bloody war. The brigade took part in many significant battles of the Great Patriotic War. Some found the end of the war in Czechoslovakia. For special bravery in battles, the brigade was awarded the Orders of Suvorov, Kutuzov and Bogdan Khmelnitsky. And for the capture of the town of Petrakow, the brigade received the title of Petrakow, this happened in January 1945.
MATURE YEARS: POST-WAR TIME
In the post-war period, the 17th Mechanized Brigade was again reorganized into a mechanized regiment, which received all rights to the awards of its predecessors, and became known as the 17th Guards Mechanized Petrakuv Regiment, twice Red Banner of the Orders of Kutuzov, Suvorov and Bogdan Khmelnitsky. At some point, the regiment was even folded into a separate mechanized battalion; this happened against the background of the post-war reduction of the army.
However, with the beginning of the Cold War, the battalion was again transformed into a mechanized regiment, and in 1957 it received a modern serial number and began to bear the name 81st Guards Motorized Rifle Regiment. The regiment was located in the Western Group of Forces in the town of Karlhost. The 81st Regiment managed to take part in the so-called liberation campaign in Czechoslovakia, this was in 1968.
Until the collapse of the Soviet Union, the 81st Regiment was part of the Western Group of Forces in Germany. During this time, it was reorganized several times and transferred to new states. In 1993, the Western Group of Forces was liquidated, and the 81st regiment was withdrawn from Germany to a new location, which was located in the Samara region.
RECENT HISTORY: BLOODY TIME
With the collapse of the Union, centrifugal forces, having severed ties between the once fraternal republics, continued to tear the Russian Federation apart. These forces were repeatedly strengthened by externally fueled separatist sentiments in some Caucasian republics. In addition, the country's leadership was worried about the fairly large oil reserves in this region, as well as about oil and gas communications. All together, this first provoked a conflict with the Chechen Republic, which later grew into a full-scale war.
Serious fighting on the territory of Chechnya began at the end of 1994. From the first days, the 81st Regiment, which was part of the NORTH group, also took part in this. While participating in the disarmament of illegal military formations (as this operation was officially called), the regiment was commanded by Colonel Yaroslavtsev (who was seriously wounded during the assault on Grozny), and the chief of staff was Lieutenant Colonel Burlakov (also wounded in Grozny).
The most serious and significant event for the regiment's personnel in the post-war years was the military operation called the assault on the capital of the Chechen Republic, the city of Grozny. The goal of the operation was to capture the capital of the rebel republic, in which the main forces were located, as well as the leadership of the self-proclaimed Ichkeria. For this task, several groups were formed, one of which included the Petrakovsky regiment. At that time, the regiment consisted of more than 1,300 personnel, 96 infantry fighting vehicles, 31 tanks and more than 20 pieces of artillery pieces and mortars.
It is worth noting that, compared even with the times of 5 years ago, the regiment made a depressing impression. Many of the officers who had served in Germany resigned and were replaced by graduate students from military departments. In addition, the personnel of the regiment's units were completely untrained. The soldiers had only entries in their military IDs about the positions they held; there was no trace of real knowledge and skills. The mechanics of infantry fighting vehicles and tanks had little driving experience, and the riflemen practically did not carry out combat firing with small arms, not to mention grenade launchers and mortars. In addition, immediately before being sent to Chechnya, the most trained and trained specialists left (transferred), the lack of which subsequently cost the units dearly.
There were no preparations as such for sending troops into Chechnya; the personnel were simply loaded onto a train and transported. According to the surviving participants in those events, combat training classes took place even during the journey, right in the carriages. Upon arrival in Mozdok, the regiment received 2 days to prepare, and two days later it marched to Grozny. At that time, the 81st Regiment was staffed at peacetime strength, which was only 50% of the war strength. The most important thing is that the motorized rifle units were not staffed with simple infantry, there were only BMP crews. This fact was one of the main factors in the death of the regiment units that stormed Grozny. Roughly speaking, the equipment entered the city without infantry cover, which was tantamount to death. Local commanders understood this; for example, the chief of staff of the regiment, Lieutenant Colonel Burlakov, spoke about this. But no one listened to the words of the command of the units sent to Chechnya.
STORM OF GROZNY
The decision to storm the city was made at a meeting of the Security Council on December 26, 1994. The assault on the city was preceded by artillery preparation. 8 days before the start of the operation, artillery units began a massive shelling of Grozny. As it turned out later, this turned out to be not enough; in general, no preparations were made for the military operation; the troops marched at random.
The Petrakuvsky regiment marched together with the 131st Maikop Motorized Rifle Brigade from the northern part, as part of the NORTH group. Contrary to the original plan, according to which Russian army troops were to enter the city from three sides, two groups remained in place, and only the NORTH group entered the center.
It is worth noting that the forces for the assault were clearly not enough; according to some sources, the troops of the Russian Army around Grozny numbered about 14 thousand people, not even having a double advantage. This was clearly not enough for an attack, especially in a city, and even with understaffed units. In addition, there was an acute lack of maps and clear controls. The regiment's tasks changed every few hours, many did not know where to simply move. The Chechens easily interfered with the radio communications of the Russian troops, disorienting them. Even basic reconnaissance of the enemy forces was not carried out, so the battalion and company commanders did not know who was opposing them.
The start of the assault on the capital of the rebel republic was scheduled for the last day of 1994. This, according to the Joint Forces command, should have played into the hands of the attackers. In principle, the surprise tactics worked 100%, subsequently playing a negative role. None of the defenders of Grozny simply expected an assault on New Year's Eve. That is why the units of the 81st Regiment and the 131st Brigade managed to quickly reach the city center and just as quickly... die there.
Later, some sources began to actively promote the opinion that the Chechens themselves allowed Russian troops to freely reach the city center, luring them into a trap. However, such a statement is unlikely.
The first of the units of the Petrakovsky regiment was the forward detachment, which included a reconnaissance company, led by the chief of staff of the regiment, Lieutenant Colonel Burlakov. They had the task of capturing the airport and clearing bridges on the way to Grozny. The advance detachment coped with its task brilliantly and after it two motorized rifle battalions entered the city under the command of Lieutenant Colonels Perepelkin and Shilovsky.
The units marched in columns, with tanks in front, and the flanks of the columns were covered by the Tunguska ZSU. As survivors of those events later said, the tanks did not even have cartridges for machine guns, which made them useless in urban conditions.
The first clash occurred at the advance detachment already at the entrance to the city, on Khmelnitsky Street. During the battle, we managed to inflict serious damage on the enemy, but we had to lose 1 infantry fighting vehicle, and the first wounded appeared.
The regiment's units rapidly advanced towards the city center, encountering virtually no resistance. Already at 12.00, after only 5 hours, the railway station was reached, which the regiment commander reported to the command. Further orders were received to advance to the palace of the government of the republic.
However, the implementation of this task was greatly hampered by the increased activity of the militants who had come to their senses. A fierce battle ensued in the area of the government palace, during which Colonel Yaroslavtsev (regiment commander) was wounded. Command passed to the chief of staff, Lieutenant Colonel Burlakov.
The rapid offensive quickly choked in the fierce opposition of the defenders, who fired grenade launchers at the equipment of the federal troops. The combat vehicles were knocked out one after another, the columns of the regiment's units were cut off from each other and divided into separate groups. A big obstacle was created by their own cars that were set on fire. The dead and wounded already numbered more than a hundred people, and Burlakov was among the wounded.
Only by nightfall did the units of the 81st Regiment and 131st Brigade receive a long-awaited respite. However, immediately after the New Year, the intensity of fire from the militants increased. In agreement with the command, units of the NORTH group left the station and began to break out of the city. The retreat was not coordinated; they broke through alone and in small groups. There were more chances this way...
The advanced units of the Maykop brigade and the Petrakuvsky regiment emerged from the encirclement significantly thinned out, with huge losses in manpower and equipment. According to official information, the regiment lost 63 people killed during the assault, in addition there were 75 missing and about 150 wounded.
In addition to the two motorized rifle battalions and the advance detachment, the remaining units of the 81st regiment were also in Grozny, combined into one group under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Stankevich. They took up defensive positions on the streets of Mayakovsky and Khmelnitsky. A well-organized defense made it possible to create an island of resistance, which fought successfully for several days. This group served as a salvation for many advanced troops breaking out from encirclement.
Among other things, the 81st Petrakuvsky Regiment took part not only in the assault on Grozny on New Year's Eve 1994. The entire month of January 1995 was spent in battle for the regiment. Thanks to the dedication of the guys, Dudayev’s palace, an arms factory, and a printing house were taken - an important center of resistance.
For several more months the regiment remained on the territory of Chechnya, and only in April 1995 the unit was withdrawn to its permanent location.
Now one of the most famous regiments of our time is part of a motorized rifle brigade under the same number.
