home » Fertilizers » They become heroes in battle. Grodnensky N. G. Unfinished war: History of the armed conflict in Chechnya Achkhoy Martan in the Chechen war

They become heroes in battle. Grodnensky N. G. Unfinished war: History of the armed conflict in Chechnya Achkhoy Martan in the Chechen war

A burnt-out T-62 of internal troops after fighting in Grozny during the second Chechen campaign (two photographs of the same tank were taken at different times). As can be seen in the photographs, the tank's turret was reinforced with tracks to enhance protection. Judging by the mangled fragments of the MTO roof, the tank's engine exploded

During the second Chechen campaign, a significant amount of armored vehicles were again sent to the rebel republic. For example, infantry fighting vehicles and armored personnel carriers - 2324 pieces. The tanks were represented by the T-72AV, T-72B and B1, T-72BM models. The 138th Motorized Rifle Brigade of the Leningrad Military District included a number of T-80BVs. It is difficult to say how many of the 370 tanks in Chechnya were T-62 and T-62M, but the old vehicles were used at all stages of the counter-terrorist operation.

The most famous military unit, which was armed with T-62 tanks (modification “M”), in the second Chechen campaign was the tank regiment of Yuri Budanov, an officer who became a hostage of a dirty political game.

It took the 160th Guards Tank Regiment of the Siberian Military District to reach the Caucasus by rail for more than a week. Leaving part of the forces to protect communications, we were one of the first to cross the administrative border with the criminal-rebellious enclave. Following the motorized rifle units, they crushed the militants' firing points. Kirovo, Komarovo, Goragorsk. When we crossed the Tersky ridge, more serious fighting began - the first ATGMs whistled near Kerlayurt. Further in Achkhoy-Martan, the militants again snapped at them with guided missiles, resulting in one BMP-1 being burned out and a T-62 being shot down. The regiment's artillery - 2S1 self-propelled howitzers - fired 8 salvos of Sh1 shells with arrow-shaped striking elements, and after that the Chechens requested negotiations.

In Old Achkhoi, the militants drove out civilians and turned their houses into pillboxes. The village had to be leveled. We had barely reached the settlement three kilometers before ATGMs started flying, just catch it! And they caught it! It was only by some miracle that no one died. There is no active armor on the old sixty-twos, and the blocks of passive “Ilyich armor” that came from Afghanistan protect only the front part of the turret.

But there would be no happiness, but misfortune helped. In addition to active armor, the outdated T-62 does not have an automatic loader. There's a whole barn of free space inside. And if the hatches are also open, there is no way to create excess pressure. In general, the ATGMs burned through the turrets, even the breech breech holes were damaged by the cumulative jets, and the tanks were ready to go. The crews jumped and let's shoot ourselves. Using optics, we determined where the ATGMs were flying from. From the maximum range - somewhere from 3,900 meters the bastard hits. There is a Niva on the road, and fifty meters away there is a tripod on which the militants are just placing another ATGM.

- Will you get there, Vasilich? – Budanov shouts to his deputy, Lieutenant Colonel Andrei Bilenko. It’s not easy to see ATGMs through a tank sight. And he was already in the turret with a second shot, exactly covering the Niva with a rocket. And three days later there was a radio interception: The captain was buried. This specialist had this nickname since the last campaign, when he burned a lot of our armor. Then we stood near old Achkhoy for another 10 days, but the ATGMs no longer flew.

The Siberians also fought near the old Alkhan-Yurt - in another sensational battle. 1000 shells were then fired by their tank company attached to the infantry that stormed the village in the area of the intersection with the bridge.

There, in houses that became pillboxes, militants fought to the death.

At the beginning of December we had a great fight in the capital of Chechen Wahhabism – Urus-Martan. The regiment, probably for the first time since entering Chechnya, gathered under a single command. Before this, everyone was reinforced with tanks and artillery all the time. The city was surrounded by the forces of two regiments and a brigade. Transbaikal residents were given a sector in the west. Come over. ATGMs, flamethrowers, and ZUshki fire from the Urus-Martan. The tanks came out on direct fire, fired a salvo... Then the infantry attacked, the tanks followed. Only again there is resistance, stop the infantry, behind the houses, the tanks are leveling further and further. So in the evening, having reached the river, they occupied a third of Uras-Martan, only later learning that their attack was only planned as a diversionary blow.

Near Dubayurt, at the northern entrance to the Argun Gorge, the regiment “dug in” and went on the defensive. Most of the troops were besieging Grozny, and the offensive into the mountains was postponed. The Transbaikal residents, together with a dowry of a motorized rifle company, had to lock the Wolf Gate, as this place had been called since that war, preventing the militants, emerging from the gorge, from striking the troops surrounding Grozny in the back.

Then, for six months, the tank regiment, continuously fighting in the most important directions, was withdrawn by Shamanov to the reserve of the Western group. And then he was thrown into battle again. For three weeks, with a truly Siberian scale, Colonel Budanov’s T-62s and Shilkas crushed Gelayev’s bandits in Komsomolskoye. Dozens of “spirits” were buried under the rubble of buildings by Lieutenant Colonel Arthur Arzumyan and Captain Sergei Khomutov before the turret of their T-62 was burned through by a cumulative jet. In a week, both will recover from their wounds and be back in action. Tanks destroyed militants, sometimes shooting point-blank, at the front doors of houses where the bandits were hiding.

In total, in Komsomolskoye, three sixty-twos were burned by militants with RPGs. But all the cars remained running. There were many wounded from sniper bullets and shrapnel. Fortunately, no one died.

Having not yet achieved the military objectives of storming Grozny, Russian troops moved on to the next stage of the military operation - establishing military control over the entire territory of Chechnya. For this purpose, front-line aviation carried out massive bombing of Chechen settlements - Shali, Bamut, Chechen-aul, Mekhli-Yurt and extended their bombing to the villages of Ingushetia. After the fall of Grozny, the Russian army continued its offensive in all directions. On March 10, the siege of Bamut began, during which a small garrison of Chechen soldiers (about 100 people) remained under siege for more than a year, inflicting significant losses (up to 1,000 people killed) on the Russians.

After the fall of Grozny, the main forces of the Chechen army were divided into two groups: the western, which occupied the defense line that passed through Samashki - Bamut - Asinovsk, and the eastern, which held the Argun - Gudermes - Shali defense line. The eastern group was considered the main one. Russian troops were formed into two groups: “North” and “South”. The "South" group was opposed by the Western group of Chechen armed forces. Group "North" under the command of I. Babichev opposed the eastern group of Chechen troops.

On May 30, the Council of Field Commanders of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria asked Dzhokhar Dudayev to make a decision on transferring hostilities to Russian territory. Instead, the headquarters of the Chechen command was evacuated from surrounded Shali (during the assault of which the Russians used cluster bombs) to the city of Argun, and from there to Vedeno. Subsequently, the headquarters of the Chechen leadership was moved for a long time to the village of Dargo.

The 50th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany in World War II was approaching. Continuation of hostilities in Chechnya could seriously damage Russia's prestige in the international arena and prevent the leaders of leading countries from coming to Moscow for the holidays. In this regard, Boris Yeltsin signed a Decree on normalizing the situation in the Chechen Republic, according to which he declared a moratorium on military operations in Chechnya from April 28 to May 11, 1995.

After the end of the moratorium on May 12, 1995, the Russians launched a large-scale attack on the foothill villages of Bamut and Orekhovo in the west of Chechnya, as well as on Serzhen-Yurt and Chiri-Yurt in the south, with the goal of reaching the Vedeno and Shatoi mountain regions. The offensive of the Russian troops stopped, and fierce and lengthy positional battles ensued. By the end of the second period of the campaign, the conflict entered the stage of escalation of armed struggle. From the second half of May to the first half of June, Russian troops constantly attacked the positions of Chechen armed units in the mountainous and foothill regions.

In mid-June, as a result of Shamil Basayev’s attack on Budennovsk, another ceasefire agreement was concluded and negotiations began between the Russian and Chechen leadership. An agreement in principle was reached on the exchange of all prisoners, the disarmament of the CRI armed forces, the withdrawal of Russian troops and the holding of free elections. The date of elections in Chechnya was determined: November 5, 1995.

On December 14, 1995, military units of the Chechen army occupied a number of large settlements in the Chechen Republic. In particular, Shatoy, Novogroznensk, Achkhoy-Martan, Urus-Martan and Gudermes were occupied. Only Urus-Martan was taken without a fight. In other settlements, armed clashes occurred, and in Gudermes it turned into heavy fighting; the one and a half week battles ended only on December 25, when the Russians managed to oust the Chechen army from the city.

Fighting in 1996

The commander of the Russian joint forces in Chechnya, Lieutenant General V. Tikhomirov, stated that the negotiations under the auspices of the OSCE were a fatal mistake and that next Russian troops plan to restore full control of Russian troops over the vast majority of settlements in Chechnya, and the final destruction of Chechen armed formations.

So on March 14, 1996, Russian troops blocked the village of Samashki, where an armed detachment of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria was located under the command of Kh. Khachukaev. During the negotiations, an agreement was reached on a peaceful resolution of the situation. But on the morning of March 15, the Russians began an assault on the village using armored vehicles, artillery, combat helicopters and front-line aviation, and vacuum bombs were used. Russian troops advanced under the cover of a “human shield” of village residents.

Throughout the year, active hostilities continued on the territory of Chechnya, which were especially fierce in the southern mountainous regions of Chechnya and in the west of the country in the Bamut region, which the Russian army could not take for more than a year. During the siege of Bamut, many military operations initiated by both the Russian and Chechen sides took place. Particularly fierce fighting took place during the battle for Goisk, which was occupied by Chechen units under the command of Akhmed Zakaev. The Russians managed to capture Goysk only after massive six-day bombing and artillery shelling.

Boris Yeltsin was forced to once again begin peace negotiations with the government of the Chechen state. On May 28, a ceasefire agreement was concluded from June 1. However, until mid-summer it became clear that no agreement would be found and new military action could not be avoided. While the main forces of the Russian army were in the south of Ichkeria, the Chechen command was preparing for an operation to liberate Grozny and other large cities of the Chechen Republic in the center of the country from the Russians.

The defeat of Russian troops during Operation Jihad

August 6, 1996 A small unit of the Chechen army, numbering about 1,000 soldiers, entered Grozny. Currently, there were groups of Russian troops in the capital of Chechnya, numbering up to 20 thousand fighters, about 200 armored vehicles and many other heavy weapons. However, despite the numerical advantage of the Russians, the Chechens managed to capture almost all of Grozny and all its key facilities within a few hours, blocking and encircling Russian troops. Only on August 7, an attempt was made to break through into Grozny by a Russian armored column, which, however, having suffered heavy losses (several hundred people) was forced to retreat.

On August 19, Russian General Konstantin Pulikovsky announced that if Chechen troops did not leave Grozny within 48 hours, the city would be leveled with the help of strategic bombers (which had not previously been used in Chechnya) and ballistic missiles. This statement caused panic in Grozny among local residents who hastened to leave the city. However, the representative of the Russian President in the Chechen Republic, Alexander Lebed, personally arrived in Chechnya, managed to stop the bloodshed and begin a peaceful negotiation process.

On August 31, 1996, cessation of hostilities agreements were signed in Khasavyurt, ending the first Chechen war.

The federal leadership tried to achieve the preservation of 2 Russian brigades in Chechnya, but after the obvious military defeat in Grozny, this was out of the question - the leadership of Ichkeria stated that it did not guarantee their safety. As a result, by the end of 1996, the federal group completely left Chechnya.

On May 12, 1997, a Treaty on Peace and Principles of Relations between the Russian Federation and the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria was concluded.

The Chechen side, not observing the terms of the agreement, took the line towards the immediate secession of the Chechen Republic from Russia. Terror against employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and representatives of local authorities intensified, and attempts to rally the population of other North Caucasian republics around Chechnya on an anti-Russian basis intensified.

When Alexey, a signalman from the old shift, and I, the day after our arrival, walked around the posts, counting TA-57 inductor telephones, I heard frequent and chaotic shooting. They fired from Kalashnikov assault rifles of 7.62 caliber. I asked Alexey what kind of shooting was going on. The answer was shocking. Alexey, not attaching any significance to this shooting, replied: “It’s a Chechen wedding.” “And often do weddings take place?” – I clarified.
- Yes, almost every other day.
- Who’s shooting? Why aren't measures taken?
- So the Chechen cops accompanying the wedding shoot. Imagine for a moment, you are walking somewhere in Moscow or Kemerovo to work, and suddenly there is shooting, armed people are accompanying someone’s wedding. The shock, take my word for it, goes away in three days. You just get used to this shooting and don’t notice it anymore.
You already know what my colleagues in the fire department had to do in Chechnya. I’ll tell you about the responsibilities of me and Sergei Doroganov. Communication, it is also in Africa, communication. Our task was precisely to ensure that this very connection existed. We were responsible for two types of communications: radio and wired communications. Both did not cause any particular problems, but still, there were moments when it was necessary to resolve issues with its organization, as such, or with its restoration. I have already mentioned wedding processions. So, every now and then after this kind of wedding ceremonies, for some reason the wired connection disappeared. Everything was explained quite simply, stray tracer bullets burned through the field cable that we used as an “air balloon”. I had to take a reel, and, as during the First World War and the Civil War, go along the line in search of a cliff. True, a cover group was always sent to restore contact with us, the presence of which gave us a sense of confidence and allowed us to calmly deal with our issues. Although, as soon as I climbed the pole to clear the cliff, I immediately realized that safety was relative. If a fairly extensive panorama opened up to me from the pillar, then where is the guarantee that they couldn’t just as easily notice me.
Not everything was rosy regarding the use of radio communications. As a rule, autonomous units that were operationally subordinate to the VOVD arrived in the Chechen Republic with their own radio stations. On the one hand, this is good, you don’t have to think about where to get radio stations to supply them, on the other hand, the effect of their use depended on the technical characteristics of these radio stations. If the radio stations operated in the same frequency range as those used in the VOVD, the problem was solved by reconfiguring them; if in a different range, they had to shrug their shoulders. Of course, this begs another question. Why should the issues of interaction between units arriving from different regions of the country be decided by the commanders of these units themselves at home?
There was still, in my opinion, an unresolved issue. Ensuring the secrecy of negotiations using radio stations. Yes, of course, imported Motorolas could be programmed as you wish, but on the same network, on the same radio stations, Chechen police officers also got in touch, and even their boss did not always trust them. As a result, for about three weeks, at night on our frequencies, militants or their associates threatened us with death and all that jazz, trying to disrupt our psyche. However, when the employees, at my urgent request, stopped responding to messages of this kind, the threats stopped.
In addition to the issues of maintaining communications equipment in combat readiness, Sergei and I were involved in carrying out activities to check the passport regime (the so-called sweep), and of course, like everyone else, to perform guard duty.
A little lyrical digression. Literally on the second day of my stay in Achkhoy-Martan, on the roof of the building where our cockpit was located, I saw an amateur radio antenna for HF communications. So it turns out that radio amateurs lived here, I thought. And indeed, on the wall to the right of our workplace, there was a sheet of paper with a list of amateur radio call signs that belonged to radio amateurs in Voronezh (before the Kuzbass policemen, policemen from the Voronezh region served here). With annoyance I remembered that I never received the transceiver that Selyunin promised me. Selyunin himself was on vacation, but apparently forgot to give instructions to his deputy. It's a shame, of course, but service is service. Another piece of paper was also glued there. On this sheet, similar to the official letterhead of Ichkeria, in green font, there was printed text resembling an order. Below is an excerpt from this text, what especially caught my eye:

“For the destruction of an enemy, a Mujahid or a sympathizer is entitled to:
for a private soldier - $250.
for a riot policeman or contract soldier - $500.
for an officer - $1,000.
Installation of a mine - 300 dollars.
Blown up armored personnel carrier - $3,000.
Downed helicopter - $15,000.
Downed plane - $30,000.
By decree of the highest military Majlis-Shura of Ichkeria, awards are announced for the capture and delivery of captured Russian officers to the Mujahideen command:
OMON, SOBR, Ministry of Internal Affairs and units of internal troops: militia - 100 dollars, private - 20 rams, lieutenant-captain - 50 rams, major - colonel - 100 rams, general - 40 rams.
GRU and AFB: lieutenant-captain - 40 rams, major-colonel - 80 rams, general - 40 bulls.
Military personnel of combined arms units: private - 15 sheep, lieutenant - captain - 35 sheep, major - colonel - 60 sheep, general - 40 bulls.
Currently, it is necessary to have more captured Russian officers to exchange for the Mujahideen who fell into the hands of the Russian occupiers."

You understand, such reading did not bring pleasant emotions. Well, in order not to tease the snipers, we still removed the stars from the shoulder straps. As they say, God protects those who are careful.
Less than two weeks of our service had passed when we witnessed a celebration among the traffic police officers of the Chelyabinsk region. It turns out that the guys celebrated “Equator”, in other words, half the time spent on a business trip. "Equator" is akin to the soldiers' holiday "One Hundred Days Before the Order." The funniest guys, like soldiers, even shave their heads. Joy is understandable, another half and home. The hero of the evening, I think, was an excellent guitarist and performer, my namesake, sorry, I forgot his last name. I sang songs, you will listen to them. Before the traffic police, he sang in the philharmonic, but the salary was small and... By the way, the guys from the Chelyabinsk traffic police rewrote the verses of the famous song “Airport” in their own style. It turned out very well. I rewrote the words, but I let someone else rewrite them myself, and there was no trace of them.
A little about our smaller brothers. Two or three dogs have taken root on the territory of the town; they are outbred, or in the language of dog handlers or breeders, mestizos. I was amazed by their ability to determine whether they were their own or someone else’s. There were many examples of this. Thus, the dogs unmistakably singled out the Chechens from the general mass of people in camouflage. These dogs let us pet them, even though they were seeing them for the first time, and immediately rushed barking at the Chechen policemen, although they were dressed in the same uniform as ours. Chechen civilian workers who periodically performed some kind of work in the town also suffered from the dogs. There is one version. A specific smell emanating from people of Chechen nationality or from the area where they live.
On the territory of the town, in addition to the dogs, two more residents “registered” who had no direct connection with the VOVD, or rather, first one, and then the other joined him. They were yet another example of the horrors of war. These people were in slavery for ten years (the first in Chechnya, the second, liberated by our detachment, in Ingushetia), and, living in bestial conditions, they completely lost their human appearance. These people, in exchange for a roof over their heads, a bed and bread, performed various household chores (mainly cleaning the territory). The years spent in slavery, obviously, taught them to do without a roof over their heads and a bed; having treated themselves to alcohol, they could easily spend the night right on the ground, having chosen some place. I don’t know who they were before slavery, but they flatly refused our commander’s offer to go to Siberia for free (the man freed from Ingushetia was from the Novosibirsk region). Maybe there was a sin on their souls, they paid for it in full.
Day after day, week after week, the first month of the business trip flew by. The situation in Achkhoy-Martan and the region was relatively calm, there were no large-scale militant actions, and few people paid attention to local (two or three machine gun bursts). Sergei and I have already taken part in passport verification events more than once. In my opinion, they were most likely of an indicative, if you like, protocol nature. Such events were most likely carried out for the press rather than to identify militants. Maybe I'm wrong. But judge for yourself. All the security forces taking part in it, including the Chechen policemen, know in advance about the next “purge” (and you already know how their commander treated them). At the appointed hour, a column of representatives from almost all law enforcement agencies is formed, and off we go. While moving, the column stretched for almost a kilometer. In this situation, I personally would not guarantee that those who should be afraid of the purges did not know about it. I remember one of these “cleansing” operations. We had the official part, everything started to get going, and someone from the local leadership suggested we go fishing. How fishing is carried out was perfectly shown in the film “Deadly Force”, I mean, the beginning of fishing. After fishing to no avail, on two small lakes, in the same way as in the film, we went to a river where there was a mill and a small dam. The mill workers, two Chechens of fairly advanced age, warned that the fish had been knocked out long ago and there was nothing to do there. However, despite the warning, the guys went to try their luck, but I went with the Chechens to their lodge. We met, drank to get to know each other, and started talking. From the conversation, I realized that many Chechens regret the times of the Soviet Union, curse the war, and blame the Wahhabis for the start of the war with Russia. I don’t know whether they were sincere at that moment, it seemed to me that they were. Of course, among the Chechens, as among others, there are different people. Below I will give an example. There were often cases when we went to Khanaklu in cars of the Achkhoy-Martan Administration with Chechen drivers. So, on one of these trips, while waiting for the command to finish its meeting, we drove in one of the cars to a residential town and bought various food there. Upon arrival, having laid out their food in the open luggage compartment of the Niva, they invited the Chechen drivers to treat themselves (and it was a Muslim fast). Some people flatly refused, it was impossible, while others hid behind the phrase that Allah doesn’t see food from heaven in Niva. As they say, draw your own conclusions.
There was also an example of Russian-Chechen “solidarity”. Once, one policeman, sort of jokingly, in a conversation suggested that I buy a Chechen girl for 500 rubles!!! Not for an hour or a night, as you may have thought. He offered to buy her as a slave, pay her money, they say, and take her away, only secretly, so that the locals don’t know. Then, I didn’t give any meaning to this proposal, but then I thought, but there is no smoke without fire. By the way, this policeman apparently got caught doing something, his machine gun was taken away from him and he was assigned to a “zindan”, a guardhouse in our opinion.
Although, in fairness, I note that there were other, real sweeps, with real results (detainment of militants and discovery of weapons caches). A very narrow circle of people knew about the time and place of such purges, and the direct participants learned about it about 15 minutes before the start. I guessed this because I myself took part in escorting militants to Khankala (as a social burden and providing assistance to the guards when I went to Khankala to resolve my official issues).
November 10, Police Day, was approaching; they were expecting provocations from the militants; commanders never tired of reminding them of vigilance and discipline. Thank God, everything worked out.
In the morning, a ceremonial formation was announced, everyone who was supposed to spoke, some were encouraged, and they were once again reminded of vigilance and discipline. Before they had time to disperse to their locations, they announced another assembly for the formation. It turns out that the military commandant of Achkhoy-Martan arrived with congratulations, gave a congratulatory speech, then presented the personnel of the VOVD with a young boar with the inscription “Khattab” on its sides, after which he left. After this event, VOVD began to say that the commandant slipped a pig to the cops on the holiday. They decided not to stab Khattab right away. They built a pen for him and fed him almost until the New Year.
After lunch, Igor (the guitarist) and I from the Chelyabinsk State Traffic Inspectorate were invited by the political officer of the VOVD. The political officer asked us to perform in honor of the holiday in front of the Chechen police, after which we went to the local school, where a ceremonial meeting was held, and then a concert. It was the first time I left the town. armed not with a machine gun, but with a guitar, however, and the last one. I felt the adrenaline rush 100 percent.
Of course, other holidays were also celebrated, for example, Motorist Day, Investigator Day, etc. But these holidays were not common, and were celebrated in a narrow circle, directly by those who were related to them. True, because I had a guitar, I was invited to events related to the celebration of professional holidays, sometimes even with my partner Sergei.
After November 10, Chelyabinsk residents got ready to go home. They came to Achkhoy-Martan on their own, i.e. in their patrol cars, they went home in the same way. No one came to replace the Chelyabinsk residents, so our town became a little empty, literally and figuratively. Firstly, the territory occupied by the cars of the Chelyabinsk residents, as well as the room where they slept, was vacated, and secondly, there was no one else to sing the song composed by this detachment. I don’t remember the performers among our traffic cops, and the song didn’t suit the rest because of their professional accent.
Police drivers approached me with a request to remake this song for them, but I didn’t like their idea, but I realized that I needed a song that would be a memory of my business trip in this republic. And she appeared over the next week. It happened that I woke up in the middle of the night, and the lines formed themselves.

Achkhoy-Martan, you didn’t call us,
And we didn’t rush to you,

And here we all gathered.
But we were given orders from above,
And here we all gathered.

Achkhoy-Martan is a region of Chechnya.
Bamut, Katyr, Samashki.
Achkhoy-Martan, explosion all around,
Shelling and tripwires.
Achkhoy - Martan, explosion all around,
Shelling and tripwires.

Achkhoy-Martan is a piece of Chechnya.
Life here is like on a volcano.

And remember what their name was.
It could explode at any moment,
And remember what their name was.

Achkhoy-Martan. God grant us
Come home alive.
And if there is no shame,
The greatness of Russia.
And if there is no shame,
The greatness of Russia.

Achkhoy-Martan. Well then, goodbye.
We paid our military debt.
And now it's time for us to go home,
Everyone at home was waiting for us.
And now it's time for us to go home,
Everyone at home was waiting for us.

You understand, such reading did not bring pleasant emotions. Well, in order not to tease the snipers, we still removed the stars from the shoulder straps. As they say, God protects those who are careful.
Less than two weeks of our service had passed when we witnessed a celebration among the traffic police officers of the Chelyabinsk region. It turns out that the guys celebrated “Equator”, in other words, half the time spent on a business trip. "Equator" is akin to the soldiers' holiday "One Hundred Days Before the Order." The funniest guys, like soldiers, even shave their heads. Joy is understandable, another half and home. The hero of the evening, I think, was an excellent guitarist and performer, my namesake, sorry, I forgot his last name. I sang songs, you will listen to them. Before the traffic police, he sang in the philharmonic, but the salary was small and... By the way, the guys from the Chelyabinsk traffic police rewrote the verses of the famous song “Airport” in their own style. It turned out very well. I rewrote the words, but I let someone else rewrite them myself, and there was no trace of them.
A little about our smaller brothers. Two or three dogs have taken root on the territory of the town; they are outbred, or in the language of dog handlers or breeders, mestizos. I was amazed by their ability to determine whether they were their own or someone else’s. There were many examples of this. Thus, the dogs unmistakably singled out the Chechens from the general mass of people in camouflage. These dogs let us pet them, even though they were seeing them for the first time, and immediately rushed barking at the Chechen policemen, although they were dressed in the same uniform as ours. Chechen civilian workers who periodically performed some kind of work in the town also suffered from the dogs. There is one version. A specific smell emanating from people of Chechen nationality or from the area where they live.
On the territory of the town, in addition to the dogs, two more residents “registered” who had no direct connection with the VOVD, or rather, first one, and then the other joined him. They were yet another example of the horrors of war. These people were in slavery for ten years (the first in Chechnya, the second, liberated by our detachment, in Ingushetia), and, living in bestial conditions, they completely lost their human appearance. These people, in exchange for a roof over their heads, a bed and bread, performed various household chores (mainly cleaning the territory). The years spent in slavery, obviously, taught them to do without a roof over their heads and a bed; having treated themselves to alcohol, they could easily spend the night right on the ground, having chosen some place. I don’t know who they were before slavery, but they flatly refused our commander’s offer to go to Siberia for free (the man freed from Ingushetia was from the Novosibirsk region). Maybe there was a sin on their souls, they paid for it in full.
Day after day, week after week, the first month of the business trip flew by. The situation in Achkhoy-Martan and the region was relatively calm, there were no large-scale militant actions, and few people paid attention to local (two or three machine gun bursts). Sergei and I have already taken part in passport verification events more than once. In my opinion, they were most likely of an indicative, if you like, protocol nature. Such events were most likely carried out for the press rather than to identify militants. Maybe I'm wrong. But judge for yourself. All the security forces taking part in it, including the Chechen policemen, know in advance about the next “cleansing” (and you already know how their commander treated them). At the appointed hour, a column of representatives from almost all law enforcement agencies is formed, and off we go. While moving, the column stretched for almost a kilometer. In this situation, I personally would not guarantee that those who should be afraid of the purges did not know about it. I remember one of these “cleansing” operations. We had the official part, everything started to get going, and someone from the local leadership suggested we go fishing. How fishing is carried out was perfectly shown in the film “Deadly Force”, I mean, the beginning of fishing. After fishing to no avail, on two small lakes, in the same way as in the film, we went to a river where there was a mill and a small dam. The mill workers, two Chechens of fairly advanced age, warned that the fish had been knocked out long ago and there was nothing to do there. However, despite the warning, the guys went to try their luck, but I went with the Chechens to their lodge. We met, drank to get to know each other, and started talking. From the conversation, I realized that many Chechens regret the times of the Soviet Union, curse the war, and blame the Wahhabis for the start of the war with Russia. I don’t know whether they were sincere at that moment, it seemed to me that they were. Of course, among the Chechens, as among others, there are different people. Below I will give an example. There were often cases when we went to Khanaklu in cars of the Achkhoy-Martan Administration with Chechen drivers. So, on one of these trips, while waiting for the command to finish its meeting, we drove in one of the cars to a residential town and bought various food there. Upon arrival, having laid out their food in the open luggage compartment of the Niva, they invited the Chechen drivers to treat themselves (and it was a Muslim fast). Some people flatly refused, it was impossible, while others hid behind the phrase that Allah doesn’t see food from heaven in Niva. As they say, draw your own conclusions.
There was also an example of Russian-Chechen “solidarity”. Once, one policeman, sort of jokingly, in a conversation suggested that I buy a Chechen girl for 500 rubles!!! Not for an hour or a night, as you may have thought. He offered to buy her as a slave, pay her money, they say, and take her away, only secretly, so that the locals don’t know. Then, I didn’t give any meaning to this proposal, but then I thought, but there is no smoke without fire. By the way, this policeman apparently got caught doing something, his machine gun was taken away from him and he was assigned to a “zindan”, a guardhouse in our opinion.
Although, in fairness, I note that there were other, real sweeps, with real results (detainment of militants and discovery of weapons caches). A very narrow circle of people knew about the time and place of such purges, and the direct participants learned about it about 15 minutes before the start. I guessed this because I myself took part in escorting militants to Khankala (as a social burden and providing assistance to the guards when I went to Khankala to resolve my official issues).
November 10, Police Day, was approaching; they were expecting provocations from the militants; commanders never tired of reminding them of vigilance and discipline. Thank God, everything worked out.
In the morning, a ceremonial formation was announced, everyone who was supposed to spoke, some were encouraged, and they were once again reminded of vigilance and discipline. Before they had time to disperse to their locations, they announced another assembly for the formation. It turns out that the military commandant of Achkhoy-Martan arrived with congratulations, gave a congratulatory speech, then presented the personnel of the VOVD with a young boar with the inscription “Khattab” on its sides, after which he left. After this event, VOVD began to say that the commandant slipped a pig to the cops on the holiday. They decided not to stab Khattab right away. They built a pen for him and fed him almost until the New Year.
After lunch, Igor (the guitarist) and I from the Chelyabinsk State Traffic Inspectorate were invited by the political officer of the VOVD. The political officer asked us to perform in honor of the holiday in front of the Chechen police, after which we went to the local school, where a ceremonial meeting was held, and then a concert. It was the first time I left the town. armed not with a machine gun, but with a guitar, however, and the last one. I felt the adrenaline rush 100 percent.
Of course, other holidays were also celebrated, for example, Motorist Day, Investigator Day, etc. But these holidays were not common, and were celebrated in a narrow circle, directly by those who were related to them. True, because I had a guitar, I was invited to events related to the celebration of professional holidays, sometimes even with my partner Sergei.
After November 10, Chelyabinsk residents got ready to go home. They came to Achkhoy-Martan on their own, i.e. in their patrol cars, they went home in the same way. No one came to replace the Chelyabinsk residents, so our town became a little empty, literally and figuratively. Firstly, the territory occupied by the cars of the Chelyabinsk residents, as well as the room where they slept, was vacated, and secondly, there was no one else to sing the song composed by this detachment. I don’t remember the performers among our traffic cops, and the song didn’t suit the rest because of their professional accent.
Police drivers approached me with a request to remake this song for them, but I didn’t like their idea, but I realized that I needed a song that would be a memory of my business trip in this republic. And she appeared over the next week. It happened that I woke up in the middle of the night, and the lines formed themselves.

Achkhoy-Martan, you didn’t call us,
And we didn’t rush to you,

And here we all gathered.
But we were given orders from above,
And here we all gathered.

Achkhoy-Martan is a region of Chechnya.
Bamut, Katyr, Samashki.
Achkhoy-Martan, explosion all around,
Shelling and tripwires.
Achkhoy - Martan, explosion all around,
Shelling and tripwires.

Achkhoy-Martan is a piece of Chechnya.
Life here is like on a volcano.

And remember what their name was.
It could explode at any moment,
And remember what their name was.

Achkhoy-Martan. God grant us
Come home alive.
And if there is no shame,
The greatness of Russia.
And if there is no shame,
The greatness of Russia.

Hello! My name is Melnikova Daria. I study at the MCOU "Lozovskaya Secondary School" with. Lozovoye, Voronezh region.

Quite recently I read V.M.Barabashov’s book “Heroes Become in Battle.” This book is dedicated to Voronezh policemen who died in the North Caucasus region over the years. I want to talk about the heroes of our time in the “Road to the Obelisk” project. There are fifteen of them, four are Heroes of Russia (posthumously), eight were awarded the Order of Courage (posthumously). But those who did not receive posthumous awards are also heroes, because they gave their lives for the integrity of the state called Russia, for its indivisibility and independence from the encroachment of hostile forces, international terrorism and extremism.

In the second half of the 90s, Chechnya actually escaped the control of the federal center and turned into a giant abscess on the body of Russia, torn by criminal passions. The large-scale military operations that began in the fall of 1999, during which dozens of pockets of militant resistance had to be extinguished, soon transformed into the so-called counter-terrorism operation. The key role in it was given to the units of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

At the time of the second Chechen campaign, a temporary department of internal affairs was formed in the Achkhoy-Martan region, which became a second place of service for many policemen from the Central Black Earth Region. It was there that the first irreparable combat loss of the Voronezh police occurred.

On the night of January 14, 2000, on the central square of Achkhoy-Martan, an armored personnel carrier carrying the commander of the patrol dog company of the municipal PPSM regiment, Sergei Anatolyevich Anikin, was fired upon from grenade launchers and small arms. Within half an hour, he, together with other policemen, repelled the attack of the militants, was seriously wounded and died almost immediately after the battle. Z The title of Hero of the Russian Federation was awarded posthumously to Sergei Anatolyevich Anikin on July 26, 2000.

They become heroes in battle

A bust of Hero of Russia Sergei Anikin was unveiled in Buturlinovka. School in the village Ozerki, where Hero studied, is named after him.

They become heroes in battle

Less than a month later, on February 5, 2000, during a cleanup of one of the villages in the territory

In the Achkhoy-Martan district, where Salman Raduev’s militants were hiding, another Voronezh police fighter, Vitaly Vladimirovich Zakharov, an employee of the Southern Department of the Internal Affairs Directorate of the Left Bank District, was killed by a sniper’s bullet.

They become heroes in battle

On February 7, 2000, Grozny fell. Despite the fact that the city was reliably blocked by federal troops, a certain part of the Chechen forces still managed to escape from the encirclement. In March, units of the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Internal Affairs surrounded the patrimony of Ruslan Gelayev - the village of Komsomolskoye, where a large formation of militants was entrenched. On March 6, 2000, during the capture of the specified settlement, eleven soldiers of the Rosich detachment and four SOBR officers were killed, including an officer from Voronezh Yaroslav Viktorovich Belov, who, unfortunately, has not yet been awarded the highest government award...

They become heroes in battle

On the same day, two more Voronezh residents died, Igor Mikhailovich Korobkov and Alexander Viktorovich Strukov. The UAZ in which they and four other police officers were moving to Achkhoy-Martan from Mozdok was ambushed. Senior Sergeant Strukov, who was driving the car, was seriously wounded in the chest and, dying, did everything to take it out of the firing sector. However, a deadly burst from a machine gun finally reached Senior Lieutenant Korobkov, who was in the back seat. Thus, the lives of two policemen from Voronezh were cut short in an instant.

They become heroes in battle

On August 20, 2000, a group of riot police, including the platoon commander of the first operational company of the Voronezh special police detachment, Viktor Aleksandrovich Budantsev, accompanied members of the election commission in an armored personnel carrier, who were heading by car from the village of Lermontov-Yurt to Achkhoy-Martan. Right in front of the bridge over the Fortanga River, an armored personnel carrier was blown up by a guided landmine and was hit by heavy fire. Having been wounded in the leg, Budantsev, however, did not lose his head, started the stalled armored personnel carrier and, covering the Zhiguli with civilians in armor, gave them the opportunity to jump out of the shelling zone. After that, while dragging the shell-shocked soldier to a safe place, he saw a grenade thrown by the militants and fell next to it, protecting his comrade from imminent death at the cost of his own life.

Posthumously, Viktor Aleksandrovich Budantsev was awarded the title of Hero of Russia.

They become heroes in battle

Awarded the Order of Courage, medals “For Courage”, “For Distinction in the Protection of Public Order”, medal of the Order of Merit for the Fatherland, 2nd degree with swords.

On June 17, 2002, intelligence reported that a large gang of Doki Umarov was located in the vicinity of the mountain village of Chozhi-Chu. To destroy it, a large operational assault detachment was formed, which included Voronezh riot police. During the operation, Klyuchnikov’s fire barrier group was blocked, after which an unequal battle ensued. Almost immediately, Oleg Mikhailovich’s legs were broken and he fell at the foot of the hill, becoming a good target for the militants. At the same time, this position was perfectly suited for shooting at the enemy. The seriously wounded commander hastened to use this advantage, especially since his comrades Oleg Romanov and Valery Suslin were already firing furiously nearby...

The bandits were never able to break through Major Klyuchnikov’s barrier. When they went into the forest, the lifeless body of a brave riot policeman was left lying near a hill on the bank of the Netkhoi River. By decree of the President of the Russian Federation, he was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Russian Federation.

They become heroes in battle

On September 27, 2000, a convoy with household property was heading from Mozdok to Achkhoy-Martan. At the entrance to the city of Karabulak, one of the cars had a flat tire. While they were changing the cylinder, the convoy left, and when they set off again, an employee of the Novousmansky District Department of Internal Affairs, police sergeant Dmitry Vyacheslavovich Minakov, was overtaken by a bullet fired by someone from the side of the road. So, due to an absurd accident on the road, another wonderful guy passed away.

January 19, 2001 The commander of the Voronezh riot police, Alexander Ivanovich Vorontsov, who was in Achkhoy-Martan, received an order: to deliver two police chiefs to the meeting place, providing them with military protection. Soon the service UAZ vehicles left for the destination area. When the column was moving through the destroyed Grozny, machine guns suddenly started working in the ruins of one of the houses, then a landmine exploded five meters from the security vehicle. Voronezh riot policeman Vasily Alekseevich Titov, who was sitting in the front right seat, suffered the most - he was wounded in the head, neck, chest, limbs, and, nevertheless, to the last he shot back from the advancing militants, until his strength finally left him. By the time help arrived, Vasily Titov was already dead.

They become heroes in battle

On March 31, 2001, militants from the gang of the famous field commander Arbi Barayev, in order to impede the official activities of Voronezh riot police officers in the Achkhoy-Martan region of Chechnya, blew up their official Ural. The truck was driven by an experienced driver, Alexander Ivanovich Bechetnikov. Having received multiple wounds, he was unable to get out of the cabin of the burning car and died in the fire.

They become heroes in battle

On June 30, 2001, while an engineering reconnaissance group was carrying out a task to search for and neutralize explosive devices in the Oktyabrsky district of the city of Grozny, a powerful explosion was heard. The result is seven wounded and one killed, riot policeman from Voronezh Vladimir Vasilyevich Golomedov.

They become heroes in battle

Shortly before this, on June 22, 2001, near the village of Mesker-Yurt, militants blew up a Ural, in which a group of riot police officers was returning from a special operation. After the explosion, the car was fired upon from machine guns and grenade launchers. The driver of the car, Konstantin Anatolyevich Naumov, a policeman-driver of the Verkhnekhava District Department of Internal Affairs of the Voronezh Region, received a severe traumatic brain injury and wounds to both legs. On July 15, he died in the Rostov military hospital.

They become heroes in battle

On August 8, 2000, on the route for a special operation in the Semashki area, an armored personnel carrier in which Vyacheslav Shibilkin was located was ambushed. Two shots were fired at the car from a grenade launcher, and then the bandits opened cross-machine fire. A fight ensued. When the bandits intensified their pressure, hoping to break the Sobrov men, Vyacheslav saw an F-1 grenade fall next to him on the grille of the car’s engine. In an instant, it could cover the soldiers on the armor, or destroy the engine. Vyacheslav grabbed a grenade and swung it towards the enemy. But fragments of an enemy shell that exploded at that moment hit the brave fighter. Shibilkin also took upon himself the deadly contents of the grenade that exploded in his hand. Vyacheslav's colleagues were not harmed by the explosion and escaped from the ambush. By decree of the President of the Russian Federation of August 27, 2001, for the courage and heroism shown in the performance of official duty in conditions involving risk to life, senior police lieutenant Vyacheslav Aleksandrovich Shibilkin was awarded the title of Hero of the Russian Federation (posthumously).

They become heroes in battle

He was buried in the Alley of Heroes of the Comintern Cemetery in Voronezh.

They become heroes in battle

Memorial plaques were installed on the building of the Voronezh State University, where the Hero studied at the Faculty of Law, in the former Voronezh VVAIU, in the Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation in Moscow, in Dynamo Park.

They become heroes in battle

Every year in Voronezh a hand-to-hand combat tournament is held in memory of the Hero of the Russian Federation Vyacheslav Shibilkin.

They become heroes in battle

Russia paid at the highest rate for the restoration of constitutional order in Chechnya.

On March 22, 2005, on the outskirts of the village of Oktyabrskoye, Grozny region, an MI-8 helicopter crashed during an emergency landing. The internal troops and police officers who were in it received bodily injuries of varying degrees of severity. One of them, captain from Voronezh Sergei Aleksandrovich Kolesnikov, died a few days later in the hospital.

They become heroes in battle

Another Voronezh resident, senior police lieutenant Evgeny Mikhailovich Koltsov, was seriously wounded on August 13, 2007, while pursuing a suspicious car in the Nazran district of the Republic of Ingushetia. Two days later, he died without regaining consciousness.

They become heroes in battle

By and large, all the dead policemen are patriots of Russia, its faithful sons who love the Motherland. We must remember this and appreciate their feat. All of them, fifteen Voronezh policemen, will forever remain in our memory, in the hearts of ordinary people, for whose peace and order in the country they gave their lives. These people wrote new glorious pages in the history of both the Voronezh region and Russia as a whole. They hardly thought that they were performing a feat - they were simply fulfilling their official duty. Most of the dead were under thirty... It’s too early to put an end to the heroic North Caucasian chronicle of internal affairs officers of the Voronezh region; their months-long business trips “to war” continue. Unfortunately, this goes unnoticed, but every six-month stay in the territory of an explosive, in the literal sense of the word, region is in itself a feat.

The first is Chechen, the second...

But the soldier of fate does not choose:

An order is given - he will carry it out.

Anything can happen in war:

They say that the best are killed...

And perhaps they are telling the truth...

Yes, there was World War II

And the earth burned, burning out,

Old and young froze then in the ranks.

“Local wars” have a different path,

But we also fight, knowing for sure -

We defend our homeland!