Operational units of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR. Kalachevskaya brigade of internal troops celebrated their professional holiday Kalachevskaya brigade of internal troops

On the site of the Tukhchar tragedy, known in journalism as the “Tukhchar Golgotha ​​of the Russian outpost,” now “stands a good-quality wooden cross, erected by riot police from Sergiev Posad. At its base there are stacked stones, symbolizing Golgotha, with withered flowers lying on them. On one of the stones, a slightly bent, extinguished candle, a symbol of memory, stands lonely. There is also an icon of the Savior attached to the cross with the prayer “For the forgiveness of forgotten sins.” Forgive us, Lord, that we still don’t know what kind of place this is... six servicemen of the Russian Internal Troops were executed here. Seven more miraculously managed to escape.”

AT NAMELESS HEIGHT

They - twelve soldiers and one officer of the Kalachevskaya brigade - were sent to the border village of Tukhchar to reinforce local police officers. There were rumors that the Chechens were about to cross the river and attack the Kadar group in the rear. The senior lieutenant tried not to think about it. He had an order and he had to carry it out.

We occupied height 444.3 on the very border, dug full-length trenches and a caponier for infantry fighting vehicles. Below are the roofs of Tukhchar, a Muslim cemetery and a checkpoint. Beyond the small river is the Chechen village of Ishkhoyurt. They say it's a robber's nest. And another one, Galaity, hid in the south behind a ridge of hills. You can expect a blow from both sides. The position is like the tip of a sword, at the very front. You can stay at the height, but the flanks are unsecured. 18 cops with machine guns and a riotous motley militia are not the most reliable cover.

On the morning of September 5, Tashkin was awakened by a patrolman: “Comrade senior lieutenant, there seem to be...“spirits.” Tashkin immediately became serious. He ordered: “Get the boys up, but don’t make any noise!”

From the explanatory note of Private Andrei Padyakov:

On the hill that was opposite us, in the Chechen Republic, first four, then about 20 more militants appeared. Then our senior lieutenant Tashkin ordered the sniper to open fire to kill... I clearly saw how after the sniper’s shot one militant fell... Then they opened massive fire on us from machine guns and grenade launchers... Then the militias gave up their positions, and the militants went around the village and took us into ring. We noticed about 30 militants running across the village behind us.”

The militants did not go where they were expected. They crossed the river south of Height 444 and went deeper into the territory of Dagestan. A few bursts of fire were enough to disperse the militia. Meanwhile, the second group - also about twenty to twenty-five people - attacked a police checkpoint on the outskirts of Tukhchar. This detachment was headed by a certain Umar Karpinsky, the leader of the Karpinsky jamaat (a district in the city of Grozny), who was personally subordinate to Abdul-Malik Mezhidov, the commander of the Sharia Guard.* The Chechens with a short blow knocked the police out of the checkpoint** and, hiding behind the gravestones of the cemetery, began to approach the positions of the motorized riflemen . At the same time, the first group attacked the height from the rear. On this side, the BMP caponier had no protection and the lieutenant ordered the driver-mechanic to take the vehicle to the ridge and maneuver.

"Height", we are under attack! - Tashkin shouted, pressing the headset to his ear, - They are attacking with superior forces! What?! I ask for fire support!” But “Vysota” was occupied by Lipetsk riot police and demanded to hold on. Tashkin swore and jumped off the armor. “How the f... hold on?! Four horns per brother..."***

The denouement was approaching. A minute later, a cumulative grenade arrived from God knows where and broke the side of the “box.” The gunner, along with the turret, was thrown about ten meters; the driver died instantly.

Tashkin looked at his watch. It was 7.30 am. Half an hour of battle - and he had already lost his main trump card: a 30-mm BMP assault rifle, which kept the “Czechs” at a respectful distance. In addition, communications were cut off and ammunition was running out. We must leave while we can. In five minutes it will be too late.

Having picked up the shell-shocked and badly burned gunner Aleskey Polagaev, the soldiers rushed down to the second checkpoint. The wounded man was carried on his shoulders by his friend Ruslan Shindin, then Alexey woke up and ran on his own. Seeing the soldiers running towards them, the police covered them with fire from the checkpoint. After a short firefight, there was a lull. After some time, local residents came to the post and reported that the militants had given half an hour for them to leave Tukhchar. The villagers took civilian clothes with them to the post - this was the only chance of salvation for the policemen and soldiers. The senior lieutenant did not agree to leave the checkpoint, and then the police, as one of the soldiers later said, “got into a fight with him.”****

The argument of force turned out to be convincing. Among the crowd of local residents, the defenders of the checkpoint reached the village and began to hide - some in basements and attics, and some in corn thickets.

Tukhchar resident Gurum Dzhaparova says: He arrived - only the shooting died down. How did you come? I went out into the yard and saw him standing, staggering, holding on to the gate. He was covered in blood and badly burned - no hair, no ears, the skin on his face was torn. Chest, shoulder, arm - everything was cut by shrapnel. I'll hurry him home. Militants, I say, are all around. You should go to your people. Will you really get there like this? She sent her eldest Ramazan, he is 9 years old, for a doctor... His clothes are covered in blood, burnt. Grandma Atikat and I cut it off, quickly put it in a bag and threw it into the ravine. They washed it somehow. Our village doctor Hasan came, removed the fragments, lubricated the wounds. I also got an injection - diphenhydramine, or what? He began to fall asleep from the injection. I put it in the room with the children.

Half an hour later, the militants, on the orders of Umar, began to “comb” the village - the hunt for soldiers and policemen began. Tashkin, four soldiers and a Dagestan policeman hid in a barn. The barn was surrounded. They brought cans of gasoline and doused the walls. “Give up, or we’ll burn you alive!” The answer is silence. The militants looked at each other. “Who is your eldest there? Decide, commander! Why die in vain? We don’t need your lives - we’ll feed you and then exchange them for our own! Give up!"

The soldiers and the policeman believed it and came out. And only when police lieutenant Akhmed Davdiev was cut off by a machine gun burst did they realize that they had been cruelly deceived. “And we have prepared something else for you!” — the Chechens laughed.

From the testimony of the defendant Tamerlan Khasaev:

Umar ordered all buildings to be checked. We dispersed and began to go around houses two at a time. I was an ordinary soldier and followed orders, especially since I was a new person among them; not everyone trusted me. And as I understand it, the operation was prepared in advance and clearly organized. I learned on the radio that a soldier had been found in the barn. We were given an order via radio to gather at a police checkpoint outside the village of Tukhchar. When everyone gathered, these 6 soldiers were already there.”

The burnt gunner was betrayed by one of the locals. Gurum Japarova tried to defend him - it was useless. He left surrounded by a dozen bearded guys - to his death.

What happened next was scrupulously recorded on camera by the action cameraman. Umar, apparently, decided to “raise the wolf cubs.” In the battle near Tukhchar, his company lost four, each of those killed had relatives and friends, and they had a blood debt hanging on them. “You took our blood - we will take yours!” - Umar said to the prisoners. The soldiers were taken to the outskirts. Four “bloods” took turns cutting the throats of an officer and three soldiers. Another one broke free and tried to run away - he was shot with a machine gun. The sixth one was personally stabbed to death by Umar.

Only the next morning, the head of the village administration, Magomed-Sultan Gasanov, received permission from the militants to take the bodies. On a school truck, the corpses of senior lieutenant Vasily Tashkin and privates Vladimir Kaufman, Alexei Lipatov, Boris Erdneev, Alexei Polagaev and Konstantin Anisimov were delivered to the Gerzel checkpoint. The rest managed to sit out. Some local residents took them to the Gerzelsky Bridge the very next morning. On the way, they learned about the execution of their colleagues. Alexey Ivanov, after sitting in the attic for two days, left the village when Russian aircraft began bombing him. Fyodor Chernavin sat in the basement for five whole days - the owner of the house helped him get out to his own people.

The story doesn't end there. In a few days, the recording of the murder of soldiers of the 22nd brigade will be shown on Grozny television. Then, already in 2000, it will fall into the hands of investigators. Based on the materials of the videotape, a criminal case will be initiated against 9 people. Of these, only two will be brought to justice. Tamerlan Khasaev will receive a life sentence, Islam Mukaev - 25 years. Material taken from the forum “BRATishka” http://phorum.bratishka.ru/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=7406&start=350

About these same events from the press:

“I just approached him with a knife.”

In the Ingush regional center of Sleptsovsk, employees of the Urus-Martan and Sunzhensky district police departments detained Islam Mukaev, suspected of involvement in the brutal execution of six Russian servicemen in the Dagestan village of Tukhchar in September 1999, when Basayev’s gang occupied several villages in the Novolaksky region of Dagestan. A videotape confirming his involvement in the bloody massacre, as well as weapons and ammunition, were confiscated from Mukaev. Now law enforcement officials are checking the detainee for his possible involvement in other crimes, since it is known that he was a member of illegal armed groups. Before Mukaev’s arrest, the only participant in the execution who fell into the hands of justice was Tamerlan Khasaev, who was sentenced to life imprisonment in October 2002.

Hunting for soldiers

In the early morning of September 5, 1999, Basayev’s troops invaded the territory of the Novolaksky district. Emir Umar was responsible for the Tukhchar direction. The road to the Chechen village of Galaity, leading from Tukhchar, was guarded by a checkpoint manned by Dagestani policemen. On the hill they were covered by an infantry fighting vehicle and 13 soldiers from a brigade of internal troops sent to strengthen a checkpoint from the neighboring village of Duchi. But the militants entered the village from the rear, and, having captured the village police department after a short battle, they began to fire at the hill. The BMP, buried in the ground, caused considerable damage to the attackers, but when the encirclement began to shrink, senior lieutenant Vasily Tashkin ordered the BMP to be driven out of the trench and open fire across the river on the car that was transporting the militants. The ten-minute hitch turned out to be fatal for the soldiers. A shot from a grenade launcher demolished the combat vehicle's turret. The gunner died on the spot, and the driver Alexey Polagaev was shell-shocked. Tashkin ordered the others to retreat to a checkpoint located a few hundred meters away. The unconscious Polagaev was initially carried on the shoulders of his colleague Ruslan Shindin; then Alexei, who received a through wound to the head, woke up and ran on his own. Seeing the soldiers running towards them, the police covered them with fire from the checkpoint. After a short firefight, there was a lull. After some time, local residents came to the post and reported that the militants had given half an hour for the soldiers to leave Tukhchar. The villagers took civilian clothes with them - this was the only chance of salvation for the police and soldiers. The senior lieutenant refused to leave, and then the police, as one of the soldiers later said, “got into a fight with him.” The argument of force turned out to be more convincing. Among the crowd of local residents, the defenders of the checkpoint reached the village and began to hide - some in basements and attics, and some in corn thickets. Half an hour later, the militants, on the orders of Umar, began clearing the village. It is now difficult to establish whether local residents betrayed the soldiers or whether the militants’ intelligence acted, but six soldiers fell into the hands of bandits.

‘Your son died due to the negligence of our officers’

By order of Umar, the prisoners were taken to a clearing next to the checkpoint. What happened next was scrupulously recorded on camera by the action cameraman. Four executioners appointed by Umar carried out the order in turn, cutting the throats of an officer and four soldiers. Umar dealt with the sixth victim personally. Only Tamerlan Khasaev ‘blundered’. Having slashed the victim with a blade, he straightened up over the wounded soldier - the sight of blood made him feel uneasy, and he handed the knife to another militant. The bleeding soldier broke free and ran. One of the militants began to shoot in pursuit with a pistol, but the bullets missed. And only when the fugitive, stumbling, fell into a hole, was finished off in cold blood with a machine gun.

The next morning, the head of the village administration, Magomed-Sultan Gasanov, received permission from the militants to take the bodies. On a school truck, the corpses of senior lieutenant Vasily Tashkin and privates Vladimir Kaufman, Alexei Lipatov, Boris Erdneev, Alexei Polagaev and Konstantin Anisimov were delivered to the Gerzel checkpoint. The remaining soldiers of military unit 3642 managed to sit out in their shelters until the bandits left.

At the end of September, six zinc coffins were lowered into the ground in different parts of Russia - in Krasnodar and Novosibirsk, in Altai and Kalmykia, in the Tomsk region and in the Orenburg region. For a long time, parents did not know the terrible details of the death of their sons. The father of one of the soldiers, having learned the terrible truth, asked that the meager wording – “gunshot wound” – be included in his son’s death certificate. Otherwise, he explained, his wife would not survive this.

Someone, having learned about the death of their son from television news, protected themselves from details - the heart would not have withstood the exorbitant load. Someone tried to get to the bottom of the truth and searched the country for his son’s colleagues. It was important for Sergei Mikhailovich Polagaev to know that his son did not flinch in battle. He learned how everything really happened from a letter from Ruslan Shindin: ‘Your son died not because of cowardice, but because of the negligence of our officers. The company commander came to us three times, but never brought any ammunition. He only brought night binoculars with dead batteries. And we defended there, each had 4 stores...’

Executioner-hostage

The first of the thugs to fall into the hands of law enforcement agencies was Tamerlan Khasaev. Sentenced to eight and a half years for kidnapping in December 2001, he was serving a sentence in a maximum security colony in the Kirov region when the investigation, thanks to a videotape seized during a special operation in Chechnya, managed to establish that he was one of those who participated in the bloody massacre on the outskirts of Tukhchar.

Khasaev found himself in Basayev’s detachment at the beginning of September 1999 - one of his friends tempted him with the opportunity to get captured weapons during the campaign against Dagestan, which could then be sold profitably. So Khasaev ended up in the gang of Emir Umar, subordinate to the notorious commander of the ‘Islamic special-purpose regiment’ Abdulmalik Mezhidov, Shamil Basayev’s deputy...

In February 2002, Khasaev was transferred to the Makhachkala pre-trial detention center and shown a recording of the execution. He did not deny it. Moreover, the case already contained testimony from residents of Tukhchar, who confidently identified Khasaev from a photograph sent from the colony. (The militants did not hide especially, and the execution itself was visible even from the windows of houses on the edge of the village). Khasaev stood out among the militants dressed in camouflage with a white T-shirt.

The trial in Khasaev's case took place in the Supreme Court of Dagestan in October 2002. He pleaded guilty only partially: ‘I admit participation in an illegal armed formation, weapons and invasion. But I didn’t cut the soldier... I just approached him with a knife. Two people had been killed before. When I saw this picture, I refused to cut and gave the knife to someone else.’

‘They were the first to start,’ Khasaev said about the battle in Tukhchar. “The infantry fighting vehicle opened fire, and Umar ordered the grenade launchers to take positions. And when I said that there was no such agreement, he assigned three militants to me. Since then I myself have been their hostage.”

For participation in an armed rebellion, the militant received 15 years, for stealing weapons - 10, for participation in an illegal armed group and illegally carrying weapons - five each. For an attack on the life of a serviceman, Khasaev, according to the court, deserved the death penalty, but due to a moratorium on its use, an alternative punishment was chosen - life imprisonment.

Seven other participants in the execution in Tukhchar, including four of its direct perpetrators, are still wanted. True, as Arsen Israilov, an investigator for particularly important cases at the Office of the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation in the North Caucasus, who investigated Khasaev’s case, told a GAZETA correspondent, Islam Mukaev was not on this list until recently: “In the near future, the investigation will find out what specific crimes he is involved in. And if his participation in the execution in Tukhchar is confirmed, he may become our ‘client’ and will be transferred to the Makhachkala pre-trial detention center.

http://www.gzt.ru/topnews/accidents/47339.html?from=copiedlink

And this is about one of the guys who was brutally killed by Chechen thugs in September 1999 in Tukhchar.

"Cargo - 200" arrived on Kizner land. In the battles for the liberation of Dagestan from bandit formations, a native of the village of Ishek of the Zvezda collective farm and a graduate of our school, Alexey Ivanovich Paranin, died. Alexey was born on January 25, 1980. He graduated from Verkhnetyzhminsk primary school. He was a very inquisitive, lively, brave boy. Then he studied at Mozhginsky State Technical University No. 12, where he received the profession of a mason. However, I didn’t have time to work; I was drafted into the army. He served in the North Caucasus for more than a year. And now - the Dagestan war. Went through several fights. On the night of September 5-6, the infantry fighting vehicle, on which Alexey served as an operator-gunner, was transferred to the Lipetsk OMON, and guarded a checkpoint near the village of Novolakskoye. The militants who attacked at night set the BMP on fire. The soldiers left the car and fought, but it was too unequal. All the wounded were brutally finished off. We all mourn the death of Alexei. Words of consolation are hard to find. On November 26, 2007, a memorial plaque was installed on the school building. The opening of the memorial plaque was attended by Alexei’s mother, Lyudmila Alekseevna, and representatives from the youth department from the region. Now we are starting to design an album about him, there is a stand at the school dedicated to Alexey. In addition to Alexey, four more students from our school took part in the Chechen campaign: Eduard Kadrov, Alexander Ivanov, Alexey Anisimov and Alexey Kiselev, awarded the Order of Courage. It is very scary and bitter when young guys die. There were three children in the Paranin family, but the son was the only one. Ivan Alekseevich, Alexey’s father, works as a tractor driver on the Zvezda collective farm, his mother Lyudmila Alekseevna is a school worker.

Together with you we mourn the death of Alexey. Words of consolation are hard to find. http://kiznrono.udmedu.ru/content/view/21/21/

April, 2009 The third trial in the case of the execution of six Russian servicemen in the village of Tukhchar, Novolaksky district in September 1999, was completed in the Supreme Court of Dagestan. One of the participants in the execution, 35-year-old Arbi Dandaev, who, according to the court, personally cut the throat of Senior Lieutenant Vasily Tashkin, was found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment in a special regime colony.

Former employee of the national security service of Ichkeria Arbi Dandaev, according to investigators, took part in the attack of the Shamil Basayev and Khattab gangs on Dagestan in 1999. At the beginning of September, he joined a detachment led by Emir Umar Karpinsky, who on September 5 of the same year invaded the territory of the Novolaksky region of the republic. From the Chechen village of Galaity, the militants headed to the Dagestan village of Tukhchar - the road was guarded by a checkpoint manned by Dagestan policemen. On the hill they were covered by an infantry fighting vehicle and 13 soldiers from a brigade of internal troops. But the militants entered the village from the rear and, having captured the village police department after a short battle, began shelling the hill. The BMP buried in the ground caused considerable damage to the attackers, but when the encirclement began to shrink, senior lieutenant Vasily Tashkin ordered the armored vehicle to be driven out of the trench and open fire across the river on the car that was transporting the militants. The ten-minute hitch turned out to be fatal for the soldiers: a shot from a grenade launcher on the BMP demolished the turret. The gunner died on the spot, and the driver Alexey Polagaev was shell-shocked. The surviving defenders of the checkpoint reached the village and began to hide - some in basements and attics, and some in corn thickets. Half an hour later, the militants, on the orders of Emir Umar, began to search the village, and five soldiers, hiding in the basement of one of the houses, had to surrender after a short firefight - in response to machine gun fire, a shot from a grenade launcher was fired. After some time, Alexey Polagaev joined the captives - the militants “located” him in one of the neighboring houses, where the owner was hiding him.

By order of Emir Umar, the prisoners were taken to a clearing next to the checkpoint. What happened next was scrupulously recorded on camera by the action cameraman. Four executioners appointed by the commander of the militants took turns following the order, cutting the throats of an officer and three soldiers (one of the soldiers tried to escape, but was shot). Emir Umar dealt with the sixth victim personally.

Arbi Dandaev hid from justice for more than eight years, but on April 3, 2008, Chechen police detained him in Grozny. He was charged with participation in a stable criminal group (gang) and attacks committed by it, armed rebellion with the aim of changing the territorial integrity of Russia, as well as encroachment on the lives of law enforcement officers and illegal arms trafficking.

According to the investigation materials, the militant Dandaev confessed, confessed to the crimes he had committed and confirmed his testimony when he was taken to the place of execution. In the Supreme Court of Dagestan, however, he did not admit his guilt, stating that his appearance took place under duress, and refused to testify. Nevertheless, the court found his previous testimony admissible and reliable, since it was given with the participation of a lawyer and no complaints were received from him about the investigation. The video recording of the execution was examined in court, and although it was difficult to recognize the defendant Dandaev in the bearded executioner, the court took into account that the name Arbi could be clearly heard on the recording. Residents of the village of Tukhchar were also questioned. One of them recognized the defendant Dandaev, but the court was critical of his words, given the advanced age of the witness and the confusion in his testimony.

Speaking during the debate, lawyers Konstantin Sukhachev and Konstantin Mudunov asked the court to either resume the judicial investigation by conducting examinations and calling new witnesses, or to acquit the defendant. The accused Dandaev in his last word stated that he knows who led the execution, this man is at large, and he can give his name if the court resumes the investigation. The judicial investigation was resumed, but only to interrogate the defendant.

As a result, the examined evidence left no doubt in the court’s mind that the defendant Dandaev was guilty. Meanwhile, the defense believes that the court was hasty and did not examine many important circumstances for the case. For example, he did not interrogate Islan Mukaev, a participant in the execution in Tukhchar in 2005 (another of the executioners, Tamerlan Khasaev, was sentenced to life imprisonment in October 2002 and died soon in the colony). “Almost all the petitions significant for the defense were rejected by the court,” lawyer Konstantin Mudunov told Kommersant. “So, we repeatedly insisted on a second psychological and psychiatric examination, since the first one was carried out using a falsified outpatient card. The court rejected this request. “He was not sufficiently objective and we will appeal the verdict.”

According to the defendant’s relatives, mental problems appeared in Arbi Dandaev in 1995, after Russian soldiers wounded his younger brother Alvi in ​​Grozny, and some time later the corpse of a boy was returned from a military hospital, whose internal organs had been removed (relatives attribute this to with the trade in human organs that flourished in Chechnya in those years). As the defense stated during the debate, their father Khamzat Dandaev achieved the initiation of a criminal case on this fact, but it is not being investigated. According to lawyers, the case against Arbi Dandaev was opened to prevent his father from seeking punishment for those responsible for the death of his youngest son. These arguments were reflected in the verdict, but the court found that the defendant was sane, and the case regarding the death of his brother had been opened a long time ago and was not related to the case under consideration.

As a result, the court reclassified two articles relating to weapons and participation in a gang. According to judge Shikhali Magomedov, defendant Dandaev acquired weapons alone, and not as part of a group, and participated in illegal armed groups, and not in a gang. However, these two articles did not affect the verdict, since the statute of limitations had expired. And here is Art. 279 “Armed rebellion” and art. 317 “Encroachment on the life of a law enforcement officer” was punishable by 25 years and life imprisonment. At the same time, the court took into account both mitigating circumstances (presence of young children and confession) and aggravating ones (the occurrence of grave consequences and the particular cruelty with which the crime was committed). Thus, despite the fact that the state prosecutor asked for only 22 years, the court sentenced the defendant Dandaev to life imprisonment. In addition, the court satisfied the civil claims of the parents of four dead servicemen for compensation for moral damage, the amounts for which ranged from 200 thousand to 2 million rubles. A photograph of one of the thugs at the time of the trial.

This is a photo of the man who died at the hands of Arbi Dandaev, Art. Lieutenant Vasily Tashkin

Lipatov Alexey Anatolievich

Kaufman Vladimir Egorovich

Polagaev Alexey Sergeevich

Erdneev Boris Ozinovich (a few seconds before his death)

Of the known participants in the bloody massacre of captured Russian soldiers and an officer, three are in the hands of justice, two of them are rumored to have died behind bars, others are said to have died during subsequent clashes, and others are hiding in France.

Additionally, based on the events in Tukhchar, it is known that no one rushed to help Vasily Tashkin’s detachment on that terrible day, not the next one, or even the next! Although the main battalion was stationed only a few kilometers not far from Tukhchar. Betrayal? Negligence? Deliberate collusion with militants? Much later, the village was attacked and bombed by aircraft... And as a summary of this tragedy and in general about the fate of many, many Russian guys in the shameful war unleashed by the Kremlin clique and subsidized by certain figures from Moscow and directly by the fugitive Mr. A.B. Berezovsky (there are his public confessions on the Internet that he personally financed Basayev).

Serf children of war

The film includes the famous video of the cutting off of the heads of our fighters in Chechnya - details in this article. Official reports are always stingy and often lie. On September 5th and 8th last year, judging by press releases from law enforcement agencies, regular battles were taking place in Dagestan. Everything's under control. As usual, losses were reported in passing. They are minimal - a few wounded and killed. In fact, it was precisely on these days that entire platoons and assault groups lost their lives. But on the evening of September 12, the news instantly spread through many agencies: the 22nd brigade of internal troops occupied the village of Karamakhi. General Gennady Troshev noted the subordinates of Colonel Vladimir Kersky. This is how they learned about yet another Russian victory in the Caucasus. It's time to receive awards. The main thing that remains “behind the scenes” is how, and at what terrible cost, yesterday’s boys survived in the lead hell. However, for the soldiers this was one of many episodes of bloody work in which they remain alive by chance. Just three months later, the brigade’s fighters were again thrown into the thick of it. They attacked the ruins of a cannery in Grozny.

Karamakhi blues

September 8, 1999. I remembered this day for the rest of my life, because it was then that I saw death.

The command post above the village of Kadar was lively. I counted about a dozen generals alone. The artillerymen scurried about, receiving target designations. The officers on duty drove journalists away from the camouflage network, behind which radios crackled and telephone operators shouted.

...Rooks emerged from behind the clouds. The bombs slide down in tiny dots and after a few seconds turn into columns of black smoke. An officer from the press service explains to journalists that aviation is working brilliantly against enemy firing points. When hit directly by a bomb, the house splits like a walnut.

The generals have repeatedly stated that the operation in Dagestan is strikingly different from the previous Chechen campaign. There is certainly a difference. Every war is different from its bad sisters. But there are analogies. They don't just catch your eye, they scream. One such example is the “jewelry” work of aviation. Pilots and artillerymen, as in the last war, work not only against the enemy. Soldiers die from their own raids.

As a unit of the 22nd Brigade prepared for the next assault, about twenty soldiers gathered in a circle at the foot of Wolf Mountain, awaiting the command to go forward. The bomb arrived, hitting right in the thick of the people, and... did not explode. A whole platoon was born wearing shirts back then. One soldier had his ankle cut off by a cursed bomb, like a guillotine. The guy, who became crippled in a split second, was sent to the hospital.

Too many soldiers and officers know about such examples. Too many to understand: popular popular pictures of victory and reality are as different as the sun and the moon. While the troops were desperately storming Karamakhi, in the Novolaksky region of Dagestan, a special forces detachment was thrown to the border heights. During the attack, the “aligned forces” made a mistake: fire support helicopters began operating at altitude. As a result, having lost dozens of killed and wounded soldiers, the detachment retreated. The officers threatened to deal with those who shot at their own...