The mystery of the death of the Maikop brigade. The regiment suffered a pogrom near Samara 81st tank regiment

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

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +

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. (

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.

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.”

Mikryakov brothers.

By the end of December 1994, according to intelligence data, Dudayev concentrated in Grozny up to 40 thousand militants, up to 60 guns and mortars, 50 tanks, about 100 infantry fighting vehicles and armored personnel carriers, about 150 anti-aircraft weapons.

Initially, the assault on Grozny was scheduled for January 5, but on December 30 at 19:00 an order was received to be ready to leave at 5:00 on December 31 according to the battle plan. Federal forces set out at dawn, around 7:00 am. The scouts went first. There was no resistance. But the closer to the center, the more often mines, obstacles and fire resistance were encountered. By 14-00 the railway station was taken, units of the 131st motorized rifle battalion were being brought up. At 15-00, the first and second battalions of the 81st motorized rifle regiment and the combined detachment of the 201st motorized rifle division blocked the presidential palace, Dudayev threw his best forces into restoring the situation. The shelling stopped only at 12 o'clock at night. The new year 1995 has arrived. For many 18- and 19-year-olds, it has never come.

Our Tolyatti fellow countrymen also took part in these battles: guard junior sergeant, commander of the infantry fighting vehicle of the first battalion of the 81st Petrakovsky twice Red Banner Order of Suvorov, Kutuzov and Bogdan Khmelnitsky motorized rifle regiment Mikryakov Alexander Valerievich and guard private, gunner-operator of the infantry fighting vehicle of the first Petrakovsky battalion of the twice Red Banner Order of Suvorov, Kutuzov. and Bogdan Khmelnytsky motorized rifle regiment Mikryakov Alexey Valerievich.

It seemed to me that I had said everything

But never cry my heart out...

And the boys, tormented by death,

They leave someone else's war for the skies,

And I can’t reach them with a song...

O my inescapable memory!

Oh Lord, there are only crosses all around!

But how many new stars do you light?

Calling them by the names of the fallen

And you will never forget them,

Forgive them, God, my boys,

Without desecrating their souls with someone else’s sin...

(Marianna Zakharova)

Sasha and Alyosha were born on the same day, June 24, 1975. Sasha was born a little earlier and was almost a kilogram heavier than his brother. Doctors had long and seriously feared for the life of the weaker Alyoshka. But he survived, and from then on the boys were inseparable. They were not twins, but fraternal twins. They couldn't live without each other. We were always and everywhere together. Sasha was fair-haired, kind and silent in character, almost a head taller than Alexei. The brother, on the other hand, has dark hair and a different character – “groovy” and cheerful. He was restless. His rich, beautiful laugh was constantly heard at home. Only Alyosha could laugh like that. His playful eyes always betrayed his kind and cheerful nature. He was a master of all sorts of tricks. The Mikryakov family had three children. The elder brother Sergei is two years older than Alyosha and Sasha. Iraida Alekseevna herself was not spoiled by life. She, who was orphaned at the age of 10, was raised by her grandmother. She had to achieve everything in life herself. Therefore, they tried to raise the children this way. So that we can stand up for ourselves. So that we can be strong.

It used to be that my boys would fight with someone,” recalls Iraida Alekseevna, “they would come home scratched and covered in blood, and I would throw them out the door and say: “Go and be able to stand up for yourself.” I’ll cry myself, I feel sorry for them, but I don’t show them. In general, the guys were not spoiled and did not cause much trouble.

All household responsibilities were distributed in advance. Who should go for groceries, who should clean the house. At the family council, all financial issues were resolved - who and what to buy first. And Iraida Alekseevna also tried to ensure that her sons trusted her in everything. And they shared all their problems. It so happened that the boys had no secrets from her. The boys even told their mother about their first cigarette. True, at the same time, sixth-graders Sasha and Alyosha added that they did not like smoking very much. What the brothers had in common was that they could not live without each other. Starting from school, when they went to the same class, from the pioneer camp, where they certainly wanted to be in the same detachment get in.

I remember,” says Iraida Alekseevna, “in the fifth grade the boys went to a pioneer camp. As luck would have it, they were separated. The difference in height was too great; no one took them for twins. The next day the counselors called and asked to take Alyosha because he had been crying all day. I went and figured it out. They were together again, and everything fell into place. In a word, it was impossible to separate them.

Their paths diverged only after the ninth grade. After graduating from the ninth grade of school No. 37, Alexey entered an auto-mechanical technical school, where he studied in the specialty “processing of materials on machines and automatic lines” with the qualification of a process technician. After technical school, he got a job at the VAZ CEC as a milling operator. And Alexander graduated from 11 classes of high school, and in September 1992 began to master the profession of a car repair mechanic at PTU-36. After PTU-36, he worked at the VAZ SME as an operator of automatic lines. He completed his studies at the lyceum earlier than Alexey , so Sasha was also drafted into the army earlier, but their mother Iraida Alekseevna, with difficulty, but still begged to wait with the conscription of one of the brothers and not separate them even in the army. Before the beginning of December 1994, Alexander and Alexey managed to serve 9 months near Samara, in Chernorechye, in the 81st regiment. Both brothers served on the same infantry fighting vehicle (IFV). True, Sasha was a vehicle commander and held the rank of sergeant, and Alexey was a gunner. On December 12, Iraida Alekseevna visited them in the unit. No one assumed that this was their last meeting. On the 13th they were sent to Mozdok. And on the 29th they were already near Grozny. A few days before that, a letter was sent home from the guys. As it turned out, it was the latter. Iraida Alekseevna was excited by Sasha’s strange words in the letter “... I don’t know, to be honest, we will have to see each other again or not, well, don’t worry, take care of yourself, don’t get sick...”, as well as footage from Grozny shown on television in the first days of the new year 1995 year. She called the information center in the Privo Military District, where she was informed that her children were not on the lists of those killed, and a few days later, they were informed that they were not on the lists of the living. She called all authorities, right up to Moscow, but no one could give her the exact information about her children. By hook or by crook, Iraida Alekseevna flew to Mozdok. During takeoff, they tried to remove her from the plane. The pilot helped, having already seen enough of the tearful mothers and hiding her in a safe place. Iraida Alekseevna did not have a pass, and this made the search very difficult. In Mozdoke we had to conduct a real investigation of our own. There was a rumor that one nurse was bandaging some guy, and he kept saying that he needed to go back, and not to the hospital. It was as if he still had a brother. According to the description, the guy looked like Sasha... They didn’t let her through in Mozdok. At the next checkpoint, kneeling in the sticky mud, she begged the colonel to let her pass further. The power of mother's love won - and the search for sons continued. Continued, despite the fact that the commandant of Mozdok wanted to force her out of the city. Iraida Alekseevna collected information about her sons bit by bit. Then a nurse was found who was bandaging the boy. But it turned out not to be Sasha. Iraida Alekseevna left with nothing. All that remained in my memory were the tents standing in the mud and the mutilated soldiers groaning in pain. Later, during the February truce, colleagues of the first company, who came to the Rostov hospital for identification, found first Sasha, then Alyosha. On February 12, it became known about Sasha’s death, and she immediately flew to Rostov. Alexander was buried on February 18. Soon Alyosha was brought from the Rostov hospital. The mother was informed about this on February 22. Aleshuna was buried the next day - February 23. Only God knows how Iraida Alekseevna was able to endure the death of her sons and not go crazy. Life had faded for her. The sun had stopped shining for her. She simply didn’t notice it. Yes, she didn’t notice anyone or anything. A deadly cold blew over her from everywhere. There are no sons of hers. They are not there at all. No, and there won't be. No one will ever laugh so loudly and beautifully in her house, as Alyosha did. No one will play the guitar and sing like Sasha loved to do. Your heart “sinks” and “takes your breath away” when you unravel this tangle of pain with a thin thread of narration, continuing the story about two brothers who died honestly fulfilling their military duty, defending the constitutional rights of Russia, and remaining faithful to the oath to the end.

Information about the last hours of Sasha and Alyosha’s life was collected by Iraida Alekseevna from eyewitnesses of those events, from witnesses of chance meetings and from fellow soldiers, from those who were shoulder to shoulder with her sons in those tragic events that unfolded on New Year’s Eve 1995 in the city of Grozny. One of them were Ivoshin Igor and Kuptsov Sergey from Tolyatti. And this is what she managed to find out. At the entrance to Grozny, the brothers were separated. Sasha with an infantry platoon went to capture the railway station and train station. And Alyosha, on his infantry fighting vehicle, as part of the assault group, advanced towards the presidential palace. Thrown by staff generals into an unprepared attack, 18-year-old boys found themselves in a real hell. Without maps, reconnaissance, combat training, or medical support, heavy tanks and infantry fighting vehicles drove into the streets and cramped quarters of a completely unfamiliar city. And the tanks in the city were completely deprived of the ability to maneuver. According to them They hit me point-blank - from basements, porches, and windows. Deadly fire seemed to “spew out” from everywhere. The heat began: tanks were burning, there were only explosions all around, cries for help, groans of the wounded, blood and more and more shooting at “targets” set up in the streets. Some were stunned, some were killed, some were burning in the car, some were taken prisoner by well-trained militants. BMP , in which Alyosha was, was hit and caught fire. One of the crew members died. Alexei himself, who was wounded in the thigh, was pulled out of the burning car by his fellow countryman Igor Ivoshin. He gave Alexei an injection and, having bandaged the wounded man, carried him to the fountain. Immediately after that, he was drowned out by an explosion. He woke up among the militants, having been captured. He was released from captivity only after 9 months. Meanwhile, Alexander fought a battle at the railway station. The guys stayed for a day surrounded by “Dudaevites”. When the militants started throwing grenades and mines at their vehicles, Captain D. Arkhangelov made a decision: using the three remaining “on the move” infantry fighting vehicles to break through the encirclement and remove the remaining soldiers, among whom there were many wounded. Standing under the cover of the wall of the building, with their backs pressed to each other, Sergeant Alexander Mikryakov and Captain Arkhangelov covered with their fire the loading of the wounded onto the armor. When breaking through the encirclement, one of the vehicles was hit. A group of soldiers and officers was ambushed, and this again resulted in the blood and death of their comrades. According to the testimony of those who were in those three cars, Sashi was not among them. Someone said that they told him on the radio that Alexei was wounded. Of course, Sasha could not leave his brother. He sent cars with the wounded and went to look for his brother. Most likely, he ran into an ambush and was killed at point blank range. According to Iraida Alekseevna’s assumptions, Alexei, who remained lying by the fountain, was most likely finished off by the militants, and possibly also blown up. Because there is information that the militants dragged the wounded soldiers into a pile and threw a grenade at them. Apparently this was the case, because Alexei’s body had many bullet and shrapnel wounds. And Sasha’s body was completely pierced by bullets. Apparently they had fired the entire clip at point-blank range. His military ID was also punched. Now this document is kept in the museum of the mechanical engineering college. And mother Iraida Alekseevna keeps two Orders of Courage, with which Sasha and Alyosha were awarded posthumously, their letters, tender letters that the brothers sent home, and the memory of two inseparable blood.

Letter-note from the Mikryakov brothers dated July 9, 1995 (transmitted by one of the Tolyatti residents who was demobilized on that day):

“Mom, come on July 9 for us. We're fine, we're not sick. We were transferred to the 90th division in the 81st regiment in the 1st battalion, 1st company. Come at 10 o'clock, on this day the new conscription will take the oath. You can come a little later, since we have to speak at this oath. Come see and pick us up."

Despite the fact that at one time the Chechen war did not leave the television screens and newspaper pages, the military operations of the Russian army, internal troops and special forces in the Caucasus still remain largely unknown, a “secret” war. Its main operations are still awaiting serious research, its analytical history has not been written to this day. By the end of 1994, Dzhokhar Dudayev, who fancied himself the president of a large Islamic state in the North Caucasus, managed to create his own sufficiently combat-ready armed forces of up to 40 thousand people, some of whose personnel underwent not only military training in specially created camps, but also fought in Afghanistan, Nagorno-Karabakh, Abkhazia, and Transnistria. Among the Chechen soldiers there were a large number of mercenaries and repeat offenders hiding from Russian justice. The republic was well-armed, only after the Soviet Army more than 40 thousand small arms were captured, in addition, there were many foreign-made weapons and hunting rifles. The production of the Boriz (Wolf) assault rifle was established in Grozny. There were 130 units of armored vehicles, about 200 artillery systems, including 18 Grad installations. These weapons could stop an army of up to 60 thousand people. Its formation took place not only in Grozny, but also in Shali, Argun, Gudermes, Petropavlovsky. In other populated areas there were local armed units that were created under the guise of self-defense units. Thus, the Chechen Republic was ready for resistance and a long guerrilla war, which the Russian command did not take into account in its plans. Therefore, first-hand information, unique photos and diagrams of military clashes are invaluable material for history.

From a letter from the captain of the 81st regiment D. Arkhangelov:

“Dear Iraida Alekseevna! The former deputy commander of the first company, Captain Arkhangelov, is writing to you. I personally knew and served with Alexei and Alexander. I would like to say a lot of warm words of gratitude to you for your sons.

I was in battle at the railway station in Grozny with Sasha on December 31, January 1 and 2, when we broke out of encirclement. You can be proud of your sons. They didn’t hide behind other people’s backs. Sasha and I personally bandaged the wounded in the station building.

We were the last two to leave the building, covering the landing of the soldiers, including the wounded, on the infantry fighting vehicles. These were the last minutes when I saw Sasha. We stood under the wall of the station premises - back to back. I covered his back, he covered mine. When all the wounded were boarded, Sasha ran to get on one BMP, and I on the other. Then we went for a breakthrough...

He was a great man. I wish there were more like him on earth! Of course, nothing can calm your aching mother’s heart. I understand all your pain. I deeply sympathize with the loss, the loss of your sons. Thank you for the wonderful guys and courageous soldiers. May they rest in peace!

Sorry if something is wrong. With great respect to you, Captain D. Arkhangelov, 81st Regiment.”

Russian Federation

City Hall of Tolyatti

Department of Education

07/08/2002 No. 1739

To the chairman of the committee

Togliatti city

public organization,

whose children died in

Chechen Republic

R.N. Shalyganova

Dear Raisa Nikolaevna!

In response to your appeal about naming vocational lyceum No. 36 after the brothers Alexander and Alexey Mikryakov, who died in the Chechen Republic, the Department of Education of the Tolyatti City Hall reports the following.

The joint work of the teaching staff of this lyceum and the Togliatti city public organization of parents whose children died in the Chechen Republic on the patriotic education of youth deserves attention.

Taking into account the opinion of the administration of vocational lyceum No. 36 and the consent of I.A. Mikryakova, the mother of the Mikryakov brothers, the Department of Education of the Tolyatti City Hall supports the initiative to name the Togliatti vocational lyceum No. 36 after Alexander and Alexey Mikryakov.

Deputy Director S.A. Punchenko

Samara Region

81st motorized rifle regiment, military unit 465349

The 81st Guards Motorized Rifle Regiment, the successor to the 210th Rifle Regiment, was formed in 1939. He began his combat career at Khalkin Gol. During the Great Patriotic War, he participated in the defense of Moscow, liberating Orel, Lviv, and cities in Eastern Europe. During the existence of the unit, 30 servicemen of the regiment became Heroes of the Soviet Union and 2 Heroes of Russia. On the battle banner of the unit there are 5 orders - two Red Banners, the Orders of Suvorov, Kutuzov and Bogdan Khmelnitsky. After the Great Patriotic War, the regiment was stationed on the territory of the GDR (GSVG), and in 1993, in connection with the liquidation of the GSVG, it was withdrawn to the territory of the Russian Federation and stationed in the village of Roshchinsky, Volzhsky district, Samara region, becoming part of the Second Guards Tank Army.

From December 14, 1994 to April 9, 1995, the 81st Guards Motorized Rifle Regiment took part in the fulfillment of the task of the Government of the Russian Federation to disarm illegal armed groups on the territory of the Chechen Republic. The regiment's personnel participated in the military operation to capture the city of Grozny from December 31, 1994. to January 20, 1995

Materials from the press based on the stories of Alexander Yaroslavtsev, commander of the 81st regiment, about the regiment’s military operations in Grozny from December 31, 1994 to January 1, 1995.

...Events unfolded like this. On December 8, the regiment was alerted and began to urgently recruit in order to complete the recruitment by December 15, and then begin combat training. Of the 1,300 people, about half came from training camps. The regiment arrived in Mozdok on December 20. On December 21, Colonel A. Yaroslavtsev began to lead the battalions out for firing. By December 24, everyone had shot. It turned out that some guns on armored personnel carriers and infantry fighting vehicles were faulty. From Mozdok the regiment moved to the area of ​​Grozny airport. Here the regiment commander ordered to fire five or six shells again and not unload the guns, just put the safety on. “We thought that they wouldn’t send us further than the airport,” says the regiment commander. “We thought that we would stand behind the airport on defense... But things turned out completely differently.”

On December 30, 1994, the regiment was given the task of entering Grozny on the morning of December 31. The day before, the regiment commander, Colonel A. Yaroslavtsev, was asked how much time he needed to prepare the regiment for the assault. He replied that 10-15 days were needed. They did not give time for preparation. They did not give a written order for the assault (General Kvashnin gave the verbal order...).

The regiment was supposed to go to Grozny on the flank of the federal forces. They promised to give infantry, but they never did. Intelligence was very bad. However, with the tactics of the “Dudaevites” that they used then, no intelligence information would have helped.

At dawn on December 31, the regiment began moving from the airport towards Grozny. As 81 SMEs approached Mayakovsky Street, tanks appeared ahead. It turned out that these were “Rokhlintsy”. We agreed on cooperation - they went to the left of Pervomaiskaya, so as not to interfere with the advance of the regiment. The real battle began on Ordzhonikidze Square, but not immediately. The first battalion under the command of Semyon Burlakov passed to the station past the presidential palace without any problems. It turned out later that he had fallen into a “mousetrap.”

From A. Yaroslavtsev’s story: “Now, I think, I’ll move closer and pull out the second battalion. Well, and then I’ll surround the palace. They were already beating thoroughly... It was difficult to figure out where, how much, where they were hitting from?.. It was impossible to calculate the options, because there was no infantry. Either stand in a perimeter defense, or fire in all directions. So we began to fire, and that means - to fire until then until they burn you..."

At the corner of Pobeda and Ordzhonikidze avenues, the regiment commander, Colonel A. Yaroslavtsev, was seriously wounded... Next to him was a radio operator and communications chief. I asked the radio operator to bandage him, he was scared, but... they provided first aid to the commander. Yaroslavtsev told the soldier: “Let’s tell him that I’m wounded... Command to Burlakov.”

Burlakov will have to hand over command again, this time to Lieutenant Colonel Aidarov, the future commander of the 81st MRR. First, Semyon Burlakov is wounded in the leg at the station, and then, when evacuating the wounded to an infantry fighting vehicle, the Chechens will shoot everyone, but Burlakov will be mistaken for dead...

On the morning of January 1, 1995, regiment commander Alexander Yaroslavtsev was transferred to a hospital in Vladikavkaz...

Captain Arkhangelov's group. Little is known about this group, it is only clear that they covered the evacuation from the station until the last minute, after which they headed to the freight station, where they found 3 surviving infantry fighting vehicles of the 81st infantry regiment. Of the three cars, only one came out to its own. And one of the damaged ones could have been BMP No. 61822.

Naming the mechanical engineering college after the brothers Alexander and Alexey Mikryakov

February 18, 2004. Mechanical Engineering College. Time: 14-00. The assembly hall is full to capacity. There are chairs along the aisles. In the gallery are graduate students. There are many of them. They also came to the event, but there were not enough seats in the hall for them. Flashlights. Carnations. Tears of mothers whose children died in hot spots. On the stage are portraits of Alexander and Alexei Mikryakov. The ceremonial part of the event begins on the occasion of conferring the title of the Mikryakov brothers on the educational institution where Sasha studied. Twins Alexander and Alexey died in the New Year's assault on the city of Grozny in the first Chechen campaign. They were always together: both in life and in death. They were only buried at different times: on February 18, they buried Sasha, on February 23, Alyosha. Exactly 9 years have passed. The memory of the brother soldiers was immortalized by their “alma mater”.

Friends performed: some studied with their brothers at school, others at a technical school. The soul of the company, a good athlete, a person with a twist - this is how the brothers remained in the memory of their friends. Fellow soldiers said that on December 14, 1994, the 81st Regiment, where the brothers served, was sent to Chechnya. There were 1,300 military personnel on the train. All of them took part in the assault on Grozny. On the first day of the battle, more than 100 people died. There were 7 times more defending militants than Russian soldiers. This is contrary to any rules of military science. There were a lot of wounded, killed, and missing people. The hardest part was removing the bodies of Russian soldiers with signs of torture from the basements. But... there is such a profession - to defend the Motherland...

According to the military speakers, history will judge who became a hero in the Chechen company, and who – quite the opposite. The Russian state has always had two pillars - the army and the navy. Dmitry Chugunkov, commander of a reconnaissance platoon, a fellow soldier of the Mikryakov brothers, was taciturn. He said that the guys were in the most dangerous part of the New Year's assault on Grozny. Whatever trials the current recruits face, they must be worthy of the memory of their fellow countrymen.

Then they talked about the importance of patriotic education and the basic educational institution of AVTOVAZ. The brothers’ mother, Iraida Alekseevna, cried as she gave Sasha’s military ID to the museum of the educational institution for eternal storage. I read a poem of my own composition.

Time is taking further and further away from us the events of the New Year's assault on Grozny. The soldiers who found themselves at the forefront of the fighting were labeled almost “lambs thrown to the slaughter.” The names of the units that suffered the greatest losses also became household names: , 81st Regiment...

Meanwhile, in those first days of the Grozny operation, the military personnel showed unprecedented courage. The units that entered that “formidable” city in every sense stood to the end, to the death.

Chechen "abscess"

On November 30, 1994, the President signed the Decree “On measures to restore constitutional legality and order in the territory of the Chechen Republic.” It was decided to “cut” the Chechen “abscess” using force. To carry out the operation, a Joint Group of Forces was created, including forces and assets of various ministries and departments.

“In early December 1994, the regiment commander, Colonel Yaroslavtsev, and I arrived on official business at the headquarters of our 2nd Army,” recalls Igor Stankevich, former deputy commander of the 81st Guards Motorized Rifle Regiment, who was awarded the title of Hero of the Russian Federation for the January battles in Grozny. . — In the midst of a meeting, a bell rang at the chief of staff of the association, General Krotov. One of the high-ranking military leaders called. “That’s right,” the general answered the subscriber in response to one of his questions, “I have the commander and deputy of the 81st regiment. I’ll bring the information to them right away.”

After the general hung up, he asked everyone present to leave. In a one-on-one situation, we were told that the regiment would soon receive a combat mission and that “we must prepare.” Region of application: North Caucasus. Everything else will come later.

REFERENCE: The 81st Guards Motorized Rifle Regiment, the successor to the 210th Rifle Regiment, was formed in 1939. He began his combat career at Khalkhin Gol. During the Great Patriotic War, he took part in the defense of Moscow and liberated Orel, Lviv, and the cities of Eastern Europe from the Nazis. 30 servicemen of the regiment became Heroes of the Soviet Union. On the Battle Banner of the unit there are five orders - two Red Banners, Suvorov, Kutuzov, Bogdan Khmelnitsky. After the war he was stationed on the territory of the GDR. Currently part of the 27th Guards Motorized Rifle Division of the Volga-Ural Military District, it is part of permanent combat readiness.

In mid-1993, the 81st Regiment, then part of the 90th Tank Division of the 2nd Army, was withdrawn from the Western Group of Forces and stationed 40 kilometers from Samara, in the village of Chernorechye. Both the regiment, the division, and the army became part of the Volga Military District. At the time of arrival at the new location, there was not a single soldier left in the regiment. Many officers and warrant officers were also “confused” by the conclusion. Most of the issues, primarily organizational ones, had to be resolved by the remaining small core of the regiment.

By the fall of 1994, the 81st was staffed by the so-called mobile forces. Then the Armed Forces just began to create such units. It was assumed that they could be deployed on the first command to any region of the country to solve various problems - from eliminating the consequences of natural disasters to repelling an attack by gangs (the word “terrorism” was not yet in use at that time).

With the regiment being given a special status, combat training was noticeably intensified, and recruitment issues began to be resolved more effectively. Officers began to be allocated the first apartments in a residential town in Chernorechye, built with funds from the German authorities.

In the same year 1994, the regiment successfully passed the inspection of the Ministry of Defense. The 81st, for the first time after all the troubles associated with the withdrawal and settlement in a new place, showed that it had become a full-fledged part of the Russian army, combat-ready, capable of performing any tasks. True, this inspection did the regiment a disservice.

A number of servicemen who received good training were eager to serve in hot spots, in the same peacekeeping forces. They took trained specialists there with pleasure. As a result, about two hundred servicemen transferred from the regiment in a short period. Moreover, the most popular specialties are driver mechanics, gunners, and snipers.

In 1981, they believed that this was not a problem, the vacancies that had arisen could be filled, new people could be trained...

Echelons to the Caucasus

The 81st motorized rifle regiment of the PriVO, which was to go to war in December 1994, was quickly staffed with military personnel from 48 units of the district. All preparations take a week. We also had to select commanders. A third of the primary-level officers were “two-year students” and had only military departments of civilian universities under their belts.

On December 14, military equipment began to be loaded onto trains (in total, the regiment was transferred to Mozdok in five echelons). People were not in a depressed mood. On the contrary, many were sure that this would be a short business trip and that they would be able to return by the New Year holidays.

Due to a lack of time, training sessions with personnel were even organized on the train, along the route of the trains. The material part of the weapon, the order of aiming, the combat regulations, especially the sections relating to military operations in the city were studied.

The regiment was given another week to prepare upon arrival in Mozdok. Shooting, coordination of units. And now, years later, it is clear: the regiment was not ready for combat. There was a shortage of personnel, primarily in motorized rifle units.

The regiment was reinforced with about two hundred paratroopers. The same young, unfired soldiers. I had to learn to fight under enemy fire...

The enemy turned out to be not conventional...

At the time the assault on Grozny began, about 14,000 federal troops were concentrated around the Chechen capital. 164 tanks, 305 infantry fighting vehicles, 250 armored personnel carriers, 114 infantry fighting vehicles were ready to enter the city, blocked from the northeast, north, northwest and west. Fire support was provided by 208 guns and mortars.

The federals had an obvious superiority in military equipment. However, the advantage in personnel was not even two to one. The classical theory of combat requires an advantage of approximately three times the attackers, and taking into account urban development, this figure should be even greater.

What did you have at that time? According to data that later fell into the hands of our security forces, the size of the Chechen army reached 15 thousand people in the regular troops and up to 30-40 thousand armed militias. The regular army units of Chechnya consisted of a tank regiment, a mountain rifle brigade, an artillery regiment, an anti-aircraft artillery regiment, a Muslim fighter regiment, and 2 training aviation regiments. The republic had its own special-purpose units - the National Guard (about 2,000 people), a separate special-purpose regiment of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, a regiment of the border and customs service of the State Security Department, as well as personal protection units for the leaders of Chechnya.

Serious forces were represented by the formations of the so-called “confederation of the peoples of the Caucasus” - the “Borz” and “Warriors of the Righteous Caliphs” battalions, the “Abd-el-Kader” battalion, the “Islamic Renaissance Party” detachment, and the “Islamic Community” detachment. In addition, more than five thousand mercenaries from 14 states fought on Dudayev’s side.

According to documents captured in 1995, Dudayev, in addition to regular forces, had at least 300 thousand (!) reservists. The law “On the Defense of the Chechen Republic” adopted in the region on December 24, 1991 introduced compulsory military service for all male citizens from 19 to 26 years old. Naturally, the service took place in Chechnya, in local paramilitary forces. There was a system of regular gatherings of reserves: during the period 1991-1994, six full-fledged mobilization exercises were held.

Units of the Chechen army were even replenished with deserters: on the basis of Dudayev’s decree No. 29 of February 17, 1992, Chechen military personnel who left military units on the territory of the USSR without permission and expressed a desire to serve in the Armed Forces of the Chechen Republic were rehabilitated, and the criminal cases brought against them were terminated.

Another Dudayev decree No. 2 of November 8, 1991 established a military ministry in Chechnya. All military formations on the territory of the republic, along with equipment and weapons, passed to him. According to operational data, at the end of 1994 Chechnya had 2 launchers of operational-tactical missiles, 111 L-39 and 149 L-29 aircraft (training, but converted into light attack aircraft), 5 MiG-17 and MiG-15 fighters, 6 aircraft An-2, 243 aircraft missiles, 7 thousand aircraft shells.

The Chechen “ground forces” were armed with 42 T-72 and T-62 tanks, 34 infantry fighting vehicles, 30 armored personnel carriers and BRDMs, 18 Grad MLRS and more than 1000 shells for them, 139 artillery systems, including 30 122-mm D-ZO howitzers and 24 thousand shells for them. Dudayev's formations had 5 stationary and 88 portable air defense systems, as well as 25 anti-aircraft guns of various types, 590 units of anti-tank weapons, almost 50 thousand small arms and 150 thousand grenades.

For the defense of Grozny, the Chechen command created three defensive lines. The inner one had a radius of 1 to 1.5 km around the presidential palace. The defense here was based on the creation of continuous resistance nodes around the palace using capital stone buildings. The lower and upper floors of the buildings were adapted for firing from small arms and anti-tank weapons. Along Ordzhonikidze and Pobeda Avenues and Pervomaiskaya Street, prepared positions were created for direct fire with artillery and tanks.

The middle line was located at a distance of up to 1 km from the boundaries of the internal border in the northwestern part of the city and up to 5 km in its southwestern and southeastern parts. The basis of this line were strongholds at the beginning of Staropromyslovskoe Highway, resistance centers at bridges over the Sunzha River, in the Minutka microdistrict, on Saykhanov Street. Oil fields, oil refineries named after Lenin and Sheripov, as well as a chemical plant were prepared for explosion or arson.

The external border ran mainly along the outskirts of the city and consisted of strong points on the Grozny-Mozdok, Dolinsky-Katayama-Tashkala highways, strong points Neftyanka, Khankala and Staraya Sunzha in the east and Chernorechye in the south of the city.

"Virtual" topography

The troops had practically no clear information about the enemy at the start of the assault; there was also no reliable intelligence and intelligence information. There were no maps either. The deputy regimental commander had a hand-drawn diagram of where he and his units would approximately go. Later, the map did appear: it was taken from our killed tank captain.

Anatoly Kvashnin assigned tasks to the group commanders for actions in the city a few days before the assault. The main task fell precisely to the 81st regiment, which was supposed to operate as part of the North group under the command of Major General Konstantin Pulikovsky.

The regiment, which was partly concentrated on the southern slopes of the Terek ridge, and partly (one battalion) was located in the area of ​​a dairy farm 5 km north of Alkhan-Churtsky, was assigned two tasks: the immediate and the subsequent. The closest plan was to occupy Severny Airport by 10 a.m. on December 31st. The next step is to take control of the intersection of Khmelnitsky and Mayakovsky streets by 4 p.m.

The start of hostilities on December 31 was supposed to be a factor of surprise. That is why the federal columns were able to reach the city center almost unhindered, and not, as was stated later, they fell into a prepared trap of bandits who intended to pull our columns into some kind of “bag of fire.” Only by the end of the day were the militants able to organize resistance. The Dudayevites concentrated all their efforts on the units located in the city center. It was these troops that suffered the greatest losses...

Surroundings, breakthrough...

The chronology of the last day of 1994 has been restored today, not just by the hour, but by the minute. At 7 a.m. on December 31, the advance detachment of the 81st Regiment, including a reconnaissance company, attacked Severny Airport. The chief of staff of the 81st, Lieutenant Colonel Semyon Burlakov, was with the advance detachment. By 9 o'clock his group had completed its immediate task, capturing the airport and clearing two bridges across the Neftyanka River on the way to the city.

Following the advance detachment, the 1st MSB, Lieutenant Colonel Eduard Perepelkin, moved in a column. To the west, through the Rodina state farm, the 2nd MSB was marching. The combat vehicles moved in columns: tanks were in front, self-propelled anti-aircraft guns were on the flanks.

From the Severny airport, the 81st MSP went out onto Khmelnitsky Street. At 9.17, motorized rifles met the first enemy forces here: an ambush from a detachment of Dudayevites with an attached tank, an armored personnel carrier and two Urals. The reconnaissance team entered the battle. The militants managed to knock out a tank and one of the Ural vehicles, but the scouts also lost one infantry fighting vehicle and several people wounded. The regiment commander, Colonel Yaroslavtsev, decided to delay reconnaissance to the main forces and temporarily stop the advance.

Then the advance resumed. Already by 11.00 the columns of the 81st regiment reached Mayakovsky Street. The delay was almost 5 hours ahead of the previously approved schedule. Yaroslavtsev reported this to the command and received an order to move to blockade the presidential palace, to the city center. The regiment began advancing towards Dzerzhinsky Square.

By 12.30, the advanced units were already near the station, and the group’s headquarters confirmed the previously issued order to surround the presidential palace. At 13.00 the main forces of the regiment passed the station and rushed along Ordzhonikidze Street to the complex of government buildings.

But the Dudayevites gradually came to their senses. Powerful fire resistance began from their side. A fierce battle broke out near the palace. Here the forward air controller, Captain Kiryanov, shielded the regiment commander. Colonel Yaroslavtsev was wounded and transferred command to the chief of staff of the regiment, Lieutenant Colonel Burlakov.

At 16.10 the chief of staff received confirmation of the task of blockading the palace. But the motorized riflemen were given the most severe fire resistance. Dudayev's grenade launchers, dispersed throughout the buildings in the city center, began to shoot at our combat vehicles literally point-blank. The columns of the regiment gradually began to break up into separate groups. By 5 p.m., Lieutenant Colonel Burlakov was also wounded, and about a hundred soldiers and sergeants were already out of action.

The intensity of the fire impact can be judged by at least one fact: only from 18.30 to 18.40, that is, in just 10 minutes, the militants knocked out 3 tanks of the 81st regiment at once!

The units of the 81st Motorized Rifle Regiment and the 131st Motorized Rifle Brigade that broke into the city found themselves surrounded. Dudayev's men brought down a barrage of fire on them. The fighters, under the cover of infantry fighting vehicles, took up a perimeter defense. The bulk of the personnel and equipment concentrated on the station square, in the station itself and in the surrounding buildings. The 1st MSB of the 81st Regiment was located in the station building, the 2nd MSB - in the goods yard of the station.

The 1st MRR under the command of Captain Bezrutsky occupied the road control building. The company's infantry fighting vehicles were positioned in the yard, at the gates and on the exit routes to the railway track. At dusk the enemy pressure intensified. Losses have increased, especially in equipment that was positioned very closely, sometimes literally track to track. The initiative passed into the hands of the enemy.

Relative calm came only at 23.00. At night, the shooting continued, and in the morning, the commander of the 131st Motorized Rifle Brigade, Colonel Savin, requested permission from higher command to leave the station. A breakthrough was approved to the Lenin Park, where units of the 693rd infantry regiment of the West group were defending. At 15:00 on January 1, the remnants of the units of the 131st Motorized Rifle Brigade and the 81st Motorized Rifle Regiment began to break through from the station and freight station. Under the incessant fire of the Dudayevites, the columns suffered losses and gradually disintegrated.

28 people from the 1st MRR of the 81st MRR broke through in three infantry fighting vehicles along the railway. Having reached the House of Press, the motorized riflemen got lost in dark, unfamiliar streets and were ambushed by militants. As a result, two infantry fighting vehicles were shot down. Only one vehicle, under the command of Captain Arkhangelov, reached the location of the federal troops.

...Today it is known that only a small portion of people from the units of the 81st Motorized Rifle Regiment and the 131st Motorized Rifle Brigade, which found themselves at the forefront of the main attack, escaped the encirclement. The personnel lost commanders and equipment (in just one day, December 31, the 81st Regiment lost 13 tanks and 7 infantry fighting vehicles), scattered throughout the city and went out to their own people on their own - one at a time or in small groups. According to official data as of January 10, 1995, the 81st Motorized Rifle Regiment lost 63 servicemen killed, 75 missing, and 135 wounded in Grozny...

Let the enemy's mother cry first

The combined detachment of the 81st SME, formed from units remaining outside the “station” ring, managed to gain a foothold at the intersection of Bogdan Khmelnitsky and Mayakovsky streets. The command of the detachment was assumed by the deputy regiment commander, Lieutenant Colonel Igor Stankevich. For two days, his group, being semi-surrounded, remaining in a virtually bare and shoot-through place - the intersection of two main city streets, held this strategically important area.

Stankevich competently placed 9 infantry fighting vehicles and organized the “attachment” of fire from the assigned mortars in the most threatening areas. When organizing the defense, non-standard measures were taken. Steel gates were removed from the surrounding Grozny courtyards and they were used to cover the sides and front of combat vehicles. The “know-how” turned out to be successful: the RPG shot “slipped” along the sheet of metal without hitting the car. After the bloody New Year's Eve, people gradually began to come to their senses. The fighters who had escaped from encirclement gradually gathered into the detachment. We settled in as best we could and organized rest during the break between enemy attacks.

Neither on December 31, nor on January 1, nor in the following days, the 81st regiment left the city, remained on the front line and continued to participate in hostilities. The fighting in Grozny was carried out by Igor Stankevich’s detachment, as well as the 4th motorized rifle company of Captain Yarovitsky, which was located in the hospital complex.

For the first two days, there were virtually no other organized forces in the center of Grozny. There was another small group from the headquarters of General Rokhlin, it stayed nearby. If the bandits knew this for sure, they would certainly have thrown all their reserves to crush a handful of brave men. The bandits would have destroyed them in the same way as those units that found themselves in the ring of fire in the area of ​​the station.

But the detachment was not going to surrender to the mercy of the enemy. The surrounding courtyards were quickly cleared and possible positions of enemy grenade launchers were eliminated. Here the motorized riflemen began to discover the cruel truth about what the city they had entered actually was.

Thus, in the brick fences and walls of most houses at the Khmelnitsky-Mayakovsky intersection, equipped openings were found, near which shots for grenade launchers were stored. In the courtyards there were carefully prepared bottles of Molotov cocktails - an incendiary mixture. And in one of the garages, dozens of empty boxes from grenade launcher rounds were found: here, apparently, was one of the supply points.

Already on January 3, they began setting up roadblocks along Lermontov Street in cooperation with special forces soldiers of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The posts allowed us to at least pass along Lermontov Street, otherwise everything would be shot on the move.

The regiment survived. He survived despite those who tried to destroy him in Grozny. He rose from the ashes in spite of those who at that time “buried” him and other Russian units who found themselves at the epicenter of the Grozny battles in absentia.

For almost the entire month of January, “shot” and “torn to pieces” by evil tongues, the 81st Regiment participated in the battles for Grozny. And again, few people know about this.

It was the tankers of the 81st who provided support to the Marines assaulting. It was the regiment's infantry that captured the Red Hammer plant, which Dudayev's troops turned from a peaceful Soviet enterprise into a full-scale weapons production. The unit's engineering and sapper units cleared the bridge across the Sunzha, along which fresh forces were then drawn into the city. Units of the 81st took part in the assault on the Press House, which was one of the strongholds of the separatist resistance.

“I pay tribute to all the comrades with whom we fought together in those days,” says Igor Stankevich. – These are also the units of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which were led by General Vorobyov, who later died heroically in Grozny. These include detachments of internal troops and GRU special forces groups. These are employees of special services units, about whose work, probably, even today we cannot say much. Courageous, heroic people, brilliant professionals of whom any country would be proud. And I am proud that I was with them on that front line.

They become heroes

In the first days of January, the author of these lines had the opportunity to visit warring Grozny, right at the location of the 81st regiment, which had just moved to the territory of the cannery, strengthening the checkpoint at the Khmelnitsky-Mayakovsky intersection. The journalist's notebook is covered with entries: the names of people who heroically showed themselves in battle, numerous examples of courage and bravery. For these soldiers and officers it was just a job. None of them dared to call what happened on December 31 a tragedy.

Here are just some of the facts:
“...Senior warrant officer Grigory Kirichenko. Under enemy fire, he made several trips to the epicenter of the battle, transporting wounded soldiers in the compartments of an infantry fighting vehicle, behind the levers of which he himself sat, to an evacuation point.” (Later awarded the title of Hero of the Russian Federation).

“...Senior Lieutenant Seldar Mamedorazov (“non-combat” leader of the club) broke into the battle area in one of the infantry fighting vehicles and took out several wounded servicemen.”

“...Major of the medical service Oleg Pastushenko. In battle, he provided assistance to the personnel.”
“...Commander of the tank battalion, Major Yuri Zakhryapin. He acted heroically in battle, personally hitting enemy firing points.”

And also the names of soldiers and officers, meetings with whom then, on that Grozny front line, remained at least a note in the field notebook. At the most, a memory for life. Majors of the medical service Vladimir Sinkevich, Sergey Danilov, Victor Minaev, Vyacheslav Antonov, captains Alexander Fomin, Vladimir Nazarenko, Igor Voznyuk, lieutenant Vitaly Afanasyev, warrant officers of the medical service Lidia Andryukhina, Lyudmila Spivakova, junior sergeant Alexander Litvinov, privates Alik Salikhanov, Vladimir Ishcherikov, Alexander Vladimirov, Andrey Savchenko...

Where are you now, those young front-line soldiers of the 90s, soldiers and officers of the heroic, illustrious regiment? Warriors of the 81st Guards, scorched in battle, but not burned to the ground, but surviving in this hellish flame in spite of all the deaths?..