The Marines are starving and preparing to go on strike. The difficult glory of the Marines Local residents complained about your soldiers

Armored personnel carriers, their engines roaring and randomly firing large-caliber machine guns into the air, took to the streets of the city. Strong young men in camouflage with machine guns seized the post office, telegraph and telephone. Officials of the mayor's office and the regional administration, as well as a group of admirals and senior officers of the Pacific Fleet headquarters, were escorted by military personnel in black berets and taken outside the city. Festively dressed intellectuals hang on festively decorated pillars. 12 December. Russia celebrates Constitution Day, according to which every Russian citizen has the right to fair pay for his work.

This terrible picture may become a reality, because the military has already begun to seriously think about holding collective protests. And where there are pickets and demonstrations, it is not far from the coups of black colonels.

There is no money for Comrade Colonel and Comrade Sergeant

Such bleak thoughts are prompted by the latest events in the 165th Marine Regiment of the Pacific Fleet. The “ferment” in the officer ranks began a long time ago, but over the past week the situation has escalated. The regiment held 2 officer meetings, at which a group of officers presented an ultimatum to the command of the unit. In it, military personnel demand immediate repayment of arrears of wages, the opportunity to earn extra money during their free time from their main duty, and to collect money from all organizations that use the Marine Corps firing range. If these demands are not met, the officers are ready for a protest.

The command of the regiment and formation did not allow “B” correspondents to attend officer meetings. Therefore, all the material we collected was obtained from conversations with officers of the 165th regiment.

There was a clause in the regulations of the Soviet army, according to which military personnel were obliged to courageously endure all the hardships and hardships of military service. This point is no longer included in the new Russian army regulations. Just as there is no clause prohibiting the filing of collective complaints against the actions of the command. This, in fact, was what the officers of the Marine Regiment took advantage of.

If their demands, which were officially communicated to the command of the unit, are not met, they are ready to resort to extreme measures - including suspending combat training classes with personnel. Officers will come to work, stay in the barracks, and “drive” their subordinates to physical education classes, but they will not prepare soldiers for combat operations. In fact, this protest action can be equated to an indefinite strike.

The last time Marine officers took home pay was in August. Then they were paid allowances for June. From that time on, no more money was given to military personnel. This is despite the fact that on average the amount received by officers from captain to lieutenant colonel varies from one million to 1.2 million Russian rubles. This is without the so-called “rations” and “apartments”, which, however, the officers have not seen for almost a year.

Military personnel can quite reasonably say: why on earth should they defend a state that has brought them to poverty? Almost everyone has wives and small children to feed and clothe. The wives have already resigned themselves. “It’s easier for me,” says one of the officers, “when I come home and my wife asks me: “Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, where is the money?”, I answer her: “Comrade Senior Sergeant, there is no money.” But how can I explain to my children why for breakfast? , lunch and dinner on the table only bread and tea. At a meeting with the command of the unit, they asked: what to feed the children? The answer followed: feed the stew from NZ. And infants too? A jar of baby food costs about 30 thousand rubles. Absorbing a soldier's pearl barley-shrapnel with For some reason, babies refuse beef tendons.

There have been worse cases. One of the regiment officers once borrowed a large sum of money in order to arrange a decent wedding for his daughter. ...In the end, guys in expensive cars drove up to the checkpoint and told his colleagues that they might soon have to say goodbye to their comrade forever.

In addition, there are other problems directly related to combat training. Almost the only military formation in the Far East capable of actually operating in combat conditions is now paralyzed. No money has yet been allocated for the repair of equipment damaged in the Chechen massacre.

Will the Chechen experience be useful?

Chechnya deserves special mention.

The 165th Marine Regiment spent about 3 months in this meat grinder and lost more than 40 people killed. “B” has repeatedly said that one of the first demands of the Chechens at the negotiations was: to withdraw the marines. Officers and sailors took part in the assault on Grozny, battles in the foothills, and entered into hand-to-hand combat with Dudayev’s elite “gray wolves.”

Let us recall that 2 years ago - in January 1995 - some unit commanders refused to take untrained young guys to Chechnya. As the officers recall, in order for them to agree to board the plane, the highest ranks of the fleet promised anything: from ranks to apartments. Where are they now, these promises? All that remains are the memories of the months spent in the Chechen mud, the bitterness of deception and valuable combat experience, which, God forbid, may be useful today.

The officers quite reasonably note: if the state cannot pay salaries to military personnel, let it allow them to earn their own food. As is known, according to current Russian legislation, officers do not have the right to side earnings. The only exceptions are scientific, teaching and writing activities. Naturally, no one will invite a young lieutenant to teach, and military officers are somehow not trained to write books. However, they know how, and very well, to do something else - to fight and defend the Motherland.

Almost every week, officers receive job offers from various security companies. They offer to pay up to 2 thousand dollars a month. “Yes, they will take me and my “little face” to any agency, they will tear me off with my hands,” said the reconnaissance company commander, holder of the Order of Courage, senior lieutenant Mikhail Kirilov, in a conversation with “B” correspondents.

“We would work at night. It’s impossible otherwise, a person comes to work at 6.30, and if he is at home at 9 o’clock in the evening, then this is considered normal,” the officers say. We can safely say that the division command will not be able to fulfill this requirement; no one will dare to violate federal law.

However, in fact, both officers and sailors of the Marine Division do a lot of work that is very necessary and important for the city and the region. Who is the first to arrive at the scene of a natural disaster? Marines. Who neutralizes explosive devices and other explosive “things” that are often found in our coastal land? Marines. Who breaks bricks and boards with his head and other parts of his body in front of distinguished guests? Again, the Marine Corps. When the city authorities clutch their heads and throw up their hands at the latest icy conditions that have again paralyzed the city, it is the Marine Corps armored personnel carriers that are taking away the heavy vehicles blocking the roadway. What about construction work and improvement of the streets adjacent to the town? The lion's share falls on Marines. The authorities, as a rule, limit themselves only to solemn congratulations and parting speeches...

Which army is better to feed - your own or someone else's?

The officers are starving. But one hour of a sapper's deadly work is estimated at a tidy sum of dollars. It is reliably known that for demonstration performances in hand-to-hand combat, money is transferred somewhere. They also pay for shooting at Ermine. Sailors and officers do not even get a pack of cigarettes.

But the information that the Russian government, on the word of honor of the head of the new Chechen government, transferred a certain number of millions of rubles to the former “separatists” is perceived by the Marines in a rather peculiar way. “Imagine what cool anti-tank systems the Chechens will now have,” one of the officers remarked thoughtfully.

The hopelessness in the 165th regiment is felt everywhere. The law in such cases provides one way out - to sue the formation commander. “But what can I blame him for?” says the assistant regiment commander for legal work, Captain Vladislav Nepomnyashchiy. “He’s the same as me, he hasn’t seen the money for the same amount of time.”

However, all officers understand perfectly well that nothing depends on either the division commander or even the fleet commander. And, perhaps, it does not even depend on the Minister of Defense, who, during his recent visit, promised to report on the state of affairs at the Pacific Fleet to the Supreme Commander-in-Chief and ask him for help. “I will tell him: people serve, people endure...” said the minister in Vladivostok. Patience is over. Still no money. Which, however, does not stop high-brow politicians from arguing that the Pacific Fleet is the most important link ensuring stability in the existing balance of power in the North Pacific.

Many people don't get paid today. If teachers are not paid, our children will wander the streets as ignoramuses. If it's for miners and power engineers, we'll freeze in winter. But if we keep the army and navy on a starvation diet, then it is likely that we will celebrate the New Year not on December 31, but a little later. Together with all the great Chinese people.

P.S. Note to readers. At the request of the Chief of Staff of the Pacific Fleet for publishing the number of the Marine Corps Regiment, the Russian Press Committee issued a written warning to the Vladivostok newspaper. Therefore, especially for the military censorship officers, who are obviously already rubbing their hands in impatience - it is possible, they say, to send the Vladivostok newspaper another official warning in connection with the disclosure of state secrets - the numbers of the Marine Corps regiment, we inform you that we took the regiment number from the open press, since during the regiment’s participation in hostilities in Chechnya in 1995, this number was called by everyone and everything - from journalists to the fleet commander and the governor of the region. We can provide a list of media outlets that named the 165th Regiment and did not receive a written warning at your request as a matter of routine.

Business card
Alexander Ivanovich Mozhaev, after graduating from the Sverdlovsk Military-Political Tank and Artillery School, served in the training tank division of the Ural Military District. Then - advisor to the deputy regiment commander of the Vietnamese army. After graduating from the Military-Political Academy, he served in the Pacific Fleet as the head of the political department of a marine division. The next position is deputy commander of the coastal forces of the Pacific Fleet for educational work. In January 1995, together with the 165th Marine Regiment, he was sent to Chechnya as deputy chief of the Pacific Fleet operational group. In 1996 - a business trip to Tajikistan as deputy commander of the collective peacekeeping forces for educational work. The military path was marked with the Order of Courage, the medal “For Military Merit”, and other awards. Now a reserve colonel, he works in the apparatus of the Voronezh Regional Duma. Today he shares his memories with Red Star readers.

St. Andrew's flags over Goitein Court
On January 11, 1995, our 165th regiment flew from Vladivostok to Mozdok. The equipment previously delivered by rail was already waiting for its owners. And immediately a march from Mozdok to the Andreevskaya Valley, to the outskirts of Grozny. It was then, near the village of Samashki, that the Marines received a baptism of fire.
We were preparing to storm the Council of Ministers building on Minutka Square. I walk through the trenches and see a sailor cutting a vest into shreds with a bayonet... He answers my question: “Comrade Colonel, we decided to give everyone a piece of the vest. Whoever breaks into the entrance or onto the floor first will tie or pin him to the wall. It looks like a banner..."
Soon, at the request of Colonel Mozhaev, small St. Andrew's flags were transferred from Vladivostok to Chechnya. It was they who were installed by the Marines on their own armored personnel carriers and liberated buildings. When the bandits saw the black berets and the proudly fluttering St. Andrew's banner, they knew that there was nothing to catch here.
During the storming of the Council of Ministers building on Minutka Square, the Marines, as one, threw off their peacoats and rushed into the attack at full speed. Instead of the traditional “Hurray!” monolithically sounded over the square: “Up, you, comrades, everyone in your places...” And only a few shots sounded from the windows of the building. The “spirits” jumped from the windows, unable to withstand it primarily psychologically.
It is no coincidence that the list approved by Dudayev read: “The following are subject to execution on the spot: 1. Marines. 2. Helicopter pilots. 3. Artillerymen. 4. Paratroopers."
On February 6, 1995, a reconnaissance group of six people led by senior lieutenant Sergei Firsov clarified the location of enemy firing points and personnel. At night the radio station said: “We accepted the battle... We are in the square...”
This was the area of ​​the Grozny bus station, recalls Alexander Ivanovich. We heard the voices of our guys and the sounds of gunfire on the air, but we couldn’t help them in that situation. They knew that the group was doomed. Terrible hopelessness...
For four hours, the reconnaissance group fought with superior enemy forces.
Seventy-two bullets were counted in Seryozha Firsov’s body. We lived with him in the same building. Our guys lay in a perimeter defense. They were shot point-blank when they were already dead...
One of the women, a witness to that night battle, said that the Marines were offered to surrender several times, promising to spare their lives. And every time the answer was: “The Marine Corps does not give up!”
It is embedded in the minds of every Marine: “You cannot surrender and retreat!” And where should the Marine Corps retreat? As a rule, the ocean is behind them. But even if it’s not there, it doesn’t change anything.
A special line in the combat chronicle of the 165th Marine Regiment of the Pacific Fleet is the capture of Mount Goitein Court, a strategic height on the Shali-Gudermes highway. Whoever owns it actually owns these large population centers. Alexander Mozhaev says:
– The height of the mountain is more than seven hundred meters. Intelligence has repeatedly reported that the “spirits” have created an impregnable defense system there: concrete shelters, a communications system, and so on. But, as we say, there is no fortification that the Marines could not take... Knowing about the information leak, we crossed the Argun River not in the place that was imposed on us from above, but one and a half kilometers below. Along the cable - the river is stormy - without noise and dust. And at the place where we were ordered to cross, the “spirits” brought down a sea of ​​fire... Under the cover of darkness, two battalions of marines carried out a diversionary maneuver. Meanwhile, air assault groups from all sides rushed into the attack. The height has been taken. When we reported this to the commander’s headquarters, they didn’t believe it at first: “Have you all gotten too drunk? How did they take Goitein Court?!” About forty minutes later, five helicopters flew up. We wave our berets to them, and six St. Andrew's flags flutter. Only after this did we believe that the height was in our hands...

"Bra" instead of body armor
During the first Chechen campaign (as well as now), much was incomprehensible and logically inexplicable. Alexander Mozhaev does not hold back his emotions:
– Everything could have been completed back in April 1995, when federal troops reached the Bamut-Vedeno line. There were only a few tens of kilometers left to Dagestan. Then there was the famous betrayal in Khasavyurt... Then no one opposed us in the air - ideal conditions for aviation. Where were the widely advertised new helicopters then?! If such vehicles had passed over the greenery, it would have been much easier for our fighters. How many lives could be saved!..Look at our antediluvian body armor weighing as much as eight kilograms! One of the first of our marines to die in Chechnya, senior lieutenant Vladimir Borovikov, said before his death: “Don’t wear body armor.” The bullet hit him in the side, entering between two plates of the vest and, encountering resistance, exited into the neck area. Without the vest, the bullet would have gone right through without causing death. Therefore, instead of bulletproof vests, we wore “bras” that we learned to sew ourselves - we inserted twelve machine gun magazines into our pockets. And ammunition is always at hand, and a bullet hit is not fatal, although a bruise remains...
Alexander Ivanovich also told about this fact. The Marines were armed with 5.45 mm machine guns, and the “spirits” – 7.62. For people who understand, this says a lot. So, when the Marines seized the bandits’ arsenal - one hundred 7.62 caliber machine guns - “zero”, in grease - and asked to keep them and put their 5.45s in storage, they were refused.
“The greatest mistake,” says Colonel Mozhaev, “was the weakening of the army institution of professionals involved in educating people, maintaining their morale and fighting spirit—political officers.” Chechnya confirmed this. Personally, I was convinced: where there is a competent deputy. in educational work, acting in close contact with the commander, the unit is two heads above the rest.
Example for illustration. In one of the units, the deputy company commander was seriously wounded. Colonel Mozhaev suggested that the company commander appoint one of the platoon commanders as deputy, and assign a competent sergeant to the platoon. In response I heard: “Comrade Colonel, I will find someone to replace the platoon commander, but I need a professional to replace the political officer.
Alexander Ivanovich is convinced:
– Caring for people cannot be put on the back burner, even in a combat situation. Or more correctly, especially in a combat situation. It’s scary to remember: during the forty-two days we spent in Grozny, we didn’t even have anything to wash ourselves with. The bandits filled all the wells with corpses. The water supply was not working. And the water trucks returned empty - the “spirits” simply “pierced” them with bursts... Personally, I shaved using quince or peach juice instead of water. The inscription on the “humanitarian” noodles looked mocking: “Just pour boiling water over it.” In general, logistics support during the first Chechen campaign was at the level of the times of the civil war, or even worse. The exception is medicine. If it weren't for our doctors, there would have been much more losses.
Colonel Mozhaev was awarded the Order of Courage. There were two more presentations for awarding this order: in Chechnya and Tajikistan. But each time the personnel officers reacted in their own way: “Are there any wounds? No, I’m free...”
There was a sniper in the 165th regiment. Dudayev promised tens of thousands of dollars for his head. The Marine had seventeen (!) victorious duels with militant snipers. Destroying one enemy sniper is already a feat... Three times the command of the regiment nominated a Marine for the rank of Hero. As a result - two medals “For Courage” and a Suvorov medal... Alexander Ivanovich says:
– There are twelve Heroes of Russia in our regiment, and all of them were awarded posthumously: Sergei Firsov, Vladimir Borovikov, Pavel Gaponenko... And the commander of the sixth company, Roman Kliz, despite the presentation, never received a Star... God be with them, with the stars . Our state just needs to bow at the waist to everyone who fought for it and continues to fight...
Colonel Alexander Mozhaev went into reserve. His two adult sons are future officers. The tradition continues.

In the photo: reserve colonel Alexander MOZHAEV.

22.09.2019

December 1 marked the 45th anniversary of the formation of the 55th division - now the 155th separate marine brigade of the Pacific Fleet.

The history of the 55th Marine Division is inextricably linked with the history of the coastal forces of the Pacific Fleet, which dates back to 1806. At that time, the first naval company was formed in the port of Okhotsk, which existed for 11 years. The further development of “soldiers of the sea” units dates back to Soviet times

In 2009, the 55th Marine Division was reorganized into the 155th Marine Brigade of the Pacific Fleet.

2013 was the most difficult and eventful year for the amphibious assault in terms of the volume of tasks completed over the past decade. During combat training, Pacific Fleet marines performed more than 4,500 training parachute jumps of varying difficulty. About 300 training and exercises were conducted, during which more than 400 live fire exercises were performed.

According to the command of the Pacific Fleet, the marine corps performed well during the Russian-Chinese exercise “Maritime Cooperation - 2013,” which took place this summer in the waters of Peter the Great Bay.
Fleet units during a surprise check and large-scale exercises of the Pacific Fleet in July-September of this year. carried out an amphibious landing on the unequipped coast of Sakhalin Island. For the first time in the modern history of Russia, military personnel from Primorye also landed on the islands of the Kuril ridge.

The final episode of the maneuvers was the landing of sea and airborne troops on the coast of Providence Bay. On the coast of Chukotka, a counter battle took place between the marines of Kamchatka and Primorye.

The 1st Mozyr Red Banner Marine Division of the Red Banner Baltic Fleet traces its history back to the 55th Mozyr Red Banner Rifle Division.
Formed at the beginning of 1942 as part of the Volga Military District, the 55th Infantry Division began its combat career in the Great Patriotic War on the North-Western Front in the battles to eliminate the Demyansk group of Nazi troops, participated in the Battle of Kursk, and fought in Ukraine and Belarus and the Baltic states.
Period of entry into the active army: 04/07/1942 - 03/25/1943; 05/10/1943 - 07/30/1944; 09.13.1944 - 10.10.1944 - as 55th Infantry Division
12/01/1944 - 05/09/1945 - as 1st DMP of the Red Banner Baltic Fleet
The division was commanded by:
Shevchuk Ivan Pavlovich (12/12/1941 - 05/10/1942), major general;
Zaiyulyev Nikolai Nikolaevich (05/11/1942 - 01/21/1944), colonel;
Andrusenko Korney Mikhailovich (01/22/1944 - April 1945), colonel, Hero of the Soviet Union.
During the winter and spring offensive of 1942, the troops of the North-Western Front near the villages of Rykalovo and Bolshiye Dubovitsy, Novgorod Region, the 55th Infantry Division inflicted a heavy defeat on the SS Division "Totenkopf".
Subsequently, two regiments of the 55th division, which took the lead, found themselves cut off from the main forces of the army.
In the summer of 1942, with stubborn defense south of the Suchan swamp, the division continued to pin down the enemy.
In the fall of 1942, part of the front forces launched an attack on the Demyansk bridgehead, in which regiments of the 55th division took part.
The fighting became protracted and lasted more than a month on the territory of the Polava (now Parfinsky) district of the Novgorod region.
Heavy, bloody battles around the Demyansk enemy group did not stop at all times of the year, they were fought around the clock.
Many settlements changed hands many times.

Subsequently, the division took part in the Battle of Kursk and liberated left-bank Ukraine and Belarus.
On November 23, 1943, the 55th Rifle Regiment (Colonel M.M. Zaiyulyev) took part in the liberation of the Braginsky district of the Gomel region.
During the Kalinkovichi-Mozyr operation (January 8–January 30, 1944), on January 14, 1944, the city of Mozyr was liberated by the troops of the Belorussian Front.
For its participation in the liberation of the city of Mozyr, the division received the honorary name “Mozyr” and was awarded the Order of the Red Banner for valor in battle.

In the summer of 1944, the division took part in battles on the territory of the Gomel region of Belarus, during which the following were liberated:
June 29, 1944 Petrikovsky district of the Gomel region: 55th Infantry Division (Colonel K.M. Andrusenko) of the 61st Army of the 1st Belorussian Front;
July 6, 1944 Zhitkovichi district of Gomel region: 23rd (Colonel I.V. Basteev) rifle division, 55th (Colonel K.M. Andrusenko) rifle division of the 89th rifle corps of the 61st army of the 1st Belorussian front;

July 13, 1944 Leninsky district: (center - the village of Lenin, now in the Zhitkovichi district) Gomel region: 55th rifle division (Colonel K.M. Andrusenko) 89th rifle corps of the 61st army of the 1st Belorussian Front .
At the end of 1944 the division took part in the liberation of Soviet Latvia.
After 61A reached the eastern coast of the Baltic in October 1944, the 55th SD of the 3rd Belorussian Front was quickly subordinated to the Red Banner Baltic Fleet and began guarding the coast east of Tallinn (Kunda, Loksa, etc.), where in November 1944 it was reorganized into the 1st Mozyr Red Banner Marine Division of the Red Banner Baltic Fleet and redeployed (after an agreement with Finland) to Porkkala-Udd.
During the reorganization, both the numbering of the connection and its parts changed. It included: 1st infantry battalion (formerly 107th Luninetsky Red Banner joint venture), 2nd infantry infantry regiment (formerly 111th Luninetsky Red Banner joint venture), 3rd infantry infantry regiment (formerly 228th Pinsky joint venture), 1 1st AP MP (formerly 84th AP), 1st TP MP (formerly 185th Leningrad horde. Kutuzov detachment). The engineering equipment of the positions began - bunkers, trenches, wire barriers were built, defense centers were created, and the division's sapper units mined the approaches to the positions. Lieutenant Colonel S.S. was appointed head of the base's engineering service. Navagin. 7 batteries were built in Porkkala Udd, two of them in 1945.
In 1948, the division was reorganized into the 1st machine gun and artillery Mozyr Red Banner Division.
With the signing in January 1956 of the final protocol on the early transfer of this territory to Finland by the Soviet Union, the formation and its parts were disbanded in January 1956.
In 1967, the 55th Mozyr Red Banner Marine Division (Vladivostok, KTOF) was deployed in the Pacific Fleet on the basis of a separate marine regiment formed in August 1963 at the Pacific Fleet. This newly formed formation inherited the banner of the 1st Mozyr Red Banner Marine Division that was previously part of the Navy
The division was formed:
Division commander - Major General Shapranov Pavel Timofeevich
Chief of Staff - Lieutenant Colonel Babenko Dmitry Korneevich
Head of the Political Department - Lieutenant Colonel Georgy Petrovich Kudaev
Deputy division commander - Colonel Arkady Ilyich Savvateev
Chief of Logistics - Colonel Belyaev Fedor Efimovich
Deputy for technical affairs - colonel-engineer Petr Georgievich Solovyov

Regimental commanders:
Lieutenant Colonel Maslov S.L.
Colonel Timokhin
Colonel Grivnak Y.V.
Deputies com. regiments
Lieutenant Colonel Turishchev
Lieutenant Colonel Skofenko

Battalion commanders:
Major Steblina
Lieutenant Colonel Berezkin L.K.
Major Shishin
Lieutenant Colonel Mishin

Company commanders:
captain Sergeev G.G.
Senior Lieutenant Paderin V.
Senior Lieutenant Maslov V.

In the first half of the 1990s. The 55th Mozyr Red Banner Marine Division of the Pacific Fleet included the 85th, 106th, 165th Marine Regiments, as well as:
- 26th Tank Leningrad Order of Kutuzov Regiment;
- 417th anti-aircraft missile regiment;
- 84th Artillery Order of Suvorov Regiment.
The division's individual units included: reconnaissance, airborne engineering, and repair and restoration battalions.
The Marine regiment included: three marine battalions, a tank battalion, a battery of rocket launchers, an ATGM battery, an anti-aircraft missile and artillery battery and other units.
The anti-aircraft missile regiment of the 55th DMP was a regiment of the Osa air defense system of the corresponding structure.
In the 1990s. The 55th Pacific Fleet DMP was reduced in terms of personnel (about 3,100 people).
At the same time, one of the “deployed” units of the division - the 165th Marine Regiment - became the “base” unit for the service of the youth of the Ussuri Cossacks.
After organizational changes in the 1990s. the 55th Pacific Fleet DMP included: the 106th, 165th Ussuri Cossacks, as well as the 390th (in Slavyanka, southwest of Vladivostok) marine regiments; 921st artillery and 923rd anti-aircraft missile regiments. The division's tank regiment was folded into the 84th separate tank battalion. In addition, the division included the 263rd separate reconnaissance battalion, the 1484th separate communications battalion and other units.
In January - April 1995, the 165th Marine Regiment of the division took part in establishing constitutional order in the territory of the Chechen Republic, distinguishing itself in the battles for Grozny. The regiment twice received gratitude from the Head of the Government of the Russian Federation. In April - June 1995, the combined 106th Marine Regiment was also located in the North Caucasus, operating against bandits in the foothills and mountainous regions of Chechnya. For courage and courage, more than 2,400 military personnel were awarded orders and medals, 5 people were posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Russian Federation. During the fighting, 61 Pacific Fleet marines were killed.
After going through a series of reductions and reorganizations, the division in 2005. had a personnel strength of about 3,100 people and included the following units:
106th MP Regiment,
165 Ussuri Cossack Regiment MP,
390th MP Regiment,
921 art regiment,
923 anti-aircraft missile regiment,
84 dept. tank battalion,
263rd Guards Separate Reconnaissance Battalion,
708th separate engineer airborne battalion,
1484 divisional communications battalion and other combat and logistics support units.
The division was stationed in the Snegovaya Pad tract, Vladivostok
On June 1, 2009, the 55th Marine Division was reorganized into the 155th separate marine brigade of the Red Banner Pacific Fleet, consisting of:
165th "Cossack" Marine Regiment - deployed to a brigade
390th Marine Regiment
106th Marine Regiment - disbanded on December 1, 2007
921st Marine Artillery Regiment - disbanded on December 1, 2008, 287 OGSADN were formed on its base
923rd Marine Anti-Aircraft Missile Regiment - disbanded
84th Separate Tank Battalion of Marines
263rd Separate Marine Reconnaissance Battalion
1484th Separate Marine Signal Battalion

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In 1964, after graduating from the Far Eastern Higher Combined Arms Command School, Lieutenant Viktor Nikolaevich Samsonov arrived in the regiment as a platoon commander; soon became a company commander. In 1969-1972 - student at the Military Academy named after M.V. Frunze; after her - chief of staff of a motorized rifle regiment, regiment commander, chief of staff of a tank division. After graduating from the Military Academy of the General Staff - commander of a motorized rifle division, chief of staff of the army, commander of the army, chief of staff of the Transcaucasian Military District, commander of the Leningrad Military District (1990).

In December 1991, he was appointed Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the USSR - First Deputy Minister of Defense of the USSR, in February 1992 - Chief of Staff for the coordination of military cooperation of member states of the Commonwealth of Independent States. In October 1996, he was again appointed chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces (now of the Russian Federation).

Since January 1996 - Army General.

From April 9, 1965 to July 17, 1967, the regiment was commanded by Colonel Arkady Ilyich Savateev. The chief of staff of the regiment since 1963 is Lieutenant Colonel Kharitonov Ivan Yakovlevich. In January 1965, Lieutenant Colonel Vladimir Yakovlevich Nissenbaum was appointed head of the tank-technical service, who by that time had repeatedly carried out harvesting tasks in the consolidated self-supporting separate automobile battalion of the Pacific Fleet, and had already twice been awarded the medal “For the development of virgin and fallow lands,” as well as medal "For Labor Valor".

Colonel Savateev A.I., born in 1924, took part in the Great Patriotic War of 19451-1945 from May 1942, when, as a cadet at the Higher Naval School, he was sent to the North Caucasus Front as part of the 148th Separate Marine Battalion.

He began his officer service in 1944 in the Baltic Fleet. Then in the Pacific Fleet: commander of the 982nd coastal artillery battery of the Ostrovny sector of the main base of the Pacific Fleet (1948), commander of the 203rd separate artillery division of the Suchansky sector of the main base of the Pacific Fleet (1954).

He came to the 390th Marine Regiment from the post of commander of the 528th separate coastal missile regiment, armed with the Sopka mobile coastal missile system.

Subsequently, since 1967 - deputy commander of the 55th Marine Division, Chief of the coastal missile and artillery forces of the Baltic Fleet, major general of artillery. During the period of hostilities, he was awarded the Order of the Red Star and the Order of the Patriotic War, II degree, medals “For Courage”, “For Military Merit”, “For the Defense of Stalingrad”, “For the Defense of the Caucasus”, “For the Defense of Leningrad”, and “For Victory over Germany” " In peacetime, he was awarded the Order of the Battle and Labor Red Banner, the Order of the Patriotic War, II degree, “For Service in the Armed Forces of the USSR”, III degree, and many medals.

In August 1965, the 390th separate Marine Regiment made a trip on landing ships to practice combat training tasks along the route Slavyanka, Sovetskaya Gavan, also South Sakhalin, Slavyanka. And in October he, just like

The 217th Parachute Regiment was inspected by the Chief Inspector of the USSR Ministry of Defense, Hero of the Soviet Union, Marshal of the Soviet Union K.S. Moskalenko.

According to the results of the inspection by the commission of the Main Inspectorate of the USSR Ministry of Defense, the regiment was rated “good”. For good results in combat and political training, the 390th separate Marine Regiment was thanked by the USSR Minister of Defense; regiment commander Colonel Savateev A.I. was awarded a personalized wristwatch.

In 1966, a graduate of the Far Eastern Higher Combined Arms Command School, Lieutenant Alexander Arsentievich Sheregeda, came to serve in the regiment, and in 1967, Lieutenant Nikolai Ivanovich Kanishchev.

Sheregeda A.A.

Due to the lack of positions for Marine platoon commanders, Lieutenant Sheregeda A.A. appointed to the position of commander of a mortar platoon of a mortar battery, becomes battery commander; then appointed to the position of chief of staff of a Marine battalion. From this position he entered the Combined Arms Military Academy named after M.V. Frunze. Then he continues to serve in the 336th Separate Guards Marine Regiment of the Baltic Fleet: he becomes regiment commander, deputy and commander of the 336th Separate Guards Marine Brigade, the head of the BRAV and MP of the Northern Fleet, and already as a major general in 1988 he comes to the post of the head of the Coastal Forces of the Pacific Fleet.

Kanishchev N.I. commanded a platoon and a company of marines, was replaced for service in the Carpathian Military District. In 1984 Kanishchev N.I. - Chief of Staff of a division in the Leningrad Military District. After serving in Syria as a military adviser, he is appointed to the post of military commissar of the Vologda region. Discharged from military service in 2000. In 2005 he passed away.

The formation of the regiment took place in conditions of a significant aggravation of international relations in the area of ​​​​responsibility of the Pacific Fleet.

From April 17, 1967, in accordance with the directive of the General Staff of the Navy, the 390th separate Marine Regiment was transferred directly to the Chief of the Coastal Missile and Artillery Forces and Marine Corps (BRAV and MP) of the Pacific Fleet. From April 16, 1965, this position was held by Colonel (then Major General of Artillery) Viktor Fedorovich Chirkov, a graduate of the Naval School of Coastal Defense named after the Lenin Communist Youth Union of Ukraine, a participant in the defense of Sevastopol. Subsequently, in 1974-1987 - head of the department of tactics of coastal artillery and ground forces at the Naval Academy.

On May 12, 1967, in accordance with the directive of the USSR Ministry of Defense, the formation of the 55th Marine Division (3458 military personnel and 56 employees) began with its subordination to the Head of the BRAV and MP Pacific Fleet and the end of formation on December 1, 1968. The regiment is deprived of the name “separate” and becomes part of the division.

The formation of division units is carried out in several places: in the Gneva Valley, on the coast of Ernostay Bay and in the Snegovaya Pad of the city of Vladivostok - division headquarters, 165th Marine Regiment and 150th Tank Regiment; near the positions of the 305mm 122 tower artillery battalion of the 125 opap (Voroshilov battery) and in the village of Ajax on Russky Island in the city of Vladivostok - 129 jet, 331 self-propelled artillery and 336 anti-aircraft separate divisions.

The 509th separate engineer airborne battalion and a separate medical and sanitary company are being formed in the garrison of the village of Slavyanka; The formation of the 106th Marine Regiment begins (it completed its formation already 6 km from the city of Vladivostok).

Having arrived from the Baltic 336th Separate Guards Marine Regiment to the 106th Marine Regiment, Lieutenant Sergei Aleksandrovich Remizov shares his impressions: “The order in the 390th Regiment was quite strict. Regiment commander Colonel Savvateev A.I. achieved such a state of military discipline in which the sergeant was actually the right hand of the officer. The sailors, passing by the sergeant, saluted him. The battalion duty officer was a sergeant, and he was both a king and a god and a military commander for the rank and file of the battalion.”

With the beginning of the formation of the 55th Marine Division, Colonel Arkady Ilyich Savateev continues to serve as deputy division commander.

First Marine Division Commander

major general
SHAPRANOV Pavel Timofeevich

On July 17, 1967, the command of the 390th Marine Regiment was taken by the chief of staff of the regiment, Lieutenant Colonel Kharitonov Ivan Yakovlevich; he commands

July 27, 1970. He is replaced as chief of staff of the regiment by Lieutenant Colonel Pyotr Petrovich Dzyuba.

According to available information, Colonel I. Ya. Kharitonov was soon dismissed from the Armed Forces for health reasons.

Commander of the Pacific Fleet, Admiral of the Fleet Smirnov Nikolai Ivanovich (since September 1974 - 1st Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the USSR Navy, since February 17, 1984 - Hero of the Soviet Union), Head of the BRAV and MP Pacific Fleet, Major General of Artillery Viktor Fedorovich Chirkov and commander of the 55th DMP General - Major Kazarin Pavel Fedorovich.

From July 27, 1970 to August 1974, the 390th Marine Regiment was commanded by Colonel Albert Semenovich Timokhin; subsequently he headed the Baranovichi United City Military Commissariat in the Brest Region.

First on the left is Colonel Timokhin A.S.

(I couldn't find a better photo)

In August 1974, Colonel Timokhin A.S. replaced by Major (at the time of appointment - captain) Petrushchenkov Mikhail Nikolaevich, born in 1939. It is interesting that from the moment of appointment until the actual arrival in the regiment, Captain M.N. Petrushchenkov. was sent on leave to await his promotion to the military rank of major.

He began his service, including as an officer after the Kharkov Tank School, in the Baltic Fleet.

After graduating from the academy, he was appointed to the BRAV and MP Directorate of the Pacific Fleet.

After commanding the 390th Marine Regiment, Lieutenant Colonel Petrushchenkov M.N. served as chief of staff of the 55th Marine Division;

after graduating from the Military Academy of the General Staff, he commanded the 41st Guards Tank Division of the 1st Combined Arms Army of the Red Banner Kiev Military District in the city of Cherkassy, ​​was the chief of staff - first deputy commander of the 1st Guards Army in the city of Chernigov, and the chief military adviser in Nicaragua (Señor Miguel Vargas) when Daniel was the President of the Republic Ortega, at his own request for family reasons, became the military commissar of the Chernigov region.

Currently, retired Major General M.N. Petrushchenkov. - first secretary of the Chernigov city committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine and member of the bureau of the Chernigov regional organization.

In 1976, the 390th infantry infantry regiment was declared the best marine regiment BRAV and MP of the Pacific Fleet (regiment commander - Major Mikhail Nikolaevich Petrushchenkov; his deputy for political affairs - Lieutenant Colonel Vladimir Pavlovich Novikov).

The regiment at that time was commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Vladimir Stepanovich Amirkhanyan.

A former senior teacher-commander of the training company 299 of the Marine Corps Training Center of the Black Sea Fleet, after graduating from the M.V. Frunze Military Academy, he arrived as deputy chief of the operations department of the headquarters of the 55th Marine Division.

Having gained experience in staff work and practice in preparing and conducting regimental exercises, at the end of 1977, Major V.S. Amirkhanyan. was promoted to the post of commander of the 390th Marine Regiment.

Subsequently, he commanded the training battalion of the Higher Naval School of Radio Electronics named after A.S. Popov, and switched to teaching there.

In 1980, apparently in connection with the rearmament of the BMP-1, Lieutenant Colonel Vladimir Pavlovich Trofimenko arrived as commander of the 390th Marine Regiment from the 150th Tank Regiment of the 55th Marine Division. He began his officer service, gaining experience in long-distance sea voyages as a tank platoon commander in the 336th Separate Guards Bialystok Order of Suvorov and Alexander Nevsky Marine Regiment. From there he entered the Military Academy of Armored Forces named after Marshal of the Soviet Union R. Ya. Malinovsky. After graduating from the academy, he was appointed chief of staff of the 150th Tank Regiment of the 55th Marine Division.

In 1983, Colonel Trofimenko V.P. accepted the position of chief of staff

55th Marine Division.

In 1986, he was appointed division commander in the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany (renamed the Western Group of Forces in 1989). In 1992, with the withdrawal of the Western Group of Forces from Germany, from the post of chief of staff of the corps (in the city of Volgograd) and with the military rank of “major general,” he was appointed military commissar of the Krasnodar region.

After leaving the Armed Forces, he headed the Krasnodar regional branch of the All-Russian public organization of marines "Typhoon".

In 1979, Major Pavel Sergeevich Shilov, born in 1948, a graduate of the Baku Higher Combined Arms Command School in 1970, arrived to the post of deputy regiment commander from the M.V. Frunze Military Academy. He began his officer service as a platoon commander in the 810th separate Marine Regiment of the Black Sea Fleet. Before entering the academy, he served as a faculty member at Naval Marine Training Center 299 Saturn. With the rearmament of the regiment on the BMP-1, the main efforts are concentrated on the construction of the BMP directorate and the creation of the corresponding training and material base. As a result of “hardware” decisions, vacating the post of deputy regiment commander for the commander of the 2nd Marine Battalion “Red Banner”, Lieutenant Colonel V.K. Ushkov, who distinguished himself in combat service, Major P.S. Shilov. in 1981 he transferred to the position of chief of staff of the same 390th Marine Regiment.

In 1982, he accepted the position of commander of the 106th Marine Regiment (cadre) of the 55th Marine Division, and in 1983 he returned to the village of Slavyanka again as commander of the 390th Regiment.

From 1986 to 1990, Colonel Shilov P.S. - Chief of Staff of the 55th Marine Division; from 1990 to 1997 - Deputy Chief of Staff and Chief of Staff of the Coastal Troops of the Russian Navy. From 1997 to 2003, Major General (since 1998, Lieutenant General) P.S. Shilov. - Chief of the ground and coastal forces of the Russian Navy.

In 1971 and 1972, he served in the Egyptian Port Said as a platoon commander of the 810th separate marine regiment of the Black Sea Fleet. In 1980, as deputy commander of the 390th Marine Regiment, he led the landing force in combat service and in international exercises on board the Project 1174 large landing ship “Ivan Rogov”. He took part in both Chechen companies.

Awarded the orders: “For Service to the Motherland in the Armed Forces of the USSR”, III degree, “For Military Merit” and the Order of Courage.

After his dismissal from the Armed Forces in 2004, Shilov P.S. elected vice-president of the All-Russian public organization of the marine corps "Typhoon". Since 2007, he has been working as the head of the Approval Department of the Marins Group Union.

In 1980, a graduate of the Leningrad Higher Artillery Command School named after the Red October, Lieutenant Mikhail Grigorievich Pleshko, born in 1959, joined the regiment as commander of a mortar platoon. Commands a platoon, a mortar battery, and is eventually assigned to the general position of Chief of Staff of a Marine battalion.

In 1990, Captain Pleshko M.G. enters the Military Academy named after M.V. Frunze. After graduating from the academy in 1993, he returned to the village of Slavyanka to the position of chief of staff of the 390th Marine Regiment.

From 1998 to 2000 he commanded the regiment.

In 2000, he was appointed chief of staff of the 55th Marine Division; since 2002 - commander of the same division.

On July 3, 2004, the Plenipotentiary Representative of the President of the Russian Federation in the Far Eastern Federal District, Konstantin Borisovich Pulikovsky, congratulated Colonel M. G. Pleshko. with the awarding of the rank of senior officers "major general". Since 2005, Major General Pleshko M.G. - Head of the Coastal Forces of the Pacific Fleet. From this position he leaves as a military adviser to the Republic of Nicaragua.

Since June 1986, the 390th Marine Regiment has been commanded by Lieutenant Colonel

(since January 30, 1990 - Colonel) Vitaly Semenovich Kholod - from lieutenant's shoulder straps, he grew up in the system of the Coastal Forces of the Pacific Fleet.

A graduate of the Far Eastern Higher Combined Arms Command School named after Marshal of the Soviet Union K.K. Rokossovsky in 1971, he was initially appointed commander of a machine gun platoon of the 253rd separate machine gun company of the 1st UR Pacific Fleet; from November 1975 to September 1978 he commanded this company. For his diligence in installing defensive structures in the fortified area, he was awarded the medal “For Military Merit.”

Since September 1978, Captain Kholod V.S. - battalion commander of the 106th Marine Regiment, 55th Marine Corps. In September 1980 he graduated from the Higher Officer Course “Vystrel” in the town of Solnechnogorsk near Moscow. In February 1981, he was appointed commander of the air assault battalion of the 165th Marine Regiment; in the same year he entered the Military Academy named after M.V. Frunze. After graduating from the academy, he returned to the division as chief of staff of the 165th Marine Regiment.

In October 1985, Lieutenant Colonel Kholod B.C. appointed commander of the 106th Marine Regiment.

He commanded the 390th Marine Regiment until September 1990 - until he was appointed deputy commander of the 55th Marine Division. May 14, 1990 Colonel V.S. Kholod For great services in maintaining high combat readiness of troops, he was awarded the Order “For Service to the Motherland in the Armed Forces of the USSR”, III degree.

January 5, 1994 Colonel V.S. Kholod appointed commander of the 55th Marine Division of the Pacific Fleet. From December 1994 to May 1995, during military operations to restore constitutional order in Chechnya, he led the Marine Corps group. On February 22, 1995, by Decree of the President of the Russian Federation No. 189, Colonel V.S. Kholod was awarded the military rank of “Major General”. For skillful leadership of personnel, personal courage, diligence and high professionalism shown in carrying out tasks to disarm illegal armed groups on the territory of the Chechen Republic, Major General Kholod B.S. was awarded a personalized firearm - a PM pistol.

In the history of the Marine Corps, he remains a competent, demanding, caring and highly cultured officer. Demanding demands on himself and a developed sense of self-esteem allowed him to maintain composure and respect for others in any situation.

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Commander of the 390th infantry infantry regiment, Lieutenant Colonel A.S. Dosugov. Slav.

Captain Dosugov Anatoly Sergeevich, after completing tasks as part of a limited contingent of troops in Afghanistan, in 1981 served as chief of staff of the 2nd battalion of the 390th Marine Regiment.

In 1982 he was transferred to the position of deputy chief of staff of the regiment

From this position in 1984, with the military rank of “major,” he entered the Military Academy named after M.V. Frunze.

After graduating from the academy in 1987, Lieutenant Colonel A.S. Dosugov. returned

to the 55th Marine Division as commander of the 106th Marine Regiment (cadre); in 1990 he was transferred to the position of commander of the 390th Marine Regiment.

In 1992, he was appointed to the Main Operations Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. Conferred the military rank of "Major General".

After his dismissal from the Armed Forces, retired Major General A.S. Dosugov. worked in the Moscow public organization of marine veterans "Saturn".

The regiment during the period of “creation”, “reform”, “modernization”, “optimization” and “giving a new look”

Indiscriminate reductions in division units began already in 1991. Officers began to maintain equipment and serve as guards. There was a moment when the number of sailors, sergeants, warrant officers and officers equaled the number of the regiment - 390.

Cases of sending officers to mobile guards to accompany equipment handed over by the 55th Marine Division have become more frequent.

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Since 1992, the 390th Marine Regiment has been commanded by the former deputy regiment commander, Lieutenant Colonel Vladimir Konstantinovich Rusakov. Graduated from the Leningrad Suvorov Military School in 1971, a graduate of the Leningrad Higher Combined Arms Command Twice Red Banner School named after S.M. Kirov in 1975, he began his officer service in the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany - in the 197th Guards Tank Vapnyarsko-Warsaw Order of Lenin, Red Banner Orders of Suvorov and Kutuzov Regiment of the 47th Guards Tank Division.

He continued in the Far Eastern Military District, in the village of Cheremkhovo, Amur Region, near the city of Blagoveshchensk. In 1985 he entered the Military Academy named after M.V. Frunze.

After graduating from the academy in 1988, he arrived at the 55th Marine Division as deputy commander of the 390th Marine Regiment.

The most important milestone in the career of regiment commander V.K. Rusakov. was the implementation of measures to form units of the 165th and 106th Marine Regiments departing for the Chechen Republic, ensuring their coordination and combat training.

In 1993, Major M.G. Pleshko arrived as chief of staff of the regiment after completing his studies at the academy.

In 1998, Colonel Rusakov V.K. retired to the reserve and from 1998 to 2000 the regiment was commanded by Lieutenant Colonel M.G. Pleshko.

In 1992, having graduated with honors from the Far Eastern Higher Combined Arms Command School named after Marshal of the Soviet Union K.K. Rokossovsky, Lieutenant Oleg Vladimirovich Biryukov arrived in the regiment. Until 2002, he successively served as a platoon and company commander of the Marine Corps, chief of staff and commander of the Marine Corps battalion.

As commander of a marine company in the 165th Marine Regiment, he participated in the restoration of constitutional order on the territory of the Chechen Republic.

In 2002, Biryukov O.V. entered and in 2004, also with honors, graduated from the Combined Arms Academy of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. Upon completion of training, Major O.V. Biryukov served for several months as deputy chief of operations at the headquarters of the 55th Marine Division and in April 2005 was appointed chief of staff of the 390th Marine Regiment.

From 2007 to 2009, Lieutenant Colonel O.A. Biryukov. - senior officer of the operational department of the Volga-Ural Military District. After being transferred to the reserve on February 20, 2010, at a general meeting, he was elected Chairman of the Board of the Sverdlovsk regional public organization “Union of Marines” in the city of Yekaterinburg

The 390th Marine Regiment did not officially participate in the fighting on the territory of Chechnya. However, ninety percent of the officers, warrant officers, sergeants and sailors of the regiment were part of and participated in the combat operations of the 165th and 106th regiments of the 55th Marine Division of the Pacific Fleet. So: the 165th regiment became part of the regiment without changes

9th Marine Company; The 1st Battalion of the 390th Marine Regiment was simply renamed the Air Assault Battalion of the 106th Marine Regiment.

Due to the refusal of the full-time commander, the air assault battalion of the 165th Marine Regiment was commanded by the commander of the battalion of the 390th Marine Regiment, Major Oleg Nikolaevich Khomutov, for the entire period of the regiment’s missions in the Chechen Republic.

From February 1995 until the end of the regiment's stay in Chechnya, Chief of Staff of the 390th Marine Regiment, Lieutenant Colonel M.G. Pleshko. replaced Lieutenant Colonel A.V. Rytikov as chief of staff of the fighting 165th Marine Regiment.

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The following gave their lives in the performance of military duty:

• Senior Lieutenant Andrei Georgievich Bukvetsky, born in 1968, 1991 graduate of Far Eastern Higher Educational Institution - company commander of the 2nd Marine Battalion; awarded the Order of Courage (posthumously);
• Senior Lieutenant Bolotov Oleg Yurievich, born in 1969, graduate of the Poltava Airborne Military Command in 1992 - commander of an anti-aircraft artillery platoon;
• Sailor Oleg Ivanovich Golubov - machine gunner; was previously awarded the medal "For Courage".
• Senior Warrant Officer Alexander Vasilievich Desyatnik, born in 1971 - senior technician of the company of the 1st Marine Battalion;
• Sailor Zhuk Anton Aleksandrovich, born in 1976 - senior gunner; awarded the Order of Courage (posthumously);
• Senior Sergeant Komkov Evgeniy Nikolaevich, born in 1975 - deputy platoon commander;
• Sergeant Lysenko Yuri Yuryevich, born in 1975 - deputy platoon commander;
• Senior Lieutenant Sergei Ivanovich Skomorokhov, born in 1970, 1992 graduate of the Far Eastern Higher Educational Institution, company commander of the 1st Marine Battalion; awarded the Order of Courage (posthumously).

In 1998, Hero of the Russian Federation Major Andrey Yuryevich Gushchin, who graduated with honors from the M.V. Frunze Military Academy, arrived to the position of chief of staff of the regiment.

The title of Hero of the Russian Federation was awarded to him, the first of the marines to perform military duty in Chechnya, by Decree of the President of Russia dated

Graduate of the Leningrad Higher Combined Arms Command Double Red Banner School named after S.M. Kirov in 1988, by 1995 - commander of the 874th separate battalion of the 61st separate Kirkenes Red Banner Marine Brigade of the Northern Fleet, received the military rank of "captain" ahead of schedule, awarded the medal "For Distinction in Military service,” he agreed to serve in the Chechen Republic as deputy commander of the 874th separate marine battalion, Lieutenant Colonel Yuri Vikentievich Semenov.

In January 1995, commanding a combined detachment of marines, he successfully completed the task of capturing a number of buildings of the Council of Ministers of the Republic; When defending the coast of the Sunzha River, the detachment reliably prevented militants from using the bridge across the river. In just one day, twelve enemy attacks were repelled; in just five days of fighting, a detachment under the command of captain Gushchin A.Yu. destroyed more than three hundred Dudayevites, their tank, infantry fighting vehicle and MTLB. Of the one and a half hundred marines, sixty-two remained alive. Captain Gushchin A.Yu. After a spinal injury and three concussions, he was evacuated to the hospital.

Since 2000, having replaced Lieutenant Colonel M.G. Pleshko, he became commander of the 390th Marine Regiment until 2003.

From 2003 to 2006 Gushchin A.Yu. - commander of the 336th Separate Guards Bialystok Order of Suvorov and Alexander Nevsky Marine Brigade. In 2006, he entered and in 2008, again with honors, graduated from the Military Academy of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. Until 2009, Colonel Gushchin A.Yu. serves in the General Staff, and since 2009 has been appointed to the post of Chief of the Coastal Troops of the Northern Fleet. June 9, 2012 to Colonel Gushchin A.Yu. By Decree of the President of Russia No. 800, he was awarded the rank of senior officers “Major General”.

In 2003, Lieutenant Colonel Oleg Nikolaevich Khomutov was appointed commander of the regiment. A graduate of the Far Eastern Higher Combined Arms Command School named after Marshal of the Soviet Union K.K. Rokossovsky in 1984, before being appointed to the position of chief of staff of the division, he served as an officer in the 390th Marine Regiment. In 1995, due to the refusal of the regular commander, the commander of the battalion of the 390th Marine Regiment, Major O.N. Khomutov. headed the air assault battalion of the 165th Marine Regiment for the entire period the regiment performed tasks in the Chechen Republic.

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In the near future, the Banners will be transferred to the Central Museum of the Armed Forces for eternal storage

quietly dying." Officers were leaving, and very few new ones were coming; fewer and fewer conscripts arrived, and without any proper selection; the implementation of all existing plans for its development, adopted in 1989, was stopped.

The first, apparently, to “die” was a separate unit in the Caspian Sea, however, in 1994, the 332nd separate MP battalion was re-formed there in Astrakhan.

The 175th separate brigade of the Northern Fleet was also disbanded in 1992-93. The remaining units lived out their days in poverty. But the war broke out and the successful actions of the Marines in Chechnya again attracted attention to it. The Marines were transported to Chechnya by plane, carrying only light portable weapons. Military equipment (armored personnel carriers, tanks, artillery) was delivered by train in 10-15 days. The Marine Corps was commanded by Major General A. Otrakovsky.

From January to March 1995, the following are fighting in Chechnya: 876th infantry battalion of the 61st infantry regiment of the Northern Fleet, 879th airborne battalion of the 336th guards. brigade battalion of the Baltic Fleet and the 165th infantry battalion of the 55th infantry battalion of the Pacific Fleet.

On January 9, 1995, marine units of the Red Banner Baltic Fleet and Northern Fleet entered Grozny. The Marines had to operate in assault groups and detachments that successively captured buildings and neighborhoods, sometimes without neighbors to the right or left, or even completely isolated. The soldiers of the 876th Northern Fleet Division fought especially effectively and competently in the city. In the direction of their actions there were serious points of militant resistance: the building of the Council of Ministers, the Main Post Office, the Puppet Theater, and many high-rise buildings. Soldiers of the 2nd Airborne Assault Company (ADS) of the battalion stormed the Council of Ministers. The fighters of the 3rd battalion fought for the building of a nine-story building, which occupied a dominant position and was turned by the militants into a powerful stronghold, blocking the exit to one of the main centers of resistance - the Main Post Office building.

On January 14, the building of the Council of Ministers, a high-rise building and the Main Post Office were occupied by marines. On January 15, assault groups of the 3rd company captured the Puppet Theater.

But the hardest part was yet to come. Federal troops gradually advanced towards the center of Grozny - towards the presidential palace, the buildings of the Council of Ministers and the Caucasus Hotel. The buildings located in the city center were defended by elite militant detachments, in particular the so-called “Abkhaz battalion” of Sh. Basayev.

On the night of January 17, the 3rd DShR advanced in the direction of the Council of Ministers. On Komsomolskaya Street, the advanced groups of the company were ambushed by 6 soldiers. The bandits tried to surround one of the groups of marines. Sergeant V. Molchanov ordered his comrades to retreat, while he remained to cover them. The regrouped Marines pushed back the militants. Around the position where Molchanov remained with the machine gun, 17 bandits were killed. The sergeant himself died.

On January 19, marines, in cooperation with scouts from the 68th separate reconnaissance battalion (orb) and motorized riflemen of the 276th motorized rifle regiment, captured the presidential palace. A group of Baltic soldiers led by the deputy battalion commander of the Guards. Major A. Plushakov hoisted the Naval and Russian state flags over the palace.

Then, after the fall of Grozny, the 105th Combined Marine Regiment was formed in Chechnya on the basis of the 1st Battalion of the 106th Regiment of the 55th Marine Division, with a separate Marine Battalion from the Baltic (877 Marine Corps) and Northern Fleets, engineering a sapper unit from the OMIB (separate naval engineering battalion) of the Baltic Fleet, which for another two months, until June 26, 1995, destroyed militants in the Vedeno, Shali and Shatoi regions of Chechnya. During the fighting, more than 40 settlements were liberated from militants, and a large number of heavy weapons and military equipment were destroyed and captured. But here, unfortunately, there were losses, although they were much smaller. In total, during the 1995 fighting in Chechnya, 178 marines were killed and 558 were injured of varying severity. 16 people received the title of Hero of Russia (six posthumously).

In 1994, on the basis of the disbanded 77th Guards. or there was an attempt to form a new 163rd department. MP brigade. However, the brigade was never deployed and, in fact, resembled the BVHT. In 1996 it was disbanded.

In 1995-96, the 810th Marine Brigade of the Black Sea Fleet was reorganized into the 810th Separate Marine Regiment, while the 382nd Separate Marine Battalion and a separate tank battalion were separated from it. Both allocated battalions were redeployed to the village of Temryuk (the coast of the Azov Sea, Krasnodar region of Russia). It should be noted that in the period 1990-91. this brigade did not have a tank battalion at all, and the newly recreated one (initially on T-64A/B tanks) was initially stationed in the village of Temryuk.

In many ways, the high coherence and combat training of the Marines was achieved by their command due to the transition in the first half of the 1990s to a new organizational structure, which implied: each company, each battalion, unlike ground battalions, must be able to carry out tasks independently, in isolation from the main forces, which is determined by the very purpose and nature of the actions of the Marine Corps. For example, the Marine battalions were permanently assigned artillery, a mortar platoon, and a communications unit, which ultimately turned a typical Marine battalion into a sort of “regiment in miniature.” All this made it possible to use marine units in the Caucasus with high efficiency.

The “black berets” were also helped by the fact that the Marine Corps units as a whole constantly practiced and continue to practice at training grounds the elements of combat in various terrains and in various conditions, since the Marine Corps has accumulated sufficient experience. And indeed, it is not known in advance under what conditions and on what coast the Marines will have to land as part of the assault force, where they will have to fight, in what conditions: in mountainous areas, on the plain, in the jungle, in the desert or in populated areas. Even in Russia, an amphibious landing in rocky or mountainous terrain is possible in several areas - in the North, Far East or on the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus. The same can be said about combat in urban conditions, since even the experience of the Great Patriotic War and the Korean War showed: the marines can and should land directly in a port city, seize a bridgehead and hold it until the main landing forces arrive.

It is interesting that the former chief of the marine corps of the Russian Navy, Colonel Yuri Ermakov, recalled: the British and US Marines were actively interested in the experience of the Russian marines in fighting in urban environments in the 1990s. This was not accidental - the knowledge gained was subsequently applied by British and American Marines in practice in Yugoslavia, Iraq and Afghanistan.

In the period from 1996 to 1998, the composition of the 55th Marine Division of the Pacific Fleet underwent changes:

• The 85th MP Regiment was disbanded, and instead of it, the newly formed 390th Separate MP Regiment with a deployment in the village was introduced into the division. Slavyanka, which is southeast. Vladivostok (apparently, initially, it was formed as a separate one and was introduced into the 55th DMP later);
• The 26th Tank Regiment was reorganized into the 84th Separate Tank Battalion;
• The 165th MP Regiment began to be additionally called “Cossack”;
• The 84th artillery regiment was renamed the 921st, and the 417th anti-aircraft missile regiment was renamed the 923rd.

In 1999, it was decided to form a new marine brigade in the Caspian Sea with a permanent location in the city of Kaspiysk (Dagestan). For this purpose, specially formed units from various fleets were transferred to the region, incl. 414th Infantry Regiment (according to other sources - ODSB) from the Baltic. However, the outbreak of the Second Chechen War prevented the calm formation of the formation and it was finally formed only in mid. 2000 The 414th and 600th MP battalions joined the brigade. The brigade received its number and honorary names as a legacy from the highly deserved 77th Guards. motorized rifle division and is called the 77th Guards Red Banner Moscow-Chernigov Horde. Lenin and Suvorov separate marine brigade.

After the invasion of Wahhabi extremists into the territory of Dagestan and the start of the counter-terrorist operation, the reinforced 876th Airborne Brigade from the 61st Marine Brigade of the Northern Fleet again left for the North Caucasus from September 10 to 20, 1999. The battalion was transferred to the Caucasus in full force, with reinforcements. On September 30, after combat coordination of the units, the battalion marched first to Khasavyurt, and then along the route with the final destination of the village of Aksai. The march took place in conditions of almost constant fire contact with the enemy, and the first killed and wounded appeared in the battalion. But the onslaught of the Marines did not weaken, and in November one of the main strongholds of the militants, the city of Gudermes, was taken.

In November 1999, the marines carried out combat missions in the flat part of Chechnya. In December, marine units were transferred to the mountainous part of the republic - to the Vedeno region. A marine corps group was formed there under the command of Major General A. Otrakovsky. The brunt of military operations in the Vedeno region fell on the 876th Northern Fleet Division under the command of Lieutenant Colonel A. Belezko. The actions of the Marines near the settlements of Kharachoy, Vedeno, at the Khaarami Pass and the Andian Gates, the operation to capture the dominant heights above the settlements of Dzhanoy-Vedeno, Vyshney-Vedeno, Oktyabrsky and Dargo earned the best assessments from the OGV command. During one of the operations in the Vedensky Gorge, the Marines captured mothballed military equipment of the bandits as a trophy: BMD, BMP, T-72 tank, an artillery mount based on an armored personnel carrier, a GAZ-66 car filled with artillery shells. The brigade suffered the greatest losses during the capture of height 1561.1 (Mount Gizcheny, according to other sources, Mount Gulchany) in the Vedeno Gorge. At the end of December 1999, the 1st infantry regiment, the 2nd infantry regiment and the mortar battery of the 876th infantry battalion reached Mount Gizcheny, which the militants had turned into a well-fortified stronghold. The mountain was of great strategic importance for the further advance of the group’s troops to the settlements of Vedeno, Dargo and Kharachoy. The 1st PDR secretly took up positions on one side of the Vedeno Gorge, stretching out in a line. The 1st and 2nd parachute platoons (pdv) of the company stood almost opposite Gizchen. 3rd regiment of the company under the command of Art. Lieutenant A. Abadzherov was located on the right flank, opposite height 1406, from which it was separated by a gorge. On December 30, marine units were tasked with capturing the heights of Gizchen. The idea of ​​the operation was as follows: on the morning of December 31, the 1st and 2nd Airborne Divisions advance to a height from the bottom up, squeezing out the militants from there. The 3rd Infantry Division was supposed to go around Gizcheny from the rear along the gorge and set up a fire ambush on the way of the displaced enemy. At the same time, Abadzherov’s platoon had to bring to height 1406 the platoon of Lieutenant Yu. Kuryagin from the 2nd airborne regiment and the reconnaissance group of the Black Sea troops, who needed to take positions at this height in order to provide support from the right flank in the upcoming operation, not letting the militants through here. Abadzherov's platoon, carrying out this task, carefully checked the entire route for the presence of the enemy and successfully brought Kuryagin's platoon and a reconnaissance group (up to 40 people) to a height of 1406. At 08.30 on December 31, Abadzherov's platoon (18 people) began to fulfill its main task - moving to the rear heights of Gizchen. When the Marines began to descend to the bottom of the gorge, on the contrary, at height 1406, fierce shooting and explosions of hand grenades were heard (it was later established that on the morning of December 31, militants numbering up to 200 people carried out a surprise attack on Kuryagin’s group). Hearing the sounds of battle Art. Lieutenant Abadzherov decided to stop performing the main task and go to the aid of Lieutenant Kuryagin. At the bottom of the gorge, Abadjerov’s platoon encountered an ambush of militants, which they shot down on the move, while capturing a camouflaged cache where equipment and ammunition were located. Abadzherov’s platoon was the first to reach the top of height 1406, which was shaped like the number eight, that is, as if divided into two halves, ahead of the group of militants returning by several minutes. The Marines took up positions on the left half of the figure eight, on a small hill, and met the bandits with intense fire from small arms and grenade launchers. A detachment of militants, having encountered unexpected resistance, suffering losses in killed and wounded, hastily retreated, but from the neighboring Gizcheny mountain, aimed fire from a machine gun and sniper rifles was opened on Abadjerov’s platoon, and the retreating militants attempted to bypass the marines from the flanks (height 1406 flat from three sides, only the left side is almost vertical). For four hours, Abadzherov’s platoon fought an unequal battle with a numerically superior enemy. The marines were supported by helicopters and artillery called by radio (up to 30 militants were destroyed by artillery fire). When reinforcements arrived at height 1406, the bandits finally retreated. During the battle on December 31, 1999, 12 people from Kuryagin’s group were killed, two were seriously wounded (one subsequently died), the rest, who were under guard, survived, Abadzherov’s platoon had no casualties. Mount Gizcheny, where the militants’ fortified point was located, was taken a few days later, in early January 2000. Taking advantage of difficult weather conditions, the 1st PDR under the command of Art. Leyte Nanta S. Lobanova captured an important strategic height with a surprise attack, inflicting heavy losses on the bandits in manpower and weapons.

Then there were the settlements of Botlikh, Alleroy, Andes and others. In addition to the Severomorsk soldiers, the reconnaissance company of the 810th infantry infantry regiment of the Black Sea Fleet and the 414th infantry infantry regiment of the Caspian Flotilla took part in the counter-terrorist operation of 1999–2000 on the territory of Chechnya and Dagestan. During the operation, 36 Marines were killed and 119 were wounded. Five “black berets” were awarded the title of Hero of Russia, including three posthumously. Moreover, four Heroes and all three who received this title posthumously were servicemen of the 61st separate marine brigade of the Northern Fleet, and in just two Chechen wars, only the marine corps of the Northern Fleet lost one general, seven junior officers, a senior warrant officer and 73 sailors and sergeants.

After the group of marine forces created in the Caucasus completed its tasks, the units began to be withdrawn from Chechnya one by one, and the group was disbanded. Of the marines, only the Caspian battalion remained there, but it was also withdrawn at the end of September 2000. However, already in April 2001, by decision of the command, a battalion of the Caspian Marine Brigade was sent to block the border between Dagestan and Chechnya, and from June 2001 to February 2003, a battalion tactical group of the created Caspian Marine Brigade operated on a permanent basis in the mountainous regions of Chechnya and Dagestan , reinforced by Black Sea scouts. And even after the withdrawal from the republic of the bulk of the troops that took part in the last counter-terrorist operation, for another six months, the mountainous sections of the administrative border of Chechnya and Dagestan, as well as the state Russian-Georgian border, were covered by a battalion tactical group from the youngest brigade of the Navy MP. For a long time, the Caspians had to operate in an almost completely autonomous mode, in isolation from the main forces and supply bases. But the “black berets” coped with the task assigned to them. Subsequently, the number of marines permanently operating in the Chechen Republic was reduced from a battalion to a company, and then the “black berets” completely returned to their place of permanent deployment.

The dynamics of the composition of the Marine Corps and coastal defense formations in the period 1991-2000 is as follows:

Name		Dislocation		Notes Additions. Armament (as of 01/01/2000)
Marines.
55 dmp		Pacific Fleet district of Vladivostok.		Regalia: Mozyr Red Banner. For 2000, it included: 106, 165 and 390 infantry infantry regiments, 921 ap, 923 air defense regiments, 84 detachments, 263 orb, 1484 obs.
61 obrmp		SOF. Sputnik village (northern Murmansk)		Regalia: Kirkene Red Banner. It consists of 876 odshb... Armament: 74 T-80B, 59 BTR-80, 12 2S1 "Gvozdika", 22 2S9 "Nona-S", 11 2S23 "Nona-SVK", 134 MT-LB and others. Lich. composition – 1270 parts.
163 obrmp		SOF. Arkhangelsk district		Formed in 1994 on the basis of the 77th Guards. dbo and existed for less than two years - until 1996, when it was disbanded.
175 obrmp		SOF. Serebryanskoe or Tumanny village (Murmansk region)		Disbanded in 1992-93. or, according to other sources, cropped.
336 Guards obrmp		BF. Baltiysk (Kaliningrad region)		The honorary name and regalia is the Bialystok Order of Suvorov and Alexander Nevsky. It includes the 879th airborne infantry battalion, the 877th and 878th infantry infantry regiments... Armament: 26 T-72, 131 BTR-80, 24 2S1 "Gvozdika", 22 2S9 "Nona-S", 6 2B16 "Nona-K", 59 MT-LB and others. Lich. composition – 1157 parts.
810 opmp		Black Sea Fleet Cossack settlement (Sevastopol district)		It includes the 882nd airborne battalion. Around 1995-96 it was reorganized into the opmp. At the same time, it separated the 382nd Infantry Infantry and Detachment from its composition. Armament: 46 BTR-80, 52 BMP-2, 18 2S1 "Gvozdika", 6 2S9 "Nona-S", 28 MT-LB and others. composition – 1088 parts.
390 opmp		village Slavyanka, Khasansky district, Primorsky region.		Formed in the 90s. as a separate one, and was soon introduced into 55 dmp instead of 85 pmp.
414 odshb		Kaspiysk		The battalion was created on the basis of the 336th Guards. obrmp in 1999 Armament: 30 BTR-70, 6 D-30, 6 2B16 "Nona-K" and others. Lich. composition – 735 parts.
382 obmp		village Temryuk, Krasnodar region		Withdrew (in fact, re-formed) from the 810th Infantry Brigade when it was reorganized into a regiment - 1995. Armament: 61 BMP-2, 7 BTR-80, 6 MT-LB, etc. Lich. composition – 229 hours.
332 obmp		Astrakhan		Formed in Aug. 1994. In 1998 renamed 600 obmp.
600 obmp		KFL, Astrakhan, then – Kaspiysk.		Renamed from 332 obmp. Transferred to Kaspiysk (Dagestan) in 1999. Armament: 25 BTR-70, 8 2B16 "Nona-K" and others. Lich. composition – 677 parts.
Coastal defense
77 Guards dbo		SOF, Arkhangelsk and Kem district		Disbanded 1994
3rd Guards dbo		BF, Klaipeda and Telshai district		Disbanded 1993
40 dbo		Pacific Fleet, village Shkotovo (Vladivostok district)		Disbanded 1994
126 dbo		Black Sea Fleet, Simferopol and Evpatoria region.		Disbanded in 1996. Its arms and military equipment are divided in half between Russia and Ukraine.
301 Apr		Black Sea Fleet, Simferopol		As part of the Black Sea Fleet since 12/01/89. until 1994. Disbanded in 1994.
8th Guards oap		BF, Vyborg		Disbanded.
710 oap		BF, Kaliningrad		Converted to BHVT.
181 opulab		Baltic Fleet, Fort "Krasnaya Gorka"		Disbanded.
1 obrbo		BF, Vyborg		Apparently they were created on the basis of one of the mechanized infantry divisions on the Karelian Isthmus and the disbanded 77th Guards. dbo, respectively. They didn't last long.
52 opbo		SOF, Arkhangelsk district		no information
205 oob PDSS				no information
102 oob PDSS				no information
313 oob PDSS				no information

At present, even despite the reform and reduction in numbers, the Marine Corps still remains one of the most important components of the Russian Navy. Organizationally, it is part of the coastal forces of the Russian Navy, and its activities in peacetime and war are directly supervised by the Chief of the Marine Corps. There are marine corps units in all fleets - in a separate marine brigade, in the Caspian flotilla (separate battalions) and even in Moscow (units for escorting military cargo and security of the Main Headquarters of the Navy), they are subordinate locally to the heads of the departments of the coastal forces of the Baltic, Black Sea, Northern and the Pacific Fleet.

Long years of underfunding and constant reform of the Armed Forces have also affected the Marine Corps. The staff is literally being cut to the quick, there are not enough professionals, including contract soldiers in sailor positions, the ranks of armored vehicles are thinning and, what is even more ominous, the number and combat potential of the naval landing forces are declining.

For example, Russian marines today actually do not have amphibious armored vehicles capable of landing on an unequipped shore in the first echelon of amphibious assault, afloat, ensuring the suppression of fortified points and positions of enemy fire weapons (including directing accurate fire from the water). All that today can “float” from military equipment are armored personnel carriers of the BTR-80 family and armed with MT-LB machine gun mounts (floating transporters armed with machine guns are probably not worth mentioning). A very good armored vehicle, the BMP-3 F, armed with not only small arms and cannons, but also missile weapons - a 100-mm cannon and an ATGM launcher, a 30-mm automatic cannon and three machine guns - has not yet reached the Marine Corps I've arrived. But it received high reviews from the UAE ground forces. The 125-mm self-propelled anti-tank gun 2 S25 "Sprut-SD", which was tested by the Marine Corps and adopted for service, is also not available in the required quantities.

According to the command staff of the Russian Marine Corps, a worthy replacement for the retired PT-76 amphibious tank, capable of not only landing afloat, but also firing from the water, has not yet appeared. Existing tanks of the T-72 family can, as is known, be landed from landing ships only at rest or in an equipped port - just like self-propelled guns "Gvozdika" and "Nona-S" and "Nona-SVK", mobile air defense systems and others military equipment.

Some time ago it seemed that a solution had been found - the Moscow OJSC Special Mechanical Engineering and Metallurgy proposed an option for modernizing the PT-76, within which it was planned to install a new turret on the vehicle with a weapon system with a 57-mm automatic cannon placed in it (a conversion of the ship's AK gun mount -725 was carried out by the Nizhny Novgorod design bureau "Burevestnik"), a new automated control system and a two-plane weapon stabilizer. The combined sight, developed by one of the Belarusian optical-mechanical enterprises, was equipped with a built-in range finder, and the new weapon system would provide the modernized PT-76 B tank with a threefold increase in firepower compared to its predecessor. So, for example, when firing an armor-piercing tracer projectile at a range of 1250 m, the gun penetrates 100 mm thick armor.

In addition, in order to increase the mobility of the new tank on land, specialists from the design bureau of the Volgograd Tractor Plant have developed a program for modernizing its power plant: installing a more powerful UTD-23 diesel engine and a transmission used on the BMD-3, as well as new caterpillar tracks with better adhesion properties and a large service life. A special system for scanning and detecting optical devices, which is similar to devices for detecting snipers, is intended to give the upgraded vehicle additional survival capability on the battlefield. True, so far things have not gone further than proposals.

However, if equipment has recently, at the very least, made its way into the Marine Corps, then some of the actions of reformers in the field of reorganizing the organizational structure of the Marine Corps of the Russian Navy simply defy any logic. For example, the 77th Separate Guards Moscow-Chernigov Order of Lenin, Red Banner, Order of Suvorov II Class Marine Brigade of the Caspian Flotilla, created in 1996 on the basis of the 600th Guards and 414th Separate Marine Battalions, was disbanded. On December 1, 2008, the brigade ceased to exist, and its personnel, equipment and materiel, with the exception of two marine battalions with bases in Kaspiysk and Astrakhan, were transferred to a newly formed separate marine brigade within the Black Sea Fleet.

The fact that on the basis of the 810th Marine Corps in 2008 the Black Sea Marine Brigade (810 Marine Corps), which was reduced exactly 10 years earlier, was recreated cannot but rejoice, but was it really reasonable to do this at the expense of the destruction of another formation, and at such an important direction, like the Caspian Sea, where Russia has so far failed to reach mutual understanding on the issue of delimiting influence on the sea with its neighbors in the region? Many experts have long called the Caspian Sea nothing more than a “sea of ​​discord”...

A similar, not entirely positive, reorganization was carried out in relation to the Marine Corps of the Pacific Fleet. Not only was it decided ten years ago that the 55th Marine Division, located in the Far East, did not need a separate tank regiment at all, but relatively recently a decision was made to reduce the division itself - on June 1, 2009, it was reorganized to the 165th separate marine brigade of the Pacific Fleet. Moreover, it is necessary to take into account the fact that one of the primary tasks of the Pacific Marines was to seize the strait zones in order to ensure access to the open ocean for the main forces of the Pacific Fleet, which, with the exception of those ships and submarines that are based in Kamchatka and in some other “open” "to the ocean areas of the coast, literally locked in the Sea of ​​Japan.

However, the situation in other fleets is also no better - in the Russian Navy today there are only four marine brigades left: the already mentioned 165th Brigade, the 336th Separate Guards Bialystok Order of Suvorov and Nakhimov Marine Brigade of the Baltic Fleet, 61 -1st separate Kirkenes Red Banner Marine Brigade of the Northern Fleet and 810th separate Marine Brigade of the Black Sea Fleet, as well as several separate regiments, battalions and companies. And this is for the entire fleet, whose task is to defend Russia’s vast coastline from the sea and assist the ground forces in conducting operations in the coastal theater of operations.

Only recently have encouraging news begun to appear, allowing us to hope for the restoration of the former power of the Russian Marine Corps. Far Eastern Higher Military Command School named after K.K. Rokossovsky (DVVKU), which trains Marine Corps commanders, conducted a full-fledged recruitment in 2013, for the first time after many years. More than 300 cadets began training, while previous enrollments did not go beyond a few dozen.

At the same time, in 2013, the 3rd Marine Regiment was again reorganized into the 40th Brigade. In this, until recently land, formation, amphibious training began to be carried out. In the coming years, the fleet will receive landing helicopter dock ships Vladivostok and Sevastopol. A new combat vehicle for the Marine Corps is being developed (research code “BMMP Platform”). Such a vehicle is really necessary, since the Marine Corps has long been in need of a combat vehicle with good seaworthiness.

The BMP-3F, developed specifically for marine paratroopers, was received not by ours, but by Indonesian sailors. And our fleet, unfortunately, expects the arrival of a new amphibious vehicle only “in the long term.” This is all the more strange since the Commander-in-Chief of the Airborne Forces still managed to achieve the adoption of the BMD-4M. But the problem of updating the fleet of equipment and strengthening the firepower of the Marine Corps is no less acute.

The other day, the head of the Coastal Forces of the Navy (the marine corps still belongs to them, although we have actually already withdrawn from the CFE Treaty), Major General Alexander Kolpachenko, announced that in 2014 the 61st Marine Regiment of the Northern Fleet will again be reorganized into a brigade. I would like to hope that these are only the first steps towards restoring and developing the power of the naval amphibious forces capable of defeating the enemy on its territory.

09 February 2011

Place of events

Reserve Colonel Sergei Kondratenko recalls what the Pacific Fleet Marines faced in Chechnya in 1995.

I think I will not be mistaken if I classify Colonel Kondratenko (we have known him for many years) as the type of Russian officer-intellectual who is known to us from Lermontov and Tolstoy, Arsenyev and Gumilyov. From January to May 1995, Kondratenko with the 165th Marine Regiment of the Pacific Fleet was in Chechnya and kept a diary there, recording day by day and sometimes minute by minute what was happening around him. I hope that someday these notes will be published, although Sergei Konstantinovich himself believes that the time has not yet come to speak out loud about everything.

On the 20th anniversary of the beginning of the war in Chechnya, Sergei Kondratenko and my colleague, editor-in-chief of “New in Vladivostok” Andrei Ostrovsky, published the fourth edition of the Book of Memory of the Primorsky Territory, which names all the Primorye residents who died in the North Caucasus over these years (and those called up from Primorye) . New names were added to each reissue, each time hoping that these additions were the last.

I will preface the conversation, the occasion of which was this non-celebratory anniversary, with a brief background. Sergei Kondratenko was born in 1950 in Khabarovsk, graduated from the Secondary Educational Institution in Blagoveshchensk. From 1972 to 2001, he served in a division (now a brigade) of the Pacific Fleet Marine Corps, retiring from the post of deputy division commander. Later he headed the regional search and rescue service, headed the organization of local war veterans “Contingent”, now he is the chairman of the Vladivostok Veterans Council. Awarded the Order of Courage and the Order of Military Merit.

Pacific Islanders in the Caucasus: “Everything was learned on the spot”

Sergei Konstantinovich, all your life you have studied and taught others to fight, and with an external enemy. Remember, they told me how, as a DVOKU cadet in March 1969, during the battles on Damansky, you took up positions on the Amur embankment in Blagoveshchensk... Then everything worked out. And the Marines were not sent to Afghanistan. You had to fight only a quarter of a century later - already a mature man, a colonel. Moreover, the war broke out on the territory of our own country...

Yes, many of us in the Marine Corps wrote reports and asked to be sent to Afghanistan, but we were told: you have your own combat mission. But, by the way, at that time our landing groups were constantly on ships in the Persian Gulf...

June 1995. Sergei Kondratenko after returning from Chechnya

When we arrived in Chechnya, saw the destruction of Grozny, talked with civilians, we realized that there really was genocide of the Russian population. Not only the Russians spoke about this, but also the Chechens themselves, especially the elderly, and we saw it all ourselves. True, some said that we shouldn’t have interfered; they would have sorted it out themselves. I don’t know... Another thing is that the decision to send troops was hasty, this is 100 percent.

Being the deputy division commander, I was appointed head of the division's operational group. This group is created for ease of control when the regiment operates at a distance from the division. The regiment itself was handled by its commander, and I was the first to “jump out” to the rear area, to Grozny, and agreed with the Baltic Marines to transfer the tent camp to us... During the fighting, I ensured the interaction between the “regiment and the group.” Then he took upon himself the exchange of prisoners and the collection of weapons from the population. I traveled to different departments. If there was some kind of emergency, skirmish, death, he always jumped out and sorted it out on the spot. On February 18, I received barotrauma - four of our comrades died in battle that day... In general, I did not sit idle.

- When did you find out that you were going to fly to the Caucasus?

The fighting in Chechnya began on December 11, 1994, and on December 22 I returned from leave and learned that a directive had arrived: to complete the 165th regiment to wartime levels and carry out combat coordination - we have such an expression, the computer emphasizes this word. It was clear that they were preparing for Chechnya, but then I thought: just in case, the reserve is not the first echelon... They began to give us people from ships and fleet units. Of these, 50 percent were eliminated, if not more. Firstly, this is an old army tradition: they always give up the “best”. Secondly, they didn’t take anyone who said: “I won’t go.” Or if you have health problems.

We managed to carry out almost everything that was required at the Bamburovo and Clerk training grounds: shooting, driving... On January 10, when it became clear that the New Year's assault on Grozny had failed, we were given the command to go to Chechnya.

- Shooting, driving - it’s clear, but was there another plan in preparation? Let's say, cultural?

This is precisely what did not happen, and this is a huge omission. Everything had to be learned on the spot. I loved history, but I still didn’t know much when I went to the first negotiations with the Chechens. At a meeting with the residents of Belgatoy, an old man comes out and hugs me. At first I was confused. And then it happened all the time - I was hugging a man who could kill me in half an hour. It’s customary there - the elder hugs the elder.

- What were the “black berets” not prepared for?

You know, the general impression is this: we were taught one thing, but there everything was different. We didn’t expect much, from the dirt and chaos to the use of units. We learned on the go.

- Were there combatants among you?

The commander of the 165th regiment, Colonel Alexander Fedorov, commanded a motorized rifle battalion in Afghanistan and used this combat experience. In general, our percentage of losses was the lowest. Partly because we were staffed mainly by our own people. I knew all the officers of the regiment from company commanders and above, many platoon commanders. Few of the officers were from the outside. We were given people from ships and parts of the fleet, but the Marines were still the basis.

In general, the Marine Corps was well prepared. About a third of our deaths were non-combat losses, but in the same 245th regiment (245th Guards Motorized Rifle Regiment of the Moscow Military District, replenished by Far Easterners. - Ed.) non-combat losses amounted to more than half. “Friendly fire” has been and will be in all wars, but much depends on the organization. In the same Book of Memory we did not always write how exactly a person died. You can’t tell his parents that, for example, he took drugs... And then all the vices of the citizen come out. In general, during war the threshold of legality is lowered. A man walks with a machine gun, his finger is on the trigger, if he doesn’t shoot first, they’ll shoot at him...

- Were the Marines assigned any special tasks?

No, they were used like regular infantry. True, when we “crossed” Sunzha, our PTS - a floating transporter - was involved there. We joked: the Marine Corps is used for its combat purpose!

First battle: “I could have died three times that day”

- Could you imagine then how long all this would drag on, what it would result in?

On January 19, when Dudayev’s palace was taken, Yeltsin declared that the military stage of restoring the Russian Constitution in Chechnya had been completed. Just in time for this date, our regiment concentrated in the rear area near Grozny. Having read the Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper of January 21, in which this presidential statement was published, I thought: why the hell were we being dragged from the Far East?.. And on the night of January 21-22, the second battalion of the 165th regiment was brought into battle, and already
On January 22, senior lieutenant Maxim Rusakov died.

- The first loss of the Pacific Fleet Marine Corps...

When this slaughter began (the battalion was fighting, a sailor was wounded), I immediately “jumped out” to the place. Not only because of the wounded: ours lost contact, there was no interaction, panic began - all this is called the first battle... I took with me an engineer, a medic, a signalman, spare batteries for the radio station, ammunition. We went to the carbide plant, where units of the second battalion were located. This is Khabarovskaya Street - my “native” street. And I almost flew into it - on that first trip I could have died three times. We were given a ten-fold card, but we didn’t work with such cards, and I couldn’t “get into it” with it. We walked along Khabarovskaya in two armored personnel carriers, jumped out to the bridge over the Sunzha, but the bridge was not visible - it was blown up, and it bent and sank. The spirits placed blocks in front of the bridge. I look through the triplex - nothing is clear, black figures are rushing around with weapons, clearly not our sailors... We stopped and stood there for a minute or two. If they had a grenade launcher, it would be lost. I look around - there is some kind of enterprise on the left, on the pipe there is a hammer and sickle. And at the group headquarters they told me: a pipe with a hammer and sickle is “carbide.” I look - the gate is opening, a figure in camouflage is waving. We dropped in there. Second point: when we drove into the yard, I drove along the wire from the MON-200 - a directed action mine. But it didn’t explode - ours were setting the mine for the first time, the tension was weak. And when we passed there, I already opened the hatch and leaned out. If it had been severely slashed, it would not have penetrated the armor, but the wheels would have been damaged and the head would have been blown off... And the third thing. We drove into the courtyard of a carbide plant, picked up a wounded man, but there was no other way out. I realized that the spirits had driven us into a mousetrap and would not just let us out. Then I drove the armored personnel carriers to the far corner of the yard in order to disperse them as much as possible, turned the KPVT barrels to the left and ordered them to shoot from the left loopholes. I jumped out; they didn’t have time to shoot at us from a grenade launcher. A second armored personnel carrier came out immediately behind us. They fired at him, but due to the high speed the grenade missed. At this time, Rusakov looked out from behind the gate, and a grenade hit him... We learned about his death after arriving at the regiment command post. When it got dark, I again went to the positions of the second battalion. We managed to remove Maxim’s body only at night - the militants were holding the factory gates at gunpoint.

Destroyed Grozny

That evening I drank a glass and remembered that my patron was Sergius of Radonezh. I decided that I had chosen my limit: it flew by three times, which means it won’t kill me. But I made conclusions. And then in such cases I always analyzed and predicted.

- By the way, “perfume” is an Afghan word?

Yes, from Afghanistan, but we used it. “Bandits” - no one said. And the “Czechs” - that’s what happened later.

- How was life organized? What was the mood like? Were you sick?

At first it was difficult - accommodation, food, and heating. Then people adapted. At first there was lice, and then baths were established in each unit: in tents, dugouts, trailers... The moral state - at first it was very difficult, I’m even surprised how the sailors withstood it. After all, I was already 44 years old, I had service experience, physical training, but it was also difficult. And for the sailors... During the battle, everyone swore terribly - they simply spoke obscenities during this stressful period. Then they got used to it.

At first, we suffered a lot from colds. The mud was terrible, it was cold, and they also sent us rubber boots... We later threw them away. The second is skin diseases. But then they got used to it again. At first I got sick myself, I lay down for a day, and then, no matter how much I tossed around - my feet were wet, I was cold - there was nothing, not even snot.

- Did local residents complain about your fighters?

It was like that, I had to sort it all out. There was a case - after the death of Senior Lieutenant Skomorokhov, the guys took five drops in the evening, and the Chechens violated the curfew: movement was prohibited after 18 o'clock, and here a man and a young guy were driving a tractor. The man ran away, and the guy fell under the hot hand - our people pushed him. The next day - chaos. I understood that the Chechens had also violated, but still I couldn’t touch them... I went to the elder - this guy’s uncle - and asked for forgiveness. I offered to gather the residents and was ready to publicly apologize, but they told me: no need, you asked for forgiveness - in an hour the whole village will know.

- What were the militants armed with besides small arms? How was their tactical literacy?

I personally was once under fire from an 82mm mortar - a great machine! Another time I came under fire from a Grad - about half a packet was dropped, fortunately there were no casualties. There was an anecdote - a communications sailor was hiding from the Grad in a tent... Then they forced everyone to dig in.

The militants knew the area well. And then, ours changed, but those remained in place. Those who survived were very well prepared. They had assertiveness, audacity... We couldn’t change people like that - they come unfired, not knowing the situation... There was a sad experience with the introduction of the 9th company into battle, which initially remained in Mozdok at the group’s command post, performing commandant functions. After that, we made it a rule: when a replacement officer comes, let him first sit, listen, and grow into the situation. I know this from myself - I couldn’t even get the hang of the map right away. Or the same triplex - you can’t see anything through it. Then it’s always - the hatch is open, you look. If the situation is very alarming, you look into the gap between the hatch and the armor. When I went on my first trip, I put on a helmet and body armor... As a result, I couldn’t climb onto the armored personnel carrier - the sailors pushed me like a medieval knight! Somewhere on the block you can sit in a bulletproof vest... On January 22, I put on a bulletproof vest and helmet for the first and last time and I don’t regret it. All comes with experience.

War and Peace: “Maskhadov even invited me to visit”

- The military were unhappy with the February truce...

We considered such a decision inappropriate. The initiative was on the side of our troops, and by this time Grozny was completely controlled by us. The peaceful respite was beneficial only to the militants.

During that period, I met a lot with local residents and militants. He was engaged in collecting weapons in the villages of Belgatoy and Germenchuk, and carried out an exchange of prisoners.

- I had to become a diplomat... Later you facilitated negotiations between Troshev and Maskhadov - how did they go?

Negotiations between Maskhadov and the commander of our troops in Chechnya, Major General Troshev, took place on April 28 in Novye Atagi, in the house of a local resident. At first, field commander Isa Madayev and I discussed the details. Already on the day of negotiations, security was provided. On the other side were Aslan Maskhadov and his assistant Isa Madayev, Deputy Prime Minister of the Dudayev government Lom-Ali (I didn’t remember his last name), Shamil Basayev’s older brother Shirvani Basayev. Our side was represented by General Troshev, a lieutenant colonel of the internal troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, an FSB captain and myself.

Negotiations in New Atagi. In the center - Isa Madayev, Gennady Troshev, Aslan Maskhadov.Photo from the archive of S. K. Kondratenko

Troshev came in a camouflage cap, and Maskhadov in an astrakhan hat. Troshev asks: “Aslan, why haven’t you switched to a summer uniform yet?” He answers: “And I am like Makhmud Esambaev.” There was no firmness in Maskhadov's behavior, he looked unsure of himself - they were then pressed... Troshev clearly dominated - he joked, behaved assertively. Maskhadov understood that he was in a losing position, but his own people would not have understood him if he had accepted our conditions. Therefore, the main goals of the negotiations were not achieved (they wanted us to withdraw troops, we wanted them to disarm). But they agreed on the release of the bodies of the dead and the exchange of prisoners. Maskhadov even invited me to visit. I told General Babichev, the commander of the West group, about this, and he said: “What, don’t even think about it.” Although I am sure that if I had gone there with Isa Madayev, everything would have been fine.

In your notes you call the Peace of Khasavyurt shameful and tantamount to capitulation. And what about the second war - could we have done without it?

I don't think so. Firstly, we left our prisoners and dead there. Secondly, Chechnya has turned into a real hotbed of banditry. All these former "brigadier generals" carried out raids on the surrounding areas. Dagestan in 1999 was the last straw.

May 5, 1995, Knevichi, return from Chechnya. Left - Governor of Primorye Evgeny Nazdratenko

As for the first war, I think it could have been completely avoided. In the same Ingushetia, it was also on the brink, but Ruslan Aushev (President of Ingushetia in 1993–2002 - Ed.) was awarded the rank of lieutenant general and so on. It was possible to come to an agreement with Dudayev.

War does not start by itself. And it’s not the military that starts it, but the politicians. But if a war starts, let professionals, military men deal with the war, and not so that they fought, then stop - they kissed, then start again... The most important thing is that the death of people could have been prevented, there was no need to lead to such a conflict. The war in Chechnya is the result of the collapse of the Soviet Union. And what is happening now in Ukraine has the same roots.

Like blood on their bulletproof vests...
Cry raspberry, cry, who else will remember,
(From a poem by Lieutenant Vladimir Petrov.)

February 7 The 2nd battalion of the 165th infantry regiment began moving towards the Zapadny bus station. According to the commander of RV 165 PMP Oleg Borisovich Zaretsky, “two reconnaissance groups were assigned from the reconnaissance company. One of the groups was headed by Lieutenant Alexey U., a couple of days before these events I came down with a fever and... I wake up from the noise, open eyes and I see that the l/s is getting ready somewhere. When I asked what happened and why without me, they reassured me, saying that it was nothing to worry about, the exit time had already been postponed, so... in general - get well... Thus, my The group was led by Sergei Firsov, who joined the company and was sent out on the 3rd day."1

The group included:
commander of the rv, senior lieutenant Sergei Aleksandrovich Firsov2 (call sign "Malina-1" or "Malina-2")
squad leader Sergeant Yuri Vladimirovich Zubarev3
reconnaissance sailor Vadim Vyacheslavovich Vyzhimov4
reconnaissance junior sergeant Andrei Anatolyevich Soshelin5
reconnaissance sailor Andrei Serykh

The group advanced in front of the 5th RMP along Batumskaya Street in the direction of the Zapadny bus station (Mikhailova Street 4), “conducting reconnaissance of the enemy and the area in order to prevent a surprise attack by militants on the main forces”6.

Sailor Andrei Serykh: “We crossed the bridge over the river, met our guys from the air assault battalion, they said that everything was calm here. We went further, reached the factory, left the platoon there and then went on as a reconnaissance group. When we went up to the bus station, on the left We were fired upon. We fired a green rocket and they stopped shooting at us."7

Ambush at the bus station

Deputy Commander of the Coastal Forces of the Pacific Fleet for educational work, Colonel A.I. Mozhaev: “Having reached the bus station square, senior lieutenant S.A. Firsov gave the signal to the 5th company to move and began to wait for its approach to this line, since here the direction of the offensive changed and its further advance threatened to lose not only visual contact with units advancing behind him, but also fire interaction. As soon as the guiding platoon appeared around the bend of the street, machine guns and machine guns of militants hit from the opposite side of the square from behind the commercial stalls, and from the windows of the bus station. The fire was so dense and intense that the company was forced to lie down, and did not have the opportunity, as they say, even to raise her head. Remaining in this position was disastrous for her. Then the scouts began to cover the company's retreat, diverting the enemy's attention and suppressing his firing points."8

Sailor Andrei Serykh: “After passing the bus station, we went to the right. When we reached the high curb (where the boys died), they opened fire on us from a five-story building. Ahead at the curb were Firsov, Zubarev and the young Vyzhimnov, Soshelin and I covered them a little from behind. The sniper wounded Zuba to death right away. We also opened fire on the enemy. Then the young man was wounded, and Firsov ordered to retreat. I retreated first, but Soshelin was delayed for some reason..."9

Commander of RV 165 PMP O.B. Zaretsky: “The first to die was junior sergeant Yura Zubarev. A tall, strong guy, practically a demobilizer, whom I didn’t particularly want to take on trips, he convinced me: “Comrade. l-take me! I’m tall, the spirits will think that I’m a commander, they’ll kill me first, and you’ll remain alive!” That’s how it turns out. Mrs. Vyzhimov Vadim, a young sailor, “dushara”, who came to us from the Special Forces of the fleet “Hollulai”, crawled to help Zubarev "Fragments of a mortar shell blew off half of his skull and tore off his foot. Three people fought: Senior Lieutenant Sergei Firsov, Senior Lieutenant Andrey Soshelin, Mrs. Serykh. There was no help or cover, there was no communication.
The group commander made the right decision and... fatal for everyone. The unshakable principle, known from books and textbooks, “The scouts all leave,” the OFFICER’S HONOR, the presence of two 200s in the group, DID NOT ALLOW him to leave. He sent Mrs. Serykh for help - thereby saving at least one life. Andrei Soshelin, practically demobilized (out of the entire company, we brought only 4 to the division’s PPD, the rest were fired from Mozdok), did not abandon the “jackal” Firsov, thereby putting an end to his life and writing his name in golden letters in eternity.”10

Deputy Commander of the Coastal Forces of the Pacific Fleet for educational work, Colonel A.I. Mozhaev: “The scouts brought down a barrage of fire on the militants. This enabled the company to get out of the fire and take a flanking maneuver to help the scouts, but in the other direction it was stopped by enemy fire. The scouts found themselves in a fire bag, cut off from the company and almost on The militants decided to deal with them completely, went into the open, shooting from the waist up, were obviously in a drugged state and shouted: “Allah, Akbar. There are still more of us and we will force you to retreat." For four hours, the reconnaissance group fought with superior enemy forces, and nearby active units of the regiment unsuccessfully tried to come to their aid. At the regiment's OP they heard [?] the voices of our guys, but in that situation There was nothing they could do to help them, all the forces of the regiment were involved in the battles, and there was no time left to transfer forces from other directions. They knew that the group was doomed. Terrible hopelessness..."11

Help for Firsov's group

Commander of RV 165 PMP O.B. Zaretsky: “After some time, the deputy division commander, Colonel Kondratenko S., came to the company location and ordered an escort to be prepared for him to leave. Due to the fact that there was no one else in the company, and a bad feeling was tearing at his soul, the elders went himself. Already sitting on the armored personnel carrier, I asked P. Kondratenko about the groups. He confirmed our most terrible premonitions, which were driven out in every possible way - we had losses. How many, who, how - there were no answers.
We arrived at the 2nd BMP, whose headquarters occupied a complex of buildings of the timber industry enterprise, located on the other side of the Sunzha, in the private sector. We dismounted. Already knowing that the groups acted in the interests of this battalion, he began to ask what and how with the group. Imagine the surprise, mixed with indignation, when I heard the words of battalion commander G. addressed to the sailor: “Well, will I eat chicken today?” P. Kondratenko must have heard the same thing - he began to “scold” the battalion commander for inaction. The excuse I heard was discouraging: “These are Malina’s people, so let Malina pull them out!” Malina - the call sign of the reconnaissance company, the call signs of the groups were: Malina-1 and Malina-2.
Immediately, through the efforts of P. Kondratenko, they began to prepare for the evacuation of the group. They had no idea what was wrong with the group, what the severity of its losses was - there was no contact with the group, and yet it was some 300-400 meters from the battalion’s command post. When the colonel asked where the tanks sent to strengthen the battalion were, the battalion commander replied that he had sent them to another company.<...>Together with Colonel Kondratenko, he went to the company, to reinforce which tanks were sent. We've arrived. We found the tankers. The situation was explained and the deputy division commander ordered 1 tank to be moved to battalion headquarters. The company tank crew resisted. Having started the war at its very beginning, participating in the New Year's assault on Grozny, which had already lost half of its original personnel and had changed its vehicle more than once, one could understand him. The form of the order was replaced by a simple, human request, to which, having set the condition that his vehicles be covered by infantry, the tankman agreed.
Having returned with reinforcement - 1 tank, with joy and a vague presentiment I saw Lieutenant Usachev. Having gathered volunteers and quickly figuring out the order of our actions, we began to advance. Halfway along the way we stopped and carried out reconnaissance. Having finally figured out what and how, we came to the conclusion that another tank was needed, and I went to get it. The tank commander no longer hesitated, and soon a group of volunteers was reinforced by a Shilka self-propelled gun, two tanks and an armored personnel carrier with a landing force of volunteers (almost only officers and sailors were not taken on purpose - they did not want to take risks, only the driver of the armored personnel carrier, Mrs. Zinkov Alexey, and the gunner of the KPVT Ms. Walking) moved to rescue the ambushed group.
The only available information about the situation and situation were the meager stories of the battalion officers and the incessant shooting from the supposed battlefield....
About 100 meters from the bend in the road we met sailor Serykh, one of the fighters in the group that had gone out with Sergei Firsov. According to him, there were losses in the group, including, to put it in stingy official words, irrevocable losses, but 2nd: Art. Lt. Firsov and Art. Mrs. Soshelin Andrey were still alive. The radio station was disabled in the first minutes of the battle and Firsov sent him for help, but the snipers holed up in the buildings “chased” him for about an hour, so the information received was somewhat outdated, but still encouraging... In addition, received from him the information slightly adjusted our actions."12

Group evacuation

Commander of RV 165 PMP O.B. Zaretsky: “We started. The first to jump out into direct shot range was the Shilka and fired a bullet-proof weapon at one of the buildings, followed by a tank firing at a high-rise building, an armored personnel carrier, and our squad was closed by a second tank firing at a store building. Terrain , on which the battle took place, was a road, to the right of which there was a greenhouse complex fenced with a metal lattice fence, right in the direction of movement there was the building of an unfinished multi-story building from which heavy fire was opened on the group, to the left of the road there was a one-story store building, in which the militants also settled in... Thus, the group of senior lieutenant Sergei Firsov, having been ambushed, fought a circular battle almost in the open.
I (and the volunteer officers) rode in the troop compartment of an armored personnel carrier and held the ramp on a taut cable, observing the terrain through the open half. One person lying down comes into view, we move on..., the second one, we move on... Then everything happened very quickly. The column stopped, the Walking sailor sitting behind the KPVT began to shoot, releasing the cable, we jumped out and scattered on the ground.
Our guys lying on the ground showed no signs of life. I don’t remember how they shot at us, all my thoughts were focused on the bodies of our guys. Later, restoring the chronology of the events of this episode, it turned out that the return fire from the militants at our group was as if they were continuously throwing peas onto the armored personnel carrier’s armor.
Having fallen behind a tree and slashed at the “shooting eye sockets of the house,” several bursts covered themselves with smoke and began to evacuate. He ran up to Seryoga Firsov. He was dead. He no longer had any weapons with him. Later, at the evacuation point, during identification, they were convinced that they had finished him off, and until the last, stationed ms Andrei Soshelin, who was shooting back with him...<...>Senior Mrs. Andrei Soshelin was lying almost next to Firsov. Covering his head with his hands, he was apparently still alive when the Chechens finished off the wounded Firsov, and then himself."13

Deputy Commander of the Coastal Forces of the Pacific Fleet for educational work, Colonel A.I. Mozhaev: “Seventy-two bullets were counted in Seryozha Firsov’s body. The guys held a perimeter defense until the end. They were shot point-blank when they were already dead... One of the women, a witness to that battle, said that the Marines were offered to surrender several times, promising to save their lives. "14

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1 Memoirs of Oleg Zaretsky, commander of the reconnaissance platoon of the 165th MP regiment of the KTOF about the war. (http://kz44.narod.ru/165.htm)
2 Book of Memory of the Primorsky Territory. Vladivostok, 2009. P. 18.
3 Book of Memory: Memorial Edition. FSUE IPK "Ulyanovsk Printing House", 2005. T. 13. P. 107.
4 Book of Memory of the Primorsky Territory. Vladivostok, 2009. P. 19.
5 Karpenko V.F. Book of Memory. About the Nizhny Novgorod soldiers who died in the Chechen Republic. N. Novgorod, 2009. pp. 230-231.
6 Bubnov A.V. (From an unpublished book about cadets) // Blog of N. Firsova. (http://blogs.mail.ru/mail/reklama_fs/673DEA3B82CE43FE.html)
7 Book of Memory of the Primorsky Territory. Vladivostok, 2009. P. 20.
8 Bubnov A.V. (From an unpublished book about cadets) // Blog of N. Firsova. (http://blogs.mail.ru/mail/reklama_fs/673DEA3B82CE43FE.html)
9 Book of Memory of the Primorsky Territory. Vladivostok, 2009. P. 20.
10 Memoirs of Oleg Zaretsky, commander of the reconnaissance platoon of the 165th MP regiment of the KTOF about the war. (http://kz44.narod.ru/165.htm)
11 Bubnov A.V. (From an unpublished book about cadets) // Blog of N. Firsova. (http://blogs.mail.ru/mail/reklama_fs/673DEA3B82CE43FE.html)
12 Memoirs of Oleg Zaretsky, commander of the reconnaissance platoon of the 165th MP regiment of the KTOF about the war. (http://kz44.narod.ru/165.htm)
13 Memoirs of Oleg Zaretsky, commander of the reconnaissance platoon of the 165th MP regiment of the KTOF about the war. (http://kz44.narod.ru/165.htm)
14 Bubnov A.V. (From an unpublished book about cadets) // Blog of N. Firsova. (