The dual power that emerged in 1991 in Chechnya, which declared itself a sovereign republic, led to a confrontation with the federal government and internal conflicts in the struggle for power, which ended with the introduction of Russian troops in December 1994. So it began to participate in which not all the military leadership of the country wanted. But if the generals could resign and avoid being sent to the North Caucasus, then the conscripts and junior officers simply had no choice. In a hurry, regiments were replenished and sent off to carry out a combat mission in Chechnya. The 245th, who lost a significant part of its personnel during the hostilities, did not escape this fate. The most dramatic was the battle near the village of Yaryshmardy on April 16, 1996, which took place exactly twenty years ago.
245th SME
The 245th regiment has the rank of Guards for its heroic history during the Great Patriotic War. Quartered in the Nizhny Novgorod region, within ten days of January 1995 after the failed operation of the federal forces to capture Grozny, he began to actively replenish with military conscripts. Its contingent has grown 10 times and amounted to 1,700 people due to the recruitment from the KDVO (Red Banner Far Eastern Military District). In addition to recruits, volunteers who had not received the necessary training were also called up. On the eve of entering Chechnya, the fighters did not have a single joint exercise to work out interaction.
Considering that already in the North Caucasus 4 sets of officers will be replaced in the regiment, it becomes clear from his example that the army was not prepared for participation in the First Chechen campaign and was doomed to losses. Only killed in 245 SMRs, they will be 220 people, including the son of Lieutenant General Pulikovsky (December 1995) and those guys who laid down their heads during another 20 military operations. The bloodiest battle was near the village of Yashmardy, which caused a huge public outcry.
In the war zone
The 245th MRP was always in the forefront, participating in the assault on Prigorodnoye (Grozny), Goiskiy, Vedeno, Arkhtan-Yurt, Shatoi and Gotov. Since the spring of the 95th, the regiment settled not far from Shatoi, guarded roads and was on duty at checkpoints. The soldiers accompanied the transport convoys carrying fuel, food and civilians. Beginning in February 1995, after the encirclement and blockade of Dudayev's main troops in the South-East group of forces, strange events related to concessions to the separatists began to occur more and more often.
During the operation to capture Shatoi in June 1995, a column of the 245th regiment was ambushed near the village of Zona in the Argun Gorge. This happened due to the carelessness of the leadership and the lack of pedestrian reconnaissance. Despite the losses, this fact remained almost unnoticed in the general jubilation associated with the capture of Shatoy. But this was the first call to the tragedy that went down in history as the battle at Yaryshmarda. On March 31, 1996, a convoy of paratroopers near the village of Benoy, heading to Vedeno, was shot, but this did not prompt the command to increase security measures when passing through the gorge.
What preceded the April events
On April 4, the administration of the village of Yaryshmardy signed a peace treaty with federal troops, which imposed a ban on the conduct of hostilities in the area. On the basis of a document from the chief of staff of the 324th Rifle Regiment, which controlled the section of the road to Shatoi, a checkpoint 500 meters from the village was removed. The regiment commander was not informed.
The battle at Yaryshmarda will take place in the context of an order from the Minister of Defense on the use of artillery only in case of self-defense and a complete refusal to participate in aviation on the territory of Chechnya. He came through secret communication channels about ten days before the convoy left Khankala.
The shot column
The central base of the 245th MRP prepared a convoy on Shatoi, the purpose of which was to deliver material and technical means, fuel and young reinforcements to the military unit. The convoy was joined by the demobilized and sent home for family reasons. There is information that there were also soldiers' mothers looking for their missing children. From Goiskoye, 4 cars of the 324th MRP joined them. The rear column under the command of Major Terzovets left on April 15, immediately after Easter. After spending the night in Khankala, by the middle of the next day, cars and military equipment passed Dacha-Borzoi and Yaryshmardy, stretching for 1.5-2 km. Ahead was a narrow mountain serpentine, which is commonly called "mother-in-law's tongue".
The reconnaissance controlled the artillery spotter kept in touch with the 324th MRP, and this was all that was done to protect people and military equipment... The battle at Yaryshmarda was filmed by the militants themselves, whose material became public. Against the background of the singing of birds and the conversations of the detachment of Jordanian Khattab and Ruslan Gelayev, the hum of cars is heard. It can be seen from behind the branches from the cliff, how the awning "Ural", the filler, the armored personnel carrier appear. The distance between cars is about 20 meters. And suddenly the silence is broken by explosions, and then gunfire. With dense fire from a height, invisible behind the greenery and a curtain of smoke, the militants shoot at point-blank range the Russian convoy. The video recorded the time - 13 hours 23 minutes. These are the minutes when the battle at Yaryshmarda began.
Battle scheme
The diagram shows that the militants were deliberately waiting for the convoy, equipping up to 20 points for a fire strike. Trenches were specially dug in the rocks, which is a very time-consuming business. All the places where the Khattab and Gelayev gang are stationed are equipped with a sufficient number of weapons. They are located on both sides, which allows you to shoot through all sections of the path. Radio-controlled land mines are installed on the road in the direction of traffic. The perfect location for the attack is due to the bend that hides the head transport from the tail of the column. The road in this place is so narrow that it is impossible for the tankers or trucks to turn around to leave the battlefield.
On the left is an almost sheer rock, on the right is a cliff about five meters high, under which the Argun River flows. During the heavy fire, some soldiers managed to jump into the dry river. Those who did not crash during the fall were finished off by snipers, which made it impossible to escape. The trap for the transport convoy slammed shut when a tank at the head was blown up by a land mine and an explosion was heard at the end of the procession. The bandits hit the target clearly, shooting in the first minutes of the battle the BMP and BRDM, leading the column. Senior Major Terezovets, a radio operator and an artillery spotter were killed. Rota 245 SME was left without communication with outside world (in the VHF range, a specially placed interference), without control and support from artillery and aviation. The battle at Yaryshmarda turned into a real massacre for Russian soldiers and officers.
1996: tragic events through the eyes of eyewitnesses
According to the 245th MRR, during the bloody events, 73 people died, 52 were wounded, 6 infantry fighting vehicles, 1 armored reconnaissance vehicle, 11 vehicles were destroyed. "Komsomolskaya Pravda" published an article, which lists 95 dead, taking into account the demobilized and those who joined the column, whose presence was not officially recorded by anyone. It is easy to believe in this, because the mother of the deceased machine gunner Oleg Ogoreltsev, one of the demobilized, had to search for her son in Chechnya for a month and she was able to identify the corpse in Rostov only after meeting with the surviving participants in the dramatic events. 30 bodies were taken out of the battlefield without the possibility of identification: the guys burned like torches after direct hits from grenade launchers into the nalivniki and infantry fighting vehicles. What do eyewitnesses say about the battle at Yaryshmarda?
Sniper Denis Barber, a contract soldier, says that after the smoke cleared, the surviving soldiers resisted until the last bullet in conditions of almost zero visibility. After the battle, seven corpses of militants - residents of the Shatoisky district will be found. Only at 6 o'clock in the evening, the armored group of Miroshnichenko and the 324th MRR, as well as a battered reconnaissance detachment, made their way to the column. By this time, the Chechens and Arab mercenaries participating in the Khattab gang had already disappeared. Only one question was asked: why did help come so late? The head BRDM resisted to the last, the guys could have stayed alive. To which the answer followed: the command of the regiment was waiting for instructions from above, and the groups began to break through to help only at four o'clock. The turntables that flew up beat the mountains, the artillery beat, but the militants were no longer on the slopes.
Igor Izotov, who was in the third truck, said that those survived who managed to squeeze into the patch between the front BMP and the rocks, which became the only dead zone for the enemy. The guys were getting out from under the cars by snipers, firing ricochet on the asphalt.
The wounded Sergei Cherchik recalls that, despite the fire, there was mutual assistance between the soldiers. He, wounded by a shrapnel, was pulled out from under the car by a contract soldier, and when he was hit in the kneecap, a conscript soldier saved both of them.
Eternal memory to the lost
That the column was expected and Khattab possessed complete information its composition is evidenced by the fact that the most important vehicles were hit by land mines and grenade launchers. The medical vehicle remained intact. The wounded were gathered in it, and the bodies of the dead were laid on the armor. When MTLB began to unfold, its wheels hovered over the cliff. The driver miraculously managed to straighten the car, but the bodies of the already dead guys fell into Argun. All morning on the 17th, they cleared the road, finding seven more unexploded land mines. Burnt trucks were thrown off a cliff, looking for things and personal numbers of soldiers. Thus ended the almost four-hour battle at Yaryshmarda.
The death toll of 245 SMRs includes 11 officers, including the artillery spotter Captain Vyatkin, who met death in the first minutes of the battle, Captain Lakhin, Major Milovanov, 2 warrant officers and 27 soldiers and sergeants. Among them, 8 33 remained unidentified, and for a long time their names, like the machine gunner Ogoreltsev, were established with the help of their parents and relatives. A memory book is posted on the website of 245 SMEs, and a monument to those who fulfilled their lives at the cost of their lives is erected in the Nizhny Novgorod region.
Official investigation
The mass deaths of personnel of 245 SMEs became the subject of an official investigation, which resulted in The State Duma the prosecutor's office, which did not see the corpus delicti in the actions officials... Rokhlin blamed the country's leadership and the Ministry of Defense for not controlling the situation in Chechnya and allowing the manifestation of disorder, which resulted in the death of the military. He pointed to a loss of vigilance, tactical illiteracy and a lack of interaction between the 245th and 324th SMEs. But no one, including the regiment commander, Lieutenant Colonel Romanikhin, was punished for the dramatic battle at Yaryshmarda.
20 years later
On May 5, 1996, the newspaper "Komsomolskaya Pravda" published the first article about the tragedy with the column of the 245th SMR, which was immediately called the sold out on the sidelines. In a video message, Khattab openly speaks of the venality of some of the high-ranking officers. But you cannot believe him, a thorough judicial investigation is needed, which should answer the question about the reasons for the terrible coincidences and the mass death of soldiers. But to date, no such proceedings have been carried out. One of the mysteries of the First Chechen is the April battle at Yaryshmarda. Military secrets have been closely guarded since the time when the participants in the events were strictly forbidden to convey the details and details of the terrible tragedy to everyone, including journalists. Today their memoirs have been published, but they have no answers to main question: why is the command not responsible for the lives of its soldiers? ..
Combat actions of the 324th motorized rifle regiment
1. Formation and preparation of the regiment for combat operations
The operational situation that developed on the territory of the Chechen Republic in December 1994, even before the New Year's assault on Grozny, showed that a further build-up of forces and means of the grouping of federal troops was necessary. The command of the military districts received the order to prepare new units for transfer to the North Caucasus even before the New Year. Among others, it was planned to transfer the 324th SMR of the Ural Military District.
The regiment, stationed in the 32nd military town of Yekaterinburg, was part of the 34th mechanized infantry division, and in peacetime it was manned by a reduced staff. Moreover, when the 276th SMR was dispatched to the conflict zone, almost all available soldiers and sergeants were transferred to its resupply. Many officers of the regiment went there for vacant positions. Thus, the 324th SME had to be assembled practically anew, and if the garrisons of Yekaterinburg, Verkhnyaya Pyshma, Chebarkul and Yelan could provide the regiment with officers and warrant officers, then there were no "extra" soldiers and sergeants in the Ural Military District. therefore The General Staff it was decided to transfer to replenish the regiment to a full staff of soldiers and sergeants from the Trans-Baikal Military District. It was considered inexpedient to prepare a regiment in Transbaikalia, and then pull it in echelons across the whole of Russia.
The regiment was recruited according to wartime states, but included only two motorized rifle battalions. The regiment commander was appointed Lieutenant Colonel A. Sidorov, who already had experience afghan war... Lieutenant Colonel V. Bakhmetov became deputy regiment commander, lieutenant colonel for armaments, lieutenant colonel N. Kutupov for educational work, and lieutenant colonel for the rear. A lieutenant colonel was appointed chief of staff of the regiment.
The motorized rifle battalions were taken under command by Lieutenant Colonels V. Chinchibaev and M. Mishin. Motorized rifle companies of the battalions were equipped with BMP-1, mortar batteries were armed with 2S12 "Sani" complexes with 120-mm 2B11 mortars. The tank battalion, formed on the basis of the 341st tank regiment, was headed by Lieutenant Colonel A. Mosievsky. The battalion was armed with T-72B1 tanks. The artillery division was armed with 122 mm 2S1 self-propelled howitzers, and the self-propelled anti-aircraft division - with ZSU-23-4 "Shilka" self-propelled anti-aircraft guns.
In addition, the regiment included:
communications company;
reconnaissance company under the command of Captain I. Terlyansky;
anti-tank battery under the command of Captain B. Tsekhanovich, armed with the 9P148 SPTRK;
a repair company under the command of Captain I. Tsepa.
The personnel arrived in Yekaterinburg by BTA aircraft on January __. The formation and preparation of the regiment for the conduct of hostilities took place at the Gorelovsky and Aduysky test ranges from __ to__ January. During the training, firing practice with all types of weapons and live-fire exercises were conducted. On January __, the 324th regiment plunged into echelons.
The regiment arrived in the North Caucasus on January 21, 1995. Unloading took place at the Terek-Chervlennaya railway station. Already during unloading, the regiment was fired upon, as a result of which one of the soldiers was wounded in the leg. On the night of January 23, the regiment made a march to Tolstoy-Yurt, where within a week it conducted combat coordination of units. On January 31, the 324th SME moved to the Prymykanie village on the eastern outskirts of Grozny.
2. Fighting to blockade Grozny
In the same place.
Ural military news. 1995. No. 27.
Ural military news. 1997. No. 9.
Decree. op. P. 232.
Remember and bow down. P. 449.
In the same place.
In the same place.
Memorial complex 34 MRD and 324 MRR on the territory of the division. Yekaterinburg Photo from the personal archive of A.A. Venidiktova
Burial place of Igor Moldovanov. Zabaykalsky Krai v. Chara
Stella with the name of the hero of the senior sergeant of Russia Moldovanov Igor Valerievich. Memorial complex 34 MSD and 324 MSP. Yekaterinburg city. Photo from the personal archive of A. Venidiktov
In different sources, information about the awarded varies. Two names of the Heroes of Russia are indicated. Maybe this is because the guys died on different days. Igor Moldovanov - on the first day of the battle, and A. Sorogovets and Y. Nesterenko every other day. But the steles with the names of the heroes in Yekaterinburg were erected to all three.
324 SMEs dedicated to
White blankets cover the field.
Our platoon perishes near Chechen-Aul.
Evil spirits huddle by the bank of the Argun.
Mortars hit the infantry platoons.
The young boy so wanted to return.
And he might be killed today.
Rocket festive garland in the air.
The BMP is lit with a memorial candle.
Hiding by the ditch, he smokes a cigarette.
The one who will, perhaps, be killed.
On the soggy ground, the boy winds.
Tears are streaming down my cheeks.
He runs into the attack and does not know yet.
That he might be killed today.
Tanks burn out on a broken field.
There is a disc in the smoky sky of the sun.
Those who are still alive pour vodka.
By the river above the bridge is the Black Obelisk.
White snow is fluffy, pure, silvery.
It is spinning from the dark clouds above the ground.
Like a white shroud, he covered the area.
On this day, I once lost a friend.
Poems by Sergei Eliseev, a participant in the hostilities in Chechnya
Igor Moldovanov
Presidential decree Russian Federation No. 1059 of October 19, 1995 for the courage and heroism shown during the performance of a special assignment, senior sergeant Moldovanov Igor Valerievich was awarded the title of Hero of the Russian Federation (posthumously).
In Chechnya, he fought in the 324th motorized rifle regiment Ural Military District. On March 13, 1995, during the seizure of a fortified dairy farm south of Chechen-Aul, our units were stopped by heavy fire from militants. Acting as a signalman, Moldovanov ensured uninterrupted communication between the company commander and subordinate and attached units, which contributed to the successful solution of the task. During the battle, he personally destroyed the Dudayevs' grenade launcher. Having received the order to cover the evacuation of the wounded, he took his place in the BMP and moved to the southeastern outskirts of the dairy farm, where one of the platoons suffered losses. Having occupied a convenient firing position, allowing to cover the comrades who carried the wounded, he, in fact, switched the fire of the militants to himself. During the battle, the BMP was knocked out and caught fire. Having been wounded and burned, senior sergeant Moldovanov did not leave the combat post, continued to fire from the flaming car until the ammunition detonated.
http://www.divizia.org/history/heroes/23.html
Stella with the name of the hero of Russia Alexander Vladimirovich Sorogovets. Memorial complex of 34th mechanized infantry division and 324th infantry division in the division, Yekaterinburg. From the personal archive of A.A. Venidiktov
Sorogovets A.V.
AND.
Sorogovets. Hero of the Russian Federation
Ural Military District ,
senior lieutenant .
Top left. Chechen-Aul. 1995 photo by Y. Belousov. The newspaper "Red Star"
Alexander Vladimirovich Sorogovets
- participantFirst Chechen War
,
Hero of the Russian Federation , Assistant Chief of Intelligence, 324th Motorized Rifle Regiment, 34th Motorized Rifle DivisionUral Military District ,
senior lieutenant .
BornMay 7
1971 year at Tashkent .
Belarusian ... Graduated from 8 classes high school No. 209 of the city of Tashkent (microdistrict Karasu-1). Subsequently he studied atVocational school ... As an excellent student, he had the opportunity to enter the , but in the end chose the path of the military. From 1989 to 1993 he studied at the Tashkent Higher Combined Arms command school them. V.I. Lenin.
After graduating from a military school, he was sent for further service inTurkestan military district
.
Passed military service in the positions of group commander special purpose special purpose brigades, deputy commander of a special purpose company. AT1994 year
commanded a special task force a separate company special purpose in the Ural military district.
January 18
1995 year
was appointed assistant chief of intelligence of the 324th motorized rifle regiment of the 34th motorized rifle division. The regiment was stationed inYekaterinburg and was preparing to ship toChechen Republic .
January 22 units of the 324th motorized rifle regiment arrived in Chechnya and were stationed near the villageTolstoy-Yurt ... FROM January 23 1995 year Sorogovets took part in hostilities.
Died severely woundedMarch 15th
1995 year in the battle for the bridge over the riverArgun located near the villageNew Atagi ... The command of the 324th regiment petitioned for the posthumous conferring of the title “Hero of the Russian Federation ».
Buried onBotkin cemetery
the city of Tashkent.
In memory of Alexander Sorogovets, an obelisk was erected in the military unit in which he served.
Awards:
Medal of Honor"
(April 20, 1995);
Title "Hero of the Russian Federation
"(January 29, 1997).
http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Vladimirovich_Sorogovets
Stella with the name of the hero of Russia Nesterenko Yuri Ivanovich photo from A. Venidiktov's archive
Hero of Russia - Captain Yuri Nesterenko, commander of a motorized rifle company. Killed in battle near Chechen-Aul on March 15, 1995
.
324th
motost
reel regiment.
Gravestone monument to Yu.I. Nesterenko. Alley of Glory of Krasnogvardeisky Park, Vladivokavkaz, photo by Vl.Rogov
Nesterenko Yuri Ivanovich
By the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation No. 1059 of October 19, 1995, Captain Yuri Ivanovich Nesterenko was awarded the title of Hero of the Russian Federation (posthumously) for courage and heroism displayed during the performance of a special assignment.
In Chechnya he fought in the 324th motorized rifle regiment of the Ural Military District. On March 15, 1995, the commander of a motorized rifle company, Captain Yuri Nesterenko, with one of the company platoons struck the enemy's flank and knocked him out of position.
At one of the moments of the battle, Captain Nesterenko's BMP was damaged, the company commander himself was wounded, however, he did not leave the vehicle, but continued to fire and control the unit. After the second hit in the BMP, Nesterenko received another wound, but did not leave the battlefield, but took up a firing position in the trench. Having received medical assistance, on foot led the company to attack and captured the second line of defense of the militants. One of the platoons was pinned to the ground by the fire of a large-caliber machine gun. Twice wounded, Captain Nesterenko with several soldiers rushed to the rescue of his subordinates. Fire from a machine gun and grenades destroyed the machine-gun crew, but received multiple shrapnel wounds from the explosion of a grenade. The brave officer died on the way to the hospital.
http://www.divizia.org/history/heroes/12.html
And the first monument to Igor Moldovanov was erected before Victory Day - there, on Chechen soil.
Boris Tsekhanovich:
“… A holiday was approaching - Victory Day and there was a possibility that the militants would try to spoil our mood on this day. But everything went fine. On the morning of May 9, I built a battery and congratulated everyone on Victory Day, and after that everyone I could take to a concert organized by the forces of the regimental amateur performance. The whole concert was run by Vitka Peretz. After the concert, a large-screen TV was installed and a film was shown about our regiment and the 276th, filmed by Sverdlovsk TV journalists who came to us in February. There were footage there about an anti-tank battery, they showed me in a German helmet, which caused a loud laugh. They also laughed at the commentary of the TV journalist, where he says in all seriousness that the militants during their stay on the tribes. stations ate a herd of cows of two hundred heads. Everyone laughed when they remembered how the regiment ate beef for a month.
After lunch, the officers went to the bank of the Argun, where they erected a monument to the children who died on March 15. At the entrance to the bridge, on a cliff, they erected a metal pyramid with a star and on a pedestal a tower from an infantry fighting vehicle, in which senior sergeant Moldavanov burned down.
This monument: an iron stele topped with an artillery cartridge case and machine-gun belts with a modest sign: " Everlasting memory soldiers of the 324th SMR who died in Chechnya. From officers, warrant officers and soldiers "in 1996, after the conclusion of the Khasavyurt peace and the withdrawal of our troops from Chechnya, militants will blow up.