Three comrades served in Chechnya

Scientific adviser: O. G. Efimova

According to the Uglich military registration and enlistment office, where I turned, 196 Uglich citizens were drafted to Chechnya. Two of them - Dmitry Muravyov and Andrey Kharlamov - did not return. They were awarded the Orders of Courage posthumously and buried at the Churyakovskoye cemetery. There is another one not far from their graves. On a marble pedestal, a handsome smiling face of a young man. Under the photo, the name is Ryzhov Igor Leonidovich and two dates: 07/03/1976 - 12/26/1998.

Igor also served in Chechnya and returned from there alive. What could have happened in the life of a young guy if, having survived in the Chechen hell, he still died? A tragic accident or the consequences of war? This is what I wanted to find out.

At the request of my leader Olga Glebovna Efimova, I met with Igor's mother, Elena Alexandrovna.

Igor went to the army of his own free will. He had the opportunity, as young people now say, to “cut”. At the age of 14, during one of the hockey matches, the game gate fell on Igor, which led to a serious head injury. But he sincerely believed that it was in the army that boys become real men and that going through the army is a matter of honor for every young man. I believe that an important role here was played by the fact that his two grandfathers were participants in the Great Patriotic War and in the Ryzhov family they often recalled their glorious military past.

Igor was drafted into the army on November 15, 1994. He ended up in the ODON (separate special purpose division) named after Dzerzhinsky. On May 6, 1995, with the rank of junior sergeant, he was transferred to Chechnya.

In Chechnya, Igor, judging by the time period, was not much - a little less than 4 months from May 6 to September 1, but he had enough impressions for the rest short life... He did not like to remember the truth about a small piece of the war that fell to his lot and did not tell anyone about it. Even his best friend Igor Soloviev, who also passed through Chechnya, knows almost nothing about that period of his friend's life.

But there is a diary kept by junior sergeant Ryzhov in Chechnya. Elena Aleksandrovna did not allow me to make a photocopy of it, as there is a lot of profanity in the diary, but I was still able to rewrite some of the entries. Igor described events every day, though very briefly and succinctly (maybe there was not always time). Here are some excerpts from his diary:

"31.05. Let's go to the "front line". It's dangerous there. They shoot constantly. We are sitting in an APC, we cannot lean out.

1.06. Hooray! We moved forward 4 km. At least some new sensations, a change in the landscape, although it is almost the same here almost everywhere.

4.06. Let's go on the offensive. We occupied a height of 762 m. We destroyed the main Dudayevskaya television and radio station.

13.06. Fortified at the height, we stand in a clearing. Constant tension affects, you need to be on the alert.

15.06. We sit in position, drinking in the evening.

16.06. Tormented by a hangover. We sleep and sunbathe all day.

25.06. They went on the offensive, fixed themselves at the height.

27.06. We went on reconnaissance in the villages, brought hawks, locals give, not everything, it's true, but some feel sorry for us.

30.06. We received gratitude from the battalion commander for the operation. We arrived at the camp for rest and at the general formation I was awarded the rank of "sergeant". We are getting ready to take Vedeno.

2.07. They were entrenched in Vedeno, received a slight wound in the leg, it was painful, he took out the splinter himself with pliers.

3.07. Birthday!! (already 19 years old!) ".

"Already 19 years old!" - Igor writes in his diary. Of course, he seems to himself already quite adult - he is a soldier, and even in the war. And with pride he writes about his injury, not knowing then that he will soon receive another one.

Here is what his mother, Elena Aleksandrovna, said: “On July 9, 1995, at 5 o'clock in the morning, a battle between Chechen fighters and Russian servicemen began in the village of Belta. The armored personnel carrier, on whose armor Igor was, was fired from a grenade launcher. The son received a shrapnel wound in the back (the shrapnel stopped 7 cm from the heart), was sent by helicopter to a hospital in Vladikavkaz, where he received first aid, and the next day he was transported by plane to Orenburg. As soon as I found out that my boy was wounded and where he was, I immediately went to him. "

Igor did not stay in the hospital for long, only two weeks. The injury was considered not serious, and Igor's body was young and, as he thought then, healthy.

And the order was given to Igor after demobilization. At the end of July 1997, he was summoned to the Uglich military registration and enlistment office, congratulated and without any triumph gave the box with the Order of Courage.

I tried to find out more precisely what Igor Ryzhov received the award for and turned to the military registration and enlistment office. The answer of the recruiting office staff surprised me extremely. I was told that no wording with the orders was sent, I was awarded and awarded. How so? Even during the Great Patriotic War, soldiers were given orders and medals "for courage and heroism shown in battle", "for the destruction of enemy manpower", "for the salvation of comrades," etc. So why in modern Russia military officials and commanders do not consider it necessary to send a cover letter with a couple of phrases to the military registration and enlistment office, why was the soldier awarded an order or medal? Personally, I don't understand this.

After the hospital, Igor was not even released on vacation, but was sent to serve in Reutovo, Moscow region. But, heading to the unit to a new place of service, Igor and his colleague Sergei were able to drive home to Uglich for 2 days. Then there was still nothing to foretell trouble ...

After Igor Ryzhov was demobilized from the army, his health deteriorated sharply. Once, while working at his home site, Igor became ill, his heart stabbed, it became difficult to breathe, it was impossible to lift left hand... He was admitted to the Uglich regional hospital, but he did not get better. Then he was sent for examination to the Yaroslavl regional hospital. There it was determined that the young man had a heart defect.

And, most likely, Igor joined the army when he was already a sick person, and even took part in military operations, was in constant tension. It is strange, of course, but it is a fact that before being drafted into the army, Igor, like the rest of the conscripts, did not have his heart examined, did not have a cardiogram. The medical documents read: “Healthy. Suitable for service in the ranks of the armed forces of the Russian Federation. " The recruits at the military registration and enlistment office began to take readings from the cardiograph only after Igor's death, and even then not for long.

A year ago, my older brother Vladimir returned from the army. I asked him how he passed the medical examination before the conscription and whether he had a cardiogram of his heart. He replied no. He said that they simply measured the blood pressure and pulse and listened to the heart with the phonendoscope.

I believe that one of the most serious problems of our army is the formal attitude towards the health of conscripts. The military registration and enlistment office needs to recruit the required number of young people - and it recruits. At any cost. This issue is especially acute in the Russian provinces. I am convinced that very few young people from villages and villages or from very small towns travel to regional centers examine your health. When you are young, you don’t think about it, nothing hurts - and okay. This means that doctors working at recruiting offices need to be more careful during examination so as not to miss the disease.

And Igor's illness continued to progress.

After examination at the regional hospital, it became clear that only a heart transplant could help Igor survive. We contacted Moscow, where they urgently sent all the tests. Igor was put on the waiting list for an operation, he was given a disability of the 1st group. The operation then cost 60 thousand rubles, but for disabled people of the 1st group it was done free of charge.

Igor was getting worse. He almost never left the house, as he could hardly get up even to the 2nd floor. He slept almost sitting, with pillows under his back, otherwise he began to choke. Igor's heart increased in size so much that his chest just bulged out. This phenomenon is called "bull heart".

On December 24, 1998, Igor went to the stadium with his own feet to root for his hockey team. Sitting motionless on the podium, Igor caught a cold. His temperature rose again and he began to choke. I had to call an ambulance, which took him to the hospital. A day later, in the early morning of December 26, Igor Ryzhov was gone.

If he had time to undergo surgery, he would still be alive. There are a great many of these “ifs”: if a full examination had been carried out in the military registration and enlistment office before conscription, then perhaps the disease could have been detected at the very beginning; if Igor had not ended up in Chechnya, but went to serve, for example, in the Moscow region, there would not have been a sharp change in climate and constant stress from the consciousness of constant danger; if there was no injury, if not for a splinter, not far from the heart; if, after the service, the soldiers, whose souls and bodies were tormented by Chechnya, were sent for a full qualified examination; if…

Talking to Igor Ryzhov's friend Igor Solovyov, I learned that he also served in Chechnya for a year. He was drafted six months later than Ryzhov, on March 3, 1995. He was sent to Chechnya with the Kantemirovsk division.

His story just shocked me.

“None of us who have passed through it like to talk about Chechnya, because there was nothing good there, and sometimes it was just lousy. It's very hard to remember. I have been a participant in many military operations. We were at different bases: Shali, Kurchaloy, Vedeno, Agishty. The bases lived in blocks of 10-15 people. The most difficult were the storms of the city of Grozny (January 1, 1995, March 5, 1995, August 6, 1996), since the militants fought to the death for their capital, and were much better trained. We mainly had conscripts, there are few contract soldiers, and they have many professional soldiers. Although in the 166th mountain assault brigade, where I served, I was one "conscript", the rest were contract soldiers, but this was a great rarity.

We went to operations in a column (about 100 vehicles). The reconnaissance usually goes first, it reports where the militants are based, and only then the infantry acts. In places where there are many civilians, we tried to do without heavy equipment or bypassed these settlements. We constantly moved from one place to another. It was dangerous to stand in one place for a long time. You will return to the base and again for 30-35 days in the field. The uniforms were not enough, they quickly fell into disrepair. We had to get it ourselves. For example, I bought my own sneakers in the market after the winter, as it was very hot in the boots, my legs were sweating and began to ache, ulcers could appear. I also had a T-shirt from the market, and a vest and a jacket on top. They wore kerchiefs on their heads (they do not fall off): one protects the face from dust when walking in a column, the other on the head. "

The fact of self-procurement of clothes while serving in the army surprised me too. Couldn't the country they defend provide the soldiers with normal uniforms for the season? In my opinion, this is not the case in any army in the world.

“Everyone missed home very much and waited for letters. Many children were pressured on the psyche of the mountain, - says Igor Soloviev. - We were fed well at the bases. But when we stood at posts, for example, they closed the gorges for a week, then we were given dry rations only for 3 days, and then they got the food ourselves. Sometimes changed at local residents uniforms for meat. There were cases of looting. It was difficult to deliver food to the fighting soldiers. On high-rise buildings we cooked our own food. The stew was heated directly on the hot engines of the armored personnel carrier. We stood at the post in turn - you sleep for 2 hours, you stand for 2 hours. It was impossible to stand alone at the post, just as the equipment was not released one by one, only in a column, it was dangerous.

The local population treated us differently. We communicated well with some residents, exchanged medicines, stewed meat, sunflower oil in the villages for sheep. But they were afraid of unexpected actions on the part of children. They could, for example, throw a grenade at any moment. Therefore, they tried to keep them away from their posts and bases.

I took part in the storming of Grozny on August 6, 1996. First, they took the city hospital on the move, then the bridge over the Sunzha River and the Dynamo stadium, where A. Kadyrov was subsequently killed. I received a shrapnel wound in the head, one shrapnel was removed, and the second remained. I spent several days in the hospital. And the storming of Grozny continued until August 26th. The guys said that the corpses were then taken away by dump trucks. All the killed and seriously wounded were given the Order of Courage.

I asked Igor about the approximate number of those killed in his unit. Here is what he replied: “During the year that I served, about 150 people died in the unit, and about 500-600 people from the brigade, I cannot say more precisely. All bases had a large tent - a morgue. But not all soldiers died in battle. Some fell drunk from their armor, they could not be seen in the dust and they fell under the wheels of cars following a trail. And there was a lot of vodka. Without vodka one could go crazy there, it helped to forget. There was no entertainment, no books, no movies. The soldiers drank with the officers, everyone was equal there. It happened that drunken soldiers quarreled and killed each other, because everyone has military weapons there, but there is no order and discipline.

But most of all was the mud. In the field we lived in tarpaulin-covered dugouts for 6-10 people. We rarely washed, since there was very little water, it was brought only for drinking and cooking. Approximately once a month and a half, a special machine, called a steaming machine, came, in which we washed. The soldiers got lice from the mud, we caught them each other in the morning, 200 each. Often it was possible to wash only at the bases, and in the Argun River, although the water in it is very dirty and the current is strong. But all the same, since the end of March we have washed in the river.

After talking with Igor Solovyov, I identified for myself two more big problems of the Chechen war. The first is the lack of discipline in the army, hence drunkenness, fights and cases of senseless death of servicemen. The second - unsettled life, which also negatively affected the psyche of the soldiers. How can you fulfill your military duty to a hungry soldier who has been trimmed with worn-out legs? Then he thinks not about the service, but about what to eat, how to wash and where to get uniforms.

In parting Igor said that he considered the war in Chechnya absolutely senseless and ridiculous.

I managed to talk with another veteran of the Chechen war, Roman Gaverdovsky, only 3 years after our first meeting with him. For a long time, the novel refused to talk about his past. It can be understood. War is always tragedy and pain. But when I began to collect material about Igor Ryzhov, Roman became more frank and talked about his life in general and his service in Chechnya.

Roman finished nine grades high school No. 5 of the city of Uglich in 1992. Until 1994 he studied at vocational school № 35 as an electrician and on May 30, 1994 he was drafted into the army. The novel resentfully says that he was not allowed to finish his studies for only one year, a reprieve at that time could be obtained with great difficulty, and they had neither rich relatives nor influential acquaintances. Although Roman still managed to get a second electrician category.

The recruits were brought to Yaroslavl to the distribution point and in the evening of May 30 they were sent by train to Moscow, and then they were put in cars and sent 12 km from Moscow to the division named after I. Dzerzhinsky, or, as the soldiers called it for bullying, "the wild division."

For a month and a half, Roman took a course for a young fighter. The division had a presidential guard regiment, which was used to guard the White House during the 1991 putsch, as well as to guard stadiums during football matches and concert venues. Once the President of Russia Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin came to the division, but young fighters, dressed in robes, were not allowed to meet with him. It turns out that in order to just see the president, you need to be "in the parade." All conscripts were paid 40 rubles a month. The soldiers among themselves called this allowance "Yeltsin's" and could only buy a block of inexpensive cigarettes with it.

“On January 1, 1995, we had a training camp, and everyone was sent to Chechnya. It was at that time that large-scale fighting... We got there by train for three days. Near Mozdok, everyone was housed in tents for 30 people. The soldiers were mostly Russians, as well as Yakuts and Ukrainians. The climate change had a detrimental effect on many, some, especially the northerners, rot, and ulcers appeared on their bodies. Saved with ointments. "

During the conversation, the former soldier often fell silent, sometimes finding words with difficulty. It was clear that this conversation was not easy for him.

“We served in the RMO - a material support company. The militants understood that the success of hostilities largely depended on providing the soldiers with food, so we were sometimes fired upon. Once almost point-blank we were fired upon by two tanks, riddled with all the tents and stoves, but fortunately, that time there were no human casualties. Our "turntables" (helicopters) immediately took to the sky and the tanks retreated. "

Roman said that the fighting was frequent, and the shelling was almost daily. He also had to participate in hostilities in Grozny. They went to Grozny from Mozdok in January 1995.

In total, Roman took part in more than 10 military operations. Friends said that he was lucky, since he had never been injured.

“Once they put me in a zindan,” recalls Roman. - Zindan is a deep earthen hole. They lowered them down the stairs, then the stairs were removed, and the pit was closed with a grate. Twice a day, food and water were lowered into the pit, which quickly heated up and became rotten. In addition to me, there were black crickets in this pit, which bite painfully and did not allow me to sit still. I had to move from corner to corner all the time. "

When asked why he ended up in the zindan, Roman replied that he was drunk and did not serve breakfast to the battalion commander (battalion commander) in time. He began to shout at the soldier, and then ordered to put him in an earthen hole.

The word "zindan" has been familiar to me since childhood from oriental fairy tales. In these fairy tales, the beauties of the guria - peri (sorceresses) rescued their beloved from the dark earthen zindans, where they were planted by evil devas (fabulous monsters). But that was so long ago, several centuries ago, and even in fairy tales. The idea that in our time, in a civilized country, a young guy for a perfect offense (no matter what) can be put in a hole for several days, as in the Middle Ages, does not fit in my head. I am scared to think about what might have happened if hostilities had begun in the area at that time. I doubt very much that the soldier Roman Gaverdovsky would be remembered in the confusion. And then he would simply have died from a bullet, bomb, shell burst, or be taken prisoner. And in this case they would write to the parents: “Your son, like a real russian warrior, died the death of the brave ", or what else is there to write in such cases? And maybe they would have been awarded the Order of Courage. Posthumously ... And whose body would have rested in the Uglich cemetery under the name of Roman Gaverdovsky is unknown.

When I looked through the selection of the Izvestia newspaper with materials about chechen war for 1994-1996, I came across a series of articles about mass graves and unclaimed corpses of soldiers that cannot be identified, since they are mutilated, and the Russian authorities have no money to identify them at the level of genetic expertise. Isn't that a problem ?! In Russia, there is money for many things, for example, for organizing various competitions and festivals, for holding show programs, but for some reason there is not enough money to ensure that a mother who gave the state the most dear, most precious thing in her life - her child (sometimes the only one), she could at least bury him, mourn and know for certain that this is the grave of her son.

And the problem of hazing in the army? Almost everyone who served in the armed forces had to experience it for themselves. Unfortunately, there was also hazing in Chechnya.

From the story of Roman: “We had a warrant officer named Kolobok. He loved to scoff at the soldiers, especially at the young: he beat, insulted, made him stand motionless for hours, obey ridiculous orders. Not everyone could endure it. Once an emergency occurred in the unit: five young soldiers, unable to withstand the abuse, went to the Chechens at night. For several days nothing was heard about them. And one night Kolobok disappeared and no one else heard about him. There were rumors that Chechens came for him. Soon the two escaped soldiers returned. I don’t know what happened to them, I only know that they were arrested as deserters, taken to Moscow and tried there ”.

I really want to believe that the fled and returned soldiers were not judged too harshly. It is not at all easy for "domestic" boys to find themselves in war, and sometimes it is simply unbearable to endure bullying from their own people, especially those who are older in rank, from those who have to teach and protect.

During our conversation, Roman said that during his service in their unit, only 20 people died. By the standards of multimillion-dollar Russia and the war in Chechnya, this figure may not be large, but behind this figure are 20 unfortunate families who have lost their relatives.

During the conversation, Roman repeatedly said the phrase: "The Chechens themselves, that is, the civilian population, did not want war, after all, they all have children, families, but some of them, in the end, became embittered, although at first they treated us very kindly."

When asked what he thinks about the Chechen war, Roman replied: “I sincerely think this war is senseless and stupid. Here is my grandfather who fought in the Great World War II, at least he knew why he was shedding blood. And we did not know what we were fighting for. And for whom. I think there was a lot of money spinning there. And sometimes our officers sold weapons to Chechen fighters. This happened in our unit. And for the sake of this the soldiers died, remained crippled. And not only was the body wounded, but also the soul. After all, for many years I did not tell anyone about that war. I especially remember one case when, due to the fact that someone fired a signal rocket at the wrong time, the Russians fired at the Russians in the dark. And there were killed and wounded. The case was hushed up, but the vile residue still remained in my soul. Surely it happened more than once ”.

Roman's words that Chechnya ruins souls and affects the psyche was confirmed by the story of Gaverdovsky's classmate Nadezhda Gavrilova. Here is what she said: “Once I was walking down the street, and towards my classmate Roma Gaverdovsky, he recently returned from the army. He looks at me, and his eyes are empty. I approached, greeted, and instead of greeting he said: “Nadia, I'm from Chechnya!” And walked on. I realized that he has not yet recovered from what he has experienced, he is still there, fighting in Chechnya. "

Yes, the experience in Chechnya was not in vain for Roman. The abundance of vodka during the service (Roman confirmed the words of Igor Soloviev that they drank often, relieved fear and stress) led to the fact that, returning to Uglich and not finding a decent job, Roman began to drink and once, in a state of intoxication, started a fight, for which he was sentenced to 2.5 years in prison.

One of the most important, in my opinion, the problems of our army is that a soldier who has returned from the so-called "hot spot" is left alone with his problems and difficulties. He is no longer needed by the state, on whose orders he fought. All over the world, in any country, there are rehabilitation centers for such soldiers, in which they receive medical and psychological assistance for several months.

Now they talk a lot about patriotism, about love for their homeland, their state. I just want to ask the question: "Why should I love a state that does not love its citizens?"

Looking through the material on the Chechen war on the Internet, I found another quatrain that is riddled with pain. Unfortunately, the author is not listed there, perhaps it is a former soldier who passed through Chechnya.

We do not expect compassion from rulers, parties and judges,

But I would like to know who, where and why will send us?

We shouldn't be on the role of wordless weapons

Carrying out orders that the people did not give.

Hazing in Chechnya and other hot spots, led to the destruction of a colleague, either he is a spirit, or a grandfather, it was both. There were cases of cross-fires, shooting themselves in the foot, or other organs. Many escaped and were taken prisoner by the Chechens, many fell on stretch marks, mines. Some endure bullying, but some cannot stand it, murder or suicide occurs. The soldiers were waiting for the battle to unnoticeably overwhelm the offender. But in most cases, senior soldiers did not try to offend the spirits (young soldiers), because they knew what the consequences could be. After the battles, the soldiers became brothers.
A case back in the USSR:
The incident was told, it was under the USSR, the warrant officer went on guard as the chief, with him Caucasians, Asians, demobilized when they stood on guard, forced them to wash the floors with their hands, and if they did not understand, then the ensign was a boxer, beat them so that they somersaults were done in the air, and another warrant officer stepped in with a head, lay down on the trestle bed and slept for 24 hours, then these black rats mocked the Russian soldiers from the heart
Officer's story:
I also had such a ghoul sergeant in spiritual affairs, gave him a knife in the lash, the screeching was that the whole battalion woke up. The battalion commander really was a good man, but he didn’t get things going and I was simply transferred to another unit. The guy can be understood, he was not up to the strategy, he just acted what he had at hand. It’s a pity for the boy’s spoiled life, and the sergeant’s grief is purely human, especially for his parents.
Soldier's Tale:
In our brigade, the identity of one was completed, right on the bunker the small one filled it up. I was given 9 years.
Here is the story of the young lieutenant:
There was one case after which the non-regulation in my division stopped. I came as a lieutenant after college, on the very first evening I watched a picture of three careless "old men" hollowing out a squad of "yellow-horns". In the morning, an order was received to escort the convoy to Shatoi. I put these three eagles in the head patrol as "the most experienced ..." not a single branch or someone, something did not seem, because the "youth" can discharge the entire BC through the bushes, and at that moment they will hardly remember you. " After neutralizing the land mine, my "old men" nervously smoked on the roadside and dried their pants. After that, no one in my platoon even sent a friendly look to each other .... And when someone left home, they accompanied him with tears, alive and well .... We lived as one family. and outside the ranks there was no difference, private, sergeant, warrant officer or officer.
Here is the soldier's story:
Hazing and bullying are two different things !!! in 1999 he was a crossbowman, alas, there is no guy, grandfathers are alive and well now (no one is punished) only all the garbage was not on the basis of an unbuttoned fly, as it was announced in the video (there are doubts about homo motivation) there was simply no food, we she was, he came to us, ate as much as he could, then brought food to them, but alas, it is not possible to feed everyone (but the task remained, to bring a snack), the guy could not stand it.
Here is a video about the consequences of bullying in Chechnya:

Full video here in the second part:

Https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list\u003dPLouHNaQfzJaB1VWb-RiNTRcU0ku3I0irG

This is Afghanistan 1988.

About the Russian army

In the course of the presentation, I would like to immediately note the position of conscripts in those conditions.

In my opinion, it was much easier for them to be among the mass of contract soldiers in Chechnya than among the mass of conscripts in Russia. Since they were contractors, they were already quite old people of 25-35 years old who did not need acts of self-affirmation. For the most part, they treated conscripts like a father, unloading household chores on them: to put things in order in tents, their own and officers, to go for food, wash the dishes. Since young people need to get used to work, then, of course, they were put on attire as often as possible. But that in the brigade there were some kind of mass abuse of conscripts by contract soldiers, I did not notice and did not hear about such.

Although ... I remember. In October, conscript S. was shot in the 3rd battalion. Without drawing up a protocol for examining the scene of the incident, the body was in a hurry to take it to the forensic examination in the North. And a rumor spread that the poor fellow had been shot. To dispel suspicions, I had to go to Grozny in a single APC, without a column, to examine the corpse in the morgue. I remember a thin, helpless body, naked to the waist, lying quietly on a stretcher ... I admit that in that case the boy was overloaded; they plugged all the holes with them and even beat them. But on the record, all his colleagues spoke about the absence of visible external reasons for suicide. For greater objectivity, it should be noted that our brigade was considered the most disciplined in comparison with other units of the RF Ministry of Defense stationed in Chechnya. We were almost an exemplary unit in the group.

Another case was told to me. I don’t remember in which unit, in the morning, they found a dead conscript with a broken neck. Death was formalized as an accident - they say, a soldier fell in a dream from the second tier of the bed. In fact, it was pure murder. A few days before that, the deceased conscript quarreled with a drunken contractor and filled the last face. The contractor harbored anger. Having chosen the moment, he crept up to the sleeping man at night and broke his neck.

Since I have touched on the topic of the relationship between soldiers in the army, I would like to develop it. Since I happened to serve in both the old - Soviet and new - Russian armies, I will take the liberty of analyzing the causes of the most heinous and destructive phenomenon - hazing. Hazing is the main reason why today's young people of military age are trying with all possible forces and means to avoid the fate of getting into the army.

In 2002, I happened to be in Ryazan region, in an area where the population eked out a miserable existence, surviving by making sauerkraut and selling it wholesale to dealers in Moscow markets. To do this, at six o'clock in the evening, people got on the train, telephoned for three hours to Moscow, spent the night there near bonfires (in winter and summer), handed over the goods in the morning and returned home. And so the whole year.

Well, what kind of money can you make on such a trade? People were teetering on the brink of poverty. And still, they managed to save up money in order to buy medical certificates for their sons about the inability to military service... At that time, in those parts, this pleasure was worth 1000 US dollars.

If the army had a normal working environment, and the life, health and human dignity of the soldiers would be treated with respect, their parents would not under any circumstances exclude them from service. Because young people, due to the impossibility of engaging in creative work, in fact rotted alive - they drank themselves en masse. They began to be coded and sewn up from alcoholism at the age of 18 !!! ...

I remember in the training battalion, when I was just starting to serve in military service in 1984, in one of the classes the political officer of the company said that hazing appeared in Soviet army either from the 62nd, or from the 65th year. It's time to put on boots and greatcoats for those who were born 20 years ago, that is, young people born in 1941-45. But for known reasons, a demographic hole has formed. And then those who had previously been convicted began to be drafted into the army. It was they who infected the previously healthy army organism with a cancerous tumor. Those who served in the SA before the 60s, all as one, said that there was no abuse of the young by the old servicemen.

I had a chance to talk with guys who were in prison in the 80s and 2000s. From their stories I made the paradoxical conclusion that nowadays, the relationship between prisoners in camps and prisons is many times more humane than between soldiers in the army. Those who have been imprisoned unanimously assert that in the penitentiary system, the main evil is generated by the workers of this system in relation to their wards; the inmates, for the most part, communicate with each other quite correctly - "according to concepts" (which, unlike the Constitution and laws, do not change so often). If a person is "lowered", then this happens within the framework of established procedures and certain rules. It turns out to be an absurd situation in which it is safer for young people to serve in the zone than to serve in the Russian army.

An attentive reader must have noticed a certain absurdity: if the army was infected with hazing by former prisoners, then why is there chaos in the army, and order in the zones? The reason is in the age aspect. There is only one youth serving in the army, in need of acts of self-affirmation, and in the zones there are people of different age categories who have passed the stage of personality formation.

In my opinion, bullying could be eradicated by introducing some organizational changes in the army. It will soon be 20 years since the media started talking about the need to reform the Russian army. The proposals to increase salaries and eliminate barracks living conditions are correct. It seems that wages have already become like those of workers in industry, and with housing some timid advances are outlined. But if today I was offered to go to serve under a contract, even with a good salary and providing a separate living space, I would refuse.

The reason is that there is no division in the army between combat training and household functions. These two types of activity must be clearly and unambiguously distinguished. In the army, the same principle of service should apply as in the police. After all, a policeman, coming to work, does not sweep the territory of his department, does not scrub toilets and offices, does not watch the canteen, does not wash dishes. He receives a weapon and goes to perform the functions of maintaining public order for a strictly defined time. The duty is over - the policeman is resting for the time allotted to him. There are no shagistics, no drill inspections and other nonsense.

The army has a fundamentally different system. From morning until lunchtime, a soldier can engage in combat training, and after lunch, take up the daily outfit in the dining room - peel potatoes, wash dishes or in a company outfit - scrub the floors for a day and stand like an idol on the bedside table. After being in working order for a day and a half, a soldier has only one night to rest. And after that, the specified cycle can be repeated until the demobilization itself. Most of my military service passed in this mode.

For a better understanding of the problem, let's conditionally imagine a civilian plant, the production process of which is built on the army model. The following funny picture emerges: I was accepted to the plant, let's say as a mechanic. My main responsibility is to turn the nuts for eight hours. If at the same time, after working for 4 hours, I abandon the tool and start cleaning the floors in the workshop, and stay overnight to guard the territory of the plant, what kind of products will this long-suffering enterprise eventually release?

The main reform of the army should consist precisely in the fact that the domestic functions would be performed by specialized units or civilians. The soldier is obliged to engage only in combat training. The main point of bullying is precisely to shift all the household work to the young. And in a peaceful life, the army actually does just that - it serves itself, it does not have time for the rest.

When I just arrived at the brigade, there were still contract servicemen in the units who participated in the winter-spring combat offensive operations... As soon as after the terrorist attack in Budennovsk active clashes ceased, the processes of decomposition characteristic of peacetime began in the camp: formations, combat reviews; morning, afternoon, evening divorces, household dresses, etc. Less than two months later, all the veterans of this service deserted. The timing of their vacations was just right for them. They did not return back - they terminated the contracts.

A tiny episode of the mid-summer of 1995 from the life of the 166th Motorized Rifle Brigade illustrates how dramatically the army is changing, having ceased to fight. Once I happened to read the material collected for the disciplinary punishment of one lieutenant. They planned to consider him at the court of officer's honor. The essence of the misbehavior of this poor fellow was that he caught the eye of the brigade commander M and the latter asked him a stern question - why does he wear distinctive emblems airborne troopsand not motorized rifle? The lieutenant reasonably noted that when the battles for Grozny were going on, no one paid attention to the buttonholes, and now, in the calm, for some reason they began to peer ...

There is a popular saying: when a cat has nothing to do, he licks his own balls. Modern Russian army it seems to me such a big cat who, instead of catching mice, is engaged in licking his crotch and the end-edge of this activity is not visible.

When I first came to Chechnya, seeing a conscript soldier at the checkpoint, I could not believe that he was really a soldier taking part in the counter-terrorist operation in the North Caucasus.

A steel helmet that has practically not changed since the last World War, a greasy-greasy, darned-darned pea jacket, which was once camouflage, and now has become a monochromatic, gray-brown color, "well-worn" pants, which are even heavier condition than a pea jacket. On my feet - knocked down, worn "kirzachi", which have not changed in anything since the time of "Tsar Pea". The bulletproof vest, obligatory for soldiers, in which one cannot stay for more than 2 hours, and in which they walk for days, was "camouflaged" under a pea jacket, and on top of it there was an incomprehensible sewing-darned, pocket-button "design".

What it was, they told me a few hours later, when I, together with one soldier, took up the protection of the perimeter of our deployment site. It turned out to be a homemade boot vest. It was "collected" from different parts military uniform. The basis is a torn camouflage jacket, which was supposed to be used for rags, and the pockets for machine-gun or machine-gun magazines were made from various fragments of either trousers from this jacket, or simply from improvised rags. They even had a peculiar fashion here - who will sew the "unloading" more stylishly. It's a shame for these boys who risk their lives to protect what we want to call the STATE.

At least those who still believe in it.

An 18-year-old boy who was caught to serve in the army and thrust into Chechnya to "plug the imperial holes" hardly understands what he is doing there. He hardly understands what is happening around. You have to stupidly survive.

Not to mention the constant danger, at times from the side of the "native fathers-commanders" they had to experience treatment similar to the "Caucasian captivity" described by Lermontov.

Secret pit

Autumn business trip to Chechnya. Although the weather in Ryazan had already begun to deteriorate, the days were still warm. But it was precisely the "days", since the nights, at this almost two kilometers above sea level, were rather cold. Such is the contrast, as in the desert - hot during the day and cold at night.

Not far from the location, soldiers internal troops, who had fortified themselves at this height with us, began to dig a hole. The fact that this is not a human and not a trench for technology, it was already possible to guess in a few hours, when the contours of this "engineering structure" began to appear. The pit had an approximately square shape, about 2x2 meters, but its depth gradually increased. The first guess was the thought that this is some kind of extension to the toilet. This is approximately how the soldiers themselves explained the occurrence of this "failure", however, the increasing depth, already reaching five meters, raised doubts about the veracity of their explanations. Then we realized why they did not tell us the truth - it was a shame.

Captured by the homeland

When did the midnight light

It rises, near the fence he

Lies in aul - quiet sleep

Only rarely closes his eyes.

With comrades - recalls

About that dear native country;

Sad; but more than one ...

Leaving a lovely deposit there,

Freedom, happiness that I loved

He set off into an unknown land,

And ... he destroyed everything in that land.

M.Yu. Lermontov "Prisoner of the Caucasus"

Passing at night through the territory of our place of deployment, when there was no moon, and the air even seemed somehow viscous-black, all the time I was afraid to fall into this huge hole, since you can't really shine with a lantern here, something might "fly to the light" ... It would be a shame to break, or even worse - to break the neck, in such "non-combat conditions." All the time I thought: "Why did they surrender this huge hole, after all, someone will fall ?!" However, it was possible to find out about the real purpose of this "over-dig" the very next night after the end of the "excavation".

At first I thought that I was not all right with my head when I heard a voice, literally near my feet, walking, as it seemed, out of the ground. However, then I realized that they were calling, apparently, from this very huge pit, I approached, as if two soldiers were sitting at the bottom. He shone a flashlight - they have been sitting for a long time, one twisted into a ball and tried to fall asleep.

Excuse me, do you have a cigarette?

Yes, I didn’t take it with me, only this one (I smoke), but how did you two fall here together? And why don't you call anyone? They are probably looking for you with might and main?

No, they are not looking, the colonel put us here on purpose, shall we smoke?

How specifically? Not understood? Catch a cigarette.

I fell asleep at the post, and Sanyok bought cigarettes from the local - "lit", so we sit.

Frankly, their calm explanations took me by surprise. Well, the militants put prisoners in pits, but this is in captivity. And so that the commander of his subordinates, in zindan!

He returned back to the cabin to our guys, told everything. Then some more guys began to approach, also telling that they had seen soldiers sitting in the pit where the commander had thrust them.

The worst thing is the weather and climatic conditionsin which we were in this highlands. It was clear to everyone that if a person sat in this hole for at least a few hours, then he could forget about his kidneys, if not now, then a little later. Moreover, in addition to the kidneys, serious harm will be done not only to physical, but also to mental health. And these young guys get it here anyway! Every other day - cleansing, checkpoints, every other night - shelling, plus a round-the-clock guard.

The decision was made instantly.

Everyone who was at that time in the cockpit rushed to the commander of the warriors. As it turned out later, he was in the rank of major, but for some reason everyone around him called him Colonel, perhaps because he himself wanted it so much.

Our "delegation" pulled the "regiment-major" out of his room, the guys pressed him against the wall:

What are you doing? Why are you soldiers sitting in the pit?

This is my outpost, I am in command here!

Hey, you, the kidneys of the boys will fall off, they will come home with disabilities, and have not lived at all! Why are you guys disfiguring! When the shelling begins, you don't sit with them in the trenches, you don't shoot back, thank them that you are still alive! They're saving you here!

This is my outpost ...

You fool, Colonel! Well, they "flew" from you, let them dig trenches, let them do push-ups, but don't take their health away from them! If you don’t get the boys out of the zindan right now, we’ll get them out, and we’ll put you there!

You have no right! I am higher in rank than you, and I am the commander of this outpost!

Right now! Command the guys to get out!

The "Colonel" said something indistinct to the Dagestani contract soldiers who came running to rescue him. Then, in front of all the riot police, he said that the soldiers had already been pulled out of the pit. One of our guys went to check, after five minutes he flew into the location where we were still standing, pulled the commander of the warriors out of his "cubbyhole", and began methodically smearing him on the wall, shouting: "But I believed you, nit ! And they are sitting in a pit!

The next few seconds almost turned into a major carnage between our riot police and contract soldiers. The riot police officers managed to pull apart the start of the fight, although at the same time someone managed to sniper the "colonel", after which he shamefully locked himself in his room, where he heard the last loud "speech" of the riot police: "Schmuck, he is SCHMUCK! Why talk to him! "

A minute later the soldiers were no longer in the pit, as in all subsequent days. The pit was empty. And the promise made by the riot police that if there were soldiers there, they would be immediately replaced by their commander, remained in force.

Idle revenge

We did not get such extensive troubles, promised by the "Majoropolcan". Although he was not even ashamed to write any complaints there. It didn't work - different departments. But he began to order his sentries, in case of the slightest violation or oversight, to shoot to kill, even if it is clear that this is a Ryazan riot policeman.

I climb onto the roof of a bombed-out building, which became our base for these months. There is a very beautiful view of the mountains from there, you can sit, smoke (during the day), think about the house, about the dead end and stupidity of this war. The warriors have a post there.

Climbing the rickety stairs.

What are you? Even here they started asking for a password? Hey, I'm sorry, I don't know the password, from the riot police, you've never asked here before?

Sorry, but you'd better not come in, the colonel forbade us to let yours in, said if they don't know the password - shoot, if they still climb, they even know, don't let - shoot.

Why have you got it, has it started? With your help, he decided to take revenge on us? Seriously, said shoot ?!

The roof entrance was internal. Accordingly, if “not their own” climb into it, it means that no one is left alive in the building. This order could only be directed against the riot police.

Within a few minutes, the "initiative group" of our militia detachment talked with the commander of the outpost, explaining to him the inexpediency of issuing such orders. They explained it very clearly, in a riot police-style - the order was immediately canceled.

Whenever possible, the riot police fed the "conscripts",

cigarettes were always given, but they just talked heart to heart. In the cockpit of the riot police, a soldier could quietly sit, eat, rest a little, not being afraid that the commander would enter there and arrange a "duty dispersal", forcing them to do some other stupid thing, just so that the soldiers would not just sit there.

When the mortar soldiers covered their own outpost at night - they found a soldier crying on the stairs - his friend died during the shelling. We went to the sergeant of this soldier and asked him to go for a day - all the same, he was of no use in such a state.

"They got drunk", fed. They calmed me down as best they could. Maybe even saved. Hopefully.

Dmitry FLORIN, berkut77 specially for Pravda Khakassia.

Photo from the site www.newsru.com

The British newspaper The Sunday Times published excerpts from personal diary a high-ranking Russian special forces officer who fought in the second Chechen war. The columnist Mark Franchetti, who independently translated the text from Russian into English, writes in his commentary that nothing like this has ever been published.

“The text does not claim to be a historical review of the war. This is the story of the author. The testimony, which has been written over 10 years, is a blood-chilling chronicle of executions, torture, revenge and despair during 20 business trips to Chechnya, ”he describes this publication in the article“ The War in Chechnya: A Murderer's Diary, ”which InoPressa refers to.

The excerpts from the diary contain descriptions of military operations, the treatment of prisoners and the death of comrades in battle, impartial statements about the command. “To protect the author from punishment, his personality, the names of people and geographical names omitted, ”says Franchetti.

The author of the notes calls Chechnya “damned” and “bloody”. The conditions in which they had to live and fight drove even such strong and "trained" men as special forces officers crazy. He describes cases when they lost their nerves and they began to rush at each other, arranging fights, or mocked the corpses of militants, cutting off their ears and noses.

At the beginning of the above notes, apparently related to one of the first business trips, the author writes that he felt sorry for the Chechen women, whose husbands, sons and brothers joined the militants. So, in one of the villages where the Russian unit entered and where the wounded militants remained, two women appealed to him with a plea to release one of them. He heeded their request.

“I could have executed him on the spot at that moment. But I felt sorry for the women, ”the spetsnaz officer writes. “The women did not know how to thank me, they thrust money into my hands. I took the money, but it sank heavily on my soul. I felt guilty before our dead guys. "

The other wounded Chechens, according to the diary, were treated quite differently. “They were dragged outside, stripped naked and stuffed into a truck. Some walked on their own, others were beaten and pushed. One Chechen who lost both feet climbed out on his own, walking on his stumps. After a few steps, he lost consciousness and sank to the ground. The soldiers beat him, stripped him naked and threw him into a truck. I was not sorry for the prisoners. It was just an unpleasant sight, ”the soldier writes.

According to him, the local population looked at the Russians with hatred, and the wounded militants - with such hatred and contempt that the hand itself involuntarily reached for the weapon. He says that the departed Chechens left a wounded Russian prisoner in that village. His arms and legs were broken so that he could not escape.

In another case, the author describes a fierce battle, during which the commandos knocked the militants out of the house where they had settled. After the battle, the soldiers ransacked the building and found several mercenaries in the basement fighting on the side of the Chechens. “They all turned out to be Russians and fought for money,” he writes. - They started screaming, begging us not to kill them, because they have families and children. Well, so what? We ourselves, too, did not end up in this hole straight from the orphanage. We executed everyone. "

“The truth is that the bravery of people fighting in Chechnya is not appreciated,” the spetsnaz soldier says in his diary. As an example, he cites a case about which the soldiers of another detachment told him, with whom they whiled away one of the nights. Before the eyes of one of their guys, his twin brother was killed, but he not only was not demoralized, but desperately continued to fight.

"This is how people go missing"

Quite often, the records contain descriptions of how the military destroyed the traces of their activities related to the use of torture or executions of captured Chechens. In one place, the author writes that one of the dead militants was wrapped in polyethylene, thrust into a well filled with liquid mud, surrounded by TNT and blown up. “This is how people go missing,” he adds.

The same was done with a group of Chechen suicide bombers captured on a tip in their hideout. One of them was over 40, the other was barely 15. “They were high and smiled at us all the time. At the base, all three were interrogated. At first, the eldest, the recruiter of shahids, refused to speak. But that changed after the beatings and electric shock, ”the author writes.

As a result, the suicide bombers were executed, and the bodies were blown up to hide the evidence. “So, in the end, they got what they dreamed about,” the soldier says.

"The upper echelons of the army are full of dicks."

Many passages in the diary contain sharp criticism of the command, as well as politicians who send others to death, while they themselves remain in complete safety and impunity.

“Once I was struck by the words of an idiot general: he was asked why the families of the sailors who died on the Kursk nuclear submarine were paid large compensation, while the soldiers killed in Chechnya are still waiting for theirs. “Because the losses at the Kursk were unforeseen, while in Chechnya they are predicted,” he said. So we are cannon fodder. The upper echelons of the army are full of dumb ** s like him, ”the text says.

In another case, he tells how his squad was ambushed because they were deceived by their own commander. “The Chechen, who had promised him several AK-47s, persuaded him to help him commit blood feud. There were no rebels in the house he sent us to clean out, ”the commando writes.

“When we returned to base, the dead guys were lying in bags on the runway. I opened one of the bags, took my friend by the hand and said, "I'm sorry." Our commander did not even take the trouble to say goodbye to the guys. He was drunk as hell. At that moment I hated him. He always didn't care about the guys, he just used them to make a career. Later, he even tried to blame me for the unsuccessful purge. Mu ** k. Sooner or later he will pay for his sins, ”the author curses.

"It's a pity that you can't go back and fix something."

The notes also tell about how the war affected the soldier's personal life - in Chechnya he constantly missed his home, wife and children, and when he returned, he constantly quarreled with his wife, often got drunk with his colleagues and often did not spend the night at home. Going on one of the long business trips, from where he could no longer return alive, he did not even say goodbye to his wife, who had awarded him a slap in the face the day before.

“I often think about the future. How much more suffering awaits us? How long can we last? For what?" - writes the commando. “I have a lot of good memories, but only of the guys who really risked their lives for a part. It's a shame that you can't go back and fix something. All I can do is try to avoid the same mistakes and do my best to live a normal life. "

“I gave 14 years of my life to the special forces, I lost many, many close friends; for what? Deep down, I still have pain and a feeling that I was treated unfairly, ”he continues. And the final phrase of the publication is as follows: "I only regret one thing - what could have happened if I had behaved differently in battle, some of the guys would still be alive."