Almost a quarter of a century is already behind
At the top of summer, veterans of local wars and hostilities will certainly gather for the 23rd time in the village of Zaozerye of the Uglich District to take part in a mini-football tournament. It is conducted by the Uglich branch of the YAO of the All-Russian public organization of veterans "Combat Brotherhood" together with the leader and organizer Yevgeny Vyacheslavovich Natalyin.
Together with him, at the origins of this derby, unique in all respects, were the physical education teacher of the Zaozersk school Alexei Alekseevich Sharov, the ex-head of the administration of the Ilyinsky rural settlement Galina Aleksandrovna Sharova and the then chairman of the Timiryazev collective farm Vyacheslav Nikolaevich Repin, who, unfortunately, had already left us for another world …
As usual, a hot sports battle will flare up this time: teams, forwards, goals, fans. At the end of the competition, the winners will be honored: cups, certificates, medals. Then the participants of the competition will all go together for many kilometers to the rural cemetery in the village of Vypolzovo.
In order to bow to the grave of the hero of the Afghan war Yuri Orlov at the village churchyard and remember the soldier who died in a Dushanbe hospital from his wounds on August 28, 1984. He was then only 19 years old.
Well, the football tournament in Zaozerye is in his honor and in the memory of a simple Russian boy who returned home in a zinc coffin on an ordinary August day. In the fall. This time he will watch the football battles from there, from the height of the piercing blue sky, from his immortality.
This is the kind of football
One cannot help but believe in this. Because once, the participants of a football tournament recall, all the way to the cemetery they were accompanied by an eagle flying next to the car, and last year it was already a black raven.
Orlov's entire short life is, as it were, woven from bright autumn moments. Yuri Nikolaevich could have turned 56 this fall.
Who would he be, what?
It's hard to say now, because he passed away so early. The war took him away.
The boy was born exactly on Friday, October 8, 1965 in the family of Nikolai Vasilyevich and Nadezhda Pavlovna Orlov. The village where they lived, to this day in the Kalyazinsky district, is nicknamed Zbuinevo. An ordinary Russian village, of which there are a great many.
Parents decided to name the rosy-cheeked strong man Yuri. And the life of the village boy began to spin, and the years rushed by rapidly. There was no school in their village, the nearest one was in Sazhino. There is a whole kilometer to it, so Yurka crossed it every day on a hike for knowledge. So three years passed. In the fourth grade, he went to an educational institution in the village of Starobislovo, which is already four kilometers away.
Yurka studied easily, usually trying to be like Anatoly's older brother in everything. And he was very worried when, when he was twelve, he accompanied him to the service. And when he learned that his brother was guarding the border at the frontier post, he began to envy and mentally adjust his age so that he could leave as soon as possible, like all his peers, to serve upon the call.
From call to call
After the eighth grade, Yuri had to move to the neighboring Uglich district, to the village of Zaozerye. The last two years of study took place within the walls of the school, the history of which is inextricably linked with the famous Russian writer and satirist Mikhail Evgrafovich Saltykov-Shchedrin.
Yuri was proud of this. So the last school bell rang. A new interesting life is ahead. If you want - study, if you want - work. Which specialty to choose?
Orlov Jr. decided in his own way. First, you need to give your debt to the Motherland and serve, and only with your peers. And while there is time, he decided to help his parents and got a job as a combine operator's assistant at a local state farm. I was worried about that autumn that the call was coming soon, and not all the harvest had been removed from the fields yet.
At the end of October, the farewell to the Orlovs' house died down, and Yuri left to fulfill his military duty. Soldiers' letters began to arrive in Zbuinevo. He is a border guard, like his older brother. Isn't that great! Yuri was so proud of this. When I come back, there will be something to talk about with Anatoly, then we will remember.
Of course, the Orlovs knew nothing about Afghanistan. Then it was not possible to report it. Regular border service. But suddenly the letters stopped coming. And the mother's heart ached. Oh, it's not without reason that all this - Nadezhda Pavlovna was worried.
And then there was an apple tree growing by the window. Yura brought it from somewhere, planted it. She bloomed so profusely that spring. How many apples there will be - the parents thought. We will send them in a parcel to the border fighter. And suddenly, after flowering, as soon as the white petals fell off, the apple tree suddenly began to dry up. And once a terrible picture appeared to Orlov: in the summer, the son's fruit tree became completely dry.
This "time chose us …"
On one of the last days in August, several cars stopped at the house. From one of them the military carried it out … All the relatives felt uneasy - Yurka returned home in a zinc coffin.
Later, the details of the battle in the mountains became known. This happened in the Kufab Gorge of the Afghan province of Badakhshan. Here is what the pages from the collection "Time has chosen us …" testify:
“On August 24, 1984, the border airborne assault group was ordered to gain a foothold at an advantageous line. Sapper private Yuri Orlov, who was assigned to the head patrol together with the soldiers, was the first to notice a large group of bandits creeping along the mountainside and entered the battle.
One of the bullets wounded Orlov in the arm, but he, independently providing himself with medical assistance, continued to fire.
Having taken an advantageous position, Yuri Nikolaevich covered the evacuation of the wounded border guards from the battlefield, preventing the Mujahideen from conducting targeted fire with short, well-aimed bursts.
Suddenly, the second bullet pierces Yurin's arm. But Orlov continued to shoot back in short bursts, running from cover to cover. The soldiers who came to the rescue helped to fight off the "spirits".
With the approach of enemy reinforcements, the Mujahideen again rushed to the attack. Already the third bullet overtakes the border guard …”.
Commander's letter
The further fate of the soldier Orlov became known from a fragment of a letter from the commander V. Bazaleev and the head of the political department, Yu. Zyryanov, to the hero's mother.
“Dear Nadezhda Pavlovna!
Yuri always loved and remembered you.
When his seriously wounded man was evacuated to the district hospital in Dushanbe, he asked his colleagues not to tell you that he was wounded, did not want to bother and upset you, he said that he would inform you himself upon recovery. Death turned out to be stronger than doctors, and on August 28, 1984, Yuri passed away.
For courage and heroism shown in this battle, Private Yuri Nikolaevich Orlov was presented to the award of the Order of the Red Star (posthumously). He died as a hero, remaining faithful to the military oath to the end, in battle he was brave and courageous.
Nadezhda Pavlovna! We share your maternal grief. Please accept once again our sincere condolences."
Years passed, but the woeful maternal wound did not heal. Nadezhda Pavlovna is so worried that if it were not for this vile war, her youngest son would have grown up and become extraordinary.
She is not alone in her difficult experiences. Her son's colleagues, representatives of the Uglich branch of the Combat Brotherhood organization, visit her house from time to time.
They are now in full swing preparing for the football tournament in memory of Yuri Orlov. This game was adored by her son to self-forgetfulness, and for a long time he chased the ball with the boys in the wasteland. And on May 22, veterans of the border from Tver came to the hero's grave, making a rally in honor of the Day of the Border Guard.
Know what kind of guy he was
In the Zaozyorsk school, where he studied for the last two years before graduation, there is a memorial plaque, in the museum there is a stand in his memory. Surely it is worth raising the issue of assigning one of the streets the name of border guard Yuri Orlov.
Let everyone know what kind of guy he was! And where such a highway to be, let the people decide. People will always tell the truth.
And I would also like to say that in Russia, especially in recent years, there has been less and less talk about the heroes of the Afghan war. And the boys, who left there on the orders of the Motherland and returned in zinc, are trying in every possible way to consign to oblivion. This is not the only one I notice. Everyone who has ever been “beyond the river” speaks about this.
And mothers who have lost their sons, such as Nadezhda Pavlovna, are getting smaller and smaller every year. They are going away. And the same Afghan war drives them to their graves. God forbid, anyone can survive this! Therefore, at least once a year, at the federal level, all of Russia should be told to all of them “ Sorry! ».
But this is not the case. And we all regret this!
When I was already finishing the material, it became known that just the other day Yura Orlov's mother, Nadezhda Pavlovna, had died. She is buried next to her son and husband, who could not bear the loss of his own blood and passed away several years after the death of the youngest.
Now they are all three lying side by side on the churchyard in Vypolzovo. And in one way or another, the Afghan war is completely to blame. Dirty and disgusting, mowing down a generation of young Soviet guys, robbing their relatives and friends. And now they prefer to forget about it. This is not human!
This year, with the onset of autumn, on the Day of Remembrance of the brave border guard Yuri Orlov, friends and fellow soldiers of the boys who have just touched their first love will, as usual, raise a third memorial toast to the Hero of that war and his parents who left us so early.
Let us remember them and we - ordinary Russian people, together with Viktor Verstakov, who passed Afghanistan with a pen, notebook and battles. And with lines of his piercing poems.
Come on for those who have not returned
Who became a particle of silence
Who lay down in the mountains and did not wake up
From an undeclared war.
Come on without clinking glasses, guys
Let's go silently and to the bottom
For an officer and a soldier, Whom the war took to itself.
Let's remember by name
Those with whom we are forever related, Who was part of the battalion
And became a particle of silence.
We have no right to leave, And only silently and to the bottom, Since the common power, Since the general war …
