Democracy came to Bulgaria on November 10, 1989 - the day after the fall of the Berlin Wall. The country had three missile brigades (RBR) of operational-tactical missile systems (OTR), armed: the 46th and 66th RBR - OTR 9K72 "Elbrus", 76th RBR - OTR 9K714 "Oka". Each RBR had two missile battalions (RDN) with three launch batteries (SBat), two launchers (PU) each. The 46th and 66th RBRs were subordinate to the 1st and 3rd Bulgarian Army (BA), and the 76th RBR was in the Reserve of the High Command (RGK). The three Bulgarian armies also had 13 separate missile divisions (ORDS), which were subordinate to motorized rifle divisions (MSD) and tank brigades (TBR). ORDn consisted of 2 SBats, 2 launchers in the MSD and 1 launcher in the TBR, and were armed with: 2nd ORDn - tactical missile system (TR) 9K79 "Tochka"; 5th, 7th, 11th, 16th, 17th, 21st, 24th - 9K52 "Luna-M"; 1st, 3rd, 9th, 13th, 18th - 2K6 Moon.
The described missile formations were provided by two mobile missile technical bases (PRTB) - 129th and 130th, one central missile technical base (TsRTB) and other rear and other support units. ORDN TR were armed with high-explosive, chemical and training warheads, which were located in Bulgaria. The RBR OTR was in service with 47 nuclear warheads (MS). However, they were kept in the USSR and could be issued by the BA only by order of the Headquarters of the Warsaw Pact Organization (OVD), which died in 1991. Then the Minister-Chairman of Bulgaria turned to his Soviet colleague with a request that Bulgaria be issued with relying warheads, equipped with high-explosive and shaped charges. The USSR replied that Bulgaria should purchase them at a price of about $ 50,000 each. Bulgaria bluntly paid the required amount and received high-explosive and cumulative warheads for OTR 9K72 "Elbrus" and cluster warheads for 9K714 "Oka". Understanding the current political situation, the Chief of the General Staff (NGSh) of the BA, on his own initiative, without any external pressure, gave instructions to dismantle and destroy the PU code-blocking devices and transition compartments (cones) of carriers with indexes AE1820 and AE1830, and at the same time all the tools that were used for routine work with them. After that, not a single Bulgarian missile could be used as a carrier for a nuclear warhead.
In February 1992, the United States put pressure on the invertebrate president of Bulgaria, Zhelyu Zhelev, and he ordered the Minister of Defense and the General Staff of the General Staff to show the equipment and weapons of the best Bulgarian 76th RBR and TsRTB to the Americans. The vaunted American intelligence did not know anything about the deployment of the Oka OTR in Bulgaria until the USSR in 1989 itself transferred to the Americans all the carriers of nuclear weapons that it had supplied abroad. The covert deployment and fifteen-year maintenance of an entire missile brigade, which carried out 6 launches of OTR and several times visited the Kapustin Yar training ground in the USSR, speaks quite well of the level of professionalism of the Bulgarian missilemen and the Bulgarian special services providing them, as well as of Bulgaria's loyalty to the USSR. The Americans came to us with a full list of the factory numbers of launch vehicles (LV) and warheads supplied to us by the USSR. During a check in the 76th RBR, the Americans unexpectedly requested the opening of hatches to the LV instrument compartments, which was not agreed upon in the preliminary conditions. After a telephone conversation with the Ministry of Defense, the Americans' demand was fulfilled, and they filmed the interior of the launch vehicle with a video camera. The same humiliating test was carried out at the Central Technical Hospital in Lovech, where the Americans checked the thickness of the RN and RCH coating and compared their factory numbers with the list they had. At a meeting in the General Staff of the BA after a trip to the 76th RBR and the Central Technical Hospital, the Americans asked where the dismantled code-blocking devices with PU and transition compartments (cones) of the launch vehicle were located. The Bulgarians explained that everything was destroyed, but the Americans did not believe it. They were given the case with the destruction protocol attached to it, which they photographed. On June 25, 1997, the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry received a US note demanding the destruction of our missile systems. This was the beginning of the end of the Rocket Forces of the Republic of Bulgaria. To make the humiliation complete, the missiles were called according to NATO classification: 9K72 Elbrus became SS-1C Scud, and 9K714 Oka became SS-23 Spider. To our credit, we did not buckle under the humiliating diktat, and it took the United States five years to "pull out" our teeth. However, the result of the confrontation between the world hegemon (USA) and the Republic of Bulgaria, which occupies an area of 111 sq. km. and has a population of 7 million, was a foregone conclusion.
In 1997, specialists from the General Staff of the BA, the Ministry of Defense, the People's Assembly of Bulgaria (our "Duma") and advisers to the President replied to the United States that the destruction of these missiles was not in line with the national interests of Bulgaria. By that time, the United States was already seriously engaged in the creation of an Islamic arc in the Balkans and wanted to completely exclude any possibility of opposition of Orthodox Slavs to Islamists. On July 18, 1997, State Department spokesman James Rubin said: “Missile nonproliferation is the top priority of the American administration. The missiles from Bulgaria and Slovakia belong to the first category in terms of their ability to carry weapons for mass destruction, and therefore there is talk of their destruction. The United States is ready to assist in the destruction of these missiles. " Preparing for the war against Yugoslavia and the strong consolidation of the Islamists in the Balkans, the United States and the EU, with the help of international bankers and transnational corporations, deliberately plunged Bulgaria into a terrible economic crisis. Driven to hunger and despair, the Bulgarian people voted for the first (and, I hope, the last) time in their history for the "democrats" - open supporters of the West and the United States. This resulted in the death of hundreds of Bulgarian factories, the closure of four of the six reactors of our Belene nuclear power plant, the surrender of the Bulgarian sky for NATO's criminal war against Yugoslavia and many more troubles for the entire Bulgarian people.
The Bulgarian people have learned well what "democracy" is and what a Masonic-satanic state - the United States - is. Today in the Bulgarian parliament there is not a single party whose name includes the words "democracy", "democratic". But the dirty deed was done, and on July 27, 1998, the then Minister-Chairman (today - the most hated politician for Bulgarians) Ivan Kostov committed another heinous crime against the Bulgarian people, signing the "Agreement on the investigation, economic, technical and other assistance", in accordance with with which the United States "pledged to help" the Bulgarian government in the destruction:
• SS-23 - 9K714 missile system;
• SCUD-B - 9K72 missile system;
• FROG-7 - 9K52 missile system;
• cash SCUD-A - 8K11 missiles.
The agreement entered into force on February 1, 1999, but due to the NATO war against Yugoslavia, we were in no hurry to destroy our missiles. The United States needed allies near Yugoslavia, and they were also in no hurry to put pressure on Bulgaria to fulfill its obligations. In the summer of 2000, Deputy Defense Minister Velizar Shalamanov ordered the General Staff to prepare a detailed report on the country's Missile Forces. It contained the most sensitive operational information, which at one time we did not give even to the USSR. And the brothers never put pressure on the country's leadership like that, they respected our sovereignty. Shalamanov hurried to take the received report to the US Embassy in Sofia (let him choke with his 30 pieces of silver, Judas). On December 5 of that year, another "friendly" American commission went to the 66th RBR. As a result of her work, the Bulgarian government "jointly" (ie under dictate) with the US State Department made a decision:
• PU and all machines that cannot be used in the national economy of the country will be demilitarized at the Terem plant in Veliko Tarnovo at the expense of the United States;
• the rest of the cars will be sold under the hammer;
• The USA takes away the oxidizer and warheads of the R-300 (9K72) missile.
In January 2001, Defense Minister Boyko Noev, a protege of Ivan Kostov, said: Bulgaria does not and will not have political and military goals that can be achieved by the R-300 missiles. At the end of 2001, the government of Simeon of Saxecoburggotsky made a secret decision to destroy the last OTR Bulgaria - 9K714 "Oka". Bulgarian Foreign Minister Solomon Pasi, a Jew, solemnly announced this decision while at a summit in Washington. This was the last condition for Bulgaria's membership in the NATO bloc. According to the plans of the West, our country was supposed to enter NATO unarmed, humiliated and completely dependent on the will, weapons and equipment of the elder "brothers" in the bloc. The times when our allies supplied us with the best military equipment in sufficient quantities ended a quarter of a century ago.
Responsible, patriotic leaders of the country did everything they could to save the country's missile forces. They dragged on the negotiations and carried out the decisions made for five whole years, going directly against the will of the "world gendarme" - the United States. The fact that in the end our missiles were cut, and the oxidizer and warheads went to the United States is not our fault. If Russia wanted, we would return its missiles back to it. We very much hoped that Russia would intercede for Yugoslavia, and in major territorial agreements there would be a paragraph for our missile brigades. After all, it was not for this that they were delaying the implementation of US decrees in order to launch a rocket salvo at their own Orthodox Slavic neighbors.
Although in the past we had our own showdowns with the Serbs, Bulgaria's missile armament has always stood guard against the Islamization of the Balkans. NATO tore Serbia to pieces like "Tuzik hot water bottle". The Islamists have founded another Muslim state in the very heart of the Balkans - Kosovo. The United States has established a mighty military base in the center of the Balkan Peninsula - Bondstiil. Russia was silent. Bulgaria was left with no choice but to submit to the dictates of the State Department. After five years of dodging, deliberation, and revision, we finally chopped our missiles into scrap and handed over the oxidizer and warheads to the United States.
In 2001, after we removed our OTRs from service and began to cut them, Turkey immediately adopted OTRs with a range of up to 300 km. The Yankees promised that instead of the destroyed OTR and TR they would supply us with MLRS with a range of up to 90 km, but, of course, they deceived us.
Almost all patriotic Bulgarians opposed the destruction of the country's missile forces and cooperation with NATO, each in the form in which he could. The author has expressed his position twice.
In the second case, I was a student and freely protested against the provision of Bulgarian airspace for NATO's robbery attack on Yugoslavia. I didn’t risk anything except a couple of blows with a police baton on the shoulder and on the ass. For a healthy 19-year-old guy, this is not at all scary, and besides, it is a considerable reason for pride. The police sympathized with the protesters, and there was no case when they hit them in the liver, kidneys or on the head.
But in the first case, I took great risks. Then I was still in urgent service, a corporal of the communications company of the 21st mechanized brigade, where until very recently the 21st ORDn was located. When I got there, the rocket and launcher were gone, but there were still earth machinery, air-conditioned warehouses with cranes and other equipment. Once upon a time, NATO officers - Americans, Turks and Greeks - came to our farm to make sure that the missile was gone. The unit learned about the check half an hour before it was carried out and, of course, everyone rushed feverishly to "ennoble the territory." As a competent soldier, I was entrusted with a task in accordance with my "high" technical qualifications - to wipe the control panel of the climatic installation in the former missile depot with rags, and at the same time the doors, handles, the tap control … I was handed a full bottle of alcohol without hesitation. The career sergeants would never have been entrusted with such "material value." I honestly fulfilled the task, but did not report my readiness, so that I was not instructed to "lick" something less pleasant than the control panels. A couple of times officers ran into the warehouse, but each time I diligently and very energetically improved the work already done, and there were no complaints against me. Finally, a full commission of inspectors came to see me.
If the commission was led by a Bulgarian or at least an American officer, I would have behaved as expected. But for my and the misfortune commission it was headed by a Turkish officer. I could not bend in front of the Turk. Instead of clicking my heels, saluting and standing at attention, I gloomily put my hands in my pockets, turned my back to the Turk, and slowly went about my business. The Bulgarian general in the commission shouted as if he had been cut. Two "sixes" of the general - a lieutenant colonel and a major - grabbed me under the armpits and dragged me to the guardhouse. The general promised to hand me over to a tribunal, but nothing happened. Although I got 15 days from the General General Staff, specially authorized for something there (groveling), I sat in the guardhouse for only a day and a half. I was released the very next day, after the departure of the commission. Obviously, the officers of the brigade did not like the check either …
Today there is neither a rocket nor the 21st Mechanized Brigade. Recently drove near the former place of service. Warehouses and territory were cleared for another shopping center …
The article is based on the book of the former commander of the missile forces and artillery of the BNA, retired lieutenant-general Dimitar Todorov "Missile troops on Bulgaria", ed. "Er Group 2002", Sofia, 2007, 453 p.
