It often happens that awards do not find their heroes: awards are lost, personnel officers are mistaken, the situation in the unit changes. It happens that not those who have proven themselves on the battlefield are awarded, but those who are closer to the headquarters or an important chief. It happens that the heroic deed is forgotten, or the heroic deed has no witnesses. Anything can happen, this is life. But, fortunately, it also happens that a star falls on the chest deservedly, in a timely manner, to the one who committed an act that cannot be ignored.
An act fixed by time becomes history. A chronicle is made up of stories. And the chronicle consists not only of the dates and places of battles, the number of dead and wounded, but also of the names. The names of heroes worthy of memory for centuries.
On April 27 this year, Hero of the Russian Guard, Lieutenant Colonel Anatoly Vyacheslavovich Lebed, died in a road accident. One of the most famous and illustrious paratroopers of our time. Chevalier of the Order of St. George IV degree, three Orders of Courage, three Orders of the Red Star, the Order "For Service to the Motherland in the Armed Forces of the USSR" III degree, the medal "For Distinction in Military Service" of three degrees, a courageous, decent, honest person.
A colleague of his, one of the senior officers of the 45th separate guards orders of Kutuzov and the Alexander Nevsky special-purpose regiment of the Airborne Forces, tells about the Hero's combat path.
- Anatoly was born - the youngest son in the family - on May 10, 1963 in the city of Valga, Estonian USSR, in a family of workers. His father, Vyacheslav Andreevich, was a front-line soldier, a marine, a participant in the Battle of Stalingrad, after being transferred to the reserve, he was sent to the virgin lands in Kazakhstan, then moved to Estonia.
Anatoly was proud of his father's military past, talked about his hand-to-hand fights with the Nazis, the fight against saboteurs, a bayonet wound in the neck and military comradeship, thanks to which his father survived: the bleeding Vyacheslav Lebed was bandaged and carried from the battlefield by his loyal friends.
While studying at vocational school No. 11 of the small old town of Kohtla-Jarve, Anatoly - a member of the Komsomol, an athlete and an activist - went in for parachuting at the local DOSAAF school. By the end of the technical school, he had about 300 jumps!
The sky magnetically pulled the guy into its immense expanses, but the attempt to enter the Borisoglebsk Flight School unexpectedly ended in failure, Tolik flunked mathematics. I had to get a job as a mechanic-repairman at the Akhtmensky repair and mechanical plant, from where on November 3, 1981 he was called up for military service. He took the oath of office on December 20 in the training course of the 44th training division of the Airborne Forces, in the village of Gaizhunai, Lithuanian SSR. Then, as a squad leader - combat vehicle commander, he served in the 57th separate airborne assault brigade, in the Aktogay village of the Taldy-Kurgan region of the Kazakh SSR.
In the summer of 1983, Sergeant Lebed decides to become an officer and enters the Lomonosov Military Aviation Technical School (a suburb of Leningrad), specialty: helicopters and aircraft engines. On June 27, 1986, Anatoly's youthful dream came true - he became a lieutenant.
He was assigned to the 307th helicopter regiment of the ZabVO. The Mi-24 onboard aircraft did not have to freeze there for a long time, they were transferred to TurkVO, where they prepared for six months to perform tasks in the specific climate of Afghanistan.
The 239th Separate Helicopter Squadron of the Air Force of the 40th Combined Arms Army accepted into its ranks the low, but extremely physically developed flight equipment of the Mi-8 helicopter on April 25, 1987.
People who are far from military science, being impressed by a couple of movies, think that a flight technician is such a half-drunk ensign who peacefully slumbers in flight, and wakes up, pushes the slow paratroopers from the board to the ground. It's a delusion. In flight, each crew member is busy with his own business. The on-board technician monitors the operability of the machine systems, monitors fuel consumption and the operation of pumps, readings of sensors on the dashboard. And when the helicopter hovers over the landing area, it is the flight technician who rushes down from the side first! He is obliged to see the ground on the site, assess where the wheels will fit, consider the danger of damage to the turntable.
The swan, called behind the back of the Rambo squadron, always landed first. And he left as part of the landing group into battle. For a year and a half in Afghanistan (with a five-month break), Lebed took part in the evacuation of the wounded, in the search and destruction of caravans with weapons from the air, in the capture of enemy ammunition and equipment in ground operations. I think it was in Afghanistan, participating in the destruction of gangs and caravans in the mountains and greenery, that he learned what was so useful to us later in the Caucasus.
They say that the strongest are lucky. And Anatoly was lucky, he flew with Nikolai Sainovich Maidanov, the future legend of the army aviation, nicknamed by the army men "a pilot from God." The only combat pilot in the country who was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union and Hero of Russia (posthumously). The Maidanov crew took part in landing operations in the Panjshir, Tashkuduk, Mazar-i-Sharif, Ghazni, Jalalabad regions. During this time, he landed more than 200 reconnaissance groups. The Mujahideen hunted for the crew of Maidanov, twice "stingers" hit their helicopter, several times they shot through the sides and blades, but it did not fall. The fellow soldiers and paratroopers knew: if the crew of the Maidanov was in the turntable, you can be sure: everyone will return alive.
On the afternoon of May 12, 1987, having taken on board the inspection group of the Barakinsk special forces (668th separate special forces detachment), the Maidanov crew flew over the Padkhabi-Shana - Charkh - Altamur - Sepest route. Empty. Returning home, flew through the village of Abchakan, and then officers Yevgeny Baryshev and Pavel Trofimov noticed two Mujahideen on horseback in the channel. Probably a caravan was hiding nearby, in the greenery. The commandos decided to parachute and join the battle.
Having landed a reconnaissance group of 13 people, the helicopters (a pair of Mi-8s and a pair of Mi-24s) made two calls and, firing at the canyon and brilliant green from all onboard weapons, went for help. It took a little more than an hour to refuel the turntables, collect the reserve group and return to the battlefield. An armored group pulled up along the ground to the gorge, and army aviation also helped: a pair of Su-25 dropped bombs into the Abchakan gorge and "worked" along the neighboring gorge Dubandai.
As agents later found out, the number of the dushman detachment, from which the caravan was recaptured, was up to one hundred people. They were leading a caravan from Pakistan. On this day, in the greenery of the Abchakan channel, the caravan was resting, standing unloaded.
The heavy battle ended after midnight. The weapons and ammunition left over from the dushmans were taken out the next day by several helicopters. In total, according to updated data, 255 pack animals were destroyed and captured, up to 50 Mujahideen, 17 Hunying-5 portable anti-aircraft missile systems, 5 missile launchers, 10 mortars, recoilless guns, 1-GU, DShK, about 2, 5 thousand ammunition for launchers, heavy weapons, mortar mines, 350 anti-personnel mines and hand grenades, over 300 kilograms of explosives, over 300 thousand rounds of ammunition.
From Afghanistan, Anatoly returned to the Magochinsky district of the Chita region, but soon flew to the Western Group of Forces, to the German city of Magdeburg, where he served safely until the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Germany.
In October 1993, the 337th separate helicopter regiment, on the basis of a directive from the Russian Defense Ministry, was transferred to the Siberian Military District, to the city of Berdsk, Novosibirsk Region.
The great Soviet Union collapsed. The armed forces fell into decay, it became uninteresting and futile to serve. The salaries of the military were not paid for six months, their own housing was absent. What kind of combat training could there be when there was no fuel for flights for months and the takeoff was overgrown to the waist?
On October 1, 1994, Anatoly issued a pension and, together with his wife Tatyana and son Alexei, moved to a cozy Moscow region. He earned his bread in the local veteran organization of internationalist soldiers. Then, unexpectedly, he left his normal life and volunteered, on a tourist visa, left for the former Yugoslavia, to help the Slavic brothers in their rightful cause. What exactly Anatoly was doing in the Balkans, he never told, he answered dryly: "The Serbs are not strangers to us, he fought for the Motherland." I missed the first Chechen campaign for personal reasons.
In August 1999, after the attack of Chechen militants and foreign mercenaries on Dagestan, a large group of volunteers ready to defend the integrity of the Russian state from all the outskirts of the country reached for the Caucasus. It was a right thing, and, thank God, we always have enough patriots.
Lebed and Igor Nesterenko, with whom he became close friends in the Balkans, having bought equipment and uniforms, flew to Makhachkala, where they joined a detachment of the local militia, and went to the mountains. In the course of the hostilities, they joined the combined police detachment, in which they fought until October. When the militants were forced into Chechnya and the army crossed the border, the friends signed a contract with the Ministry of Defense and returned to the war again. Anatoly served as deputy commander of the reconnaissance group of the 218th separate special forces battalion of our regiment for more than six months. In the future, no matter what rank he was and whatever position he held, he continued to carry out combat missions as part of reconnaissance groups, personally leading the fighters to reconnaissance and search activities.
Igor Nesterenko from Saratovo died at a combat exit on December 1, 1999 in the area of the city of Argun, on a railway embankment, having run into an ambush with the guys from the infantry, and Lebed continued the work he had begun with double energy. It was then that I met Senior Lieutenant Lebed. He impressed me with his fanaticism and non-standard approach to business. He looked for the enemy where they usually do not seek, and climbed where they usually do not climb for security reasons. And after all, he always found and performed the task in such a way that the commanders had nothing to criticize the "free-thinker" for.
I asked him why he went to war again, why he was freezing in the mountains and risking his life, because he gave his "debt to the Motherland" back in Afghanistan.
“If a bandit takes up a weapon and kills, appropriates someone else's, he must be destroyed immediately. Yes, here, in the mountains, otherwise he will feel impunity and come out to rob in the center of Moscow. A fighter must know: he has done evil, it will not work to hide, we will find it, and he will have to answer in an adult way. You see, the more we crush at the top, the fewer of them will descend into the cities,”Lebed answered.
In 2001-2003, we worked effectively in the Vedeno region of Chechnya. Our area of responsibility included the villages of Khatuni, Elistanzhi, Makhkety, Tevzana, Agishty. In combat work, we were actively assisted by scouts from the Tula Airborne Division and the special forces of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and UIN. By joint efforts, the most bandit region of the republic gradually became a peaceful one. The shelling of the columns and posts stopped, the militants preferred to hide high in the mountains and descended to rage on the plain only when hunger pressed against the wall.
Somehow, after a daring attack by militants on the outpost and blowing up a militia column near Selmentauzen, Tolik and I had a "grater": where can you quickly find the attackers and make a result without losses? Lebed and his "creepy friend" took their reconnaissance group into the forest, and soon they brought evidence of the destroyed base together with its militant owners, while I and my guys quietly disarmed and captured seven bandits in the village itself. They went down there to wash, relax and sit out while they were being looked for in the mountains, but instead of a bath they ended up in the troop compartment of my armored personnel carrier. So, with our joint efforts, Comrade Lebed and I completely neutralized a large gang and gave good "food for thought" to special officers and military prosecutors.
At noon on June 25, 2003, a reinforced reconnaissance group, which included Lebed, discovered a well-fortified militant base located in a wooded mountainous area above the notorious village of Ulus-Kert, on the descent into the Argun Gorge. The militants were destroyed, the base was blown up. Towards evening, while combing the territory adjacent to the base, Lebed was blown up by an anti-personnel mine: he received a mine-explosive wound with a traumatic separation of his right foot, an extensive defect in soft tissues, shock of the 1st degree and acute blood loss of up to one liter.
A turntable was called to evacuate the wounded, and the soldiers carried their comrade in their arms to the landing site, which was a few hours' walk from the operation site. Rescued, as once Vyacheslav Andreevich at Stalingrad.
For a month and a half Anatoly was treated at the Burdenko hospital, received a prosthesis. As soon as I got to my feet and began to walk, I immediately checked out and flew back to Chechnya. Don't quit. And go to the fighting! “The prosthesis is good, as if it were alive. Ready for any task! - A slightly limping scout reported in Khankala, and the command did not object, returned to the battalion.
The fact that in Chechnya the prosthesis often broke, and Lebed repaired it with adhesive tape and an improvised fastening material, and again went to combat, not a beautiful fairy tale, but a reality, I confirm, myself a witness of his witchcraft labors with a prosthesis.
In December 2003, we took part for eleven days in the operation to liquidate the gang of Ruslan Gelayev, who in the snow-capped mountains shot 9 border guards from the Mokok outpost in Dagestan and captured the villages of Shauri and Gagatli. Escaping retaliation, Gelayev divided the gang into small groups and tried to infiltrate the Akhmetov region of Georgia, but a large-scale military operation involving artillery, aviation and special forces sent the Black Angel to hell.
In August of the next year, we beautifully, at the combat exit, celebrated the day of the Airborne Forces, on August 5, killing five militants in the foothills, two of whom were found to have certificates of employees of local power structures, issued to them on August 2 in Grozny.
On January 9, 2005, a patrol of Lebed's reconnaissance group was ambushed. Two fighters were injured. When the militants tried to capture them, Lebed with a machine gun at the ready counterattacked the bandits and, having destroyed three, forced the rest to retreat. The wounded were promptly evacuated to Khankala, and they were assisted.
On the next operation, on January 24, Anatoly received a minor shrapnel wound, but did not withdraw from the battle, continued to command the group, took his fighters out from under fire and personally destroyed three more militants. As a result of the operation, the militants' base, packed to capacity with ammunition and food, was blown up, and one of the killed bandits, according to the records found with him, turned out to be Shamil Basayev's liaison.
By the decree of the President of the Russian Federation of April 6, 2005, for courage and heroism shown in the performance of military duty in the North Caucasus region, the Guard Captain Anatoly Vyacheslavovich Lebed was awarded the title of Hero of the Russian Federation with the presentation of a special distinction - the Gold Star medal (No. 847) …Russian President Vladimir Putin, rewarding Anatoly, called him one of the country's guiding stars.
In August 2008, after the attack of the Georgian army on Tskhinvali, we, together with the paratroopers from Novorossiysk and Stavropol, moved forward to carry out combat missions on the Georgian-Abkhaz border. In the event of an attempt by the enemy to cross the border, we had to find and neutralize their forward units, collect intelligence, commit sabotage and so on, in general, do what the airborne reconnaissance should do.
We have successfully completed all the assigned tasks. Unfortunately, not without losses, on August 10, when an armored personnel carrier was blown up on a mine near the Inguri River, junior sergeant Alexander Sviridov died, one officer was injured. The APC was thrown by an explosion into the gorge, into the water, this saved those sitting on the armor. The driver-mechanic flew out into the open hatch and survived, his hands then shook for two days, barely calmed him down. A few days later, in a similar situation, a soldier and an officer from the Novorossiysk regiment were killed.
First, we captured the military base in Senaki. On August 14, they managed to occupy the port of Poti, where the ships of the Georgian Navy were based. 8 ships were blown up by us in the roadstead, their outposts fled in panic. 15 high-speed landing boats, 5 armored "Hummers" intended for trips to the front of President Saakashvili, and therefore equipped with appropriate controls, navigation and closed communications, 4 thousand small arms, a huge amount of ammunition and medicines became trophies.
Much later in the regiment, analyzing and discussing the course of the war, I agreed with Tolik's opinion that it was not enough for the Georgians to have the most modern equipment and weapons, excellent communications and electronic warfare, fashionable equipment, they needed the spirit of a warrior that comes with victories. Foreign instructors and powerful physical training will never help in a real battle if there is no character and will to win. Despite a lot of problems, we won, first of all, thanks to our character, hardening, mutual assistance and the experience gained by many years of climbing mountains in Chechnya …
There was one good episode in Georgia where Lebed showed himself to be a competent strategist. The detachment of our regiment split up to carry out two different tasks. I went with some of the personnel to the first point, Anatoly with two groups on two armored personnel carriers - to the second.
The armored personnel carriers drive into the area fenced on all sides by walls, slow down. All the guys are sitting on top of the armor. The barrels of machine guns look into the sky, no one is expecting trouble, and they do not smell like Georgians. And - once, nose to nose, in a ratio of one to one, 22 Georgian special forces, in a fortified position, deployed in a semicircle in a chain, ready for battle. Tolik jumps off the armor and shouts: “Commander, come out to me, we'll talk”, rushes to the Georgians. Another officer hurries behind him, translating his appeal into Georgian just in case. The commander of the Georgians comes forward. They are talking. Tolik admonishes the enemy not only with a formidable look and a stern voice, but also with weapons, demonstrating that if something happens he will not only easily part with his life, but will also gladly take a dapper Georgian officer with him to the next world. At this time, without wasting a second, our guys dismount, walk into the flanks of the Georgians, and click the locks. Swan, assessing the situation, which had changed polarly within a couple of minutes, ends his dialogue with the words: "Commander, you are surrounded, to avoid bloodshed - surrender, and we guarantee your life."
The Georgians surrendered, laid down their arms without firing a single shot. And everyone remained intact. Both ours and the enemy. But they could shoot each other, if not for the lightning-fast correct reaction of Lebed to the situation.
You see, this incident absolutely does not fit into the image of a “war man” imposed on Lebed by the newspapers, who is ready only to shoot, destroy and destroy. This case shows that Tolik was all right with common sense and tactics, and here he won precisely by the ability to act outside the box and take advantage of the most disadvantageous situations. And yet, Tolik was a Soviet man, he lived and served in a country where everyone, regardless of nationality, was a brother to each other.
Yes, over the years of service with various officers of our regiment with Anatoly, there were "graters", smoothly only on paper, but not in the war, and they raised their voices and grabbed each other's breasts, proving that he was right, but then everyone recognized his act as reasonable and heroic at the same time, shook hands, thanked, took off their hat in front of his resourcefulness. And Tolik, well done, noted the timely and accurate actions of the detachment, which chose the only correct scenario for the development of events …
On the evening of April 27, 2012 in Moscow, in front of the gates to the Sokolniki Park, at the intersection of Bogorodskoye Highway and Oleniy Val Street, Anatoly Lebed lost control of his Kawasaki motorcycle, crashed into a massive concrete curb, and died on the spot as a result of injuries.
A dozen years in hot spots, under a thousand parachute jumps, and suddenly, an absurd accident three steps from home. He himself was the master of his luck in battle, and in civilian life he was as vulnerable as any other civilian. Maybe so. But few people know that the "old woman with the scythe" has already come for him this year. During a group jump from 4000 meters, being in free fall, one of the officers hit Anatoly from above at high speed and broke his collarbone. The swan flew down like a stone, it was not possible to pull out the link of the manual opening and open the dome, the hand did not obey and did not move. With an incredible effort of will, Tolya managed to reach out with his good hand and pull out the ring: open the reserve parachute seconds before the tragedy, but he could not control the canopy with the control lines when landing, this requires both hands, so he hit the ground hard, rolled head over heels, the prosthesis shattered into smithereens, but overall - lucky.
We buried Anatoly on the Alley of Heroes of the Preobrazhensky cemetery. Among the many famous and unknown heroes of recent wars, Commander of the Airborne Forces, Hero of Russia, Lieutenant-General Vladimir Shamanov, and President of the Republic of Ingushetia, Hero of Russia, Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, came to say goodbye to the legendary lieutenant colonel.
“The military fate of Anatoly Lebed is an example of selfless service to the Fatherland, loyalty to military duty. He was a brave officer who knew no fear in battle. This is an irreparable loss for our troops,”Shamanov said.
“Anatoly Lebed was a real soldier, a soldier with a capital letter. He appreciated a worthy opponent, appreciated friendship, loved his subordinates, he was never a show-off,”Yevkurov noted.
And they are right, both …
… We talk about Anatolia for half the night, watch photos and videos, leaf through the track record, discuss military operations and parachute jumps from various heights. My interlocutor notes that Lieutenant Colonel Lebed was demonstratively not interested in politics, did not like to talk about it, refused various invitations to participate in political events, urged other military personnel to silently do their work and not get involved in the debate.
Watching one of the last videos, where Anatoly leaves the IL-76 in a good mood and, smiling, flies under the black canopy of a parachute with a bright red star, you understand what powerful energy this man possessed. Despite everyday problems, injuries, not the youngest age, there were a dozen special forces in him. Only in the eyes is a slight sadness and fatigue.
“Everyone has their own fight in life, someone has already had it, someone else is still ahead,” Anatoly used to say. - When it comes down to it, Motherland becomes a vague concept. This is then said: they fought for the Motherland, and so it will be in reality. But at that moment, everyone is fighting for himself and for the one who is nearby. You fight because you have to win. And the Motherland is those fifteen people who are nearby, shoulder to shoulder. Those who felt it will understand me."
For the airborne forces!
Vlad, a veteran of special forces, a friend of Anatoly Lebed, shared his thoughts with me:
- I want the memory of Tolya to be not only like about Rambo in the orders. There are many order bearers - there are few people. And Tolya was not only a Warrior with a capital letter, but also correctly looked at things that are happening in the world and in the country. I always gladly agreed to participate in patriotic events with children, we recently held several such meetings, deeply shared the idea that the real and most important war is now not with a machine gun in hand, but for the hearts and souls of children. Therefore, very rarely he could be seen at some pompous or secular paramilitary parties. In his free time, if it appeared, he tried to be where he was more useful and needed, tried to pass on his experience to the young, he categorically rejected the role of the “wedding general”. Of his military qualities, I want to note that he was always ready to listen to the experience of others, to adopt, to comprehend. Walking through the war with show-offs is not about him.
Tolya was a good comrade in the war and a loyal friend in civilian life, not an insensitive superman, as some try to present him, but a wonderful person with a fine mental organization, but at the same time - a real man, a soldier, a son of his Motherland.
Tolik lived and died at speed. The soldiers are alive as long as they are remembered. Anatoly Lebed will live forever!
