Fate brought me together with Colonel Kukarin Evgeny Viktorovich in the spring of 1999 near Kizlyar. At that time, he, an officer of the High Command of the Internal Troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, was sent to Dagestan, where tension was growing along the entire line of the administrative border with Chechnya: military clashes followed one after another. I, a columnist for the "Shield and Sword" newspaper, covering these events, visited the outposts and units that repulsed the daring attacks of the militants.
Chechens especially often staged provocations on the outskirts of Kizlyar, in the area of the Kopai hydroelectric complex. A day before I appeared at the outpost covering the waterworks, it was subjected to a massive mortar attack. The answer was adequate. In addition to artillery, a Russian turntable worked against the Chechens. And the graduates of the sabotage schools of Khattab, who passed exams on the border of Chechnya and Dagestan, rolled back into their territory to lick their wounds.
There was no panic at the outpost, where officers and soldiers of the internal troops were holding their defenses. The military youth who repulsed the attack were full of calmness and dignity that appear in a person who won victory in battle.
At the Kopaysky hydroelectric outpost, I immediately noticed the colonel with a daring laugh in his smart, blue eyes, light in movement, broad-shouldered, of medium height. He slowly, in a commanding manner, meticulously talked with officers, soldiers, not writing anything down, memorizing everything. He spoke simply, asked questions competently. He behaved in an accessible manner, like a senior comrade, a commander-dad, to whom you can always turn for advice, help and get it without delay and complaints.
Then I did not know yet that where this senior Muscovite officer appeared, serious hostilities were always unfolding.
This is how, far from Moscow, at an outpost that suffered casualties, I met a man who, in the second Chechen campaign, will storm Grozny, commanding the Vostok grouping, and will raise the Russian flag over the long-suffering Minutka Square. Colonel Evgeny Viktorovich Kukarin will be awarded the title of Hero of the Russian Federation for the skillful, highly professional leadership of the units and the courage and heroism shown at the same time. The Star of the Hero will be presented to him in the Kremlin by the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, President of the Russian Federation Putin Vladimir Vladimirovich.
Another time we met when Colonel E. V. Kukarin was already in the position of deputy commander of the "Lynx" special police detachment of the GUBOP SKM of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation. His experience gained during the years of the army service and in the internal troops was needed in a new direction - in pinpoint strikes against organized crime and terrorism.
This senior officer knows how to keep state secrets. Only seven years after our first meeting on the outskirts of Kizlyar, I learned that the appearance of Yevgeny Kukarin at the outpost near the Kopai hydroelectric complex was a preparation for an operation that caused serious damage to the Chechen militants.
It was Evgeny Viktorovich who planned the operation to destroy the Chechen customs post near the Dagestan village of Pervomayskoye. This post was a den of terrorists who made sabotage exits to neighboring Dagestan, Colonel Kukarin E. V. began fighting in 1999 in the north of Dagestan, participated in repelling Basayev's detachments in Rakhat, Ansalta and Botlikh. The pinnacle of his commanding success was the victorious assault on Grozny.
When on Central TV I saw how this dense, of Suvorov spirit and growth colonel raised the Russian flag over the liberated Grozny, I got excited, proud of this man, who loves life, the winner of the enemies of the Fatherland, and by sense of humor - Vasily Terkin.
At our extreme meeting, it seemed to me that the Star of the Hero of Russia made Kukarin even easier, more accessible, relaxed him as a person, sharpening the impressions of war and life.
On holidays, when Russia is having fun, resting, the country's power structures are being strengthened, especially the special forces of the FSB, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the army.
On one of these days, after the morning divorce, Colonel Yevgeny Viktorovich Kukarin and I met in his office of the deputy commander of the Lynx OMSN. On the walls there were photographs that did not fully reflect the combat path of the owner of the office. Here is a photo of two Russian tanks knocked out on a Chechen mountain road. The officers of Norilsk - stern-looking officers in special outfit, with machine guns and sniper rifles were photographed against the backdrop of the ruins of Grozny, and at the bottom of the photo one could easily read their respectful address to the commander of the "Vostok" group.
On the desk of the colonel of the militia special forces there was a model of the T-80 tank - a memory that a graduate of the Blagoveshchensk Higher Command Tank School Kukarin gave many years of his life to the armored forces. Everything that was in the military life of Colonel Kukarin E. V., when he became deputy commander of the Lynx OMSN, now belonged not only to him, but also to a new combat unit in his biography, with which Evgeny Viktorovich deservedly quickly became akin. History is a delicate, great-power matter. Details of history are quickly lost, dissolve in everyday life. To keep these details in memory, people need to meet more often, over and over again to remember the war they went through on the roads.
The time we chose was conducive to a conversation in detail. The OMSN squads on duty were resting, while Colonel Kukarin and I talked about his participation in the storming of Grozny …
At first, the units under the command of Colonel Kukarin went through Staraya Sunzha, then they were transferred to the east, re-targeting the Kukarin grouping in the direction of Minutka Square.
The magic, bloody word "Minutka" … Those who fought in Chechnya well know what "Minutka" is. So before the first war was the name of a cafe on the square, tragically famous for the number of casualties in manpower that Russian troops suffered here. The Minutka square is a popular name, born of the circumstances of the war. At the end of March 1996, I flew from Grozny to the Center of the Perished with the Black Tulip, accompanying two killed fellow-fellows, fellow countrymen. I brought the sad cargo "200" to the 124th laboratory, where I was met by the colonel of the medical service, sent to Rostov-on-Don from the Military Medical Academy of St. Petersburg. Accepting my documents, he, overworked, asked where people died? I answered: "On a Minute." And the colonel said with unbearable pain: "Well, how long will you carry the dead from this minute ?!"
"Minute" has always been strategically important. Therefore, in the first and second wars, they fought for it with particular ferocity.
During the first Chechen campaign, SOBR GUOP took part in the storming of Grozny. The head of the SOBR Krestyaninov Andrei Vladimirovich, at that time the commander of the squad, in January 1995, together with the officers of the 45th Airborne Regiment, special forces of the GRU and the Sobrovtsy of the consolidated detachment, fought off the enemy "Kukuruza" - an ill-fated seventeen-story house hanging over the Sunzha River, Dudaev's palace, Council of Ministers, Oil Institute. From the "Kukuruza" one could see the entire Lenin Avenue leading to the "Minutka".
In the second war, EV Kukarin was advancing from the east to Grozny, whose front-line experience was now an integral part of the combat experience of the Lynx OMSN.
In our leisurely conversation, I immediately noticed that he rarely says "I", more "we", meaning his fighting friends, with whom he liberated the city. He was honest in the list of problems, paid tribute not only to the courage of his soldiers, but also realistically assessed the strength of the enemy. His usually gushing sense of humor and self-irony subsided at the recollection of the complexities of everyday combat. Latent bitterness prevailed in the stories of the dead. The military officer sitting in front of me, in his love for artillery, mortars, in the art of their use, in Suvorov's respect for the Russian soldier, was for me the legendary Captain Tushin from the novel "War and Peace" - only already a colonel, with an academic education, who knew the monstrous criminal terrorist war.
Kukarin Evgeny Viktorovich smoked cigarette after cigarette, and I saw Grozny through his eyes, professionally prepared by Chechen Maskhadov for defense.
During our conversation at the location of the Special Forces Police Unit, the telephone in Yevgeny Viktorovich's office was silent for my luck.
The dictaphone made it possible to preserve the authenticity of Kukarin's intonation. In his story about the storming of Grozny, he was generous like a soldier in details. Only experienced people are capable of this, who do not even realize that their participation in the war, that is, in protecting life, will remain in history.
On November 7, 2006, Colonel Evgeny Viktorovich Kukarin said:
- I, then the chief of the operational department of the headquarters of the Internal Troops Group, came to Chechnya, and ten officers arrived with me in December 1999. The road to war was short: from Mozdok to the Tersk ridge, where, in addition to us, an army command post was deployed. Grozny was not visually observed. The weather was lousy: it was fog, then low clouds. Yes, he was visible to us, as in the picture, and did not need it. We were the operators of the command post of the explosives, and our task did not include an independent search for enemy firing points. A normal operator, when he reads the report, looks at the map, listens to what is reported to him over the phone, he is obliged to visually represent the entire situation in front of him, analyze, issue his proposals - where to transfer troops, which direction to strengthen, where to bypass the enemy. Operators are the brain of the command post, which collects information, summarizes, reports, develops proposals for making a decision by the chief of staff. Then he reports these proposals to the commander. Operators conduct the situation, constantly collecting information. I was the head of the operational department: in addition to collecting, analyzing, preparing proposals, we constantly prepared maps for the report of the chief of staff to the commander.
Standard reports in the morning, at lunchtime and in the evening were dismissed when the situation became more complicated. Report immediately: just knock, go in. Maps were kept around the clock: where the troops were, their position, who went where, who interacted with whom. This painstaking tracking was the main difficulty of our work. The difficulty was also in the fact that the officers in the operational department were appointed from different districts, and according to their level of education at the first stage of their getting used to the case, they could not work in full force. Sometimes a person lacked the necessary knowledge system. There were guys with whom we conducted classes in the operational department. We stayed after duty, gathered around the map, taught them how to correctly report information so as not to be scattered. Taught to avoid unnecessary things. The commander does not need to be told that the water truck drove ten kilometers, reached the bush, from behind which the militants came out. We must report - why it happened on this road, when it happened. In our reports, we were obliged to give extracts.
When we started work on the Ridge, the Chechen group, still intact, possessed great forces and means. We just squeezed it. Our troops were moving along the ridges to Grozny. There was a systematic cut off of the city from the foothills. The main task was to surround him, to stop feeding people, food, ammunition. The scouts estimated the number of militants defending Grozny at over five thousand trained people who know how to fight. Arabs and other mercenaries kept separate. They didn't even trust the Chechens too much. But in every Chechen detachment there were emissaries of Khattab or groups of Arabs who performed control functions. Through them money was received. The Arabs in the Chechen units worked as ideologists. Introduced the ideology of the creation of the World Islamic Caliphate, where only two nations were supposed: Muslims and their slaves.
Arab emissaries controlled the timeliness of reports to the leadership of the Chechen group.
There was also a control system: they fought, brought out the militants, brought in fresh ones. The state of the units was closely monitored
Russian troops squeezed the Chechen grouping, the strategic position and state of mind of which, naturally, changed for the worse. It was hard for the Chechens to see themselves surrounded, even in the city, when you cannot maneuver your forces, carry out their transfer.
We have been preparing the command post for a week. I have already reported that he is ready to receive the operational staff, to work, as I received the command to go down "from the hill", to find the "Vostok" grouping that stood near Sunzha and to lead it. They said: "Arrive, lead, organize" … There is only one answer: "Yes."
There was a process of coordination of divisions. In addition to the internal troops, the Vostok group included a large group of OMON, SOBR. It was necessary to act together. At the first stage, when they entered the suburb of Sunzha, it was foreseen that there would be some kind of resistance, and at that time the task was to clear the territory without unnecessary casualties on both sides. In each advancing group, a guide was planned; representatives of the Chechen administration to explain what is happening to local residents.
Cleaning, we go down the street. We have a representative with us - a Chechen. He addresses the residents:
- Present the house for inspection.
At the first stage of hostilities in Grozny, it was so.
We passed the initial part of Staraya Sunzha, a suburb of Grozny, practically without shots, until we came to the third and fourth microdistricts, As soon as we went out onto Lermontov Street, and there were four hundred meters left to the high-rise buildings, everything started here in the afternoon …
The Vostok group included the 33rd brigade of the Internal Troops of Pasha Tishkov, the 101st brigade of the Internal Troops of Evgeny Zubarev - then they were colonels - now they are generals. There were many militia units - about 800 people. My task was to dock the assault groups of the internal troops with the assault groups of the internal affairs bodies: sobrovtsy, riot police, so that everyone would work harmoniously. The difficulties were of a different order, including psychological. People did not know each other, but they were going on such a task - the storming of Grozny. It was necessary to go through certain stages of interaction, training in order to get to know each other better. Thus, the level of trust increased. SOBR and OMON see who they are dealing with, we, the internal troops, also understand who we are dealing with. We have decided what attitude the personnel have. And the mood of the people for the assault was serious. We laid out a model of the settlement, prepared maps, organized interaction, worked out signals: how, in what cases to act, how to act in case of a complication of the situation, senior assault groups from the police, internal troops, and their deputies were appointed. We all worked on the model. We went on reconnaissance closer to Sunzha: who would go, how, where to place mortar batteries for fire support. At this time, Grozny was already blocked, shelling was conducted at the enemy's defense centers, and the identified firing points were suppressed.
The model, which served us great service, was prepared by brigade commanders, command officers, chiefs of staff. How was the layout of the settlement designated for the assault prepared? A birch tree was cut into pieces. This is a house, this is a street … The entire geography of Staraya Sunzha was laid out from improvised means. The soldiers tried. This was our normal life. We all led to a normal fight. We didn't go on the attack with a bang. Say, we'll throw our hats. Classes were held. Peter's riot police conducted training firing from under-barrel grenade launchers.
If we talk about the opportunity for the command staff to rest, then I proceeded from the concept: a commander who does not have time to sleep is an emergency.
During the battle, he can collapse without strength at any moment. And the war must be treated philosophically. Of course, we slept a little, but … we slept. In the period of preparation for the assault, people were given rest, even baths were organized. All brigades have created stocks of underwear. During an intense fire attack before the New Year 2000, a bathhouse was also organized - everyone in the group washed up. War is war, but the soldier and the officer must have a human form.
We were not in the Great Patriotic War, where we demanded: "Not a step back!" Nobody told us this time ". Take Grozny to such and such a date!" But the pressure from above was felt. They recommended to hurry. And it is understandable why … The assault on Grozny was a single war concept. We, the participants in its implementation, could not each act from our own bell tower, and someone in the north, I in the east, evaluate everything that happens independently. Firstly, the information was brought to me only in the part concerning me. The general concept of the entire operation was not disclosed to us.
… As soon as we entered Lermontov Street, the resistance of the militants sharply increased: mortar shelling began, Chechen snipers, grenade launchers, machine gunners started working. Our situation was complicated by the fact that in this microdistrict the streets were not parallel. Covert movement is possible along parallel streets. We walked through these streets in the suburbs of Grozny normally. When we reached the longitudinal ones, we immediately suffered losses. The acting commander of the 33rd brigade, Colonel Nikolsky, was wounded. He was evacuated.
I had to take this line, disperse, close the entire line from the field from greenhouses. They began to prepare firing points, saddling all the key, advantageous corner houses. We spread out from the Sunzha River to greenhouses. It turned out to be an arc.
The one hundred and first brigade was not allowed on the flat field. She buried herself in the ground. On the air, the Chechens behaved as usual. They listened to us, but it was not 1995. In this campaign, nothing secret was broken off to them. They could listen to some ordinary conversations without coding, without hidden control, and that was all. We changed the coding periodically.
Some kind of Jamaat, the 2nd Ingush regiment, the Kandahar group, and Arab units stood against us. Solid forces.
There was information that the militants wanted to escape from the city through Sunzha. The option for retreating to the mountains is the usual one: closer, and the terrain allows, further to Argun, Dzhalka, Gudermes, and then dissolve in the forests. The data on the withdrawal were serious. The Chechens made several attempts to break through the Sunzha. Probe how we feel. Of course, I didn't have any drones. We received intelligence on our direction from Lieutenant General Bulgakov, commander of the Special Forces of the Grozny region. From the Ministry of Defense, he directly supervised everyone who stormed Grozny. For the solid growl, recognizable from the radio station, Bulgakov was respectfully called Shirkhan among the officers. His voice is specific, with a wonderful commanding intonation. You will listen.
Bulgakov must be given his due. He has a lot of experience. I went through Afghanistan, the first Chechen war. He really imagined what we would have to face. This is a very trained commander. It was pleasant to communicate with him. He understood everything. We came to him in Khankala, said: "Comrade General, this is how the situation is developing for me …" Everything, come on, build up, - he said in response, - push through. " help everyone that he had the means and strength.
They brought us information that behind the third, fourth microdistricts there is a park zone and in it a congestion of Arabs who set up their camp there. I reported to the general that I did not have adequate means of influence - I did not reach the Arabs with mortar fire. Ten - fifteen minutes later, the impact on the enemy went. Bulgakov struck with Grads. He had Msta heavy batteries and jet battalions. His response to our request was immediate. In the north, Grudnov faced difficulties and asked for support. Bulgakov helped. There was no such thing as in the first Chechen war: they say, you are from one department, we are from another, stand in line, poke around yourself. The Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Internal Affairs worked together in 1999-2000, fulfilling the same task. This is the new main feature of the second campaign. There was no disagreement between the officers of the army, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the internal troops. We worked for one result, on which the completion of the task depended. Someone had a harder time, others a little easier. In general, to whom it is written. I don't believe in God, but I wear a cross. That's right, there is something. I don’t know what it’s called. But over every person there is this unknown, imperious, fateful. And leads a person through life. Leads your actions.
When we directly stood on Lermontov - this fiery street, at first we had to sleep for an hour or two a day, because the night outings of the militants became constant. These were their tests, how we feel, how we have become entrenched. Their attempts to slip through, to leak at night deprived us, commanders, of sleep.
We must pay tribute to the rear services: we did not experience a shortage of ammunition, special equipment. And we had a lot of ammunition for mortars. I had two 120mm mortar batteries and one 82mm battery. They worked day and night on identified and explored targets, according to the data provided by the defectors. The surrendered militants said: "Here and there they are sitting." We spotted, mapped and worked diligently on targets. This is how the mortarmen of the 101st and 33rd BB brigades worked. Some of them had to retire to the reserve just before the storming of Grozny. You can't stop life. But we must pay tribute to the officers who did the work with the boys: More than others to the battalion commander, who later died in the village of Komsomolskoye. Dembelya remained not only at the beginning of the assault. They fought until the last day, until we left the captured city. I've been on batteries. How not to visit the soldiers of those who lead the war. Heroic guys: filthy, dirty - only white teeth, but clean mortars. Positions prepared. What else does? Twenty - nineteen-year-old boys, and they worked very well. I do not remember a single cover, a blow to my own. So that they shoot at random - just to shoot. Everything is like a penny. You ask the mortarmen: "Here it is necessary" - and such a clear hit. Of course, this is the merit of the officers. After all, the officer is shooting, not the mortar.
The Chechens also had mortars working, fragments of 82-mm mines fell next to us. The militants fired at our positions. On the first day of the assault, we were covered with 82 mm. Apparently these places were shot in advance, they were just waiting for us to reach the lines. We understood that we would face the militants head-on. If at the beginning of Staraya Sunzha people were in houses, then as we approached the city limits, to the first skyscrapers, there were practically no residents in the houses. This was the first sign that something was going to happen here, we had to wait. And when we advanced in depth, approached the militants directly, they got the opportunity to use mortars. Now they could not hook their Chechens in the private sector. And they could work for us with full pleasure.
Chechen snipers fired constantly. They were snipers without any stretch. They shot very well. There was a case when we tried to pull out our sniper, who was killed in neutral. The infantry fighting vehicle left the private sector, somewhere two hundred meters from the skyscrapers, literally five minutes later the BMP-2 did not have a single intact device: not a single headlight, not a single sidelight. Even the tower was jammed - the bullet hit the shoulder strap. The militants fired so densely and accurately that this BMP simply fell into disrepair. We did not take the body of our sniper that time. Then we got him out anyway - a guy from the 33rd brigade of the internal troops. His death was slovenliness … Two contractors decided to test the sniper rifle in the case. Since you can't turn around much in the private sector, the two of them, naively believing that the war seemed to be calm, decided to move to the outskirts of the microdistrict in order to shoot at the skyscrapers. As a result, as soon as the contractors came out on level ground, the first defeat passed in a classic way - in the legs. One begins to scream, the second began to rush. He had no unloading, so he stuffed cartridges into the pockets of the HB. He was also shot in the legs, but hit in the pocket where the cartridges were lying. The bullet ricocheted - and that saved the guy. The weakness of the equipment saved his life. And with a shout: "We must pull out a friend!" - he returned to the location. It was not possible to pull out a regular sniper. The fire was so dense. And he lay very close to the enemy.
We did not advance from Lermontov Street. If we split into assault groups and walked along longitudinal streets in the direction of high-rise buildings, we would become a tasty morsel for the militants. Our groups of fifteen or twenty people would simply be destroyed. Proceeding from the situation, upon receipt of information about the planned breakthrough of the Chechens, we were forced to gain a foothold, create a hard line of defense, which then, by order of General Bulgakov, was transferred to army men with large forces and means. We, a group of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, were taken for a day of rest.
We were taken away and then tragic events took place in the city of Argun. There was a redeployment of army and internal troops. The grouping was growing: forces were being pulled up from Gudermes. A column was marching towards Argun. The rear was transported. Militants attacked from an ambush. Ural from the 33rd VV Brigade came under fire. Help was requested on the air. We immediately allocated a reinforced platoon there: three infantry fighting vehicles - fifteen airborne troops. They put an officer on each BMP. We did not know exactly where the Ural was, but we were told that it had been fired upon and it was necessary to pull it out with people. I sent people there. The battalion deputy commander Nikita Gennadievich Kulkov went on the armor. He received the Hero of Russia posthumously.
I categorically forbade him to enter the city! Well, on three BMPs - where? According to intelligence, there were 200-300 Chechen fighters in Argun at that moment. Leading the attack, they fettered the actions of the local Chechen militia, blocked the deployment points of the attached forces. Hosted in the city, went to the station. When our guys from the 33rd brigade approached the bridge at the entrance to Argun, the military commandant came to meet them and said: "Guys, you need to help! Our people are dying there!" And Kulkov made a decision: "Forward!" But how did he make the decision? The military commandant, senior in rank and position, ordered him with his authority: "Forward!" And whoever entered the city on these three infantry fighting vehicles, practically everyone died. Out of fifteen servicemen, only two came out. We jumped out on one BMP. The car came. Empty conveyor. Empty machine gun boxes. They shot everyone. The driver-mechanic said: "Everyone died at the exit from Argun. This is in the direction of Gudermes - near the outer five-story buildings and the elevator."
II
Two days later, we received a task from Khankala - to act towards Minutka. First, my group passed through Khankala, then we left to the side - to the area of Doki Zavgaev's dacha. There, the assault detachment of the 504th Army Regiment occupied the defense. We moved towards them, and then together, in two detachments, walked towards Minutka Square. A little later, the army team was also handed over to me.
At first, our task was, advancing behind the battle formations of the army: to master and clean up the rear so that the militants would not occupy this territory again. In principle, our main task was to set up roadblocks, cut on the map. Then, due to the change in the situation and losses in the army assault detachment, this task changed. We received the order to act in Grozny as an assault detachment and went on in a planned manner - block by block: quietly, without unnecessary fanaticism, biting into the Chechen defense.
According to intelligence, the same forces with whom we fought on Staraya Sunzha turned out to be against us. The Chechens were actively maneuvering around the city. Where they began to be pressed, they transferred the best there.
The Chechens have built up their defenses competently. Created unified trench systems. We dug up the streets at key, viewed points: squares, sites. Everything was under the crossfire. The foundations of houses with broken loopholes became pillboxes. The militants could move covertly. Outwardly they were not visible. With small forces, the Chechens were able to hold large "keys". In capital multi-storey buildings, they broke through the interior walls - for active movement. In some apartments, even the ceilings were pierced in order to leave a dangerous place on a rope, the enemy's instructors were competent in this regard. Sometimes they ask: "What tactically new have the Chechen fighters come up with when defending their city, what new zest?" "But nothing, - I answer, - We made them a highlight." The militants expected us, as in 1994-1995. we will introduce technology to the streets of Grozny. Under the cover of personnel, as it is written in the textbooks, we will go in orderly rows. Let's build a Christmas tree fire: the right column looks on the left side, the left one on the right, and the Chechens will systematically shoot us. That did not happen. We didn't use the old tactics. We chose another one. Ahead was the personnel. Artillery gunners and aircraft controllers operated directly in battle formations. As soon as resistance began from somewhere, the grouping immediately stopped, reported its location and the enemy was inflicted with fire. After suppressing the resistance with fire, we began to move forward. This was the orderliness of our movement.
When a "comrade" came to us for negotiations from the other side: they say, let's discuss this and that, whether you sell ammunition, I answered: "You see, we don't even take off shoulder straps in this war. You see, I have stars, signs the differences are obvious. See? We're not hiding from you. " I told him: "Dear, this war is a little different. What you expected to see, you will not see. We will sweep you away with fire, and then quietly occupy your borders." This is how we acted in the direction of the Minutka - systematically and every day. The resistance was constant.
Basayev defended a minute. He had artillery, mortars, including homemade, anti-aircraft guns. When our aviation came for processing, Basayev's DShK fired at the planes openly. For urban conditions, Basayev's units were quite well armed: grenade launchers, flamethrowers, sniper weapons. Chechen fighters prepared very well for the defense of Grozny. But they thought that the tactics of the second assault would be similar to the tactics of the first, 1995, assault. They counted on inertness of thinking, army blockhead. Hooray! Hooray! If only to report to the holiday, to the anniversary, the elections, as it was before, and we have ruled out the hap-handed option. The basis of tactics for the liberation of Grozny became: reliably crush enemy firing points with artillery, mortars, aircraft, and then go and feel the people.
We acted systematically, without setting ourselves any super-tasks: "Take a minute by January 1st". We walked as we went.
We must pay tribute to the army commanders with whom we, the internal troops, worked … General Bulgakov, Kazantsev - these are wise, thoughtful people. Bulgakov, a military wolf, like this: "I said. Do it!" "Comrade General, maybe it will be better like this?" - I will say. Thinks: "Yes, do you think it would be better this way?" "Yes". "Come on". Bison. Bulgakov was responsible for the storming of Grozny. And the united group was commanded by General Kazantsev.
Bulgakov decided everything strategically. The assignment of tasks from him was daily. He constantly visited everyone. Will sit in some kind of UAZ and motanet where necessary. Once an infantry fighting vehicle almost crushed him: he even received a serious injury. Bulgakov is a dense physique, the golosina is a pipe. As it barks, the bees drop honey. As he begins to growl: "My children, go ahead!"
In our direction, we more successfully used the available forces and means. And, probably, they had the greatest success of all the divisions covering Grozny. Why is the Minute important? When she is taken, she immediately cuts off the northern, eastern part of the city - she cuts them, dissects them and the militants have nowhere to go. But most of the militants still left the city in a different direction. The Chechens possessed the situation, listened attentively to the broadcast, analyzed it. The militants traditionally had serious means of communication, including with scanners. The scanner catches the wave on which the enemy is working, then you turn on and listen.
We also knew the enemy well, who, at times, openly self-exposed. I still have radio interception:
If Russian armor comes close to the house, call artillery fire, do not wait for the connection.
“There are civilians.
- All sacrifices in the name of Jihad. Let's figure it out in paradise.
“The Russians are starting to sweep and can find our wounded.
- Is there a bookmark in the house? (meaning land mine)
- Yes.
- Then act upon detection. (An order has been given to destroy
at home with wounded militants)"
When we walked to Minutka, we always raised LNG-9 batteries on the roofs of houses. We have them, like rapiers, like sniper rifles fired. Chechen snipers especially hunted our artillerymen. Many of the gunners were wounded. The calculations of SPG-9 fired, of course, destructive. Extremely accurate on direct fire.
- See? - I say to the commander of the calculation. - We need to get into the balcony window.
Not a question, - he answers.
The Nizhny Novgorod Army 245th Regiment marched with us for Minutka. So well prepared guys too! When they broke through to the skyscrapers on the Minutka, the militants began to surrender immediately.
Our guys, the 674th BB regiment, look at the army men, they say:
- Handsome! They burst in on a single burst. Well done!
In this war, everyone fought elbow to elbow. If something didn't work out for the army team, we helped, if it didn't work out for us, the army team rushed to the rescue. From the 504th regiment, assigned to us in the battles on Sunzha, the chief of staff of their battalion came to us exhausted to death by the Chechen fire impact, constant insomnia. I tell him:
- Sit down, tell me. What's the matter? What is the setting?
“We are walking along the railroad,” he says. “Militants are picking up along some longitudinal ditches at night and constantly firing at them. They don't give me a living. They shoot everyone in the flank.
We gave him our card encoding, radio station, fed him, said:
- Go to the battalion, today you will sleep well.
And at his request, all the firing of the militants from our mortars was completely excluded. And this, despite the fact that he was in another assault detachment, he had his own regiment commander, his own artillery and mortar batteries. But he turned to us because he knew how effectively we worked at Staraya Sunzha.
We told him:
- Drive in peace. You will have peace of mind.
They fulfilled their word, but said goodbye like this:
- Tell your bosses - let them give us a car of mines.
By that time, they were in great deficit. This is how we, the internal troops and the army, interacted during the storming of Grozny.
The Chechens, under such powerful fire pressure, began to show some kind of parliamentary activity.
First, a representative of the FSB came to us and said that a certain subject would come out to you from the side of the militants, he gave signs. And he really came out, with him a radio station, a knife and that's it. Zelimkhan introduced himself as the head of the security service of Abdul-Malik.
- I, - he says, - came to you for negotiations.
He was dragged to my command post blindfolded. They untied his eyes and began to have a conversation - what does he want? The question was raised about the exchange of prisoners, but there were no prisoners from our side in my direction. A Red Cross hospital was deployed in our rear. Zelimkhan asked permission to take his wounded to this hospital. They, the militants, they say, are running out of medical supplies. I answered:
- No problem. You wear. One of your wounded is on a stretcher, and four of our prisoners are carrying him. Your wounded will receive medical assistance, and our guys, captured by you, will remain with us. Zelimkhan replied:
- I'll think about it. I will transfer information to Abdul-Malik's decision.
We then tightly closed Sunzha. Everyone was excluded from entering the area. They, the militants, did not like that everything was so tightly closed. If at the beginning of hostilities on Lermontov Street there was still some movement of people, then we stopped it. Because this is a leak of information, taking out some information to the enemy. We have repeatedly caught Chechen intelligence officers and handed them over to our bodies. Once they caught a veteran of the first Chechen war. He had a certificate of benefits. The documents were sewn into the lining. One of the best Chechen intelligence officers … We controlled the airwaves. The militants let slip: "Grandfather will go in the morning" … We also write in a notebook: "Grandfather will go in the morning." It is clear that grandfather must be met. Calculated grandfather. They brought an old, evil wolf to me. His eyes from hatred towards us were somewhere in the back of his head. A predator filled with malice. Maybe he had intelligence abilities, but he did not manage to show them. If we did not have information that the grandfather would go - lame, with a stick, he, a hardened enemy, might have passed. But Detachment 20 had a scanner and we set up a wiretapping post.
When the official part of the negotiations with Zelimkhan is over, I tell him:
- Zelimkhan, don't you understand that the war is turning into another channel. End resistance. You will no longer see people attacking in droves, as it was in the first war. You will not see armored vehicles. We will simply destroy you with artillery, mortar fire and aviation. Nobody else will substitute people for you so that you shoot for your pleasure. The war has passed into a different quality. What is the meaning of your resistance? We'll just grind you. Let's have another conversation.
Our conversation then went about the fact that the militants would surrender: go out one by one, from a distance of 50 meters, lay down their weapons in front of the post and go into the drive …
The question of surrender was raised, but something did not work out. Abdul-Malik, the field commander, was an ideological Arab. Therefore, the Chechen fighters, not daring to surrender, suffered severely and suffered irreparable losses.
At the end of the conversation, Zelimkhan asked to sell ammunition. From such impudence, I choked.
“Oh no, honey,” I said. - Don't you see, all people here are normal. We will not even give you a used closure so that you don’t go into it in a big way.
Zelimkhan left us in grief.
Somehow, foreign correspondents in my direction were identified. We treated them properly. They had accreditation in Moscow, and the journalists ended up in the city limits of Grozny. There was genuine surprise on their faces - why were they detained? But when I asked for Russian accreditation, allowing them to be in a war zone, then they calmed down. I asked them:
- Where should you work?
And he himself answered for them with a smile:
- Moscow city. And where are you? You are not here … you are here
you can get lost. There are such places here. Yes, we are saving your life by delaying.
We reported upstairs. They say:
- Wait. We'll send a helicopter for the journalists.
There were five, six of them. All male. American, Englishman, Spanish, Czech, Pole. On the Volga, they quite impudently entered the area controlled by us. Accompanied by the Chechens, they moved. And I have soldiers of the internal troops, trained with special vigilance, report:
- Comrade Colonel, strange people with video are rummaging around the village
cameras. It seems like they do not speak Russian.
I order:
- Gather everyone and talk to me.
- There is.
They bring. I ask:
- Who are they?
- Yes, we are journalists.
- I see. What's next?
- We were allowed. We are on a business trip. We shoot everything.
- Who gave permission?
- Yes, we drove everywhere here, no one said a word to us. We filmed everything.
“There are other orders in my direction,” I say. And I have subordinate councils. I command:
- Submit the video equipment for inspection. Guys, check it out. Are there specialists?
- Yes, - answer sobrovtsy.
- Hand over the cameras.
And then it began. They to me:
- Maybe you need some champagne? Want to? New Years is soon.
- Thank you, I don’t use it.
- Maybe there is a desire to call home? (journalists meant their space connection)
- Wife at work, son at work. There is no one to call.
I then say:
- But the fighters will probably call. Come on, fighter, come here. Mom, where are you?
- In Siberia, - Do you want to call your mom?
- Well? - I appeal to journalists. - Let the boy call.
They put the phone down. And the boys, one at a time, went from the trenches to call. But for some reason the journalists did not film it.
- You are probably hungry? - I ask reporters.
- Yes, - they don't know what to answer, Now let's feed. - And we ourselves really had nothing to eat.
“Dinner is not ready yet,” I say. - Are we going to eat Russian exotic porridge?
- What kind of porridge?
- Well, the trees are green! How many years you have been working in Russia and do not know. Well, open them a few cans of soldier's porridge and stew, - I command.
We opened it to them, warmed it up.
- And the spoons, fighter? - I ask. Answers:
- There are no spoons.
“Do you have crackers?” I’m interested.
- There is.
- Bring it.
I ask foreigners:
- Everyone knows how to use a biscuit instead of a spoon? So, look … Do as I do. - I had to teach this wisdom to journalists.
“Are you making a little money?” I say to the correspondent. - Colleagues, take it off over a cup of soldier's porridge. And the editor-in-chief for this feat
he will double his salary - upon arrival.
The American journalist, listening to all this, rolled with laughter. Then Kolya Zaitsev brought them tea in a thermos.
- Will you have tea?
- We will.
We got our teapot sooty, the mugs are dirty. The fighter is so happy - he called his mother home - he was also smoky - some teeth shine, conjures up near the stove: he served tea in mugs, carries, dips his finger in boiling water, smiles:
- I still have a lemon, - reports. In one hand a lemon, in the other a knife. Cut a lemon with dirty hands, served it.
I say:
- There is no sugar, but we have New Year's gifts. Sweets for gentlemen.
They brought some caramels. The journalists finally understood where they were. Called - cutting edge. Then I say to the Englishman:
- You will return to Moscow, call my wife, - I give the phone, - Tell me, outside Mozdok I met your husband for a walk. He works at the headquarters. Happy New Year to the family. Understood?
- Understood.
And, well done, he called. I come from the war, my wife says:
- A very polite guy called, speaks with an accent, congratulated
Happy New Year. Decent like that.
I'm talking:
- He's a gentleman. Englishman. How does he fail if the word
gave.
His call was just before New Years.
To a Spaniard - a journalist I say:
- Why did you come here? You have your own problems in Spain
enough.
I am addressing an American:
- He's probably thinking. Now some Julio is walking along a snow-white beach with a snow-white, and then on a yacht in the same composition he reads his material about Chechnya. And he needs it there, in Spain? Or do you improve their digestion with stressful situations?
- Can we film your soldiers shooting? - journalists ask me.
- Why do you need these toys?
The boys say:
- Comrade Colonel, why? You can work.
The tank crashes. Journalists are close to him. The tank jumped aside. All the correspondents fell on their ass
- They took it off, - I say. - Enough, In general, people were accepted normally. And they sent them to the rear for their own good. According to the documents, they were all registered in Moscow. How did they get to us?
They left very happy. But in parting, they again complained that their salary for this trip to the war would be small - nothing was removed. A helicopter flew in and took the correspondents out of harm's way.
Once there was a Chechen attempt by twenty people to sit closer to us - for a subsequent breakthrough at night. All of them secretly concentrated in the house - 200-300 meters from our front line. The scouts spotted them, gave them the opportunity to concentrate. Then, from two directions, the entire group in the house was destroyed with Bumblebee flamethrowers, which showed the militants that we have eyes, ears are also in place. After that, new attempts to break through the Sunzha were ruled out. Therefore, we were thrown over. There was firm information that the militants would not go through Sunzha. This was the main reason for our withdrawal.
At night we brutally chased the Chechens. Some military observers, who know the battle from the outside, write in their reviews: "Russian assault groups sinned with monotony of thinking." Do not know. We thought creatively. Our call signs, of course, were haute couture - "Playboy", "Nikityu", in the 33rd brigade "Sight". The Chechens were chatting on the air: "What kind of scumbags are against us, urki or what?"
I sat with the mortar men and thought:
- Let's diversify the fire. I'll tell you: "Pipes apart". This means that each mortar shoots in its own zone.
We took part of the territory we were assaulting and divided the individual falling mines into the Olympic rings. It turned out to be a pretty solid area. A volley and each mortar hits its point. The command goes in clear text. You can skip it. Some kind of "pipes apart", and then a volley. And all the militants were covered. They also listened to us attentively. When you say at night: "Light!", The mortar shoots, hangs up the "chandelier". Then the command: "Volley!" Covering is in progress. If you saw a chandelier - the Chechens knew it - you have to go to the shelter. We alternated these commands: "Light! Volley!" Then we'll have a little smoke: "Volley! Light!" What was left for us? And these are not only our ideas. Probably, someone invisible prompted …
One night they attacked us hard. The shelling began in earnest. We even suffered losses. The reconnaissance was covered right in the building - through the roof - they were resting there. A mine flew in, then the grenade launcher fired at the scouts. I had to get angry. And at midnight we gave the Chechens a rustle: "Volley! Light! Pipes apart! Light! Volley!" And they had a holiday when they can only eat until the sun rises. It is clear that the firing positions of the militants are on duty. The rest are, as it were, on vacation - in the basements. We think - what time does the sun rise? So much. Good. What time do the fighters need to get up in order to have time to eat and move into position? We calculate the period and cover the entire area with indiscriminate mortar fire. This is how we got involved in their working day. We did everything to hit the enemy as much as possible, and not like the old-fashioned way: "Along the lines! Fire!" We left all this stupidity in the past. We assessed the Chechen losses as follows … The refugees came out. We asked them questions:
- How is the situation there?
They spoke:
- After New Year's Eve in this house, the entire basement is filled with wounded.
After a while, others come out. We ask:
- How do our friends feel there?
- There are a lot of wounded. Shouting!
The militants were already running out of painkillers. Of course, they suffered losses. And we have diligently contributed to this.
There was a cemetery there. The militants tried to bury their own people at night. Intelligence reports: "There is stirring in the cemetery."
- What kind of wiggle?
- Obviously, they are preparing. They will bury the dead.
We covered this square with a mortar battery. What was to be done? War. The goal is focused. Ordinary people do not go to the cemetery at night.
We didn’t give the Chechen militants any peace either day or night. Therefore, in our direction, sometime after the New Year, their resistance weakened.
The girls-snipers, of course, promised us on the air:
- We, boys, will shoot all the eggs.
And until the last day, until we left there, the sniper fire from the Chechens was amazingly accurate.
An army motorized rifle company came to replace us. Mine sit in pillboxes, prepared nests, there are sniper, machine-gun positions - there is where to move secretly. And the newly arrived motorized riflemen stood up in full height:
- What are you guys, everything is good here. What are you hiding?
When in half an hour they cut down three or four fighters, we look - the motorized riflemen have already ducked, they have already begun to pay attention to our positions. We tell them again:
- Guys, the other option does not work here. Click out everyone. As for the so-called psychological warfare on the air, Ichkeria is so tired of it. He could sit not in front of us, but somewhere in Vedeno and yapping all over Chechnya. What should we pay attention to?
Sometimes we answered on the air:
- Dear, come out to fight! We will love you now, brother. Stop wasted blathering.
We paid no attention to threats. In the discussion, ordinary swearing did not get involved. We tried to behave in a disciplined manner.
Moving to the Minutka square, we applied the tactics tested on Staraya Sunzha. Our main forces were: the assault detachment of the 504th army regiment, the detachment of the 245th army regiment, the detachment of the 674th Mozdok regiment of the VV and the 33rd St. Petersburg brigade of the VV. SOBR, St. Petersburg OMON were with me until the last second. Zaitsev Nikolai Andreevich was my deputy for the police. Now he is a total pensioner. Good man.
We went for a minute with our wings. The first regiment was under our operational command. On the left flank, he cut off the enemy from the cruciform hospital - this is our left wing. With the forces of the 33rd brigade, 674th, 504th and 245th regiments, we took Minutka into a horseshoe. They entered, swept from the flanks and closed their wings on Minutka. We stood up rigidly, took up the defense. The peculiarity of our actions was: we started firefighting in the morning, finished at lunchtime.
Each grouping, from the north, from the west, at a certain time began to put pressure on. So that the militants could not understand where the main direction of the strike is. Bulgakov, for example, told me:
- At seven o'clock you are ahead.
I answer:
- Comrade General, at seven o'clock I do not see anything. First, at
us a planned morning fire raid on all points - and no matter how much you ask, Bulgakov gave fire. - While the brick dust settles among the houses, the fog will disappear. Let's, - I say to the commander, - we will begin when it becomes clear. I see who is shooting at me - I crush him. And in the fog, nose to nose collided … Clap. Clap. Everything. They scattered again. Nobody saw anyone.
Therefore, we, as the Germans had. Morning coffee! The Germans, by the way, were very good fellows in a tactical sense.
Morning tea. We look … The fog has settled, the dust has settled. We give the command:
- Forward!
We see our divisions. I was with them all the time: in the line of sight. The main thing is when the soldier knows that you, the commander, are going directly behind him. He is calm when the command post, and these are several officers who drag everything on themselves, follows the advancing fighters. The soldiers always knew that we were near. We didn't leave them. They did not fight the way it is written in the charter: "NP - a kilometer from the front line, KMP - 2, 3 kilometers." We were with the soldiers. In the conditions of the city, it is safer, no one will then cut off the command post, where only officers with maps and signalmen. So we moved on for a minute.
In the morning, the entire group was struck at the identified targets. This was the signal for the beginning of action. But we, as a rule, did not start until the results of the artillery strike created the conditions for us to advance further. As soon as everything settled, visibility appeared, we began to walk. Where they met resistance, they immediately crushed him with mortars, artillery, bombers - aviation, Bulgakov did not skimp on military means. A group of artillery application officers was formed and worked amazingly. We had the utmost respect for the gunners. Only thanks to them, we had minimum losses and maximum progress.
They fired so accurately! And no one barked: "What are you? What are you ?!" I was surprised - how well they worked! The artillery gunners were officers from senior lieutenant to senior officers - battery commanders. The officers were clever!
If we entered a multi-storey building, I allocated myself a room for the command post … There was my single map, next to the regiment commanders, everyone had leaflets with codes. We even renamed the streets in our direction, which greatly misled the militants. We all spoke the same language - in the same real time. The furnishings gathered here: all and immediately. A group of gunners was working in the next room - here they are. Literally the following happened:
- Lesha, urgently - the goal!
- There are no questions: here, so here. Hit!
The only thing that General Bulgakov was dissatisfied with … He told me:
- So. I'm pulling my team path to you. I answer:
- Then I'll go to the next house. He:
- Don't you want to work with me?
- No, it will be just uncomfortable for me to interfere with you.
General Bulgakov's command post was also moving all the time. We learned a lot from him. A man of great experience.
The very first advantage in it is expedient decision-making. Bulgakov never waved a sword. He listened to everyone and the most expedient decision was made, in the implementation of which he used all forces and means. I didn’t rush about: "Oh, I’m here right now! Oh, right now, I’m going there! But there’s not." Bulgakov acted thoughtfully, planned, tough. He also demanded tough. I could say a bad word, but if I saw the result, then I forgave. Secondly, he always reacted to unjustified losses, to failure to fulfill any task: "What is the reason ?! Report!" He could not stand deception - this is when some commanders, for the sake of circumstances, began to pass off wishful thinking. Or, on the contrary, they did not take any measures to complete the task, some kind of nonsense was carried on the air, such as: "Regrouping, accumulating." And Bulgakov: "You've been regrouping and accumulating for two days already."
During the assault, I had the best impressions of SOBR: no questions for them, no friction. The commanders were good. The riot police showed themselves from the best side: Krasnoyarsk, Petrograd.
The Norilsk sobrovtsy remained in the memory. A pair of sniper moves to work. I'm talking:
- So, be careful.
- There is.
Are gone. We lay down. At night: boo, boo. Two shots. They come - two notches on the butts are made. They say:
- The SVD rifle is a bit old, but works well.
Good, serious warriors. No bullshit, veteran geeks. Nobody bent their fingers like a fan. And no one puts them, if normal, working relations are formed in the combat team. When they understand that you are leading them correctly in a war, then they believe you. You don't come up with something unimaginable there, like: "We get up - I am the first. You follow me. And we shout" Hurray. "And in a merciless attack we demolish everyone, occupying a high-rise. And then? ! You just need to report on the execution.
We must always assess the situation soberly. And then we practically had a dry law … My requirement is this. There were no cases when someone in my field of vision was drunk. The war must be sober. Then no glitches will appear. There will be no impulses for every second feat, for different adventures. We had no desire to report that something was taken at any cost. Normal, quiet work. But there were, of course, interesting cases …
When we walked for a minute, we occupied the school complex. We placed a battery on the roof. As usual, we shoot. The officers are working. They found some furniture to lay out the map in my room. The chairs were put up, the door was removed - and so the table appeared. Created minimal convenience for work. Let's start spanking. A boy comes in - an officer, a captain, and without looking around, says:
So. Well, everything is finished here - to hell. I’m here with my reconnaissance company, damn it, I’ll put things in order. Who will twitch, everyone to the nail …
- Who are you, dear? - I ask.
- I am the commander of the reconnaissance company.
- Very nice. Why are you acting like that?
And the captain is drunk in the smoke.
I again:
- Well, you be more modest. Sorry, we already started here without
you.
And in the 674th regiment there was a company commander with a "Kirpich" chase. I tell him:
“Brick, talk to the intelligence gentleman. Seryoga took this scout aside and clarified the situation to him. I must say, the guy immediately drove in, apologized and we never saw him again.
But for some reason this drunken guy remained in his memory: "Well, that's finished. I'll organize a war here myself." In general, we at the command post fell under the distribution: the troops are coming, and we need to fold.
We sit one more time. Everything is fine, we are shooting, the troops are marching. The mood is cheerful. Suddenly the shooting, furious in the rear - what is it? A flock of militants, have they broken through? Or crawled out of the well? The BMP crew is being dragged in. Contractors. Again, not ours, and drunk in the trash. I gave the command to disarm them. And those at my command post began to download the right: "Well - who is there to deal with?"
I'm talking:
- Oh guys. Well, scouts, explain to them the situation - where
they hit and what are the rules of good form here.
The scouts did not use physical pressure on them, but laid them on the floor, hands behind their backs. I went over the radio to the commander of these contractors, I say:
- Here your BMP got lost.
This crew shot drunkenly at houses - anywhere. Maybe some chickens went around the yards. In general, they started a war. This is usually the case with those in the rear. They, as a rule, combat operations occur spontaneously, transiently and are conducted with a high density of fire.
Officers came and took their contractors. Well, maybe due to this, too, normal relations were built with army officers. After all, there were no reports upstairs:
- Comrade general, drunken crew number such and such, contract soldiers Vasya, Petya - and beyond on the merits of the issue.
Our life there, if you take it without humor, you will die of a brain twist. In the third, second week you will die.
Life must be treated philosophically. When they ask me - how long have I come up with such a formula for personal life, I ask again:
- Do I look normal?
- It's okay, - they answer.
- So, for a long time.
War is war. And life is life. I was angry at the Chechen war. Even more. For stupidity. To treat people like meat. Of course, at the beginning of the second campaign, there were attempts to command: "Go ahead and that's it!" Sometimes they pressed on me: "Forward there - complete the task!" No questions. Let's do it. And he asked painful questions for some: "And who supports me? Who is covering? Who is my neighbor on the right, who is on the left? At the next turn of events, where should I go? And the last thing you say:" I will ask you - give me, please, reliable information about the enemy. "Silence … There is no information.
- Come on blow! Step north, - they tell me, - you will be fine. We must cross over.
Well, I'll get across. And then what? Who is waiting for me there? There is no information. What is going to be there? How will it turn?
And all this is to be performed by the soldier. A living person. The soldier went … Well, if in such a battle you die along with the soldier, but if not? How to live further if you know that someone died because of your fault? Heavy burden. Commander's. The responsibility of an officer in my youth was brought up by the very system of his training. Starting from college, she was deep, thoughtful. First, they cultivated a sense of responsibility for their actions. Secondly, we learned to defeat the enemy.
A soldier is good when trained. And SOBR, OMON, with whom we went to the Minutka, passed the first assault on Grozny, and now participated in the second. Officers with a biography! They checked me, asked before the assault:
- And if this is how it will be?
- It will be like this.
- And if such a turn of events.
- It will be like this.
When we were walking to Minutka, we met some cunning school complex on the way. The riot police decided to climb on it. And they hit … I gave the order to the mortarmen: "Cover!" Those worked for the militants finally. We never left ours. We are still friends. We call back.
SOBR, riot police came to the war without armored vehicles. And we found ways out. They gnawed and gnawed at the Chechen defense. And nothing. We got it. As the French say: "Everyone should contribute their babble to the common cause." Well, we have brought in.
At the request of General Bulgakov, I was nominated for the title of Hero of Russia. It was presented in the Kremlin. When it was handed over, a classmate of my son from the Ryazan Airborne Forces School came up to me - he also received a Hero. Fits:
- Uncle Zhenya, hello!
And I often carried grocery bags for them at the school - I had to feed the growing Russian paratroopers.
- How is it served? - I ask.
- Fine.
- Matured …
These are the guys in Russia. And I did not get to the buffet after the presentation of the Star. I had to go with all the awards. Why am I going across Moscow dressed up like a Christmas tree? Thunder there in the subway!
I started in the tank forces of the Ministry of Defense. In 1996, he retired from the army for lack of professionalism and transferred to the internal troops. I didn't think I could function at the headquarters. But I've always enjoyed working with people.
Well, in the story of the Russian flag raised at Minutka, it was like this. At the press service officer of the Altai Territory Internal Affairs Directorate. Vera Kulakova on Minutka in the first war - in August 1996 - her husband died. When Vera found out that we were being transferred to Minutka, she, who was on a business trip to Chechnya at that time, came and told how it was. The officers who fought with her husband kept the Russian flag, which they removed from the building of the Provisional Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation in Chechnya (GUOSH) when they were leaving it in August, and handed it over to Vera Kulakova. She asked me:
- When you go out for a minute, tell me on the radio, I'll come. She is an active person. As a representative of the press service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, she rushed about the troops all the time. She has state awards, she understands in the war. I told her:
- We went out for a minute. You can drive up. See where the husband fought
and died.
She arrived and said:
- Here I have a flag. I gave my word - to raise it at the Minutka. It will be right if you raise the flag, Evgeny Viktorovich.
So I picked it up. I didn’t expect the video footage to be broadcasted on Central TV, and my wife, whom I called and told at the beginning of the storming of Grozny, would see it, and then confirmed a couple of times that I was sitting in Mozdok and drawing maps.
III
With great difficulty, in order to keep it in my memory forever, I found a videotape on which Colonel Kukarin is raising the Russian flag over Minutka … A snow-covered, smashed to pieces fortified area of Chechen fighters. Many of them in camouflage gear lie in ruins, overtaken by well-aimed artillery fire. Two Russian servicemen make their way through the Grozny quarries to the roof of a high-rise building, Kukarin has a submachine gun in his left hand, a Russian flag in his right. A soldier struggles to crawl into a narrow, with sharp edges, hole and flies upward with a bullet, planted by the colonel's mighty arms. At the Minute, he raised two flags. The raising of the first, saved by Vera Kulakova in memory of her husband, who died here, on Minutka, was not shown on the air. All of Russia saw Colonel Kukarin E. V., fixing the state flag on the snow-covered roof of a skyscraper, turn around and say:
“And this flag was raised in honor of the victorious assault on Grozny,” and, addressing the Chechen militants, he continues: “And no Khattab will help you to remove it. It will be necessary, we will hang it for the third time on another flagpole.
Then the combat colonel with wise, gloomy eyes said:
- For those who died in this and that war, - and, saluting, he released from
his machine gun into the clear, free sky of Grozny, a long line.
