They say that the paratroopers are the most uncompromising fighters. Maybe so. But the rules that they introduced in the mountains of Chechnya during the complete absence of hostilities are clearly worthy of special mention. The paratrooper unit, in which a group of scouts was commanded by Captain Zvantsev, was located in a large meadow in the mountains, a kilometer from the Chechen village of Alchi-Aul, Vedensky district.
These were months of rotten negotiations with the "Czechs". In Moscow, they did not understand very well that negotiations with the bandits were impossible. This simply will not work, since each side is obliged to fulfill its obligations, and the Chechens did not bother themselves with such nonsense. They needed to pause the war in order to catch their breath, bring up ammunition, recruit reinforcements, etc.
One way or another, a clear rampant "peacekeeping" of certain high-profile personalities began, who, without hesitation, took money from the Chechen field commanders for their work. As a result, the army team was forbidden not only to open fire first, but even to respond to fire with fire. It was forbidden to enter mountain villages in order to "not provoke the local population." Then the militants began openly housing with their relatives, and the "federals" were told to their faces that they would soon leave Chechnya.
Zvantsev's unit has just been thrown into the mountains by a "turntable". The camp, which had been set up by the paratroopers of Colonel Ivanov before them, was made in a hurry, the positions were not fortified, there were many places inside the fortress where it was undesirable to move openly - they were well-shot. Here it was necessary to dig 400 meters of good trenches and lay parapets.
The first two hundredths appeared a week later. And, almost as always, it was sniper shots from the forest. Two soldiers were killed in the head and neck as they were returning to the tents from the dining room. In broad daylight.
The raid into the forest and the raid did not yield any results. The paratroopers reached the aul, but did not enter it. This was contrary to the order from Moscow. Have returned.
Then Colonel Ivanov invited the elder of the aul to his place "for tea." They drank tea for a long time in the headquarters tent.
- So you say, father, you have no militants in your aul?
- No, and it was not.
- How is it, father, two Basayev's assistants come from your aul. Yes, and he himself was a frequent guest. They say he got married to your girlfriend …
“People are not telling the truth…” The 90-year-old man in the astrakhan hat was unperturbed. Not a muscle in his face twitched.
“Pour some more tea, sonny,” he said to the orderly. His eyes, black as coals, were fixed on the map on the table, which had been prudently turned over by the secretary.
“We have no militants in our village,” the old man said once again. - Come and visit us, Colonel. The old man smiled a little. So imperceptibly.
The colonel understood the mockery. You will not go to visit alone, they will cut off your head and throw it out on the road. And with the soldiers "on the armor" is impossible, it contradicts the instructions.
"Here, they surrounded us from all sides. They beat us, and we can't even carry out a round-up in the village, can we?" the colonel thought bitterly. In short, the spring of 1996.
- We will certainly come, venerable Aslanbek …
Zvantsev came to the colonel immediately after the Chechen left.
- Comrade Colonel, let me bring up the "Czechs" in the airborne way?
- And how is that, Zvantsev?
- You will see, everything is within the law. We have a very convincing upbringing. Not a single peacemaker will pick on.
- Well, come on, just so that later my head does not fly off at the headquarters of the army.
Eight people from Zvantsev's unit quietly left at night towards the village. Not a single shot was fired until the morning, when dusty and tired guys returned to the tent. The tankers were even surprised. Scouts with cheerful eyes walk around the camp and mysteriously grin into their beards.
Already in the middle of the next day, the elder came to the gates of the camp of Russian military personnel. The sentries made him wait about an hour - for education - and then escorted him to the colonel's headquarters tent.
Colonel Mikhail Ivanov offered the old man some tea. He refused with a gesture.
“Your people are to blame,” the elder began, forgetting the Russian language out of excitement. - They mined the roads from the village. Three innocent people blew up this morning … I will complain … to Moscow …
The colonel summoned the chief of intelligence.
- Here the elder claims that it was we who set the stretchers around the village … - and handed Zvantsev a wire guard from the stretching.
Zvantsev twirled the wire in his hands with surprise.
- Comrade Colonel, not our wire. We give out steel, and this is a simple copper wire. The militants did it, not otherwise …
- What are the militants! Do they really need it, - the old man shouted loudly in indignation and immediately stopped short, realizing that he had overcame stupidity.
- No, dear elder, we do not put banners against the civilian population. We have come to free you from the militants. This is all the work of bandits.
Colonel Ivanov spoke with a slight smile and concern on his face. He offered the services of military doctors.
- What are you bringing me under the article? The Colonel made an indignant face.
“Not at all, Comrade Colonel. This system is already debugged, it has not given any failures yet. The wire is really Chechen.
Just in case, they sent an encrypted message to Khankala: the bandits became so brutal in the mountains that, going down to Alchi-aul and allegedly being denied food there, they set up stretch marks against civilians.
For a whole week, Chechen snipers did not shoot at the camp. But on the eighth day, a fighter in a kitchen outfit was killed by a shot in the head.
On the same night, Zvantsev's men again left the camp at night. As expected, an elder came to the superiors.
- Well, why put streamers against peaceful people? You must understand that our teip is one of the smallest, there is no one to help us. In the morning, two more disabled people became, two men had their legs blown off on your grenades. They are now completely on the maintenance of the village. If this continues, there will be no one to work …
The old man tried to find understanding in the eyes of the colonel. Zvantsev sat with a stone face, stirring sugar in a glass of tea.
- We will do the following. Captain Zvantsev's unit will go to the village in connection with such actions of the bandits. We will de-mine you. And to help him I give ten armored personnel carriers and infantry fighting vehicles. Just in case. So, father, you will go home on the armor, and not go on foot. Let's give you a lift!
Zvantsev entered the village, his men quickly cleared the remaining "non-working" stretch marks. True, they did this only after intelligence had worked in the village. It became clear that a path leads to the village from above, from the mountains. The inhabitants obviously kept more cattle than they needed themselves. We also found a barn where beef was being dried for future use.
A week later, an ambush left on the trail in a short battle destroyed seventeen bandits at once. They went down to the village, not even launching reconnaissance ahead. A short fight and a bunch of corpses. The villagers buried five of them in their teip cemetery.
And a week later, another soldier in the camp was killed by a sniper bullet. The colonel, having summoned Zvantsev, told him briefly: go!
And again the old man came to the colonel.
- We still have a man killed, stretching.
- Dear friend, we also have a man killed. Your sniper has taken off.
- Why ours. Where is ours from, - the old man was worried.
- Yours, yours, we know. There is not a single source here for twenty kilometers around. So your handiwork. Only, old man, you understand that I cannot demolish your village to the ground with artillery, although I know that you are my enemy and that you are all Wahhabis there. Well, I can't! I can not! Well, it's idiocy to fight according to the laws of a peaceful constitution! Your snipers kill my people, and when mine surrounds them, the militants drop their rifles and take out Russian passports. From this point on, they cannot be killed. But a soldier is not a fool! Oh, not a fool, dad! This is how, after every killed or wounded of my people, there will be one of yours killed or wounded. Understood? Do you understand everything, old man? And you will be the last one to be blown up, and I will bury you with pleasure … because there will be no one to bury you …
The colonel spoke calmly and softly. From this word, he said, were terrible. The old man did not look the colonel in the eye; he lowered his head and clutched his hat in his hands.
- Your truth, Colonel, the militants will leave the village today. There were only newcomers left. We are tired of feeding them …
- Leave so leave. There will be no stretch marks, old Aslanbek. And if they come back, they will appear,”said Zvantsev. - I put them, dad. And tell the militants one saying: "How many Chechen wolves do not feed, but the Russian bear is still thicker …" Got it?
The old man got up in silence, nodded to the colonel and left the tent. The colonel and the captain sat down to drink tea.
- It turns out that it is possible to do something in this seemingly hopeless situation. I can no longer, I am sending "two hundredth" for "two hundredth". "Zelenka" Chechen, wed … ny.
August 2000
