He, in general, is not the only one
among the aces of the highest standard.
And yet Alexander Rutskoy
especially remembered.
We sit with him in the car, we hurry to a detour to the parking lot, so that our dust does not touch
flying tanks.
Climbed a long wing
stepped into the cockpit:
- Sorry, you're out of luck -
for one car!
Victor Verstakov
Alexander Vladimirovich Rutskoy was born on September 16, 1947 in the city of Proskurov of the Ukrainian SSR (now Khmelnitsky) in a family with military traditions: his grandfather, Rutskoy Alexander Ivanovich, served in the railway troops, his father, Vladimir Rutskoy (1926-1991), was a tanker, fought in front and went to Berlin, was awarded six orders. His mother, Zinaida Iosifovna, worked in the service sector.
Today the majority remember A. Rutskoi as an unsuccessful politician who entered the Kremlin on the red carpet and left in handcuffs. But there was one event in the history of his life, in comparison with which Hollywood action films look like tales.
In early 1986, fierce fighting broke out between mujahideen and government forces in almost all provinces of Afghanistan. To suppress pockets of resistance and provide reliable cover for government forces, the command of the Soviet limited contingent of troops in Afghanistan decided to use ground attack aircraft. At that time, the first assault aviation regiment (378th) had already arrived in Afghanistan, armed with the new Su-25 attack aircraft at that time, which, in fact, were undergoing military tests there. This regiment was commanded by Alexander Rutskoi. During his stay in Afghanistan (1986 and 1988), he made 456 sorties, 125 of them at night.
It seemed that the appearance in the Afghan sky of a well-protected, maneuverable and well-armed aircraft would significantly reduce the losses of Soviet troops. However, in the same 1986, the Afghan mujahideen massively acquired portable anti-aircraft missile systems (MANPADS) capable of fighting Soviet aircraft. It was one of these complexes that was first shot down by A. Rutskoi. It happened on April 6, 1986, during the 360th sortie. Su-25 Rutskoi was shot down from the ground by the American Redeye MANPADS in the Khost area near the Javara village near the Pakistani border.
By that time, Javara was one of the main points of resistance. It was reliably covered from air attacks by anti-aircraft points, which did not allow helicopters to land troops. The operation was under threat. It was for the identification and further destruction of these firing points that it was decided to use the Su-25 attack aircraft. In fact, A. Rutskoy's link was supposed to call fire on itself in order to reveal the hated machine-gun nests.
“Call fire on yourself” means flying at the lowest altitude. They start shooting at you from everything that shoots. It is very difficult to be cold-blooded in such a situation. In addition, you need to believe in your armored aircraft, that it will not let you down. “Therefore, you walk at an extremely low altitude, - recalled A. Rutskoi, - and you hear how they hit the cockpit with a sledgehammer and a hammer - these are bullets”. Shells and machine-gun bullets flew from everywhere. Suddenly a white trail stretched from the ground to Rutskoi's plane. A moment later, a blow, and Rutskoi's plane was engulfed in flames. This was the first MANPADS missile. “The first rocket,” continues A. Rutskoi, “hit the right engine, it caught fire. The second rocket hits the burning engine again. I was just at the turn, performing a maneuver towards our troops. After being hit by the second missile, it refuses to control the plane, the plane begins to somersault in chaotic directions. It so happened that I almost ejected my head to the ground at a height of 50-60 meters … Well, of course, the whole thing was broken. After a hard hit to the ground, pain swept through the whole body - the spine was injured. A thought flashed through my head: "The main thing is that I stayed alive." But it didn't end there. The pilot fell into no-man's land, between the units of the dushmans and the Afghan army, in the center of a fierce battle. Dushmans with powerful fire prevented Afghan and Soviet soldiers from approaching the pilot, trying to capture him (for a captured pilot, the Mujahideen received up to 1 million dollars). “I am in a no-man's land - on the right is the fortified base of Javar with well-trained and armed Mujahideen, on the other side there are Afghans. And here who is who, because everyone rushed to me. I was lucky that the Afghans were the first to approach me. The commander of the Afghan battalion covered me with his whole body, because a new powerful shelling began. I received two wounds - one in the leg, the second in the back."
According to the doctors, Rutskoi miraculously survived. After treatment in the hospital, he was suspended from flights and was assigned to Lipetsk as deputy head of the Combat Training Center of the USSR Air Force. After training under the cosmonaut program at the Seventh Institute of Space Medicine, he returns to service again.
In April 1988, A. Rutskoi was appointed Deputy Commander of the Air Force of the 40th Army and again sent to Afghanistan. Like the first time, despite his high position, he continued to fly regularly. In April-August he made 97 sorties, 48 of them at night.
A. Rutskoy in Afghanistan, 1988. Shot from the documentary
In one of the first sorties, A. Rutskoi's car received severe damage from anti-aircraft fire, but he was able to bring the plane to the base and land it. After a short repair, Rutskoi's plane, during a combat mission in the border zone over Pakistani territory, was hit by two AIM-9L missiles fired from F-16A fighters. But in this case, he managed to save the car and return to the airfield. The second time Rutskoi was shot down on 4 August.
August 4, 1988, an area near the Pakistani border. Flying out on a mission to destroy the ammunition depots of the Afghan mujahideen, Colonel Rutskoi did not even think that he would be shot down by a Pakistani Air Force fighter. I did not know then that one of his colleagues had betrayed him, having provided the Pakistani side with information that it was Rutskoi who would fly to that area. Later, the traitor was granted political asylum in the United States. After the bailout, Alexander Vladimirovich found himself in enemy territory.
After five days, having covered about 30 km, the pilot was surrounded by the spooks of Gulbidin Hekmatyar and taken prisoner. They beat him, beat him so that it seemed there would be no end, and the picture the next day seemed a complete nightmare. One morning, according to A. Rutskoi, when he opened his eyes, he saw that he was hanging on a rack. The blood of a lamb prepared for the evening prayer was dripping under his feet. Whose blood would drain here the next morning, he no longer doubted. “The first thought, - recalls A. Rutskoi, - that came to mind: well, everyone, we have arrived. So I hung out until the next morning. And in the morning Pakistani helicopters flew in, special forces jumped out of them, all tall, cool … It almost came to a shootout between them and the dushmans … But they took me away, loaded me into a helicopter, and - to Pakistan. " According to other sources, the gang received three million US dollars for the Soviet pilot. In Pakistan, Rutskoi was awaited by first aid, prison, a piece of bread and a mug of water. Ahead was the unknown and undying hope for the help of their own. But the search for the downed pilot was carried out in neighboring Afghanistan, so they had no success. They connected the KGB, and that - his agents in Pakistan. But the pilot sank into the ground. Pakistani President Zia-ul-Haq did not respond to diplomatic inquiries from the Soviet side, although he was in the know from the very beginning. As if on cue, all news agencies were silent. This secrecy was specially organized by the CIA, which had its own interest in the downed pilot. It was the CIA who insisted that the Pakistani special services snatch the Soviet pilot out of the hands of the mujahideen at any cost. “They still figured out who I was. At first I said that I was Major Ivanov, etc. Well, the general scheme. But when they were transferred to the intelligence center, the processing went on in full … The task that was set? Here is a map of Afghanistan. Put on it the order for the withdrawal of Soviet troops, where we leave warehouses for the Afghan army, in a word, to reveal the entire operation to withdraw Soviet troops … These were specially trained people who had some recruiting experience, CIA intelligence officers, it was clearly visible. " And it was true. A. Rutskoi was engaged in Milt Byrdon, a career intelligence officer, a CIA resident in Pakistan.
On the right is Milt Byrdon. Still from the TV interview of A. Rutskoy to the REN TV channel
For information, Rutskoi was offered a new passport and a large sum of money as a reward. The conversations were conducted correctly at the first stage, then there were threats, then again correct conversations. That is, the processing was carried out according to the "evil and kind investigator" scheme. Threats alternated with offers to obtain a new passport, for example, a Canadian citizen, and a comfortable life in any country in the world. In fact, they offered to commit treason. “Go to treason … Although at some point somewhere in the subconscious it was that now they would be fired from the army, there can be no question of any flight work. They will be sent somewhere in darkness … It was like that. It was. We know our history, we know what happened to those who were captured. On the other hand, there was a desire to leave. " Milt Byrdon called Rutskoi the most important prisoner of the entire war in Afghanistan. Therefore, his security was strengthened, his place of detention was often changed. According to A. Rutskoy, he was transported by a helicopter while blindfolded. “How a prisoner is transported. Black cap on the head, hands back, handcuffs. And forward. First they sent me to Peshawar, then to Islamabad … And what can you see, they are blindfolded. They take off the cap - a new place, new people. And again everything starts anew: they lay out the map, ask questions, and away we go … They ask me to name the tactical and technical data of the Su-25 aircraft. They were very interested in the Su-25 plane … He played the fool, tried to get at least some information about me to his own people, what happened to me, where I was”. And this information finally reached the Soviet special services.
Alexander Rutskoy is sure to this day that one of his guards handed it over. With some effort, Moscow was able to agree on the exchange of Rutskoi for one of the CIA agents. According to other sources, it was a Pakistani citizen who was accused of espionage against the USSR. The exchange took place on August 16, 1988 at the Soviet embassy in Islamabad. “I and the representatives of the Pakistani and American sides on the one hand, the intelligence officer and Soviet representatives on the other. I go to mine, he goes to his. That's all,”recalls A. Rutskoi.
Unfortunately, this was not all. Rutskoi still had to be taken out of Pakistan. And take it out secretly in order to preserve the clause of the agreement on the exchange, all its details. Also, the leaders of the mujahideen might not like it. Therefore, the staff of the Soviet embassy in Islamabad hurriedly bought clothes and prepared false documents. At night, disguised Alexander Rutskoi was taken to the airfield. “I flew in from there incognito. The embassy prepared everything, determined when we will arrive in Assadabad (the territory of Afghanistan), what documents will be in this case. There was no passport, only a certificate of permission to cross the border. With this certificate, Alexander Rutskoy flew to the Union.
This is the version of Rutskoi himself.
Border crossing document. A still from A. Rutskoi's TV interview with the Ren TV channel.
Journalist Andrei Karaulov, in his book "Russian Sun", described a different version.
Having learned about the captured Rutskoi, Colonel-General B. Gromov, who commanded the Soviet contingent of troops in Afghanistan, urgently contacted D. Yazov, the Minister of Defense of the USSR, and he - with E. Shevardnadze, who served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Soviet Union. According to Karaulov, Soviet Ambassador to Pakistan Yakunin and military attaché Bely handed compensation to Hekmatyar. He received military equipment, about a million dollars in cash and (at his personal request) a new black Volga. According to Pakistani law, Rutskoi was threatened with 15 years of mines for flying a military armed aircraft in the airspace of non-belligerent Pakistan. Gromov had a good attitude towards Rutskoi, but here the case smacked of an international scandal, especially since the violation was carried out not by a simple pilot, but by the deputy commander of the air army. Before Gorbachev, everything was presented as follows. Colonel Rutskoi, rescuing his attack aircraft, knocked out by the Mujahideen, performed a feat and was worthy of the Hero's star, but ended up, like Karbyshev, in captivity. …
Asia Tulekova from Kazakhstan told her version about the release of Alexander Rutskoi, who was taken on a special operation to free the famous pilot for two reasons: firstly, she could be a translator, and secondly, she was a Muslim. It was the second factor, as GRU officers believed, should have played a decisive role in negotiations with the Mujahideen.
Asia was sent to Afghanistan as a bacteriologist. In addition to monitoring all water sources, checking wells for poisons and providing medical assistance to the local population, Asia monitored whether our soldiers and officers were taking drugs.
“When I saw our famous Sasha Rutskoi held captive by the dushmans,” recalls Asia Tulekova, “I thought: this is the most terrible sight that I have ever seen. Alexander always attracted female looks, was an unusually handsome man, real legends circulated about the heroism of the regiment commander "rooks". But even his mother probably would not have been able to recognize Sasha at that moment. The pride of the Soviet army and the object of fierce hatred of the mujahideen lay before us almost naked and completely gray-haired. His entire body was covered with bruises, abrasions and bruises. Alexander was tortured by applying red-hot iron stars to his skin. He was unconscious."
“I have been assigned the duties of an interpreter. But what the spooks told me personally, I was ashamed to translate to our officers. These scum, torturing a person, insulted me with obscene words, while they themselves calmly ate pilaf and shish kebab, drank soft drinks. An officer was dying in front of them: even if he was an enemy, there must be compassion even for opponents! I told them about this, adding that true Muslims never do this. Then an angry soldier hit me with the butt of a machine gun. Probably thought that I would pay, I would be scared. But I didn't have a drop of fear, only contempt and hatred. If you consider yourself a valiant warrior, then you have no right to mock and mock the one who is tied to a tree with ropes … We negotiated for three days, I still don't know how much the spooks estimated Alexander's head (then everything was kept secret). But we still saved him and were able to take him from captivity. Doctors stated that he had complete amnesia, he remembered absolutely nothing”.
Four months after his release, on December 8, 1988, by decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR A. V. Rutskoi was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, with the award of the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal (No. 11589).
Six months after the liberation, the Soviet-Afghan war ended. The war, which became both a terrible and a bright page in the biography of Alexander Vladimirovich.
Once again A. Rutskoi came to Pakistan in 1991. From December 17 to 22, Rutskoi visited Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran, where he negotiated the extradition of Soviet prisoners of war. After meeting with Rutskoi, the Pakistani authorities handed over to Moscow a list of 54 prisoners of war who were with the mujahideen. 14 of them were still alive at that time. But in general, unfortunately, Rutskoi's attempt did not bring much success.
