The exploits of Soviet soldiers in the Afghan war. Heroes of the Afghan war extra-curricular activity with a presentation

Afghanistan has always been a bleeding point on the map. First, England in the 19th century claimed influence over this territory, and then America turned on its resources in order to resist the USSR in the 20th century.

The first operation of the border guards

To clean up the territory from the rebels in 1980, Soviet troops conducted a large-scale operation "Mountains-80". About 200 kilometers - this is the territory of the region, where secular border guards, with the support of the Afghan special services of the KhAD (AGSA) and the Afghan police (tsarandoy), entered with a swift march. The head of the operation, the chief of staff of the Central Asian border district, Colonel Valery Kharichev, was able to foresee everything. The victory was on the side of the Soviet troops, who were able to capture the main rebel Wakhoba and establish a control zone 150 kilometers wide. New border cordons were established. During 1981-1986, more than 800 successful operations were carried out by border guards. Major Alexander Bogdanov received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union posthumously. In mid-May 1984, he was surrounded and in hand-to-hand combat, having received three severe wounds, was killed by the Mujahideen.

Death of Valery Ukhabov

Lieutenant Colonel Valery Ukhabov was ordered to occupy a small foothold in the rear of the enemy's large defensive line. The whole night a small detachment of border guards held back the superior forces of the enemy. But by morning, the forces began to melt. There were no reinforcements. The scout sent with a report fell into the hands of the "spirits". He was killed. His body was laid out on the rocks. Valery Ukhabov, realizing that there was nowhere to retreat, made a desperate attempt to break out of the encirclement. She succeeded. But during the breakthrough, Lieutenant Colonel Ukhabov was mortally wounded and died when he was carried on a canvas cape by the soldiers he saved.

Salang pass

The main road of life passed through the pass with a height of 3878 meters, along which the Soviet troops received fuel, ammunition, transported the wounded and the dead. One fact speaks of how dangerous this route was: for each passage of the pass, the driver was awarded the medal "For Military Merit". Mujahideen constantly ambushed here. It was especially dangerous to serve as a driver on a fuel truck, when the whole car instantly exploded from any bullet. In November 1986, a terrible tragedy occurred here: 176 soldiers suffocated here from exhaust gases.

Private Maltsev rescued Afghan children in Salanga

Sergei Maltsev drove out of the tunnel when suddenly a heavy vehicle drove out towards his car. It was full of bags, and about 20 adults and children were sitting on top. Sergey sharply turned the steering wheel - the car crashed into a rock at full speed. He died. But peaceful Afghans survived. At the site of the tragedy, local residents erected a monument to the Soviet soldier, which has survived to this day and has been carefully cared for for several generations.

Alexander Mironenko was serving in the parachute regiment when they were ordered to conduct reconnaissance of the area and provide cover for helicopters carrying the wounded. When they landed, their group of three soldiers, led by Mironenko, rushed down. The second support group followed them, but the gap between the fighters widened every minute. Suddenly, the order to withdraw came. But it was already too late. Mironenko was surrounded and, together with three of his comrades, fired back to the last bullet. When the paratroopers found them, they saw a terrible picture: the soldiers were stripped naked, they were wounded in the legs, all their bodies were stabbed with knives.

And looked death in the face

Vasily Vasilyevich was extremely lucky. Once in the mountains, Shcherbakov's Mi-8 helicopter came under fire from dushmans. In a narrow gorge, a fast maneuverable vehicle became a hostage of narrow rocks. You can't turn back - to the left and to the right are the cramped gray walls of one terrible stone grave. There is only one way out - to row the propeller forward and wait for a bullet in the "berry bush". And the "spirits" have already saluted all types of weapons to the Soviet suicide bombers. But they were able to escape. The helicopter, miraculously flying to its airfield, resembled a beetroot grater. Ten holes were counted in the gear compartment alone.

Once, flying over the mountains, Shcherbakov's crew felt a strong blow to the tail boom. The follower flew up, but saw nothing. Only after landing, Shcherbakov discovered that only a few "threads" remained in one of the tail rotor control cables. As soon as they break off - and remember your name.

Somehow examining the narrow gorge, Shcherbakov felt someone's gaze. And - measurement. A few meters from the helicopter, on a narrow ledge of rock, a dushman stood and calmly aimed at Shcherbakov's head. It was so close. That Vasily Vasilyevich physically felt the cold muzzle of the machine gun resting on his temple. He was waiting for a merciless, inevitable shot. And the helicopter was climbing too slowly. Why this strange mountaineer in a turban never fired remains a mystery. Shcherbakov survived. He received the star of the Hero of the Soviet Union for saving the crew of his comrade.

Shcherbakov saved his comrade

In Afghanistan, Mi-8 helicopters became a lifesaver for many Soviet soldiers, coming to their aid at the very last minute. Dushmans in Afghanistan have not seen helicopter pilots fiercely. They cut the wrecked car of Captain Kopchikov with knives at the moment when the crew of the wrecked helicopter was firing back and was already preparing for death. But they were saved. Major Vasily Shcherbakov on his Mi-8 helicopter made several covering attacks on the brutal "spirits". And then he landed and literally pulled out the wounded captain Kopchikov. There were many such cases in the war, and behind each of them stands an unparalleled heroism, which today, over the years, has begun to be forgotten.

Heroes are not forgotten

Unfortunately, during perestroika, the names of real war heroes began to be deliberately forgotten. There are slanderous publications in the press about the atrocities of Soviet soldiers. But time has put everything in its place today. Heroes are always heroes.

Born on June 18, 1958 in the city of Baku (Azerbaijan) in the family of a sailor. Russian. Graduated from 10 classes. In the Soviet Army since 1975. In 1979 he graduated from the Baku Higher Combined Arms Command School named after the Supreme Soviet of the Azerbaijan SSR. Since 1979 - the commander of a reconnaissance platoon (the city of Novocherkassk, the Red Banner North Caucasian Military District). Member of the CPSU since 1982. Since 1981, for two years he was part of a limited contingent of Soviet troops in the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan. He proved to be a high-class specialist in intelligence. While searching in the area of responsibility of the brigade, Senior Lieutenant Chernozhukov received a report from his reconnaissance patrol that a detachment of rebels had settled down to rest in the village of Yaklang (Helmand province). The company commander quickly made a decision - using surprise, attack the enemy in armored vehicles, and without hurrying the personnel, defeat him. With decisive actions, firing heavily on the move from the loopholes, the company broke into the settlement from two sides. The enemy's attempt to put up organized resistance was not successful. The blow was very unexpected and strong. Having lost many rebels killed, their remnants fled. Having captured several prisoners, the company returned to the place of deployment, continuing to conduct reconnaissance. When approaching the village of Sanabur (Kandahar province), intelligence discovered the movement of a rebel detachment, numbering about 150 people. There were a little over 50 people in the company. Senior Lieutenant Chernozhukov decided to secretly occupy a dominant height in the path of enemy movement and, having missed his reconnaissance, defeat the detachment. Having skillfully organized the battle, the company commander at the critical moment at the head of the reserve attacked the rebel on the flank, which contributed to his complete defeat. Only 117 people were captured. In total, together with the company, Senior Lieutenant Chernozhukov participated in more than twenty operations, and the actions of the company were always distinguished by swiftness, surprise and effectiveness with minimal losses. By the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Council of March 3, 1983, for the courage and heroism shown in providing international assistance to the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan, Senior Lieutenant Chernozhukov Alexander Viktorovich was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union with the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal (No. 11493). In 1988 he graduated from the Military Academy named after M.V. Frunze. After the collapse of the USSR, he continued to serve in the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation in various positions. In 2002 he graduated from the Military Academy of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. He holds the position of head of the department for control and coordination of funeral services in the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. Lives in the hero city of Moscow. Colonel. He was awarded the Orders of Lenin (03/03/1983), the Red Star, and medals. A COMMUNIST'S DUTY At the Moscow City Party Conference, Captain Chernozhukov was elected a delegate to the 27th Party Congress. In the evening we met with him. Alexander embarrassedly accepted our congratulations ... He was the same on the day when he was awarded the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star of the Hero of the Soviet Union. He walked down the street and kept trying inadvertently to cover up the Star. “Take your hand away, Sasha,” said one of us, a witness to these joyful moments. “Let them watch.” And he somehow felt uneasy that he alone was singled out with such a high award. He was sincerely convinced that everything in his company was like a selection, and many can be called real heroes. We met with him more than once, and no matter what the conversation was about, Alexander always started talking about his colleagues, with whom he learned a lot during the two difficult years of service in Afghanistan. ... When Chernozhukov took over the company, some even among experienced platoon commanders began to complain about the overload of the classes that he spent in the mountains. "We'll be left without boots and uniforms," some grumbled half-jokingly. However, such talk soon ceased. This happened after a group of soldiers led by Chernozhukov was surrounded. According to the calculations of the dushmans, it was impossible to get out, but Alexander led the soldiers out. Through the mountains, which seemed impregnable even to those accustomed to these places. That's when hardening and training, which the company commander so persistently sought from his subordinates, affected. Yes, we talked about a lot during our meetings, but somehow it so happened that they never once asked him when and where he joined the party. There was no question of how Alexander understands his duty as a communist. Perhaps that is why they did not ask that the main thing was clear and so. The duty of a communist is to be where it is most difficult. And Captain Chernozhukov was fearless in battle, he thought not about his life, but about the task assigned, about his subordinates, about Afghan women and children. ... Since then, Alexander has not changed much. Just become more restrained. After serving in Afghanistan, he was chief of staff of the battalion, commander of the battalion, studied at the academy. In 1988 he graduated from the Frunze Military Academy, and in 2002 from the Military Academy of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces. Now Colonel Alexander Viktorovich Chernozhukov works as the head of the department for monitoring the coordination of funeral provision in the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. Lives in Moscow. Awards Medal "Gold Star"; The order of Lenin; Order of the Red Star; Medals.

Real soldier.

- There were cartridges for two or three hours of battle. And that's not a fact. If they climb with such pressure, then they won’t last even an hour ...

These thoughts swirled in Sergeant Stepantsov's mind as he looked at the four who remained by his side. Soloveichik, Okunev, Grishin and Nemirovsky.

Four out of twelve. Three were lost, five wounded still managed to be sent to the camp until the Mujahideen closed the ring.

And now, only five remained at the height, including the sergeant.

And it all started, as always, unexpectedly.

Okunev alerted the platoon when he spotted a large detachment of Mujahideen below.

200 people, no less. Apparently, the reinforcements were moving towards Herat, where for months, with varying success, there were battles between the Afghan government troops and various field commanders.

And now it's been a day since he defended the road and the checkpoint itself.

The Mujahideen tried with all their might to break through, but Stepantsov and the remaining fighters did not let them through.

The whole slope and the whole green hollow between the rocks were strewn with the bodies of the dead and wounded, but the soldiers fought to the death.

- Why are they so torn here? said the sergeant to Okunev. - They could go through the mountains if they have to get over the pass.

Why exactly here the enemy with such pressure and desperation is trying to pass - it was not clear.

The sergeant at the very beginning reported on the radio and the turntables should have arrived long ago.

The commanders promised that they would fly out now and spoke, persuaded, ordered to hold on, defend the height, not to let the gang through in any case ...

And now, two hours have passed and there are no cartridges left. Only three grenades.

Dushmans felt it. They stood up to their full height, and among them Stepantsov suddenly saw the figure of the commander. He looked up at the skyscraper. There was a feeling that he sees Stepantsov and looks into his eyes.

Then the dushman commander smiled, waved his hand, the Afghans slowly, as if for prey, began to climb the mountain to their full height.

And then, in the distance, helicopters chirped in the sky.

Three turntables, that's not five soldiers. In ten minutes, the gang was finished, and their commander was captured by paratroopers who jumped off the sides.

Stepantsov looked point-blank at the Afghan, and the field commander, who was sitting on the grass with his hands tied behind his back with an officer's belt, also looked point-blank at the sergeant and his four fighters.

- Are you only five? he suddenly asked in Russian.

“It was twelve,” Stepantsov answered unexpectedly for himself.

Dushman turned away. As he was being led to the helicopter, he glanced at the sergeant again and muttered something to himself.

- Probably some kind of curse, or swear words ... - thought Stepantsov.

Stepantsov later found out that the Mujahideen had a hopeless situation, and it was not for nothing that they began to break past his post. The mountain paths were blocked by landslides, except that they had no way past him.

And the officer who flew in with the turntables knew Pashto and translated Dushman words for him, which the sergeant took for a curse.

It turns out that the enemy commander said that he was a real soldier and wished him to return home, to his homeland, safe and sound.

And so it happened.

Two months later, they were all in the Union.

Afghanistan is over for them.

The scouts returned with a shabby man with a thick black beard.

The territories of Afghanistan changed hands.

Now to us, then to the government troops, which was not the same thing.

Then to scattered gangs of Mujahideen.

All of our, even untrained rookies that arrived with the next replenishment, quickly realized the real price of the "international duty" and for them there were only three values left: their own lives, brotherhood in arms and the honor of the country.

All three sides tried not to leave behind anything that could serve the enemy at least some kind of shelter, shelter, or have some other benefit.

If it was impossible to take something out and save it, it was destroyed without the slightest regret.

And so, after almost three months of fighting, our units were able to displace the dushmans from part of the Panjer Gorge and return to positions from which in the spring of 1985 they had to retreat under the blows of the troops of Ahmad Shah Massoud.

And in the middle of the night in the tent of Captain Zvyagintsev, the radio suddenly woke up.

At first, Zvyagintsev thought that he did not understand something and asked him to repeat it from the very beginning.

And then, after listening attentively all the time, he chuckled and gave a short order:

- Return to the camp. One leg here, the other there. Fast.

He no longer fell asleep and waited for the scouts, who in the middle of the night stunned him with their message.

The scouts returned in the morning in the company of a utterly shabby man, overgrown with a thick black beard.

The man's eyes were bandaged with a scarf.

He can't come into the world right now. Blind immediately. And don't stare at him like that. He is not an albino. Just lived in the dark for a long time.

When the peasant was washed and shaved, and he was completely weak, a boy appeared in front of Zvyagintsev.

Appears to be 20 years old, skin as white as snow.

In general, it contrasted surprisingly among tall and sun-tanned guys.

The captain began interrogation.

And everything turned out exactly as they explained to him in the middle of the night on the radio.

The guy's name was Fedor Tarasyuk and he was simply forgotten.

He guarded the products in the underground part of one of the old, uninhabited duvals that were adapted for warehouses.

And when these old ruins were blown up from above during the retreat, they did not remember about him.

And Fyodor was left in pitch darkness, covered with water, among the supplies of water and dry rations.

All these three months that he spent underground, he tried to somehow dig out, but he did not succeed.

Iron cans would have been a good tool, but the dry rations contained nothing but biscuits and biscuits.

Realizing that he himself could not get out, he decided to simply wait for "his own", sensibly judging that by the summer these positions would be recaptured by us unambiguously.

And he adapted a large empty flask from under the water to the ceiling of the dungeon, as such an earpiece - an amplifier that made it possible to hear if someone above spoke Russian.

And that night, Fyodor heard Russian voices and beat on the flask.

They paid attention to the knock and dug it out by the middle of the night.

- How did you not go crazy there? - Zvyagintsev asked with surprise.

- What for? I haven't eaten everything there yet. - Tarasyuk answered and unexpectedly smiled broadly.

The tent shuddered and shook with the captain's laughter.

40 SOVIET SOLDIERS AGAINST 200 fighters.

Many books have been written about the exploits of the Soviet troops in Afghanistan. However, the study of the weapons of the Afghan war, as well as the main characters - the Soviet military sometimes reveals completely unexpected details.

Not "Stinger" alone

The history of American cooperation with the Afghan Mujahideen has been detailed by historians in dozens of films, books and articles. Experts explain that the entire scale of "friendly" assistance from across the ocean to distant Afghanistan cannot be fully calculated so far. But if a lot of serious analytical work has been written about the supply of Stinger MANPADS, then the supply of other types of weapons was covered only slightly. In addition to money and ammunition, imported in huge quantities, the main symbol of American weapons thought, the M-16 rifle, also fell into the hands of the Mujahideen. However, the “American dream” did not find such a massive application in the Afghan mountains. Veterans of the war in Afghanistan note that the use of a rifle was limited by a number of circumstances.

“The first problems associated with the reliability of this rifle and the scheme as a whole were revealed during the Vietnam War,” says Special Forces veteran Sergei Tarasov. - American soldiers then massively complained about problems with the quality of shooting at the slightest hit of dirt. With the Afghans, these rifles played exactly the same joke.
The main feature of the exploitation of weapons by the Afghan Mujahideen was the disgusting quality of weapon care. It is for this reason that the main tool for combat operations has always been the Kalashnikov assault rifle. The American rifles supplied to the Afghan Mujahideen through Pakistan were mostly found in cave caches, and their use was a one-time event, organized only for reporting purposes. However, when studying the numerous archival photographs of Soviet soldiers with captured American rifles found in numerous hastily constructed caches, it becomes clear that Western assistance to the Afghan Mujahideen was much greater than is commonly believed.

Separate photographs of the Soviet military in Afghanistan also show another weapon that is extremely curious and uncharacteristic of the Afghan landscape. For example, the German MP-5 submachine guns manufactured by Heckler & Koch. And although there is no talk of deliveries of batches of several tens of thousands of units, the very fact of the presence of German specialized weapons in Afghanistan is of interest.
No less exotic in the hands of the Soviet special forces was the British universal Blowpipe portable anti-aircraft missile system, which stood out sharply against the background of the familiar Stingers. However, the British MANPADS, unlike its American "relative", brought the army aviation the least number of problems: the effectiveness of the guidance system and the complex as a whole depended heavily on the skill and training of the shooter. Special Forces veterans note that it was not easy even for trained professionals to manage the complex with a total mass of under nine kilograms.

Unknown heroes

The battle of the 9th company of the 345th Guards Separate Airborne Regiment at Hill 3234 and the operation "Storm-333" are, without exaggeration, one of the most famous Afghan operations. In both cases, specially trained people had to act in conditions of numerical superiority and fire resistance of the enemy. However, the Soviet military in Afghanistan had to fight not in numbers, but in skill more than once.
Three years before the battle at height 3234, on May 25, 1985, the guardsmen of the 4th motorized rifle company of the 149th motorized rifle regiment took an unequal battle with the Mujahideen of the Islamic Party of Afghanistan, who were supported by the Pakistani Black Stork special forces. During the military operation in the Pechdara Gorge, the company was ambushed and surrounded, but for 12 hours 43 soldiers fought off 200 militants. In the episode of the Afghan war, practically unknown until recently, there is another dramatic detail. Covering his own, junior sergeant Vasily Kuznetsov died. Surrounded, having used up ammunition and received several wounds, Kuznetsov, along with his last grenade, destroyed five militants.

In the early summer of 1980, another example of the courage of a Soviet soldier took place near the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan. During the clash near the city of Asadab, only 90 fighters of the 66th Motorized Rifle Brigade fought to the death against 250 militants. The battle near the village of Khara, according to historians, is also notable for the fact that this particular case is considered the most similar to how Soviet soldiers fought during the Great Patriotic War.
“The difficulty of intense combat lies in the fact that ammunition is spent rather quickly. Given the depth of the group’s exit, the specifics of the tasks and the strength of the enemy, such battles rarely end well, ”said Roman Gladkikh, a special forces veteran, in an interview with the Zvezda TV channel.
The main difference between the battle and the rest was the way the group exited the encirclement. Having shot all the ammunition, the fighters rushed to the enemy hand-to-hand. For the entire Afghan campaign, historians count only three such episodes. According to experts, the enemy lost up to 130 people killed and wounded, and the surviving soldiers of the motorized rifle brigade, without a single cartridge, retreated to their own along the river.

caravan hunters

No less interesting in the context of the Afghan war are the activities to search for and destroy caravans with weapons, money and other valuable "gifts" that were supplied by foreign "friends" of the Afghan Mujahideen. However, unlike the GRU special forces, whose tasks included not only searching for caravans and hunting for especially valuable samples of Western weapons, the fighters of the 3rd battalion of the 317th parachute regiment were engaged in the destruction of sabotage groups trying to enter Afghanistan through neighboring Pakistan. The leadership of such operations was carried out by the commander of the 7th company, senior lieutenant Sergei Pivovarov.

At first, the prey of Pivovarov's group were only loners, "suicides" who tried to break through the Shebiyan Pass in pitch darkness. However, in 1982, the paratroopers caught their luck by the tail: in the course of a well-organized ambush, Pivovarov's group immediately removed a whole platoon of Mujahideen. However, the real glory will come to Pivovarov later: during one of the nightly ambushes near the Arghandab River, the group will take drug couriers “alive” with almost two tons of Afghan opium and foreign-made machine guns.
Veterans of the war in Afghanistan note that most of the exploits of Soviet soldiers in this country will never be written. Not because the tasks performed by the special forces were top secret, but because for every known and more than once described feat there were ten or even twelve “ordinary”, but absolutely impossible battles according to all the laws. In total, during the war in Afghanistan for heroism, skill and valor, only the Gold Star of the Hero of the USSR, including posthumous titles, was received by 86 people. At least 200,000 more people were awarded orders and medals for performing combat missions.

THE FIGHT AT THE KISHLAK OF COGNAC: HOW THE “AFGHAN WARRIORS” DESTROYED THE “SPIRITS” IN AN UNEQUAL BATTLE

The battle of Soviet soldiers in the area of this village in May 1985 went down in history of the ten-year Afghan war with the participation of the USSR army as one of the most significant battles of this campaign - a company of our motorized riflemen entered the confrontation with the many times superior forces of the Mujahideen special forces. Having lost more than half of the personnel in a fierce twelve-hour battle, our heroic unit managed to destroy more than a hundred "spirits".

The flaws of the "Kunar operation"

The fourth company of the second motorized rifle battalion of the 149th Guards SME was involved in one of the largest military operations in the history of the war in Afghanistan (with the participation of our troops). The operation was called "Kunar" - in the region of the province of Kunar, according to intelligence, a large number of "spiritual" warehouses with ammunition and weapons were concentrated. The advance of the company to the area of the village of Konyak was the third and final stage of the operation. Motorized riflemen also participated in the first two, and were very exhausted, every day, without a significant respite, liquidating "cache", bypassing continuous minefields in conditions of suffocating heat. But the fighters were given another task, and it had to be completed. Initially, the company was given an erroneous introductory - supposedly the "cache" at Cognac is guarded by small forces of dushmans. The officers of the battalion proposed the optimal route for the movement of our formation in terms of safety. But the high command insisted on its choice of path. Two guides from among the local military were advanced with the company, whom ours did not trust (as it turned out later, not in vain).

Strange wiring behavior

The fourth company, reinforced by a grenade launcher platoon, advanced on a given route, consisted of 63 people. The dominant heights in the course of movement were to be occupied by cover groups. The guides urged the fighters to go in open places, assuring them that there were no mines. But motorized riflemen tried to move closer to the rocks, under their shelter - they did not listen to the guides. Subsequently, this tactic saved the lives of many soldiers and officers, not only of the fourth company, but of the entire battalion. In fact, the guides were mishandled and paid, they deliberately led the company to ambush the "black storks" unit - the special forces of the Mujahideen. On the way, Senior Lieutenant Tranin noticed a convenient place where "spirits" could sit down, and sent a reconnaissance group there.

The feat of junior sergeant Kuznetsov

Two motorized riflemen led by junior sergeant Vasily Kuznetsov walked in the head patrol of the company. Vasily managed to notice the ambush of the "spirits" and give the company a conventional sign, raising his AK-47 up. Severely wounded and bleeding, Kuznetsov fell right in front of the Dushman positions. He managed to collect all the grenades he had, to snatch the pin from one of them. When the Mujahideen ran up to him and wanted to pick him up, they were blown away by a powerful explosion. The scouts Akchebash and Frantsev also died from the bullets of the "spirits". In fact, intelligence at the cost of their lives did not allow the dushmans to carry out a surprise attack on the company.

Alone and without support

Motorized riflemen took up positions in shelters and accepted the battle. Both guides tried to run to the "spirits", but ours shot them. The Dushmans fired heavily from various types of weapons - they had machine guns, carbines, light and heavy machine guns, and even an anti-aircraft mountain mount, a mortar and a recoilless gun. The “spirits” expected that the motorized riflemen would run in fear under such dense fire and then they would kill everyone to the last. But the Soviet soldiers were not going to run away. There were not so many cartridges, and therefore it was necessary to shoot back, mainly in short bursts. When more than five hours had passed since the beginning of the clash, the dushmans, believing that our forces were exhausted, under the cover of hurricane fire, went on the assault. But the "spirits" were thrown with grenades, shot from machine guns and machine guns. The attacks continued again and again. Mujahideen snipers did not allow the main forces of the battalion to come to the aid of the fourth company. Our fighters also could not count on the support of artillery and aviation. The high command on the radio repeatedly asked what was happening and did nothing concrete. The company commander, Captain Alexander Peryatinets, together with two sergeants, Erovenkov and Gareev, steadfastly kept the defense apart from the main group of the company, militants approached them. The sergeants were killed by snipers, and Peryatinets, knowing that the soldiers would not abandon him, and the fire of the “spirits” did not allow him to escape from the siege, decided to destroy the radio station, the map and commit suicide. It would still be impossible to approach the captain because of the dense fire of the dushmans.

Retreat to your

With the onset of darkness, motorized riflemen began to withdraw, bringing out and carrying out the wounded. Then they returned for the bodies of their dead comrades, which the Mujahideen did not expect at all. However, they did not attack. ... According to intelligence, the losses of the "spirits" in that battle amounted to about two hundred people killed and wounded, and the superiority of the Mujahideen was tenfold, the Dushmans also had an advantage in armament.

Why Kuznetsov was never given the Hero

Junior Sergeant Vasily Kuznetsov was posthumously nominated for the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, but was awarded only the Order of Lenin: after 23 soldiers and officers of the motorized rifle battalion died in that battle and 18 more were wounded, a criminal case was opened. Someone from the top decided that in this situation it is better to reissue the award sheet. Army General V. A. Varennikov in his book “The Unique” claims that the wrong route, which led the motorized riflemen into an ambush, was chosen by the command of the battalion itself directly on the march. Although the surviving officers of the 4th company say otherwise: the order to advance in a given direction was given in advance, they simply carried it out.

THE MAN WHO REPEATED MARESEV'S FEAT

AIR FORCE COLONEL, LOSSING BOTH LEGS IN AFGHANISTAN, RETURNED AT THE helm OF THE AIRCRAFT AND EVEN JUMPS WITH A PARACHUTE ... Contrary to the forecasts of doctors, he returned from the other world and again stood in the army. And then he, the last Hero of the Soviet Union, Valery Burkov, having become an adviser to President Boris Yeltsin, defended the rights of soldiers crippled by war on the podium of the UN General Assembly ... ... Father usually left at dawn and, in order not to wake Valery, spoke in a whisper about something to his mother . And he, still a child, was no longer sleeping and, covering his eyes with heavy eyelashes, dreamed of the time when, just like that, putting on a luxurious cap with a blue band, he would say with a smile: “Well, I flew ... Wait!” We all come from childhood. But what we dream about does not always come true. Everyone has their own destiny, their own path. Rarely, he is strewn with roses, more often with thorns ... But it’s not in vain that they say: “If you don’t know grief, you won’t know joy” ... Little Valery was still far from real trials when he, a barefoot boy, with bated breath expected his father, a military man, from flying pilot ... And after many, many years, the time will come when the Hero of the Soviet Union Valery Burkov, the "Afghan" pilot, will speak from the rostrum of the UN General Assembly, and on his initiative, the International Day of Persons with Disabilities will be celebrated all over the world on December 3 ... But all this and many more will come later. In the meantime, the test of strength is life in military garrisons. "Today here, tomorrow there." Father's service is the main thing. This son learned to understand from childhood. For Valery, his father has always been an indisputable authority. He was laconic, even short in a military way. “He managed to give me something with which I could boldly go through life.” Father liked to repeat: “Learn to look at yourself from the outside and evaluate who you really are ... what you are really capable of. And also learn to dream… Without a dream, a person is not interesting either to himself or to those around him…” “Following my father's advice was not easy. Sometimes I really wanted not to notice my shortcomings, to indulge myself ... Especially at the time when I studied at the Chelyabinsk Higher Military Aviation School for Navigators. “We were young, reckless! I wanted something sublime, unearthly, and sometimes the most ordinary, mundane, - says Valery Burkov with a smile. And after a pause, sadly adds: - Yes, it was a wonderful time! Whole life ahead. No one knew what awaits anyone ... "I look at this slender, fit man with gray hair at the temples and see how his face is getting younger and his eyes sparkle mischievously, and a sparkling smile attracts the eye - pleasant memories change a person. “I was very lucky with my classmates. We had the most friendly course, group, department. They say that it was the best course in the history of the school. All the guys are like a match: smart, strong-willed and, most importantly, real friends ... They called me an “experimenter”. For the fact that he loved to fly, be sure to be imaginative, creative. Oh, and I often get for such experiments! But on the other hand, one of the first instructor entrusted me with teaching his own cadets to fly ... Yes, how quickly time flies. We recently celebrated 25 years from the date of issue, but we are still friends. Almost all of our group ended up in Moscow. The guys reached great heights, but remained the same open, young at heart ... ” ... To graduate from the school, grandmother Valeria, who lived in the Altai Territory, sent her grandson a big parting letter. He still remembers it almost by heart. The word “conscience” was repeated in it as many times as there are proverbs and sayings in the Russian language on this topic that is relevant at all times ... “Live according to your conscience” ... - Valery Burkov learned this for life ... And then there was Afghanistan. Father was sent there first. Before parting, they talked all night. Two officers. Two pilots. Father and son. And in parting, the father, as always, briefly asked: “Will you come?” And the son, without a moment's hesitation, replied: "I will come." He was sure that they would definitely meet. There, at war. It simply couldn't be otherwise. “You can treat that war in different ways. Especially now, when many secrets have become clear ... But then I knew that every officer should be there. It was a matter of honor." Valery submitted report after report to his superiors with a request to send him to Afghanistan. But, apparently, his time has not yet come. The young officer was refused, referring to the fact that he is now more needed in his homeland. Father died in 82. They never had a chance to see each other again ... But the 26-year-old senior lieutenant Valery Burkov nevertheless achieved his goal. When another assignment came to the unit, he asked for a lower position and left for Afghanistan as an advanced aircraft controller. Who does not know what it is, I will say: these people in aviation are considered almost suicide bombers. In order to avoid losses, they must detect enemy positions ahead of the infantry and, by radio, indicate the coordinates on which the attack aircraft “work”. To say it was dangerous is an understatement. And I had to learn this “craft” literally on the go. Aircraft controllers were not specially trained anywhere, they were recruited from pilots, and even the most necessary equipment for those leaving on a mission was collected literally “from the world by thread” ... But it was not in vain that Valery was once, back in school, called an “experimenter”. He also managed to develop and implement his innovative proposals there, in the conditions of war, trying to protect the lives of soldiers as much as possible. Twice Valery Burkov was given advance military ranks ahead of schedule ... “Many thought that I went to Afghanistan to avenge my father ... No, I just promised him to come ...” This has been done from time immemorial: someone knocked out his armor in order to stay away from the war, someone considered it shameful to sit in the rear. Neither father nor son could stay away from the Afghan war in which their country was drawn. They felt it was their duty to protect her. ... That day, April 23, 1984, Valery Burkov remembered to the smallest detail. Altitude 3300 meters in the Pandzhera mountains. Here, a year and a half ago, dad died - that's what Valery always called his father ... The battle was over. Somewhere below, in the valley, the broken fortifications of the Mujahideen were still smoking and automatic bursts could be heard. But he, the advanced aircraft controller Valery Burkov, had already completed his task and could finally rest. He took the heavy radio off his back, sat down on a smooth rock and lit a cigarette. The air already smelled of spring. Nature was awakening to new life. “I arrived, dad ... As I promised ...” - Valery remembers that he only managed to utter these words to himself. And then there was an explosion ... What was it? Rupture of a random mine or a grenade thrown at him? Valery never found out about this ... What happened half an hour later is difficult to fit into the narrow framework of a newspaper essay. Is it possible to briefly describe how, bleeding, seriously wounded in both legs, arm and face, Valery Burkov will escape from this hell? he can be saved. And he, Burkov, was from a breed of strong-willed people, and therefore, with all his might and contrary to all forecasts, he survived. Having survived clinical death and amputation of both legs… Hospitals and doctors, compassionate sisters and nannies changed. It was patched, stitched, reshaped… And this went on for exactly twelve months… “When I saw myself without legs, I thought: “So what? The head is in order, everything else is in place ... And I also remembered: Maresyev! He even flew without legs ... Why can't I learn to walk? Valery never picked up crutches. I didn't want to get used to them. He acted more cunningly - he learned to walk, holding on to the stroller ... And he never made himself an indulgence! I remember my first dentures for a long time. Bleeding his knees and clenching his teeth to the point of pain, he descended the stairs, overcoming step by step. And it was the first victory! And then Valery decided to complicate the task. And he went to St. Petersburg to the Institute of Prosthetics alone, without an escort. He will always remember this trip… He spent almost a day on his feet without taking off his prostheses. There were moments when there was no strength to even take a step ... Valery almost lost consciousness from unbearable pain. But he remembered: then, in Afghanistan, it was more difficult. So is it really going to break now, can't stand it? No, it won't! And he stubbornly, step by step, moved forward, knowing that he would not give up. Valery owed this confidence primarily to his father. It was he who, as a child, taught his son to strictly ask, first of all, from himself. But he could always dream. Only dreams at different stages of life were different. Depending on life circumstances. Exactly one year later, to the day, after being wounded, the long-awaited order of the Minister of Defense was signed that he, Major Burkov, remained in the army. How he dreamed about it while still in the hospital! And now it came true! But no one, except Valery himself, believed in this ... As well as the fact that he would get back on his feet and serve in the army for another 13 years, graduate from the Yu.A. Gagarin. While studying at the academy, he will meet a girl ... She will seem to him the most beautiful in the world. Seeing her for the first time, Valery will say to himself: “How long I have been waiting for her! But he could not have waited ... ”And he would immediately drive away this terrible thought. He calls her only Irishka. Although they have been married for eighteen years. Their son Andrei was 5 years old when the Star of the Hero found his father ... Now he is 17, he studies at the famous Baumanovsky. ... Almost 70 years have passed since the title of Hero of the Soviet Union was approved in 1934. Over the years, about 13 thousand people have become heroes in our country ... The last to be awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union by decree of the President of the USSR M. Gorbachev "For heroism and courage shown in the performance of tasks of international assistance to the Republic of Afghanistan, civic prowess, selfless actions", was a warrior-"Afghan" Valery Burkov. His feat was akin to what our soldiers did in the Great Patriotic War. After all, even in war there is always a choice: either to hide behind the backs of others, trying to survive at any cost, or to complete the task, trying not to think about yourself. This is the nature, the essence of achievement. What a pity that this concept is gradually disappearing from our life, in which everything is subject to cold calculation, and sacrificing oneself is not at all fashionable today ... Valery Burkov did not just walk ahead himself. There, in Afghanistan, in a short time he showed himself in such a way that he was entrusted with leading a group of aircraft controllers - the Combat Command Group, where he already had to answer for the lives of others. This is also why he so painfully searched for, and finally found, ways to avoid unnecessary losses. And later, lying in a hospital bed after a severe injury, he will remember Maresyev more than once, his life will become an example for Valery Burkov, and he will also have the strength to cope with himself, overcome pain and other people's distrust. And this, in my opinion, is no less a feat - to prove, first of all, to yourself that it is worth appreciating every moment of this life, so short and so beautiful. Returning, in fact, from the next world, he understood the value of life much better than many. Because death is the only thing that can no longer be changed… Years have passed. A different country has become, many people have radically changed their views and thoughts. And he, Valery Anatolyevich Burkov, remained the same romantic, able to dream ... All these years, in various capacities, he dealt exclusively with the problems of other people, the same as himself, the soldiers of Russia crippled in the war. When he served in the Air Force General Staff, in the evenings, after work, he visited disabled "Afghans" and talked with them. Then he made lists, analyzed, studied the problem from the inside, searched for the necessary documents. For almost a year I went to various high authorities, knocked on all the doors, and then, one might say, miraculously, this “work” ended up on the table of the President of the Russian Federation Boris Yeltsin ... So Valery Anatolyevich became an adviser to the president and already came to grips with familiar problems. As part of delegations and at the invitation, he visited the UN Assembly three times, in many countries of the world ... How did a military officer feel in the role of an official? Valery Anatolyevich does not hide his feelings: “It was probably easier in Afghanistan ... There were other, clearer rules of the game, there was no such distrust, indifference to people ... But any business, if you give yourself completely to it, makes a person wiser, stronger. I deal with people's problems even now, being president of the Center for Social Problems at the Academy of Security, Defense and Law Enforcement Problems, where I am vice president. There is always enough work in the social sphere, whether civilian or military. There are too many unprotected and disadvantaged people in our country ... ”But still, he considers his activities in the Heroes Club, where he works in the field of spiritual and patriotic education, to be the center of the application of his forces. In his opinion, the most important thing now is to reach out to the young, to give them worthy guidelines in life, which they are deprived of for various reasons. He already has experience in holding cultural events. Much remains to be done by Valery Burkov and his associates. He has them, and, fortunately, there are many of them. I know that the Hero of the Soviet Union, the former Afghan pilot Valery Burkov has been writing and performing his own songs for a long time. He has a simply magnificent "Afghan cycle" - songs that take the soul of anyone who has ever heard them. There are others, lyrical, written in different periods of his life. I think that they will still find their audience. Like the unfinished book of reflections - the look of a person who has something to say. Because he knows how not only to dream, but also to realize his dreams ...

How in Afghanistan "Cascade" defeated the guards of Bin Laden.

The Black Stork unit was organized by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar from the most select thugs who underwent extensive training under the guidance of American and Pakistani instructors. Each "stork" simultaneously acted as a radio operator, sniper, miner, etc. In addition, the fighters of this special unit, created to conduct sabotage operations, owned almost all types of small arms and were distinguished by bestial cruelty: they tortured Soviet prisoners of war no worse than the Gestapo.

Although the Black Storks proudly claimed that they had never been defeated by the Soviet troops, this was only partly true. And it concerned only the first years of the war. The fact is that our combat units were not trained for guerrilla warfare, but for large-scale military operations. Therefore, at first they suffered tangible losses.
I had to learn by doing. And both soldiers and officers. But not without tragic incidents. For example, the major, who bore the strange nickname Zero Eight, raised combat helicopters into the sky and completely destroyed the column of our allies, the fighters of Babrak Karmal, on the march. Later I learned that "zero-eight" is the density of oak. At the same time, the special forces soldiers were much better prepared and looked simply brilliant against the background of such “oak” majors.
By the way, before the Afghan war, only officers served in this unit. The decision to recruit conscripts and sergeants into the ranks of special forces was made by the Soviet command already during the conflict.
A group of Soviet special forces fell into an ambush, skillfully placed by "storks", while performing the most common task.

- We received information that some gang defeated a caravan of fuel tankers 40 kilometers from Kabul. According to army intelligence, this convoy was carrying a secret cargo - new Chinese rocket launchers and possibly chemical weapons. And gasoline was just a cover.
Our group needed to find the surviving soldiers, cargo and deliver them to Kabul. The size of a regular full-time special forces group is ten people. And the smaller the group, the easier it is to work. But this time it was decided to unite the two groups under the command of Senior Lieutenant Boris Kovalev and reinforce them with experienced fighters. Therefore, the trainee senior lieutenant Jan Kuskis, as well as two warrant officers Sergei Chaika and Viktor Stroganov, went on a free search.
We set out during the day, light, in the heat. They did not take helmets or body armor. It was believed that the commando was ashamed to put on all this ammunition. Silly, of course, but this unwritten rule has always been strictly followed. We didn’t even take enough food with us, as we planned to return before dark.
Each of the fighters carried a 5.45 mm AKS-74 assault rifle, while the officers preferred the 7.62 mm AKM. In addition, the group was armed with 4 PKM - modernized Kalashnikov machine guns. This very powerful weapon fired the same cartridges as the Dragunov sniper rifle - 7.62 mm by 54 mm. Although the caliber is the same as that of the AKM, the cartridge case is longer, and therefore the charge of gunpowder is more powerful. In addition to machine guns and machine guns, each of us took with us about a dozen defensive grenades "efok" - F-1, with a fragmentation spread of 200 meters. We despised the offensive RGD-5 for its low power and jammed the fish with them.
The consolidated group walked along the hills parallel to the Kabul-Ghazni highway, which very much resembles the Chilik-Chundzha highway in the Almaty region.
The gentle and long climbs exhausted us much more than the steepest rocks. It seemed like they would never end. It was very difficult to walk. The rays of the high-mountain sun roasted our backs, and the earth, hot as a frying pan, breathed into our faces with unbearable burning heat.
Around 19 pm, the commander of the joint group, Kovalev, decided to “sit down” for the night. The fighters occupied the top of the Kazazhora hill and began to build loopholes from basalt stone - round cells half a meter high.
Andrey Dmitrienko recalls:
- In each such fortification there were 5-6 people. I was in the same cell with Alexei Afanasiev, Tolkyn Bektanov and two Andreis - Moiseev and Shkolenov. The group commander Kovalev, senior lieutenant Kushkis and the radiotelegraph operator Kalyagin were located about two hundred and fifty meters from the main group.
When it got dark, we decided to light a cigarette, and then from the neighboring skyscrapers we were suddenly hit by five DShKs - large-caliber Degtyarev-Shpagin machine guns. This machine gun, eloquently nicknamed the “king of the mountains” in Afghanistan, was sold by the USSR to China in the seventies. During the Afghan conflict, the functionaries of the Celestial Empire did not lose their heads and resold this powerful weapon to dushmans. Now we had to test the terrible power of five large-caliber "kings" in our own skin.
Heavy bullets of 12.7 mm caliber crushed fragile basalt into dust. Looking out into the loophole, I saw how a crowd of dushmans was rolling towards our position from below. There were two hundred of them. Everyone was scribbling with Kalashnikovs and yelling. In addition to the dagger fire of the DShK, the attackers were covered by the machine guns of their coreligionists hiding in shelters.
We immediately noticed that the spirits were not behaving in the same way as always, but too professionally. While some were making a swift dash forward, others were beating us with machine guns so that they didn't let us raise our heads. In the darkness, we could only see the silhouettes of the rapidly advancing Mujahideen, which strongly looked like disembodied ghosts. And the sight was terrifying. But even the fuzzy contours of the fleeing enemies were lost every now and then.
Having made another throw, the spooks instantly fell to the ground and pulled dark hoods of black American “Alaskas” or dark green camouflage jackets over their heads. Because of this, they completely merged with the rocky soil and hid for a while. After that, the attackers and coverrs changed roles. The fire didn't stop even for a second.
This was very strange, given that most of the Mujahideen were usually armed with Chinese and Egyptian-made Kalashnikovs. The fact is that the Egyptian and Chinese fakes AKM and AK-47 could not withstand long-term shooting, as they were made of low-quality steel. Their barrels, when heated, expanded, and the bullets flew very weakly. Having fired two or three horns, such machine guns simply began to “spit”.
Letting the "spirits" a hundred meters, we hit back. After our queues mowed down several dozen attackers, the dushmans crawled back. However, it was too early to rejoice: there were still too many enemies, and we obviously did not have enough ammunition. I want to especially note the completely idiotic order of the USSR Ministry of Defense, according to which no more than 650 rounds of ammunition were issued to a fighter for one combat exit. Looking ahead, I’ll say that after returning, we severely beat the foreman who gave us ammunition. To no longer carry out such stupid orders. And it helped!
It is interesting that the "spirits" almost did not shoot at the cell of the group commander Kovalev, where he was with senior lieutenant Kushkis and radiotelegrapher Kalyagin. The enemy concentrated all his forces on us. Maybe the Mujahideen decided that the three fighters would not go anywhere anyway? Such neglect played a cruel joke on our enemies. At that moment, when our fire from a lack of ammunition was catastrophically weakened and we could no longer hold back the onslaught of the advancing "spirits", Kovalev, Kushkis and Kalyagin unexpectedly hit them in the rear.
Hearing the explosions of grenades and the crackle of automatic bursts, at first we even thought that reinforcements had approached us.
But then the group commander rolled into our cell, along with an intern and a radio operator. During the breakthrough, they destroyed about a dozen "spirits".
In response, angry Mujahideen, not limited to the murderous fire of five DShKs, began to hit the cells with hand grenade launchers. From direct hits, the layered stone shattered into pieces. Many fighters were wounded by fragments of grenades and stones. Since we did not take dressing bags with us, we had to bandage the wounds with torn vests.
Unfortunately, at that time we did not have night sights, and only Sergei Chaika had infrared binoculars. Having looked out for a grenade launcher, he shouted to me: “Reptile for seven hours! Piss him off!" And I sent a short line there. How many people I laid down then, I don’t know exactly. But probably around 30.
This fight was not the first for me, and I already had to kill people. But in war, killing is not considered murder - it's just a way to survive yourself. Here you need to quickly react to everything and shoot very accurately.
When I left for Afghanistan, my grandfather, a machine gunner, a veteran of the Great Patriotic War, told me: “Never look at the enemy, but immediately shoot at him. Consider later."
Before the departure, the political workers told us that the Mujahideen had cut off the ears, noses and other organs of our dead soldiers, they had gouged out their eyes.
After my arrival in Kabul, I discovered that ours also cut off the ears of the dead "spirits". A bad example is contagious, and soon I was doing the same. But my passion for collecting was interrupted by a special officer who caught me on the 57th ear. All dried exhibits, of course, had to be thrown away.
Realizing that our group would not have enough strength or ammunition, the radiotelegrapher Afanasiev began to call Kabul. I lay next to him and heard with my own ears the answer of the garrison duty officer. This officer, when asked to send reinforcements, replied indifferently: "Get out yourself."
Only now I understand why the special forces soldiers were called disposable.
Here the heroism of Afanasiev was fully manifested, who turned off the radio and yelled loudly: “Guys, hold on, help is already coming!”
This news inspired everyone except me, since I alone knew the terrible truth.
We had very few cartridges left, the group was forced to rearrange the fire translators to single shots. All our fighters shot perfectly, so many of the Mujahideen were hit by single fire. Realizing that they couldn’t take us head-on, the “spirits” resorted to a trick. They began to shout that we had mistakenly attacked our allies, the fighters of the tsarandoy - the Afghan militia.
Knowing that dushmans fight very badly in the light of day, Ensign Sergei Chaika began to play for time in the hope of surviving until morning and waiting for reinforcements. To this end, he offered the enemy negotiations. Dushmans agreed.
Chaika himself set out as truce truants with Matvienko, Baryshkin and Rakhimov. Having let them in about 50 meters, the "spirits" suddenly opened fire. Alexander Matvienko was killed by the first round, and Misha Baryshkin was seriously injured. I still remember how he, lying on the ground, convulsively twitches and shouts: “Guys, help! We're bleeding!"
All the fighters, as if on command, opened barrage fire. Thanks to this, Chaika and Rakhimov miraculously managed to return. Unfortunately, we failed to save Baryshkin. He was lying about a hundred and fifty meters from our positions, in an open area. He soon quieted down.
The night battle reached its climax at 4 o'clock in the morning, when the "spirits" resolutely launched another attack. They did not spare the cartridges and loudly yelled: “Shuravi, taslim!” - an analogue of the fascist "Rus, give up!"
I was shaking from the cold and nervous tension, but most of all I was oppressed by the complete uncertainty. And I was very afraid. He was afraid of imminent death and possible torture, afraid of the unknown. Anyone who says that the war is not scary - either was not there, or is lying.
We have used up almost all the ammunition. Nobody saved the last cartridge for themselves. His role with the special forces is played by the last grenade. This is much more reliable and you can drag a few more enemies with you.
I still had seven rounds of ammunition left, a couple of grenades and a knife, when we began to negotiate among ourselves about who would finish off the wounded. They decided that those whom the lot would point to would stab them with knives. The remaining ammo is only for the enemy. It sounds terrible, but it was impossible to leave comrades alive. The Mujahideen would have brutally tortured them before they died.
As we cast lots, we heard the sound of helicopter propellers. To celebrate, I threw the last grenades at the dushmans. And then, like a cold, a terrible thought came over me: what if helicopters pass by?
But they did not pass by. It turned out that the helicopter pilots of the "stray" Alexandria regiment, based near Kandahar, flew to our rescue. This regiment served as penal officers who had numerous problems in the service. When our company stood next to these helicopter pilots, we drank vodka with them more than once. But although discipline was lame on both legs, they were not afraid of anything. Several transport Mi-8s and combat Mi-24s, better known as "crocodiles", hit the dushmans with machine guns and drove them away from our positions. Having quickly loaded two dead and 17 wounded comrades into helicopters, we jumped ourselves and left the enemy to bite his elbows.
Subsequently, the intelligence center of a limited contingent of Soviet troops in Afghanistan received information that in that battle our group had destroyed 372 trained militants. It also turned out that they were commanded by a young and little-known then Osama bin Laden. The agents testified that after this battle, the future famous terrorist, beside himself with rage, trampled on his own turban and with the last words winged his assistants. This defeat fell on the "storks" as an indelible stain of shame.
A week of mourning was declared in all Afghan villages controlled by the "spirits", and the leaders of the Mujahideen vowed to destroy our entire 459th company.
It is a pity that none of us put a bullet in bin Laden: the world would now be much calmer and the twin towers in New York would now stand in their place. True, he hardly ran on the attack along with the "storks". He was probably hiding behind some kind of tubercle.
After this fight, we drank without drying out for two whole weeks. And no one said a single word of reproach to us. The group commander, senior lieutenant Boris Kovalev, probationary senior lieutenant Jan Kushkis, ensign Sergei Chaika, radiotelegraph operator Kalyagin, and Alexander Matvienko and Mikhail Baryshkin, who died heroically, were awarded the Order of the Red Star. For some reason, the rest of the fighters were not awarded. They have already received awards for other operations.

And one soldier in the tank.

Igolchenko Sergey Viktorovich - senior tank driver of one of the units of the Ground Forces as part of the 40th Army of the Red Banner Turkestan Military District (limited contingent of Soviet troops in the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan), private.

Born on July 4, 1966 in the village of Berezovka, Buturlinovsky District, Voronezh Region (now within the city of Buturlinovka) into a peasant family. Russian. He graduated from the 8th grade of the Berezovskaya eight-year school and a vocational school. He worked at the Berezovsky collective farm.
In the Soviet Army since November 1985. He served as part of a limited contingent of Soviet troops in Afghanistan. The senior mechanic-driver of the tank, member of the Komsomol, private Sergey Igolchenko, whose combat vehicle was blown up by enemy mines and land mines six times during the period of participation in hostilities, was wounded twice, shell-shocked six times, but remained in service each time.
As Sergei Igolchenko himself recalled: “... one of the lessons of Afghanistan: the tank crew is on the armor while moving. Except, of course, the driver. Correctly said: a bullet is a fool. It can catch on, or it can whistle past. Another thing is a mine or a landmine. Turn out to be the crew during the explosion inside the tank - you will not envy the guys. And so, it will only shake, but it will be thrown to the ground. The mechanic has nowhere to go, his place is in the womb of the machine. Undermining for him is a disaster ... "
By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Council of March 3, 1988, for the courage and heroism shown in providing international assistance to the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan, Private Igolchenko Sergey Viktorovich was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union with the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal (No. 11569).
In 1987, the brave tanker soldier was transferred to the reserve and returned to his homeland. He worked as a bricklayer in a construction team, and in subsequent years - as a master of industrial training at Vocational School No. 39 in the city of Buturlinovka, Voronezh Region ...
He was awarded the Order of Lenin, the Gold Star medal.

AND ONE WARRIOR IN THE TANK
He was sitting in the tank all alone and ... resting. The entire crew, plus the battalion commander and two sappers taken by the "passengers" for armor, went on reconnaissance on foot. Huge boulders, maybe accidentally scattered across the road by someone, were an insurmountable obstacle. We tried to storm them from acceleration - it did not work out.
So, the group disappeared ahead, and he was left in the car for the owner. The dream came true.
Sergei Igolchenko, while still in the training unit, hoped to become a commander of a tank crew. But no one asked about his dreams. Identified in the gunners. I had to become the best gunner. among the cadets. And again, a nuisance: they just didn’t want to let go of school. Well, the commander turned out to be democratic. I agreed with the arguments of the subordinate: indeed, in Afghanistan, he is more needed. And already there, after a few months, he had the opportunity to change his military specialty. The company needed a driver, but there were no free specialists.
I must say, there are requirements for driver-mechanics - as for test pilots, who, according to a front-line saying, must fly freely on everything that flies, and with some effort - on what cannot fly. So, Igolchenko did his tests well, with some even, as the senior technician of the company said, art. And the fact that during his service, Private Igolchenko was blown up by mines and land mines six times, burned, was shell-shocked, in no way detracts from his professionalism. By Afghan standards, such a number of "accidents" does not even pull for a hole in a technical ticket.
... The group retreated about three hundred meters, when a flash of a shot flashed on the right slope. Immediately, a large-caliber machine gun fired, rifles clapped randomly.
He “plugged” one of the recoilless guns with the very first shot: it turned out that he didn’t seem to have weaned from his former military specialty. Then I had to act for the tank commander.
- Recharge!
But there was no one to charge. Overcoming the sudden pain in the knee joint, he moved to the place of the loader. Now back to the target. Another firing point destroyed. And on the armor, bullets, fragments of stones and shells whipped with blunt, screeching blows. And he commanded himself again: Charge!
And ran the command again. Without ceasing to think, how is it, ahead, guys, the battalion commander? On the one hand, it would be necessary to go to them, on the other hand, the tank must not be left. But the commander, even without subordinates, is not only to give commands. Must make decisions. Risky? Yes. But also the only true ones. And the commander Igolchenko gave the order to ordinary Igolchenko to return to the regular place of the driver.
The boulders, of course, did not part on the second attempt. Just moved forward a little. But even this "concession" was enough for the tank, with a strained roar of the engine, to squeeze between them and the rocky slope of the mountain.
...Soon the crew was in place. Igolchenko turned the car, working with a machine gun on the course. Sappers fired from machine guns from the tower. But then a caterpillar was damaged by a shot from a grenade launcher. Well, "driver" is a two-word term. Their order is not random. If a mechanic fails to immediately change a damaged track in the midst of a battle, then as a driver he will be left without work. In this case, professional suitability is a matter of life and death.
- Well, you are a hero, however! - the senior technician of the company kept saying, examining the tank after the battle.
And ... as he looked into the water.

Updated May 17, 2018. Created 03 Oct 2016

The first operation of the border guards

Death of Valery Ukhabov

Salang pass

Private Maltsev rescued Afghan children in Salanga

The paratrooper was given the first Hero of the Soviet Union posthumously

And looked death in the face

Shcherbakov saved his comrade

Heroes are not forgotten

The heroes of the Afghan war are military personnel who participated in the battles on the territory of this Asian country as part of the Limited Contingent of Soviet Forces. Many of them were awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union. Among them are both representatives of the commanding staff and privates, who often amazed those around them with their courage and courage. It is impossible to determine exactly how many heroes of the Afghan war distinguished themselves on the battlefields. It is only known that 86 people were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, another 7 people received the title of Hero of Russia.

Hero of the Afghan War, Marshal of the Soviet Union Sergei Akhromeev was awarded the honorary title of Hero of the Soviet Union in 1982. He also distinguished himself on the fields of the Great Patriotic War. In the 1970s, he headed the operational department of the General Staff. In 1979 he was appointed First Deputy Chief of the General Staff. It was in this position that he repeatedly traveled to Afghanistan, carried out direct leadership of the military operations of the Soviet troops.

One of the merits of Akhromeev is the leadership of specific military operations that were carried out in Afghanistan throughout the campaign, right up to the final withdrawal of Soviet troops.

Already in the late 80s, he became an adviser to the chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Council, whose post at that time was occupied by Mikhail Gorbachev. Akhromeev directly advised the future president of the USSR on military issues.

In the second half of the 80s, he was also noted as a deputy of the Supreme Council from the Moldavian Republic. He was a member of the Defense and Security Committee. He was an active generator of the idea of the danger of the rapid conquest of the Soviet Union by NATO countries.

People who knew Akhromeev closely noted that the marshal always enjoyed great respect both in the army and in the communist party. This was largely due to the excellent service in Afghanistan. At the same time, he was often incomprehensible to the position of Gorbachev, who regularly postponed the solution of the most important army problems, which Akhromeev himself considered urgent. In 1991, he submitted his resignation, but the President of the USSR hesitated even to resolve this issue.

A participant in the Afghan war, the hero of the USSR Akhromeev was an ardent supporter of the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan. Therefore, he enthusiastically accepted this decision when it was finally accepted by the top leadership of the USSR.

The hero of the Afghan war, Valentin Varennikov, was also a high-ranking military leader. In 1978 he became a general in the army.

In Afghanistan, he led the control group of the Ministry of Defense in the USSR until the direct withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan. Already in 1989 he became the commander-in-chief of the ground forces in the status of deputy minister of defense. He retired in 1991 during the collapse of the USSR.

It was for his service in Afghanistan that the hero of the Afghan war Varennikov received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. In Afghanistan, many noted his not only tactical thinking, but organizational skills, the ability to quickly find solutions to the most complex issues.

Actively participated in the events of 1991 in Vilnius, was one of the leaders of the capture of the television center, which was carried out by Soviet troops. As a result of these armed clashes (according to official information), 14 people were killed, more than seven hundred were injured of varying severity.

There is a version that Varennikov made the decision to use force in Vilnius personally, without consulting Soviet President Gorbachev.

Among the participants in the Afghan war, the heroes of the USSR and the Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation Pavel Grachev.

In Afghanistan, he took part, being in senior positions in the Soviet army. In May 1988, he was noted for the brilliant conduct of the military operation, as a result of which he managed to occupy the strategically important Satukandav Pass, located in the province of Khost. It was especially noted that Grachev succeeded in doing this with minimal human losses. At the same time, he commanded the 103rd Airborne Division. It was then that Major General Grachev was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. He remained in the Afghan war until the final withdrawal of the Limited Contingent of Soviet Troops.

He received the post of Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation in 1992. It was noted by many that he appointed almost all of his deputies from among the generals and officers whom he personally and well knew from Afghanistan. He tried to oppose the accelerated withdrawal of Russian units from the republics of the Transcaucasus, the Baltic states, and certain regions of Central Asia, arguing that Russia itself does not yet have the necessary resources to resolve domestic and social issues that military personnel and their families will face when they return to Russia.

Grachev was remembered for his opposition to politicization, liquidating many politicized army organizations, including the Independent Trade Union of Military Personnel, the All-Russian Officers' Assembly.

At first, as Minister of Defense, he was distinguished by the fact that he suited almost all parties. He was not criticized either by the President of Russia or by the Communists, whose influence at that time was very tangible. He opposed any participation of the army in solving domestic political problems. At the same time, in 1993, during the crisis, he supported President Yeltsin, after which he began to be often criticized by opposition forces. It was the troops called by him who stormed the parliament, making further resistance impossible.

Grachev repeatedly stated that he was categorically against the introduction of troops into Chechnya, declaring this at meetings of the Security Council. However, Yeltsin and Prime Minister Chernomyrdin offered to dismiss him for his pacifist sentiments.

Until January 1995, he led the actions of the Russian army in Chechnya from headquarters in Mozdok. But after several unsuccessful offensive operations in a row, he returned to Moscow. After that, he began to be subjected to massive criticism for failures in Chechnya and for the lack of reforms in the army.

Grachev himself was one of the first at that time to begin to declare that the armed forces should be reduced and in the future be formed according to a mixed principle with a gradual transition to a contract basis.

In June 1996 he was dismissed.

Boris Gromov is the hero of the Afghan war, whose photo is presented above. In 1984, he received the post of deputy commander of the Carpathian military district, and later was the official representative of the General Staff in Afghanistan.

Then he was temporarily returned from Afghanistan to the Belarusian Military District, where he led the 28th Army, and in 1987 he was returned to the "hot spot" to take charge of the 40th Army. At the same time, Gromov served as authorized representative of the USSR government for the temporary stay of troops in this Asian country.

Boris Gromov received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union in 1988 for the planning and successful implementation of the operation, codenamed "Magistral". Its goal was to remove the blockade from the city of Khost, which was besieged by Afghan rebels.

After the end of the Afghan war, Gromov's career developed very successfully. He was a deputy of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, and then the governor of the Moscow region.

Sergey Igolchenko

The list of heroes of the Afghan war includes not only military leaders, but also privates, representatives of junior officers. Among them, many should be noted, for example, the senior tank mechanic Sergei Igolchenko, who served in the motorized rifle brigade of the 40th Army, which belonged to the Turkestan military district. He received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union as a private.

Igolchenko was born in 1966 in a small village in the Voronezh region, which today has become a district of the city of Buturlinovka. Grew up in a purely peasant family. After the 8th grade, he entered a vocational school, where he received a diploma as a general-purpose machine operator. He worked in the nearby collective farm "Berezovsky".

In 1985 he was drafted into the Soviet army. He fell to serve in the limited contingent of Soviet troops who went to Afghanistan. Quite quickly he mastered the specialty of a senior tank driver, which was close to his peaceful profession.

The tank under the control of Igolchenko repeatedly took part in the hostilities, at least six times being blown up by mines and land mines of the enemy. During this time, Igolchenko himself was wounded twice, received six shell shocks (each time after an explosion), but invariably remained in the ranks.

He received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union in the Afghan War (1979-1989) in 1988 with the wording "For courage and heroism".

Returning to civilian life, he worked as a bricklayer, and then as a master of industrial training at a school, which he once graduated from.

You can learn a lot of interesting things about the heroes of the Afghan war and their exploits from this article. It is necessary to mention Army General Yuri Maksimov, who was awarded this title in 1982. He can be attributed to the first heroes of the Afghan war, who managed to distinguish themselves soon after the introduction of a limited contingent of Soviet troops into Afghanistan.

With the outbreak of hostilities on the territory of this country, the 40th Army, which officially belonged to the Turkestan military district, mainly participated in battles and operations.

The commander of this army and its headquarters were responsible for the full supply of troops, weapons and replenishment of personnel in case of need. Maximov himself was directly involved in the preparation of military personnel for military operations, operational management and leadership, and planning of major military operations. For a long time he was in Afghanistan, as his work was positively assessed by the command.

The title of Hero of the Soviet Union was awarded to him in 1982 for the successful completion of the tasks that the government set before him. That was the official wording. Along with the most honorary title in the USSR, Maksimov also received a promotion, becoming an army general.

Andrey Melnikov

The photo of the hero of the Afghan war Andrei Melnikov is well known to everyone who was interested in the feat of Soviet soldiers during the assault on height 3234 in the province of Khost. Guards private Melnikov, who received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union posthumously, also participated in it.

Hero of the Afghan war (1979-1989) Melnikov comes from Belarusian Mogilev. He was born in 1968 to a working-class family. After graduating from 10 classes, he entered the vocational school. At the state farm "Dneprovsky", located in the Mogilev region, he worked as a tractor driver. He married very early, at the age of 17. A year later, his daughter was born.

In this regard, Melnikov had the official opportunity to refuse to serve in the army, but he himself agreed to fly to Afghanistan. He arrived at the location of the Soviet troops in the fall of 1986. In April 1987, he became part of a limited contingent. At that time he was 18 years old. He took part in six military operations.

Melnikov served as a machine gunner, having particularly distinguished himself in the battles for Hill 3234, in which Soviet troops were opposed by superior enemy forces. The most fierce fighting took place on January 7 and 8, 1988.

Melnikov conducted aimed fire for a long time, often changing his position, due to which he managed to repel numerous enemy attacks. After using all the ammo, he was able to get to a nearby hideout to find more ammo there. But when he got there, he managed to say only one phrase: "Ammunition, everything ...". When the bulletproof vest was removed from the already dead hero, they could not believe that he remained alive for so long, despite numerous injuries. Eyewitnesses claim that Melnikov should have died a few hours ago, but still continued to defend himself, fulfilling the order. From the blast waves, the plates of his body armor were as if pressed into the body.

This is another one of the stories about the heroes of the Afghan war and their exploits, which has remained in the memory of many.

Among the Soviet heroes of the Afghan war is Igor Chmurov, a native of the Smolensk region, the small town of Yartsevo. In Afghanistan, he served as a sergeant in the Airborne Forces.

He accomplished his feat in December 1985 as part of the company of Senior Lieutenant Peskov. The military unit was instructed to block the gorge in which the dushmans were located. There they created a strong base, which had a large amount of ammunition, weapons and food. The base was well fortified, so it could hold the defense for a long time.

In the fog and snowfall, the enemy decided to make an attempt to dislodge the Soviet detachments from the positions they occupied. The attack began with massive support from mortars, recoilless rifles, heavy machine guns. Dushmans went on the attack from several directions at once. During the battle, it turned out that the forces of the opponents significantly outnumbered the defenders in the Soviet detachments. In a critical situation, the company commander Peskov decides, together with two platoons, to go to help the neighbors, and at the same time the cover group, which included Chmurov, remained at a key height.

The enemy made repeated attempts to capture the height, unleashing powerful squally fire on the positions of the Soviet troops, but to no avail. The seriously wounded Chmurov did not retreat, coming out as the actual winner of this fight.

Later, describing these events, he said that spooks all the time tried to break through to the entrance to the gorge, not only fragments of shells, but also pieces of rocks flew over their heads. His machine gun was almost out of ammo when he noticed that the opponents were moving into the rear of the platoon. At this moment, Chmurov is wounded in the thigh, the ammunition is finally running out, and he sees that the spooks are already two steps away from him. Then he used a grenade, thanks to the explosion, the attack bogged down, he managed to defend the height.

Alexander Stovba

Lieutenant Alexander Stovba was part of the 66th motorized rifle brigade that fought in Afghanistan. He tragically died at the very beginning of the war, in 1980, having received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union posthumously.

It is noteworthy that after his death he became known as a poet who wrote military poetry. He was even posthumously awarded the Lenin Komsomol Prize.

23-year-old Stovba arrived to serve in Afghanistan at the very beginning of 1980. He commanded a motorized rifle platoon. In March, his platoon was surrounded by opponents in the province of Kunar near the village of Seran. Stovba himself was wounded in the leg, but refused to retreat with the rest, remaining behind to cover the retreat of his unit. In this battle, he died.

There are also many heroes of Russia among the participants in the Afghan war. In addition, many of them soon after the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan were forced to take part in another deadly armed conflict - the Chechen war. And there it was necessary to perform feats, to show courage and courage.

Yevgeny Rodkin entered military service in 1972. After he was demobilized, he went to work in the police. From 1984 to 1986, he was directly involved in providing assistance to law enforcement agencies of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan, sharing his experience in organizing law and order. He also took part in military operations. In particular, he participated in battles in the province of Khost, for which he received the Order of the Red Star.

Rodkin is a hero of the Afghan and Chechen wars. Since 1995, he regularly went on business trips to Chechnya. In the spring of 1996, he headed a group that repelled an attack by militants on checkpoints on the outskirts of Grozny. His group was attacked by superior enemy forces. After a 4-hour battle, he was injured, but remained in the battle, continuing to command the group until he died, repelling another attempt by the militants to crush the detachment by force.

He was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of Russia.