home

Afghan the whole truth about the terrible war. About the horrors of the Afghan war: the story of a participant in the events & nbsp. Foreign witnesses speak

We continue the series of publications about the war in Afghanistan.

Corporal of the Airborne Forces Sergey Boyarkinefreitor of the Airborne Forces Sergey Boyarkin
(317 RAP, Kabul, 1979-81)

For the entire time of service in Afghanistan (almost a year and a half) since December 1979. I have heard so many stories about how our paratroopers killed the civilian population just like that, that they simply cannot be counted, and I have never heard that our soldiers saved one of the Afghans - among the soldiers, such an act would be regarded as aiding the enemies.

Even during the December coup in Kabul, which lasted all night on December 27, 1979, some paratroopers shot at unarmed people who were seen on the streets - then, without a shadow of regret, they cheerfully recalled this as funny cases.

Two months after the introduction of troops - February 29, 1980. - The first military operation began in the province of Kunar. The main striking force was the paratroopers of our regiment - 300 soldiers who parachuted from helicopters on a high mountain plateau and went down to restore order. As the participants in that operation told me, order was put in the following way: food stocks were destroyed in the villages, all livestock was killed; usually, before entering the house, they threw a grenade there, then they shot with a fan in all directions - only after that they looked who was there; all men and even teenagers were immediately shot on the spot. The operation lasted almost two weeks, no one counted how many people were killed then.

What our paratroopers did for the first two years in remote areas of Afghanistan was complete arbitrariness. Since the summer of 1980 the 3rd battalion of our regiment was sent to the province of Kandahar to patrol the territory. Without fear of anyone, they calmly traveled along the roads and the desert of Kandahar and could, without any clarification, kill any person who met on their way.

He was killed just like that, with a machine gun burst, without leaving the BMDshek armor.
Kandahar, summer 1981

A photograph of the murdered Afghan, which was taken from his belongings.

Here is the most common story that an eyewitness told me. Summer 1981 province of Kandahar. Photo - a dead Afghan and his donkey lie on the ground. The Afghan went his own way and led the donkey. Of the weapons, the Afghan had only a stick, with which he drove the donkey. A column of our paratroopers was driving along this road. He was killed just like that, with a machine gun burst, without leaving the BMDshek armor.

The column stopped. One paratrooper came up and cut off the ears of the dead Afghan - in memory of his military exploits. Then a mine was planted under the Afghan's corpse to kill anyone else who found this body. Only this time the idea did not work - when the column started off, someone could not resist and finally fired a burst at the corpse from a machine gun - a mine exploded and tore the Afghan's body to pieces.

The caravans they met were searched, and if they found weapons (and the Afghans almost always had old rifles and guns), then they killed all the people who were in the caravan, and even animals. And when the travelers did not have any weapons, then, sometimes, they used the right practiced trick - during the search, they quietly pulled out a cartridge from their pocket, and, pretending that this cartridge was found in the pocket or in the things of an Afghan, they presented it to the Afghan as evidence his guilt.

These photos are taken from the dead Afghans. They were killed because their caravan met with a column of our paratroopers.
Kandahar summer 1981

Now it was possible to mock: after listening to a person warmly justifying himself, convincing that the cartridge was not his, they began to beat him, then watched him beg on his knees for mercy, but he was again beaten and then shot. Then they killed the rest of the people who were in the caravan.
In addition to patrolling the territory, the paratroopers often ambushed enemies on the roads and paths. These "caravan hunters" never found out anything - not even the presence of weapons among travelers - they simply suddenly fired from cover at everyone who passed in that place, sparing no one, even women and children.

I remember one paratrooper, a participant in hostilities, admired:

I would never have thought that this is possible! We kill everyone in a row - and for this they only praise us and hang awards!

Here is the documentary evidence. Wall newspaper with information about the military operations of the 3rd battalion, carried out in the summer of 1981. in Kandahar province.

It can be seen here that the number of Afghans killed is three times the number of captured weapons: 2 machine guns, 2 grenade launchers and 43 rifles were seized, and 137 people were killed.

The mystery of the Kabul rebellion

Two months after the introduction of troops into Afghanistan, on February 22-23, 1980, Kabul was shaken by a major anti-government rebellion. Everyone who was then in Kabul remembered those days well: the streets were filled with crowds of protesters, they shouted, rioted, there was shooting all over the city. This rebellion was not prepared by any opposition forces or foreign intelligence services, it began completely unexpectedly for everyone: both for the Soviet military stationed in Kabul and for the Afghan leadership. Here is how Colonel General Viktor Merimsky recalls those events in his memoirs:

"... All the central streets of the city were filled with excited people. The number of demonstrators reached 400 thousand people ... There was confusion in the Afghan government. Marshal S. L. Sokolov, General of the Army S. F. Akhromeev and I left our residence for the Afghan Ministry of Defense, where we met with the Minister of Defense of Afghanistan M. Rafi. He could not answer our question about what is happening in the capital ... "

The reason that served as an impetus for such a stormy protest of the townspeople has not been clarified. Only after 28 years did I manage to find out the whole background of those events. As it turned out, the rebellion was provoked by the reckless trick of our paratrooper officers.

senior lieutenant Alexander Vovk
Alexander Vovk

The first commandant of Kabul, Major Yuri Nozdryakov (right).
Afghanistan, Kabul, 1980

It all started with the fact that on February 22, 1980, in Kabul, in broad daylight, Senior Lieutenant Alexander Vovk, a senior instructor in the Komsomol of the political department of the 103rd Airborne Division, was killed.

The story of Vovk's death was told to me by the first commandant of Kabul, Major Yuriy Nozdryakov. This happened near the "Green Market", where Vovk arrived in an UAZ vehicle together with the air defense chief of the 103rd Airborne Division, Colonel Yuri Dvugroshev. They did not fulfill any task, but, most likely, they simply wanted to buy something in the market. They were in the car when suddenly one shot was fired - the bullet hit Vovk. Dvugroshev and the soldier-driver did not even understand where they were shooting from, and quickly left this place. However, Vovk's wound turned out to be fatal, and he died almost immediately.

Deputy commander of the 357th regiment, Major Vitaly Zababurin (in the middle).
Afghanistan, Kabul, 1980

And then something happened that shook the whole city. Upon learning of the death of their comrade, a group of officers and ensigns of the 357th Airborne Regiment, led by the regiment's deputy commander, Major Vitaly Zababurin, got into armored personnel carriers and went to the scene to deal with local residents. But, having arrived at the scene, they did not bother to search for the culprit, but in a hot head decided to simply punish everyone who was there. Moving along the street, they began to smash and crush everything in their path: they threw grenades at houses, fired from machine guns and machine guns on armored personnel carriers. Dozens of innocent people fell under the hot hand of officers.
The massacre ended, but the news of the bloody pogrom quickly spread throughout the city. The streets of Kabul began to flood thousands of indignant citizens, riots began. At that time, I was on the territory of the government residence, behind the high stone wall of the Palace of the Peoples. I will never forget that wild howl of the crowd, inspiring fear, from which the blood ran cold. The feeling was the worst...

The rebellion was crushed within two days. Hundreds of Kabul residents were killed. However, the real instigators of those riots, who massacred innocent people, remained in the shadows.

Three thousand civilians in one punitive operation

At the end of December 1980 two sergeants from the 3rd battalion of our regiment came to our guardhouse (it was in the Palace of the Peoples, in Kabul). By that time, the 3rd battalion had been standing near Kandahar for half a year and was constantly participating in combat operations. Everyone who was then in the guardroom, including myself, listened attentively to their stories about how they fought. It was from them that I first learned about this major military operation, and heard this figure - about 3,000 Afghans killed in one day.

In addition, this information was confirmed by Viktor Marochkin, who served as a driver in the 70th brigade stationed near Kandahar (this is where the 3rd battalion of our 317th airborne regiment was included). He said that the entire 70th brigade took part in that combat operation in full force. The operation went as follows.

In the second half of December 1980, a large settlement (presumably Tarinkot) was surrounded by a semicircle. It stayed that way for about three days. By this time, artillery and Grad multiple rocket launchers had been brought up.
On December 20, the operation began: a blow from the "Grad" and artillery was struck at the settlement. After the first volleys, the kishlak plunged into a continuous cloud of dust. The shelling of the settlement continued almost continuously. Residents, in order to escape from the explosions of shells, ran from the village into the field. But there they began to shoot from machine guns, BMD guns, four Shilkas (self-propelled units with four combined heavy machine guns) fired non-stop, almost all the soldiers fired from their machine guns, killing everyone: including women and children.

After shelling, the brigade entered the village and killed the rest of the inhabitants there. When the military operation ended, the whole earth around was strewn with the corpses of people. They counted about 3000 (three thousand) corpses.

Combat operation in the village, carried out with the participation of the 3rd battalion of our regiment.
Kandahar, summer 1981

They say that the war does not end until the last soldier is buried. The Afghan conflict ended a quarter of a century ago, but we do not even know about the fate of those Soviet soldiers who, after the withdrawal of troops, remained in captivity of the Mujahideen. The data is different. Of the 417 missing, 130 were released before the collapse of the USSR, more than a hundred died, eight people were recruited by the enemy, 21 became “defectors”. These are the official statistics. In 1992, the United States provided Russia with information about another 163 Russian citizens missing in Afghanistan. The fate of dozens of soldiers remains unknown.

Bahretdin Khakimov, Herat. He was drafted into the army in 1979. In 1980, he went missing during a battle in the province of Herat, was officially named dead. In fact, he was seriously wounded in the head. The locals picked him up and left. Most likely, it was the injury that led to the fact that Khakimov practically forgot the Russian language, confusing dates and names. Sometimes calls himself an intelligence officer. Psychologists explain that with such injuries, there is a high probability of forming a false memory, rearranging dates and names.

Bahretdin Khakimov now lives in Herat on the territory of the Jihad Museum in a small room.

Photographer Alexey Nikolaev found former Soviet soldiers who told him their amazing stories about life in captivity and after, in the world. All of them have lived in Afghanistan for a long time, converted to Islam, started families, speak and think in Dari, the eastern version of the Persian language, one of the two official languages of Afghanistan. Someone managed to fight on the side of the Mujahideen. Someone made a hajj. Some returned to their homeland, but sometimes they are drawn back to the country that gave them a second life.

“I first heard about Afghanistan from my stepfather. He served in the western province of Herat, fought in the Shindand region. He practically did not tell me anything about that war, but his colleagues often came to us. Then the taboo on Afghanistan was temporarily removed, and I listened to stories from the distant amazing East - both funny and sad, heroic and touching. Sometimes calm and restrained conversations developed into heated arguments, but at that age I could not understand what.

Nikolai Bystrov was taken prisoner in 1982: the old-timers sent him AWOL for marijuana. Wounded and captured, Bystrov was taken to Panjshir, to the base of the Mujahideen, where he met with Amad Shah Massoud. Later, Nicholas converted to Islam and became the personal bodyguard of Ahmad Shah. He returned to Russia in 1999 with his Afghan wife and daughter.

Nikolai Bystrov lives with his family in the Krasnodar Territory, the village of Ust-Labinskaya.

Afghanistan returned to my life much later, after a conversation with photo editor Olesya Emelyanova. We thought about the fate of Soviet prisoners of war who went missing during the war of 1979-1989. It turned out that there are many of them, they are alive, and their destinies are unique and do not resemble one another. We started looking for "Afghans", talked, arranged meetings. After the first conversation with a former prisoner of war, I realized that I could no longer stop. I wanted to find everyone possible, talk to everyone, hear and understand their fate. What was captivity for them? How did they cope with the post-war syndrome and did they cope at all? What do they think of a country that sent them to war and forgot to bring them back? How did they build their lives after returning to their homeland? These human stories dragged on, and it soon became clear that we were creating one big unique project. I realized that I had to see the war through the eyes of the Afghans, and I decided to find, among other things, those Russian guys who, after captivity, remained to live in a different culture, in a different world.

Yuri Stepanov at work in the shop. Priyutovo, Bashkiria.

Yuri Stepanov with his family. Private Stepanov was captured in 1988 and was presumed dead. In fact, he converted to Islam and stayed in Afghanistan. He returned to Russia in 2006 with his wife and son. Lives in Bashkiria, the village of Priyutovo.

A trip to Afghanistan was like jumping into cold water. For the first time I was in a country that has been at war for decades, where the government is fighting the majority of the population, and foreign invasion is accepted as usual, because it never ends with an occupation. This is a fantastic world, all the colors of which can only be seen through the lens of a camera.

Traveling in Afghanistan is like traveling in a time machine. You leave the borders of Kabul and you are in the 19th century. In some places, people do not change their way of life for centuries. In Chaghcharan, only the skeletons of armored personnel carriers and torn-off tank towers along the roadsides reminded of civilization. The locals reacted suspiciously to the man with the camera, but a few words in Russian were enough to meet with a warm welcome. Here they remember very well that it was the Russians who built the only hospital in the district and paved roads to several villages. Almost no one discusses the war with the Soviets, and how many new military conflicts have already swept through the long-suffering Afghanistan since the 80s ... And the Soviet hospital still serves people.

Alexander (Ahmad) Levents.

Gennady (Negmamad) Tsevma. Alexander (Akhmad) Levents and Gennady (Negmamad) Tsevma are 49 years old. Both are natives of southeastern Ukraine (one from Lugansk, the other from Donetsk region), both ended up in Afghanistan during military service. In the fall of 1983, they were captured, converted to Islam, got married, and after the withdrawal of Soviet troops settled in the city of Kunduz in the north-east of the country. Gennady is disabled and has difficulty moving. Alexander works as a taxi driver.

Afghanistan is amazingly beautiful and terribly unsafe. I remember that on the way back from the city of Kunduz, at the highest point of the pass, the timing belt broke at the car. Part of the way we just rolled down the slope, sometimes pushing the car on flat sections of the road. We marveled at the beauties of the mountains and prayed that someone would not shoot our turtle procession inadvertently.

For the first few weeks after returning to Moscow, I had the feeling that as soon as I turned the corner of Tverskaya, I would see men frying shish kebabs, carpet merchants, a bird market and women hidden behind bright blue cloaks. My friend said: "Either you will hate this country on the first day, or you will fall in love on the third." It was impossible not to fall in love."

The story of Sergei Krasnoperov

Arriving in Chagcharan early in the morning, I went to work with Sergei. It was possible to get there only on a cargo scooter - it was still a trip. Sergei works as a foreman, he has 10 people under him, they extract crushed stone for the construction of the road. He also works part-time as an electrician at a local hydroelectric power station.

He received me cautiously, which is natural - I was the first Russian journalist who met with him during his entire life in Afghanistan. We talked, drank tea and agreed to meet in the evening for a trip to his house.

But my plans were violated by the police, surrounding me with protection and care, which consisted in a categorical unwillingness to let me out of the city to Sergey in the village.

As a result, several hours of negotiations, three or four liters of tea, and they agreed to take me to him, but on the condition that we would not spend the night there.

After this meeting, we saw each other many times in the city, but I never visited him at home - it was dangerous to leave the city. Sergey said that everyone now knows that there is a journalist here, and that I could get hurt.

At first glance, Sergei was impressed as a strong, calm and self-confident person. He talked a lot about his family, that he wanted to move from the village to the city. As far as I know, he is building a house in the city.

When I think about his future fate, I am calm for him. Afghanistan has become a real home for him.

I was born in the Trans-Urals, in Kurgan. I still remember my home address: 43 Bazhov Street. I ended up in Afghanistan, and at the end of my service, when I was 20 years old, I went to dushmans. He left because he did not get along in character with his colleagues. They all united there, I was all alone - they insulted me, I could not answer. Although this is not even hazing, because all these guys were with me from the same call. After all, in general, I didn’t want to run away, I wanted those who mocked me to be punished. And the commanders didn't care.

I didn’t even have a weapon, otherwise I would have killed them right away. But the spirits that were close to our unit accepted me. True, not immediately - for 20 days I was locked in some small room, but it was not a prison, there were guards at the door. They put on shackles at night, and took them off during the day - even if you find yourself in the gorge, you still won’t understand where to go next. Then the commander of the Mujahideen arrived, who said that since I myself came, I can leave myself, and I don’t need shackles, guards. Although I would still hardly return to the unit - I think they would immediately shoot me. Most likely, their commander tested me this way.

For the first three or four months I did not speak Afghan, and then gradually they began to understand each other. The Mujahideen were constantly visited by mullahs, we began to communicate, and I realized that in fact there is only one God and one religion, it's just that Jesus and Muhammad are messengers of different faiths. I didn’t do anything with the Mujahideen, sometimes I helped with the repair of machine guns. Then I was assigned to one commander who fought with other tribes, but he was soon killed. I did not fight against Soviet soldiers - I only cleaned weapons, especially from the area where I was, the troops were withdrawn quite quickly. The Mujahideen realized that if they marry me, then I myself will stay with them. And so it happened. I got married a year later, after that they completely removed supervision from me, they didn’t let me go anywhere before. But I still didn’t do anything, I had to survive - I suffered several deadly diseases, I don’t even know which ones.

I have six children, had more, but many died. They are all blond, almost Slavic. However, the wife is the same. I make 1,200 dollars a month, that's not the kind of money fools get paid here. I want to buy a plot in the city. The governor and my boss promised to help me, I'm standing in line. The state price is small - a thousand dollars, and then you can sell it for six thousand. Affordable if you still want to leave. As they say in Russia now: this is business.

Exactly 30 years ago, at the end of July 1986, Mikhail Gorbachev announced the imminent withdrawal of six regiments of the 40th Army from Afghanistan, and there were disputes in the government about whether it was necessary to completely withdraw troops from the DRA. By that time, Soviet troops had been fighting in Afghanistan for almost 7 years, without achieving any particular results, and the decision to withdraw troops was made - more than two years later, the last Soviet soldier left Afghan soil.

So, in this post, we will look at exactly how the war in Afghanistan went, what the conscientious soldiers and their opponents, the Mujahideen, looked like. Under the cut - a lot of color photos.

02. And it all started like this - the entry of the so-called "Limited contingent" of Soviet troops into Afghanistan began on the eve of the new, 1980 - December 25, 1979. They introduced into Afghanistan mainly motorized rifle formations, tank units, artillery and landing forces. Also, aviation units were introduced into Afghanistan, later attached to the 40th Army as an Air Force.

It was assumed that there would be no large-scale hostilities, and the troops of the 40th Army would simply guard important strategic and industrial facilities in the country, helping the pro-communist government of Afghanistan. However, the troops of the USSR quickly became involved in hostilities, providing support to the government forces of the DRA, which led to an escalation of the conflict - as the enemy, in turn, also strengthened his ranks.

In the photo - Soviet armored personnel carriers in the mountainous region of Afghanistan, local residents with their faces covered with a veil pass by.

03. Very soon it became clear that the skills of "classic warfare", which were trained by the troops of the USSR, were not suitable in Afghanistan - this was facilitated by the mountainous terrain of the country, and the tactics of "guerrilla war" imposed by the Mujahideen - they appeared as if from nowhere, inflicted point and very painful blows and disappeared without a trace in the mountains and gorges. Formidable tanks and infantry fighting vehicles of the Soviet troops in the mountains were practically useless - neither a tank nor an infantry fighting vehicle could climb a steep slope, and their guns often simply could not hit targets on the tops of the mountains - the angle did not allow.

04. The Soviet command began to adopt the tactics of the Mujahideen - attacks by small strike groups, ambushes on supply caravans, thorough reconnaissance of the surrounding area to find the best paths, and interaction with the local population. Approximately by 1980-81, the image and style of the Afghan war took shape - checkpoints on the roads, small operations in the highlands carried out by helicopter pilots and airborne units, blocking and destroying "rebellious" villages, ambushes.

In the photo - one of the soldiers photographs camouflaged firing positions on the flat terrain.

05. Snapshot of the beginning of the eighties - the T-62 tank took the dominant height and covers the advance of the column of "fillers" - as fuel trucks were called in Afghanistan. The tank looks rather shabby - apparently, it has been participating in hostilities for quite some time. The gun is pointed towards the mountains and "green" - a small strip of vegetation in which an ambush of the Mujahideen can hide.

06. The Afghans called the Soviet troops "shuravi", which is translated from the Dari language as "Soviet", and the Soviet soldiers called their opponents "dushmans" (which is translated from the same Dari language as "enemies"), or abbreviated as "spirits". All movements of the Shuravi along the roads of the country quickly became known to the dushmans, since they received all the information directly from the local residents - this made it easy to set up ambushes, mine roads, and so on - by the way, Afghanistan is still full of mined areas; mines were laid by both the Mujahideen and Soviet soldiers.

07. The classic "Afghan" form is very recognizable thanks to the wide-brimmed panama, which protected from the sun better than the classic cap of those years used in the SA. Even as a headdress, sand-colored caps were often used. Interestingly, such panama hats in the Soviet army were not at all an innovation of those years, very similar headdresses were worn by Soviet soldiers during the battles at Khalkin Gol in 1939.

08. According to the participants in the Afghan war, there were often problems with uniforms - one unit could wear kits of different colors and styles, and the dead soldiers, whose bodies were sent home, often changed into old uniforms of the 40s in order to "save" on stock one set of dress uniform...

Soldiers often replaced standard boots and boots with sneakers - they were more comfortable in hot climates, and also contributed to less injury as a result of a mine explosion. Sneakers were bought in Afghan cities at the "dukan" bazaars, and also occasionally beat off Mujahideen supplies from the caravans.

09. The classic form "Afghan" (with many patch pockets), known to us from films about Afghanistan, appeared already in the second half of the 80s. It was of several types - there were special suits for tankers, for motorized riflemen, landing jump suits "mabuta" and several others. By the color of the uniform, it was easy to determine how much time a person spent in Afghanistan - since over time, the yellow “hebeshka” faded under the sun to almost white.

10. There were also winter sets of "Afghan" uniforms - they were used in the cold months (it is far from always hot in Afghanistan), as well as in high-altitude regions with a cold climate. In fact, an ordinary insulated jacket with 4 patch pockets.

11. And this is what the Mujahideen looked like - as a rule, their clothes were very eclectic and mixed traditional Afghan outfits, trophy uniforms and ordinary civilian clothes of those years like Adidas sweatpants and Puma sneakers. Open shoes like modern slippers were also very popular.

12. Ahmad Shah Masoud, a field commander, one of the main opponents of the Soviet troops, is pictured surrounded by his Mujahideen - it is clear that the clothes of the soldiers are very different, the uncle to the right of Masoud is wearing a clearly trophy hat with earflaps from the winter set Soviet form.

Of the headdresses among the Afghans, in addition to the turban, hats called "pakol" were also popular - something like a kind of beret made of fine wool. In the photo, the pakol is on the head of Ahmad Shah himself, as well as some of his soldiers.

13. And these are Afghan refugees. Outwardly, they rarely differed from the Mujahideen, which is why they often died - in total, at least 1 million civilians died during the Afghan war, the largest casualties occurred as a result of bombing or artillery attacks on villages.

14. A Soviet tanker looks at a village destroyed during the fighting near the Salang Pass. If the village was considered "rebellious" - it could be wiped off the face of the earth along with everyone who was inside the perimeter...

15. A significant place in the Afghan war was occupied by aviation, especially small ones - with the help of helicopters, the main part of the cargo was delivered, and military operations and cover for convoys were also carried out. In the photo - a helicopter of the Afghan government army, covering the Soviet convoy.

16. And this is an Afghan helicopter shot down by the Mujahideen in the province of Zabul - this happened in 1990, after the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan.

17. Soviet soldiers who were captured - military uniforms were taken away from the prisoners, dressed in Afghan outfits. By the way, some of the prisoners converted to Islam and wished to stay in Afghanistan - I once read the stories of such people who now live in Afghanistan.

18. Checkpoint in Kabul, winter 1989, shortly before the withdrawal of Soviet troops. The photo shows a typical Kabul landscape with snow-capped mountain peaks near the horizon.

19. Tanks on the Afghan roads.

20. Soviet plane comes in to land at the airport in Kabul.

21. Military equipment.

22. Beginning of the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan.

23. Shepherd looks at the outgoing column of Soviet troops.

Here are some photos. Was this war necessary, do you think? I don't think so.

As you know, I recently returned from a trip to Afghanistan, where I brought a lot of photos and wrote several posts about the 1979-89 war. In one of the publications, I told you about what the Afghans fought for in that war, and today I am publishing an interview with a former Shuravi named Alexander Goshtuk, who fought in Afghanistan in 1982-84 in the ranks of special forces.

The first thing Alexander asked me about even before the interview was that I should not write about any “exploits” and not “heroize” that war in any way, but write about how everything really happened. In fact, the former Soviet commando Alexander once again confirmed my idea that it was a useless war - neither to the Afghans, who lost almost a million people, nor to mothers from the USSR, many of whom did not wait for their sons back.

Just a gamble by an aged government that was not controlled or elected by the people.

So, in today's post - an interview with the former "Afghan" Alexander Goshtuk. Come under the cut, it's interesting there, well, don't forget to add friends)

How did you get to Afghanistan?

Alexander, please tell us how you ended up in Afghanistan.

I ended up in Afghanistan like this - when the time came to serve in the army, then at first from the military registration and enlistment office I was invited to DOSAAF courses to do several parachute jumps, I jumped three times. He did not express any particular desire to serve in the landing troops, but he realized that they were preparing it there. Then, in Maryina Gorka, I got to the training camp, and there 8 people, including me, were assigned to a separate group for Afghanistan. Later I got into the special forces, and two more guys got into the DSHB - now they are buried in the cemetery in Chizhovka ...

From Maryina Gorka, we were immediately sent to Chirchik near Tashkent, this is in Uzbekistan - on the way there, I already knew that then we would go to Afghanistan. There was a special forces brigade in Chirchik, which included the same "Muslim battalion" that took Amin's palace in 1979 - mostly Tajiks and Uzbeks served in it, and in 1982 120 Slavs were sent there, among whom was me.

Was there some kind of preparation in Chirchik, what did they teach you there?

There wasn't much preparation. In Chirchik there was a training center from the battalion, in which we only completed a month-long course for a young fighter - we shot a little, ran, learned to “shoot a sentry”, ran eight-kilometer crosses to the training ground and back. The sergeants had to run more - periodically returned to the end of the column and kicked the lagging behind with kicks.

No one really taught us military specialties - neither trained snipers, nor machine gunners, nor grenade launchers. On the other hand, we helped the locals with the harvest, unloaded the wagons with the Borjomi, worked at the meat processing plant... I called up on March 20, and on June 12, after such a “training”, we were already sent to Afghanistan.

The funny thing is, I didn't even take the oath. It turned out that before leaving for Afghanistan, the battalion took the oath, but they wanted to leave me in the Union - because I had a driver's license, and I did not get the oath. At the last moment, the Union decided to leave some "thieves", and I was again sent to the battalion. On taking the oath, someone apparently signed for me.

About the first months in Afghanistan

When we arrived in Afghanistan - the first thing I saw - there were demobilized soldiers walking along the runway towards the helicopters. Coming closer, we heard - "hang yourself, spirits." After the first night it was difficult to open my eyes - my whole face was covered in fine Afghan dust.

I first ended up in the sixth company, in the repair platoon - but did not stay there long. However, I went for a couple of surgeries. I remember such an episode - we, the special forces, took away the Afghan "nalivnik" (fuel tank), someone ran and everyone started shooting. Everyone started - and I started. When I removed the machine from the fuse, I jerked it harder than necessary - and switched to single shots. For a long time I could not understand why everyone was shooting in bursts, and I was single.

Some peasant in Afghan clothes was climbing over the duval, and our radio operator hit him with a machine gun. Apparently, he hit the lungs - pink foam went. Here I was already completely sick of fighting, there were thoughts about what I was doing here. Our ensign nodded to the radio operator, he finished off the man with a machine gun - and then I completely “swam”, my head was spinning and I felt bad. The man, by the way, was most likely peaceful ...

Alexander, were there people in your company who liked to kill people, Afghans?

No - I haven't met anyone who liked to kill, it's already some kind of pathology, we probably didn't have such people. There was a moment when the Khadovites (employees of the Afghan state security) took prisoners and told us to shoot them - there was not a single willing person, we did not deal with such nonsense. The prisoners were simply handed over to someone, and that's it.

Later, from the repair platoon, I ended up as a medical instructor - this also happened, one might say by accident. I said that I don’t understand much, and I’m afraid of blood - they answered nothing, you’ll learn. Yes, and everything was somehow like this with us ... The one who was at fault became a machine gunner - he was allowed to carry a machine gun because it was heavy. There weren't really any snipers either - where to shoot? There are mountains around, except to frighten with the sound of shots from the SVD.

Have you ever shot people yourself?

Shoot something shot, but that's where? When it was clear who - it was better not to shoot. It just seems like they dropped us in a group of 12 people from a helicopter, you go all hung with ammunition, like a cool ranger, and when they start to “pour” around you, you jump into a ditch, into the mud and think - “God, what am I doing here?”. It only seems that you are hung with ammunition, and therefore protected - in a war, these six automatic horns are at best half an hour of battle.

About the horrors of the Afghan war

I plunged into the terrible realities of this war from the very first days of my service as a medical instructor, I was almost immediately sent to wash the body of a deceased soldier named Shapovalov, who received a bullet under the collarbone - the body had to be washed, the jaw was tied so that it did not sag and folded hands correctly. Quite recently, in fact, I was walking around peaceful Minsk, and here I am standing here, and in front of me lies the corpse of a young guy ... I started washing him from above, then I turn him over - and his back stuck to the tarpaulin from caked blood. Somehow he turned it over - and from the wound it still flowed under his feet. Storm from all this ...

Later, you get used to such things, somehow twelve people were brought to the medical unit, who were blown up in their own minefield - a hodgepodge of bones ... And you just do your job. If not you, then who? After Afghanistan, they predicted me to go to the medical school - but I say no, I'm afraid of blood.

- Svetlana Aleksievich in "Zinc Boys" described how often land was sent to the Union "in zinc" instead of bodies, did you come across something like that?

It is not excluded that this could be. We had a mortuary at the airport - there were no refrigerators, just a dugout. Mongooses ran there and gnawed on the bodies ... Plus, the heat often stood at 50 degrees - well, what did it fly to the Union, the porridge flew. I know only one case when the translator of the battalion commander was buried in all his uniform - he received a bullet in the forehead in Aibak, ice was specially ordered for him, dressed in a parade ...

In Afghanistan, I got typhoid (typhoid fever) and jaundice. I had jaundice, apparently during the operation - I rode an MTLB (light armored tracked tractor with weapons) as a machine gunner and then noticed that the whites of my eyes were yellowish. And then there was this - a new officer just came to us, and then a new operation, MTLB was supposed to accompany the convoy. They didn't take me there. I ask - "so, but who will be behind the machine gun?" - they answer, nothing, you will teach the young.

And this MTLB was blown up by a landmine during that operation - the tower where I was supposed to sit flew 200 meters away. Only one soldier, nicknamed Tatarin, survived - when the shelling began, everyone was ordered to jump down, inside the MTLB - he, apparently, simply did not have time. He survived, but without a leg - it was cut off by a piece of armor. And on our surgeon, who was there, this MTLB fell from above - in order to pull his body out of there, then jacks were assembled throughout the column.

After I learned this news - I was completely "cut down", I ended up with a temperature of 40 in a hospital in Puli-Khumri. They offered to stay there, but I again asked to join the unit - I'm a paratrooper, a commando. At the time it seemed like something important...

Have you had a case of "crossbows"?

Yes, there were such cases, a lot of people were scared. We had such a Pevtsov - he was a Muscovite and was considered a schmuck, no one really liked him. He shot himself in the stomach from a machine gun - he wanted to make a light through wound and commit a commission, but he ruined his liver and died. The second shot himself in Jalalabad - three rounds in a burst in the head, could not stand it. Another Muscovite drank icteric urine and was commissioned - he was not allowed to undergo surgery, but at the same time he wrote fairy tales to his parents like “I am writing you a letter from a trench on a helmet, but the last horn of cartridges remained at hand.” Usually, even those who fought never wrote such a thing home - we wrote that we rest all day long and do nothing.

About how the life of special forces was arranged

In our unit, we lived in buildings that we built ourselves - we deepened the ground by a meter, it turned out something like a dugout. Then the foundation was erected and the walls were built from the adobe, and the tent fabric was stretched on top. There were bunk beds inside where we slept. In case of emergency, the adobe walls could protect against shelling, but this never happened, they didn’t let anyone close - even if an ordinary shepherd made a fire somewhere in a kilometer from the unit, then they began to hit him with direct fire until the fire went out.

We also had a canteen in our unit - but after a year of service, no one went there, we took only bread there. In a tent on a potbelly stove, they cooked what they could get, fried potatoes. Only the “young” dined in the dining room - there was a gruel in which a hundred flies drowned until you bring it to the table. The unit also had its own field kitchens and its own bakery, and there was a small dukan nearby - they sold condensed milk, cookies and lemonade in jars.

It was more or less with the uniform - they wore "sand" and "khimyo" - mesh camouflage suits from the chemical protection kit, which were comfortable in hot climates. There were bulletproof vests, but no one wore them - it was hot. Helmets were also not worn, except for operations in the mountains - because of the danger of stones. We did not wear leather belts either, we tried to get construction, canvas - they did not stretch when carrying heavy pouches.

From shoes, we had sneakers - they were either taken out somewhere in the fighting, or they were bought right there, in the dukan. We also didn’t really have “bras” (unloading vests) - we took swimming vests, there are such sections with cotton wool in polyethylene - we threw this garbage out of there and stuffed automatic horns into it.

It was bad with medicines - basically, everything was imported, trophy. We collected very good trophy medicines in the Marmol Gorge - there the droppers were of high quality, and the rest. In the USSR, this was never the case!

Everyone used drugs in Afghanistan - it was boring in their free time between operations, it happened that people smoked ten joints a day. In Aybak, marijuana was more common, and the units that were in Kabul were sitting on the purest heroin.

Did you have hazing?

To say that there was hazing in Afghanistan is to say nothing, in Aibak everything was running - if you suddenly walk at a pace, you received it from the "grandfathers". If an old-timer sent you for a loaf of bread, then in the morning you could leave and return in the evening, someone would intercept along the way - “hey, soul, what are you doing, do this and that” ... They flew like hell! You go out on a military operation - you will huddle up to this "grandfather", but in the unit everything was like that.

By the way, everyone asked for the operation - it was boring in the unit, but it was possible to get hold of something during the operation.

Alexander, did you have any “political training”? Did the political officers cheat on you?

No, there was nothing special. The special officer and political officer mostly ran around and sniffed who was smoking marijuana here. And I never had a “sense of international duty”

About life after

I stayed in Afghanistan for more than two years - with whomever I talked to from the conscripts, no one was there longer. I returned from Afghanistan in 1984, at that time this war was still classified in every possible way - I was given a crust called “certificate of the right to benefits”, without any specifics. There was not a word in the newspapers, in the press and on TV - as if we had never been there.

When I returned home, for the first few months everything was very unusual, there was even some kind of anger at people - they say, you are here, and we are there ... But it quickly passed. All these stories about how difficult it is for people to adapt are often some kind of stereotypes that are passed on from “Afghan” to “Afghan”. The one who then drank himself - he most likely would have drank without Afghanistan, just such a person on his own.

In the eighties, I went to work for the police, in 1986 I worked in Chernobyl, and later I ended up in the OMON, which was then just being created - it was very cool and interesting, such a new squad to combat criminals, I thought - it's like times for me! But later I left there - and although I am an atheist, I am grateful to God that he did not stick me in the current OMON, which appeared after 1994, after the dissolution of the Supreme Council.

What do you think about the former "Afghans"?

I went to the Airborne Forces Day a couple of times, but quickly came back. Unfortunately, most of the former "Afghans" are now nostalgic for the USSR - although, in fact, they are actually nostalgic for their youth, after which they failed to do anything outstanding. Unfortunately, many of the former "Afghans" are now going to fight in the Donbass for the unrecognized republics - and I can even understand them to some extent. In the sense that people live in some kind of distant asshole and go to the Donbass to overcome the routine of life, these are mostly yesterday's alcoholics who suddenly want to achieve heroic deeds. In the same way, in Afghanistan, we wanted to go from unit to combat operations - inside the unit there was hazing and deadly boredom ...

What are you doing now?

I have a friendly family, and I myself work in one of the Minsk taxi services, by Minsk standards I make good money, I am a foreman. I have a Toyota hybrid car - I follow technology, I am actively interested in everything new, and my next car will be electric) And I try not to remember the war, except sometimes I watch war films. Good films about the war are those, after watching which you don’t want to fight.

Alexander, and the last question. Maybe it was Afghanistan and everything that was there that somehow influenced the formation of your democratic convictions?

To be honest, I don't know. Afghanistan and everything that happened to me there was in some distant childhood.

Photos from the archive of the veteran of the Afghan war Sergei Salnikov.

T-62D shot down on the Shindant-Kandahar road, Delaram province area. 1985

2. Officers of the 5th Guards MSD with a friendly gang of spooks. Old Herat. 1986

3. Old Herat.

4. Padded BMP-2.

5. Ml.s-t Salnikov with an Afghan warrior Sarboz and bacha. Shindant.

6. T-34-85 - firing point of the Afghan army.

7. Airfield Shindant after shelling.

8. Dushmansky Katyushas. 107 mm PC made in China.

9. Column near Kandahar. T-62D with TMT-5 trawl.

10. Near Kandahar. The column passes the gorge.

11. UR-67, in the background is a BRDM-2 without a turret.

12. Trophies.

13. Local prison. Farah province.

14. Leshchenko behind a machine gun.

15. Leshchenko with a gun.

Afghan 1985-1987

Photos from the archive of the veteran of the Afghan war Gennady Tishin.

2. Gennady Tishin - commander of the air assault battalion (in the center). Asadabad city, Kunar province.

3. Malishi - local self-defense units. Together with the 2nd SME, they are carrying out an operation to eliminate the bandit formation.

4. Joint operation with the troops of the DRA. Maravara gorge. Kunar province.

5. The T-54 tank of the DRA army blown up by a landmine.

6. Italian plastic anti-tank mine. It was used to undermine Soviet and Afghan armored vehicles.

7. Combat satellite of the company of the 6th MSR.

8. Birthday of the foreman of the 6th MSR ensign Vasily Yakimenko.

9. Fun monkey Mashka.

10. Undermining the Soviet tank T-62D.

11. Battle trophies. Machine gun DP-27 (made in China "Type 53"), Rifle Lee-Enfield "Bur" (England).

12. Undermined military equipment.

13. Afghan trading machine. Column inspection.

14. "Rose". Neutralization of undermined equipment during retreat to reserve positions.

15. Combat operation to eliminate a caravan with weapons from Pakistan. Province of Logan.

16. Field medical station of the battalion.

17. Command of the 6th company of the 2nd MSB.

18. Personnel of the 6th MCP on the implementation of intelligence. River Kunar. In the distance is Pakistan.

19. Mujahideen fortified point taken.

I continue to publish photos from the personal archives of veterans of the war in Afghanistan.
Photos from the personal archive of Major Vasily Ulyanovich Polishchuk. PV USSR.