The Chechen war through the eyes of a resident of Grozny. The Chechen war through the eyes of a resident of Grozny At an unnamed height

One of the posts sparked a controversy over the war in Chechnya. Now there is a post-war period, when Russians and Chechens are pointing fingers at each other, proving who is to blame for the war. The war has already ended and in order to turn this dark page it is necessary to find an option for peaceful coexistence, and not fight in epilepsy to prove who is more to blame. There is a wonderful proverb: “after a fight you don’t wave your fists.”

In this regard, I asked one Chechen girl (I prefer to keep her identity anonymous) to tell her version of the events that happened. Her opinion is interesting, because judging by the interaction, the girl did not give the impression of a fundamentalist or radical. I was not present in the combat area, so my opinion is formed solely on those materials in the press to which an ordinary Russian citizen had access. In some ways I do not agree with the opinion of the author of the story, because her opinion is also the opinion of the average person, in addition, she was de facto on the other side of the fighting, but nevertheless I quote her story and expect thoughtful comments from everyone:

“I don’t justify the actions of some of my compatriots, but don’t just point fingers at us. We lived in a civilized manner, but according to our traditions, many Russians, especially Armenians and Jews, really liked our traditions.

Everyone knows perfectly well that Dudayev was a man of the Kremlin and in a couple of days he established his own self-government in the republic. His elections were pure fraud. While the people sat in confusion and blinked their eyes in surprise and could not understand what was happening, Dudayev and his bunch of scum confidently settled into the government. Until 1991 everything was quiet and peaceful. There was nothing that could portend danger. Then conversations suddenly began about teips (clans), such as which is the best and which is the worst. And off we go, disagreements between the Chechens. There was nothing like this before. Everyone knew that this or that clan had its own bad apples, but one clan was better than the other - it just didn’t fit in my head. This was done on purpose and the old people tried to hold back the youth, which they did very skillfully, but not always.
Not only Russians suffered in the 90s, but also the Chechens themselves. There were quite a few cases of seizure of houses and apartments of the Russian-speaking population, but criminal cases were also opened against the invaders, where Chechens gave evidence to help their Russian-speaking neighbors or friends. We tried not to give offense.

My aunts bought houses from Russian old people, helped them leave - they took them with money so that someone wouldn’t take it away along the way, even in Russia.
The Russians themselves complained to us that in Russia they were called Chechens and told to go back, but who was waiting for us then? Us - Chechens?
When my teacher said in 1992 that many were going to leave the republic, we were surprised. The Russian-speaking population was slowly leaving the republic, selling their houses and apartments for high prices, and one day in 1993, from my Chechen friends who were leaving for the USA, I “in great secret” learned that there would be a war, but when was unknown. Since 1993, real estate prices have fallen because there were no salaries, and you yourself know, there was a mess everywhere, not just here.
The war was planned a long time ago and they didn’t ask us anything.
I know that since 1994 in the Nadterechny region, where the bulk consisted of Cossacks, Nagais and Dagestanis, they began to rob trains at the border. It was a sensation for us! A Chechen thief was just an insult. They began to suppress and punish this matter.
Labazanov’s gang appeared at the end of 1992, which terrorized everyone without exception. I also experienced an incident when my Chechen friend was almost dragged into a car by stoned “Labazanovites” (as they were called). She was just lucky.

In 1993, Dudayev organized a massacre to capture this gang, after which Labazanov fled to Russia, and the gang disappeared (some were shot). Then Labazanov surfaced as an FSB colonel in the first war... there are a lot of things that you Russians don’t know. Instead of smearing us with mud, it would be better to do a little digging ourselves and understand what the reason was.
You can’t call all the people “terrorists and murderers,” it’s not fair.
Right now my people are angry and there are many reasons for this.

How many Russian old ladies and gentlemen remained in Chechnya? The youth left and left their parents. How long did they go and beg for alms? After the first war, a fat, sick old woman, Marya Ivanovna, lived in our building. Our parents forced us to take turns carrying water to her apartment, and she lived on the 5th floor. They shared food with her, but her daughter didn’t care about her. Her one-room apartment was worth nothing, and she herself had nothing, so she died alone. Chechen neighbors buried him according to Christian rites. I won’t list all my neighbors and acquaintances; I’m just offended when we are all accused of something we didn’t do, and specifically me, my relatives and friends.
You can’t even imagine how many Russian residents died in the first war. Only from my group at the university, two guys died under bombing at the very beginning of the war, and so many neighbors.

The Chechens did not need independence; everyone knew perfectly well that we would not get it. They just couldn’t understand what game they were dragging us into. Nobody believes until the last moment that there will be a war. When, after the meeting between Dudayev and Grachev, they announced live on Chechen television that troops would not be brought in and Dudayev was ready to resign his supposed powers, everyone sighed, but a day later the troops began to arrive. The women boycotted, lay down on the roads, begged and begged, as I remember these shootings now, but some military man there said: “we are ordered to come in.” it was December 10-11.

This is not the first time Russian troops entered Chechnya. The very first was on November 26, 1994. Which I saw with my own eyes. I lived not far from the presidential palace, where the fighting took place for several hours.

The first Chechen won was pure in the thoughts of the Chechens; they simply defended their homes and villages, women and children. How would you react if your city began to be indiscriminately bombed by supposedly unknown planes, where children, women and old people would die, and no one would say anything about it? And not only would he not speak, but the Russian media would also report that no one is bombing anything... everything is fine...
Like it or not, we would take up arms, especially after we looked at the actions of the contract soldiers a little later.
Prisoners were sent to the first war. Mothers of soldiers came and the Chechens gave them their sons just like that, without remuneration.
There was so much indignation when they showed the exchange of prisoners of war: Russian soldiers, well-groomed and bandaged, went over to their side, while the Chechens were carried in their arms, beaten, exhausted and unable to stand on their feet. How should we react then?
The contract soldiers were the worst, everyone hated them!
I remember an incident during the “truce” in the summer of 1995. Contract soldiers walked around the bazaar (you could identify them by their faces and the scarves on their heads). So a 15-year-old boy used a razor to cut the throat of someone who, before his eyes, six months earlier had killed his entire family (father, mother, brothers and sisters) and set the house on fire. He recognized him at the market and decided to take revenge.
Everything was written down for contract soldiers and military personnel; in Chechnya there was arbitrariness on the part of the Russian military.
If in the first war women were not touched, then in the second they were killed and raped. The example with General Budanov will suffice.
For a Chechen woman, being raped is equal to death. No one will ever marry her, and if there is no family, then there is no life...
How many women and girls were raped during the second war, it’s just quiet horror...

Dudayev did not have an army of 30 thousand, it’s all a lie. There were a couple thousand and I was happy about it.
The militias fought and were trained in the armies of the USSR, when they served for 2 years like everyone else. Everyone knew how to hold a weapon in their hands, but there weren’t enough weapons.
I know from the stories of my cousins ​​and uncles who fought in the first war. Their squad at the very beginning consisted of 25 people, all relatives or friends among themselves. All of them have only 4-5 machine guns and a couple of pistols. When Grozny was stormed on December 31, 1994, that’s when they collected weapons from burning tanks and dead soldiers. At the very beginning, they died and then the ranks of the detachment consisting of men from 18 to 40 years old were replenished. Then this detachment held negotiations in the summer with General Romanov, who was later blown up, according to rumors, by his own people. He treated the Chechens well and respected them. My relatives were famous and died mostly at the very end of the war from mortar and artillery strikes, when the civilian population of the city was given 24 hours to leave at the end of August 1996.

There was no army; it was only later that militia groups began to contact each other.
I will never forget the tear-stained eyes of my relatives when they arrived at night in the mountain village where we (women and children) were. I have never seen a single man from my family cry, but that’s it. In early February, the Russian side gave a “white road” to the Chechens in the occupied territory to collect the corpses of people. The main part were children, women and old people. My relatives in a Kamaz truck collected burnt and killed civilians; the corpses of Russian soldiers were no longer there. The next morning, I ran to the center of the village, where the dead could be identified based on documents or faces; they were unloaded to prepare for the funeral. What I saw cannot be told or described in words.

After the Khasavyurt agreement, Chechnya received independence status and no one from the Kremlin was going to leave the republic. From the first day they worked to resume hostilities and return the republic to Russia.
As Lebed once said: “The Chechens are wolves, to defeat them you need to raise wolfhounds.” So they raised wolfhounds for 2 years, and in turn escalated the situation in Chechnya.
As soon as all the Russian military prisoners were handed over after the signing of the agreement, after a while the Khachalaev brothers (mafiosi in Dagestan) arrive and offer 5 thousand dollars per soldier. Well, of course, the infrastructure was destroyed, the city was also destroyed, and here they present such a surprise on a silver platter. They realized it, but there were no prisoners. What to do? And the Chechens are told that it is possible to come to an agreement with the Russian military. So, the warrant officers sent snotty soldiers somewhere out there to wave a shovel, and then they were snatched up warm and ready for sale. The most interesting thing is that Berezovsky gave the Khachalaev brothers money for this business, and he gave 25 thousand per soldier, knowing that they would steal. He needed to start the slave trade and show himself as a hero, like look, I’m saving our Russian soldiers. The slave trade went well until this shop with soldiers was closed even in Ossetia, where stolen soldiers from Mozdok were carefully transported. Everything was made of money. The chain worked perfectly!
But later the worst thing happened. They used their own people (allegedly those who had previously been in the opposition or found some other reasons), and even later they didn’t even disdain women.
The reason was simple - the Arabs trained. I hate Arabs! These are just complete creatures! It was they who began to say that Christians and Jews are non-humans, that elders should not be respected (that all this does not fit in the head of an ordinary Chechen), that soldiers must be killed - their throats must be cut. That's where it came from. In my entire life and the lives of my relatives and the history of my fellow tribesmen, I have never heard of a Chechen cutting someone’s throat, ever.
Those shots where the throat is cut were made with a hidden camera by an Arab to report on his work in his homeland. I saw these films and remember the conversations in Chechen before this massacre. The Chechen did not dare to do this for a long time, until the Arabs pushed him with harsh words. And he did this because it was these soldiers who killed and raped his relatives. I understand that it was possible to kill, but not using the Arab method!
Berezovsky came to Chechnya more than once and met with all the “sexual commanders” (that’s what I called them), but never met Maskhadov.
The most fair and legal elections were the elections of Aslan Maskhadov. This is the truly elected first Chechen president. He was a most decent man, a good soldier, but with a weak character. He could not cope with the sexual commanders who did what they wanted. That's when the Chechens really suffered between these wars.
Khattab is a man who hated the Chechens and did not trust anyone, knowing his “burning tail” (as they say in our country). He lived for more than 5 years in Chechnya, spoke excellent Russian, but never even said a greeting in Chechen. Only after this could one become wary.

I remember very well the “attack” on Dagestan. This was a trap to start another war in Chechnya. Dagestan began its own unrest (which only now began to be officially shown on central television), and then it all began. So, the local “Wahhabists” allegedly asked for help from Muslim brothers from Chechnya.
The most interesting thing is that those who screamed the most did not go to help, but went completely unsuspectingly, yet another zombified suckers. A couple of detachments came in, and Russian troops were waiting for them. So much for the attack. A lot of simple and honest guys died.
Aslan Maskhadov gave the order for no one to go into Dagestan, but Basayev did not listen to anyone, he always worked for the Kremlin and did his job. And when he became dangerous and knew too much, he was simply removed like everyone else.
The explosions in Moscow and Volgodonsk have nothing to do with the Chechens. This has already been proven. Not a single Chechen was caught in this “high-profile case.” The trial was held behind closed doors. I hope you know about Ryazan sugar and about the incident in parliament, too, when on live television the speaker of the Russian parliament was presented with a piece of paper and he said that “they just reported there was an explosion at home,” which did not happen that day, but an explosion occurred a couple of days later in another area of ​​Moscow.

In the second war, things happened a thousand times more terrible than in the first. The first one was flowers...
It was just a mess. Dirty sexual commanders who had already fought not only with the Russian army, but were also afraid of revenge from the Chechens. They had nothing to lose, so the jackals fought to the last, continuing to involve the common people. In turn, the Russian army was shown the green light for outrage, atrocities, murders and rape. For this they were patted on the head and awarded orders and medals in front of their fatherland. GLORY TO THE RUSSIAN TROOPS AND GENERALS! But for some reason people get the most optics."

The first and second Chechen wars, otherwise called the “First Chechen Conflict” and the “counter-terrorist operation in the North Caucasus” became, perhaps, the bloodiest pages in the modern history of Russia. These military conflicts are striking in their cruelty. They brought terror and explosions of houses with sleeping people to Russian territory. But in the history of these wars there were people who, perhaps, can be considered criminals no less terrible than terrorists. These are traitors.

Sergey Orel

He fought in the North Caucasus under a contract. In December 1995, he was captured by militants. He was released a year later and the rescued “Caucasian prisoner” was sent to Grozny. And then the incredible happened: a Russian soldier, languishing in cruel captivity and happily freed, stole a Kalashnikov assault rifle, uniform and personal belongings from the military prosecutor’s office, stole a Ural truck and sped off towards the militants. Here, in fact, it became clear that Orel was by no means in poverty in captivity, but allowed himself to be recruited without much trouble. He converted to Islam, studied engineering in one of Khattab’s camps, and took part in hostilities. In 1998, with a fake passport in the name of Alexander Kozlov, he showed up in Moscow, where he controlled the construction markets. He transferred the proceeds through special messengers to the Caucasus to support his “brothers in arms.” This business stopped only when the intelligence services got on the trail of Orel-Kozlov. The defector was tried and received a serious sentence.

Limonov and Klochkov

Privates Konstantin Limonov and Ruslan Klochkov in the fall of 1995 decided to somehow go for vodka. They left their checkpoint and went to the village of Katyr-Yurt, where the militants tied them up without any problems. Once captured, Limonov and Klochkov did not think long and almost immediately agreed to become guards in a federal prisoner-of-war camp. Limonov even took the name Kazbek. They performed their duties very diligently, surpassing even the Chechens themselves in cruelty. One of the prisoners, for example, had his head broken with a rifle butt. Another was thrown onto a hot stove. The third was beaten to death. Both participated in the execution of sixteen Russian soldiers condemned to death by Islamists. One of the militants personally set an example for them by cutting the throat of the first convict, and then handed the knife to the traitors. They carried out the order and then finished off the agonizing soldiers with a machine gun. All this was recorded on video. When in 1997, federal troops cleared the area where their gang was operating, Limonov and Klochkov tried to pass themselves off as freed hostages and hoped that the most serious thing they would face was a sentence for desertion. However, the investigation made their “exploits” known to Russian justice.

Alexander Ardyshev – Seradzhi Dudayev

In 1995, the unit in which Ardyshev served was transferred to Chechnya. Alexander had very little time left to serve, literally a few weeks. However, he decided to radically change his life and deserted from the unit. It was in the village of Vedeno. By the way, it cannot be said about Ardyshev that he betrayed his comrades, since he had no comrades. During his service, he noted that he periodically stole things and money from his fellow soldiers, and there was not a single soldier among the soldiers of his unit who treated Ardyshev as a friend. First, he ended up in the detachment of the field commander Mavladi Khusain, then he fought under the command of Isa Madayev, then in the detachment of Khamzat Musaev. Ardyshev converted to Islam and became Seraji Dudayev. Seraji's new job was to guard prisoners. The stories about how yesterday’s Russian soldier Alexander, and now the warrior of Islam Seraji, subjected his former colleagues to bullying and torture are simply scary to read. He beat prisoners and shot those he disliked on the orders of his superiors. One wounded and exhausted soldier was forced to learn the Koran by heart, and when he made a mistake, he was beaten. Once, for the amusement of the militants, he set fire to gunpowder on the back of the unfortunate man. He was so confident in his impunity that he did not even hesitate to announce himself to the Russian side in his new guise. One day he arrived in Vedeno with his commander Mavladi to resolve a conflict between local residents and federal troops. Among the federals was his former boss, Colonel Kukharchuk. Ardyshev approached him to show off his new status and threatened him with violence.

When the military conflict ended, Seradzhi acquired his own home in Chechnya and began serving in the border and customs service. And then in Moscow they convicted one of the Chechen bandits, Sadulayev. His comrades and associates in Chechnya decided that the respected person should be exchanged. And they exchanged it for... Alexander-Sieradzhi. The new owners were not at all interested in the deserter and traitor. To avoid unnecessary trouble, Seraji was given tea and sleeping pills, and when he passed out, he was handed over to the authorities of the Russian Federation. Surprisingly, once outside of Chechnya, Seradzhi immediately remembered that he was Alexander and began to ask to return to the Russians and Orthodox Christians. He was sentenced to 9 years of strict regime.

Yuri Rybakov

This man, too, was by no means captured by the militants, wounded and unconscious. He defected to them voluntarily in September 1999. After undergoing special training, he became a sniper. It must be said that Rybakov was an accurate sniper. In just one month, he made 26 notches on the butt of his rifle - one for each “shot” fighter. Rybakov was captured in the village of Ulus-Kert, where federal troops surrounded the militants.

Vasily Kalinkin – Vahid

This man served as an ensign in one of the units of Nizhny Tagil, and he stole on a grand scale. And when he smelled something fried, he ran away and enlisted in the army of “free Ichkeria.” Here he was sent to study at an intelligence school in one of the Arab countries. Kalinkin converted to Islam and began to be called Vahid. They took him in Volgograd, where the newly minted spy came for reconnaissance and preparation of acts of sabotage.

The first Chechen war, which imperceptibly turned into the second, provided analysts with a fairly large amount of information material on the enemy opposing the Russian Armed Forces, its tactics and methods of combat, material and technical equipment, including infantry weapons. Newsreels of those years dispassionately captured the presence of the latest models of small arms in the hands of Chechen militants.

The weapons and military equipment of the armed forces of the Dudayev regime were replenished from several sources. First of all, these were weapons lost by the Russian Armed Forces in 1991-1992. According to the Ministry of Defense, the militants received 18,832 units of 5.45 mm AK/AKS-74 assault rifles, 9,307 - 7.62 mm AKM/AKMS assault rifles, 533 - 7.62 mm SVD sniper rifles, 138 - 30 mm easel automatic rifles AGS-17 “Plamya” grenade launchers, 678 tank and 319 heavy-caliber machine guns DShKM/DShKMT/NSV/NSVT, as well as 10,581 TT/PM/APS pistols. Moreover, this number did not include more than 2,000 RPK and PKM light machine guns, as well as 7 Igla-1 man-portable air defense systems (MANPADS), an unspecified number of Strela-2 MANPADS, 2 Konkurs anti-tank guided missile systems (ATGMs) ", 24 sets of ATGM "Fagot", 51 ATGM "Metis" complexes and at least 740 shells for them, 113 RPG-7, 40 tanks, 50 armored personnel carriers and infantry fighting vehicles, over 100 artillery pieces. OKNCH militants, during the defeat of the KGB of the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic in September 1991, captured approximately 3,000 small arms, and more than 10,000 units were taken by them during the disarmament of local internal affairs bodies.

The influx of weapons and ammunition into the North Caucasus continued subsequently, and in 1992-1994. the number of weapons entering Chechnya has been constantly growing. And from the beginning of 1994, a large number of weapons, including the latest ones, began to come from federal structures to the forces of the anti-Dudaev opposition, then smoothly flowing into the hands of Dudayev’s supporters.

The supply of weapons to Chechnya took several routes. Along with direct purchases by the Dudayev regime in the CIS countries and the Baltic republics of standard-issue small arms, a fairly large number of a wide variety of weapons came into this region through smuggling, both from the near abroad - Georgia, Azerbaijan, and further afield - Afghanistan and Turkey. In 1991, the first batch of Soviet-style small arms (mostly produced in the GDR) was delivered from Turkey under the guise of humanitarian aid to Chechnya, and some of it was transported by militants through the territory of Azerbaijan. From Afghanistan came 7.62-mm AK-74 assault rifles made in China, AKMs made in the USSR, East Germany, Poland, Egypt, Chinese Degtyarev RPD and Kalashnikov PK/PKM machine guns, as well as English 7.71-mm sniper rifles, which are completely atypical for our country. Lee-Enfield No. 4 Mk.1 (T), widely used by spooks in Afghanistan. These rifles were used by special Mujahideen sniper groups formed in Afghanistan and who arrived with their weapons in Chechnya to continue the war with the Shuravi. Chechen fighters who fought in Abkhazia brought with them a large number of domestic weapons. Including 7.62-mm Kalashnikov assault rifles made in the GDR, which were given to the Chechens as trophies. From the same source, the militants received 5.45 mm AK-74 and 7.62 mm AKM of Romanian production, as well as 7.62 mm PK/PKM and their PKT tank variants, converted by Georgians into manual ones.

Since the beginning of the Chechen war, a thorough supply of weapons to the Chechen illegal armed groups comes not only from abroad, but also from Russia itself. Thus, at the end of May 1995, during the defeat of one of the Dudayev detachments, a mortar and a batch of 5.45 mm AK-74 manufactured by the Izhevsk Machine-Building Plant in January 1995 were captured. Moreover, by that time these weapons had not even entered service with the Russian army.

Despite all the different types of small arms of illegal armed groups, their units possessed the most modern models of domestically produced weapons. As a rule, the militants were armed with 7.62 mm AK/AKM assault rifles or 5.45 mm AK/AKS-74 assault rifles, 7.62 mm SVD sniper rifles, 7.62 mm RPK/RPK-74/ light machine guns PKM or 7.62-mm PKT tank machine guns and 12.7-mm large-caliber "Utes" NSV dismantled from damaged armored vehicles. The main difference between the separatist formations and the units of the federal troops was their higher availability of such effective means of armed warfare as hand-held anti-tank grenade launchers of various models and 40-mm GP-25 under-barrel grenade launchers.

Sensitive defeats in the winter and spring of 1995 forced the Dudayevites to develop new battle tactics. The transition of fire contact with federal troops from point-blank ranges, characteristic of the battles of the initial period of the Chechen war, to a distance of 300-500 m became the main thing for the militants. In this regard, priority was given to the 7.62 mm AK-47/AKM assault rifles, which have a higher lethality of the bullet compared to the 5.45 mm AK-74 assault rifles. The importance of long-range weapons designed for the 7.62 mm rifle cartridge has increased significantly, allowing concentrated fire at point targets at a distance of 400-600 m (Dragunov SVD sniper rifles) and a distance of 600-800 m (Kalashnikov PK/PKM machine guns). Enemy reconnaissance and sabotage groups repeatedly used special types of weapons available only in the special forces of the federal troops: 7.62 mm AKM with silent-flameless firing devices (silencers) PBS-1, PB and APB pistols. However, the most popular among militants were the latest models of domestic silent weapons: the 9-mm VSS sniper rifle and the 9-mm AC sniper assault rifle. Since this weapon is used in the federal troops only by special forces units (in deep reconnaissance companies of the special forces of the GRU General Staff, reconnaissance companies of motorized rifle and airborne units, special forces of internal troops, etc.), it can be assumed that some of it came to to the separatists as trophies or, more likely, stolen from warehouses. Silent weapons have proven themselves positively on both sides. Thus, during a raid by one of the special forces units of the federal troops on January 2, 1995 in the area of ​​the base of Chechen saboteurs located in the vicinity of Serzhen-Yurt, Russian special forces, using VSS/AS complexes, destroyed a total of more than 60 militants. But the use of SVD and VSS sniper rifles by professionally trained mobile groups of militants was costly for Russian soldiers. More than 26% of the wounds of federal troops in the fighting of the first Chechen war were bullet wounds. In the battles for Grozny, only in the 8th Army Corps, as of the beginning of January 1995, in the platoon-company level, almost all officers were knocked out by sniper fire. In particular, in the 81st motorized rifle regiment in early January, only 1 officer remained in service.

In 1992, Dudayev organized a small-scale production of the 9-mm small submachine gun K6-92 "Borz" (wolf), designed for the 9-mm cartridge of the Makarov PM pistol, on the premises of the Grozny machine-building plant "Red Hammer". Its design clearly shows many features of the Sudaev PPS submachine gun mod. 1943. However, Chechen gunsmiths competently approached the problem of creating a small-sized submachine gun and managed, using the most proven design features of the prototype, to develop a fairly successful example of a light and compact weapon.

The Borza automatic system operates on the principle of blowback. The fire type translator flag (aka safety) is located on the left side of the bolt box, above the pistol grip. The trigger mechanism allows both single and automatic fire. The magazine is box-shaped, double-row, with a capacity of 15 and 30 rounds. Shooting is carried out from the rear sear. The shoulder rest is metal, folding. The production of these weapons, consisting almost entirely of stamped parts, did not pose any particular problems even for the underdeveloped industry of Chechnya, which has only standard industrial equipment. But the low capacity of the production base affected not only the simplicity of the design and production volumes of the Borza (the Chechens managed to produce only a few thousand weapons in two years), but also the rather low technology of its production. The barrels are characterized by low survivability due to the use of tool, rather than special grades of steel. The cleanliness of the surface treatment of the barrel bore, not reaching the required 11-12 grades of treatment, leaves much to be desired. Mistakes made during the design of the Borz resulted in incomplete combustion of the powder charge during firing and abundant release of powder gases. At the same time, this submachine gun fully justified its name as a weapon for paramilitary partisan formations. Therefore, “Borz”, along with similar Western-made weapons - submachine guns "UZI", "Mini-UZI", MP-5 - were used mainly by reconnaissance and sabotage groups of Dudayev's followers.

In 1995-1996 There were repeated cases of Chechen illegal armed groups using one of the newest domestic models of infantry weapons - 93-mm RPO infantry rocket flamethrowers. The portable RPO "Shmel" kit included two containers: the incendiary RPO-3 and the smoke-action RPO-D, which very effectively complemented each other in battle. In addition to them, another version of the infantry jet flamethrower, the RPO-A with combined ammunition, has proven itself to be a formidable weapon in the mountains of Chechnya. The RPO-A implements the capsule principle of flame throwing, in which a capsule with a fire mixture in a “cold” state is delivered to the target, upon impact, an ignition-explosive charge is initiated, as a result of which the fire mixture ignites and its burning pieces scatter and hit the target. The cumulative warhead, being the first to pierce an obstacle, promotes deep penetration of the main warhead, filled with a fuel-air mixture, inside the target, which increases the destructive effect and makes it possible to fully use the RPO to defeat not only enemy personnel located in shelters, firing points, buildings, and creating fires at these facilities and on the ground, but also for the destruction of lightly armored and motor vehicles. The RPO-A thermobaric shot (volumetric explosion) is comparable in high-explosive effectiveness to a 122-mm howitzer projectile. During the assault on Grozny in August 1996, militants, having received detailed information in advance about the defense scheme of the Ministry of Internal Affairs building complex, were able to destroy the main ammunition supply point, located in a closed room inside the building, with two targeted shots from Bumblebees, thus depriving its defenders of almost all ammunition.

The high combat characteristics of this powerful weapon, coupled with the massive use of hand-held anti-tank grenade launchers, both disposable (RPG-18, RPG-22, RPG-26, RPG-27) and reusable (RPG-7), contributed to the destruction or incapacitation of a significant number armored vehicles of federal troops and more severe damage to personnel. Tankers and motorized riflemen suffered heavy losses from the latest domestic grenade launchers: 72.5 mm RPG-26 (armor penetration up to 500 mm), 105 mm RPG-27 (armor penetration up to 750 mm), as well as rounds for RPG-7 - 93/40 mm PG-7VL grenades (armor penetration up to 600 mm) and 105/40 mm PG-7VR grenades with a tandem warhead (armor penetration up to 750 mm). The widespread use by the Dudayevites during the battle for Grozny of all anti-tank defense weapons, including RPGs, ATGMs and RPO flamethrowers, allowed them to destroy 225 units of armored vehicles of the federal troops, including 62 tanks, in just a month and a half. The nature of the defeats suggests that in most cases, fire from RPGs and RPOs was conducted almost point-blank from the most advantageous angles, with the separatists using a multi-tiered (floor-by-floor) fire system. The hulls of almost every affected tank or infantry fighting vehicle had numerous holes (from 3 to 6), which indicates a high density of fire. Grenade-throwing snipers shot at the leading and trailing vehicles, thus blocking the advance of columns in narrow streets. Having lost their maneuver, other vehicles became good targets for the militants, who fired simultaneously at the tanks with 6-7 grenade launchers from the basements of the basement floors (hitting the lower hemisphere), from the ground level (hitting the driver and rear projection) and from the upper floors of buildings (hitting the upper hemisphere). When firing at infantry fighting vehicles and armored personnel carriers, grenade launchers primarily hit vehicle bodies; the militants hit the locations of stationary fuel tanks with ATGMs, grenade launchers and flamethrowers, and mounted fuel tanks with automatic fire.

In 1996, the intensity of summer fighting in Grozny increased even more. The federals gave the Dudayevites a “gift” - the militants received a railway carriage unharmed, filled to the brim with RPG-26 anti-tank grenades. In less than a week of fighting in the Chechen capital, the separatists managed to destroy more than 50 armored vehicles. The 205th Motorized Rifle Brigade alone lost about 200 people killed.

The success of the illegal armed formations is explained by the elementary simple, but at the same time highly effective tactics of the Chechens using maneuverable combat groups, consisting, as a rule, of 2 snipers, 2 machine gunners, 2 grenade launchers and 1 machine gunner. Their advantage was excellent knowledge of the location of hostilities and relatively light weapons, allowing them to move covertly and mobilely in difficult urban conditions.

According to competent sources, at the end of the first campaign, the Chechens had in their hands over 60,000 small arms, more than 2 million units of various ammunition, several dozen tanks, armored personnel carriers, infantry fighting vehicles, as well as several hundred artillery pieces of various calibers with several ammunition for them ( at least 200 shells per barrel). In 1996-1999 this arsenal has been significantly expanded. Numerous reserves of weapons and military equipment, coupled with the presence in the Chechen illegal armed formations of trained, trained personnel who know how to handle their weapons competently, soon allowed the militants to once again launch large-scale military operations.

Brother 07-01
Sergey Monetchikov
Photo by V. Nikolaychuk, D. Belyakov, V. Khabarov

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During the first assault on Grozny, when our tank guys were driven into the narrow streets and burned (why - this is a separate discussion), many vehicles were lost. Some burned out completely, some were captured by the Czechs, some went missing along with their crews.

Soon, rumors began to circulate among various units that some special secret tank unit had begun to participate in the battles, which was armed with only one serviceable vehicle, the T-80, with a white stripe on the turret and without a tactical number. This tank appeared in different places - in the mountains, on passes, in the greenery, on the outskirts of villages, but never in the settlements themselves, even completely destroyed.

How he got there, where from, in what way, by whose order - no one knew. But as soon as a unit of our guys, especially conscripts, got into trouble - in an ambush, under flanking fire, etc., suddenly a T-80 tank appeared from somewhere, with a white smoky stripe on the turret, burnt paint and knocked down blocks of active armor .

The tankers never made contact and never opened the hatches. At the most critical moment of the battle, this tank appeared out of nowhere, opened surprisingly accurate and effective fire, and either attacked or covered, giving its own the opportunity to retreat and carry out the wounded. Moreover, many saw how cumulative grenade launchers, shells, and ATGMs hit the tank without causing any visible harm.

Then the tank disappeared just as incomprehensibly, as if it had dissolved into thin air. The fact that there were “eighties” in Chechnya is quite widely known. But what is less known is that soon after the start of the campaign they were withdrawn from there, since the gas turbine engines in these parts are exactly the same engine that corresponded to the theater of operations and the conditions of combat operations.

Personally, two people whom I trust unconditionally told me about their meeting with the “Eternal Tank” and if they tell something and vouch for their story, it means that they themselves consider it the TRUTH. This is Stepan Igorevich Beletsky, the story about the “Eternal” from which we squeezed out almost by force (the man is a realist to the core and telling something for which he himself could not find a rationalistic explanation is almost a feat for him) and one of the now former officers of the Novocherkassk SOBR, a direct witness to the battle of the “Eternal Tank” with the Czechs.

Their group, already at the very end of the First Campaign, ensured the withdrawal of the remaining medical personnel from the District Hospital of the North Caucasus Military District. We waited an extra day for the promised air cover - the weather permitted - but the helicopters never came. Either they skimped on fuel or forgot about it - ultimately they decided to go out on their own. We went out in the Urals with the 300th and medics and two armored personnel carriers.

We set out beyond zero, after midnight, in the dark, and seemed to get through cleanly, but a little less than two dozen miles before the “demarcation” line we ran into an ambush - Czechs with small arms, supported by a T-72. They turned into a fan and began to cover the Ural's retreat. But what is a batter versus a tank? They immediately burned one, the second died and stalled.

This is what I have written down from the words of my friend - this is almost a verbatim recording.

“The T-72s hit us with high explosives. It’s rocky there, when a rupture occurs, the wave and fragments go low, stone chips again. The spirit is literate, it doesn’t come close, you can’t get it from the border. At this moment, “Eternal” appears from the dust at the site of the next rupture, right in the middle of the road, as if it had been standing there all the time - it was just not there, the Urals had just passed by! And he stands there as if invisible, no one except us seems to see him. And he stands, all burnt, ugly, his antennas are knocked down, he’s all torn up, he’s just moving his turret a little and shaking his trunk, like an elephant’s trunk in a zoo.

Here - bam! - gives a shot. The “Czech” has a turret sideways and to the side. Bam! - the second one gives. Spirit - to the fire! And the “Eternal” barrel blew out, stands in a white cloud, spinning on its tracks and only the crackling sound of a machine gun. After the gun, it sounds like seed husks. The spirits are in the green, we are going to the bater. They opened it, the mechanic dragged away the dead man, let’s start it up. The turret jammed, but it didn’t matter, we who were still alive jumped inside and turned around. And “Eternal” suddenly fired from his cannon, like from a machine gun, quickly and quickly like this: Bam!-Bam!-Bam!

We're on gas. Here Seryoga Dmitriev shouts - “Eternal” is gone!” I couldn’t see myself anymore, I felt bad, I started vomiting out of nervousness on myself and around me. Well, as soon as they got to their own people, they went up in smoke, you understand. Then they started a quarrel with the local cops in a rage and over booze, almost shooting the assholes.

And they didn’t tell anyone about “Eternal” then - who would believe it..."