Andrey Seleznev was born in the town of Ufa on February 7, 1977. Since 1983, he lived and studied in Totskoe 2. Father Andrei no longer lived with them since childhood.Lyudmila Simonova (Shcherbakova), a school teacher tells about him: "
I taught Andryushka from the 7th grade,was their homeroom teacher from 7th to 11th grade, taught Russian language and literature. There were 43 people in the class at that time. At the parent meeting, his mother, Lyudmila Ivanovna, always took this educational moment with her: he listened to complaints about himself from the teachers. And they complained of inattention, could not sit for a long time, something had to be done. In the class he enjoyed the authority of his classmates, did not offend anyone, was polite with teachers, respected adults. He was the ringleader in the class: he organized all the trips: he took us out into nature at any time of the year. We had a favorite place - not far from the Holy Spring: the boys from the class made a table, and around the bench: we made a fire, played, sang songs. Until now, each of us remembers these events. Served honestly in the army. When I came on vacation, all the graduates in the town gathered at Andrey's. saw off from vacation, too, went to the station. But when the news came, the guys and I again gathered at Andrei's mother. They were waiting for confirmation of death and ... They did not believe ... But then they brought a zinc coffin. Co-workers arrived who told about our HERO: never complained about anything, was such a "lively". We are watching a film where he stands with his colleagues on the mountain and says: "There is not much left. Wait. I will come soon." And a heavy exhale .... DIDN'T COME. They also buried the whole town. We try not to forget about our graduates: we go to the cemetery, introduce younger students to the boys who have not yet had a family, but have steadfastly endured all the hardships of military service. It is written about them in the book "Black Tulip". "

Andrey served conscript service in the missile forces. After the deadline, he went under the contract to reconnaissance in the division of his military town.He left for Chechnya on October 25, 1999. Andrey was a wonderful friend and a person who respected his parents. LudmilaSelezneva (Plotnikova) Mama,Andrew,loves and misses today.
Natalya Borodaenko.Nina Bulgakova.Marina Revina are nurses who treated the wounded 506 MSRs in 1999. They remember him cheerful, he came to the medical unit, showed his bulletproof vest, which his mother had improved.
On December 17, 1999, a reconnaissance group of seven people under the command of Senior Lieutenant Alexei Kichkasov conducted reconnaissance in a dacha village near N of the item. Suburban. From here, the militants conducted harassing shelling of units of the second battalion of the regiment from sniper rifles, grenade launchers and ATGMs. Having found several firing points, bunkers and dugouts on the slopes, they received an order to withdraw. In the afternoon we returned to the point of temporary deployment. battle for height 382.1 not far from Grozny. Two hours later, the company was given a new task: to capture the strategically important height 382.1, as well as two skyscrapers on the approaches to it and hold them until the second battalion's units arrived. A powerful artillery preparation was promised, including the use of volumetric explosion projectiles, as well as support with all available forces and means.
This hill towered over the Chechen capital. An excellent view of Prigorodnoye, Gikalovsky, the 53rd section of Grozny, and Chernorechye opened up from it. The mental hospital was also clearly visible - a strong cruciform building of red brick, which, as it turned out later, was a powerful stronghold of the militants. At the very height, there were once rocket men, and powerful concrete fortifications and deep bunkers have survived to this day.

December 18, 1999 at 7.15 a long line along a narrow path rushed forward. Twenty minutes later, the lead patrol and the first group reached the outskirts of the plateau. No more than 150 meters remained to the tower. At the bottom of the circular trench, a large-caliber machine gun was found, carefully covered with a blanket. Ten or fifteen steps later, the patrol stumbled upon a "spirit" that had grown out of the ground. Private Yu. Kurgan'kov, going first, reacted faster - a turn at close range and a dash into the trench.
And immediately the plateau revived, machine guns and machine guns started working. The lead patrol and the first group dispersed to the right of the direction of movement and occupied a shallow trench along the edge of the hill.

The battle is already underway across the entire high-rise. To the right, slightly ahead, was Sergeant N. Meleshkin, Senior Sergeant Seleznev, Company Sergeant Edik, Sergeant E. Khmelevsky, Junior Sergeant A. Arshinov, Corporal A. Shurkin. Having run to the roof of the bunker, senior sergeant Andrei Seleznev throws a grenade down.
At this time, the "spiritual" snipers opened fire. In the second group, corporal A. Shurkin was the first to die. The bullet hit him in the eye. Without crying, he silently settled down. Next, Senior Sergeant Seleznyov died - a sniper's bullet pierced his arm and entered his chest. Andrei was turned around before our eyes, the "unloading" on him began to smoke. Sergeant E. Khmelevsky was also killed. He almost ran to the hangar entrance. The first bullet hit him in the chest, the second in the chin.
On the right flank, in the first group, Private S. Kenzhibaev was killed by a sniper bullet, and a bullet from Penza to Junior Sergeant S. Nedoshivin was shot in the neck, interrupting an artery. Private A. Zashikhin on the radio transmits to the regiment that there is a battle, there are killed and wounded. In the next instant, he himself is wounded by a grenade splinter.
An order to withdraw comes over the radio station. The company commander, Lieutenant I. Ostroumov, is trying to bring him to everyone, but this is not easy. Fighters in groups of several are in different trenches. The radio station of the first group was destroyed by the explosion, the signalmen were wounded, and the roar was so loud that you couldn't get the shout out. And Ostroumov with seven fighters who were nearby, including the artillery gunner and the signalman, went down. He returned to the location of the regiment at about nine in the morning.
And the battle at the height continued. Lieutenant V. Vlasov was seriously wounded in the stomach by a machine-gun burst. The sapper Bulatov, who rushed to his aid, was killed by a sniper.

AFTER a week, Major Ilyukhin, the chief of reconnaissance of the regiment, led the soldiers to a height of 382.1. The height was taken at night, without shots. For a week, aviation and artillery plowed it beyond recognition.
In the morning, at the height, we found three of our comrades in arms. The bodies of Sergeant Sergeant Seleznev and Sergeant Khmelevsky were mutilated.Andrey Seleznev had his eyes gouged out and his stomach was ripped open, his ear was cut off, his throat was cut. Zhenya Khmelevsky had 17 stabs, his ear was cut. His eyes were gouged out. The conscript was apparently killed and nothing was done to him. And two of them were later found in the dacha village - by tokens ...They got them on the 8th day."Spirits" and dead scouts are afraid. Lieutenant Vladimir Vlasov was found three days later mined (F-1 under his head, RGD-5 in his pocket).
Sergeant Major V. Pavlov died in Mozdok on December 25, the very day when the height will become ours. Junior Sergeant S. Nedoshivin will be found by the Ministry of Emergency Situations in three months, he will be buried in his homeland in Penza. Private Kenzhibaev and sapper Bulatov are still missing. I and several of my comrades were the last to see and carry them out from that height. That they could not endure them all the same is our pain for the rest of our lives, and that they died heroically is a fact.
Intelligence chief Major N. Ilyukhin will die from a sniper's bullet on January 21 in Grozny, on Minutka Square. Senior Lieutenant A. Kichkasov has already retired. Alexey is not a career military man (graduated from Saransk University, teacher - trainer in martial arts). Kichkasov has more than thirty combat reconnaissance missions, he is an excellent officer and fearless commander. On January 23, Alexei will be seriously wounded in Grozny and, after being cured in a Rostov hospital, will retire to the reserve. For the battle at an altitude of 382.1, for Grozny, Kichkasov will be nominated for the title of Hero of Russia. Thank you, Alexey, that you did not leave us at that height, brought us to your ...

On the right Ilyukhin Nikolay Major of the reconnaissance company. Andrey's friend,will die from a sniper's bullet on January 21 in Grozny, on Minutka Square.

captain

KOZHANOV Yuri Anatolievich

01.02.1968 -10.08.1996

military unit 21617 506 msp

Awarded the Order of Courage (posthumously)

I will return to you, relatives, from the war ...

He dreamed of being a military man. Devote your life to serving the Motherland.
Yuri Anatolyevich Kozhanov was born on February 1, 1968. He spent his childhood in the village of Raksha. Beautiful places, wonderful nature! What can you tell about his childhood? Perhaps it was the same as that of all rural children. He was fond of photography, loved sports. The letters alone speak for themselves. And there are a lot of them in the Kozhanov family! The parents were very proud of their son.
Once, Yuri in the newspaper found an advertisement for the recruitment of cadets to the Chelyabinsk Tank School.
“I will gnaw the earth, crawl crawling, but I will not return to Raksha,” Yuri said when he left to enter Chelyabinsk. And he entered. In August 1985, Yuri Kozhanov was enrolled in the list of cadets of the Chelyabinsk Higher Tank Command School. The joy of the parents knew no bounds.
Anna Andreevna, holding back tears, leafs through her son's cadet album. Here he is with friends, here on a field trip, and here at a friend's wedding. On the first page there is an inscription: “About my life, about my years in the Chelyabinsk Higher Tank School. 1985 - 1989 ". And then photographs and poems, humorous inscriptions.
Life as a cadet is not easy. And only those who have passed this road can judge it. Many people falsely think that military schools are "separate" from the army. Believe me, those who put on shoulder straps with the letter "K" linked their lives with her.
Yesterday's boys quickly became men. The meanings of friendship and mutual assistance, respect for elders - this is, perhaps, an incomplete list of the qualities that they acquired there.
This was only the beginning of the military path. What a difficult road it will be! But more on that later.
Yura missed his home, parents, friends. But I never forgot why he was here. I didn't let myself relax. But when the vacation came, then pride overwhelmed him! And not only him, but also his parents. Everything here again resembled childhood: fishing, swimming in a pond and of course friends.
So four years of study passed. On the shoulders - brand new lieutenant shoulder straps. After graduating from college, the young lieutenant was sent to serve in the Ukraine, in the city of Rava-Russkaya. The first time was hard. But he did not complain about fate. In those years, he married a beautiful girl Tatiana, whom he met while still at school. Soon a son was born in a young family. Four years later, Yuri was transferred to the service in Perm. I had to wander around, travel around the country. In the mid-90s, serving was especially difficult. Monetary non-payment, the indifference of the military leaders - this is a characteristic feature of that time.
Suddenly, Yuri informs his family that he is leaving for Chechnya. He rode, as they say, for a young guy. Did he feel sorry for him or there were other circumstances - we will never know. At that time, Yuri was the captain. The business trip was supposed to last six months. For the family, days dragged on, and then months of waiting. The footage on television sank my heart. Many citizens of our country still remember Afghanistan, but now Russia has contracted a new disease called Chechnya.
From that moment on, the myths about the war were debunked. Everyone knew perfectly well what was happening in the Caucasus. And only in his letters, Yura, with childish naivete, reassured his relatives, not giving them a reason to worry.
"Greetings from the Caucasus!" - Yuri wrote in a letter home. - Hello, mom, dad, Vasya, Anyutka and niece! With huge greetings and a lot of best wishes to you, I am. In the first lines of my letter, I hasten to inform you that I am alive and well, which I wish you all. I'm doing fine.
The Caucasus turns out to be a very good place to stay. Actually, the nature here is amazing, clean air, no radiation for you, after a while you can already harvest, the land is fertile. We laugh, they say, what is not a resort ?! There is no alcohol, only juices, compote and tea, the body is cleansed. In 9 days it will be 3 months since I am here. The duration of the business trip is 6 months, so half of it is already over! The apartment received, however, a 2-room, and okay. Now there is a cleaning of settlements from "spirits" as we call them, the Ministry of Internal Affairs is engaged in this. Maybe soon it will all end here. As regards the withdrawal, nothing has been concretely decided yet.
Well, in short, that's all for me. Write, how are you doing, what's new in the Tambov region, how is your niece? Probably a big one, after all 6 months already. Hello everyone from Ichkeria. Waiting for an answer.
07.16.96 g. "
Yuri was a kind and sociable person. I could feel sorry for others. This is a very valuable trait for an officer. And what he experienced and saw, he preferred to keep to himself. And he wrote warm letters to his wife - to Orsk, mother - to Raksha: “Everything is fine with me. The business trip will end soon and I will be back. " The parents received the last letter on July 29, and August 10, 1996 will forever remain a black day in the life of the Kozhanov family.
Yuri could not turn his back on someone else's misfortune. The war doubly hated this. The shoulder of a comrade and mutual assistance is a special matter at the front.
On August 10, 1996, according to the war correspondents of Komsomolskaya Pravda, armored convoys of army soldiers went to the aid of the surrounded soldiers of the internal troops, making their way through the streets of Grozny. A fierce battle ensued. The militants shouted in rage: "Allahu Akbar!" Yuri fell, hit by shrapnel. The Chechen bullet hit the officer one of the first. The militants knew whom to kill.
Yuri was buried with all military honors in the city of Orsk, Orenburg region. And the government, with its farewell memorial gift, awarded Captain Yuri Kozhanov with the Order of Courage (posthumously). Three years later, a letter will come to the Kozhanovs' house:
“Hello, Yura!
I don't know if you still remember us, but we often remember you!
We are the Rumyantsevs. Don't fall out of your chair, it really is us. We've been looking for you for a year now, but for some reason everything is in vain. We decided to write to the parent address. Where do you serve now? Blush entered the academy and has been living in Moscow since September of this year, and I still live with my children in Kamyshin, work in our regiment, and I travel to Moscow every month. We are going to Moscow for the New Year with our children. Come for a visit. If you still remember, then on New Years we have a double reason to drink. In general, I really want to see you, because I have not seen you for 10 years.
If possible, call. Will wait. Or write about yourself, where are you, how and what.
Yurka, write or call and come. Seryoga would be glad to meet. We'll be waiting. I think we will have something to talk about when we meet!
The Rumyantsevs. 7.12.99 g. "
But Yuri will never be able to come to visit. Will fall the death of the brave on the fiery land of Chechnya.
The branches of the trees still sway in the wind near my father's house. But Anna Andreevna and Anatoly Grigorievich grew old from misfortune and tears - nothing could make up for the loss of their son. And his sons are already big. The elder, apparently, will follow in the footsteps of his father.

Company "E" (Easy [and: zi] - light) 506 Parachute Regiment was formed on July 1, 1942 at Camp Toccoa, Georgia. It was the first airborne regiment to complete basic and airborne training. The "light" company consisted of 132 conscripts and eight officers, divided into three platoons and a headquarters. Each platoon was divided into three rifle squads of 12 people and one mortar squad of 6 people. Each mortar squad was armed with a 60mm mortar, and each rifle squad had a .30 caliber machine gun. Individual armament consisted of M1 Garand rifles, M1 Carbine, Thompson assault rifles and Colt M1911 pistols.
The Light Company began jumping training at Fort Benning, Georgia, in December 1942. The unit successfully passed all the training stages of the parachute school. Thanks to their excellent physical condition, achieved as a result of training at the Toccoa camp, they were even able to skip the first stage of training in the parachute school, which consisted, in fact, of physical training. The "light" company was the only paratrooper unit that was able to do this.
March 1943 Light Company met in North Carolina at Camp McCall, named after Private John McCall of the 82nd Airborne Division, who became the first American paratrooper killed in action during World War II. Here training began with a vengeance, as everyone understood that they were preparing for the already inevitable invasion. On June 10, 1943, while at Camp McKall, E Company and the rest of the 506th Regiment formally become part of the 101st Airborne Division.
Company "E" arrived in England on the military transport "Samaria" on September 15, 1943. The company settled in Aldeburn, where it began conducting grueling jumping and tactical training. While in England, the Light Company, like the entire 101st Division, honed its skills before the invasion of Europe. At the end of May 1944, Company E moved to Appottery. Here was their sorting area, as well as the airfields from which they were to take off. From that moment on, the analysis and development of assignments and the study of the landscape by mock-ups began, until everyone from the general to the private knew by heart all the details of the combat mission in full. At 23:00 on June 5, the "Light" company was already rolling across the take-off field in their transport aircraft, which, taking off and lining up with the rest of the landing aircraft, began their journey to Normandy.
June 6, 1944 at 1:10 am "Light" company crossed the coast of Cherbourg. Their wing passed through thick clouds, causing the planes to be widely scattered. This was facilitated by strong air defense fire, so that few of the paratroopers landed in the designated areas. By the morning of June 6, the "Light" company consisted of nine riflemen and two officers, at its disposal were two machine guns, one "bazooka" and one 60mm mortar. The company was tasked with capturing a battery of 105mm howitzers targeting the Utah coast, 4-5 kilometers to the northeast. Eleven men attacked and captured the entire battery and scattered the infantry covering it. The battery was directed by an observer on the Utah coast, who was giving the guns guidance to the position of the Fourth Infantry Division on the coast. By destroying the battery, the young paratroopers saved countless lives that day. From June 6 to July 10, the "Light" company as part of the battalion fought incessant battles. After the capture of Carentan, the company was sent to the Utah coast for subsequent shipment back to England.
Returning to Aldeburn, the company patched up holes in personnel that had appeared after operations in Normandy and restored lost weapons and equipment. Training has begun again to pull the newly arrived fighters into the now battle-hardened D-Day veterans. At least 16 different operations with the participation of the landing force were either planned or canceled due to the speed with which the allied forces were advancing through France. Some of them were canceled, while the paratroopers were planned and prepared for another drop. But then the command came up with a plan that was not going to be canceled.
Marshal Montgomery conceived the operation that became known as the Market Garden. In the English name, the word Market was supposed to mean landing, and Garden - ground forces. The task for the three parachute divisions was to capture bridges over the main water obstacles in Holland, the main of which was the bridge over the Rhine leading to Germany. The 101st division was to capture the bridge over the Wilhelmina Canal near the village of Zon and the road that ran from north to south from Eindhoven to Wegel and on to the 82nd division's area of ​​responsibility at Nijmegen.
On a wonderful autumn day on September 17, 1944, a "Light" company of 154 people landed in Holland. Having met almost no resistance, the paratrooper armada took up their positions, not knowing what they would have to withstand in the coming days. For almost ten days the "Light" company fought not only for their own lives, but also for the lives of the paratroopers who were up the road from them. The company succeeded in capturing and holding the intended targets, as well as keeping the road open. However, as was often the case with the paratroopers, they were surrounded and lacked firepower to counter the advancing enemy. When they were released from the encirclement, 132 people remained alive.
From October 2 to November 25, 1944, the company occupied a defensive line in Holland, in an area known as the "Island". The 506th Regiment, which included the "Light" Company, occupied the gap between the British units, which had previously been held by the British division, which was about 4 times the size of the airborne unit. A company of 130 people was supposed to hold a sector 3 km long. By November 25, 1944, when the company was sent to regroup and rest in France, 98 officers and soldiers remained in its ranks.
By this time, along with the reinforcements, old comrades who, although absent for a long time, were not forgotten, began to return to the company from the hospitals. Battle veterans did not fully understand the need to train reinforcements, did not take field training seriously, found it boring and even humiliating. While the paratroopers were replenished and regrouped, the divisional commander, General Taylor, flew to Washington to participate in drawing up an updated organizational structure and the principle of manning paratroopers with weapons and equipment. At the same time, the Deputy Commander, Brigadier General Gerald Higgins, was summoned to England to lecture on Operation Kitchen Garden, and General Anthony McAuliffe, the 101st Artillery Commander, became the Acting Division Commander.
December 17, 1944 "Light" company and the rest of the 101 division were alarmed, loaded into vehicles and sent to the vicinity of the small Belgian town of Bastogne. Not having stayed even two weeks in France, the "Light" company was sent into battle, not having enough winter uniforms, ammunition and provisions. The 101st division surrounded the city with a defensive ring. The 506th regiment occupied the northeastern part of the defensive ring, and the "Light" company fortified in the forests east of the Bastogne-Foy road.
An extremely difficult situation has developed in this zone, because regular units of American infantrymen were exhausted, panicked and abandoned their positions, retreating behind the line of defense of the 506th regiment. And again the company found itself in a familiar situation - completely surrounded and in dire need of ammunition. The next twelve days turned out to be the days of the most brutal fighting in the history of the US Army. It was one of the harshest winters in Europe - on December 21, 1944, 30 cm of snow fell. The cold, which led to frostbite on the feet of the soldiers, caused damage comparable to the attacks of the Germans. On December 22, 1944, the Germans offered 101 divisions to surrender, to which General McAuliffe replied: "Nuts!" (approximately "Nonsense!"). And on December 26, 1944, General Patton's 3rd Army broke through the encirclement and went to the "battered Baston scum."
This breakthrough allowed the 101st to breathe more freely and finally get ammunition and provisions. Nevertheless, the "Light" company was immediately thrown into the attack. When they arrived in Bastogne, there were 121 of them, and by the New 1945 there were less than 100 left. The first two weeks of January 1945, the "Light" company fought for the return of the territory around Bastogne. By mid-January, the 506th regiment was sent to the divisional reserve.
From February 18 to February 23, 1945, the "Light" company took part in battles in the city of Hagenau, where frequent bombing raids were accompanied by short skirmishes with the enemy, typical of urban combat.
On February 25, 1945, the 506th Airborne Regiment was sent to Mourmelon, France. There, they were finally able to shower, eat hot food, and go to bed for the first time since December 17, 1944. While they were there, General Eisenhower personally presented the 101st Airborne Division with the US Presidential Supreme Commendation, which was the first time in the history of the Army that was awarded the whole division.
April 1945 found the "Light" company in Germany, where they remained until the victory day in May 1945. At this time, they were given the privilege of guarding Hitler's "Eagle's Nest" residence in the vicinity of Berchtesgarden. On the eve of the end of the war, this was the last military achievement of the "Light" Company.
When the "Light" company entered the war on June 6, 1944, it numbered 140 people. By the end of the war, 48 people who served in the company during this period were killed in the battles. More than a hundred people serving in the company were injured, some more than once. Their battle cry was “Currahee!” Which means “lonely,” but none of the fighters were alone — they all stood and fought together shoulder to shoulder.

Translation of site materials

Exploded bridgehead. Requiem for the 225th Regiment Kiselev Valery Pavlovich

Chapter 1 A moment. Hours and days

Wait a minute. Hours and days

The most intense days of the operation to capture Grozny were approaching. Both sides were preparing for decisive battles ...

From the diary of Alexei Gorshkov:

January 22, 2000

The inevitability of the storming of Grozny is becoming clearer and clearer. "Czechs" are not going to surrender the city. Every day, preparations for the upcoming assault are going on more and more clearly and thoroughly.

January 23, 2000

An order was received to march from Starye Prospect to the southern outskirts of Grozny, where the 506th regiment had already taken the private sector, but could not advance further, there was strong resistance from the spirits.

January 25, 2000

From Khankala we entered Grozny and settled in the area occupied by the 506th regiment.

From the Combat Log of the 245th Guards Motorized Rifle Regiment

At 6.00, the regiment began marching to the concentration area. The march took place along the route: command post of the regiment - Oktyabrskoye - Alkhan-Kala - Alkhan-Yurt - Prigorodnoye - Khankala. The regiment made a 50-kilometer march and at 13.00 concentrated 1 km north-east of Khankala. The divisions of the regiment occupied their indicated areas, organized security and began to prepare for the task ahead. At 15.00, the regiment commander departed for the General Operations Office of Grozny to clarify the task and organize interaction. In the course of clarifying the task, Major General Troshev said that Major General Malofeev had been found and taken to the Osh of the "Grozny" group. Major General Malofeev died on January 17, but his body was not found. Today, after a lengthy search, the body of Major General Malofeev and his signalman soldier was found with the help of a search dog near the battlefield, covered with snow. The headquarters officers said goodbye to the deceased.

At 18.30 at the command post, the regiment commander assigned tasks to the battalion commanders to prepare for the upcoming mission.

"We act in the main direction ..."

Sergei Yudin, regiment commander, guard colonel:

- What mood can there be before the battle - excitement, anxiety for subordinates ... The main blow of our troops in Grozny was delivered by the adjacent flanks of the 506th and our regiments. We understood that we were acting in the main direction, that the regiment would have to bear the brunt of the fighting. But the 506th regiment was not in a secondary direction either. We do not share the merits, the 506th regiment fought no worse than the 245th and no weaker. The officers and soldiers of both the 506th and 245th regiments fought worthily and behaved, especially since the 506th regiment suffered most of the losses. And the main brunt of the fighting in Grozny fell on the 506th regiment. For operations in the city, assault detachments were created in this regiment. First, we held a showcase. The assault detachments of the 506th regiment went into battle a few days before our arrival and suffered heavy losses. As a result, this regiment was demoralized and abandoned the offensive for several days until the losses of personnel were replenished.

- I was summoned by San Sanych Frolov, and we went with him and the task force to Khankala.

We stood in a field, part of it was mined. Where? What? - it's hard to understand. We chose a place for the regiment, and soon our columns began to approach. During the day, everyone approached, during daylight hours. We were given two or three days for "slovenliness".

We knew that the spirits could take direction finding us, and so that they would not track us down, overnight at the regiment headquarters they redrawn the city maps on tracing paper.

"The Chechens joked unsuccessfully ..."

- When the regiment was thrown from under Katayama around Grozny to Khankala, our platoon covered the column. We got up on the "bekhe" on the road and waited for the convoy to pass, but due to breakdowns, and until the last cars came up, it lasted for a day.

Peaceful Chechens drove along the roads. We stop the "Volga", and from there the Chechens show us "fak!" A bus with riot police was just passing by, and they twisted everyone from this "Volga" and took away somewhere. The Chechens joked unsuccessfully. In the morning, driving through the village, we saw an aggressive crowd. The Chechens yelled at us. It turns out that the tank crushed a car with people.

Vyacheslav Lesin, deputy chief technical officer of the 2nd motorized rifle battalion, guard senior lieutenant:

- Not a tank crushed a car with people. The village was at the entrance to Khankala. There was a column of regiment's equipment. Practically behind me, at some distance, a BTS-4 remroty tractor was dragging a faulty BMP in tow. A Chechen car, a seemingly white Volga, was moving towards us. They did not part, the tractor caught her. Moreover, the "Volga" moved insolently. And, of course, the locals began to gather in the crowd, screaming and screaming. Having reached his own, he asked to tell upstairs that in the village of Bucha, the convoy was stopped. An infantry fighting vehicle from the reconnaissance company went there for disassembly.

Vitaly Zavraisky, commander of the 4th motorized rifle company, guard captain:

- I received a task to move to the Oktyabrskoye settlement. They stayed there overnight as part of the battalion, replenished all supplies. In the morning we marched through the airport Northern march to Khankala. We were preparing for the upcoming assault on the city for two or three days. We went on reconnaissance, but it did not work out due to the high density of the militants' fire.

Alexey Gorshkov:

- Grozny is the key point of the bandits' defense. Everyone understood that if you take him quickly, it will be easier to fight further. We were told that the commander of the unit that will take the Minutku Square will receive the title of Hero of Russia.

Nearby, in the area of ​​the depot and in several private houses, a battalion of the 506th motorized rifle regiment took up defense. I then understood the task of our regiment as follows: to enter Grozny and squeeze out the bandits in the direction of the Aldy microdistrict. We were standing on Vozdvizhenskaya Street, in front - panel five-story buildings, to the left of Minutka Square, across the viaduct, a three-story red brick shopping center, without windows and doors, and a consumer services house were visible. There were three "candles" on Minutka - nine-story buildings, a school, behind it, nine-story panel houses with "candles", they ended at the Romanov Bridge, and then there was a hospital complex where Nevzorov filmed his film "Purgatory".

"Only sparks from the armor ..."

Igor Druzhinin, 3rd motorized rifle company, contract soldier:

- Once, even before the storming of Grozny, a couple of guys and I went to the private sector to look for food, and when we climbed to the top, it turned out that the general, the chief of intelligence of our direction, came, and the guys complained to him that the foreman and the technician of the company did not give us enough dry ration. They drove in an incomplete official, and as a ringleader (although I was not there when I spoke with the general), as well as Vovan Tkachenko and Diman, at the insistence of the technician and foreman, they were transferred from reconnaissance to the infantry.

So I ended up in the second platoon of the third company, Vovan - like in the first company, where he was soon blown off his left arm by a shot from the "Chekhov" "AGS".

In the infantry, normal guys crept up. The platoon commander was Lieutenant Vanya Tsykin, who seems to be my age, since 1976. I begged for myself again "RMB".

They stood in front of the private sector of Katayama about three hundred meters away, lived in trailers, only the windows were sealed from snipers. The sniper worked there constantly, mainly to the sound of artillery. In the silence, they did not shoot, so as not to light up. We laid out a small post of concrete blocks on the roof of the building, from there we watched. The tank had just arrived, to shoot from us, so the crew could not stick out of it, so much a sniper was shot at it, only sparks from the armor. And somehow I decided there, in a concrete garage, to go in for sports, hit a pear and, forgetting myself, left the garage gate, two shots were immediately fired and holes from a large-caliber rifle appeared in the iron door near my head (they often shot at us from “ anti-sniper "caliber 12.7 mm).

My platoon was quite famous in the regiment. At the altitude, which they took for three days, the boys managed to steal a Niva with a mortar installed in the car from the "Czechs", and even lay down a couple of "Czechs". And once half of the platoon went to look for something to devour at home, stumbled upon "Chekhov". Our boy opens the door to the house, and there is a "Czech", he has a machine gun in his hands, but he manages to fire a burst into our stomach. The battle began, a platoon BMP jumped to the rescue, covered the machine gunner on the roof. In general, ours fell with losses. Of course, they didn’t pat it on the head, because if we hadn’t gone into the house, nothing would have happened.

"Fatigue and apathy have accumulated ..."

Artur Sataev, Chief of Staff of the 1st Battalion, Major:

- January 23rd - march of the regiment near Khankala. Almost immediately, the units began to move to Grozny. Fighting began in the city. At first, fighting in the city was scary. Then fatigue and apathy accumulated: I managed to sleep only two or three hours a day.

There was interaction between the troops, but what kind is another question. To say that it was good or bad ... No comment ... There were enough problems. At the regiment level, interaction was normal. But I cannot say that everything was wonderful and good.

The militants had their own intelligence, their own management, I would not say that it was clear, but not chaotic. They did not have feelings of doom and despair, as someone thinks, they felt that they would leave the city at the right time. But there was no moral superiority of the militants over us either.

The battalion headquarters, mortar battery, communications platoon and support platoon were stationed in the depot in front of the private sector. The battalion commander assigned me the task of deploying the KNP and being with a mortar battery.

"He died before my eyes ..."

Sergei Girin, deputy commander of the 2nd motorized rifle company for educational work, lieutenant:

- On the twenty-fourth of January we entered Grozny and began to move through the private sector in the direction of Minutka Square.

This is where the most difficult stage of the war began ... While moving through the private sector, we changed the units of the 506th regiment. One letekha from this unit told me: "I have twelve people left from the platoon, the rest have been mowed down ..."

We occupied the area allocated to us. Here, in front of my eyes, a contract soldier, a young guy from Nizhny Novgorod, died. There were many deaths, but this one was remembered because he died from his own ... Our gunners began shelling the positions of the "Czechs", the so-called separation came from a series of shells fired, and the soldier's head was torn off by a shrapnel ... At that time he was on guard in the street ... It's absurd ... It was a painful sight ... The guys put him on the "behu", I took him to the medical platoon ...

Dmitry Usikov, senior assistant to the chief of artillery of the regiment:

- We entered Grozny on the twenty-fourth of January, and it started spinning ...

The tension of those days was such that Colonel Yudin ordered special pills to stay awake. On the edge of Khankala there were two five-story buildings, in one of the panels there was an NP of the 506th regiment, they were already here. We got up, went into another house, where the builders lived, on the third floor - the regiment's first-aid post. We sat there for three days while Bulavintsev took Minutka. At night, this building was shot from a tank, the shell touched the corner of the building and went to the third floor, to the first-aid post. Then our driver was wounded by an ATGM battery in the leg.

In the battles for Grozny, we were given a battery of self-propelled guns of the 752nd regiment. When Bulavintsev's battalion went on the offensive and entered Minutka Square, it was night. Ours went out to the cinema area, part of the infantry was locked up there, and then our battery at one o'clock in the morning began to fire at Minutka so that the spirits would not sleep. They woke up. It turned out that in the building where ours, and the spirits are sitting. The first house is clean, empty, ours are reporting, and the spirits are on the second and third floors. I had to bring the ACS to direct fire. They destroyed the twelve-story building completely ...

The documents

Combat order number 015 for the offensive.

9.00 24.01.2000

1. The enemy holds the occupied lines along Filatova, Magistralnaya, Khankalskaya streets. By counterattacking, he is trying to defeat our troops and is drawing up reserves from the depths of the city. Approximately, up to 400 militants armed with small arms, 82- and 120-mm mortars, grenade launchers and memory units defend themselves in the regiment's offensive zone, having an advantage in position, since they take up defensive positions in multi-storey buildings and, using this, conduct targeted sniper fire at the entire depth of the battle formations of the regiment's battalions. By means of the senior commander in the interests of the regiment, aviation and artillery are hitting enemy manpower and fire weapons in high-rise buildings in the area of ​​pl. Wait a minute.

2. 245 MRP and a tank company with two assault detachments No. 4 and 5 to attack from the line the corner of Kolbus street, the corner of ul. Brothers Nosovykh in the direction of st. Chernoglaza - cinema, excl. Minutka square and, in cooperation with the 506th MRP, defeat the enemy in the area of ​​ul. Kolbus, pl. Minute, st. Brothers Nosovs. By the morning of 01/25/2000 to seize high-rise buildings northeast of the outskirts of Sq. Wait a minute. On the left, the 506th SMR is advancing, in the direction of the mark 138.0 with the task of crushing the enemy in the area of ​​the corner of Brothers Nosovykh streets, the L-shaped building and Leonov Ave., the demarcation line. On the right comes the 33rd OBRON, sets up roadblocks at the intersection with the street. Komarov.

3. Decided: to strike the main blow in the direction of st. Kolbusa - garages - cinema - high-rise buildings northeast of pl. Wait a minute. Inflict fire damage to the enemy in two periods: preparation of fire for the attack and assault on the city and fire support for the attack during the assault on the city. Fire training shall be carried out with the forces and means of the senior commander and with the fire of the artillery division of the regiment, three fire raids within 38 minutes. In the first fire raid lasting 4 minutes, inflict defeat on enemy personnel and fire resources in the area of ​​Filatov streets - garages - cinema.

"Capture and hold ..."

Sergei Bulavintsev, commander of the 2nd motorized rifle battalion, guard major:

- My battalion first blocked the Katayama area (this is the northwestern outskirts of Grozny). In the morning of January twenty-third, two columns of our regiment, having rounded the city from the north and south, four hours later reached Khankala - the western outskirts, where a reconnaissance group was already stationed. Here the regiment commander assigned me a combat mission: the battalion, as an assault detachment, must capture and hold three high-rise buildings on Minutka Square, which were of key importance in the defense of the militants in this area.

As is often the case in real war conditions, the limited time to prepare for the offensive did not allow detailed work on all the issues of organizing the battle, primarily the interaction between subunits and neighbors on the ground.

In addition, the activity of the militants greatly impeded the conduct of a thorough reconnaissance. Using, as a rule, at home in the private sector, they conducted aimed fire from sniper rifles, automatic grenade launchers "AGS-17" and grenade launchers "GP-25" at our troops, often changing their positions. Suffice it to say that during the advance of the reconnaissance group, the engineer platoon commander and two servicemen providing security were mortally wounded.

I had to confine myself to a visit to the command post of a neighboring regiment and, having coordinated only some issues on the map there, return to the concentration area. It was not possible to carry out the planned tactical and combat training in the order of actions of the assault detachment in the city.

Based on the current situation, the assessment of the forces and nature of the enemy's actions, as well as the capabilities of their own, attached and supporting subunits, it was decided to create three assault groups, the basis of which was made up of reinforced motorized rifle companies. Each assault group, in turn, was divided into subgroups: light, medium and heavy. The easy task was to capture the target of the attack, and she was equipped with small arms, had only the necessary ammunition supply. The middle subgroup, following the light one, was supposed to provide its actions with fire. This subgroup was armed with eight Bumblebee flamethrowers, eight thermobaric and 16 fragmentation grenades. A heavy subgroup (82-mm mortar "Tray" with 30 mines, a heavy machine gun with 300 rounds, four grenade launchers with 24 rounds) supported the actions of light and medium subgroups with its fire, and covered the flanks from sudden attacks of the enemy. Her riflemen and machine gunners carried three rounds of ammunition. In addition, the heavy subgroup contained an additional supply of ammunition and food rations for the entire assault group.

Our snipers (eight people in each company) worked according to a special plan. All of them were paired up for counter-sniper combat, destroying commanders, machine gunners, grenade launchers and mortar crews of militants. Snipers were a separate element of the combat formation of the assault squad and were directly subordinate to the commanders of the assault groups.

At 12 o'clock on January 24, the battalion moved to the starting area for the offensive, which was located in the area of ​​the railway depot. In the interests of increasing survivability and delivering surprise attacks on the enemy, all the battalion's equipment was hidden in the depot building in readiness to support the actions of the groups. Here are also located: a motorized rifle platoon - a reserve of an assault detachment, a medical platoon and rear units. A mortar battery set up firing positions nearby.

The operation began unsuccessfully. A battalion from the regiment operating in front was unable to seize the line from which our regiment was to be brought into battle on the move.

The commander of the group, Lieutenant General Bulgakov, sent the first battalion of our regiment to help, which was also soon stopped by enemy fire.

At 13.00 the combat mission was clarified to me, and the battalion rushed forward. Without getting involved in fire duels with the militants, bypassing open spaces, through gaps in fences and houses, by the end of the day the companies reached the starting line for the offensive, where they received orders to stop movement, organize a perimeter defense, watch and night rest.

"I will walk along Aprikosovaya ..."

- Our neighbors, the 506th regiment, on the outskirts of Grozny were preparing for the storming of the city for a month. We had to go into battle without careful preparation. Our first assault detachments went into battle at night, the 3rd motorized rifle company only approached the next morning. At first there was no good interaction with the 506th regiment.

Since the enemy was listening to all our radio communications, I suggested that the command post change the names of the streets. We renamed all the streets in the regiment's combat zone, drew a diagram, brought it to each company, and changed their names every night. The spirits get used to the names of the streets on the air in a day, so the next day we come up with others. This cunning of ours helped us to confuse the enemy and reduce losses. I know that since then Bulavintsev loves to sing: "I will walk along Aprikosovaya, turn to Vinogradnaya ..."

Major Bulavintsev reported on the radio: "Bars, I'm Granit, went to the Minutka, welcome ..." At three o'clock in the morning the assault groups of the Bulavintsev battalion entered the five-story building on Minutka, but during the battle it turned out a layer cake: on some floors ours, on others spirits ... Deputy Regiment commander Lieutenant Colonel Frolov was in the first battalion at that time, I lost him altogether for these three days. He was supposed to be in the most dangerous direction, but the battalion's subdivisions sat down so that neither forward nor backward.

On the first day of the assault, we lost twenty people killed and wounded, and in three days - about fifty.

The tension in the days of the storming of Grozny was such that for three days I did not go to bed at all.

"Take it, clean it up and hold on ..."

Andrey Kuzmenko, commander of the 3rd platoon of the 5th motorized rifle company, guard senior lieutenant:

- On January 24, we concentrated in the starting area for the offensive in Khankala. Each company was an assault group, which consisted of three subgroups. Light, it is also a capture group (automatic rifles "AK", "AKS", "GP-25", "RPG", "RPO" "Bumblebee"), heavy, it is also a fire support group ("PKM", "AK", "RPG-7", "RPO" - "Bumblebee"), the calculation of the mortar "Cornflower" with a small reserve of mines. The RPG-7 grenades were mainly fragmentation and thermobaric grenades. And the support group is everyone who remained in the company. Each group commander had a map of the city and a radio station R-148.

The commander of the first platoon, Lieutenant Maltsev, was appointed commander of the capture group, which consisted of 10-12 people, I commanded a fire support group, which already included 18 people. The company commander refused my request to change our places. It was a shame, because my friend Senior Lieutenant Kononov from the 6th company was assigned to the first group. The third group in the fifth company was commanded by contract senior sergeant Cherdakov, it consisted of ten people.

Two people refused to go to the storming of the city, they are the conscript Vavilov from Yaroslavl and the contract soldier Tereshin from Shuya. The first gave up fear, and the second came to Chechnya for financial reasons altogether. They began to incite the people against the assault, but they were quickly isolated (locked in a freight car). And they were punished in a peculiar way: they were sent in a train along with those demobels who survived after the storming of the city. Then they told me how they drove ... And to the deputy. there was no point in addressing the educational company in this regard. It is generally better not to talk about him aloud.

The first battalion was the first to enter the private sector. After some time, they gave a command to us ...

The further we went, the more destruction became visible on the streets. In one of the courtyards we came across a platoon of the first company. When I asked what they were doing here, I was told that there were spirits ahead. I looked at my location on the map and we moved forward. A hundred meters later, they fired on us from the attic of one of the houses. We riddled this attic all over and moved on.

It was getting dark quickly. We stopped on the outskirts of the private sector, set up secrets and ambushes. Prepared for the night. Although what an overnight stay there ... Senior Lieutenant Kononov (we called him Horse) was sent by the battalion commander to reconnoiter the garage complex. When he returned from intelligence, I checked the secrets. “I don’t understand anything,” he says, “I didn’t find these garages. Let's go and take a look together. " - "Let's go to". Indeed, a foundation pit was dug on the site of the garages. And that's all.

Then Senior Lieutenant Kononov with his group went to the cinema, occupied it and established himself there without a fight. I reported to the battalion commander, the battalion commander, in turn, to the regiment commander. The question may arise: why did all my reports go to the battalion commander? The answer is very simple: he was directly on the front line with the company commanders. And we were on the same frequency.

We occupied the cinema. We began to look around. And then its own artillery slashed at the cinema. The feeling, frankly speaking, was eerie. The communications commander in a raised voice explained to the regiment commander that we were under fire. The shelling stopped.

Before us lay the Minutka Square. The battalion commander began to assign tasks to the commanders of the assault groups. The first group of the sixth company of senior lieutenant Kononov left and occupied the far wing of a long five-story building, cut in the middle by the explosion. The second group of senior lieutenant Arishin of the 6th company left and occupied the near wing of this five-story building. All this happened without a fight.

The battalion commander began to summon the commander of the first group of our company, Senior Lieutenant Maltsev - they could not find him. On communication requested - does not respond. Neither him nor the group. I never saw him again, but then they told me that he got scared, he found a bunch of women's underwear and left with this underwear. Why it was to him is incomprehensible.

The battalion commander called me over: "Do you see a nine-story candle in the alignment between the five- and four-story buildings?" - "I see." “Take it, clean it up and stay there. Only faster, soon it will begin to dawn. " I moved out with my group, and when I passed the passage between the five- and four-story buildings, I was surprised to see that the four-story building has the shape of the letter "L", although on the city map it was just straight. The courtyard of the house was closed on all sides. We had already passed half of the five-story building, and at that moment machine guns and grenade launchers hit my group from almost three sides. The situation was becoming critical. I noticed that there were also firing points in the "candle" house, and got in touch with the battalion commander. In a nutshell, he reported to him on the situation, asked for permission to take the group to the first and second groups of the sixth company. He allowed, at the same time giving them the task of supporting me with fire and smoke. Although Kononov and Arishin, without his command, were already crushing the enemy firing points with the fire of their groups. Our group, firing back, crawled to the five-story building. When they put up the smoke screen, the spirits began to beat on the smoke with such fury that at some point I doubted that we would come out alive. And then I noticed that it was beginning to dawn. So, we must hurry: both we and the spirits were becoming visible - the aiming bar and the front sight. The last meters - in smoke - we overcame in a jerk. Half of the group went to Kononov, the other half went with me to Arishin.

As it turned out later, they left on time. Reinforcements approached the spirits. The fire became so dense that it became impossible to move around the house. The first wounded appeared. It was lucky that the floor in the corridor fell into the basement and a semi-basement was formed. It saved us. My platoon commander, senior sergeant Zhenya Petrunkin, crawled up to me, and in a broken voice he said: "Comrade senior lieutenant, we killed Nyukha (Private Plahotniuc)." Immediately a voice from the darkness: "I am alive!"

The denser the enemy's fire was, the larger the window openings in the rooms became, because of this, there were more wounded. Senior Lieutenant Arishin was wounded in the head by shrapnel. Blood poured over the collar, stopped her, made a bandage. I made a decision: in order to avoid unnecessary losses at the windows, leave the fire weapons on duty, and remove the rest of the soldiers into the basement corridor. I reported the decision to the battalion commander, he approved it.

The radio station at the senior lieutenant Arishin sat down. By the evening, communication with Senior Lieutenant Kononov, who was in the other wing of the five-story building with a part of my group, was lost.

I did not know that Cherdakov's group was sent right after us, and even without a radio. It was then that a messenger came from him. And so everyone fired at his group: both the enemy and their own.

In the evening, as it got dark, he sent a volunteer soldier to Kononov. Day pass - there were no options. He returned with people from my group led by Sergeant Kozorezov and the news that Kononov's radio had been broken.

How this day was reflected in the documents of the regiment's headquarters ...

From the War Log

The regiment had the task by the end of the day to replace the units of the 506th regiment, which were defensive in the private sector along Filatova Street, then to storm the garages, the cinema and seize the L-shaped 5-storey building and two 5-storey buildings located on the northern outskirts of Minutka Square ... At 09.40, the regiment commander left for the NP of the 506th regiment to organize interaction and determine the order of changing units. Then the regiment commander departed to the leading edge of the 2nd battalion of the 506th regiment to conduct a reconnaissance on the ground. The battalion commanders also departed with the regiment commander. On the ground, the line for the entry into battle of the assault detachments was determined. During the reconnaissance of the regiment commander's armored personnel carriers and the motorized rifle company were fired upon by the enemy from the "AGS-17". A number of servicemen were injured of varying degrees.

At 13.30, assault detachments of the 1st and 2nd battalions advanced to the starting lines: st. Mikhail Kolbus, st. Black-eyed. Before that, the regiment commander personally to the battalion commanders once again clarified the tasks in the order of assault on Grozny's facilities on Minutka Square, as well as facilities adjacent to it from the southern direction. Solved the commanders' problems on the spot and gave instructions on how to resolve other issues that require time.

At 14.40, the 1st battalion began to advance to change the units of the 506th regiment, the 2nd battalion was preparing to storm the garage sector and the cinema through the battle formations of the 1st battalion.

At 15.00, the 2nd battalion began to advance behind the 1st battalion. At 15.40, the 1st battalion began to change the units of the 506th regiment on the street. Kolbus, the 2nd battalion went to the street. Komarov. ISR conducted engineering reconnaissance.

At 16.20, the replacement of the units of the 506th regiment by the units of the 1st battalion was completed. At 16.30, the assault group of the 1st assault detachment began an offensive in the direction of the 1st quarter on the street. Filatova and by 17.00 completely mastered it. The 2nd and 3rd assault groups began the assault. During the offensive, the assault groups identified enemy strongholds in the area of ​​the 124.4 mark and the bridge over the railway.

At 17.45 on the NP regiment, equipped in a 5-storey building on the street. Topoleva, the head of the OSH OR "Grozny", Lieutenant General Bulgakov, arrived to get acquainted with the situation.

By 19.00, the 2nd battalion fully completed the assigned task for this time and was consolidated at the line on the street. Filatova between st. Kolbus and Vozdvyzhenskaya.

The 1st battalion met enemy resistance from the 124.4 mark, did not enter the battle, entrenched itself at the line at the intersection of ul. Kolbus and Komarov. The artillery division opened fire on enemy strongholds at the summons of the commander of the 1st battalion.

At 22.00, the reconnaissance group of the 2nd battalion began to conduct reconnaissance of the garage area.

Everyone who survived those battles retained in their memory details that you will never forget ...

"Tears mixed with blood are rolling down my cheeks ..."

- On the twenty-fourth of January we moved forward. We ran into guys from the 506th regiment. Their losses were very large. The private sector ended, high-rise buildings went further. It was here, at the crossroads, that the first losses began. The spirit sniper was shooting crosswise into the road. Kuzyu the machine gunner from the first platoon was wounded. The sniper shot him both legs. Platoon lieutenant Mamenko tried to pull him out, so the sniper almost shot his middle finger. Then the guys said that they sewed his finger.

Then the company gathered in the outer houses by the road. I remember a company commander standing in the doorway and shouting to our platoon: "Run over here one at a time!" The first one ran, I followed him. I turn around - no one is behind me. The guys standing nearby are smiling: "I was born in a shirt!" It turns out that while I was running, the sniper shot at me three times. I ask: "Did you even shoot at the corps?" - "Two times to the body, one to the head."

Then the platoon walked around the areas that could not be shot through and joined us. The company commander gave the command: to throw smoke bombs at the road and run across to the other side. We ran over. We received new introductory letters and moved on in dashes. We run into a large two-story garage. There is no one in it, behind it is a concrete fence, and behind the fence is the position of the spiritual crew "AGS". The platoon commander contacted the company commander by radio and outlined the situation. The first platoon with snipers moved up to us. While they were running, one boy was wounded in the side. And so he lay in the open space ... The company commander calls the "box", shouts: "I have a" two hundredth "! We urgently need to evacuate! " The guy lies, does not move. We thought - everything, killed.

At the same time, our snipers began to shoot the spirits. One of them said: “I can’t aim normally, PSO (sniper optical sight. - Auth.) interferes. The distance is about thirty meters. I shoot, I see that I have hit, he pulls out shreds of clothes and meat, and he goes on anyway, under drugs. " In response, the spirits opened fire from the "AGS". A contract soldier from our platoon was wounded by ricochet shrapnel from the ceiling. He was a cool guy, his name was Kostya. He was 25 years old, but development, to be honest, at 15. He joked all the time, told jokes for children. But well done, he turned out to be a man, he didn't put it in his pants. Stands, his head is bandaged, and tears mixed with blood roll down his cheeks.

Our sniper suppressed the crew of the "AGS" spirits, but in front, in a log house, a spirit sniper sat down. The second platoon was located in the next house, the company’s political officer commanded it. He was wounded there. In general, the second platoon was unlucky with the officers. Then he was commanded by a conscript sergeant.

At dusk, an infantry fighting vehicle drove up to us, seemingly from the second company, to pick up the "two hundredth". They come up to him, and he rises himself. The guys are shocked: it’s necessary to lie motionless in such a frost for so long - five hours!

Night has come. The spirits came to collect their dead. They light up "candles" - such dim flares, and shout so long - "Allahu Akbar!" Everyone is on the watch. The company commander commands: "Prepare to repel a possible attack!" Takes his "AKMS" and with the words "Glory to the KPSS!" fires a long line into the opening. Rzhach stood for five minutes. So at least a little bit, but the nervous tension was thrown off ...

"Moving forward without armor ..."

Igor Druzhinin, 3rd motorized rifle company, contract soldier:

- We spent the night in hastily set up tents. In the morning we were given the BC as much as you can take. We received new camouflage coats, white ones, instead of the old ones, and began to advance to Grozny on foot. Then the "behi" drove up with the "two hundred". The boys were pretty tattered: the missile of our SPG turned out to be undershot. The battalion commander burst out to remove the "behi" out of sight, otherwise we should go into battle, and some already have eyes from fear for a penny.

They moved forward without armor towards Minutka Square. The entire private sector, through which they passed, was destroyed, it is not enough to say completely, there were a lot of places where there were just heaps of bricks instead of houses. Before us, the 506th regiment stormed here, which we seemed to be changing, since it was defeated. Found a place where ours were soaked by a shell. The iron gates of the house are covered in blood and holes.

They moved in dashes to the end of the private sector and settled in the first more or less whole private houses. In some of them there were killed militants. Immediately they began to brick the windows, climbed around the house. It was not clear whether there were any of ours ahead, from the nearest high-rise buildings they were shooting in our direction. In the evening they lit a fire behind the house, began to cook food. The "Czechs" fired a little at the reflections of the fire, and hit them from the "border", but they could not reach us.

From somewhere a tank of the 506th regiment drove up to us, the men sat down with us, we fed them. And they make plans for how they will take the five-story building in the morning - it seems like their boys stayed there, but the "Czechs" captured almost all of it. The most interesting thing is that the five of them gathered to fight. These are the guys!

"The task of the day was completed ..."

Alexander Frolov, deputy. regiment commander, guard lieutenant colonel:

- In the new direction of the operation, we had to replace the 506th motorized rifle regiment. Divisions of the regiment passed the streets of the private sector of Grozny, almost one and a half kilometers, with very heavy losses - there were 12-20 people in the companies there. They almost went through the private sector, there was only one block left to the high-rise buildings in the center of Grozny. According to the plan, the 506th regiment should reduce its area of ​​attack, three streets are cut for us, we go between the 1st and 506th motorized rifle regiments. But it turns out that the 1st regiment, the Tamans, are behind us, but they did not have any combat experience, although they were armed to the teeth, they were in our second echelon. We, next to the 276th regiment, and then some other units. We went into the streets, I am in the center with the 2nd battalion, on the right - the 1st battalion. They quickly got involved, very quickly, so that the spirits did not have time to figure out the situation. At night, we approached a shopping center along one street, as it later turned out, and the garages in front of it, in fact, they turned out to be not garages, as on the map, but a foundation pit, it was impossible to walk along the second street right away, but then we entered, expanded the front of the offensive. There, the 1st battalion ran into reinforced firing points and got stuck. And when we came to them from the side, the spirits threw everything there and rushed. We have completed the task of the day. We decide with the battalion commander: we sleep for three hours, have a quick bite to eat and at three o'clock in the morning in groups of 3-5 people - forward, while the shower rises and prays. Bulavintsev's battalion quickly went to the cinema and to the shopping center. I stood behind him about two hundred meters. Morning came, the spirits saw that we had no support on the left and right. The 506th regiment is not moving. General Bulgakov, it was heard on the air, swears, the regiment commander is dismissed from his post: "Why haven't they taken the Minutka square yet!"

"A military tribunal with fighters arrives ..."

Alexander Likhachev, chief of staff of the regiment, lieutenant colonel:

- At the height of the fighting on Minutka, a representative of the military prosecutor's office from the group with a group of soldiers came to the regiment's headquarters. It turned out that the battalion commander, Major Bulavintsev, was arrested for leaving the bridge over the railway. They began to sort it out ... Bulavintsev went to the Minutka not by the lane allocated to his battalion, but to the right (there was no neighbor there), going around this bridge. I passed it and returned to my line of attack. The report that Bulavintsev had passed the bridge left the regiment for the group headquarters. General Bulgakov tears and flies: "He left the bridge!" And the bridge was needed. Bulavintsev did not defend him, because the bridge was not in his offensive zone, and went to Minutka, where he had a combat mission. He has been surrounded for three days, he can’t get anything, but a military tribunal arrives with soldiers: “Let Major Bulavintsev come here!” I say - go for a minute and try to take it. Then he showed the regiment's combat order, where it was clearly written that this bridge was excluded from the Bulavintsev battalion's offensive zone. "Give me this order ..." - asked the representative of the military tribunal. “I won’t give it, it was published on the basis of the military order of the group; it is at the headquarters of the group. " That was the end of it ...

"Four days left before demobilization ..."

Alexey Gorshkov, commander of the 3rd platoon of the 3rd motorized rifle company, senior lieutenant:

- Bulavintsev's battalion, in my opinion, without reconnaissance, entered Minutka Square through garages at night, sat down in the cellars of a five-story building and for two days the "Czechs" threshed them. In the evening of January 25, Bulavintsev, according to the battalion commander and the company commander, goes out to the regiment via communication: "We will not go out ourselves, we need help." I was summoned to the company commander - we were just about to sleep. At 0.30 the command to the platoon is "Rise!"

On January 24 and 25, our company stood on Vozdvizhenskaya Street, on Khankalskaya Street there was a cinema - without walls, only the wall survived, from where the cameraman showed films. Our task was to break through a corridor to Bulavintsev's battalion. We went with the whole company, in platoons. My platoon was called "Ranger" - I had a grenade launcher, machine guns - two PKMs, three RPKs and a sniper, a normal guy.

Conscripts were eager to fight, how much it cost me to keep them out: “You have four days left before demobilization…” They usually nominated like this: me, Vova the radio operator behind me - Pager Dzhan, machine gunner Serezha Petropavlovsky - Trachacha and one contract soldier. At first they let up smoke, and only then did the conscripts, five or six, accompanied by one or two contract soldiers. Machine gunner Kolya Krasnov, we called him Kranov Klya, was in the back, after his story about how he signed his notebook in the first grade - and "double basses", a sniper and a machine gunner "RPK". We left the battle in the same sequence. I was the last to leave, I never left in front of my soldiers, there was no such thing. According to my tactics, other platoons also acted.

At one o'clock in the morning we entered through the cut garden of the private sector, 20-25 meters wide, to the right were the viaduct and Minutka Square, to the left - the House of Life. The second platoon goes first, the first one follows, and the company commander suddenly says to me: "You will stay with me, we need to cover the company's command post." I was very offended: "I'll go myself!" - "You will go to the tribunal!"

At one o'clock in the morning the first and second platoons began to move forward, and at two or three o'clock the battle began ...

"I got stuck in a traffic jam ..."

Artur Sataev, Chief of Staff of the 1st Motorized Rifle Battalion, Major:

- After the first battles, at night the regiment commander pointed out my shortcomings in the organization of communications by radio and demanded my presence in the private sector of Grozny, where the subunits, battalion commander and the battalion's assistant commander for artillery were stationed.

Taking a BMP-1KSh with him, he drove out to the units at night. It was foggy that night, and it was hard to navigate the unfamiliar terrain at night in the city. In the private sector, everything was ruined, and in some places you will not understand whether this is a former street, or a tank drove through the courtyards. I got stuck in a traffic jam, there are infantry fighting vehicles, both ours and neighboring units, and do not know whether to go forward: the lead vehicle came under fire. Got off the BMP, the officers say: "There is an ambush ahead, militants." According to my information, it should be clean there. I asked, just in case, the name of the street we were on. He sent his soldier to find a sign with the name of the street, he came 10 minutes later, found nothing.

I decided to rely on my location data, and I was not mistaken. I contacted the battalion commander, outlined the situation and location for him. He replied that it was possible to go directly to the militants there, began to explain that it was necessary to go by courtyards, explain which courtyards it did not work out, said that he would send a man to drive the combat vehicle. After 20 minutes, a soldier from a grenade launcher platoon of our battalion came to me, he led the car to the house where the battalion commander was. I remember the battalion commander Major Ilyukhin at that moment ... The man did not sleep for several days. I don't know what he did to stay awake: ate coffee beans, or took sleep medications, or just held on. But he didn’t fall. He said: "Arthur, communications are the business of the chief of staff, take the battalion's communications chief, Lieutenant Neikshin, and make it normal."

Communication problems were due to the fact that during the battle they did not charge, and for the most part, the batteries of the radio stations were lost. That night I went to the regiment's command post hoping to find batteries. The signalmen managed to get only a few charged batteries. It was necessary to find charged batteries to get out now and tomorrow. Everything worked out for us, but one division was left without communication. The way out was found. I ordered the commander of the mortar battery, which at that time did not move and was in the depot, to rake the passenger cars and get the car batteries, connect them to the radio stations using wires, creating the required voltage, excluding the battery banks of the large car batteries. Everything worked.

Having eliminated the shortcomings, I decided to stay in the city, closer to the units.

At dawn, with Lieutenant Neikshin, we walked around the houses where the units were, all the battalion companies collected enough batteries, handed them over to the communications company for charging. I remembered: when I entered a support platoon at the depot, the soldiers were sitting there, drinking tea, playing a two-cassette player powered by station batteries and about five lying nearby ... I was ready to shoot them, but I gave the soldiers a shot, calmed down and took the batteries.

In the course of hostilities, they often had to travel around Grozny at night. Always on the front line, among the units, it was much more comfortable than driving around the city at night, although you go to the regiment's command post. It was real to run into nedobitok or "friendly fire" of their own people at night. But that first time, in an unfamiliar city, in a command and staff vehicle, navigating through the fog on the map, among the ruins - the feeling was not pleasant ...

"The sniper didn't bother us anymore ..."

Andrey Aktaev, machine gunner of the 3rd platoon of the 1st motorized rifle company, contract soldier:

“We sat in the garage all night. In the morning, the spirit sniper started playing naughty again. I remember a grenade launcher, a contract soldier from the first platoon - like a crazy guy - shouting: “Guys! Cover up! " Everything in that direction is a flurry of fire. He runs out with a "border", takes aim and, with a cry, releases a vacuum grenade. And so three times.

Somewhere closer to lunchtime, three soldiers and an officer from the 506th regiment ran over to us. Each of them brought a pair of Bumblebees with them. They asked: "Cover up!" They ran out and blew out of three flamethrowers - even a crumb fell from the windowsills. And that's it, the sniper didn't bother us anymore. After lunch we moved on. The platoon is located in a house. We spent the night there. The next day, for my platoon, the assault on Grozny ended: they sent me to guard the artillery battalion.

"Everything was shot through by the militants ..."

Vitaly Zavraisky, commander of the 4th motorized rifle company, captain:

- It's the twenty-fifth of January. My company had already received the task and was all on armor, lined up in a column, when the regiment's psychologist approached and congratulated me on the birth of my daughter. But this thought somehow did not reach me ...

I went with the company to carry out the assigned task. The vehicles with their crews were left on the outskirts of the private sector in the area of ​​the railway depot. We broke up into three platoons, each of them was shown the street along which they were to attack. Each company was an assault group. Thus, our entire battalion was divided into groups: light, medium and heavy.

One company went ahead with the beginning of the assault, followed by the second, my company was the rear. The stock of ammunition, medicine and food was minimal. The assault began at 16-17. I had to advance in the private sector, making at the same time passages in fences, walls of houses, since it was impossible to move along the road: everything was shot by militants. We made our way like this until dark.

The battalion commander gathered the company commanders and once again clarified the task. Half an hour later, the first company left the private sector. After a while, they reported from there that they had occupied the Rodina cinema and another house. The next company with the battalion commander followed her. Then the artillery of the regiment began its work. The militants found our middle group and opened fire on it. It was clarified to me that I and my company were on the outskirts of the private sector. Fortified, took up a perimeter defense and stayed here until morning. In the morning, the militants opened fire on me, and two companies at that time were fighting in the cinema - it was heard over the communications. Regimental artillery fire was constantly adjusted. I ordered the mortar crew assigned to me to process the area in front of us, from where the fighters were firing. So we shot back until lunch the next day. Two companies in the cinema were running out of ammunition.

"You could light a cigarette from the trunk ..."

Igor Druzhinin, 3rd motorized rifle company, contract soldier:

- At night, at two or three o'clock, the company was assembled and told that it was necessary to go ahead, to take the shopping center. Ahead was a small park about twenty meters wide, to the left of it was a cinema, to the right of a shopping center, and a five-story building looked directly at us. We lay down near the park, and then the commander of our third company says to my former commander of the reconnaissance company: “Well, reconnaissance, let's go ahead, and we follow you,” and the reconnaissance company, senior lieutenant Katunkin, excused himself: “We were not given such a task to lead you forward … ”, In general - I got scared.

The last hours on the bank of Chersonesos So the troops survived the last days and hours. In the history of the 98th division, this is narrated as follows: “Few returned back from the defenders of positions on Chersonesos, from this semicircular cape, located west of Sevastopol,