Livejournal com is a feat of the reconnaissance group. Monument to scouts

rigort in the Feat of the Guard Colonel Yuri Budanov

"The feat of the Guards Colonel Yuri Budanov"
(November 24, 1963 - June 10, 2011)
For which the military authorities issued a severe reprimand to Colonel Budanov and service discrepancy for violating the order ☝ ☝ ☝
Thanks to a risky decision and the feat of Guards Colonel Yuri Budanov - who did not care about his career - almost 160 intelligence officers of the 84th separate reconnaissance battalion of the GRU special forces were rescued from a trap - where they were vilely sent to certain death!
The commander of the 160th Guards Tank Regiment of the Siberian Military District, Colonel Yu.D. Budanov, was a man, as they say, with a core and character.
December 30, 1999, while the whole country was preparing to celebrate the New Year, in Chechnya there was a battle for life,
but to death.
More than 150 Russian special forces from the GRU reconnaissance battalion found themselves in a ring of fire near the Khattab detachments.
Intelligence fell into the trap of militants on the outskirts of the village of Duba-Yurt, and it was considered peaceful. This meant that it was impossible to use tanks and artillery in this area. The military command of the ambushed scouts simply abandoned, without sending anyone or anything to their rescue.
At this very time, Colonel Budanov heard hopeless calls for help from reconnaissance groups dying in a fire bag on the radio, and decided, risking everything for himself, to prepare for a breakthrough.
He decided to arbitrarily violate the order to ban artillery and tank fire near the "contractual" village -
and provide assistance.
All the conscripts were landed from the tanks, only volunteer officers under the command of the commander went into this battle.

With two tanks, the officers managed to break through the ring of fire of the militants. All ammunition was used up - powerful firing points - heavy machine guns on the slopes of the mountains were extinguished. Thanks to this, almost 160 scouts of the 84th separate reconnaissance battalion of the GRU special forces were saved from imminent death. The Khatab detachment consisted of about 2,000 militants, which included many professional mercenaries armed to the teeth.
The forces were not equal - the difference was almost 20 times - and given the light armament of the special forces and the prepared ambush of militants where it could not be ... there was no chance to survive.

Surprisingly, the rescued scouts did not manage to see Yuri Budanov in the face then. Having pulled out two reconnaissance companies from the fiery hell, the colonel quietly returned to the location. He was awaiting punishment for arbitrariness.

The state thanked its defender in full!
first 10 years - for a murdered sniper who shot conscripts and officers in the groin (which is why it became clear that the sniper was a woman) ....
then 4 bullets in the back of the head from the hands of Caucasian killers.
The homeland in the face of its top is somehow special and warm
remembers and cares about his soldiers....
Let us remind you that even today the hero of RUSSIA Guards Colonel
YURI BUDANOV-NOT REHABILITATED DEFINITELY!
Stripped of his officer rank and all military awards!
Eternal memory to the Russian Hero.
BOW TO THE EARTH!!! THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN!!!"

I continue the theme of monuments to military signalmen. By the day of the military signalman, I published three notes about the new monuments established in 2015, one in May in Kazan, the other in October at the Main Directorate of the Signal Corps of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation - and the third in Ulnovsk next to the former Ulyanovsk Military School of Signals
And here is another monument that I found while looking for memorials dedicated to military signalmen. It was opened in 2013. This is the only monument in Russia to Soviet intelligence soldiers who participated in the East Prussian operation, as well as to Kaliningraders who died in the line of duty, who served in intelligence in the post-war period. It was solemnly opened on July 13, 2013 in Kaliningrad in Victory Park.
The sculptural composition "Scouts" consists of a sculpture of a scout and a scout-radio operator conducting a communication session at the Sever undercover radio station. The prototype of the scout was the Hero of the Soviet Union, 23-year-old radio operator Anna Morozova, who worked under the pseudonym "Swan".

(source: Kaliningrad photo album

Radio operator Anna Morozova and the commander of the famous reconnaissance group "Jack" Pavel Krylatykh are now immortalized in bronze. The soldiers of the "invisible front" - and only in East Prussia in the German rear there were 237 reconnaissance and sabotage groups - do not have official graves, and they were buried without military honors. The monument-memorial, erected in the Victory Park in Kaliningrad, has become a place of worship for all scouts who gave their lives for their Motherland.

(source: photo album Kaliningrad Photo by Igor Shilov, Igor Bizyuk)

And even though this is not quite a monument to military signalmen, I already had such a memorial -. Monument to Army General Viktor Dubynin and all soldiers and officers who participated in the combat operations of the Afghan war. This is also not a monument to a signalman, but there is a signalman on a pedestal there too. The monument depicts one of the episodes of the Afghan war of 1979-1989. Three bronze figures are installed on the pedestal: Dubynin and two servicemen, a scout and a signalman. A simple soldier with a walkie-talkie in field uniform. The choice of a signalman is a tribute to the signal service in the troops during the Afghan war. Similarly, in Kaliningrad, the creators of the monument paid tribute to the heroes-signalmen, without whom there was no feat of scouts.

(source: Wikimapia)

The initiator of the project is the representative office of the Union of Military Intelligence Veterans in Kaliningrad and the Association of Veterans of Special Forces and Special Forces Alfa-Vympel-SBP. According to its honorary director Anatoly Gribanov, funds have been collected for the construction of the monument for six years. About 2 thousand people from the Kaliningrad region, Moscow and St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Voronezh, Belarus and Poland, various organizations and the government of the region contributed to the creation of the memorial. The authorities allocated about 3 million rubles from the regional budget for these purposes. As a result, more than 10 million rubles were collected.

(source: Wikimapia)

On the territory of the former East Prussia, where two and a half thousand Soviet intelligence officers died during the war years, such a memorial must have appeared. "The scouts don't have graves," says Anatoly Gribanov, head of the Union of Veteran Scouts in Kaliningrad. "They were just buried. There were no documents, no tokens." Many reconnaissance groups were missing.

For a long time, documents related to the work of Soviet saboteurs remained classified as "secret". But even today, the fates and names of most of the heroes remain unknown - only the names of reconnaissance groups and their call signs remain.
The names of reconnaissance groups are carved on the granite slabs surrounding the monument.

(source: photo album Kaliningrad Photo by Igor Shilov, Igor Bizyuk)

How many of them are here, dead and missing ...

(source: photo album Kaliningrad Photo by Igor Shilov, Igor Bizyuk)

Reconnaissance group...
Reconnaissance group...
Reconnaissance group...
Reconnaissance group...
Reconnaissance group...

(source: photo album Kaliningrad Photo by Igor Shilov, Igor Bizyuk)

"Seagull-1" died ...
"Seagull-2" went missing ....

(source: photo album Kaliningrad Photo by Igor Shilov, Igor Bizyuk)

Morozova ("Reseda", "Swan") Anna Afanasievna (1921-1944), Hero of the Soviet Union (1965, posthumously), legendary underground fighter of the Great Patriotic War, radio operator of the special sabotage and reconnaissance group "Jack" of the military unit "Field mail 83462" 3rd (sabotage) department of the Intelligence Directorate of the 3rd Belorussian Front, which operated in July-December 1944 in the rear of the East Prussian enemy grouping.
She was born on November 23, 1921 in the village of Polyany, Mosalsky District, Kaluga Region, into a peasant family, but since 1936 she has permanently lived in the Bryansk Region. She graduated from the 8th grade of school and accounting courses. She worked in her specialty.

During the retreat of the Red Army, she was left in Sescha to organize underground work, where she was the co-leader of the underground at the German air base Sescha, and after the death of Hero of the USSR Konstantin Povorov, who worked under the guise of a hilfpolice, on a mine, she became the leader of the underground
From May 1942 to September 1943, Morozova led an underground international Soviet-Polish-Czechoslovak organization in the village of Sescha as part of the 1st Kletnyanskaya partisan brigade. She obtained valuable information about the enemy, organized sabotage to blow up aircraft and disable other military equipment. Having received magnetic mines from the partisan brigade, they mined and blew up twenty aircraft, six railway echelons, and two ammunition depots.

On the basis of her intelligence data, on June 17, 1942, the partisans defeated the garrison of an enemy air base in the village of Sergeevka, destroying 200 flight personnel, 38 vehicles.

In September 1943, having left the underground, she joined the Red Army. In June 1944 she graduated from the courses of radio operators.

(source: Russian West website)

As a fighter of the sabotage and reconnaissance group "Jack" of the intelligence department of the headquarters of the 10th Army, she was thrown into the territory of East Prussia. A well-established warning system and the inability to hide for a long time in cultivated forest plantations led to the death of numerous reconnaissance groups thrown in to reconnoiter the fortification system.
Suffering losses, the Jack group crossed into the Polish territory occupied by the Germans, from the end of 1944 A. Morozova was in the joint Soviet-Polish partisan detachment. On December 31, 1944, in a battle on the Nova Ves farm, she was wounded and, in order not to be captured, blew herself up with a grenade.

Here is how she died according to eyewitness accounts.
During the last battle, the Jack group scattered through the forest, breaking away from the SS men, Anya wandered through the forest for three days, and stumbled upon scouts from Captain Chernykh's special group. ... In the morning, the reconnaissance group of the guard captain Alexei Chernykh crosses the narrow-gauge railway Myshinets - Ostrolenka and meets with the Myshinetsky partisan detachment of Lieutenant of the Army Lyudova, nicknamed "Cherny". Russians in uniform, with shoulder straps, Poles in civilian clothes, with red and white armbands. Chernykh and "Charny" ("Black") firmly shake hands with each other, Everyone smiles at this coincidence. One of the last radio messages from Anya, now the radio operator of Captain Chernykh's special group:

A radiogram to the "Center" from Lebed: "... There are 15 heavy and 67 medium tanks in Mlawa at the repair base. An armored unit consisting of a hundred vehicles from the 1st Panzer Division "Hermann Goering" is sent on platforms to Pshasnysh. In Khozhel there is a unit from the tank corps "Grossdeutschland" "consisting of two battalions ..." ...

The next day, Mlava and Khozhel were bombed by assault aircraft of two Belarusian fronts, the tanks did not reach the front! The center asked for confirmation of the success of the bombing, the Poles confirmed, but around the stations there were pieces of metal and torn, mangled towers!

The united Soviet-Polish detachment was located on the Nova Ves farm. Having posted guards with one machine gun, the paratroopers and Poles-partisans settle down for the night in the hayloft. Anya falls asleep. There are many good guys in the Cherny group, but Anya does not have time to get to know them. In the morning, the Germans attacked the farm, piercing the buildings with incendiary bullets. Leaning against the wall, the dead captain Chernykh sits, Gortsev, Filatov, Kuznetsov are killed ... SS men and Vlasov attack from all sides. Bending low, Anya and the guys run across the snow-covered potato field. The guys in front and behind fall, firing back, one after another ... Bullets catch up with Zventsov, Vankovich, Shabovsky ... At the very edge of the edge, radio operator Ivan falls face down. Anya, having already reached the edge of the forest, bends down to pick up his walkie-talkie, an explosive bullet hits her left hand. At first, Anya does not feel much pain, but, having reached the forest, she glances at her numb hand, and everything floats before her eyes. Broken in the hand, the hand hangs on the same tendons. A smashed, trophy Longines watch hung down, with its mangled dial. The friends take off the walkie-talkie bags and the radio supply from Anya. Tadeusz Zavlotsky - clamps her artery, the Cadet tightens the belt above the elbow, Sokol hastily bandages the wound, and Anya, trying to smile, says with difficulty: - Nothing, because the radio operator only needs her right hand! -…
You can't go any further. Further on the floodplain and the unfrozen river Vkra, fast, muddy. Anya leans her back against a thick hornbeam. Through the noise of blood in her ears, she hears the words spoken in Polish: Maybe in my bud? ... Yes, I'm afraid to scare the children. I have three of them ... No, - Anya said weakly, - they will find me, they will all be shot. - Then in the bushes in the swamp ... - What is your last name? Pavel Yankovsky? Mecheslav Novitsky? You answer with your head! ... Anya, we will distract the Germans, we will come for you at night! - ... The guys leave, taking Anya's radio. More than twenty brave, good guys died that day before her eyes: Poles, Russians, Belarusians, Ukrainians. The tar old men hide Anya in the reeds powdered with snow, in a secluded corner of the swamp, and run away. The noise of gunfire rolls back further and further. The guys distract the SS. But two German Shepherds are torn off their leashes. Here - footprints, there - in the snow a chain of scarlet spots of Anya's blood ... The SS men stumbled upon old Novitsky, who returned to the hut, and immediately shot him. Another old man, Yankovsky, hid in a swamp. He saw everything: the Germans stop at the edge of the swamp. They shout: - Rus, give up! - Sheepdogs bark excitedly. Crushing the ice with their forged boots, the SS men go, rummaging through the swamp. Yankovsky crawls away in fear into the depths of the swamp. A fragmentation grenade explodes behind. He looks around - the SS lie down, one of them screams heart-rendingly. Shepherd dogs are lying, killed by grenade fragments. This saves Pavel Yankovsky, the only surviving eyewitness to the death of Anya ... The Germans, shooting, crawl forward. They are chased by the whistles of an officer, the SS team for the extermination of paratroopers. Anya fires back and manages to take down three of them. But with one hand, she can no longer reload the gun. Anya still believes in her happiness. Is it possible that after all that she experienced there, she - Swan - will lay down her head here, on Polish soil? Eh, Swan, Swan, the native flock has flown far away, and you, wounded in the wing of the Swan, cannot leave this dead swamp! youth, life. “The last help is a grenade to the heart! ...” So said Kolya Shpakov. ... Anya clutches a grenade in her right hand. A brand new fragmentation grenade "F-1" from the last, dropped cargo ...

But everyone agrees on one thing: in that battle, Onishchuk's reconnaissance group showed an example of real heroism.
In this issue, the editors of the magazine publish a story about the battle itself, based on documents from the official investigation into the death of the group.
On October 28, 1987, the reconnaissance group of Oleg Onischuk was given the task to advance to the Shahjoy region to destroy caravans moving from Pakistan into the interior of the country. A group of 20 people left the base at six o'clock in the evening and in two night crossings, leaving about forty kilometers behind them, reached the ambush site.
On the night of October 30-31, a convoy of three Mercedes trucks was found moving at intervals of a kilometer and a half. From a distance of nine hundred meters, scouts from a grenade launcher knocked out the lead vehicle and shot down the outposts with machine gun fire. However, in the dark (and the “spiritual” caravans moved only at night to avoid meeting with Soviet helicopters), Onishchuk decided not to carry out search operations, but to wait until the morning.
The paratroopers did not know that they had dealt with the Mujahideen, who were part of three gangs: M. Modada, S. Nasser and S. Rockets. On October 30-31, these bandit formations advanced to the Kabul-Kandahar section of the road to carry out ambush operations. At the same time, so to speak, the Mujahideen decided to "earn some money" by escorting caravans. "Spirits", of course, could not come to terms with the failure of their mission and decided to take revenge.
By morning, over two hundred rebels surrounded the area where Onishchuk's group was located and began combing the area. The avant-garde of the "spirits" was well equipped: a 14.5-mm ZGU anti-aircraft gun, 6 DShK machine guns of 12.7 mm caliber, 3 mortars and 2 "recoilless". The battle began at 6.05 am, when the Mujahideen opened fire on the discovered group with all the weapons they had.
In parallel with the destruction of the paratroopers, the "spirits" sought to recapture the captured vehicle with weapons. However, a group of Mujahideen, who were trying to get close to the wrecked Mercedes, were very disappointed when they came under fire from a sniper, Private M. Khrolenko. Having lost several people, the “spirits” abandoned the idea of recovering their car and rolled back.
... Later, the command of the 40th Army conducted an investigation to create a complete picture of that battle. Here are the lines from the report.
“In the first minutes of the battle, Private Jafarov T.T. was wounded. Junior Sergeant Sidorenko R.G., seeing that his comrade was bleeding, rushed to help, but at that moment he was mortally wounded by a shot from an RPG. Machine gunner Private Muratov Y.I., despite the explosions of grenades, mines, the whistle of bullets overhead, with aimed fire forced the dushmans to lie down ... Private Khrolenko M.V. covered him from behind. With well-aimed fire, he destroyed the calculation of the DShK and two grenade launchers. The explosive bullet hit him in the neck.
Private Muratov Ya.I., seeing that the “spirits” surrounded him from all sides and approached 15–20 meters, rose to his full height and, being wounded, fired until the cartridges ran out. Furious dushmans continued to shoot his already lifeless body at close range, and then cut him with knives.
The machine gunners ordinary Moskalenko I.V., Muradyan M.V. and the scouts private Ivanov O.L., Salakhiev E.I. who covered them fought heroically. They were found brutally mutilated, dead dushmans, empty magazines and boxes of machine guns lay around them. All this happened in front of the group commander Art. Lieutenant Onischuk O.P. and Junior Sergeant Islamov Yu.V. There was a great desire to help their comrades, but the rebels surrounded them in a dense ring, climbed insolently, stoned, to their full height, prematurely celebrating the victory over the Shuravi.
Having shot all the cartridges, in a brutal hand-to-hand fight, Art. lieutenant Onischuk O.P. and junior sergeant Islamov Yu.V. blew themselves up with grenades, killing 13 more rebels. Dushmans, in a rage, brutally abused the bodies of the dead, cutting them with knives ... "

In this battle, Onischuk's group destroyed 63 Mujahideen, including Mullo Modad, the commander-in-chief of the armed detachments of the DIRA party in the province of Zabol, and S. Nasser, one of the most active leaders of the rebels.
To evacuate Onischuk's platoon on the Mi-8 link, a group of Captain Goroshko Ya.P. was sent. The group entered the battle when the "spirits" were already celebrating victory. Seeing the mutilated, knife-cut corpses of their comrades, they began to scatter the rebels from the battlefield like puppies. The battle went on at a distance of 50-100 meters, now and then turning into hand-to-hand combat.
A fighter of the Goroshko group, V. Solomatin, with a shot from a grenade launcher from twenty meters, smashed the “spirit” to pieces, then destroyed another one with a knife, which mocked the corpse of a soldier of the Onishchuk group. Sniper M. Niftaliyev threw grenades from a distance of ten meters and finished off three rebels from the SVD, capturing two machine guns of the enemy.
Captain Goroshko personally destroyed two dushmans in hand-to-hand combat, and three more with automatic fire. In total, the Goroshko group sent eighteen people to the next world, losing only one - Private R. Alimov. The helicopter pilots, who ensured the evacuation of the remnants of Onishchuk's group and Goroshko's fighters, were actively attacking the main forces of the rebels, preventing them from approaching the battlefield. They destroyed up to 70 dushmans, 2 vehicles with ammunition, 1 ZGU and 5 DShK.

Mid-end of December 1944: adjacent to the Polish cities of Mława and Tsechanów, Myshchinetska Forest.
Having settled with the assistance of Polish patriots in a forest dugout located 12 km northeast of the city of Myshinets, the Jack reconnaissance group is actively conducting covert reconnaissance in relation to the garrison and fortifications of the Mlavsky fortified area of the East Prussian grouping of Nazi troops. On one of those days, a container with cargo was received by air - winter clothes, tarpaulin boots, vodka, a first aid kit, individual packages, a power hose ... From the last radiogram sent to the Center under the signature of the "Gladiator": “In the Ostrolenka area is the 102nd Infantry Division, with it the 104th Artillery Regiment. The 28th Grenadier Division arrived in our area from East Prussia. From the forest east of the village of Tychek-Noski, 30 tanks left for Kolno - field mail 8417. Soldiers of the 128th and 144th infantry divisions come for hay in the area of Lysee and Pupkovizna. The Germans found two sacks of cargo dropped two kilometers away from the signal trap, and are starting a big round-up. We live either in a forest dugout, or under the remnants of hay in stacks..
On December 27, 1944, the dugout in which the Dzhekites were located was discovered and surrounded by punishers. A battle ensued, during which the radio operator foreman Z.M. Bardysheva, and Lieutenant A.A. Morzhin and his full-time deputy I.I. Melnikov, also bleeding, went missing during the counterattack on the breakthrough - most likely they were killed, although according to unofficial data, only I.I. Melnikov, and A.A. Morzhin was taken prisoner, for which he was allegedly repressed in the post-war period. By their heroic deed, they made it possible for radio operator Sergeant A.A. to escape safely from the trap. Morozova. The details of that battle are contained in a radiogram dated December 30, 1944 to the Center from the "Swan" - Sergeant A.A. Morozova: “Three days ago, the SS men suddenly attacked the dugout. According to the Poles, the Germans captured Pavel Lukmanov, he could not stand the torture and betrayed us. The "Frenchman" died silently. "Jay" [Z.M. Bardyshev] was immediately wounded in the chest. She told me: “If you can, tell your mother that I did my best, died well”. And she shot herself. "Gladiator" [A.A. Morzhin] and "Mole" [I.I. Melnikov] were also wounded and left, firing back, in one direction, I in the other. Breaking away from the SS, she went to the village to the Poles, but all the villages were occupied by the Germans. For three days she wandered through the forest until she came across scouts from Captain Chernykh's special group. The fate of the "Gladiator" and "Mole" could not be established. Thus, from December 30, 1944, Sergeant A.A. Morozova - a fighter of the special sabotage and reconnaissance group of the intelligence department of the 2nd Belorussian Front of the guards of Captain Chernykh, abandoned on the territory of Poland in the rear of the East Prussian group of enemy forces in November 1944.
On December 30, 1944, radio correspondent No. 2165 “Swan” went on the air three more times, transmitting to the Center information obtained by the reconnaissance group of the guards of Captain Chernykh, including: “Fifteen“ tigers ”and 67 other tanks at the repair base. An armored unit consisting of a hundred vehicles is sent on platforms to Pshasnysh. In Khozhel there is a part of the tank corps "Grossdeutschland" and "A Volkssturm regiment and a battalion of the Hitler Youth arrived in Pshasnysh." The third radiogram was with additional intelligence about the garrison of Nazi troops in the Polish city of Mlawa, which, by the way, allowed Soviet aviation to deliver another accurate massive bomb attack on this target.
Center response: I express gratitude for the successful reconnaissance in Mlava. Please find out the results of the bombing…”. And on the same evening - with the permission of the reconnaissance group of the guards of Captain Chernykh, to redeploy from the area of \u200b\u200bthe city of Pshasnysh in the vicinity of Plock - to the territory of the Serptsky poviat (county) in order to hide there in the floodplains of the Wkra River. They set off immediately in a group with Polish partisans of Lieutenant "Cherny" - Ignacy Sedlich. They walked all night. At dawn, after fourteen hours of travel, we reached the Nowa Ves farm, where, having settled in the barn and in the hayloft of the estate of the peasant Tadeusz Brzezinski, we settled down to rest. However, soon the farm was secretly surrounded, and then attacked by superior forces of the SS. When breaking out of the encirclement, Sergeant A.A. Morozova was seriously wounded - an explosive bullet shattered the wrist of her left hand. The Polish partisans helped her to get to the bank of the river Wkra, which did not freeze in winter. Since the wounded woman could no longer move independently, and Vkru had to force it by swimming, she, Sergeant A.A. Morozov, the Polish partisans, with the help of two local old tar smokers who were working at that moment in the forest, hid behind the swamp in a vineyard, promising to return here as soon as the roundup subsides. Being discovered by search dogs launched on the trail, she fired back from the trophy "Walter", laying down three punishers in place, and with an explosion of lemon juice she wounded the shepherd dogs that were let loose. When the cartridges ran out in the clip, Sergeant A.A. Morozova managed to destroy the secret radio codes that were with her, after which she pulled out the pin from the last grenade with her teeth and, waiting for the Nazis to come closer, blew herself up with them with this very lemon ...
With the heroic death of the radio operator Sergeant A.A. Morozova de jure ended the combat chronicle of the special sabotage and reconnaissance group "Jack". Already in the post-war period, the reconnaissance group "Jack", due to its high performance and the long-term "survivability" achieved behind enemy lines, will be deservedly elevated to the status of one of the most legendary in Soviet military intelligence. The feat of the reconnaissance group "Jack" is immortalized not only in special - closed in nature - literature and numerous publications of domestic and foreign media, but also in a number of works of art.

"I can't forget this fight - the air is saturated with death,
And stars are falling from the sky like a silent rain ... "
Vladimir Vysotsky.

Monument dedicated to those killed in Afghanistan and Chechnya. Stands in the city of Berdsk, Novosibirsk region.

In the autumn of 1999, a heavy battle took place in Chechnya between the reconnaissance group of the GRU General Staff and a gang of militants who outnumbered them many times over. This article is dedicated to the people who bore the brunt of that battle.
The author of the article expresses immense gratitude to everyone who helped with the writing of the article.
And now - a little historical digression.

brigade

The 67th separate special-purpose brigade was formed on the basis of the 791st separate special-purpose company. The city of Berdsk in the Novosibirsk region was chosen as the location point.

Like all special forces brigades that were created in the 60s and 70s (with the exception of the 3rd ObrSpN), the 67th ObrSpN was a cropped formation, in which the peacetime personnel was 350 people. According to the plans of the military command, when martial law was introduced, due to the mobilization of reserve military personnel and holding 30-day training camps, the 67th ObrSpN was deployed into a full-fledged combat-ready formation with a personnel of 1,700 people.

In addition to the brigade control unit, it included the 691st and 690th separate special forces detachments (OOSPN).

At the end of December 1994, in the 67th ObrSpN, a combined detachment was created on the basis of the 691st OOSPN to conduct combat operations in Chechnya.

Two groups in the form of a consolidated detachment were attached to the 131st Motorized Rifle Brigade and suffered heavy losses during the New Year's assault on the city of Grozny.

On December 31, 1994, in the city of Grozny, a detachment was ambushed near the notorious railway station. Lieutenant Dmitry Erofeev, was injured when an RPG hit the BMP, but was able to take out two wounded crew members from the burning equipment. Then he covered the groups of the detachment, remaining with a machine gun. He died in that battle. He was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of Russia.

On January 1, 1995, when trying to release the 131st brigade, surrounded on the railway city of Grozny, the detachment itself was blocked. Captain Lelyukh Igor was seriously wounded and remained to cover the withdrawal of the detachment. For half an hour he alone held back the militants before he died. He was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of Russia.

On January 1, 1995, one of the groups of the 691st OOSPN saddled the road between Vedeno and Serzhen-Yurt, having received an order to organize an ambush on the path of militants from the mountains of Chechnya to Grozny. As a result of competent and well-coordinated actions of the group, the convoy of militants was almost completely destroyed, losing their equipment and killing up to 60 people.

It is impossible not to tell about the commander of the detachment, Major Konopelkin Evgeny. At the beginning of 1995, leading a group of soldiers covering the withdrawal of the unit, he was seriously wounded in the leg, but the battle continued. At the hospital, his foot was amputated. Having shown extraordinary will and perseverance, constantly training, Eugene achieved a return to duty, with a prosthesis. Having refused to work at the headquarters, Major Konopelkin returned to Chechnya and again led the detachment.

In 1998, Major Evgeny Konopelkin was awarded the title of Hero of Russia for his actions in releasing the encircled detachment on Minutka Square in Grozny, in March 1996.

The 691st Special Forces was in Chechnya from December 4, 1994 to October 22, 1996, having lost 14 people killed.

In 1996, the 67th ObrSpN was awarded the pennant "The Best Brigade of the Military District" based on the results of combat training.

In August 1999, a combined detachment was created from the 67th ObrSpN, also on the basis of the 691st Special Forces, to conduct combat operations in Chechnya.

In early September 1999, the detachment was transferred to the North Caucasus.
In October 1999 there was a fight that became the basis for writing this article. As a result, his two members of the group were awarded the title of Hero of Russia.
In the future, the detachment consistently operated in the Shatoi, Vedeno and Shali regions.

Since the fall of 2000, military personnel from the 24th ObrSpN of the Trans-Baikal Military District have been involved in the rotation (periodic replacement) of the personnel of the 691st Special Forces.

In 2001, for the skillful leadership of the group in battle, Major Safin Dmitry was awarded the title of Hero of Russia.

In total, the 67th separate special-purpose brigade lost 37 people in the second Chechen war.

Place and time

The Sunzha Range is a mountain range in Ciscaucasia. Administratively located on the territory of four republics - Kabardino-Balkaria, North Ossetia, Ingushetia and Chechnya. Length - 140 km, the highest point of the ridge - Mount Zamankul (926 m). The ridge rises up to 600 m above the sloping plain, decreases from west to east and, closer to Grozny, turns into low hills. The slopes of the mountains are covered mainly with steppe vegetation, in the higher western part there are areas of dense broad-leaved (oak, hornbeam) forest.
Stanitsa Sernovodskaya is the administrative center of the Sunzhensky district (shaded in red on the map), located in the western part of Chechnya, 58 km west of Grozny and 12 km from the village of Ordzhonikidzevskaya. It is located on the southern slope of the Sunzha Range, at an altitude of 310 meters.

Group

Reconnaissance group No. 4 of the 691st Special Forces of the 67th ObrSpN GRU General Staff of the Russian Federation

1) Senior Lieutenant Mikhail Bezginov (group commander)
2) Ensign Yuri Travnikov (machine gunner)
3) Ensign Oleg Kuyanov (sniper)
4) Ensign Kataev Andrey (squad leader)
5) Ensign Suraev Sergey
6) Ensign Bakhnov Sergei
7) Ensign Ilenzeer Sergey (machine gunner)
8) Private Tsygankov
9) Private Anureev Ivan (radio operator)
10) Private Klychkov Nikolai
11) Private Vlasov

The armament of the group is AKMS assault rifles (influenced by the experience of the "Afghans"), including those with GP, 2 PKM, 1 SVD, 1 VSS, several RPG-26s. Each carried 1.5-2 ammo, that is, in the region of 600 rounds for AKMS, machine gunners carried from 800 to 1500, plus a sniper carried another 400 rounds for machine gunners. Grenade launchers with GP carried 10 VOGs around the state.

The photo below shows what the group might have looked like before going out.
In these photographs of the 67th ObrSpN group in 2000, at that time the brigade was re-equipped with AK-74s.

Group task

The Berd detachment was attached to the battalion of the operational division (DON) of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation. Two groups - No. 2 and No. 4 (Bezginov's group) advanced on foot along the Sunzhensky ridge. Moving along the ridge, they were supposed to conduct reconnaissance on the path of movement of the mentioned battalion. When an enemy is detected, determine its coordinates and report them to the headquarters for planning and delivering air and artillery strikes. In the course of striking, adjust their fire.
There was no concrete information about the presence of large formations of militants in the area. Actually, the groups went to get information about those.
Groups No. 1 and No. 3 (commander Moserov) remained in the camp.

Battle progress

Both groups successfully made a forced march, leaving the exit point. At night, at the point of divergence (the groups had a different route), a halt was organized with appropriate security.

At 04:00 in the morning, the commander of group No. 2 raised and took his people to the route.

Group No. 4 was delayed for unknown reasons at the "day". Somewhere at that moment, she was discovered by intelligence of Chechen fighters from the Baraevsky battalion, who was on the march. They decided to covertly approach the location and destroy the scouts with a surprise attack. But then the unexpected happened.

Ensign Bakhnov recalls (retells Moserov):

“Suraev approached me and said, “baby, there is someone climbing in front of the green, let's go and see.” We quickly gathered on patrol, together with Kataev, and began to advance in the indicated direction. I fell behind a little, and it saved my life. Serega (Suraev) managed to give a burst and then they started shooting from all sides. I started to fall and a VOG-25 exploded near me. Giving a turn and realizing that I was wounded, I crawled to my own. The second VOG-25 broke my arm. Overcoming the pain, I randomly fired back, tried to crawl out to my own, and the spirits threw grenades at me and shouted “Russian, give up !!!”. I don't remember when my nose was blown off. When I crawled to my own, Private Vlasov bandaged me.

Ensigns Sergey Suraev and Andrey Kataev were killed on the spot, but saved the group, forcing the militants to reveal themselves.

Sniper Oleg Kuyanov, having opened return fire, immediately destroyed four militants.

From the characteristics of ensign Oleg Kuyanov:

".... one of the best snipers of the brigade, an excellent shooter, masterfully disguises himself, has all the skills and moral and psychological qualities necessary for a sniper"

The group lay down in the old trenches left over from the time of the First Chechen Company. A battle began, in which the special forces had a slight advantage, due to the trenches and folds of the mountainous terrain. The radio operator began to call headquarters. The militants, using modern communication equipment, tried to drown out the operation of the radio station of the special forces.
The group commander, Senior Lieutenant Mikhail Bezginov, unfortunately, died at the very beginning of the battle.

Radio operator Ivan Anureev recalls:

“The commander gave the command: to take up defense and shoot back. And then he was cut off from a sniper rifle, his camouflage only jumped up, and he fell: he did not suffer for a second. At this time, I am trying to shoot back and at the same time I am trying to talk on the radio. Well, how to shoot back: I just put my hand with a machine gun over me, and the guys tell me where the militants are, where to hit. There was a connection, but I couldn’t speak: I’ll just pull out the antenna, and you can see it, and the militants start firing at me. The boys shoot back, cover me. Ensign Seryoga Ilenzeer runs around: “Vanya, bend over!”, He shoots at me, disperses them a little, and I try to talk on the radio again. Then he just lay down on the ground and tried to keep in touch with a recumbent antenna.

The seriously wounded Bakhnov helped the conscript "pump" the connection, simultaneously stuffing the magazines with cartridges, since the members of the group simply did not have time to do this.

Group No. 2, which left early in the morning, heard the cannonade unfolding at the place of their “day camp”.
Says I.L. (Brigade Officer)
“They were ordered to carry out their task further. The headquarters, not knowing exactly what happened, was afraid to destroy this group as well.

“There was nothing to support the group. The weather is non-flying. There was no artillery, and interaction with it was not debugged then. DON had mortars, but we were denied them, I don’t remember why.”

“I reported on the battle that the group is conducting, handed over the coordinates, they answer me: “We don’t have helicopters, we can’t fly out! Two “boxes” (two armored personnel carriers) will go to you.” I shout: “What boxes, there are a lot of militants here, they climb from everywhere, from all sides, it’s impossible to even count!”

Machine gunner Yuri Travnikov and Private Nikolai Klychkov perish one after another.

“Yuri Travnikov and Oleg Kuyanov were called Altai brothers. They were friends and were always together: on assignments, on exercises. The guys were funny and positive. I remember once on a military exit, in the mountains, I slept before duty. And suddenly they wake me up, I jump up, grab a machine gun, where to run ?! "Yes, be quiet, it's our birthday!" It turns out that they made a cake out of cookies and condensed milk. And we sat, like at a real birthday party, celebrated ...
In that battle, Oleg and Yura were also together. Oleg Kuyanov took up his sniper position and changed it several times: this is what snipers do - no more than two shots from one place. He destroyed the militants one by one, not thinking about himself, keeping a distance from us, so as not to let them near us. ”

The death of a friend had a strong influence on Kuyanov. He left the location of the group and went on a "free hunt". From that moment on, no one else saw him alive.

“Kuyanov pulled back some of the spirits' powers. The spirits had to be distracted by his fire, allocate forces for suppression, weakening the onslaught on the group. No one knows in what period of the battle Oleg died, how long he fired harassing fire, what and when he was injured, but the fact that he inflicted certain damage on the militants is undoubtedly, heads are not cut on the spot in battle just like that. But my opinion is that if Kuyanov had stayed with the group, he would have acted more efficiently, there were free machine guns, and the rifle, again, was not superfluous. And maybe even survived. He's gone to certain death."

“The intensity of the battle did not subside for a minute. I remember one militant ran straight at us with a machine gun: “Russian, give up!!!”. We fired several barrels at him, and he fell right into our trench. Then something nearby exploded: a grenade or RGD-1, and I feel like I can’t hear anything – apparently, I was shell-shocked.”

“The detachment’s signalman received a radiogram that Bezginov’s group was fighting with superior forces of militants. The operational officer of the detachment was given the command to prepare for battle. I ordered my group (No. 3) to prepare for a combat operation and take more cartridges and disposable Mukha grenade launchers. The valiant DON did not give people, but gave the BTR80 on which we drove. An interesting fact: the commander of the armored personnel carrier, senior lieutenant (later Hero of Russia), when he found out that we were going to war, jumped off at the last checkpoint with the words "I'll wait for you here."

Since Bezginov had already died by that time, we had approximate coordinates. Yes, they were not actually required, since at first both groups moved at night along the road along the ridge to the place where they had to disperse to their reconnaissance areas. The detachment commander decided to advance to this point, and then conduct a search. But we did not reach the place, as the militants put up a detachment on the way of our advance.

In fact, it was an ambush, and only the attentiveness of ensign Alexander Igishev (group No. 1) saved us from heavy losses. As soon as he shouted "Spirits" I commanded "All down", and the enemy machine gunner fired at the armor, and not at the people on it. The commander of the 1st group, Ivan, and I immediately agreed that we would fall apart into a chain, and I would attack on the left, and he on the right. Although in the porridge that followed, everything was still mixed up.

Since the militants hoped to meet with ordinary conscripts, they did not allocate enough forces and after 3-4 hours of battle our heroic armored personnel carrier rolled out onto the hill. There we saw the militants deploying a mortar battery. We shot them from the KPVT, and they, along with KAMAZ with mines, NIVA and people, were destroyed. Then, when the barrier was broken, and the militants began to retreat, there was a smell of awards and the valiant DON fighters appeared on the BMD-1 (I don’t know where the internal troops got the landing equipment from). They first lay down behind us and began firing at our backs. Fortunately, they figured it out and began to help.

By this time, I received a gunshot wound in the stomach and could no longer manage the group, this was done by my deputy ensign Zarubin Grigory. In many sources, he is attributed to the staff of the Bezginov group, but this is not true, he was in my group. There were three wounded on our side: I (hardly), the commander of the 1st group Ivan (lightly), Ensign Bannov Maxim (lightly, continued the battle to the end.).

The battle had been going on for more than six hours, almost everyone in Bezginov's group had been wounded. Ammunition was coming to an end. Upon learning that their detachment had been broken through, the militants decided to intensify the onslaught in order to destroy the group. They managed to approach the grenade throw.

Ensign Ilenseer:

“There was a distinct feeling that this was the end. We crawled on a carpet of shell casings - the ammunition was running out. The militants were already nearby, shouting their “Allah Akbar”. I wanted to leave beautifully, in full growth, and not at the bottom of the trench, finished off by spirits. I took the RMB with the last tape, stood up to my full height and opened fire on the spirits at close range.

“When the spirits yelled “Allah Akbar,” Ilenzeer said, “Load your cartridges and don’t stick your head out,” stood up to his full height and began to water around, swearing, from a machine gun.

The militants could not withstand this pressure and retreated.
Silence reigned….

“Then I heard our cries, and cried, realizing that it was all over. We survived!

“And we already have one and a half magazines left for all the survivors, my machine gun jammed, and I kick it to reload. I continue to shoot and suddenly I feel that someone has twisted my arms: “Fool, what are you doing! Their!". And we don’t understand anything anymore: no fear, no pain. ”

Ensign Kivilev Alexander, the first to arrive at the scene of the battle:

“When I got to the trench, where everyone was, Seryoga Zeich (Ilenzeer) was standing with a smoking machine gun, ankle-deep in cartridge cases, in the trench and around the corpse of spirits, and I realized that we had time on time”

By 2 p.m., the battle subsided, the militants withdrew. The battlefield is searched and the dead are searched. The body of Oleg Kuyanov was not found.
A few days later, the militants got in touch and offered to exchange bodies.
Kuyanov's body was severely mutilated, as if he had been shot at point-blank range and cut with shrapnel, with his head cut off.

Battle results

6 scouts died, only five were saved - ensigns Ilenzeer and Bakhnov, ordinary Tsygankov, Vlasov and Anureev. Ilenseer was the only one who was not wounded in this battle (!).

“In the hospital in Vladikavkaz, I was in intensive care with Ensign Sergei Bakhnov. He had a shrapnel fracture of his leg, a shrapnel fracture of his arm, and his nose was torn off by a grenade. This is a heroic man who still does not have a single award, like all of us who participated in this battle. Except, of course, for the dead Kuyanov, Bezginov, Suraev, Kataev, Klychkov, Travnikov and Hero of Russia Anureev) Everyone else was simply told “thank you very much” for the Baraevsky battalion. Bakhnov told me how everything went”

According to intelligence data, in total, during the seven-hour battle, up to 300 people participated from the side of the militants. At the same time, it must be understood that they attacked not as a single group, but with suitable groups of reinforcements, using part of the forces for the detachment.

It is officially said that Bezginov's group, reinforcements approached and the subsequent helicopter raid destroyed about 100 militants. It is also generally accepted that in his last battle, Oleg Kuyanov destroyed up to 30 militants, including a certain foreign field commander. Apparently, his stubborn resistance and the losses inflicted on the militants explain the nature of his wounds and injuries.

“The vigilance of the personnel, high combat skills, stamina, morale and motivation to stand to the end broke the superiority in numbers, which are also far from amateurs in military affairs. Even the death of the commander at the beginning of the battle did not break this will.

people and crew

Ensign Oleg Kuyanov (posthumously) and radio operator Ivan Anureev were awarded the title of Hero of Russia, the rest of the deceased members of the group were posthumously awarded the Order of Courage. None of the survivors and the wounded were awarded in any way.

The bodies of Klychkov and Kataev were transported to their homeland in Penza and Udmurtia, respectively. The rest were buried in Berdsk.

Senior Lieutenant Mikhail Kuzmich Bezginov was only 27 years old (01/30/1972). Bezginov is a graduate of the Altai State Technical University. I.I. Polzunov (1995), therefore, in 2001, a scholarship named after Senior Lieutenant Bezginov M.K. was established for university students studying at the military department.

Photograph of the grave of Oleg Kuyanov

Oleg Kuyanov and his colleagues

Ensign Oleg Viktorovich Kuyanov was 30 years old (05/24/1969).
In Berdsk, memorial plaques were installed for him in the secondary school No. 8 (where he studied), on the building of the Berdsk Cadet Corps (where he received professional education). Professional Lyceum No. 38 - the cadet corps is named after the Hero of the Russian Federation O. Kuyanov. On the territory of the Berdsk special forces brigade, a monument was erected, on the pylon of which the name of O. V. Kuyanov was carved. Every year, the city hosts a city competition of professional skills among locksmiths (Kuyanov's civilian specialty), dedicated to the memory of the Hero of the Russian Federation O. Kuyanov, the winner of which is awarded a challenge cup. In Novosibirsk, his name is immortalized on the Alley of Heroes near the Monument of Glory

Ensign Andrei Vladimirovich Kataev was 28 years old (06/09/1971).
On November 22, 2000, by decision of the Yarskaya village administration, a new street in the village of Yar (the birthplace of the ensign) was named after Andrei Vladimirovich Kataev, a soldier who died in the Chechen Republic.

The name of private Nikolai Mikhailovich Klychkov was named after the Salovskaya school of the Kondolsky district of the Penza region.

The story of Ivan Anureev is discussed in the article "Berd news":

I would like to end the article with Anureev's words from the interview, which are very appropriate.

- Ivan, with what feeling do you remember these events? Do you feel happy that you survived? Do you realize that you have done a heroic deed? And in general, what is a feat - a combination of circumstances, genes, the result of the entire life path?

At first it was nice that they had not forgotten, appreciated. And then I thought: “Why did I have such a fate, why was I chosen?”. I don't think about heroism at all. It seems to me that we did the usual work of special forces, we all worked together, shoulder to shoulder, as professionally as we can. And, in my opinion, the Star of the Hero, first of all, is worthy of Seryoga Ilenzeer, who drove this “abomination” away from me and saved the whole situation. And the role of Oleg Kuyanov, who sacrificed himself for us, is undeniable. Like all servicemen from the group of Sergei Mozerov, who made their way to us in armored personnel carriers, many of them were wounded. And that doctor who put his bag on the machine and pulled us out of hell. How can a percentage of our common achievement be distributed among all of us? All of them are worthy. That's why I don't like to talk about heroism, I don't like to be pulled over about it. And I put on the Star of the Hero (or rather, its dummy) only a couple of times a year: when we go to the guys at the cemetery to commemorate, and to solemn events.

The Berdskaya 67th Separate Special Purpose Brigade was disbanded in the spring of 2009 as a result of an ill-conceived and short-sighted reform of the Russian Armed Forces. This is entirely associated with the personality of the then Minister of Defense Serdyukov. The vast majority of officers and ensigns were not even transferred to other units, but simply dismissed. Thus ended the history of a unique unit, combat experience was lost ...

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