The village of Tukhchar execution of soldiers. Memory. Tukhcharskaya Golgotha of the Russian outpost. Bright holiday Eid al-Adha
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An old topic and a long history, BUT maybe someone doesn’t know the details or doesn’t know at all....
Dagestan, Tukhchar 1999 Execution of 6 soldiers of the 22nd Internal Troops Brigade.
The murder of Russian servicemen in the village of Tukhchar was committed by members of a gang of Chechen militants in the village of Tukhchar, Novolaksky district of Dagestan on September 5, 1999.
Background.
Having suffered defeat in the Tsumadinsky and Botlikhsky regions in August, the Wahhabis of Khattab and Basayev made a new attempt to invade Dagestan, this time in the Novolaksky region. The Wahhabis gave the operation the name “Imam Gamzat-bek.” When planning this operation, Basayev and Khattab counted on the fact that the main forces Russian troops drawn into fighting on the territory of the Kadar zone. According to Basayev, the operation “Imam Gamzat-bek” was undertaken by Chechen militants in order to ease the pressure of the Russian army on their Dagestani “co-religionists” - the Wahhabi rebels of the Kadar zone.
The village of Tukhchar is located in the Novolaksky district, on the very border with Chechnya. Beyond the small river Aksai on the Chechen side is the village of Ishkhoy-Yurt, to the south of it is another Chechen village, Galayty. The road from the Chechen border to Tukhchar was covered by a checkpoint manned by Dagestani policemen. In the village itself there was a small detachment of local Dagestan militias. Height 444.3, above the village, was occupied by a detachment of the 22nd separate special-purpose brigade of the internal troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, military unit 3642, Kalach-on-Don, consisting of 12 soldiers and 1 officer with the support of 1 BMP-2. At height 444, 3 Russian soldiers dug trenches in full height and a caponier for infantry fighting vehicles.
Battle at altitude 444.3
On the morning of September 5, a detachment of militants led by Umar Edilsultanov, amir of the Karpinsky jamaat (Grozny region), crossed the border into Dagestan. Edilsultanov, Amir Karpinsky, was personally subordinate to Brigadier General Abdul-Malik Mezhidov, commander of the Sharia Guard of Ichkeria. One group of militants, numbering 20 people, crossed the border Aksai River south of height 444.3 and, entering the village of Tukhchar from the rear, was able to immediately take the village department police. Meanwhile, the second group, led personally by Edilsultanov - also about twenty to twenty-five people - attacked a police checkpoint on the outskirts of Tukhchar. The Chechens briefly occupied the checkpoint, where there were 18 Dagestani policemen, and, hiding behind the tombstones of the Muslim cemetery, began to approach the positions of the motorized riflemen. At the same time, the first group of militants also began shelling height 444.3 from small arms and grenade launchers from the rear, from the direction of the village of Tukhchar.
A surviving participant in the battle, Private Andrei Padyakov, recalls:
“On the hill that was opposite us, on the Chechen side, first four, then about 20 more militants appeared. Then our senior lieutenant Tashkin ordered the sniper to open fire to kill... I clearly saw how after the sniper’s shot one militant fell... Then they opened massive fire on us from machine guns and grenade launchers... Then the Dagestani militias surrendered their positions, and the militants went around the village and took us into the ring. We noticed about 30 militants running across the village behind us.”
From the village side, the BMP caponier had no protection and the lieutenant ordered the driver-mechanic to take the vehicle to the crest of a height and maneuver, firing at the militants. Despite this, after half an hour of battle, at 7:30, the infantry fighting vehicle was hit by a shot from a grenade launcher. The gunner-operator died on the spot, and the driver-mechanic was seriously shell-shocked. The militant Tamerlan Khasaev, who participated in the battle for height 444.3, says:
“They were the first to start - the BMP opened fire, and Umar ordered the grenade launchers to take up positions. And when I said that there was no such agreement, he assigned three militants to me. Since then I myself have been their hostage.”
In the third hour of the battle, Russian soldiers began to run out of ammunition. To requests for help Art. Lieutenant Tashkin was ordered to hold out on his own. The fact is that at the same time the regional center of the village was attacked by militants. Novolakskoye, where employees of the Novolaksky District Department of Internal Affairs and a detachment of the Lipetsk OMON were blocked (see “Seizure of Novolaksky by militants”) and all forces were thrown into their liberation. After this, platoon commander Tashkin decided to withdraw from height 444.3. Russian soldiers, taking with them weapons, the wounded and the dead, were able to break through to the Dagestan policemen who took up a perimeter defense at the second checkpoint, on the outskirts of Tukhchar. Seeing the soldiers running towards them, the police covered them with fire from the checkpoint. After a short firefight, there was a lull. By this time, up to 200 militants had already entered the village and started robberies and pogroms. The militants sent the elders of the village of Tukhchar to the defenders with an offer to surrender, but they were refused. It was decided to break out of the encirclement through the village. Lieutenant of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Akhmed Davdiev, commander of a detachment of Dagestan policemen, while conducting reconnaissance, was ambushed by militants. During the battle, Davdiev destroyed two militants, but he himself was killed by machine gun fire. After this, the soldiers and policemen dispersed throughout the village and began to try to disperse from the encirclement, but all the streets of the village were tightly blocked by militants.
Execution of military personnel by militants
By order of Emir Karpinsky, gang members began to search the village and the surrounding area. Having come under heavy fire from the militants, Senior Lieutenant Tashkin and four other soldiers jumped into the nearest building. A few seconds earlier, police sergeant Abdulkasim Magomedov died here. The building was surrounded by militants, who sent a parliamentarian to the fighters with an offer to surrender. The Chechens promised to spare the lives of those who surrendered, otherwise they threatened to burn everyone. “Decide, commander! Why die in vain? We don’t need your lives - we’ll feed you and then exchange them for our own! Give up!" After a warning shot from a grenade launcher, the soldiers, led by 1st Lieutenant Tashkin, were forced to leave the building and surrender.
Shell-shocked and badly burned, BMP mechanic Alexey Polagaev went to G. Dzhaparova’s house. Tukhchar resident Gurum Dzhaparova says:
“He came - only the shooting died down. How did you come? I went out into the yard and saw him standing, staggering, holding on to the gate. He was covered in blood and badly burned - no hair, no ears, the skin on his face was torn. Chest, shoulder, arm - everything was cut by shrapnel. I'll hurry him home. Militants, I say, are all around. You should go to your people. Will you really get there like this? She sent her eldest Ramazan, he is 9 years old, for a doctor... His clothes are covered in blood, burnt. Grandma Atikat and I cut it off, quickly put it in a bag and threw it into the ravine. They washed it somehow. Our village doctor Hasan came, removed the fragments, lubricated the wounds. I also got an injection - diphenhydramine, or what? He began to fall asleep from the injection. I put it in the room with the children.”
Alexey Polagaev was handed over to the militants by local Chechen residents. Gurum Japarova tried to defend him to no avail. Polagaev was taken away, surrounded by a dozen Wahhabis, towards the outskirts of the village. From the testimony of the defendant Tamerlan Khasaev:
“Umar (Edilsultanov) ordered to check all the buildings. We dispersed and began to go around houses two at a time. I was an ordinary soldier and followed orders, especially since I was a new person among them; not everyone trusted me. And as I understand it, the operation was prepared in advance and clearly organized. I learned on the radio that a soldier had been found in the barn. We were given an order via radio to gather at a police checkpoint outside the village of Tukhchar. When everyone gathered, these 6 soldiers were already there.”
By order of Umar Karpinsky, the prisoners were taken to a clearing next to the checkpoint. The prisoners were first held in a destroyed checkpoint. Then the field commander ordered to “execute the Russians.” In the battle for height 444.3, Edilsultanov’s (Amir Karpinsky’s) detachment lost four militants, each of those killed in the detachment had relatives or friends who were now “laden with a debt of blood.” “You took our blood - we will take yours!” - Umar said to the prisoners. The further massacre was scrupulously recorded on camera by a militant cameraman. The prisoners were taken out one by one to the concrete parapet. Four bloodshed took turns cutting the throat Russian officer and three soldiers. Another one broke free and tried to escape - the militant Tamerlan Khasaev “blundered.” Having slashed the victim with a blade, Khasaev straightened up over the wounded soldier - the sight of blood made him feel uneasy, and handed the knife to another militant. The bleeding soldier broke free and ran. One of the militants began to shoot in pursuit with a pistol, but the bullets missed. And only when the fugitive, stumbling, fell into a hole, was finished off in cold blood with a machine gun. The sixth one was personally stabbed to death by Umar Edilsultanov.
Together with senior lieutenant Vasily Vasilyevich Tashkin (08/29/1974 - 09/05/1999) the following were killed:
Anisimov Konstantin Viktorovich (01/14/1980 - 09/05/1999)
Lipatov Alexey Anatolyevich (06/14/1980 - 09/05/1999)
Kaufman Vladimir Egorovich (06/07/1980 - 09/05/1999)
Erdneev Boris Ozinovich (07/06/1980 - 09/05/1999)
Polagaev Alexey Sergeevich (01/05/1980 - 09/05/1999)
The next morning, September 6, the head of the village administration, Magomed-Sultan Gasanov, received permission from the militants to take the bodies. On a school truck, the corpses of senior lieutenant Vasily Tashkin and privates Vladimir Kaufman, Alexei Lipatov, Boris Erdneev, Alexei Polagaev and Konstantin Anisimov were delivered to the Gerzel checkpoint.
The remaining soldiers of military unit 3642 managed to sit out in their shelters in the village until the bandits left.
Video recording of the murder
A few days later, a video recording of the murder of soldiers of the 22nd brigade was shown on Grozny television. Later, in 2000, a video recording of the murder of Russian servicemen, made by one of the gang members, was found by employees of the operational services of Dagestan. Based on the videotape materials, a criminal case was initiated against 9 people.
Trial of the participants in the murder
Umar Edilsultanov (Amir Karpinsky)
The first person to be punished for the Tukhchar crime was the leader of the murderers, Umar Edilsultanov (Emir Karpinsky). He was the perpetrator of the murder of private Alexei Polagaev and the leader of the murder of all other military personnel. Edilsultanov was destroyed 5 months later, in February 2000, during an attempt to break out of Grozny. (See Operation "Wolf Hunt")
Tamerlan Khasaev
The first of the thugs to fall into the hands of law enforcement agencies was Tamerlan Khasaev. He is the perpetrator of the attempted murder of Private Alexei Lipatov. After which Lipatov tried to escape, but they caught up with him and shot him. T. Khasaev found himself in Basayev’s detachment at the beginning of September 1999 - one of his friends tempted him with the opportunity to get captured weapons in a campaign against Dagestan, which could then be sold profitably. So Khasaev ended up in the gang of Emir Karpinsky.
He was sentenced to eight and a half years for kidnapping in December 2001, was serving time in a maximum security colony in the Kirov region, when the investigation, thanks to a videotape seized during a special operation, managed to establish that he was one of those who participated in bloody massacre on the outskirts of Tukhchar. Khasaev did not deny it. Moreover, the case already contained testimony from residents of Tukhchar who confidently identified Khasaev. Khasaev stood out among the militants dressed in camouflage with a white T-shirt.
On October 25, 2002, the judicial panel for criminal cases of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Dagestan, 32-year-old resident of the village of Dachu-Borzoy, Grozny district of Chechnya, T. Khasaev was found guilty of committing this crime. He partially admitted his guilt: “I admit participation in an illegal armed formation, weapons and invasion. But I didn’t cut the soldier... I just approached him with a knife. Two people had been killed before. When I saw this picture, I refused to cut and gave the knife to someone else.”
For participation in an armed rebellion, militant Khasaev received 15 years, for stealing weapons - 10 years, for participation in an illegal armed group and illegal carrying of weapons - five years each. For an attack on the life of a serviceman, Khasaev, according to the court, deserved death penalty, however, due to the moratorium on its use, an alternative punishment was chosen - life imprisonment. Tamerlan Khasaev was sentenced to life imprisonment. Soon after this he died in prison.
Arbi Dandaev
Arbi Dandaev, born in 1974, is the perpetrator of the murder of senior lieutenant Vasily Tashkin. On April 3, 2008, he was detained by police officers in the city of Grozny. According to the investigation materials, the militant Dandaev confessed, confessed to the crimes he had committed and confirmed his testimony when he was taken to the place of execution. IN Supreme Court Dagestan, however, he did not admit his guilt, stating that the appearance took place under duress, and refused to testify. Nevertheless, the court found his previous testimony admissible and reliable, since it was given with the participation of a lawyer and no complaints were received from him about the investigation. The video recording of the execution was examined in court, and although it was difficult to recognize the defendant Dandaev in the bearded executioner, the court took into account that the name Arbi could be clearly heard on the recording. Residents of the village of Tukhchar were also questioned. One of them recognized the defendant Dandaev. Dandaev was charged under Art. 279 “Armed rebellion” and art. 317 “Encroachment on the life of a law enforcement officer.”
In March 2009, the Supreme Court of Dagestan sentenced the defendant Dandaev to life imprisonment, despite the fact that the state prosecutor asked for 22 years in prison for the defendant. In addition, the court satisfied the civil claims of the parents of the four dead servicemen for compensation for moral damage, the amounts for which ranged from 200 thousand to 2 million rubles. Later, Dandaev tried to appeal the verdict. The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation left the verdict unchanged.
Islan Mukaev
He is an accomplice in the murder of Private Vladimir Kaufman, holding his hands. Islan Mukaev was detained in early June 2005 during a joint operation by employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Chechnya and Ingushetia. The operation was carried out in the Ingush regional center of Sleptsovskaya, where Mukaev lived. He fully admitted his guilt and repented of his actions at the trial, as a result of which the court did not impose a life sentence on him, as the state prosecutor demanded.
On September 19, 2005, the Supreme Court of Dagestan sentenced Mukaev to 25 years in prison in a maximum security colony.
Mansur Razhaev
He is the perpetrator of the murder of Private Boris Erdneev. He did not admit guilt, he stated that he simply approached him with a knife. The video shows that Razhaev approaches Erdneev with a knife, the murder of Erdneev itself is not shown, then footage is shown after the murder. On January 31, 2012, the Supreme Court of Dagestan found Mansur Razhaev guilty and sentenced him to life imprisonment.
Rizvan Vagapov
Vagapov was detained on March 19, 2007 in the village of Borzoi, Shatoi district of Chechnya. In 2013, his case was sent for consideration to the Supreme Court of Dagestan. On November 12, 2013, he was sentenced to 18 years in prison.
The 1999 battles in the Novolaksky district echoed tragic events in the Orenburg region and in the Topchikhinsky district Altai Territory, and in other Russian villages. As the Lak saying goes, “war does not give birth to sons, war takes away born sons.” An enemy bullet that kills a son also wounds the mother’s heart.
On September 1, 1999, the platoon commander of the Kalachevskaya brigade of internal troops of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs, senior lieutenant Vasily Tashkin, received an order to move to the Chechen-Dagestan border on the outskirts of the village of Tukhchar, Novolaksky district. Not far from the village at a height, the soldiers dug trenches and prepared a place for an infantry fighting vehicle. From the nearest Chechen village of Ishkhoyurt to Tukhchar is two kilometers. The border river is not a barrier for militants. Behind the nearest hill is another Chechen village of Galaity, where there were militants armed to the teeth.
Having taken up a perimeter defense and observing the village of Ishkhoyurt through binoculars, senior lieutenant Vasily Tashkin, a graduate of the Novosibirsk School of Internal Troops, recorded the movement of militants, the presence of fire weapons, and surveillance of his post. The commander's heart was uneasy. His task is to provide fire cover for two police checkpoints: at the entrance to Tukhchar and at the exit from it towards Galaity.
Tashkin knew that the police, armed only with small arms, were happy to see the appearance of his BMP-2 with soldiers on the armor. But he also understood the danger they, military personnel and police officers, were in. For some reason, the Novolaksky district was poorly covered by troops. They could only count on themselves, on the military partnership of the outposts of the internal troops and the Dagestan police. But thirteen military personnel on one infantry fighting vehicle - is this an outpost?
The BMP gun was aimed at a height beyond which the Chechen village of Galayty was located, but the militants early in the morning of September 5 did not strike where they were expected: they opened fire from the rear. The forces were unequal. With the very first shots, the infantry fighting vehicle effectively hit the militants who were trying to knock out the internal troops from the heights, but the radio frequencies were clogged with Chechens, and it was not possible to contact anyone. The policemen at the checkpoint also fought in the ring. Poorly equipped with firepower, reinforced only by thirty members of the internal troops, they were doomed to death.
Senior Lieutenant Tashkin, fighting at a height, did not expect help. The Dagestani police were running out of ammunition. The checkpoint at the entrance to Tukhchar and the village police department have already been seized. The onslaught of militants on the surrounded heights is becoming more and more furious. In the third hour of the battle, the infantry fighting vehicle was hit, caught fire and exploded. “The metal burned like a haystack. “We would never have thought that iron could burn with such a bright flame,” said eyewitnesses of that unequal battle.
The enemy rejoiced. And it was a distraction. Covered by fire from the defenders of the police checkpoint, Senior Lieutenant Tashkin and his guys, dragging the wounded on themselves, managed to escape from the heights. BMP mechanic Alexey Polagaev, completely burned, ran into the first house he came across...
Today we are in Tukhchar visiting a woman who ten years ago tried to save the life of the wounded BMP driver-mechanic Alexei Polagaev. This story struck us to the core. Several times we had to turn off the recorder: ten years later, Atikat Maksudovna Tabieva says, bursting into bitter tears:
“I remember this day like yesterday. September 5, 1999. When the militants entered the area, I firmly stated: “I won’t go anywhere, let those who came to our land with bad intentions leave.” We sat at home, waiting to see what would happen to us next.
I went out into the yard and saw a guy standing there, a wounded soldier, staggering, holding onto the gate. Covered in blood, he was very badly burned: there was no hair, the skin on his face was torn. Chest, shoulder, arm - everything was cut by shrapnel. I sent my eldest grandson Ramazan to the doctor and brought Alexei into the house. All his clothes were covered in blood. My daughter and I burned his already burnt military uniform, and so that the militants would not interrogate what they were burning, we collected the remains from the fire in a bag and threw it into the river.
A doctor, an Avar named Mutalim, lived next door to us, and he came, washed and bandaged Alexei’s wounds. The guy was moaning terribly, it was clear that the pain was unbearable, the wounds were deep. The doctor somehow removed the fragments and lubricated the wounds. We gave Alexey diphenhydramine to help him fall asleep and calm down at least a little. The wounds oozed blood, the sheets had to be changed frequently and hidden somewhere. Knowing that the militants could come in and search the house, I nevertheless, without hesitation, rushed to help the wounded Alexei.
After all, what came into our house was not just a bleeding wounded soldier, for me he was just a son, someone’s son. Somewhere his mother is waiting for him, and it doesn’t matter what nationality she is or what religion she is. She is also a mother, like me. The only thing I asked Allah for was that the Almighty would give me the opportunity to save him. The wounded guy asked for help, and all I thought was that I had to save him.”
Atikat leads us through the rooms to the most distant one. It was in this far room that she hid Alyosha from Siberia, locking the door. As expected, the militants soon arrived. There were sixteen of them. A local Chechen showed the militants the Atikat house. In addition to her daughter, her young sons were at home. The militants searched the basement, ransacked the cellar and barn.
Then one of the militants pointed the machine gun towards the children and shouted: “Show me where you’re hiding the Russians!” The bandit grabbed his nine-year-old grandson Ramazan by the collar and lifted him slightly: “Where did mother and grandmother hide the Russian soldier? Tell!" They pointed a gun at Ramazan. I shielded the children with my body and said: “Don’t touch the children.” The pain brought tears to the boy’s eyes, but he shook his head to all questions and stubbornly answered: “There is no one in the house.” The children knew that they could be shot at, but they did not hand over Alexei.
When the bandits pointed the machine gun at me and their command sounded: “Show me where the Russian is!” — I just shook my head. The bandits threatened to blow up the house. And I thought: right next to you, there, in next room, a Russian guy lies bleeding. His mother and relatives are waiting. Even if they kill us all, I won’t hand him over. Let's all die together. Realizing the futility of the threats, the bandits continued the search. They probably heard Alexei’s groans, started shooting at the locks, and broke down the door. The bandits shouted “Allahu Akbar!” with joy and jumped on the bed where the wounded Alexey lay.
Gurun's daughter ran to their room, she looked at Alexei, sobbing. But I didn’t go into the room, I couldn’t look into his eyes... When they took the guy out, I started asking, begging that they don’t take him away. One of the bandits pushed me away and said: “Grandma, don’t defend the Russians, if you do, you will die the same death.”
I tell them: this is a wounded and burnt soldier, the wounded are not divided into friends and foes. The wounded must always be helped! I am a mother, how can I not protect him, the wounded one, trouble will come to you, and they will protect you.
I clung to their hands, asked, begged to let Alexei go. A frightened nineteen-year-old boy looks at me and asks, “What will they do to me?” My heart was breaking. I told them that I don’t consider Russians to be enemies, and I never distinguish people based on their nationality. According to Sharia, it is a great sin to distinguish people based on nationality. We are all human.
“Go away, grandma, and don’t teach us,” the bandits said, took Alexei, and left the yard. And I followed on his heels. It was very hard for me that I could not save him. I cried my eyes out and followed them. Even the Chechen who lived next door told the bandits: “Leave him alone, guys, he’s not a good guy!”
Several Russian soldiers remained in one of the nearby houses; they opened fire, and the militants entered into battle, and Alexei was thrown near the wall under the supervision of one of their own. I ran to Alyosha and hugged him. We both cried bitterly...
Again and again he stands before my eyes: he is about to barely rise to his feet, swaying, holding on to the wall and looking straight at the militants. Then he turns to me and asks: “What will they do to me, mother?”
Atikat Tabiyeva closes her eyes in pain: “The bandits said that he would be exchanged for their prisoners. How could you believe their words? Even if they shot me, I wouldn’t let Alyosha go. And I shouldn’t have let go.”
Atikat shows us the route along which Alexei was taken away. When she reaches the gate, she falls to the ground and sobs. Like then, 10 years ago. Just like that, she fell on her back at the gate and sobbed, and Alexei, surrounded by two dozen bandits, was taken away to be killed.
Atikat’s daughter, Gurun, says: “Not far from Tukhchar, at a checkpoint, I, working as a cook, fed the police. Although this was not part of my duties, I also took care of the Russian guys serving on the border with Chechnya. The company was headed by Senior Lieutenant Vasily Tashkin, there were 13 Russian guys in total. When the wounded Alexey entered our house, the first question was: “Gulya, do you live here?”
I didn’t have time to warn my sons that they couldn’t hand over Alexei, and I was amazed at how courageously my boys behaved. When the militants, pointing a machine gun at them, asked the boys: “Where are you hiding the Russian?”, the boys stubbornly answered: “We don’t know.”
Alexey, when he came to his senses, asked me to bring a mirror. There was no living space on his face, there were continuous traces of burns, but I began to console him: “You are as beautiful as before, the main thing is that you came out of trouble, did not burn, everything will be fine with you.” He looked in the mirror and said: “The most important thing is to be alive.”
When the bandits broke down the door and entered the room, sleepy Alexey at first did not understand what was happening. I told him that he was being taken to the hospital. When he woke up, he quietly told me: “Gulya, quietly take off my badge, if anything happens to me, take it to the military registration and enlistment office.”
The militants shouted: “Get up quickly!” He was unable to get up. The guy was courageous and said to me: “Gulya, so that I don’t fall in front of them, hold me and put a shirt on me.”
In the yard, my mother ran up to him, it was impossible to look at her, she was crying, asking the bandits to let him go. “We must cure him,” the Chechens said. “I’ll cure him here myself,” I asked.
“Whoever hides a Russian will face the same fate,” said the militant. And in his own language, one says to the other (I understand the Chechen language a little): “Are we going to kill him here?”...
Not far from Tukhchar, on the way to the Chechen village of Galayty, militants brutally dealt with six Russian children. Among them was BMP driver-mechanic Alexey Polagaev. Aunt Atikat never looks in the direction where the soldiers were executed. She always mentally asks for forgiveness from Alexei’s relatives, who live in distant Siberia. She is tormented that she could not save the wounded soldier. It was not people who came for Alexei, but animals. However, sometimes it is easier to save a human life even from animals.
Later, when one of the local accomplices of the militants appears in court, he admits that Atikat’s courageous behavior amazed even the militants themselves. This short, thin woman, risking her life and the lives of her loved ones, tried to save a wounded soldier during that cruel war.
“In cruel times, we must save the wounded, show mercy, instill goodness in the hearts and souls of Russians and Caucasians,” Aunt Atikat says simply and wisely and grieves that she could not save Soldier Alyosha. “I’m not a hero, I’m not a brave woman,” she laments. “Heroes are those who save lives.”
Let me object, Aunt Atikat! You have accomplished a feat, and we want to bow low to you, a mother whose heart does not divide children into their own and those of others.
...On the outskirts of the village, at the site of the execution of six Kalachevites, riot police from Sergiev Posad installed a good-quality metal cross. The stones stacked at its base symbolize Golgotha. Residents of the village of Tukhchar are doing everything possible to perpetuate the memory of Russian soldiers who died defending Dagestan land.
AT NAMELESS HEIGHT
They - twelve soldiers and one officer of the Kalachevskaya brigade - were sent to the border village of Tukhchar to reinforce local police officers. There were rumors that the Chechens were about to cross the river and attack the Kadar group in the rear. The senior lieutenant tried not to think about it. He had an order and he had to carry it out.
We occupied height 444.3 on the very border, dug full-length trenches and a caponier for infantry fighting vehicles. Below are the roofs of Tukhchar, a Muslim cemetery and a checkpoint. Behind a small river is the Chechen village of Ishkhoyurt. They say it's a robber's nest. And another one, Galaity, hid in the south behind a ridge of hills. You can expect a blow from both sides. The position is like the tip of a sword, at the very front. You can stay at the height, but the flanks are unsecured. 18 cops with machine guns and a riotous motley militia are not the most reliable cover.
On the morning of September 5, Tashkin was awakened by a patrolman: “Comrade senior lieutenant, there seem to be...“spirits.” Tashkin immediately became serious. He ordered: “Wake up the boys, but don’t make any noise!”
From the explanatory note of Private Andrei Padyakov:
On the hill that was opposite us, in the Chechen Republic, first four, then about 20 more militants appeared. Then our senior lieutenant Tashkin ordered the sniper to open fire to kill... I clearly saw how one militant fell after the sniper’s shot... Then they opened massive fire on us from machine guns and grenade launchers... Then the militias gave up their positions, and the militants They walked around the village and surrounded us. We noticed about 30 militants running across the village behind us.”
The militants did not go where they were expected. They crossed the river south of Height 444 and went deeper into the territory of Dagestan. A few bursts of fire were enough to disperse the militia. Meanwhile, the second group - also about twenty to twenty-five people - attacked a police checkpoint on the outskirts of Tukhchar. This detachment was headed by a certain Umar Karpinsky, the leader of the Karpinsky jamaat (a district in the city of Grozny), who was personally subordinate to Abdul-Malik Mezhidov, the commander of the Sharia Guard.* The Chechens with a short blow knocked out the policemen from the checkpoint** and, hiding behind the gravestones of the cemetery, began to approach the positions of the motorized riflemen . At the same time, the first group attacked the height from the rear. On this side, the BMP caponier had no protection and the lieutenant ordered the driver-mechanic to take the vehicle to the ridge and maneuver.
"Height", we are under attack! - Tashkin shouted, pressing the headset to his ear, - They are attacking with superior forces! What?! I ask for fire support!" But "Vysota" was occupied by Lipetsk riot police and demanded to hold on. Tashkin swore and jumped off the armor. "How the f... hold on?! Four horns per brother..."***
The denouement was approaching. A minute later, a cumulative grenade arrived from God knows where and broke the side of the “box.” The gunner, along with the turret, was thrown about ten meters; the driver died instantly.
Tashkin looked at his watch. It was 7.30 am. Half an hour of battle - and he had already lost his main trump card: a 30-mm BMP assault rifle, which kept the “Czechs” at a respectful distance. In addition, communications were cut off and ammunition was running out. We must leave while we can. In five minutes it will be too late.
Having picked up the shell-shocked and badly burned gunner Aleskey Polagaev, the soldiers rushed down to the second checkpoint. The wounded man was carried on his shoulders by his friend Ruslan Shindin, then Alexey woke up and ran on his own. Seeing the soldiers running towards them, the police covered them with fire from the checkpoint. After a short firefight, there was a lull. After some time, local residents came to the post and reported that the militants had given half an hour for them to leave Tukhchar. The villagers took civilian clothes with them to the post - this was the only chance of salvation for the policemen and soldiers. The senior lieutenant did not agree to leave the checkpoint, and then the police, as one of the soldiers later said, “got into a fight with him.”****
The argument of force turned out to be convincing. Among the crowd of local residents, the defenders of the checkpoint reached the village and began to hide - some in basements and attics, and some in corn thickets.
Tukhchar resident Gurum Dzhaparova says:
He arrived - only the shooting died down. How did you come? I went out into the yard and saw him standing, staggering, holding on to the gate. He was covered in blood and badly burned - no hair, no ears, the skin on his face was torn. Chest, shoulder, arm - everything was cut by shrapnel. I'll hurry him home. Militants, I say, are all around. You should go to your people. Will you really get there like this? She sent her eldest Ramazan, he is 9 years old, for a doctor... His clothes are covered in blood, burnt. Grandma Atikat and I cut it off, quickly put it in a bag and threw it into the ravine. They washed it somehow. Our village doctor Hasan came, removed the fragments, lubricated the wounds. I also got an injection - diphenhydramine, or what? He began to fall asleep from the injection. I put it in the room with the children.
Half an hour later, the militants, on the orders of Umar, began to “comb” the village - the hunt for soldiers and policemen began. Tashkin, four soldiers and a Dagestan policeman hid in a barn. The barn was surrounded. They brought cans of gasoline and doused the walls. "Surrender, or we'll burn you alive!" The answer is silence. The militants looked at each other. “Who is your eldest there? Decide, commander! Why die in vain? We don’t need your lives - we’ll feed you, then exchange them for our own! Surrender!”
The soldiers and the policeman believed it and came out. And only when police lieutenant Akhmed Davdiev was cut off by a machine gun burst did they realize that they had been cruelly deceived. “And we have prepared something else for you!” - the Chechens laughed.
From the testimony of the defendant Tamerlan Khasaev:
Umar ordered all buildings to be checked. We dispersed and began to go around houses two at a time. I was an ordinary soldier and followed orders, especially since I was a new person among them; not everyone trusted me. And as I understand it, the operation was prepared in advance and clearly organized. I learned on the radio that a soldier had been found in the barn. We were given an order via radio to gather at a police checkpoint outside the village of Tukhchar. When everyone gathered, these 6 soldiers were already there."
The burnt gunner was betrayed by one of the locals. Gurum Dzhaparova tried to defend him - it was useless. He left surrounded by a dozen bearded guys - to his death.
What happened next was scrupulously recorded on camera by the action cameraman. Umar, apparently, decided to “raise the wolf cubs.” In the battle near Tukhchar, his company lost four, each of those killed had relatives and friends, and a blood debt hung on them. "You took our blood - we will take yours!" - Umar said to the prisoners. The soldiers were taken to the outskirts. Four "bloods" took turns cutting the throats of an officer and three soldiers. Another one broke free and tried to escape - he was shot with a machine gun. The sixth one was personally stabbed to death by Umar.
Only the next morning, the head of the village administration, Magomed-Sultan Gasanov, received permission from the militants to take the bodies. On a school truck, the corpses of senior lieutenant Vasily Tashkin and privates Vladimir Kaufman, Alexei Lipatov, Boris Erdneev, Alexei Polagaev and Konstantin Anisimov were delivered to the Gerzel checkpoint. The rest managed to sit out. Some local residents took them to the Gerzelsky Bridge the very next morning. On the way, they learned about the execution of their colleagues. Alexey Ivanov, after sitting in the attic for two days, left the village when Russian aircraft began bombing him. Fyodor Chernavin sat in the basement for five whole days - the owner of the house helped him get out to his own people.
The story doesn't end there. In a few days, the recording of the murder of soldiers of the 22nd brigade will be shown on Grozny television. Then, already in 2000, it will fall into the hands of investigators. Based on the materials of the videotape, a criminal case will be initiated against 9 people. Of these, only two will be brought to justice. Tamerlan Khasaev will receive a life sentence, Islam Mukaev - 25 years. Material taken from the forum "BRO"
About these same events from the press:
“I just approached him with a knife.”
In the Ingush regional center of Sleptsovsk, employees of the Urus-Martan and Sunzhensky district police departments detained Islam Mukaev, suspected of involvement in the brutal execution of six Russian servicemen in the Dagestan village of Tukhchar in September 1999, when Basayev’s gang occupied several villages in the Novolaksky district of Dagestan. A videotape confirming his involvement in the bloody massacre, as well as weapons and ammunition, were confiscated from Mukaev. Now law enforcement officials are checking the detainee for his possible involvement in other crimes, since it is known that he was a member of illegal armed groups. Before Mukaev’s arrest, the only participant in the execution who fell into the hands of justice was Tamerlan Khasaev, who was sentenced to life imprisonment in October 2002.
Hunting for soldiers
In the early morning of September 5, 1999, Basayev’s troops invaded the territory of the Novolaksky district. Emir Umar was responsible for the Tukhchar direction. The road to the Chechen village of Galaity, leading from Tukhchar, was guarded by a checkpoint manned by Dagestani policemen. On the hill they were covered by an infantry fighting vehicle and 13 soldiers from a brigade of internal troops sent to strengthen a checkpoint from the neighboring village of Duchi. But the militants entered the village from the rear, and, after a short battle, they captured the village police department and began to fire at the hill. The BMP, buried in the ground, caused considerable damage to the attackers, but when the encirclement began to shrink, senior lieutenant Vasily Tashkin ordered the BMP to be driven out of the trench and open fire across the river on the car that was transporting the militants. The ten-minute hitch turned out to be fatal for the soldiers. A shot from a grenade launcher demolished the combat vehicle's turret. The gunner died on the spot, and the driver Alexey Polagaev was shell-shocked. Tashkin ordered the others to retreat to a checkpoint located a few hundred meters away. The unconscious Polagaev was initially carried on the shoulders of his colleague Ruslan Shindin; then Alexei, who received a through wound to the head, woke up and ran on his own. Seeing the soldiers running towards them, the police covered them with fire from the checkpoint. After a short firefight, there was a lull. After some time, local residents came to the post and reported that the militants had given half an hour for the soldiers to leave Tukhchar. The villagers took civilian clothes with them - this was the only chance of salvation for the police and soldiers. The senior lieutenant refused to leave, and then the police, as one of the soldiers later said, “got into a fight with him.” The argument of force turned out to be more convincing. In the crowd of local residents, the defenders of the checkpoint reached the village and began to hide - some in basements and attics, and who is in the corn thickets. Half an hour later, the militants, on the orders of Umar, began clearing the village. Now it is difficult to determine whether the local residents betrayed the soldiers or the intelligence of the militants worked, but six soldiers fell into the hands of the bandits.
'Your son died due to the negligence of our officers'
By order of Umar, the prisoners were taken to a clearing next to the checkpoint. What happened next was scrupulously recorded on camera by the action cameraman. The four executioners appointed by Umar carried out the order in turn, cutting the throats of an officer and four soldiers. Umar dealt with the sixth victim personally. “Only Tamerlan Khasaev made a mistake. Having slashed the victim with a blade, he straightened up over the wounded soldier - the sight of blood made him feel uneasy, and he handed the knife to another militant. The bleeding soldier broke free and ran. One of the militants began to shoot in pursuit with a pistol, but the bullets passed by. And only when the fugitive, stumbling, fell into the pit, was finished off in cold blood with a machine gun.
The next morning, the head of the village administration, Magomed-Sultan Gasanov, received permission from the militants to take the bodies. On a school truck, the corpses of senior lieutenant Vasily Tashkin and privates Vladimir Kaufman, Alexei Lipatov, Boris Erdneev, Alexei Polagaev and Konstantin Anisimov were delivered to the Gerzel checkpoint. The remaining soldiers of military unit 3642 managed to sit out in their shelters until the bandits left.
At the end of September, six zinc coffins were lowered into the ground in different parts of Russia - in Krasnodar and Novosibirsk, in Altai and Kalmykia, in the Tomsk region and in the Orenburg region. Parents for a long time did not know the terrible details of the death of their sons. The father of one of the soldiers, having learned the terrible truth, asked to include a meager wording on his son’s death certificate – “gunshot wound.” Otherwise, he explained, his wife would not survive this.
Someone, having learned about the death of their son from television news, protected themselves from details - the heart would not have withstood the exorbitant load. Someone tried to get to the bottom of the truth and searched the country for his son’s colleagues. It was important for Sergei Mikhailovich Polagaev to know that his son did not flinch in battle. He learned about how everything really happened from a letter from Ruslan Shindin: “Your son died not because of cowardice, but because of the negligence of our officers. The company commander came to us three times, but never brought ammunition. He only brought night binoculars with batteries installed. And we were defending there, each had 4 magazines...'
Executioner-hostage
The first of the thugs to fall into the hands of law enforcement agencies was Tamerlan Khasaev. Sentenced to eight and a half years for kidnapping in December 2001, he was serving a sentence in a maximum security colony in the Kirov region when the investigation, thanks to a videotape seized during a special operation in Chechnya, managed to establish that he was one of those who participated in the bloody massacre on the outskirts of Tukhchar.
Khasaev found himself in Basayev’s detachment at the beginning of September 1999 - one of his friends tempted him with the opportunity to get captured weapons during the campaign against Dagestan, which could then be sold profitably. So Khasaev ended up in the gang of Emir Umar, subordinate to the notorious commander of the “Islamic Special Purpose Regiment” Abdulmalik Mezhidov, Shamil Basayev’s deputy...
In February 2002, Khasaev was transferred to the Makhachkala pre-trial detention center and shown a recording of the execution. He did not deny it. Moreover, the case already contained testimony from residents of Tukhchar, who confidently identified Khasaev from a photograph sent from the colony. (The militants did not hide especially, and the execution itself was visible even from the windows of houses on the edge of the village). Khasaev stood out among the militants dressed in camouflage with a white T-shirt.
The trial in Khasaev's case took place in the Supreme Court of Dagestan in October 2002. He pleaded guilty only partially: “I admit participation in an illegal armed formation, weapons and invasion. But I didn’t cut the soldier... I just approached him with a knife. Before that, two people were killed. When I saw this picture, I refused to cut, gave the knife to another'.
“They were the first to start,” Khasaev said about the battle in Tukhchar. “The infantry fighting vehicle opened fire, and Umar ordered the grenade launchers to take positions. And when I said that there was no such agreement, he assigned three militants to me. Since then, I myself have been with them as a hostage."
For participation in an armed rebellion, the militant received 15 years, for stealing weapons - 10, for participation in an illegal armed group and illegally carrying weapons - five each. For an attack on the life of a serviceman, Khasaev, according to the court, deserved the death penalty, but due to a moratorium on its use, an alternative punishment was chosen - life imprisonment.
Seven other participants in the execution in Tukhchar, including four of its direct perpetrators, are still wanted. True, as the special investigator told the GAZETA correspondent important matters of the Directorate of the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation in the North Caucasus, Arsen Israilov, who investigated Khasaev's case, Islam Mukaev was not on this list until recently: “In the near future, the investigation will find out what specific crimes he is involved in. And if his participation in the execution in Tukhchar is confirmed, he may become our “client” and will be transferred to the Makhachkala pre-trial detention center.
And this is about one of the guys who was brutally killed by Chechen thugs in September 1999 in Tukhchar.
"Cargo - 200" arrived on Kizner land. In the battles for the liberation of Dagestan from bandit formations, a native of the village of Ishek of the Zvezda collective farm and a graduate of our school, Alexey Ivanovich Paranin, died. Alexey was born on January 25, 1980. He graduated from Verkhnetyzhminsk primary school. He was a very inquisitive, lively, brave boy. Then he studied at Mozhginsky State Technical University No. 12, where he received the profession of a mason. However, I didn’t have time to work; I was drafted into the army. He served in the North Caucasus for more than a year. And now - the Dagestan war. Went through several fights. On the night of September 5-6 fighting machine The infantry, in which Alexey served as a gunner operator, was transferred to the Lipetsk OMON, and guarded the checkpoint near the village of Novolakskoye. The militants who attacked at night set the BMP on fire. The soldiers left the car and fought, but it was too unequal. All the wounded were brutally finished off. We all mourn the death of Alexei. Words of consolation are hard to find. On November 26, 2007, a memorial plaque was installed on the school building. The opening of the memorial plaque was attended by Alexei’s mother, Lyudmila Alekseevna, and representatives from the youth department from the district. Now we are starting to design an album about him, there is a stand at the school dedicated to Alexey. In addition to Alexey, four more students from our school took part in the Chechen campaign: Eduard Kadrov, Alexander Ivanov, Alexey Anisimov and Alexey Kiselev, awarded the Order of Courage. It is very scary and bitter when young guys die. There were three children in the Paranin family, but the son was the only one. Ivan Alekseevich, Alexey’s father, works as a tractor driver on the Zvezda collective farm, his mother Lyudmila Alekseevna is a school worker.
Together with you we mourn the death of Alexey. Words of consolation are hard to find.
April 2009
The Supreme Court of Dagestan completed the third trial in the case of the execution of six Russian servicemen in the village of Tukhchar, Novolaksky district in September 1999. One of the participants in the execution, 35-year-old Arbi Dandaev, who, according to the court, personally cut the throat of Senior Lieutenant Vasily Tashkin, was found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment in a special regime colony.
Former employee of the national security service of Ichkeria Arbi Dandaev, according to investigators, took part in the attack of the Shamil Basayev and Khattab gangs on Dagestan in 1999. In early September, he joined a detachment led by Emir Umar Karpinsky, who on September 5 of the same year invaded the territory of the Novolaksky region of the republic. From the Chechen village of Galaity, the militants headed to the Dagestan village of Tukhchar - the road was guarded by a checkpoint manned by Dagestan policemen. On the hill they were covered by an infantry fighting vehicle and 13 soldiers from a brigade of internal troops. But the militants entered the village from the rear and, having captured the village police department after a short battle, began shelling the hill. The BMP buried in the ground caused considerable damage to the attackers, but when the encirclement began to shrink, senior lieutenant Vasily Tashkin ordered the armored vehicle to be driven out of the trench and open fire across the river on the car that was transporting the militants. The ten-minute hitch turned out to be fatal for the soldiers: a shot from a grenade launcher on the BMP demolished the turret. The gunner died on the spot, and the driver Alexey Polagaev was shell-shocked. The surviving defenders of the checkpoint reached the village and began to hide - some in basements and attics, and some in corn thickets. Half an hour later, the militants, on the orders of Emir Umar, began to search the village, and five soldiers, hiding in the basement of one of the houses, had to surrender after a short firefight - in response to machine gun fire, a shot from a grenade launcher was fired. After some time, Alexey Polagaev joined the captives - the militants “located” him in one of the neighboring houses, where the owner was hiding him.
By order of Emir Umar, the prisoners were taken to a clearing next to the checkpoint. What happened next was scrupulously recorded on camera by the action cameraman. Four executioners appointed by the commander of the militants took turns following the order, cutting the throats of an officer and three soldiers (one of the soldiers tried to escape, but was shot). Emir Umar dealt with the sixth victim personally.
Arbi Dandaev hid from justice for more than eight years, but on April 3, 2008, Chechen police detained him in Grozny. He was charged with participation in a stable criminal group (gang) and the attacks it carries out, armed rebellion with the aim of changing the territorial integrity of Russia, as well as encroachment on the lives of law enforcement officers and illegal arms trafficking.
According to the investigation materials, the militant Dandaev confessed, confessed to the crimes he had committed and confirmed his testimony when he was taken to the place of execution. In the Supreme Court of Dagestan, however, he did not admit his guilt, stating that his appearance took place under duress, and refused to testify. Nevertheless, the court found his previous testimony admissible and reliable, since it was given with the participation of a lawyer and no complaints were received from him about the investigation. The video recording of the execution was examined in court, and although it was difficult to recognize the defendant Dandaev in the bearded executioner, the court took into account that the name Arbi could be clearly heard on the recording. Residents of the village of Tukhchar were also questioned. One of them recognized the defendant Dandaev, but the court was critical of his words, given the advanced age of the witness and the confusion in his testimony.
Speaking during the debate, lawyers Konstantin Sukhachev and Konstantin Mudunov asked the court to either resume the judicial investigation by conducting examinations and calling new witnesses, or to acquit the defendant. The accused Dandaev in his last word stated that he knows who led the execution, this man is at large, and he can give his name if the court resumes the investigation. The judicial investigation was resumed, but only to interrogate the defendant.
As a result, the examined evidence left no doubt in the court’s mind that the defendant Dandaev was guilty. Meanwhile, the defense believes that the court was hasty and did not examine many important circumstances for the case. For example, he did not interrogate Islan Mukaev, a participant in the execution in Tukhchar in 2005 (another of the executioners, Tamerlan Khasaev, was sentenced to life imprisonment in October 2002 and died soon in the colony). “Almost all the petitions significant for the defense were rejected by the court,” lawyer Konstantin Mudunov told Kommersant. “So, we repeatedly insisted on a second psychological and psychiatric examination, since the first one was carried out using a falsified outpatient card. The court rejected this petition. He did not was sufficiently objective, and we will appeal the verdict."
According to the defendant’s relatives, mental problems appeared in Arbi Dandaev in 1995, after Russian soldiers wounded his younger brother Alvi in Grozny, and some time later the corpse of a boy was returned from a military hospital, whose internal organs had been removed (relatives attribute this to with the trade in human organs that flourished in Chechnya in those years). As the defense stated during the debate, their father Khamzat Dandaev achieved the initiation of a criminal case on this fact, but it is not being investigated. According to lawyers, the case against Arbi Dandaev was opened to prevent his father from seeking punishment for those responsible for the death of his youngest son. These arguments were reflected in the verdict, but the court found that the defendant was sane, and the case regarding the death of his brother had been opened a long time ago and was not related to the case under consideration.
As a result, the court reclassified two articles relating to weapons and participation in a gang. According to judge Shikhali Magomedov, defendant Dandaev acquired weapons alone, and not as part of a group, and participated in illegal armed groups, and not in a gang. However, these two articles did not affect the verdict, since the statute of limitations had expired. And here is Art. 279 “Armed rebellion” and Art. 317 “Encroachment on the life of a law enforcement officer” was punishable by 25 years and life imprisonment. At the same time, the court took into account both mitigating circumstances (presence of young children and confession) and aggravating ones (the occurrence of grave consequences and the particular cruelty with which the crime was committed). Thus, despite the fact that the state prosecutor asked for only 22 years, the court sentenced the defendant Dandaev to life imprisonment. In addition, the court satisfied the civil claims of the parents of four dead servicemen for compensation for moral damage, the amounts for which ranged from 200 thousand to 2 million rubles.
A photograph of one of the thugs at the time of the trial.
links:
This is a photo of the man who died at the hands of Arbi Dandaev, Art. Lieutenant Vasily Tashkin
Confident of his impunity A. Dandaev
Lipatov Alexey Anatolievich 
Kaufman Vladimir Egorovich 
Polagaev Alexey Sergeevich
Erdneev Boris Ozinovich (a few seconds before his death)
Of the known participants in the bloody massacre of captured Russian soldiers and an officer, three are in the hands of justice, two of them are rumored to have died behind bars, others are said to have died during subsequent clashes, and others are hiding in France.
Additionally, based on the events in Tukhchar, it is known that no one rushed to help Vasily Tashkin’s detachment on that terrible day, not the next one, or even the next! Although the main battalion was stationed only a few kilometers not far from Tukhchar. Betrayal? Negligence? Deliberate collusion with militants? Much later, the village was attacked and bombed by aircraft... And here, as a summary of this tragedy and in general about the fate of many, many Russian guys in the shameful war unleashed by the Kremlin clique and subsidized by certain figures from Moscow and directly by the fugitive Mr. A.B. . Berezovsky (there are his public confessions on the Internet that he personally financed Basayev).
Serf children of war
The film includes the famous video of the cutting off of the heads of our fighters in Chechnya - details in this article.
Official reports are always stingy and often lie. On September 5th and 8th last year, judging by press releases from law enforcement agencies, regular battles were taking place in Dagestan. Everything is under control. As usual, losses were reported in passing. They are minimal - several wounded and killed. In fact, it was precisely on these days that entire platoons and assault groups lost their lives. But on the evening of September 12, news instantly spread across many agencies: the 22nd Brigade of Internal Troops occupied the village of Karamakhi. General Gennady Troshev noted the subordinates of Colonel Vladimir Kersky. This is how they learned about yet another Russian victory in the Caucasus. It's time to receive awards. The main thing that remains “behind the scenes” is how, and at what terrible cost, yesterday’s boys survived in the lead hell. However, for the soldiers this was one of many episodes of bloody work in which they remain alive by chance. Just three months later, the brigade’s fighters were again thrown into the thick of it. They attacked the ruins of a cannery in Grozny.
Karamakhi blues
September 8, 1999. I remembered this day for the rest of my life, because it was then that I saw death.
The command post above the village of Kadar was lively. I counted about a dozen generals alone. The artillerymen scurried about, receiving target designations. The officers on duty drove journalists away from the camouflage network, behind which radios crackled and telephone operators shouted.
"Rooks" emerged from behind the clouds. The bombs slide down in tiny dots and after a few seconds turn into columns of black smoke. An officer from the press service explains to journalists that aviation is working brilliantly against enemy firing points. When hit directly by a bomb, the house splits like a walnut.
The generals have repeatedly stated that the operation in Dagestan is strikingly different from the previous Chechen campaign. There is certainly a difference. Every war is different from its bad sisters. But there are analogies. They don't just catch your eye, they scream. One such example is the “jewelry” work of aviation. Pilots and artillerymen, as in the last war, work not only against the enemy. Soldiers die from their own raids.
As a unit of the 22nd Brigade prepared for the next assault, about twenty soldiers gathered in a circle at the foot of Wolf Mountain, awaiting the command to go forward. The bomb arrived, hitting right in the thick of the people, and... did not explode. A whole platoon was born wearing shirts back then. One soldier had his ankle cut off by a cursed bomb, like a guillotine. The guy, who became crippled in a split second, was sent to the hospital.
Too many soldiers and officers know about similar examples. Too many to understand: popular popular pictures of victory and reality are as different as the sun and the moon. While the troops were desperately storming Karamakhi, in the Novolaksky region of Dagestan, a special forces detachment was thrown to the border heights. During the attack, the “aligned forces” got something wrong - fire support helicopters began operating in altitude. As a result, having lost dozens of killed and wounded soldiers, the detachment retreated. The officers threatened to deal with those who shot at their own...
Be careful! People with weak psyches should not read this post!
These are the same soldiers, dear Russian boys, about whom the abomination Shevchenko said that they were not Russian, but Yeltsin.
Original taken from uglich_jj in Tukhchar massacre (18+).
1.Forgotten Platoon
It was September 5, 1999. Early in the morning, a gang of Chechens attacked the village of Tukhchar in Dagestan. The militants were commanded by Umar Edilsultanov, also known as Umar Karpinsky (from the Karpinka district in Grozny). Opposing them was a platoon of senior lieutenant Tashkin from the 22nd brigade of internal troops: an officer, 12 conscripts and one infantry fighting vehicle.
They dug in on a commanding height above the village. In addition to the soldiers, there were 18 more Dagestani policemen in Tukhchar. They were dispersed throughout the village: at two checkpoints at the entrances and at the local police station.
One of the Dagestani checkpoints was right next to Tashkin, at the foot of the high-rise building. True, Russians and Dagestanis hardly communicated or interacted. Everyone for themselves. Muslim Dakhkhaev, head of the local police department, recalled:
“Upstairs, at the height, are the positions of the internal troops, and below is our police post. They - two posts - seemed to exist separately. For some reason, the military did not really make contact with the local population and the local police. They were suspicious of our attempts to establish contacts... There was no interaction between the police and the military. They buried themselves in the ground and protected themselves.".
They buried themselves in the ground and protected themselves...
Umar had about 50 people in his gang, all Wahabbis were fanatics waging jihad. By fighting “for faith,” they hope to go to heaven. Unlike Christianity, in Islam paradise has an erotic meaning. A man in heaven will have 72 wives: 70 earthly women and 2 houris (special virgins for afterlife sex). The Qur'an and Sunnah repeatedly describe these wives with all the details. For example, here:
“Allah will not allow anyone into Paradise without marrying him to 72 wives, two will be virgins (gurias) with large eyes, and 70 will be inherited from the inhabitants of Fire. Each of them will have a vagina that gives pleasure, and he (the man) will have a sexual organ that will not descend during intercourse.”(Sunan Ibn Majah, 4337).
But a Muslim still needs to get to heaven with vaginas. It's not easy, but there is a sure way - to become a martyr. Shahid goes to heaven with a guarantee. All his sins are forgiven. The funeral of a martyr is often held as a wedding, with expressions of joy. After all, consider the deceased to have gotten married. He now has 72 vaginas and a perpetual erection. The cult of death and afterlife sex in the untouched brains of a savage is a serious matter. This is already a zombie. He goes to kill and is ready to die himself.
Umar's gang enters Dagestan. The journey to heavenly vaginas has begun.
One of the militants walked with a video camera and filmed everything that was happening. The film, of course, is terrible... Three life sentences have already been handed down based on it.
On the left is the leader (Umar), on the right is one Arab from his gang:
At 6:40 am the militants attacked the village. First, the farthest (from the high-rise) checkpoint, then the village police department. They quickly occupied them and went to the height where Tashkin’s platoon was. The battle here was hot, but also short-lived. Already at 7:30 the BMP was hit by a grenade launcher. And without its 30-mm automatic cannon, the Russians lost their main trump card. The platoon left its position. Carrying the wounded, they went down to the checkpoint to the Dagestanis.
The post was the last center of resistance. The Chechens attacked it, but could not take it. It was well fortified and allowed to defend for some time. Until help arrives or the ammunition runs out. But there were problems with this. No help was forthcoming that day. The militants crossed the border in several places, the Lipetsk riot police were surrounded in the village of Novolakskoye, and all forces were thrown into rescuing him. The command had no time for Tukhchar.
The defenders of the village were abandoned. There was also no ammunition for a long battle in Tukhchar. Soon envoys from among the local residents came from the Chechens. Let the Russians leave the checkpoint, otherwise we will start a new assault and kill everyone. Time to think - half an hour. The commander of the Dagestanis, Lieutenant Akhmed Davdiev, had already died in a street battle in the village at that time; junior sergeant Magomedov remained in charge.
Dagestani commanders: Akhmed Davdiev and Abdulkasim Magomedov. Both died that day.
After listening to the Chechens' ultimatum, Magomedov invites everyone to leave the checkpoint and take refuge in the village. Local residents are ready to help - give them civilian clothes, hide them in their homes, take them outside. Tashkin is against it. Magomedov is a junior sergeant, Tashkin is an officer of the internal troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Tashkin is much older in rank. A conflict arises, escalating into a fight...
In the end, Tashkin agreed to leave the checkpoint. Tough decision. At this point, the organized defense of the village stopped. The defenders split into small groups, hiding in attics, basements, and corn fields. Then everything depended on luck, some were lucky to leave, others were not...
Of the Dagestan policemen, most were unable to leave Tukhchar. They were captured. According to some sources: 14 people out of 18. They were herded to a village store:
And then they took me to Chechnya. From there, from the zindans, their relatives and intermediaries bought them out months later.
The police commander Abdulkasim Magomedov, who insisted on leaving the checkpoint, died. He did not want to give up and was killed in battle. In Tashkin’s platoon of 13 people, 7 survived. They were sheltered by local residents and helped to reach their own. Tashkin himself and four soldiers with him were blocked in the barn of local resident Chelavi Gamzatov. They were asked to surrender. They guaranteed life or they would throw grenades at us. They believed. On his way out, Tashkin gave Gamzatov a photograph of his wife and daughter, which he carried with him...
Photo from the local school museum. The same barn (with a burnt roof) is in the background.
The Chechens took another (sixth) prisoner from the house of local resident Attikat Tabieva. It was the shell-shocked and burnt mechanic-driver of the BMP Alexei Polagaev. Finally, Alexey gave the Dagestan woman a soldier’s badge and said: “What will they do to me now, mother?...”
This monument stands today on the outskirts of the village of Tukhchar in memory of the six fallen Russian soldiers. Stella, cross, barbed wire instead of a fence.
This is a “people's memorial” created on the initiative of village residents, primarily teachers from the local high school. Neither the Russian Ministry of Defense nor the federal authorities participated in the creation of the monument. Relatives of the victims did not respond to letters and never came here. Information was collected by local residents bit by bit.
There are errors on the monument: grammatical (from the point of view of the Russian language) and factual. Tashkin’s birthplace is indicated as the village of “Valadyarka”:
In fact, this is Volodarka near Barnaul. The future commander attended school there. And he was originally from the neighboring village of Krasnoyarka.
Also, one of the dead is incorrectly indicated on the monument:
Anisimov is a guy from the Armavir special forces (Vyatich detachment), he also died in Dagestan in those days, but in a different place. They fought at the TV Tower height, 10 kilometers from Tukhchar. The infamous height where, due to the mistakes of the generals at the headquarters, an entire special forces detachment died (including from attacks by their own aircraft).
There were no special forces in Tukhchar, there were ordinary motorized rifles. One of them, Lesha Paranin, the gunner of that very BMP on the high-rise, looked similar to Anisimov.
Both met a terrible death; the militants violated their bodies both here and there. They earned money for their vaginas. Well, then with light hand one journalist there was confusion that spread to monuments and memorial plaques. The mother of special forces soldier Anisimov even came to the trial of one of the militants from Umar’s gang. I watched the video of the massacre. Naturally, she did not find her son there. The militants killed the other guy.
This guy, Alexey Paranin, was a good shot from an infantry fighting vehicle in that battle. The militants had losses. A 30mm automatic cannon shell is not a bullet. These are severed limbs, or even cut in half. The Chechens executed Paranin first during the massacre of prisoners.
Well, the fact that Anisimov is on the monument instead of him is not so scary for a people's memorial. There is no monument at the TV tower height, and Private Anisimov from the Vyatich detachment is also a hero of that war. Let him be remembered this way at least.
By the way, speaking of May 9... Here is the emblem of the Vyatich detachment, where Anisimov served. The emblem was invented in the 2000s.
The squad's motto: “My honor is loyalty!” A familiar phrase. This was once the motto of the SS troops (Meine Ehre heißt Treue!), which was a quote from one of Hitler's sayings. On May 9, in Armavir (as well as in Moscow) there is probably a lot of talk about how we preserve traditions, etc. Whose traditions?
2. The bright holiday of Kurban Bayram.
After the Chechens took six Russian prisoners in the village, they were taken to a former checkpoint on the outskirts of the village. Umar radioed the militants to gather there. Started public execution, captured on video in great detail.
Muslims have the holiday of Kurban Bayram... This is when, according to custom, they slaughter rams, as well as cows, camels, etc. This is done publicly, in the presence (and with the participation) of children, who have become accustomed to such pictures since childhood. Cattle are slaughtered according to special rules. The animal's throat is first cut with a knife and the blood is waited until the blood drains.
Tabuk city, Saudi Arabia. October 2013
While the blood is draining, the animal is still alive for some time. With its trachea, esophagus and arteries cut, it wheezes, chokes on blood, and tries to breathe. It is very important that when making an incision, the animal’s neck is directed towards Mecca, and “Bismillahi, Allahu Akbar” (in the name of Allah, Allah is great) is pronounced over it.
Kedah, Malaysia. October 2013. The agony does not last long, 5-10 minutes.
Faisalabad, Pakistan. Eid al-Fitr 2012. This is a photo from the holiday, if anything.
After the blood has drained, the head is cut off and the cutting of the carcass begins. A reasonable question: how is this different from what happens every day at any meat processing plant? - Because there the animal is first stunned with electric shock. The next step (cutting the throat, draining the blood) occurs when he is already unconscious.
The rules for preparing “halal” (clean) meat in Islam do not allow stunning the animal during slaughter. It must bleed while conscious. Otherwise, the meat will be considered “unclean.”
Tver, November 2010. Kurban Bayram in the area of the cathedral mosque on Sovetskaya street, 66.
Conveyor. While they are slaughtering there, other participants in the festival with their sheep arrive at the mosque.
Eid al-Adha comes from the biblical story about the temptation of Abraham (Ibrahim in Islam). God commanded Abraham to sacrifice his son, and specifically to cut his throat and burn him at the stake. And all to test his (Abraham’s) love for himself. Abraham tied up his son, laid him on top of the firewood and was already preparing to slaughter him, but at the last moment God changed his mind - he said (through an angel) to sacrifice an animal, not a person.
Michelangelo de Caravaggio. "Abraham's Sacrifice" 1601-1602
He's the one cutting his son, if anything.
In memory of the temptation of Abraham, Islam (as well as Judaism) ritually slaughters animals every year. Since in both cases they are cut without stunning, in full consciousness, in a number of countries (Scandinavia, Switzerland, Poland) this was banned as cruelty to animals.
Lahore, Pakistan, November 2009 If you think this is a slaughterhouse, you are mistaken. This is the courtyard of the local mosque on the day of the holiday.
Peshawar, Pakistan, November 2009 But cutting a camel's throat is not so easy.
Finally, the butcher gets a particularly good hit with the knife. Bismillahi, Allahu Akbar!
Rafah, Gaza Strip. 2015 Public observation of an animal slowly bleeding.
Ibid., 2012. Rare shot. The cow, doomed to slaughter, broke free and impaled her tormentors on the horns.
3. Paranin Alexey.
Tukhchar, 1999. Russian prisoners are collected at a checkpoint, then taken out into the street. They put it on the ground. Some have their hands tied behind their backs, some don't.
The first to be executed is Alexey Paranin, an infantry fighting vehicle gunner. His throat is cut and he is left to lie down.
Blood is pouring all around.
Alexey was seriously wounded when an infantry fighting vehicle exploded and was burned. He doesn’t offer any resistance, it seems like he’s unconscious. It was this gunman in black and with a beard who cut him up (who he is is still unknown).
Having started to cut, the killer goes somewhere, but soon comes again
And he begins to cut the victim’s throat completely
Almost beheading Alexei.
Alexey Paranin, a 19-year-old guy from Udmurtia. Graduated from vocational school as a bricklayer, was supposed to become a builder
This is his native village of Vernyaya Tyzhma, 100 km from Izhevsk. This is not the 19th century. This black and white photo, which was made by contemporary Izhevsk photographer Nikolai Glukhov while in these places.
4. Tashkin Vasily.
After Paranin, the militants were the second to execute senior officer Tashkin. The killer sat astride him, some kind of struggle is visible there...
But soon the lieutenant’s throat is also cut.
A Chechen cameraman takes sadistic pleasure in filming the death of an officer.
The face of the killer who cut the lieutenant's throat is not very clearly visible on the film, but you can hear that those around him call him Arbi, and in the process they give him a larger knife... Here he is in the crowd of spectators after Tashkin's execution.
This Chechen was later found. This is a certain Arbi Dandaev from Grozny. Here he is in court (in a cage):
At the trial, his lawyers, by the way, tried very hard. They said that the defendant repented of what he had done, realized everything, understood. They asked to take into account his severe “mental trauma” in the past and the presence of young children.
The court gave him a life sentence.
Officer Tashkin, who was stabbed by Arby's, was later criticized by some Internet analysts. For stupidity and cowardice. Why did he surrender, go under the knife and put people to death...
Vasily Tashkin is a simple guy from the village of Krasnoyarka in Altai.
In 1991 he entered the Military School in Novosibirsk, and from 1995 he joined the army. In those years, officers left the army in batches, cheap salaries, life, housing. Tashkin remained to serve. Vanka the platoon commander of our days...
Taking the oath at school
The village of Krasnoyarka, Topchikhinsky district, is about 100 km from Barnaul along a good (by local standards) road.
Beautiful places.
An ordinary village, huts, carts (the photos below were taken in this village in the summer)
Dagestan Tukhchar, where there are solid stone houses, looks richer...
In the fall of 1999, Tashkin was sent to Tukhchar to guard a dangerous section of the border with Chechnya. Moreover, he had to do this with extremely small forces. However, they accepted the battle and fought for 2 hours until the situation began to run out of ammunition. Where is the cowardice here?
As for captivity... One Englishman, a participant in the Anglo-Boer War at the beginning of the 20th century, wrote:
“I crawled ashore... On the other hand railway a horseman appeared, called out to me and waved his hand. He was less than forty yards away... I extended my hand with my Mauser. But I left it in the locomotive box. There was a wire fence between me and the rider. Run again? But the thought of another shot from such a close distance stopped me. Death stood before me, gloomy and gloomy, death without its careless companion - chance. So I raised my hands and, like Mr. Jorrocks' foxes, I shouted, "I surrender."
Fortunately for the Englishman (and this was Winston Churchill), the Boers are civilized people and did not cut the throats of prisoners. Churchill later escaped from captivity and, after many days of wandering, managed to make his way to his own people.
Was Winston Churchill a coward?
5. Lipatov Alexey.
Having killed Anisimov and Tashkin, the Chechens ordered Private Lipatov to stand up. Lipatov looks around. To his right is Tashkin’s corpse, to his left is Paranin, wheezing, bleeding. Lipatov understands what awaits him.
On the orders of Umar, a certain Tamerlan Khasaev from the village of Dachu-Borzoi (with a knife in a blue T-shirt) was to slaughter the prisoner.
But Lipatov began to actively resist and Khasaev only wounded him. Then a militant in black, already familiar to us, who killed Paranin, came to Khasaev’s aid. Together they try to finish off the victim.
A fight ensues
And suddenly, bleeding Lipatov was able to get up, broke free and started running.
Alexey Lipatov is the only one of the prisoners whose throat was not cut. The Chechens chased after him, shooting after him. They finished him off in some ditch, riddled with machine guns. According to Lipatov’s mother, when her son was brought to his native village of Aleksandrovka near Orenburg, the military forbade opening the coffin: “There is no face.” So they buried it without opening it.
The regional authorities provided the soldier's parents with financial aid, 10 thousand rubles.
The date of death is indicated as 09/06/1999, one day later. On that day, the militants handed over the corpses to the head of the Tukhchar village council, and he took them by truck to the nearest federal forces checkpoint (Gerzelsky Bridge). In reality, Lipatov and his comrades were killed on September 5.
The soldier’s parents were not told what happened to their son. They found out everything only in 2002, when the militant Khasaev was caught and the parents were summoned to trial. In complete silence, a video recording of the execution of prisoners was shown in the hall. “Here is my son!” - Lipatov’s father cried out at some point.
Tamerlan Khasaev.
Khasaev dodged as best he could during the trial. He said that he had just begun to kill Lipatov, but did not undercut, because... I couldn't psychologically. " I couldn't kill the soldier. He also asked: “Don’t kill me. I want to live." My heart started beating fast and I felt a little sick».
In addition, Khasaev stated that during the investigation they extorted testimony from him through threats. But he is embarrassed to say what they threatened to say.
“Were you not shy when you cut them?"- asked the prosecutor.
“They threatened to do to me what they do to a woman", answered Khasaev.
“So you’re saying that they wanted to screw you over?— the judge perked up. — Don’t be shy, we’re all doctors here.”.
Of course, criminal jargon from the lips of a judge does not decorate a Russian court, but Khasaev got his way. He was also given a life sentence. Shortly after the verdict, he died in prison. His heart started beating and he felt a little sick.
6.Kaufman Vladimir.
After Lipatov, it was the turn of Private Vladimir Kaufman. One of the militants, named Rasul, drags Kaufman into a clearing and demands that he lie face down. This makes cutting easier.
Kaufman begs Rasul not to kill him. He says that he is ready to hand over the wounded BMP gunner, who is “hiding in that white house over there.”
The proposal is of no interest to the militants. They had just killed the BMP gunner. The almost headless corpse of Alexei Paranin (his head rests on one spine) lies nearby. Then Kaufman promises to show where “the weapons are hidden.” Somewhere in the mountains.
Rasul is getting tired of the delay. Kaufman is ordered to remove his belt and place his hands behind his back. He understands that it is the end. “I don’t want to die, don’t kill, good people!” he shouts. “Kind, kind. Good guys!” says the video camera operator with a strong Chechen accent.
A fight ensues. Two other militants pounce on Kaufman and try to wring his hands.
They can't do it. Then one of them hits the victim on the head with a butt.
Kaufman is stunned and Rasul begins to stab him in the back of the head.
In the end, when the prisoner has already lost consciousness, his throat is cut.
The guy was 19 years old.
The militant Rasul, who cut Vladimir’s throat, was not found. According to one version, he died later during some special operation, as reported on the websites of Chechen separatists. Here is his photo:
But they caught two of Rasul’s assistants who were holding Kaufman before the murder.
This is Islan Mukaev. He wringed Kaufman's hands.
And Rezvan Vagapov. He held his head while Rasul cut his throat.
Mukaev received 25 years, Vagapov - 18.
The soldier they killed was buried thousands of kilometers from Tukhchar, in his native village of Aleksandrovskoye in the Tomsk region. A large ancient village on the banks of the Ob...
Everything is the same as everywhere else (photo of the village - 2011).
Vladimir Kaufman was born and raised here. He received his surname from his grandfather, a Volga German, who was exiled here under Stalin.
Vladimir's mother Maria Andreevna at her son's grave.
7. Erdneev Boris.
Having stabbed Kaufman, the militants took on Boris Erdneev, a Kalmyk who was a sniper in Tashkin’s platoon. Boris had no chance; his hands were tied in advance. The video shows one of the Chechens holding Erdneev by the chest with one hand.
Erdneev looks in horror at the Chechen’s other hand. In it - big knife with traces of blood.
He tries to talk to the executioner:
“You respect Kalmyks, don’t you?”- he asks.
“We respect you very much, haha, - the Chechen says maliciously behind the scenes, - lie down".
The victim is thrown to the ground.
The Chechen who killed Boris Erdneev was later found. This is a certain Mansur Razhaev from Grozny.
In 2012 he received a life sentence.
During the execution, Razhaev was not at all embarrassed by the camera. But at the trial he really didn’t want to be filmed.
According to Razhaev, before his death, they invited Boris Erdneev to convert to Islam (Kalmyks are Buddhists). But he refused. That is, Erdneev repeated the feat of Yevgeny Rodionov, who also refused to convert to Islam in May 1996, during the first Chechen war. He refused and his head was cut off.
It was here, in the forest near Bamut.
There, three more prisoners were killed with him
The feat of Evgeniy Rodionov received quite wide publicity; many churches in Russia have icons in his honor. The feat of Boris Erdneev is much less known.
Boris Erdneev at the oath
A photo from a stand about him at his home school in the village of Artezian in Kalmykia (270 km from the capital of the republic, Elista).
8. Polagaev Alexey.
He was the last to be killed. This was done personally by the gang leader Umar. Here he comes up to Alexey with a knife, rolls up his sleeves
The prisoner's hands are tied, and he is shell-shocked, so Umar has nothing to fear. He sits astride the prisoner and begins to cut
Why does the half-cut off head begin to swing up and down, so that it can barely hang on to the body?
Then he releases the victim. The soldier begins to roll on the ground in his death throes.
He soon bled to death. The militants shout in unison “Allahu Akbar!”
Alexey Polagaev, 19 years old, from the city of Kashira, Moscow region.
The only city guy out of six dead. The rest are from villages. The army in the Russian Federation is a workers' and peasants' army, they say correctly. People who don't have money go to serve.
As for the killer of Alexei, the leader of the gang, Umar Karpinsky, he did not appear in court. Didn't make it. He was killed in January 2000 when militants were leaving encirclement in Grozny.
9. Epilogue.
Russian-Chechen war 1999-2000. was in favor of preserving Chechnya and Dagestan as part of Russia. The militants wanted to separate them, and Tashkin, Lipatov, Kaufman, Paranin and others stood in their way. And they gave their lives. Officially, this was then called an operation to “establish constitutional order.”
17 years have passed since then. Long term. What's new with us? What about the independence of Chechnya and the constitutional order in Dagestan?
Everything is fine in Chechnya.
By the way, what's on his head? He wears a maroon beret, but the cockade is somehow strange. Where did he even get it?
After the victory over the militants in 2000, the dictatorship of the Kadyrov father and son was organized in Chechnya. You can read what this is in any history textbook in the section "Feudalism". The appanage prince has complete independence in his inheritance (ulus), but is in a vassal relationship with a superior prince. Namely:
A. Gives him a percentage of his income;
B. Fields his private army against his enemies when necessary.
This is what we are seeing in Chechnya.
Also, if you read a history textbook, it will be written that the appanage system is unreliable, because of it Kievan Rus, the Arab Caliphate and many others collapsed. Everything is based on the personal loyalty of the vassal, and it is changeable. Today he is for some, tomorrow - for others.
It is clear that they will soon be passionately kissing in front of the camera...
But who will go to fight for the third time in Chechnya when Kadyrov’s despotism officially announces its secession from Russia? But this will happen on the second day, as Putin will leave and Kadyrov will feel a threat to his power. In Moscow, he has a lot of “well-wishers” in the security forces. And he's hooked. A lot of things have accumulated there.
For example, this monkey:
Who will believe that Nemtsov was ordered to him by the driver of one of Kadyrov’s close associates for 5 million rubles? Himself personally, directly with your own money. And drivers earn good money in Chechnya.
Or this character:
He killed Colonel Budanov in 2011. Before this, I found out the address, followed for six months, got myself false documents under a different name, so that I could then hide in Chechnya. And also a pistol and a stolen foreign car with the wrong license plates. Allegedly, he acted alone out of hatred for all Russian military personnel who killed his father in Chechnya in the 90s.
Who will believe this? Before that, he had lived in Moscow for 11 years, in a big way, wasting money, and suddenly he was stuck. Budanov was released in January 2009. He was convicted of war crimes, deprived of awards and titles and served 9 years of a 10-year sentence. However, already in February 2009, Kadyrov publicly threatened him, stating that:
“...His place is in prison for life. And this is not enough for him. But a life sentence will at least ease our suffering a little. We do not tolerate insults. If a decision is not made, the consequences will be bad.”
This is Kadyrov's Chechnya. What's in Dagestan? - Everything is fine there too. The Chechen militants were driven out of there in 1999. But with the local Wahhabis it turned out to be more difficult. They are still shooting and exploding. Otherwise, life in Dagestan goes on as usual: chaos, mafia clans, cutting of subsidies. As elsewhere in the Russian Federation. Constitutional order, huh.
In interethnic relations, something has also changed in 17 years. With all due respect to the residents of the village of Tukhchar, who hid Tashkin’s soldiers and honor the memory of the dead, the general attitude towards Dagestanis in the country has become worse. A striking example: since 2012, conscription into the army has been stopped in Dagestan. They don’t call because they can’t cope with them. And it starts like this:
Or this:
These, by the way, are the defenders of the Motherland (who are). Polite people. And the one with a raised finger means “There is no god but Allah.” Favorite gesture of Islamists, incl. Wahhabis. They use it to express their superiority.
However, you can not only put Russians in cancer. You can sit on horseback:
Or you can put a live inscription on the parade ground. 05th region, i.e. Dagestan.
Interestingly, in most cases, finding participants in this chaos is not so difficult. They are not actually hiding. Here are photos of “horse riding” in 2012, posted on the Internet by a certain Ali Ragimov to the group “Dagi in the Army” on Odnoklassniki.
Now he lives calmly in St. Petersburg, respects Sharia law.
By the way, in his photo from the army there are chevrons with a lizard.
These are the Internal Troops, Ural District. The same BB guys who died in Tukhchar. I wonder if the guys he sits on will go to defend Tukhchar next time? Or let Ali Ragimov do it himself somehow?
But the live inscription 05 DAG on the parade ground in military unit No. 42581 in Krasnoye Selo was posted by a certain Abdul Abdulkhalimov. He is now in Novorossiysk:
Together with Abdulkhalimov, a whole company of his Dagestani comrades frolicked in Krasnoe Selo.
Since 2012, the Abdulkhalimovs are no longer conscripted. The Russians do not want to serve in the same army with the Dagestanis, because... then they have to crawl around the barracks in front of the Caucasians. Moreover, both are citizens of the same state (for now), where the rights and responsibilities are the same for everyone. This is the constitutional order.
On the other hand, Dagestanis were not drafted into the army in 1941-45. (due to mass desertion). There were only small formations of volunteers. Dagestanis did not serve in the tsarist army either. There was one volunteer cavalry regiment, which in 1914 became part of the Caucasian Native Division. This "wild division" of the Highlanders in the First World War was actually no more than 7,000 people. So many volunteers were recruited. Of these, there are about 1000 Dagestanis. And that’s all for an army of 5 million. In both the Second and First World Wars, conscripts from Chechnya and Dagestan mostly stayed at home.
Why does this happen to the mountaineers, constantly, for more than 100 years and under any government? - And this not them army. AND not them state. They are kept there by force. Even if they want to live (and serve) in it, they do so by some of their own rules. That’s why funerals come to poor Krasnoyarsk and Alexandrovka cities. And apparently, they will continue to come.
September 1999. Dagestan. For a month now, the flames of the “liberation” war unleashed in the mountains of the Botlikh, Tsumadinsky and Buinaksky regions have been burning. It arrived unexpectedly and insidiously from neighboring Chechnya.
There is a war going on in the mountains, but here, to the north, in the Novolaksky region, it is relatively calm. The day before, however, the militia commander shared information that several thousand militants had accumulated on the other side, but somehow it was hard to believe that such forces were gathered behind the green, peaceful hills. The militants are already having a hard time. Most likely, a detachment of some local field commander simply became more active.
The head of the small outpost, which only five days ago occupied a commanding height on the southwestern outskirts of the village of Tukhchar, senior lieutenant Vasily Tashkin did not guess and, having contacted Vershina, reported the situation to his command, adding that they were with that The parties are being monitored.
In response, I received instructions to triple my vigilance and set up additional observation posts. Beyond the Aksai River is Chechnya, the large village of Ishkhoy-Yurt is a gangster nest. The outpost is ready for battle. The position for the weapon was chosen well. The trenches are equipped, the firing sectors are targeted. And the garrison of the outpost is not green youth, but twelve proven fighters. Plus the militia neighbors on the left and two Dagestan police posts below, to reinforce which the Kalachevites - servicemen of the operational brigade of internal troops - arrived. Only ammunition would be enough: in addition to the BMP-2 with full ammunition, there is also a PC with seven hundred rounds of ammunition, an SVD and 120 rounds of ammunition for it, an old Kalashnikov handbrake with three hundred and sixty rounds of ammunition, and four magazines each for machine gunners. He and the platoon commander also have an under-barrel grenade launcher and four ergedash grenades. Not a lot, but if something happened they promised to send help: the battalion is stationed in Duchi, which is not far away.
However, in war it’s like in war.
“Tyulenev,” Tashkin called the sergeant, “Vershina again asks to increase vigilance.” I'll check the posts myself tonight!
— The night was stuffy and moonlit. Two kilometers away, the ominous lights of a Chechen village shone, there was a strong smell of mint, and restless grasshoppers chirped in the grass until the morning, making it difficult to listen to the silence of the night.
As soon as it was dawn, Tashkin raised the resting soldiers and with a sniper moved to a nearby hill, from where, from the positions of the militia, what was happening on the adjacent side could be seen much better even without optics. From here it was clearly visible how the Chechens, almost without hiding, were wading a shallow river. The last doubts were dispelled, this is war. When the militants walking in a thick chain became visible to the naked eye, Tashkin gave the command to open fire. The silence was broken by a machine-gun burst, two militants walking in front fell, and then other guns began to thunder and attack. The outpost took the battle when the sun barely appeared from behind the mountains. The day promised to be hot.
As it turned out, the militants still outwitted the Kalachevites. For the same reasons that they couldn’t take the outpost head-on, they attacked it with their main forces from the rear, from the direction of the Dagestan village of Gamiakh. Immediately I had to forget about all the carefully calibrated sectors of fire and leave an equipped position for the infantry fighting vehicle. She turned into a nomadic “shaitan-arbu” that inflicts effective damage on the enemy.
The militants realized that it was not possible to shoot down the fighters from the height, and without this it was risky to enter the village. Having established themselves on its outskirts, in the area of the village cemetery, they tried to get the soldiers out of there. But it was not easy for them to do this. The Dagestan policemen fought no less staunchly, supported by fire from the high-rise. But the poorly armed militias were forced to abandon their positions, which were immediately occupied by militants.
Field commander Umar, directing operations from nearby Ishkhoy-Yurt, was visibly nervous. For the second hour, his detachment, which was part of the so-called Islamic Special Purpose Regiment, was practically marking time.
But the unequal battle could not last indefinitely. Ammunition ran out, strength dwindled, and the number of wounded increased. The militants have already captured one checkpoint, and then the village police department. Now they burst into the village and almost surrounded the hill. And soon the BMP was also knocked out, which lingered in the enemy’s field of view for only a minute longer, targeting the ZIL with bearded men crossing the river. The crew of the heroic “kopeck piece” managed to get out, but the fire severely burned the gunner of the vehicle, Siberian Private Alexei Polagaev.
The sight of burning equipment with exploding ammunition caused the militants to rejoice, diverting their attention for some time from the military personnel who continued to hold the height. But the commander, realizing that now it was not only dangerous, but also impossible, and most importantly, impractical, decided to leave. There was only one way - down to the defending policemen of the second checkpoint. Under the cover of a smoking car, they were able to go down the hill, taking all the wounded with them. Thirteen more people were added to the eighteen defenders of the now only point of resistance in the village of Tukhchar.
The Russian officer managed to save the lives of all his subordinates by leading them off the hill. At 7.30 on the morning of September 5, communication between Vershina and the Tukhchar outpost was interrupted. Realizing that it was not possible to destroy the federals, and during the next assault there would be losses, those who sat behind concrete blocks last defenders
The militants sent village elders:
The militants were told to go out without weapons and to guarantee their lives.
“We won’t give up,” came the answer.
There was still a chance to get out of the battle, they thought, saving their lives, weapons and honor. Having counted and divided the cartridges, hugging each other in a brotherly manner at the end, the soldiers and policemen, covering each other with fire, rushed to the nearest houses. They carried the wounded on themselves. Having come under heavy fire from the militants, Senior Lieutenant Tashkin and four other soldiers jumped into the nearest building.
A few seconds earlier, police sergeant Abdulkasim Magomedov died here. At the same moment, the half-collapsed building was surrounded and it was impossible to escape. Ammunition was running low. The militants again offer to surrender. However, they themselves do not risk storming a temporary shelter where only a handful of armed people are holed up. They put pressure on the psyche. They promise to burn you alive if you refuse. Gasoline is ready. They give you time to think. In the end, they send in a truce, the owner of the temporary hut, who turned gray in one day. Did our guys have any hesitations at that moment?
Everyone always wants to live. This is felt especially acutely in a moment of calm, when you realize that life is so beautiful! And the sun, so gentle, now standing at its zenith, was so bright, so life-affirming. The day turned out to be really hot.
Vasily Tashkin did not believe the sweet speeches of the militants. The prophetic heart and some experience told the officer that these non-humans would not leave them alive. But looking at his boys, in whose eyes one could read HOPE, the officer nevertheless made up his mind and came out of hiding...
Having instantly disarmed the fighters, roughly pushing them in the back with rifle butts, the militants drove the soldiers towards the smoking ruins of the checkpoint. The burned and wounded BMP gunner, Private Alexei Polagaev, was soon brought here. The soldier, dressed in civilian clothes, was hidden in her house by Gurum Dzhaparova. It didn't help. Local Chechen boys told the militants about the guy’s whereabouts.
The meeting about the fate of the military personnel was short-lived. Amir Umar ordered on the radio to “execute the Russian dogs”; they killed too many of his soldiers in battle.
— The first to be taken out for execution was Private Boris Erdneev from Kalmykia. They cut his throat with a blade. Residents of Tukhchar, numb with horror, watched the massacre. The fighters were defenseless, but not broken. They left this life undefeated.
They died in Tukhchar
The execution of Russian soldiers by Chechen militants was filmed on a video camera, which dispassionately recorded the last minutes of the soldiers’ lives.
Some people accept death in silence, others escape from the hands of the executioners.
Now, not far from the place of execution, there is again a checkpoint of the Dagestan police, covering the road to the Chechen village of Galayty. Five years have passed, much has changed in relations between neighboring republics. But the residents of Tukhchar also look with caution and distrust towards their restless and unpredictable neighbor.
There is no longer a military outpost on the high-rise. Instead, an Orthodox cross rises, a symbol of the eternal victory of life over death. There were thirteen of them, six died by ascending to Golgotha. Let's remember their names:
"Cargo - 200" arrived on Kizner land. In the battles for the liberation of Dagestan from bandit formations, Alexey Ivanovich Paranin, a native of the village of Ishek of the Zvezda collective farm and a graduate of our school, died. Alexey was born on January 25, 1980. He graduated from Verkhnetyzhminsk primary school. He was a very inquisitive, lively, brave boy. Then he studied at Mozhginsky State Technical University No. 12, where he received the profession of a mason. However, I didn’t have time to work; I was drafted into the army. He served in the North Caucasus for more than a year. And so - .
Went through several fights. On the night of September 5-6, an infantry fighting vehicle, on which Alexey served as an operator-gunner, was transferred to the Lipetsk OMON, and guarded a checkpoint near the village. The militants who attacked at night set the BMP on fire. The soldiers left the car and fought, but it was too unequal. All the wounded were brutally finished off. We all mourn the death of Alexei. Words of consolation are hard to find. On November 26, 2007, a memorial plaque was installed on the school building.
The opening of the memorial plaque was attended by Alexey’s mother, Lyudmila Alekseevna, and representatives from the youth department from the region. Now we are starting to design an album about him, there is a stand at the school dedicated to Alexey.
In addition to Alexey, four more students from our school took part in the Chechen campaign: Eduard Kadrov, Alexander Ivanov, Alexey Anisimov and Alexey Kiselev, awarded the Order of Courage. It is very scary and bitter when young guys die. There were three children in the Paranin family, but the son was the only one. Ivan Alekseevich, Alexey’s father, works as a tractor driver on the Zvezda collective farm, his mother Lyudmila Alekseevna is a school worker.
Erdneev Boris Ozinovich (a few seconds before his death)
(Used the essay “Defending Tukhchar”)
Of the Chechen murderers, only three fell into the hands of justice: Tamerlan Khasaev, Islam Mukaev, Arbi Dandaev
The first of the thugs to fall into the hands of law enforcement agencies was Tamerlan Khasaev. Sentenced to eight and a half years for kidnapping in December 2001, he was serving a sentence in a maximum security colony in the Kirov region when the investigation, thanks to a videotape seized during a special operation in Chechnya, managed to establish that he was one of those who participated in the bloody massacre on the outskirts of Tukhchar.
Khasaev found himself in the detachment at the beginning of September 1999 - one of his friends tempted him with the opportunity to get captured weapons during the campaign against Dagestan, which could then be sold at a profit. So Khasaev ended up in the gang of Emir Umar, subordinate to the notorious commander of the ‘Islamic special-purpose regiment’ Abdulmalik Mezhidov, Shamil Basayev’s deputy...
In February 2002, Khasaev was transferred to the Makhachkala pre-trial detention center and shown a recording of the execution. He did not deny it. Moreover, the case already contained testimony from residents of Tukhchar, who confidently identified Khasaev from a photograph sent from the colony. (The militants did not hide especially, and the execution itself was visible even from the windows of houses on the edge of the village). Khasaev stood out among the militants dressed in camouflage with a white T-shirt.
The trial in Khasaev's case took place in the Supreme Court of Dagestan in October 2002. He pleaded guilty only partially: ‘I admit participation in an illegal armed formation, weapons and invasion. But I didn’t cut the soldier... I just approached him with a knife. Two people had been killed before. When I saw this picture, I refused to cut and gave the knife to someone else.’
“They were the first to start,” Khasaev said about the battle in Tukhchar. “The infantry fighting vehicle opened fire, and Umar ordered the grenade launchers to take positions. And when I said that there was no such agreement, he assigned three militants to me. Since then I myself have been their hostage.”
For participation in an armed rebellion, the militant received 15 years, for stealing weapons - 10, for participation in an illegal armed group and illegally carrying weapons - five each. For an attack on the life of a serviceman, Khasaev, according to the court, deserved the death penalty, but due to a moratorium on its use, an alternative punishment was chosen - life imprisonment.
Islam Mukaev (25 years in prison - in 2005)
It is known that in July 1999, Mukaev joined the Karpinsky jamaat (named after the Karpinka microdistrict in Grozny), headed by Emir Umar, and already in September took part in a raid on Dagestan. After the battle, the bandits captured the post, losing four people. Among them was cousin Mukaeva.
He, like other relatives of the dead militants, was offered to take part in the execution of soldiers in order to ‘take blood feud’. Mukaev said that he could not cut his throat. However, during the execution he helped kill the platoon commander Vasily Tashkin. The officer struggled, and then Mukaev hit him and held his hands until another militant finally finished off the senior lieutenant.
Arbi Dandaev (life sentence in 2009). The remaining participants in the massacre are still on the federal wanted list. April 2009
The Supreme Court of Dagestan completed the third trial in the case of the execution of six Russian servicemen in the village of Tukhchar, Novolaksky district in September 1999. One of the participants in the execution, 35-year-old Arbi Dandaev, who, according to the court, personally cut the throat of Senior Lieutenant Vasily Tashkin, was found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment in a special regime colony.
Former employee of the National Security Service of Ichkeria Arbi Dandaev, according to investigators, took part in Shamil Basayev’s gangs in Dagestan in 1999. In early September, he joined a detachment led by Emir Umar Karpinsky, who on September 5 of the same year invaded the territory of the Novolaksky region of the republic.
From the Chechen village of Galaity, the militants headed to the Dagestan village of Tukhchar - the road was guarded by a checkpoint manned by Dagestan policemen. On the hill they were covered by an infantry fighting vehicle and 13 soldiers from a brigade of internal troops. But the militants entered the village from the rear and, having captured the village police department after a short battle, began shelling the hill.
The BMP buried in the ground caused considerable damage to the attackers, but when the encirclement began to shrink, senior lieutenant Vasily Tashkin ordered the armored vehicle to be driven out of the trench and open fire across the river on the car that was transporting the militants.
The ten-minute hitch turned out to be fatal for the soldiers: a shot from a grenade launcher on the BMP demolished the turret. The gunner died on the spot, and the driver Alexey Polagaev was shell-shocked. The surviving defenders of the checkpoint reached the village and began to hide - some in basements and attics, and some in corn thickets.
Half an hour later, the militants, on the orders of Emir Umar, began to search the village, and five soldiers, hiding in the basement of one of the houses, had to surrender after a short firefight - in response to machine gun fire, a shot from a grenade launcher was fired. After some time, Alexey Polagaev joined the captives - the militants “located” him in one of the neighboring houses, where the owner was hiding him.
By order of Emir Umar, the prisoners were taken to a clearing next to the checkpoint. What happened next was scrupulously recorded on camera by the action cameraman. Four executioners appointed by the commander of the militants took turns following the order, cutting the throats of an officer and three soldiers (one of the soldiers tried to escape, but was shot). Emir Umar dealt with the sixth victim personally.
Umar Karpinsky (Edilsultanov) in the center. Amir of the Karpinsky jamaat. He personally dealt with Alexei Polagaev - he died 5 months later while trying to break out of Grozny.
Arbi Dandaev hid from justice for more than eight years, but on April 3, 2008, Chechen police detained him in Grozny. He was charged with participation in a stable criminal group (gang) and the attacks it carries out, armed rebellion with the aim of changing the territorial integrity of Russia, as well as encroachment on the lives of law enforcement officers and illegal arms trafficking.
According to the investigation materials, the militant Dandaev confessed, confessed to the crimes he had committed and confirmed his testimony when he was taken to the place of execution. In the Supreme Court of Dagestan, however, he did not admit his guilt, stating that his appearance took place under duress, and refused to testify.
Nevertheless, the court found his previous testimony admissible and reliable, since it was given with the participation of a lawyer and no complaints were received from him about the investigation. The video recording of the execution was examined in court, and although it was difficult to recognize the defendant Dandaev in the bearded executioner, the court took into account that the name Arbi could be clearly heard on the recording.
Residents of the village of Tukhchar were also questioned. One of them recognized the defendant Dandaev, but the court was critical of his words, given the advanced age of the witness and the confusion in his testimony.
Speaking during the debate, lawyers Konstantin Sukhachev and Konstantin Mudunov asked the court to either resume the judicial investigation by conducting examinations and calling new witnesses, or to acquit the defendant. The accused Dandaev in his last word stated that he knows who led the execution, this man is at large, and he can give his name if the court resumes the investigation. The judicial investigation was resumed, but only to interrogate the defendant.
As a result, the examined evidence left no doubt in the court’s mind that the defendant Dandaev was guilty. Meanwhile, the defense believes that the court was hasty and did not examine many important circumstances for the case.
For example, he did not interrogate Islan Mukaev, a participant in the execution in Tukhchar in 2005 (another of the executioners, Tamerlan Khasaev, was sentenced to life imprisonment in October 2002 and died soon in the colony).
“Almost all the petitions significant for the defense were rejected by the court,” lawyer Konstantin Mudunov told Kommersant. “So, we repeatedly insisted on a second psychological and psychiatric examination, since the first one was carried out using a falsified outpatient card. The court rejected this request. “He was not sufficiently objective and we will appeal the verdict.”
According to the defendant’s relatives, mental problems appeared in Arbi Dandaev in 1995, after Russian soldiers wounded his younger brother Alvi in Grozny, and some time later the corpse of a boy was returned from a military hospital, whose internal organs had been removed (relatives attribute this to with the trade in human organs that flourished in Chechnya in those years).
As the defense stated during the debate, their father Khamzat Dandaev achieved the initiation of a criminal case on this fact, but it is not being investigated. According to lawyers, the case against Arbi Dandaev was opened to prevent his father from seeking punishment for those responsible for the death of his youngest son. These arguments were reflected in the verdict, but the court found that the defendant was sane, and the case regarding the death of his brother had been opened a long time ago and was not related to the case under consideration.
As a result, the court reclassified two articles relating to weapons and participation in a gang. According to judge Shikhali Magomedov, defendant Dandaev acquired weapons alone, and not as part of a group, and participated in illegal armed groups, and not in a gang.
However, these two articles did not affect the verdict, since the statute of limitations had expired. And here is Art. 279 “Armed rebellion” and art. 317 “Encroachment on the life of a law enforcement officer” was punishable by 25 years and life imprisonment.
At the same time, the court took into account both mitigating circumstances (presence of young children and confession) and aggravating ones (the occurrence of grave consequences and the particular cruelty with which the crime was committed).
Thus, despite the fact that the state prosecutor asked for only 22 years, the court sentenced the defendant Dandaev to life imprisonment.
In addition, the court satisfied the civil claims of the parents of four dead servicemen for compensation for moral damage, the amounts for which ranged from 200 thousand to 2 million rubles.
New details of the Tukhchar tragedy
...The battles of 1999 in the Novolaksky district echoed with tragic events in the Orenburg region, and in the Topchikhinsky district of the Altai Territory, and in other Russian villages. As the Lak saying goes, “war does not give birth to sons, war takes away born sons.” An enemy bullet that kills a son also wounds the mother’s heart.
On September 1, 1999, platoon commander Senior Lieutenant Vasily Tashkin received an order to move to the Chechen-Dagestan border on the outskirts of the village of Tukhchar, Novolaksky district. Not far from the village at a height, the soldiers dug trenches and prepared a place for an infantry fighting vehicle. From the nearest Chechen village of Ishkhoyurt to Tukhchar is two kilometers. The border river is not a barrier for militants. Behind the nearest hill is another Chechen village of Galaity, where there were militants armed to the teeth.
Having taken up a perimeter defense and observing the village of Ishkhoyurt through binoculars, senior lieutenant Vasily Tashkin, a graduate of the Novosibirsk School of Internal Troops, recorded the movement of militants, the presence of fire weapons, and surveillance of his post. The commander's heart was uneasy. His task is to provide fire cover for two police checkpoints: at the entrance to Tukhchar and at the exit from it towards Galaity.
Tashkin knew that the police, armed only with small arms, were happy to see the appearance of his BMP-2 with soldiers on the armor. But he also understood the danger they, military personnel and police officers, were in. For some reason, the Novolaksky district was poorly covered by troops. They could only count on themselves, on the military partnership of the outposts of the internal troops and the Dagestan police. But thirteen military personnel on one infantry fighting vehicle - is this an outpost?
The BMP gun was aimed at a height beyond which the Chechen village of Galayty was located, but the militants early in the morning of September 5 did not strike where they were expected: they opened fire from the rear. The forces were unequal. With the very first shots, the infantry fighting vehicle effectively hit the militants who were trying to knock out the internal troops from the heights, but the radio frequencies were clogged with Chechens, and it was not possible to contact anyone. The policemen at the checkpoint also fought in the ring. Poorly equipped with firepower, reinforced only by thirty members of the internal troops, they were doomed to death.
Senior Lieutenant Tashkin, fighting at a height, did not expect help. The Dagestani police were running out of ammunition. The checkpoint at the entrance to Tukhchar and the village police department have already been seized. The onslaught of militants on the surrounded heights is becoming more and more furious. In the third hour of the battle, the infantry fighting vehicle was hit, caught fire and exploded. “The metal burned like a haystack. “We would never have thought that iron could burn with such a bright flame,” said eyewitnesses of that unequal battle.
The enemy rejoiced. And it was a distraction. Covered by fire from the defenders of the police checkpoint, Senior Lieutenant Tashkin and his guys, dragging the wounded on themselves, managed to escape from the heights. BMP mechanic Alexey Polagaev, completely burned, ran into the first house he came across...
Today we are in Tukhchar visiting a woman who ten years ago tried to save the life of the wounded BMP driver-mechanic Alexei Polagaev. This story struck us to the core. Several times we had to turn off the recorder: ten years later, Atikat Maksudovna Tabieva says, bursting into bitter tears:
“I remember this day like yesterday. September 5, 1999. When the militants entered the area, I firmly stated: “I won’t go anywhere, let those who came to our land with bad intentions leave.” We sat at home, waiting to see what would happen to us next.
I went out into the yard and saw a guy standing there, a wounded soldier, staggering, holding on to the gate. Covered in blood, he was very badly burned: there was no hair, the skin on his face was torn. Chest, shoulder, arm - everything was cut by shrapnel. I sent my eldest grandson Ramazan to the doctor and brought Alexei into the house. All his clothes were covered in blood. My daughter and I burned his already burnt military uniform, and so that the militants would not interrogate what they were burning, we collected the remains from the fire in a bag and threw it into the river.
A doctor, an Avar named Mutalim, lived next door to us, and he came, washed and bandaged Alexei’s wounds. The guy was moaning terribly, it was clear that the pain was unbearable, the wounds were deep. The doctor somehow removed the fragments and lubricated the wounds. We gave Alexey diphenhydramine to help him fall asleep and calm down at least a little. The wounds oozed blood, the sheets had to be changed frequently and hidden somewhere. Knowing that the militants could come in and search the house, I nevertheless, without hesitation, rushed to help the wounded Alexei.
After all, what came into our house was not just a bleeding wounded soldier, for me he was just a son, someone’s son. Somewhere his mother is waiting for him, and it doesn’t matter what nationality she is or what religion she is. She is also a mother, like me. The only thing I asked Allah for was that the Almighty would give me the opportunity to save him. The wounded guy asked for help, and all I thought was that I had to save him.”
Atikat leads us through the rooms to the most distant one. It was in this far room that she hid Alyosha from Siberia, locking the door. As expected, the militants soon arrived. There were sixteen of them. A local Chechen showed the militants the Atikat house. In addition to her daughter, her young sons were at home. The militants searched the basement, ransacked the cellar and barn.
Then one of the militants pointed the machine gun towards the children and shouted: “Show me where you’re hiding the Russians!” The bandit grabbed his nine-year-old grandson Ramazan by the collar and lifted him slightly: “Where did mother and grandmother hide the Russian soldier? Tell!" They pointed a gun at Ramazan. I shielded the children with my body and said: “Don’t touch the children.” The pain brought tears to the boy’s eyes, but he shook his head to all questions and stubbornly answered: “There is no one in the house.” The children knew that they could be shot at, but they did not hand over Alexei.
When the bandits pointed the machine gun at me and their command sounded: “Show me where the Russian is!” - I just shook my head. The bandits threatened to blow up the house. And I thought: right next to me, in the next room, there’s a Russian guy lying bleeding. His mother and relatives are waiting. Even if they kill us all, I won’t hand him over. Let's all die together. Realizing the futility of the threats, the bandits continued the search. They probably heard Alexei’s groans, started shooting at the locks, and broke down the door. The bandits shouted “Allahu Akbar!” with joy and jumped on the bed where the wounded Alexey lay.
Gurun's daughter ran to their room, she looked at Alexei, sobbing. But I didn’t go into the room, I couldn’t look into his eyes... When they took the guy out, I started asking, begging that they don’t take him away. One of the bandits pushed me away and said: “Grandma, don’t defend the Russians, if you do, you will die the same death.”
I tell them: this is a wounded and burnt soldier, the wounded are not divided into friends and foes. The wounded must always be helped! I am a mother, how can I not protect him, the wounded one, trouble will come to you, and they will protect you.
I clung to their hands, asked, begged to let Alexei go. A frightened nineteen-year-old boy looks at me and asks, “What will they do to me?” My heart was breaking. I told them that I don’t consider Russians to be enemies, and I never distinguish people based on their nationality. According to Sharia, it is a great sin to distinguish people based on their nationality. We are all human.
“Go away, grandma, and don’t teach us,” the bandits said, took Alexei, and left the yard. And I followed on his heels. It was very hard for me that I could not save him. I cried my eyes out and followed them. Even the Chechen who lived next door told the bandits: “Leave him alone, guys, he’s not a good guy!”
Several Russian soldiers remained in one of the nearby houses; they opened fire, and the militants entered into battle, and Alexei was thrown near the wall under the supervision of one of their own. I ran to Alyosha and hugged him. We both cried bitterly...
Again and again he stands before my eyes: he is about to barely rise to his feet, swaying, holding on to the wall and looking straight at the militants. Then he turns to me and asks: “What will they do to me, mother?”
Atikat Tabiyeva closes her eyes in pain: “The bandits said that he would be exchanged for their prisoners. How could you believe their words? Even if they shot me, I wouldn’t let Alyosha go. And I shouldn’t have let go.”
Atikat shows us the route along which Alexei was taken away. When she reaches the gate, she falls to the ground and sobs. Like then, 10 years ago. Just like that, she fell on her back at the gate and sobbed, and Alexei, surrounded by two dozen bandits, was taken away to be killed.
Atikat’s daughter, Gurun, says: “Not far from Tukhchar, at a checkpoint, I, working as a cook, fed the police. Although this was not part of my duties, I also took care of the Russian guys serving on the border with Chechnya. The company was headed by Senior Lieutenant Vasily Tashkin, there were 13 Russian guys in total. When the wounded Alexey entered our house, the first question was: “Gulya, do you live here?”
I didn’t have time to warn my sons that they couldn’t hand over Alexei, and I was amazed at how courageously my boys behaved. When the militants, pointing a machine gun at them, asked the boys: “Where are you hiding the Russian?”, the boys stubbornly answered: “We don’t know.”
Alexey, when he came to his senses, asked me to bring a mirror. There was no living space on his face, there were continuous traces of burns, but I began to console him: “You are as beautiful as before, the main thing is that you came out of trouble, did not burn, everything will be fine with you.” He looked in the mirror and said: “The most important thing is to be alive.”
When the bandits broke down the door and entered the room, sleepy Alexey at first did not understand what was happening. I told him that he was being taken to the hospital. When he woke up, he quietly told me: “Gulya, quietly take off my badge, if anything happens to me, take it to the military registration and enlistment office.”
The militants shouted: “Get up quickly!” He was unable to get up. The guy was courageous and said to me: “Gulya, so that I don’t fall in front of them, hold me and put a shirt on me.”
In the yard, my mother ran up to him, it was impossible to look at her, she was crying, asking the bandits to let him go. “We must cure him,” the Chechens said. “I’ll cure him here myself,” I asked.
“Whoever hides a Russian will face the same fate,” said the militant. And in his own language, one says to the other (I understand the Chechen language a little): “Are we going to kill him here?”...
Not far from Tukhchar, on the way to the Chechen village of Galayty, militants brutally dealt with six Russian children. Among them was BMP driver-mechanic Alexey Polagaev. Aunt Atikat never looks in the direction where the soldiers were executed. She always mentally asks for forgiveness from Alexei’s relatives, who live in distant Siberia. She is tormented that she could not save the wounded soldier. It was not people who came for Alexei, but animals. However, sometimes it is easier to save a human life even from animals.
Later, when one of the local accomplices of the militants appears in court, he admits that Atikat’s courageous behavior amazed even the militants themselves. This short, thin woman, risking her life and the lives of her loved ones, tried to save a wounded soldier during that cruel war.
“In cruel times, we must save the wounded, show mercy, instill goodness in the hearts and souls of Russians and Caucasians,” Aunt Atikat says simply and wisely and grieves that she could not save Soldier Alyosha. “I’m not a hero, I’m not a brave woman,” she laments. “Heroes are those who save lives.”
Let me object, Aunt Atikat! You have accomplished a feat, and we want to bow low to you, a mother whose heart does not divide children into their own and those of others.
...On the outskirts of the village, at the site of the execution of six Kalachevites, riot police from Sergiev Posad installed a good-quality metal cross. The stones stacked at its base symbolize Golgotha. Residents of the village of Tukhchar are doing everything possible to perpetuate the memory of Russian soldiers who died defending Dagestan land.
