home Tile

Armed Forces of Turkmenistan. armies of the world. Armed Forces of Turkmenistan Air Force and Air Defense Forces

> Thematic catalog

1.1840 year. Strengthening troops in the Caucasus. Survey of military operations from 1840 to 1846. The predicament of the regiments of the 5th Infantry Corps Formation of the Dagestan Infantry Regiment. Its combat readiness: uniforms and weapons, food and transportation means; people's health. The combat reputation of the battalions included in the regiment. Biographical sketch of Colonel Evdokimov 10
2.1846. Apartment location of the regiment. Occupation and movement of battalions in April. Alarm in Shura on May 26. Appointment of regimental headquarters. Speech of the Ishkarty detachment to work; location and occupation. The explosion of a powder cellar in Ukrainian Evgenievsky. Movement of 5 companies of the Dagestan regiment to help the Khasav-Yurt detachment. The battle of July 4 and the location at the kr. Sudden. Speech of the Dagestan detachment to the Mekhtulin Khanate and Akush. Kuteshinsky battle on October 15. Return of the detachment to Shura. New collections of the enemy. The location of the battalions by apartments 51
3.1847. The location of the battalions, the production of headquarters work and the settlement of the village. Erpeli Alarm 10 April. Military enterprises of this year; collection of the Dagestan detachment, movement and occupation from June 5 to 4. The assault on Gergebil and the occupation of troops until July 25. Taxation of the Salts; actions of the detachment until August 25; September 9 attack; assault on Saltov. The activities of the garrison in Ishkarty. Gathering a detachment in Shura and moving to Tsudahara. Award 1 and 2 banner battalions 71
4.1848. Hostile actions of mountaineers. Movement of battalions in April. Collection of the Dagestan detachment. Siege and capture of Gergebil; construction of the Aimyakinsk fortification. Combat activity of the 1st and 5th battalions. Shamil's invasion of the Samur district and the movement of the Dagestan detachment to the rescue of the Ukrainian. Oh you. Rearmament of the regiment in 1849. The location of the battalions. Attack of Hadji Murad on Shura. Participation of the 4th battalion in the siege of the village of Chokh. Combat activity of other battalions; alarms and raids of the highlanders 94
5.1850 year. The new commander of the regiment. Combat activity of the 3rd battalion on the Kumyk plane. Gathering of the Dagestan detachment at Turchidag; movement to S. Archi; disbandment of the troops. Occupation and military operations of other battalions of the regiment. Visiting Dagestan by the Heir Tsesarevich. Highlanders raid on the night of October 28. 1851. Alarm on March 6 in Aymyaki. Khji Murad's breakthrough into Shamkhal's possessions. Gathering of the Dagestan detachment on Turchidag. Hadji Murad's breakthrough to Tabasaran; actions of our troops; participation of the 1st and 3rd battalions of the Dagestan regiment in the defeat of his party. Combat activities of other battalions; skirmishes with the enemy 119
6.1852. Combat activity of 1 battalion in Chechnya. The murder of Lieutenant Colonel Soimonov. Gathering of the Dagestan detachment at the Kuteshinsky heights. Raid to the Kudukh farms; case of 27 July; hunting teams. Combat activity of the Ishkarty garrison. Case October 24th. Raids to the Gerebil descent and Burtunai. 1853 Highlanders enterprises in the first half of the year; breakthroughs through Sulak in the vicinity of Chir-yurt; raids and alarms at other points. Collection of the Dagestan detachment; the location of the battalions in the Kazikumukh Khanate. Classes and military operations of the regiment in the second half of the year. general characteristics battalion camps 153
7.1854. The new commander of the regiment. Unrest in Kaitag and dealings with the enemy in Mehtul's possession. The combat activities of the units of the regiment. Movement of the 2nd battalion to the left wing of the Caucasian line. 1855 Our position in the Eastern Caucasus. Skirmishes with the enemy. Riots in Kaitag. Collection of the Dagestan detachment for the summer expedition; foray into Salatavia. Case of 17 September and alarm of 26 October. Unrest in Tabasaran. Transformations in the troops of the Caucasian army. 1856 Combat activity of the 1st Battalion of the Dagestan Regiment on the left wing. The location of the units of the regiment at the beginning of the year. Raid in Salatavia. Collection of Dagestan and other units. Combat activity of the Ishkarty garrison in the second half of the year. Appointment of a new commander-in-chief, Prince Baryatinsky. Transformations in the military administration of the Caucasian krya 187
8.1857 year. The beginning of offensive hostilities in the Eastern Caucasus. Formation of rifle companies and battalions. The location and combat activities of the units of the Dagestan regiment at the beginning of this year. The movement of the Dagestan detachment to Salagavia. Foundation of the new headquarters of the Dagestan Infantry Regiment near Burtunai. Case August 1st. The assault on the new Burtunai and the capture of the redoubt on the road to Dylym; case November 6th. The dissolution of the squad. Skirmishes with the enemy Ishkarty garrison. Facilities of the new regimental headquarters. 1858 State of Affairs in the Eastern Caucasus. Relocation of regimental headquarters. The collection of the detachment and the combat activities of the battalions of the Dagestan regiment in Salatavia. Skirmishes with the enemy; cases on 24 and 26 August. Visit to Salatavia by the Grand Dukes Nikolai and Mikhail Nikolaevich. The new commander of the regiment. The results of our military operations in 1858 in the Eastern Caucasus 248
9.1859 year. Military operations of the troops of the left wing of the Caucasian line in Chechnya. Collection and movement of the Dagestan detachment to Ichkeria. Participation of 1 and 4 battalions in cases with the enemy on March 5 and 14. Seizure by the troops of the left wing of the residence of Shamil Vedei. Extermination of the villages along Aksay by the Dagestan detachment dissolution of it. Movement of the 2nd and 3rd battalions to Aimaki. Formation of the consolidated battalion of the Dagestan regiment. The offensive of the Dagestan detachment to Michikal and the occupation of the village. Arugani. The movement of the avant-garde to the Sagrytlinskaya crossing. Combat activity of the consolidated and 2 battalions from July 15 to 18 during the crossing through the Andiyskoye-Koysu. Occupation Accident. Following the column of General Rakusa to Tilitl. Concentration of troops to Gunib-dag; blockade and assault on Gunib. Conquest of the Eastern Caucasus. The disbandment of the troops. New distribution of borders in the region. Awards to the Dagestan Infantry Regiment 299
10.1860 and 1861. Military operations against the western highlanders. Combat activity of the consolidated rifle battalion of the Dagestan regiment as part of the Shansug detachment in 1860. Assault on the village of Kabanits; occupation of the line pp. Ilya, Shebsha and Athens. Reconnaissance, felling clearings, laying roads and extermination of auls. The return of the consolidated infantry battalion to Burtunai. Unrest in Ichkeria. Combat activity of the battalions of the Dagestan regiment as part of the main Ichkerin detachment. Movement to the village of Sayasan; occupation of the village of Engeli; felling glades and searches; the return of the battalions to Burtulai. The new commander of the regiment. Road works. Unrest in Unkratl and the action of the detachment of Mr.-m. Lazarev. Parking in Ukraine Preobrazhensky and its environs. The search for rifle companies of the Dagestan regiment. Conclusion 335

Ignatovich D. Yu.

Combat Chronicle of the 82nd Infantry Regiment of His Imperial Majesty Grand Duke Nikolai Mikhailovich of Dagestan during the Caucasian War (1845-1861)

Edited by: Lieutenant General Chernyavsky

Original name: Combat Chronicle of the 82nd Dagestan Infantry Regiment of His Imperial Majesty Grand Duke Nikolai Mikhailovich during the Caucasian War (1845-1861)

Publisher: Type. Kants. Glavnok. civil part in the Caucasus

Place of publication: Tiflis

Publication year: 1897

Number of pages: 366 p.

The book contains detailed coverage of the activities and combat operations of the 82nd Dagestan Infantry Regiment during the campaigns and campaigns of the Caucasian War (1817-1864) in the period from 1845 to 1861. The Dagestan Infantry Regiment was created in December 1845 from the greatly depleted parts of the Volyn, Minsk and Modlin infantry regiments, as well as the personnel of the 11-line Caucasian battalion. Until 1847, a fortified camp for the regiment was built near the village of Temir-Khan Shur (“Lake of Tamerlane”). Parts of the regiment from 1846 to 1859 regularly participated in skirmishes and battles with mountain formations, his battalions were on alert on the Caucasian line. In August 1859, the 2nd battalion and rifle companies of the regiment distinguished themselves in the capture of the village of Gunib.

This publication was prepared as part of the collection, processing of materials and generalization of the experience of military operations in the Caucasian theater of operations, which was entrusted in 1886 to the military history department of the headquarters of the Caucasian Military District. It was headed by Lieutenant General I. S. Chernyavsky. After his death, work on parts of the publication that were out of print in Tiflis was headed by the head of the military history department of the district, Colonel V. I. Tomkeev.

The combat path of the 22nd Motorized Rifle Division named after Atamurat Niyazov (Turkmenistan). The division was formed on August 11, 1941 on the territory of the Ulyanovsk region -344th Rifle Roslavl Red Banner Division -58th Rifle Division 36th Army Corps, TurkVO, Kyzyl-Arvat Turkmen SSR (from 03/04/1955) -22nd motorized rifle division named after Atamurat Niyazov (Turkmenistan) The division was formed in the Baryshsky and Kuzovatovsky districts of the now Ulyanovsk region from August to October 1941 according to GKO Decree No. 459 of 08/11/1941 In the army during the Second World War from 12/02/1941 to 05/09/1945. In November 1941, under the Directive of the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command to the commander of the 26th Reserve Army, No. op / 2999 dated November 25, 1941, she was loaded into trains in Cheboksary and transferred to Noginsk, and then to Lyubertsy, where she was equipped and received weapons. From 01/15/1942 to 01/26/1942 she relocated to the Izvekovo-Voronino area, and completed the concentration by 01/26/1942. It entered into offensive battles from 01/27/1942, advancing from the Davydov, Zhivulki area in the direction of Mochalovo, Dolina, bypassing Yukhnov from the south, and went to Warsaw highway. During the fighting, the 1156th Infantry Regiment was surrounded in the Chernevo-Vyshnee region, while losing the missing (in other words, mostly captured) only from the command staff and only in one day - 02/06/1942 - 35 people. By 02/15/1942, the division was fighting to capture Chernevo, advancing in the direction of Bolshoe Sredne, Maltsevo. By February 22, 1942, she was able to capture the southwestern outskirts of Yukhnov and, until March 20, 1942, fought for the capture of Lyudkovo, Vygor, Aleksandrovka, and then, until April 20, 1942, unsuccessfully tried to cut the Warsaw highway. Then, for almost a year, he has been conducting bloody battles on the Warsaw highway in the Shatino Boloto district in the Mosalsky district, remaining approximately at the same lines. 03/08/1943 went on the offensive, by the end of 03/11/1943, separate parts of the division reached the Astapovo-Grachevka-Grishino line, and by the morning of 03/12/1943 they cleared the villages of Dolgoye and Korovkino from the enemy, thereby completing the liberation of the area. Since August 1943, he has been taking part in the Smolensk offensive operation, advancing south of Spas-Demensk. 09/25/1943 distinguished itself during the liberation of Roslavl, 09/28/1943, acting together with the 196th tank brigade, the division liberates Mstislavl, by October 1943 it reached the line of the Pronya River south of Dribin, where it was stopped. During the end of 1943 and until the spring of 1944, he fought unsuccessfully in the Orsha direction. In the Belarusian operation, it obviously advances, in the second echelon, until mid-July 1944, then takes part in the Kaunas operation, 07/17/1944 crosses the Neman near the village of Balberishkis (near Prienai), developing the offensive 08/02/1944 participates in the liberation of Vilkavishkis, after which reached the border of East Prussia, 08/18-19/1944 advances in the direction of Podziszki-Slipina, having the 49th Infantry Division on the right and during the end of August - the beginning of September 1944 repels fierce counterattacks of the enemy from the Kybartai region, then, from 09/09/1944 assigned to the reserve and regrouped to the north. From 10/04/1944, she advances during the Memel operation in the direction of Kursenai, breaks through the defenses, on the very first day she saddled the Siauliai-Kursenai highway with advanced units, continues the offensive, 10/09/1944 crossed the Minija River, 10/11/1944 fights near the village of Kulveli (19 kilometers southwest of Zhagare), 10/12/1944 near the village of Gepaytsy, from 10/13/1944 goes on the defensive on the outskirts of Memel. She fought near Memel until it was captured on January 26, 1945, after which she began to develop an offensive in the direction of the Courland Peninsula and fought with the enemy's Courland group until May 1945

(fragment from the book "Afghanistan. Notes of the head of intelligence 201 MSD"
Here, finally, is the destination - the city of Kyzyl-Arvat (red girl - in Turkmen) of the Turkmen SSR. We arrived there, graduates of the academy armored forces them. Malinovsky R.Ya 1979, in early September. We are me and my classmate Yuri Korsakov, who had the "happiness" to serve in the Central Karakum.
I must say that we were not in a particularly cheerful mood, as once again we were driving to a godforsaken corner. Most of all, the feeling of injustice was depressing: after all, we also entered the academy from distant garrisons: I am from Transbaikalia, Yura - the Far East. However, according to the distribution at the time of graduation, it turned out as always: "shaggy" - who is from Germany to Belarus, who is from Ukraine to Czechoslovakia, and our brother - from Transbaikalia and the Far East to Turkestan, and from Turkestan - to Transbaikalia or the Far East.
However, nothing can be done, we were brought up in the spirit of following the order and there was not even a thought about dismissal from the army, as it is done now: a little dissatisfied - clap report on the table!
We consoled ourselves with the fact that, they say, we are not going there for the rest of our lives. However, they really realized that apparently, just for the rest of their lives. After all, I "jumped" out of Transbaikalia only because I entered the Academy of the Armored Forces, and now it is unlikely that in time I will be able to enter the Academy of the General Staff. Only a few out of tens of thousands of officers got there. And then there was no other way for us to escape from Turkestan.
I sent my family to my wife's parents in Belarus, with the condition that as soon as I get settled, I will immediately call them. My friend was traveling with the whole family, since he had nowhere to send them: he and his wife were from Sakhalin Island.
For several days on the Moscow-Ashgabat train, we first saw the steppes, then the sands. There are almost only Turkmens in the car, each with their own teapots and bowls. The branded train has good ventilation and does not feel much heat. We arrived in Ashgabat, spent the night at the station, and in the morning we transferred to the local Ashgabat-Krasnovodsk train and were there by lunchtime.
The first impression of the city, of course, was painful. Dust, heat, adobe duvals (fences), narrow streets, stunted vegetation, donkeys and camels everywhere. True, when we drove up to the military camp in the on-duty "Ural" we felt a little better at heart. Modern 5-storey houses, lots of greenery, irrigation system, fountains, pools, in short - civilization.
The new four-story building of the division headquarters, where I was to serve, pleased the eye with its well-groomed. Everywhere felt the master's hand and solidity.
The division commander Robul Leonty Alekseevich, a young colonel, a Moldavian by nationality, received us both at once in the office. He sat down at the table and talked to us in detail. He graduated from our academy 7-8 years ago and was interested in academic news.
He introduced himself to the deputy division commander, Lieutenant Colonel Valery Ivanovich Mironov, and also had a short conversation.
Then I went to introduce myself to my immediate superiors: the chief of staff of the division, Lieutenant Colonel Zhurbenko Vladimir Mikhailovich, and the head of the operational department of the headquarters, Lieutenant Colonel Cherkashin Veniamin Aleksandrovich. They brought me up to date, Cherkashin showed me my office, introduced me to the officers-operators.
There were two of them: Major Viktor Lyubetsky and Captain Nikolai Artyukhin. I must say that we did not serve in this composition for long, only a year, but we worked together and became friends, as if we knew each other long years. My boss also recently arrived from Samarkand, where he was the head of the operational department of the headquarters of the cadre division (that is, a thoroughly reduced division). The officers had served here for 5-6 years and were experienced Turkestanis.
I want to tell you more about the chief of staff of the division - Lieutenant Colonel Zhurbenko Vladimir Mikhailovich.
He was the oldest Turkestani and a veteran of our 58th division, he served in the Karakum desert for more than 10 years after graduating from the Military Academy. M.V. Frunze.
First, the commander of the battalion in the 162nd infantry regiment, then the deputy head of the operational department of the division headquarters, then the head of this department, the commander of the 101st infantry regiment in the village of Iolotan, 5th Guards. msd, and since 1978 - the chief of staff again of the 58th division.
In 1980 he entered the VA GS them. Voroshilov, after graduation he was the head of the operational department in the Southern Group of Forces (Hungary), then the head of the operational department of the Headquarters of the South-Western Direction in Chisinau. After its disbandment, he became deputy chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, Colonel General.
In stock since 1995. He died in 2006 at the age of 66 and was buried in Moscow.
Briefly tell about the division in which I was to serve.
58 Roslavl motorized rifle division was one of the oldest formations of the KturkVO. Formed at the end of 1941 near Kuibyshev (Barysh station) from units of the border troops and the NKVD, it went through the entire war and ended it in Vienna. Immediately after the war, she was relocated to Ashgabat.
In 1949, after a terrible earthquake in the city, when more than 300 people died in the division, it was relocated to the city of Kizil-Arvat, where it remained until its disbandment in 1992.
Parts of the division were stretched for 250 km. along the only one in the Karakum railway and stood in 3 garrisons: Kizil-Arvat - division headquarters, 162 infantry regiments, artillery and anti-aircraft artillery regiments, parts of a divisional set; Kazandzhik - 231 tp, 160 small and medium enterprises; Nebit-Dag - 161 ms.
The 58th Motor Rifle Division was once a mountain rifle division and has retained some of its elements to this day: in motorized rifle regiments, instead of tank battalions, there were separate tank companies, in addition to regimental artillery divisions, there were also batteries of 76-mm mountain guns, in battalions - batteries of 82-mm portable mortars .
Only 162 SMEs on the BMP-1 and 231 tp on the T-55 tanks were deployed to almost full staff, the rest of the units were of a reduced composition. Equipment and weapons, except for 162 small and medium enterprises, are the most antediluvian. So, 161 SMEs were generally armed with armored personnel carriers BTR-40, produced in the 50s, and in the rocket-mortar division of the division were armed with 160-mm mortars of the same age.
The purpose of the division is to cover the border with Iran in the Trans-Caspian sector - almost 400 kilometers. There were no other formations of the Ground Forces in the Central Karakum.
Problems with everyday life were resolved almost instantly. Literally a week later I received a good three-room apartment on the first floor (which is especially valuable in the conditions of Turkestan). This is the advantage of Godforsaken garrisons.
Well, every cloud has a silver lining, I gave a telegram to my wife to leave with the children, and started redecorating. Or rather, not me, but soldiers from the commandant's company.
I, with the division chief of staff, went to the Karakum for the first time to reconnoitre regimental exercises. True, I didn’t see anything particularly new there, because in 1975 I was on a business trip in the Gobi Desert (Mongolia) for almost 3 months.
Then there was the first experiment in the Soviet Army to create double-based divisions, following the example of the Americans in Europe.
Its meaning was that all armored vehicles of the division were stored in the Gobi Desert, 200 km away. from the Mongolian-Chinese border. The personnel of our 92nd Motor Rifle Division, stationed near Irkutsk, should be transferred there by aircraft directly to the field airfield, located 700-800 meters from the storage base itself. Wheeled vehicles arrived on their own.
I will not describe these 3 months in the desert during the hottest period (June-August). But we suffered there not so much from the heat as from infectious diseases. Almost half of the regiment ended up in the sanitary zone: infection tents deployed 500 meters from the camp. And who will put the tanks in storage? After all extra people was not: only drivers and officers.
Everyone, regardless of rank and position, worked on equipment from early morning until late at night, went dirty and angry, but the volume necessary work completed on time.
The village of Mandal-Gobi, where our base was built, is the center of an aimag (district), small in two streets, in the center there are several one-story brick buildings: administration, post office, shop, school. The rest is yurts. So, I, in fact, never saw Mongolia.
In the end, it turned out that the idea of double basing did not justify itself. Our division was a reduced staff and the officers, tank and infantry fighting vehicle drivers who arrived in Mongolia had to sit there alone, waiting for the assigned staff, which could begin to arrive no earlier than 3 days later.
And China - here it is nearby and what a mess happened, their armed forces would not wait for the arrival of our personnel and bringing the division into a combat-ready state.
This was finally understood even in the General Staff of the USSR. In the spring of 1979, on the territory of the USSR, our division was staffed to the full state and introduced to Mongolia, but not in Mandal-Gobi, where we put our equipment 4 years ago, but 230 km to the north on railway station Choir.
Still, they did not dare to put a full division of more than 12 thousand people in the bare desert and carry every nail and every log there for 230 km.
I avoided participation in this, since from 1976 to 1979 I studied at the Academy of the Armored Forces in Moscow, but as you can see, in the future, I also did not leave the desert.
What would I like to note by comparing these two huge deserts and getting acquainted with their natural phenomena?
The Karakum desert differed from the Gobi, primarily in its climate.
The Gobi is a northern desert and the climate in it is quite severe, the summers are hot, but the nights are cold. In winter, the temperature there generally reaches 40 degrees below zero with strong winds. There is practically no snow.
The Karakum is a southern desert with a very hot climate in summer and mild winters. In summer, the temperature reaches 45 degrees of heat, soil temperature up to 70 degrees. Frequent sandstorms. In winter it rains, sometimes snow, the temperature is from minus 3-5 to plus 8-10. The most pleasant time of the year.
Outwardly, the Gobi desert looks more like a steppe, the Karakum desert - dune sands, takyrs and mirages associated with them.
Takyrs are flat, elliptical areas with hard, devoid of vegetation surfaces, sometimes located in isolation, sometimes in whole groups. The clay cover of the takyrs is so hard that when moving along it, a far-reaching knock is heard.
The clayey solonetzic surface of the takyr is impervious to water, therefore, when small rain lakes and puddles form after spring and rare autumn rains, they usually remain as water supply sources for a long time. At the same time, it should be remembered that it is worth driving through it by car, as in a few hours the water disappears from such a pit. This is due to the fact that the softened layer of clay is pressed through, opening the way for water to sand. Takyrs are usually surrounded on all sides by sands. Many paths converge on them, crossing the desert in different directions.
Mirages are a product of takyrs. You go out to the dune, and in front of you is a huge lake with a slight haze over the surface of the water. You drive up - there is no water, it's takyr. Its surface reflects in the sun, creating the illusion of water. Despite the apparent monotony and some kind of silence, the desert also has its own beauty and originality, especially in the morning.
The scourge of both deserts is sandstorms. Of course, acting on equipment, especially infantry fighting vehicles, there is nothing to worry about. It is necessary to stop the convoy, bring the cars close to each other, warn people not to leave the cars, and wait for the end of the storm.
It makes no sense to move, because the visibility is 10-20 meters and it is impossible to keep the direction. A sandstorm is always accompanied by a magnetic storm, when the compass needle spins like crazy and it becomes useless.
Foot units have a much harder time. Again, you need to bring people together. It is advisable to lie down on the ground, wrap your head with anything and wait for the end of the storm, the duration of which is usually 5-6 hours. Only by acting in this way, you can wait it out and not lose people.
However, let's go back to 1979. Having received a referral to Turkmenistan, I thought more about everyday issues, and not about the military-political situation that was developing in this region. And she became more tense day by day.
Back in the spring of 1978, we were students of the 2nd year of the Military Academy of the Armored Forces. Malinovsky, heard on radio and television about the Saur (April) revolution in Afghanistan. We heard that progressive forces came to power, led by famous writer and public figure Muhammad Taraki and that the USSR supported this revolution and the new government.
Several dozen senior officers of the Afghan army with the rank of major lieutenant colonel studied at our academy, we occasionally met with them: all swarthy, hook-nosed, taciturn. Most of them left after the revolution for their homeland, others came instead: young senior lieutenants and captains.
There was nothing surprising in this, revolutionaries from all over the world studied at the academy: Angola, Ethiopia, Somalia, Syria, Iraq, Vietnam, Yemen - you can’t list everyone. Now the revolutionary Afghans have arrived.
Looking ahead, I will say that in Afghanistan after 6 years I met one of them, it was Lieutenant Colonel Malkhan, deputy commander of the 20th Infantry Division in Baghlan. Communicating with him, I learned that he, then a captain, entered in 1978, and in 1981 graduated from the BTV Academy.
Well, they arrived, so they arrived. Like all Soviet people, we unanimously supported the party's foreign policy and did not think that we would soon expect a long and unpromising war in Afghanistan.
Therefore, I arrived in Turkmenistan with a calm soul, not thinking that in three months I would have to go to war.
By the beginning of autumn 1979, the military-political situation in the world around Afghanistan began to rapidly heat up. The coup made by Amin and the assassination of President Taraki immediately made this country a "hot spot", foreign radio reported on the military operations of government troops against the opposition. On our radio, this was reported casually, as it were, by the way.
However, soon the terrible events in Afghanistan came to us, and my whole life after that went according to a completely different scenario. Time passes, memory of some events is erased, details are forgotten. What happened in December 1979 in Afghanistan became history, an occasion for meetings, a subject for memories, disputes, and experiences. By the will of fate, I happened to become a witness and participant in those events. They are deeply embedded in my memory.
A new phase of my life began very routinely. On December 15, at 15.00, the operational duty officer at the headquarters of the 58th Motor Rifle Division of the TurkVO, where I served as deputy chief of the operational department, and currently served as the chief, the Shnur warning system went off, and increased combat readiness was declared.
Arriving on alarm, I went to the chief of staff of the division, Lieutenant Colonel Zhurbenko, to clarify the task. He tells me, “I don’t understand anything myself, the signal is combat. I’ll go call Tashkent, maybe something will clear up.”
A few hours later there is a new signal - "Military danger". Wow! This is already serious, since it is never used for educational purposes.
They call from the military registration and enlistment offices, they report that mobilization has been announced, they specify where to bring "partisans" - assigned to the reserve military units. By nightfall, buses with accomplices began to arrive: we began distributing them, equipping them, issuing weapons and everything else. Within 3 days, we accepted almost 8,500 people into the division and brought the total number of personnel to 12,000 people.
At the same time, they received a cipher telegram from the commander of the TurkVO with an order: after mobilization, the divisions should concentrate in the area 90 km north of Kushk in readiness for entry into Afghanistan.
On December 18, the division commander with part of the headquarters and with the first echelon of units left for the concentration area. Zhurbenko and I supervised the formation and departure of the rest of the division.
What happened these days - it is impossible to convey in words. Thousands of people and cars were moving in one direction - to the east. After all, not only the KTurkVO formations were mobilized, but also the border guards, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and others. A total of more than 60,000 acolytes, "partisans" - as they were called, were called up to the KTurkVO. All the peasants were called up cleanly, some enterprises stopped altogether. Darkness, probably like in 1941.
With the "partisans" - their own difficulties. Turkmenistan is not Ukraine: the population density is low, the main contingent is Turkmen, there are no large enterprises, and there are no necessary specialists either. After all, representatives of the Turkmen people served in the army mainly in construction battalions, and whoever happened to serve in the combat troops, then in the framed units of the SaVO, TurkVO, where combat training was clearly not up to par.
The conditions for mobilization were also extremely unfavorable. The second half of December, it is winter outside, the frost is -3-5 degrees, this is of course not Siberia, but not Africa either.
The “partisans”, however, having received uniforms and weapons in the areas of mobilization, which were located in the foothills of the Kopet-Dag ridge, found themselves in the cold in an open field. There are tents, potbelly stoves too, but there is very little fuel for them.
The coal available in peacetime mobilization reserves was used up literally in the first day. But the bare steppe is all around and there is no forest at all. Boxes of ammunition and weapons, stakes from tents, tables and stools, and in general everything that could burn, flew into the stoves.
Transport arriving from the national economy was clearly unsuitable for military purposes. These were ZIL-130 and GAZ-53 vehicles with metal bodies, low cross-country ability, unsuitable for transporting people.
Under these conditions, the division commander decided to withdraw the mobilized units from the districts to the living quarters of the garrisons, and where there were none, to the premises of enterprises and departments. I repeat, our division in peacetime numbered about 4,500 people, and it was necessary to arrange more than 8,000 for housing.
All this, of course, did not fit into any framework of the micro-deployment plans, but it was also impossible to keep thousands of people in the cold.
Three days after the start of mobilization, they began to form columns of ready-made units and send them to the concentration area 960 km away. from Kizyl-Arvat, right in the desert, between the city of Kushka and Tahta-Bazar, 90 km. from the state border with Afghanistan.
There are problems here too. Vehicles from the national economy did not have awnings, but how to transport people in open vehicles for almost a thousand kilometers in frost? True, the quick-witted "partisans", people with worldly experience, managed to find a way out here too. They began to set up camp tents right in the bodies and so got out of the situation.
Of course, the view of the columns with such structures in the bodies looked more like a gypsy camp or a traveling circus, but there was no time for beauty. These columns stretched along the entire route, about 1300 km long. from the city of Nebit-Dag through Kazandzhik, Kizyl-Arvat, Ashgabat, Mary and almost to Kushka. And this is only one of our 58 motor rifle divisions!
But the 5th Guards was also mobilized. MSD (Kushka, Iolotan, Tahta-Bazar), parts of the Air Force and Air Defense of the TurkVO and many others.
On December 25, we learned that at the request of the government of Afghanistan, 108 motor rifle divisions were introduced into the territory of their country from Termez.
The Afghan war began, which lasted 3340 days or 9 years, 1 month, 20 days. Who would have guessed that then!
Literally a few days before, the deputy commander of our division, Colonel Mironov V.I. was appointed commander of the 108th division in Termez instead of General Kuzmin E.S., who was appointed Deputy Chief Military Adviser in Afghanistan. He took over the division already in Afghanistan.
Looking ahead, I will say that Colonel (and soon Major General) Mironov successfully commanded her there, was awarded the Orders of Lenin and the Red Banner. Then he held high positions in the Soviet Army and Armed Forces Russian Federation: Army Commander, Commander of the Baltic District, North-Western Group of Forces, Deputy Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation. Colonel General. He died in 2006 at the age of 63.
Then I did not know this, but already on December 16, 1980, the commander of the KTurkVO troops appointed by his order the command of the Limited Contingent of Soviet Forces in Afghanistan: the commander - his first deputy lieutenant general Yu. V. Tukharinov, the chief of staff - the deputy chief of staff of the district, General Zemtsov - Lobanova L.N., head of intelligence - head of intelligence of the district, General Korchagin A.A. and further all relevant district headquarters officials.
In this capacity, they acted until September 1980, when the 40A department and headquarters were formed, the first commander of which was General Tkach B.I, and the head of intelligence was the deputy head of intelligence of the TurkVO, Colonel V.V. Unfortunately, both of them have already died and are buried in Kyiv.
On the morning of December 25, I left Kizil-Arvat with the last column of our division. On the 27th, in the middle of the day, we arrived at the assembly area, and on the morning of the 28th, I heard on Radio Liberty that on the evening of the 27th there was an assault on the palace in Kabul, Amin was killed, and the new president, Babrak Karmal (it is not clear how he became president ?) addressing the population by radio, announced the creation of a new government.
To be frank, this post left me bewildered. We all believed that the entry of Soviet troops into Afghanistan was carried out just to protect Amin and his government, and then such a turn ...
On the same day, or rather on the night of the 29th, the entry into Afghanistan of the 5th Guards began. MRD stationed in Kushka. We, standing behind her "in the back of the head", were also waiting in the wings.
We received a combat order from the commander of the TurkVO to enter Afghanistan. The 58th Motor Rifle Division was ordered to concentrate in the area east of Kandahar and cover the border with Pakistan. I personally held this order in my hands and read it, since there was no incoming or outgoing operational document that was not reported to me. I repeat that at that time I was acting head of the operational section of the division headquarters.
Late in the evening, Zhurbenko, the chief of staff of the division, calls me and sets the task: together with him, the chiefs of intelligence, communications, engineering service of the division, leave with a column of 5 guards. MRD to Afghanistan and carry out reconnaissance of the Kushka-Herat route, since our division will follow it to Kandahar in a day or two.
Escort - reconnaissance platoon 162 MSP. I went to the 162nd SME to the commander of the regiment, Lieutenant Colonel A. Chernikov, explained the task to him, and agreed on cooperation. It took half the night.
The rest of the night was spent preparing the departure, because we were not just going out for reconnaissance, we were going to the combat zone.
Early in the morning of the 29th they crossed the border and, in the general stream of troops, moved towards Herat. The weather was the worst. Fog, drizzle, freezing at night. The border guards were only Soviet, and there were no checks on their part.
There were no Afghan border guards to be seen at all. The barrier on their side was raised and wired into position. For some reason I remember it well. Later, I realized that this barrier was a symbol of the surrender of Afghanistan to the power of the Soviet Army and, in general, to the USSR.
We climbed to the passes in front of Herat - there is snow and ice. The height of the passes above sea level is not so great - 1300 -1400 meters, but the inability to drive columns in the mountains and the lack of thought in ensuring the march made it problematic to quickly overcome them. In addition, most of the cars were from the national economy - GAZ-53 and ZIL-130 trucks with low sides, not suitable for transporting people, they skidded on the slopes, creating traffic jams, and slid down uncontrollable.
It was necessary to install infantry fighting vehicles or caterpillar tractors on the most difficult ascents and descents, which, having hooked the car with a cable, pulled it to the pass, where it was hooked by another tractor and on tight rope dropped down. Long, but reliable. You can't think of anything else here.
The first impression about the Afghans is that they are an unfortunate, downtrodden people. In galoshes on bare feet, in clothes that I only saw in historical films. They paid no attention to the falling snow. They shouted something, waved dimly gleaming lanterns and just their hands. In the villages and even in many cities there was no electric lighting.
I remember that I was very surprised by the lack of heating in the houses. At best, a potbelly stove with a water tank built into it, in which tea was prepared. But that's for rich people. And in most houses - a small depression in the floor, where a bundle of straw burned, dry dung. In general, it is not clear why: either for heating, or for lighting the room. In a word - poverty, primitiveness, savagery.
Among the Afghans we met, I did not notice anyone with weapons. They stood along the road, some, especially children, grabbed everything that was thrown to them from cars: bread, canned food, overcoats, pea coats, boots. Others stood at a distance and silently, looked at the passing vehicles. However, I did not notice any hostile feelings towards us in their behavior. According to the Afghan calendar, 1356 ended (the new one - 1357 began on March 1).
By the way, some authors, speaking about this period, refer to the article by General Shatalin Yu.V. - Commander of the 5th Guards. MSD who recalls that the Afghan population greeted the Soviet troops with flowers. This is not true.
Something I do not remember that on December 28, flowers grew in the north of Afghanistan. I repeat - it was nasty cold weather with snow and rain, and the Afghans had no time for flowers.
It is clear that the invasion of the country by a foreign army is not a reason for the manifestation of stormy joy among the locals. In 1968, on TV, I saw chronicles of the same entry of Soviet troops into Czechoslovakia. They showed footage of the reaction of its citizens and their ambiguous behavior: from neutral to hostile, but by no means joyful.
The Afghans, at first glance, reacted to this event somehow indifferently. Either the traditional oriental equanimity, or the attitude they have brought up for decades towards the USSR as a friend, played a role.
Soviet people, by their nature and upbringing, have always been compassionate and not indifferent to someone else's misfortune. There could not even be a thought about some kind of resistance on the part of the Afghans. If we had losses, it was only from car accidents. On the way, I myself saw several of our cars that fell into the gorges.
Helicopters MI-6 and MI-8 constantly cruised in the air, transporting paratroopers from the territory of the USSR deep into the country. Occasionally combat MI-24s also appeared, patrolling away from the route. There was no firing or explosion of bombs, apparently everything was calm. In some places, small units of the Afghan army met, they were with weapons and occupied positions near the road and in the depths of the villages.
Having passed all three passes in a day: Rabati-Mirza, Bandaboguchar, Khushrabat, we stopped in front of Herat for the night. Zhurbenko reported the situation to the divisional commander and he ordered to return. There was no point in going further, since the desert began beyond Herat and there were no problems making a march through it.
It was unusual to look at Herat at night: in front of us was a large (by Afghan standards, of course) city, and the city lights were not visible. Solid black haze. It was my first night on Afghan soil. Then I could not even imagine that in three years I would have almost 650 such nights. Much later I heard the song "Cuckoo", the words of which stuck in my memory for the rest of my life:
".... I yearn for my native country, for its sunrises and sunsets. On the Afghan scorched earth, Russian soldiers sleep anxiously.
They spend energy without sparing. They are accustomed to grief, pain, fatigue. They don’t accumulate their strength in reserve, so tell me - how much do they have left?
After spending the night in combat vehicles, we started our way back in the morning. It was not easy to return to Kushka. An endless stream of cars was coming towards us, we had to stop, let entire columns pass.
Somewhere in the evening of December 30, they returned to the division. There a pleasant surprise awaited me. My immediate supervisor, Lieutenant Colonel V.S. Cherkashin, arrived from Moscow, he was recalled from advanced training courses at the Academy. Frunze M.V. Life became easier, a boss appeared. I've had so much fun these months. Wow, three months after graduating from the academy - and to the war!
Days passed, and no orders were received to send our division into Afghanistan. The Commander-in-Chief of the Ground Forces, General Pavlovsky, flew in by helicopter, other ranks flew in, but no one could tell us for sure: they would bring us in or not? For the first 3-4 days, the operational group of the General Staff was in the division, but then it was sent to Afghanistan, apparently it was not up to us.
Weekdays have begun. And now, for 1.5 months, our division has been standing in the sands between Kushka and Tahta-Bazar. The first tension subsided, this meaningless nomadic life was fed up with everyone.
The "partisans" had nowhere to escape: 15 km to the Takhta-Bazar station, 90 km to Kushka, there were only sands around. Apparently, that's why they put us here, because if there was an operational need for us, we would be standing at Kushka near the border, but here, in the sands, we could be kept for at least another six months.
During this time, we did not sit with our hands folded: we conducted several command and staff exercises on the maps, where we worked out the issues of command and control when the division entered the territory of Afghanistan. The divisions carried out live firing, coordination of companies and battalions - our division gradually became a single combat organism, and not a crowd of armed people.
Not without incidents. When drawing one of the stages, the subordinate headquarters began to report the situation and the decision on it on the air in plain text. Imagine ".... make a march along the route of Kushka, Herat and to .... concentrate in the area of 10 km east of Kandahar. Take the line ...... Be ready to repel an attack ...." And so on in the same vein. And this is in conditions when the entire US electronic intelligence was monitoring the air.
They did not attach much importance to this in the division, since they worked in the ultrashort wave range and radio stations low power. However, this mistake of ours did not pass by the radio control of the KGB. A couple of days later, the divisional commander received a “stick” from his superiors for violating the rules of radio traffic. The corresponding "infusion" was received by the commander of the offending regiment, the chief of staff and the chief of communications - the direct culprits.
And here is a new concern. The first menacing signs of incipient decay appeared. Increasingly, emergency situations began to occur in the division: drunkenness, fights, theft. Among the officers on the basis of drunkenness, there were several suicides. In the commandant's company of the division, 2 PM pistols were stolen, they were barely found.
3 conscripts were arrested, including the clerk of our operational department. A trial took place - they all received 2 years of a disciplinary battalion. The air smelled of thunder. The weapons and ammunition that were on hand were collected and began to be stored according to the rules of peacetime.
Divisional Commander General Robul L.A., seeing this situation, ordered us to urgently develop a bilateral divisional exercise in order to occupy the troops with something. Within a week, the division headquarters prepared the necessary documents.
They divided the division into two parts and "fought" with each other. Some defended, others attacked, then the defenders went on the counteroffensive, and the attackers went on the defensive, and so on. Never before or since have I participated in such a teaching. They lasted almost 2 weeks, we dug up the entire desert with trenches and trenches, since there was no agricultural land here. But since the troops are busy, then they are not up to disgrace.
After February 23, when rather strong unrest provoked by the opposition took place in Kabul, naturally with the death of several dozens (maybe hundreds) of civilians, rumors about the introduction of our division into Kandahar resumed. Again, the high authorities flew in from Moscow, in the units they again began to conduct reviews of readiness and everything that is connected with this.
By that time, we had already somewhat relaxed, missing our families, and were looking forward to the order to return. Everyone is tired of the game of war. And here is...
However, the leadership of the USSR apparently did not dare to bring in an additional contingent, and in the first days of March, the fate of our division was finally decided. They decided to return her to the places of permanent deployment, and let the "partisans" go home. Apparently, Moscow considered that the entry of troops into Afghanistan was completed successfully and the forces introduced were sufficient to complete the tasks.
I will say right away that I consider this a serious military miscalculation. Just in Kandahar, there was not enough division to block the open border with Pakistan. The forces of the 70th brigade in Kandahar, deployed on the basis of the Takhta-Bazarsky regiment of the 5th guards. The MSDs were too small for this task. Although the brigade numbered about 4 thousand fighters, and in addition to motorized rifle and tank battalions, it also had an air assault battalion, it was still far from a motorized rifle division of 11.5-12 thousand people in terms of combat capabilities.
Not in vain, after 5 years, in 1984, 22 special forces brigade was deployed in this direction to fight caravans, but in general this problem was not solved until the end of the war.
Therefore, by 1986 OKSVA was gradually increased from 80 to 108.8 thousand people (including 106 thousand military personnel), and the number military units brought to 509 in 179 military camps.
For our 58 msd Afghan war ended. With a sense of accomplishment, we set off on the return journey.
What was happening again on the roads - not to describe. Again, about 3,000 cars were moving, but now from the state border and all at the same time. After all, there were no parallel routes in Turkmenistan. Surprisingly, despite such chaos, there were only a few accidents without human casualties. By March 8, we returned to Kizil-Arvat to the general satisfaction of us, and especially our families.
Immediately after my return, I was sent on another vacation, I went with my family to my parents in Siberia and returned to Kushka only 1.5 months later, when all the consequences of our mobilization deployment had already been eliminated. Of course, there was some theft and embezzlement, several officers and ensigns were imprisoned, but on the whole, nothing seems to have happened.
However, in the light of the outbreak of the war in Afghanistan, the whole of 1980 was full of organizational events. In the spring, a new 88th Motor Rifle Division was formed in Kushka at the sites of the former deployment of the 5th Guards. MRD, and in Ashgabat - the 36th Army Corps (previously in KTurkVO all divisions were district subordination).
B.M. Shein, Lieutenant General of the Tank Forces, was appointed commander of the corps. arrived from Kemerovo. The headquarters of the corps was assembled, as they say, from the world on a thread, as well as units of the 88th motorized rifle division: 414 infantry regiment - from the Ural district, 129 military regiment - from the North Caucasus, Tahta-Bazarsky regiment - from the Baltic, 479 infantry regiment Iolotansky - from the Leningrad districts.
One can imagine what kind of teams they were - a hodgepodge. I can’t say that all the garbage from the districts was collected there, since officers and soldiers were not selected there, but were appointed by entire units. And it was categorically forbidden to transfer any of these units to others.
But in itself, the presence of a mass of new people, a significant part of whom arrived with a promotion, a new place of service and unusual living conditions, significantly complicated the process of forming teams, primarily combat units.
In addition, they were all told that they were going to fulfill their international duty in Afghanistan. That is, temporarily, for 2 years. Then a replacement. And how did it happen? We arrived in Kushka, the rails ended, get off, we arrived! This is where you will serve. As the old army joke about Kushka said:
".. Two inscriptions on the Kushkin cross:
The first - "1880 - Lieutenant Ivanov, exiled here for 10 years for a duel"
The second - "1980 - Lieutenant Ivanov, exiled here is unknown, for what and it is not known for how long."
Among other things, many everyday issues arose: 5 Guards. MSD went to Afghanistan, but the families remained. They left and vacated the apartments of a unit. The rest had nowhere to go. And the new arrivals were, as they say - on the beans. Families have nowhere to live, Kushka is a small town and private apartment don't shoot there. In short, continuous everyday problems, and the main thing is that it was necessary to create a combat-ready division in a short time, capable of standing on the southern borders of the USSR.
The summer of 1980 was really hot for me. First, in June, I was attracted to the headquarters of the corps to develop divisional exercises from the 88th Motor Rifle Division. The corps headquarters consisted of officers, most of whom had come from the inner districts with promotions. That is, there is a sea of ambitions, and knowledge and especially skills - zilch! Therefore, they attracted several Turkestani officers to provide practical assistance to the "Varangians". I also got into their number.
We (this is me and my classmate at the BTV Academy K. Nikishin) for a whole week in the same car with the corps commander dangled through the desert in the area of Tahta-Bazar and Kushka (where our 58th Motor Rifle Division was stationed six months ago), choosing places for working out training issues of the exercise. It was there that I became intimately acquainted with the corps commander.
After this business trip - a new task. Moscow conducted military tests of new infantry fighting vehicles BMP-2. First they were tested in the mountains in the Caucasus, then they were transported by ferry to Krasnovodsk, where they had to make an almost 600-kilometer march through the desert to Ashgabat. I was instructed to choose a route through the desert and lead a convoy of 20 cars along it away from human eyes, since the technique was secret.
I drove along the route, met in Krasnovodsk the arrived equipment and the deputy commander of the North Caucasus Military District, Lieutenant General Dubinin, reported my proposals to him, he approved them, and after that we set off.
I will not describe how we walked these kilometers along takyrs and dunes in 50-degree heat, you can only feel it on your own skin, but the task was completed and I returned to the division.
And then a tempting offer soon arrived. I was offered the position of commander in the 88th MSD motorized rifle regiment at st. Ottoman Bazaar. Without hesitation, I immediately agreed, and they prepared a performance for me.
I went to Ashgabat to talk to the commander of the corps, Lieutenant-General Shein B.M., he supported my appointment. However, about a month later, a refusal came from the district, motivated by the fact that I did not pass the post of deputy regiment commander. At the same time, I was offered the position of chief of staff of the 129th regiment in Kushka. Again, without hesitation, I agreed, and in November an order came for my appointment.
And here is Kushka. I'm here for the first time. Heard a lot about this city. Who does not know the famous army saying, which is attributed to the former commandant of the Sevastopol fortress, General Vostrosablin, who in 1905 refused to open artillery fire on the rebellious cruiser "Ochakov" and was sent by the commandant to Kushka - "They won't give you less than a platoon, they won't send Kushki further."
The first thing you see when approaching either by train or by car is a 10-meter cross on a pedestal on the highest hill (height 802). It can be seen from anywhere in the city. This cross is the only surviving of the four built in 1913 in honor of the 300th anniversary of the reign of the Romanov dynasty.
They were placed on all outlying points Russian Empire: western - in Poland, eastern - Bering Strait, northern - Kola Peninsula, southern - in Kushka. Time, revolutions, wars, climate destroyed all the crosses except Kushkin's.
Another famous saying: "There are three holes in the world - Tejen, Kushka and Mary, they also have younger brother- a small Kizil-Arvat". As for the city of Mary - the regional center in Turkmenistan - this is not entirely true, and the rest of the cities fully corresponded to this saying. Well, I have already served in one of these holes for a year, now I have to serve in the second.
The city of Kushka outwardly was much better than Kizyl-Arvat, although smaller in size and population. Something more modern, more well-groomed. And the climate here in the foothills was colder than in the Central Karakum. Afghanistan was 3 kilometers from the outskirts of the city. Here, as it turned out later, I had to live for 2 years, and my family - 4.
Arriving at the division, I introduced myself to its commander, Colonel Bagryantsev. Small in stature, thin, energetic, somehow all bile, he talked to me for just a few minutes. He reminded me so outwardly of the famous anarchist of the times of the Civil War, Old Man Makhno (of course, his cinematic version), that I barely managed to suppress a smile. Next, I went to the regiment and introduced myself to the regiment commander.
Lieutenant Colonel Kandalin Gennady Ivanovich. It is worth talking about it in more detail. Two years older than me, he commanded a regiment for 3 years already. This new regiment new division - 129 TP was formed, like all parts of the division with the world on a string. Command of the regiment and 3tb - from Rostov-on-Don, 1tb - from Germany, 2tb - from Czechoslovakia.
Kandalin himself had previously commanded a regiment in Volgograd. Height under two meters, impressive appearance. Something similar to the famous film actor O. Basilashvili. A typical leader, as they say now: a self-confident, determined adventurer. All officer military ranks received ahead of schedule.
His fate is interesting. Six months later, he became the chief of staff of our division, a year later he was introduced to the post of division commander in Kizyl-Arvat. He went to Moscow for a conversation, where he was received by the Deputy Minister of Defense, supported the appointment and handed him the colonel's shoulder straps.
However, in the Military Department of the Central Committee of the CPSU he was "rolled". It turns out that there was a slander on Kandalin. It was reported that he was engaged in various frauds and often confused the regimental pocket with his own.
In addition, he did not stand on ceremony with people, he could trample on anyone who was not to his liking, and there were many offended by him. Therefore, both open statements and anonymous letters were written. There were plenty of facts, but they did not "pull" for a criminal case. Therefore, it was decided, just in case, to abstain from the appointment.
But we learned about it much later. And now, after he returned as a colonel, we expected that he was about to be appointed. However, a month passes, another, and there is no order. There is no extract from the order to confer the rank of "colonel" on him, he receives money according to his former rank.
Apparently, he was tired of these omissions and rumors and, with his characteristic decisiveness, he turned to the commander of the TurkVO, explained the situation, and he officially introduced him to the rank. Before conferring the same title, he allowed him to wear colonel's shoulder straps! What was it. However, the ordeal of Kandalin did not end there.
He divorced his wife, she never moved to Kushka from Volgograd, married a local girl. The public was once again shocked and slander poured in with renewed vigor.
From all this, at the first opportunity, he rushed to Afghanistan, where he was chief of staff of the 108th Motor Rifle Division in Bagram. I met him there several times. According to the reviews of the chiefs, he was in good standing there, but the tail of the slander trailed behind him as before. At the end of 1983, as a replacement, he left for the North Caucasian District, where he quickly became commander of the 19th Motor Rifle Division in the city of Ordzhonikidze (Vladikavkaz).
After the start of the 1st Chechen war, he was made a scapegoat for the mistakes of the top military leadership. In January 1995, after the first unsuccessful battles in Grozny, he was removed from the division and subsequently dismissed from the army. He never got a general. This is how the fate of a man whom everyone promised a very great future.
Recently I watched a program about the first Chechen war, where TV journalists mentioned Kandalin. Moreover, they described him as a resolute opponent of the war and hinted that he was removed from his post for his anti-war sentiments.
I laughed at these conjectures for a long time, I knew the character and essence of Gennady Ivanovich too well. He could be anyone, but not a "democrat" and, moreover, a pacifist.

NEBIT-DAG

For all five years of service in the 58th division in the town of Nebit-Dag, I happened to visit only three times. A cadre motorized rifle regiment was stationed there, so there was no need to visit here often. In any case, a journalist.

Nebit-Dag means Oil Mountain. The town really stood at the foot of the small mountain system Bolshoi Balkhan. By the way, for this reason now it is called Balkanabat. Moreover, it was located on the side turned to the side quite close (a hundred kilometers, or even less) from the Caspian Sea, while the same mountain protected the town from knowing the Kara-Kum. Nebit-Dag was a very young settlement, and it was built in the style of a modern city - with straight streets, modern houses, squares, parks...

I don’t remember if I wrote about this, but it was believed that the Krasnovodsk region is the most urbanized in the territory of the Soviet Union, i.e. on its territory lived the most high percent urban population. Is this so, I will not vouch: for what, as they say, I bought, for that I sell. Another thing is WHAT kind of cities they were - I have already told about some of them, and the rest are about the same. But Nebit-Dag was a true example of a modern city.

I have already said above that I visited Nebit-Dag only three times. But this is only in the military unit itself! I have only visited the city once. So I can't say enough about him. I remember my impressions of clean, dust-free greenery, of the park, of the Ferris wheel on which we rode ... From that Ferris wheel, a contrast opened up: the greenery of the city, the grayness of the mountain hanging over the city from the north, and the approaching semi-desert from the south ...

For some reason, Nebit-Dag reminded me of Ashgabat in miniature.

I also remember that there was a beautiful monument to geologists who were looking for oil: a camel and three people who are making their way through a sandstorm.

Thirty years have passed since then, and little is remembered. The most important impression is the perception of something incredibly festive surrounded by the desert. Oasis or something...

I can agree that my subjective impression could be misleading. I had little chance to communicate with the officers of the Nebitdag regiment. And then there were often earthquakes. Not strong, but still ... A powerful earthquake occurred in 1984 or 85th year. But it turned out to be relatively harmless: its epicenter was between Kazandzhik and Nebit-Dag, in the area of \u200b\u200bthe settlement of Kum-dag (Sandy Mountain), so these cities, if any, were slightly affected.

And one more vague memory connected with this regiment. Somehow we worked out the task of repelling the attack of a mock enemy from the south. So, this regiment acted together with the ships of the Caspian flotilla. And one officer of the regiment told me that at the end of the exercise, the commander of the landing ship ordered his assistant: come on, pour us from the compass (in the sea, emphasizing "a") for the success of the task.

By the way, the film "Kin-dza-dza" was filmed in the vicinity of Nebit-Dag. So what kind of nature approached the oasis I described can be judged by this tape.

Plan:

1 Formation and campaigns of the regiment
2 Regimental commanders
3 Chiefs of the regiment
4 Insignia
5 Other formations of this name

Introduction

82nd Dagestan Infantry Regiment of His Imperial Highness Grand Duke Nikolai Mikhailovich

1. Formation and campaigns of the regiment

It was formed in Temir-Khan-Shura on December 16, 1845 under the name of the Dagestan infantry regiment from the 2nd and 3rd battalions of the Volynsky, 2nd and 3rd battalions of the Minsk infantry regiments and the Caucasian Linear No. 11 battalion, with the addition of some people from the abolished at that time same time of the 2nd and 3rd battalions of the Modlin Infantry Regiment. These units arrived with their banners and formed 5 battalions of 4-company composition. The 3rd battalion of the Volynsky regiment brought with it the St. George's silver trumpet with the inscription: "For distinction in the defeat and expulsion of the enemy from Russia in 1812 and in the battles of Brienne-le-Chateau and the village of La Rotier", granted on April 5 1815 to the 49th Jaeger Regiment, which in 1833 was attached to the Volyn and Minsk infantry regiments. Colonel N. I. Evdokimov (later count, adjutant general and regiment chief) was appointed the first commander of the Dagestan regiment. After the regiment was formed, it had to build its headquarters in Northern Dagestan, on the site of the destroyed village of Ishkarta, 14 versts from the fortress of Temir-Khan-Shura (completed in October 1847).

From the first days of its existence, the Dagestan regiment took part in the Caucasian War. In 1846, some parts of the regiment took part in skirmishes and skirmishes that took place near Ishkarta. On June 4, 1847, the 1st and 2nd battalions participated in the unsuccessful assault on Gergebil. From July 26 to September 14, these same battalions, reinforced at the end of August by the 3rd battalion, were under siege and assault on the village of Salta, and the first two of them were awarded banners with the inscription "For the capture of Salta" for their differences. Over the next 10 years, the Dagestan regiment had to wage a small war with the highlanders. Every year, in the spring, 2 or 3 battalions were assigned to separate detachments, which were sent deep into the recalcitrant country; the remaining battalions carried guard duty on the line. At the beginning of 1857, the 5th rifle company was formed with each battalion. In the summer of 1857, a special detachment was sent to Salatavia, which included 4 battalions of the Dagestan regiment. On July 14, the detachment laid a fortification at the foothills of the Salatavsky Range, on the site of the devastated village of Burtunai, which was appointed the headquarters of the Dagestan regiment. The whole following year, the Dagestanis spent in the construction of fortifications and the construction of new barracks. July 16 and 17, 1859, when the Dagestan detachment crossed the river. Andean Koisu, the 2nd battalion showed heroic prowess and was the first to set foot on the enemy shore. Private Sergei Kochetov and Junker Speer swam across a stormy mountain river under fire and dragged a rope to the other side with the help of twine. Then a rope bridge was built, over which the 2nd battalion crossed with incredible difficulty. On August 25, the 2nd battalion and rifle companies took part in the capture of Gunib. For the crossing on July 17, 1859, the 2nd battalion was awarded the St. George banner with the inscription: "For distinction in crossing the Andiyskoe Koisu near the village of Sogrytlo." In addition, on August 4, 1860, the entire regiment was awarded insignia on hats with the inscription: "For distinction in the Caucasus from 1846 to 1859."

With the fall of Gunib, a period of peace began for the Dagestan regiment. On November 6, 1863, the 5th battalion with a rifle company was allocated to the formation of the Tamansky infantry regiment, and the Dagestan regiment was brought into the 4th battalion. On March 25, 1864, the regiment was named the 82nd Dagestan Infantry and on November 1 of the same year, Adjutant General Count Evdokimov was appointed chief of the regiment. In the same year, the regiment was assigned new apartments in the Chir-Yurt fortification on the Sulak River.

On October 21, 1869, the 2nd battalion, assigned to Stoletov's Krasnovodsk detachment, arrived in Petrovsk and was transported on steamboats across the Caspian Sea. Having landed in the Muravyova Bay of the Krasnovodsk Bay, the battalion built a fortification on the shore, which served as the beginning of the city of Krasnovodsk. The 2nd battalion stayed in Krasnovodsk until 1875 and was replaced by the 3rd battalion. This battalion served to protect the Russian-Persian border and participated in the most difficult expeditions of General Lomakin against the Turkmen-Teke in 1877 and 1878, and especially in the unsuccessful campaign in Akhal-Teke in 1879.

On October 13, 1870, after the death of Count Evdokimov, Grand Duke Nikolai Mikhailovich was appointed chief of the regiment. On August 1, 1874, the 4th battalion was allocated to the formation of the 164th infantry Zakatalsky regiment, and the 4th battalion was formed from the rifle companies of the entire regiment.

At the beginning of the Russian-Turkish war of 1877-1878. The 1st, 2nd and 4th battalions were mobilized and took part in the suppression of the uprising in Chechnya and Dagestan. The 1st and 4th battalions especially distinguished themselves on October 17, during the assault on the village of Tsudahar, and on November 2, during the capture of the village of Sogrytlo. On January 6, 1879, two St. George's trumpets with the inscription: "For distinction during the suppression of the uprising in Dagestan in 1877" were awarded to the regiment for the distinctions rendered; in addition, the 4th battalion was awarded the St. George banner with the inscription: “For dealings with the rebels in 1877 on October 19 at Tsudahara and on November 2 at the village. Warmed up."

In 1880, the 1st and 4th battalions took part in the Akhal-Teke expedition of General Skobelev and on January 12, 1881, took part in the assault on Geok-Tepe; for the distinction shown, the 1st battalion was awarded badges on hats with the inscription: "For the capture of the Geok-Tepe fortress by storm on January 12, 1881."

In 1894, the entire regiment returned from the Transcaspian region to the Caucasus.

2. Regiment commanders

12/16/1845 - 12/16/1849 - Evdokimov, Nikolai Ivanovich
12/16/1849 - 02/14/1854 - Colonel Bronevsky, Pavel Nikolaevich
02/14/1854 - ? - Colonel Rakusa
1855-? - Colonel Shostak, Andrei Andreevich
11/5/1858 - 01/4/1861 - Colonel Radetsky, Fedor Fedorovich
01/04/1861 - ? - Colonel Orbeliani, Joseph
1870 - 1874 - Colonel Gurchin, Vitold Vikentievich
12/12/1874 - 05/12/1878 - colonel (from 11/2/1877 major general) Perlik, Pyotr Timofeevich
04/20/1893 - 11/01/1895 - colonel (from 11/14/1894 major general) Ushakov, Ivan Yakovlevich
01/13/1903 - 12/15/1904 - Colonel Wendt, Fedor Khristianovich
1906 - acting lieutenant colonel Talyshkhanov, Mir Kazim-bek
01/26/1907 - 02/20/1908 - Colonel (then Major General) Folbaum, Mikhail Alexandrovich
02/06/1913 - ? gg. - Colonel Lesnevsky, Joseph Vikentievich

3. Chiefs of the regiment

11/1/1864 - 10/13/1870 - Adjutant General, Infantry General Count Evdokimov, Nikolai Ivanovich
10/13/1870 - ? gg. - Grand Duke Nikolai Mikhailovich

4. Insignia

The regimental banner of St. George with the inscriptions: "For the capture of Salta on September 9 and 14, 1847, for the difference in crossing the Andiyskoye Koisu near Sogrytlo, for dealing with the rebels in 1877: October 19 at Tsudahar and November 2 at the village of Sogrytlo."
St. George's trumpet with the inscription: “For distinction in the defeat and expulsion of the enemy from Russia in 1812 and in battles: at Brienne-le-Chateau and at the village. La Rothiere April 25, 1813." Granted on April 25, 1815 to the 49th Jaeger Regiment (since 1833 - the 3rd Battalion of the Volyn and Minsk Regiments).
Two St. George trumpets with the inscription: "For distinction in the suppression of the uprising in Dagestan in 1877." Complained January 6, 1879
Badges on headgear with the inscription:
- in the 1st battalion - “For distinction in the Caucasus from 1846-1859 and for taking by storm kr. Geok-Tepe January 12, 1881. The first distinction was granted on August 4, 1860, the second on July 9, 1882.
- in the 2nd-4th battalions - "For distinction in the Caucasus from 1846-1859." Complained 4 August 1860

5. Other formations of this name

Dagestan police- the date of formation is unknown, but not earlier than 1826; disbanded in 1856. On December 25, 1860, it was again formed under the name of the Dagestan Permanent Militia (consisting of 10 hundreds); finally abolished in 1899.
Dagestan Cavalry Regiment- formed in 1842 as a two-hundred division of the Dagestan horsemen, from December 16, 1851, the Dagestan irregular cavalry regiment was named. On the occasion of the Russian-Turkish war, the 2nd and 3rd Dagestan cavalry irregular regiments were formed. On October 13, 1878, the 3rd Dagestan Irregular Cavalry Regiment received the St. George banner with the inscription "For the capture of Kars on November 6, 1877" and insignia for headgear "For distinction in the Turkish war of 1877 and 1878." At the end of the war, the 2nd and 3rd regiments were disbanded. On March 24, 1904, on the occasion of the war with Japan, the 2nd Dagestan Cavalry Regiment was formed, disbanded at the end of the war, in 1906.

Literature

Boklevsky. 82nd Dagestan Infantry Regiment, 1845-1911. Grozny, 1911
Military Encyclopedia / Ed. V. F. Novitsky and others - St. Petersburg. : Society of I. V. Sytin, 1911-1915. - T. 8.
Ignatovich D. Combat chronicle of the 82nd Dagestan Infantry Grand Duke Nikolai Mikhailovich Regiment during the Caucasian War. (1845-1861). Tiflis, 1897 at Runivers website
Kazin V. Kh. Cossack troops. Reference book of the Imperial Headquarters. SPb., 1912