THE END OF “BLACK ANGEL” - 1... Ruslan (Khamzat) Gelayev is one of the top commanders of the Chechen separatists, who occupied third position in the secret table of ranks after the head of the Chechen Republic of Ichryssia Aslan Maskhadov and terrorist No. 1 Shamil Basayev. Field commander Gelayev (who changed the name “Ruslan” to “Khamzat”) held high positions in the Armed Forces of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria and the subsequent, after the defeat of the ChRI, armed underground up to the commander-in-chief (from May 2002 until his death). "Division General". Participant in the war in Abkhazia in 1992-1993 (together with Shamil Basayev). The creator of the Ichkerian special forces detachment “Borz” (i.e. “Wolf”), which included both veterans of the war in Abkhazia and criminal elements. Had the radio call signs “Angel”, “Black Angel” and “Old Man”. In the Russian press of that period he was often called the “Chechen Robin Hood.” Until the death of Ruslan Gelayev, the head of Chechnya, Akhmat-Khadzhi Kadyrov, did not lose hope of winning him over to his side, and with him the warring Ichkeria. “I am ready to meet even with the devil for the sake of peace in our republic,” he said. ...On the night of December 15, 2003, a detachment of thirty-six militants personally led by Gelayev from the territory of Chechnya entered the Dagestan village of Shauri. Having received a message about this from local residents, a reconnaissance and search group of the Mokok border outpost, consisting of nine military personnel, under the command of the head of the outpost, Captain Radim Khalikov, moved there in a GAZ car. Gelayev himself, setting an example for his fighters, went out onto the road and opened fire on the car, either from a Degtyarev machine gun or from a sniper rifle. While finishing off the wounded, Gelayev simultaneously shot his own fighter: “The tenth victim of this massacre was a young Avar militant. Gelayev gave him a bayonet and ordered to cut off the head of his fellow countryman - the wounded captain Khalikov. The militant refused…” the Kommersant newspaper reported. A large-scale military operation was launched against the militants, involving artillery, aviation (army and border) and armored vehicles. The Gelayevites split up and tried to escape, but during fierce battles that lasted several weeks, most of the detachment was destroyed, some were captured, and some managed to escape through the passes to Georgia and Chechnya. ...On February 28, 2004, according to the prevailing version, Gelayev was killed during a clash with a squad of “green caps” near the Bezhta outpost. Having separated, Gelayev went to the village of Nizhnie Khvarshini. There, in one of the sheds not far from the village, he healed his wounds for almost two months. Due to the fact that he could not have completed the main route along which Gelayev planned to leave for Georgia alone, he was offered an easier route - along the Avar-Kakheti road, which has long connected the residents of Bezht with the Avar villages of Georgia - Saruso, Chantles -Kure. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, local activists began to build a road to the Georgian border for vehicle traffic in the hope that a border guard checkpoint would be opened there. Thus, almost to the border there was a good and passable (even in winter) road. Regarding the border guards, Gelayev was assured that they were not on this road in winter. However, the “Black Angel” still came across two fighters sent to check on the unknown (official version) or who went AWOL (unofficial version). Gelayev shot them during a quick battle, but he himself was seriously wounded - the bone of his arm was broken and hung on the tendons. Bleeding, Gelayev covered several hundred meters, sat down near a tree on the river bank and cut off his wounded hand. A few minutes later he died from blood loss and painful shock. “The picture of the last minutes of Gelayev’s life was reconstructed in detail by experts and described in great detail,” our newspaper “Spetsnaz of Russia” reported then. “It was becoming more and more difficult for him to take each step, as blood was gushing from his crushed left hand. The commander, who decided to sacrifice part of himself rather than lose everything, stopped about fifty meters from the battlefield, cut off his left hand and threw it into the snow along with the knife. Then he took out a rubber tourniquet, put it on the piece of his arm, took a few more steps and fell. He managed to get up with great difficulty. After walking a few dozen steps, Gelayev stopped, took a can of Nescafe instant coffee out of his pocket and, opening it with all his strength, began chewing the granules, hoping that the coffee would cheer him up and help him reach the cherished border. Then Ruslan Gelayev took out and bit into a bar of Alyonka chocolate, after which he fell and crawled again.” On February 29, 2004, at about 15:00 local time, Gelayev’s body was discovered by a detachment of border guards. “I was the first to see Gelayev dead,” said the deputy commander of the Bezhta outpost, Lieutenant A. Nechaev. - True, then I didn’t know that it was Gelayev. On the morning of February 29, I and the soldiers of our outpost went out in search of Kurbanov and Suleymanov who had not returned from the mission. We followed their tracks for several kilometers when I saw a stranger leaning with his back against a tree. Dressed in a warm civilian jacket, warm pants and rubber boots, he did not move. I ordered one of the fighters to take aim at him and began to slowly approach. The first thing I noticed as I came closer was that the stranger’s eyes were wide open, the pupils rolled upward, but were visible. He looked very neat, it was noticeable that he spent the last days of his life in contentment, then it turned out that even his chest was completely shaved, and he himself was all shaved, and his beard was neatly trimmed, and he had clean, warm woolen socks on his feet. Under the unbuttoned jacket, an unloading container with five magazines was visible. A machine gun and a grenade lay nearby. There was nothing more, at least at first glance. I radioed the emergency team. It was she who discovered our dead guys.” The dead contract soldiers Mukhtar Suleymanov and Abdulkhalik Kurbanov were posthumously awarded the title of Heroes of Russia. As already noted, this is the official version. According to the second version, Gelayev died on February 29, either coming under fire from a helicopter sent to search for missing soldiers, or being buried by an avalanche. The version that Gelayev was carried away by an avalanche, oddly enough, began to be supported by the “Ichkerians”, “Imaratchiks” and other radicals themselves. At the same time, the last minutes of Gelayev’s life were described in ridiculous detail, including how he stood leaning against a rock and firing from a light machine gun at Russian aircraft... Reserve Major Alexander Egorov, author of an article in “Special Forces of Russia”, in three extensive publications for February -April 2015 presented the third version in the context of everything that was happening then in the North Caucasus. The title of the publication is “The End of the Black Angel.” Operation in the mountains of the “Andean Koisu”. At the time of the events described, Alexander Egorov had the military rank of “senior lieutenant” and held the position of commander of a reconnaissance unit (commander of a detachment reconnaissance platoon - non-staff company commander) in the 487th Zheleznovodsk Border Special Purpose Detachment (POGUN). In the most difficult conditions of the winter mountains, Egorov’s group struck serious damage to the Gelayevites. And most importantly, as the prisoners later told Yegorov, three iconic figures were killed in that battle, and Gelayev himself was wounded. The first person killed was the commander of the Arab mercenaries Abu al-Walid and the successor in this capacity to the “Black Arab” Khattab. A career employee of one of the Saudi intelligence services. Professional miner, saboteur-demolitionist. One of the most dangerous enemies of Russia in the North Caucasus. It was he who was among those who planned and paid for the explosion of a military hospital in Mozdok in the summer of 2003. An acquaintance of Osama bin Laden from the war in Afghanistan against the Kabul authorities and Soviet troops. The second is the criminal “authority” and ally of Dzhokhar Dudayev, foreign emissary and propagandist Khozh-Akhmed Nukhaev. The hero of the book by the editor-in-chief of the Russian version of Forbes magazine, Paul Klebnikov, “Conversation with a Barbarian,” published in the summer of 2003, and he, Nukhaev, is the orderer of the murder of this American journalist. Indirect confirmation of Nukhaev’s death is the fact that the newspapers “Ichkeria” and “Mekhk-Khel” sponsored by him, which were published underground in Chechnya, have since ceased to appear. No new publications by Nukhaev on the topics of Russian-Chechen and international relations have appeared. Also, the popular Ichkerian bard performer Timur Mutsuraev, who sang the “Gelaevsky special forces” and the armed struggle of Chechen separatists against Russia, found his death at the hands of border special forces. According to some sources, the place of the battle on the summer farm "Rekho" for some time it was even considered a saint among the Wahhabis, there were several revered graves that were visited by Islamists, one of them is associated with Abu al-Walid. EGOROV'S VERSION A month after the special operation in the mountains, the head of the UNPOG, Colonel Valery Gorshkov, set Egorov the task of delivering from the Vladikavkaz pre-trial detention center three militants detained by the Georgian border police and handed over to the Russian side. “During the transfer, I learned from them that they took part in that battle at the cliff,” recalls Alexander Egorov. “The raid by the border guards was unexpected for them; they still didn’t understand how we managed to capture the lead patrol and silently approach the outpost. In battle, they did not see the border guards and considered them ghosts. The militants were sure that they were fighting with an officer sniper group from the army special forces of the GRU General Staff. After the fighting, they took refuge in the basement of a school in the village of Khushet, and Gelayev lived in the house of the school director. They also said that during the fighting, border guards killed more than twelve militants, among them Timur Mutsuraev, Khozh-Akhmed Nukhaev, Abu al-Walid. They had to throw several corpses into the Andiyskoye Koisu River so that the federal authorities could not identify them: they were very important and respected in their environment. I learned partial confirmation of this information and the version of Gelayev’s death from several trusted people, including from Magomed, when a month later I found myself in the places where the battles took place. Magomed said that the militants actually took refuge in the basement of the school, and when the troops left, they left too. As for Gelayev, he lived with the school director for several more weeks. At the end of January, he attempted to cross the Russian state border with Georgia near the village of Khushet. Sent five militants to the village of Diklo in Georgia. Three of them were detained by the Georgian border police and handed over to Russia, and two safely reached the Pankisi Gorge, but did not make contact. After this, Gelayev, through local residents and, possibly, a police officer, was transported to the village of Metrada, then by police vehicles to the village of Bezhta. This was testified to by several local residents who saw how on February 27, 2004, a police car drove up to the village, and three people got out of it, one of them was Ruslan Gelayev. Everything was prepared for the crossing. They were expected here. Light signals were periodically sent from the pass. According to the unofficial version, while crossing the state border on the slope of the Simbiriskhevi River gorge, the “Black Angel” was shot by the guides, possibly out of blood feud. The death of Ruslan Gelayev in the Andean Koisu region did not fit into the plans of the bloodlines. Therefore, they took him away from the Andean Koisu - to the Avar. There he was executed according to rituals of blood feud. In addition, he had the gang’s cash register; according to some sources, Ruslan Gelayev alone had about 2 million dollars. Some of the money was hidden in a cache in the area of ​​the Reho summer camp.” Here's the version. By the way, in the film by military journalist Alexander Sladkov “The End of the Black Angel” the cut of a 7.62 mm bullet on the forearm of Ruslan Gelayev is clearly shown. Militants, like mountaineers, do not like a 5.45 mm assault rifle, since it is ineffective in the mountains. They prefer the AKM-7.62mm. The border service is armed with the AK-74 (5.45 mm caliber) and AKS-5.45 mm, with the exception of special forces. All participants in the battle at the rock were presented with the Order of Courage, and some of them, according to Alexander Egorov, should have received “Heroes of Russia”. However, this did not happen. Author: FEDOR BARMIN

OPERATION IN THE ANDEAN KOISU MOUNTAINS

On February 28, 2004, the odious militant Ruslan (Khamzat) Gelayev was killed during a clash with a squad of “green caps” near the Bezhta outpost. The “Black Angel” accidentally came across two border guards, whom he shot during a shootout, but he himself was seriously wounded - the bone of his arm was broken and hung on the tendons.

Bleeding, Gelayev covered several hundred meters, sat down near a tree on the river bank and cut off his wounded hand. A few minutes later he died from blood loss and painful shock.

On February 29, 2004, at about 15:00 local time, Gelayev’s body was discovered by a detachment of border guards. The dead contract soldiers Mukhtar Suleymanov and Abdulkhalik Kurbanov were posthumously awarded the title of Heroes of Russia. This is the official version.

According to the second version, Gelayev died on December 29, 2003, either after coming under fire from a helicopter sent to search for missing soldiers, or being buried by an avalanche.

I know the third version, since I was directly involved in the events associated with its appearance.

As one of the CTO participants said: “This is the success of a joint operation, which was under the direct control of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief - President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, covered by all Russian media, keeping all the people inhabiting our country in tense two-week anticipation and hope. This operation became the starting point for the departure of many odious individuals and gang leaders.”

For eleven years we were silent, because we served and they took “non-disclosure” subscriptions from us. But, as it turned out later, we “were not involved” in this operation. It’s just that someone received our awards, someone’s brilliant career was made on this. Everything is banal and simple...

But we are not offended and are grateful for this wonderful lesson that taught us to love, respect and understand this world. My articles were published in the magazines “Brother” and “Officers of Russia”. I wanted historical truth. At least so that the guys are recognized.

Also on the “Kinoprizyv” website in the “Competition works” section there is a script “The Hunt for the Black Angel” by Dmitry Pinchukov - this is a section of the GRU special forces. By the way, our colleagues from the GRU recognized us and are ready to make changes to the script.

So, I'll tell you everything in order...
MILITARY ROUTE TO THE CAUCASUS

My childhood was spent in Moscow, in the Verkhniy Golyanov region, and I, as a city child, absorbed with my mother’s milk that in our country all people are brothers. During the Soviet period, we were friendly national republics, united with Russia, those that could never break away from it.

In principle, there was not much difference between a Russian, an Azerbaijani, a Tatar, a Georgian, an Armenian or a resident of Dagestan in Moscow during the Soviet period. Some are a little darker, others are lighter, although they speak different languages, but everyone knows Russian and communicates easily in it. And religious differences... Yes, we didn’t even think about them and didn’t know.

During the Soviet period, military service was always considered an honorable duty. Every young man has been preparing himself for service in the Armed Forces since childhood. Although it is always fraught with many dangers and surprises.

I was actively preparing for the army: I was involved in athletics, boxing, and classical wrestling, I was fond of mountain tourism, I traveled all over the Crimean Peninsula, and I had sports ranks in many sports. Before the army, he underwent pre-conscription airborne training in DOSAAF. During his studies he made about fifty jumps with D-5 and D-6 parachutes.

In 1986, I was drafted into the USSR Armed Forces. After serving his military service in the 7th Guards Airborne Division in Kaunas, Lithuanian SSR, he went to study at the Gaidzhunai Airborne Ensign School, a famous school in the airborne forces (wits gave it the name “Abwehr school”).

The school had its own traditions and was distinguished by experienced commanders. Its officers, who had the war in Afghanistan behind them, shared their experience with us. Every day we cadets made 25-kilometer forced marches, except Saturday and Sunday. Once every six months, tactical exercises were held with a forced march of 100 kilometers.

After graduating from warrant officer school, he again served in his native 108th Guards Parachute Regiment. During this time, it was necessary to provide assistance to the residents of Armenia after the earthquake, as well as restore constitutional order in Azerbaijan and Lithuania.

In 1990, I entered the Krasnodar Military School named after Army General S. M. Shtemenko and after graduation, having received an assignment, I was sent to the 299th Guards Parachute Regiment to the position of assistant chief of staff for special communications and secrecy.

In the early 1990s, like many other citizens of the country, I was acutely worried about the turbulent events in the country, the collapse of a great Power. Both Chechen campaigns had a great influence on me and my destiny.

In December 1994, the paratroopers of our regiment became part of the combined battalion. Unfortunately, my position as a cryptographer officer did not allow me to take direct part in hostilities.

I soon left the army due to staff reductions, but my soul, brought up in the Soviet spirit, did not find use in civilian life, and after some time I ended up in the 487th Zheleznovodsk Border Special Forces Detachment (POGUN) as commander of an reconnaissance unit.

SPECIAL FORCES "GREEN CAPS"

I served in the military intelligence of the “green caps” for about five years. When conducting combat operations, I was luckier than anyone else. There were results, victories, and most importantly - God had mercy, I had no combat losses in my unit. During fire contacts, be it on the territory of Chechnya, Ingushetia or Dagestan, luck was always on our side. I cannot explain my luck by anything other than God’s help.

Of course, out of the blue you won't get lucky. It also requires ingenuity, courage, courage, knowledge of the tactics and psychology of war, and there is no need to be afraid. I didn’t perform any feats, I just did my job well. At the same time, I saw how my subordinates committed them, but due to the lack of combat losses, none of the conscript soldiers received state awards. Although I sent reports for awarding personnel in a timely manner.

For example, I remember more the failures, those same failures when, as they say, cats scratch your soul, when the innocent were rewarded and the innocent were punished. Everyone remembers what is most memorable to them. After all, these failures give a person more experience than success!

We talk a lot about our exploits. Somewhere they'll lie a little. It doesn’t matter how the unit fulfilled its task, the main thing, from the point of view of the authorities, is more blood - so that the unit has wounded and dead, then the performance will be rewarded with state awards.

In war, an inexperienced commander is immediately visible. As a rule, his mistakes are corrected by his subordinates with their heroic actions, which are called feats. Often personnel die without completing a combat mission. But fulfilling and staying alive is not given to everyone.

A feat with great losses, in my opinion, is the mediocrity of the leaders or the inability of the commanders to foresee a combat situation and make an intelligent decision, or, even worse, someone’s brilliant military career is made on it. I am not a supporter of such feats.

Unfortunately, in any war, combat losses are inevitable. War is, first of all, a military art, where life and death stand side by side. Therefore, in my opinion, every chief and commander is obliged to strive to reduce combat losses to a minimum. If circumstances are in his favor, then trying to conduct combat operations without losses is already a talent that turns into the art of war.

Border troops differ from units and divisions of the Ministry of Defense and internal troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in their tasks and mentality of the personnel, therefore, on the one hand, it was easy for me, on the other, I had to learn a lot.

The main task of linear border detachments, border outposts, to which sections of the border are assigned, is border protection. When crossing it in gangs or when they were in the border zone, the outposts did not have enough forces and means. This is where the special purpose border units came to their aid, searching, detecting and destroying the militants. In fact, our work fit into the interval when the outposts could no longer cope, and the use of troops was not yet required.

LOCAL SPECIFICITY

Our task included working on dangerous sections of the border throughout the North Caucasus: from Dagestan to the Krasnodar Territory and Astrakhan. I had to communicate a lot with local residents, and this presupposed knowledge of the mentality and characteristics of the local population. This is where my childhood and youthful impressions dissipated.

In general, the Caucasus is populated by honest, kind, open, and in some ways even naive people. I met many, some became my friends, and if not for them, the events that I will write about further would hardly have been possible. But we were primarily interested in border violators and members of the bandit underground. And this is a completely different category of people.

The history of the Caucasus is the history of centuries-old wars and constant migrations of various peoples. The local land keeps legends about the Ruskolani prince Busa Beloyar, the leader of the Huns Attila, Svyatoslav of Kiev, the campaign of the Horde khans Subudai and Jeb. She remembers the times of the Scythian, Hunnic, Byzantine empires, the Khazar Khaganate, the Great Bulgaria, the Mongol Khanate and the Ottoman Empire, the Cossack “republic”, later Tsarist Russia and the Soviet Union.

Religion also had a strong influence on the souls of the people in this region. In Soviet times, we would hardly have thought about such a “little thing” as religion. In those days it was deep underground, and all Soviet people seemed more or less the same. But after the collapse of the Soviet Union, religious views filled the ideological vacuum, and human blood began to flow.

The main religion of the Caucasus has long been Islam.

After the Caucasian War, the Russian Empire introduced the Sunni Islam of the backward Ottoman Empire into the Caucasus, placing imams who arrived from the Balkan lands at the head of Muslim communities. However, this practice turned out to be explosive. The dominance of the Sunnis greatly angered the Shiites and also became a stumbling block in relations between the Sufi orders - “tarikat” in the Andean and Avar Koisu regions, as well as Chechnya. Having doctrinal differences, the Sufis, nevertheless, worked together to incite the believers of the Caucasus against Russia.

The Naqshbandiyya Sufi order became the mainstay of the rebel movement based in the Caucasus Mountains, and therefore known as the “mountain movement.” These mountains remained outside Russian control until 1859, when Imam Shamil was captured and sent into honorable exile. Many Naqshbandis were sent to Siberia and Central Asia. In Central Asia they later tried unsuccessfully to carry out fundamentalist reformation.

During the civil war they organized the Basmachi rebel movement. In the Caucasus, instead of the Naqshbandis, Sufis from the Qadiriych order, founded by Sheikh Kunta-Haji (circa 1830-1867), came to the forefront of the fight against Russia.

After the defeat of the forces of Imam Shamil, the Qadiriyya order declared jihad on Russia, i.e., “holy war.” This confrontation continued until 1944.

During World War II, many Volga and Caucasian Naqshbandis and Qadiris, according to the NKVD, collaborated with the German invaders, joined volunteer “death squads” and regular SS troops.

After the deportation of the peoples of the Caucasus and the Volga region to the territory of Central Asia, Islam, as a mass religion, ceased to exist for several decades.

The Soviet Union collapsed and the entire area fell into chaos. Ethnic conflicts flared up like a match in the Caucasus.

The nineties were a period of full-scale war between separatists, mercenaries of the Middle East, on the one hand, and federal forces, on the other. This war was artificially fueled by foreign intelligence services.

At different periods, various movements of Islam became the ideological basis for the struggle against Russia. In tsarist times it was muridism, in the early 2000s it was Wahhabism, “pure Islam.” The bandits, in order to justify their actions, began to hide behind this religious trend and recruit new members of the underground. In the border areas they had bases and routes to the adjacent territory, where they rested and replenished supplies.

BORDER SPECIAL FORCES. CONTINUATION

In order to successfully counteract the bandits, the “Green Caps” needed to know, in addition to standard skills in border protection, also the tactics of the GRU special forces, and the national characteristics of the local population, in which the border guards looked for support and support.

Since I served in the Airborne Forces for six years, I was familiar with operations in mountainous and wooded areas, and I became acquainted with the peculiarities of conducting special close combat operations while studying at a cryptographic school.

They didn’t teach this at the school itself, but not far from us was the Krasnodar Rocket School, where there was a retraining center for GRU special forces officers. In it, under the leadership of a colonel Vishnevetsky Sergei Vladimirovich professionals in their field introduced various non-traditional training methods into combat practice.

Due to his official position, there was no opportunity to study personally with Colonel Vishnevetsky. Available as a civilian, he was only Alexey Alekseevich Kadochnikov, who was a popular figure at the time, but he couldn’t give us enough time. However, a way out was found. In addition to their main job activities, Kadochnikov’s specialists conducted elective classes. It was on them that I acquired the primary skills of Russian hand-to-hand combat and short-range shooting.

They say that everyone chooses a coach for themselves. What I liked the most was working with Vladimir Pavlovich Danilov- he, then still a major, explained everything simply, clearly and with humor. The students loved him for the knowledge and positive emotions they received in these classes.

After graduating from college, I stopped studying, but maintained a good relationship with Danilov.

When I began serving in the border guard detachment, I felt that the training I received from Danilov could be useful. Then I had a desire to invite him and other specialists who worked at the Krasnodar training center to classes.

A little history. The 487th Zheleznovodsk special purpose border detachment received its development under the director of the Federal Border Guard Service, General Andrei Nikolaev. It was under him that PogoUNs appeared in the border districts of the border service department.

The director's idea: each district has a UN program. Just like in the Ministry of Defense: one special forces brigade per military district. If maneuver groups and DSMGs are the tactical reserve of the district, then POGOUN is the mobile operational reserve of the FPS director, deployed to dangerous sections of the border to strengthen linear outposts.

By 1995, the Federal Border Guard Service had formed seven (although in reality there were much more) special-purpose border detachments.

By order of the Director of the Federal Border Guard Service in June 1994, the 487th Zheleznovodsk border detachment for special purposes was created, with a location in Zheleznovodsk, Stavropol Territory. Organizationally, it was part of the group of troops of the Caucasian Special Border District and was intended to solve special problems.

The head of our detachment at that time was Colonel Gorshkov Valery Pavlovich. There were legends about him in the North Caucasus Regional Directorate. A combative, competent officer who you can always rely on and his subordinates are like a selection.

In the border detachment, Colonel Gorshkov created excellent conditions for improving combat training. Intelligence was the brainchild of Valery Pavlovich. He said: “A scout is a special caste with its own traditions, customs and superstitions.”

Scouts are people of a special psychology. The border service is nomadic and very dangerous, where every mistake can cost your life. The most powerful weapon on the border is vigilance.

Thanks to Gorshkov's support, the scouts began to make parachute jumps from an An-2 aircraft from a height of 800 meters. Many became mountain training instructors.

“Following the footsteps of the snow leopard”

Under the leadership of Valery Pavlovich, in the summer of 2003, an expedition was organized under the code name “Following the Footsteps of the Snow Leopard.” Its goal is to study the Main Caucasian Range, adjacent spurs, passes and routes.

Our reconnaissance platoon covered more than 500 kilometers in a month. The expedition ended at the top of Mount Elbrus, and in total a route of the fifth category of difficulty was completed.

For any ascent, it is very important that you have reliable, experienced comrades next to you, ready to provide help and support in difficult times.

All members of the expedition turned out to be professionals, kind and sincere people. In the mountains, the essence of a person manifests itself like litmus paper; his strengths and weaknesses are immediately visible. One is as cunning as a fox, trying to shift his burden onto his friend. The second is the weakest in walking; the step of the entire group is equal to it, i.e. the speed of the group is determined by the weakest participant. The third is cheerful, but in a difficult situation he quickly breaks down. The fourth is gloomy, silent, but pulls the whole group. People are different, but together, complementing each other, they form a single team.

We were accompanied by experienced guides. Thanks to these professionals, climbers with a capital letter, such as Yakov Danilovich Matveev, Mikhail Grigorievich Makushev and Vasily Pavlovich Stashenko, the expedition ended successfully, without losses.

I owe the climb to Mount Elbrus to these “snow leopards”. For the first time in my life I made a cross, that is, I climbed two snowy peaks - the Eastern and Western mountains of Elbrus. I stood at the top for several minutes and admired the silver saddle of wandering clouds. From a bird's eye view, a panorama of the vast endless expanse of the Main Caucasus Range opens up, a series of its snowy mountain spurs that stretch to infinity. Grandfather Elbrus is the soul of the Caucasus, an unforgettable experience.

The executive secretary of the Moscow Mountaineering Federation Union, Vladimir Shataev, gave the reconnaissance unit a high assessment: “For the first time in my life, I saw our border guards with machine guns on the top of Elbrus. Of course, on the one hand, this was amazing, because we value every gram and take it into account when climbing to the top. And the border guard guys in full combat gear climbed Elbrus.”

Colonel Gorshkov knew how to find capable young officers who were not afraid to learn and act competently and proactively in difficult conditions. His word and deed are inseparable. In any difficult situation, the holy commandment is: you need to believe and hope for the best. Faith does not tolerate doubt and deception. There is nothing more harmful if a commander or superior deceives his subordinates. I gave my word - keep it! This is his rule. But before you make a decision, weigh everything down to the smallest detail, choose the most reasonable one.

This is what Colonel Gorshkov taught us. If you don’t know a way out of a critical situation, don’t panic, because for the soldiers you are an authority, and they should always see you as a commander.

There is a law in intelligence: gather a council, let everyone express their opinion, and the decision rests with the commander. This law was developed during the Great Patriotic War.

Thanks to the support of Colonel Gorshkov, I was able to renew contacts with representatives of the then existing Krasnodar training center of army special forces, which worked according to the programs of Colonel Sergei Vladimirovich Vishnevetsky and, having agreed on the curriculum with the commander, invited Danilov and his specialists to classes.

At the same time, Danilov introduced me to Dmitriev, who previously served in the GRU special forces. Of course, he did not have the same educational and methodological practice as Danilov, but Dmitriev had very rich combat experience.

Once Dmitriev was a student of Danilov, and their career paths crossed in the “hot spots” of Transcaucasia. Over time, they became like-minded people and co-authors of methods. Dmitriev, like Danilov, provided all possible assistance in my preparation.

Alexey Alekseevich Kadochnikov also repeatedly came to the Caucasian Mineralnye Vody and visited the special-purpose border detachment, with whom Valery Pavlovich Gorshkov developed warm and friendly relations.

As the near future has shown, classes in special tactical training, close combat tactics, rapid fire contacts, hand-to-hand combat during search and ambush operations gave positive results.

In principle, our combat training was already at the proper level, but I felt that the depth of knowledge and methodological level that Danilov had, and those small features (tricks) of combat known to Dmitriev would be useful to us.

The classes were productive. What was taught by colleagues was easily learned by trained fighters. Since we often had to act autonomously in the mountains, the guys also conducted classes with us on life support. I couldn’t believe that this would come in handy so soon! It is a pity that such a center no longer exists.

GENERAL ZABRODIN

We had no experience communicating with the local population. General Zabrodin helped fill this gap.

In peacetime, we would hardly communicate so closely with the generals. Usually they are far from group commanders and are busy making management decisions. But war forces soldiers and senior officers to communicate on a different level, and the performance of combat missions brings generals and subordinates closer together.

Knowledge of the abilities of your commanders, the ability to competently set tasks and achieve results are qualities that become the main factor in victory. The chief of staff of the North Caucasus Regional Border Directorate of the Federal Border Guard Service, Lieutenant General Anatoly Zabrodin, possessed such qualities. I won’t say that we met often; he has quite a lot of subordinates, among whom he may not remember me, and if he does, it will be as a small episode in official practice.

I would also like to say warm words regarding the Deputy Chief of Staff of the SKRPU FPS Fyodor Borisovich Cherednichenko. At that time, he was the deputy of General Zabrodin and headed the operational department of the headquarters of the SKRPU - the leading department in the border service, since all activities for organizing border protection and leading troops are mainly carried out by this department.

Fyodor Borisovich skillfully and timely intervened in the fate of my unit on the eve of upcoming events. Therefore, everything said in relation to the chief of staff of the SKRPU, General Anatoly Ivanovich Zabrodin, fully and fully describes the result of the work and relates to it.

I personally met with them only once, when assigning a combat mission to my unit at the forward command post in Khunzakh, but I saw and heard them many times at annual meetings, commander meetings, and during a district check in the Zheleznovodsk border detachment. I am familiar with the situation, atmosphere, role and activities of the operations department during the period in question.

Our first meeting took place in Stavropol, where General Zabrodin, together with officers of his headquarters, conducted command training classes with officers of the district units.

Zabrodin gathered all the officers and gave us an energetic briefing. His words were short, informative and descriptive. He required us not only to carry out combat missions, but also to know the characteristics of the local population - their customs, morals, as well as conflicts between representatives of one or another nationality. In addition, he introduced us to the operational-combat situation on sections of the border.

The general said: “You must know and feel the local residents in the border areas in such a way that you can determine by the expression of their eyes or posture whether you are a friend or an enemy, and speak in such a way that at the end of the conversation your interlocutor feels the need to tell everything he knows, and report all border trespassers.”

He made us learn the history and traditions of the Caucasus, as well as internal conflicts between representatives of different nationalities. He focused on behavior in everyday life, how to greet, what to say, where, how and in what order to sit down during a conversation or a feast, in which cases to take off a hat or shoes, in which cases not.

We considered many of his demands unnecessary, but, fulfilling the order, we taught, and besides, we often had to communicate with the Karachais, then with the Dargins, with the Lezgins or with the Avars, and in some places consolidate personal relationships.

General Zabrodin also demanded that we know the enemy’s preparations, since he believed that this would help both in determining his plans and in open confrontation.

And the enemy’s preparation consisted of two stages. The first is ideological. There, militant candidates studied the basics of Islam. This was called the increase in "iman", for the one who takes up arms must do everything for the sake of Allah, and everyone who adheres to any other goals will be subject to severe demands on the Day of Judgment. The second stage consisted of military training. A “brother” must be able to fight for the sake of Allah...

The daily routine was quite strict: we got up very early, at half past three in the morning local time, did ablution, and prayed at about three o’clock. After that, they studied the Koran and learned the suras by heart.

At 6 o'clock in the morning physical training began - running in the mountains (about six kilometers). As they said, the “Mujahideen” is fed by his legs: “It’s hard to run in the mountains, but on the plain we’ll run like gazelled gazelles.”

At the end of the training there were exams. Each of the “brothers” had to learn fifteen suras and answer questions covered during the course.

The duration of training was three weeks. Only those who passed this exam were allowed to take part in the second part - military training, which included hand-to-hand combat, shooting from various types of weapons, from pistols to anti-aircraft guns, battle tactics and methods of sabotage.

Mentally, I compared the enemy’s preparation and the training of my fighters. We did not have a religious base; it was replaced by the frontier spirit of military brotherhood, but our military training was no worse, with the difference that the tasks of the militants and our tasks were different.

But individual training was somewhat similar. Therefore, I trained the fighters even more so that they were ready to meet an enemy who had undergone such training.

BATTLE ALARM

Late in the evening of December 15, 2003, Colonel Gorshkov dozed in the chair of his office. The cryptographer soldier entered quietly. He gently touched the colonel on the shoulder:

Comrade commander, urgent encrypted telegram from the commander.

Valery Pavlovich carefully read the encryption and announced the “Combat Alert” signal over the intercom.

The squad came to life. Telephone operators used wired communications to call officers, warrant officers and contract servicemen. Messengers ran like lightning, and the duty vehicles headed to the military gathering place.

Twenty minutes later, messengers began to return to the detachment, officers, warrant officers and contract soldiers began to arrive. Soon units in full combat gear lined up on the parade ground. At this time, ammunition and property of the units were loaded into the vehicle depot.

In the ranks, officers cannot be distinguished from soldiers. Everyone is in “slides”, unloading, with 80-liter backpacks on their backs, each with their own standard weapons.

Unit commanders check personnel, count weapons, ammunition, property, the number of dry rations taken, as well as the presence of refilled and additional fuel. They stand ready to report to the squad leader. The soldiers and officers respected the commander and lovingly called him “Dad.”

The engines of KAMAZs and 66s are roaring, and a gray haze and soot have covered the vehicle fleet. The column was headed by the commander himself, Colonel Gorshkov. All his deputies gathered around the lead UAZ-469 vehicle. The commander receives reports from senior vehicle commanders about the convoy's readiness to march. Huge KAMAZ trucks and shishigas (GAZ-66), loaded with personnel and boxes of ammunition, hum.

After the next report, Valery Pavlovich turned to the senior staff officer and expressed his comments. His eye is experienced and picky. One glance is enough to evaluate the units and their commanders.

And now, from the gates of the Zheleznovodsk detachment, a column of cars crawls along the asphalt road towards Mineralnye Vody. Vehicles of reconnaissance, mortar battery, 1st, 2nd motorized maneuver groups, 3rd air assault group and communications vehicles passed through the checkpoint gates. The duty officer of the detachment led the column, putting his hand to the visor of his cap.

INTELLIGENCE DATA

A few days later, on December 18, General Zabrodin called me to set up a combat mission. His deputy Fyodor Borisovich Cherednichenko briefed him on the operational situation in the area of ​​upcoming operations.

According to a report from a separate special reconnaissance group (OGSPR) dated November 29, 2003 and confirmed by operational intelligence of the Khunzakh border detachment, it followed that more than five hundred militants were concentrated in the area of ​​the administrative border on the Yagodak and Opar passes from Chechnya.

The group of Ruslan Gelayev is, perhaps, a kind of vanguard, which should have been followed by large gangs. His group included trained fighters from Chechnya, Ingushetia, Dagestan and other North Caucasus republics, but there were also people from Arab countries.

According to operational intelligence data, in the spring of 2003, the “Black Angel” showed up in Chechnya. The transition from the Pankisi Gorge (Georgia) was not easy for Gelayev’s detachment. He was pretty battered by our border guards, special forces and army aviation of the Ministry of Defense.

In one of the clashes with federal forces, a British citizen, who was in Ruslan Gelayev’s detachment with the journalist’s documents, died. Coincidentally or not, it was in this group that there were Igla man-portable anti-aircraft missile systems, provided to Gelayev by the British intelligence services through their Georgian colleagues. In this case, the presence of a British citizen in the detachment was explained by the role of a controller responsible for the use of missiles against the Russian Armed Forces or the conduct of some very important operation.

In July 2003, Ruslan Gelayev and his detachment arrived at a training camp in the area of ​​the villages of Chemulga and Galashki in Ingushetia. Here he was joined by militants who had undergone two months of training: young people from Chechnya, Ingushetia, Dagestan and other North Caucasus republics.

For several weeks now, the operational unit of the Khunzakh border detachment has been checking all incoming information about the location of Gelayev’s detachment. According to some sources, the Black Angel conducted “strategic reconnaissance.” According to others, back in October he was on the territory of Chechnya, but, having allegedly disagreed with some separatist leaders, he began to look for opportunities to leave for Georgia.

They also did not rule out the possibility of Gelayev’s counterintelligence planting disinformation in order to direct the operational intelligence of the Khunzakh border detachment on the wrong trail. Therefore, based on any incoming data, it was necessary to carry out a whole range of verification activities.

Now we can say with confidence that the Chechens, although they were present in the gang, did not make up a very large part of it. The gang consisted mainly of Arabs and Wahhabis of various North Caucasian nationalities, whose detachment was commanded by a prominent Arab mercenary.

GELAYEV'S BLOODY TRAIL

Late in the evening of December 14, many well-armed bearded men appeared in the vicinity of the Dagestan villages of Shauri and Galatli. The village of Shauri was located 15 kilometers from the border and 40 kilometers from the regional center of Kidiro.

In the Tsunta region, where these villages are located, Wahhabism never took root. The area was considered calm and deserved the reputation of a “bear corner”: high-mountainous, inaccessible and remote from the center of the republic, located directly on the administrative border with Chechnya and access to the southern regions of Dagestan. There were only two police stations in its entire territory.

Only a few dozen police officers served in the Tsuntinsky District Department of Internal Affairs and the Bezhta department. There were problems with communications and vehicles. Because of this, for about a day in Makhachkala they could not understand what was happening in the village of Shauri.

Local residents behaved in the same “traditional” and quite predictable manner; they promptly contacted the Mokok border outpost of the Khunzakh border detachment. The militants, in turn, provoked shooting near the outpost and forced its chief, Captain Radim Khalikov, to organize a pursuit. At a bend in the road, the militants organized an ambush. Due to darkness and the element of surprise, the border guards were unable to offer resistance. All nine soldiers died.

So, with a trail of blood, Gelayev’s gang indicated their location. By the evening of December 16, border and police units began to gather in the Tsuntinsky district, then special forces units of the Russian Ministry of Defense, as well as Alpha and Vympel.

The presence of the FSB special forces indicated to us that the operation was not ordinary and promised many surprises. At that time, I was the commander of a reconnaissance unit (commander of a detachment reconnaissance platoon - non-staff company commander) of the Zheleznovodsk Pogoon. For covert command and control of troops, I went by the call signs: “Elbrus” and “Highlander”. Therefore, everything related to intelligence activities was often entrusted to me. So it was this time.

...Zabrodin took a topographic map from the safe and laid it out on the table.

Here - intelligence officers from the GRU discovered a group of militants numbering 15-18 people - the general’s pencil rested on a point on the map in the area of ​​​​the Kusa ridge. - Our mortars covered this target. The militants suffered losses. Those who survived, according to the GRU, took refuge in a mountain cave. Perhaps Gelayev himself is there. Here are her coordinates.

Your task: to confirm or refute the information we have,” Zabrodin continued. - If militants are detected, take them prisoner or destroy them. To do this, urgently prepare your reconnaissance platoon. We will drop you off by helicopter in the specified area, closer to the designated cave. In case of an unforeseen situation, act according to the circumstances. Is the task clear?

I answered in the affirmative, but as I left, I felt that the general was in a state of anxiety. He was probably thinking about whether I could cope with the task, and what difficulties awaited us. Gelayev is cunning and can act as he wants, but the general will have to wait for the result from our group. There was no other way out.

PREPARATION FOR OPERATION

Arriving at the unit, I gathered the personnel of my reconnaissance platoon and completed the task assigned to us. The fighters already had experience operating in mountainous conditions, and many had combat experience. Everyone knew the minimum required to work in the mountains in winter.

To be honest, I always tried to find a middle ground between the required amount of ammunition and equipment, on the one hand, and the maneuverability and speed of the group, on the other. As a result, I concluded in favor of maneuverability and speed of movement. This did not apply to winter clothes and minimal ammunition.

If the plan was mainly for search operations, then they took less ammunition and warm clothes, and more for an ambush. If it was planned to spend the night in the mountains, then they made an intermediate base, where they stored excess (during fast transitions) things and some ammunition under guard.

Army special forces can criticize me for such liberties, but the fact of the matter is that border guards are not GRU officers and our tasks are different.

Our tactics are a mixture of the “pattern” of the actions of army special forces, military reconnaissance and border troops. Let me explain. If army specialists and military intelligence officers prefer not to come into contact with the population and believe that they are in hostile territory, then we, working in the mountains, are constantly looking for support and support from the residents, believing that we are on our own land and, by guarding the border, we provide safety of people living in border areas. But when meeting the enemy, our actions are identical to those of our army colleagues.

Still, there were some peculiarities here too. So, based on the number of people in the group, I used a slightly different battle formation when moving the reconnaissance search group (RPG) than the army men. This concerned the head patrol. It consisted of two subgroups. The first one I called search patrol, the so-called. "hounds", the second - an intermediate patrol.

“Hounds” (two people) carried a minimum of equipment, one of them always had a silent weapon. Their task is to inspect dangerous areas and determine the most appropriate route. I appointed the most agile and courageous fighters to this group.

The “intermediate” consisted of three people, one of whom had a machine gun. Their task was to ensure the actions of the “hounds” and interact with the core of the group.

I paid special attention to practicing the ambush right away. Remembering that a template is the death of a unit, we had worked out several general options for action, and left the details to the power of tactical improvisation of the group in each individual case. The main thing is that the commander and the group feel each other, understand each other perfectly, by facial expressions, gestures, etc.

To accomplish the task set by the general, I decided to take the entire platoon, especially since the number of seats in the helicopters allowed this to be done. There were twenty-four of us. Plus the attached medical instructor, sapper and signalman. As for weapons, in addition to AKMS, some of them with PBS, Vintorez, Makarov and SPSh pistols, SVDS, I took two PCs, one Pecheneg and a large-caliber anti-sniper complex.

Since the actions were supposed to take place in the highlands, where there is snow, white camouflage coats became a mandatory part of the equipment. But everyone had different raid backpacks. RD-54s did not fulfill their functions in terms of capacity and convenience and were used only for radial exit. Therefore, everyone tried to acquire more comfortable backpacks and backpacks to the best of their ability and ability.

Several contract warrant officers went with me to the operation. The backbone consisted of conscript soldiers.

It is often argued which troops the best fighters are selected for? Some say they are in the VV, others in the Airborne Forces. Having served in both the Airborne Forces and the border troops, I decided for myself: in the border troops. With these selected fighters I went on a combat mission.

http://www.specnaz.ru/articles/221/18/2193.htm

To be continued in the next issue - http://www.specnaz.ru/articles/222/18/2209.htm.

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He threw his left hand aside and, like a seasoned wolf, crawled towards the Georgian border, biting into a bar of Alenka chocolate as he went. Even in the last moments of his life, Ruslan Gelayev, better known as the “Black Angel,” continued to fight for life, and died like a real man.

Many readers will try to reproach me for being too pathetic in describing the last moments of his life, but the Russian military always respected worthy enemies who did not engage in ratting and looting, did not trade in the lives of civilians and did not destroy their fellow tribesmen. Not in vain Akhmat Kadyrov tried with all his might to persuade Ruslan Gelayev to peace, the population of Chechnya called him “Old Man”, and local bards composed songs about him.

Learned to fight from Russian paratroopers

Like most field commanders of the “independent republic of Ichkeria,” Ruslan Gelayev began his military career in 1992-1993 in Abkhazia, where, together with Shamil Basayev fought against Georgia on the side of the Confederation of Mountain Peoples of the Caucasus.

The 28-year-old man persistently studied military affairs from officers of the 345th Parachute Regiment, adopting the tricks of strategy and tactics of sabotage and reconnaissance warfare. He was able to rise to the position of deputy battalion commander, showing himself excellently in a number of combat clashes.

Returning to Grozny, Ruslan Gelayev met the leader of the republic Dzhokhar Dudayev and created the “Abkhazian battalion” from veterans, distinguished by the excellent training of the fighters and their personal devotion to the commander.

However, Gelayev did not command this battalion for long, since he was created to form a full-fledged special forces battalion, which later became a regiment. The regiment was named "Borz" - "Wolf" in Chechen. The chevrons with a grinning wolf terrified the residents of the republic for many years and aroused hatred among Russian conscripts, who were the first to engage in battle with seasoned fighters who underwent regular training in the camps of the Afghan Mujahideen.

Participation in the 1st and 2nd Chechen wars

In May 1995, Ruslan Gelayev with his “Wolves” defended the Shatoi region of the republic and did it so skillfully that the security forces had practically nothing to oppose him with the exception of air strikes. Civilians very often became victims of air raids, and Ruslan Gelayev suggested that the federal command stop the bombing, otherwise all captured pilots would be destroyed. He kept his word, personally pushing several pilots of downed planes and helicopters into the abyss, and sent a video of the terrible execution to the leadership of the Russian Federation.

It was Gelayev who led two assaults on Grozny in 1996. He was able to capture the capital of the republic and held out there for three days. Realizing that it was impossible to further resist the power of the Russian army, he retreated into the mountains in an organized manner, taking with him ammunition, medicine and the necessary amount of food.

During the second Chechen war, Ruslan Gelayev defended Grozny, but under the pressure of federal forces his group retreated to the Shatoi region, where it found itself in a carefully prepared cauldron. Throughout almost the entire February 2000, the systematic extermination of militants took place, for which even volume-detonating bombs were used, each of which weighed about one and a half tons.

Here Gelayev demonstrated the knowledge he had received at one time from Russian paratroopers, as well as his talent as a strategist. With the help of diversionary strikes, the “Black Angel” managed to break through the encirclement and withdraw most of its people to the village of Komsomolskoye, Urus-Martan district

The federal command, determined to put an end to Ruslan Gelayev once and for all, organized an even tighter encirclement of this village. From March 5 to March 21, there were fierce battles for control of Komsomolskoye, during which more than 500 militants died. But even here the seasoned wolf managed to escape, taking part of his people to Abkhazia.

Preparing for a new war

In the summer of 2001, Islamic extremists planned uprisings in Kabardino-Balkaria and Karachay-Cherkessia, and Gelayev was to support the militants with an unexpected blow from Abkhazia. But then the FSB officers finally showed their abilities and, having carried out a series of targeted arrests, thwarted the terrorists’ plans.

In the fall of 2002, Georgia began an anti-terrorist operation in the Pankisi Gorge, which became the base of several detachments of up to one thousand Chechen militants. Gelayev, sensing danger, managed with his people to cross into the territory of North Ossetia, defeating one of the border outposts.

Russian security forces almost instantly blocked the area, preparing a major military operation. But the hardened wolf Gelayev broke through the cordons and went to his native mountains of Chechnya. Along the way, the militants managed to shoot down a virtually invulnerable Mi-24 combat helicopter, which became their last victory.

Throughout 2003, FSB special forces and army intelligence soldiers pursued a small detachment of Gelayevites (about 50-70 people), but he constantly managed to elude pursuit. According to unofficial information, Akhmat Kadyrov, who headed Chechnya at that time, repeatedly suggested that Gelayev lay down his arms, guaranteeing immunity (and the word of a man in this republic is valued above all else). But Ruslan, who by that time had adopted the religious name Khamzat, did not want to negotiate with a man whom he considered an enemy.

Decline of fame and life

The last page of the history of this field commander began at the end of November 2003, when the detachment he led tried to return to Georgia, but did not have time to pass the Batsy-Butsa pass, which by that time was covered with snow. It turned out that Ruslan Gelayev, who had avoided enemy ambushes many times, led his people into a natural trap - as if the ancient Caucasus itself was tired of his raids.

On the night of December 15, 2003, Gelayev’s detachment, consisting of 36 fighters, took the last battle and was completely defeated, and some of the terrorists were forced to surrender. When the security forces examined the battle site the next morning, they were unable to find the body of Ruslan-Khamzat, who again deceived the military who were hunting him. He literally disappeared - as it turned out, hiding with a local shepherd.

The next news about Gelayev appeared only on February 28, 2004, when, while trying to cross the Russian-Georgian border, he accidentally ran into two Dagestan border guards. By and large, the guys had no chance in the fight against such a serious opponent. But in a short battle, before dying, one of them managed to fire an accurate burst, shattering the elbow of the Black Angel’s left arm.

Defeat yourself

A seasoned wolf, caught in a hunter's trap, bites off its own paw in order to preserve life and freedom. Ruslan Gelayev did the same, without anesthesia he cut off his left arm, which prevented him from moving and threatened blood poisoning with subsequent gangrene. He applied a tourniquet himself in an attempt to stop the bleeding. Then, to maintain his dwindling strength, he chewed some Nescafe instant coffee, took a bite of a piece of Alenka chocolate bar (all this is not an advertisement, but fragments of the official report of the Federal Border Service) and moved on. Even when he was unable to walk due to blood loss, he continued to move on his knees. He managed to crawl another 50 meters from the crash site before he lost consciousness from loss of blood and died.

Border guards who arrived at the scene of the battle discovered the body of the “Black Angel,” frozen in motion, leaning on the only remaining hand, which contained a piece of milk chocolate. Until his last breath, he crawled forward, towards freedom, as a seasoned wolf would certainly do - or, in Chechen, a greyhound.

* * *

This article does not have the goal of idealizing one of the leaders of the Chechen separatists, but it is impossible not to mention this person. Despite the fact that Ruslan Gelayev remained an enemy of the Russians until the last moments of his life, he was not seen in looting, kidnapping or trafficking, and enjoyed unquestioned authority among the local population.

He was a very serious opponent, worthy of real respect, and the greater the merits of ordinary conscripts, border guards and Russian special forces soldiers who were able to defeat him, restoring peace in Chechnya.

Photo: Ruslan Gelayev and the future leader of the Caucasus Emirate Doku Umarov

IN THE PRESS HE WAS OFTEN CALLED “THE CHECHEN ROBIN HOOD”

Ruslan (Khamzat) Gelayev is one of the top commanders of the Chechen separatists, who occupied third position in the secret table of ranks after the head of the Chechen Republic of Ichryssia Aslan Maskhadov and terrorist No. 1 Shamil Basayev.

TO REACH THE TREASURED BORDER

Field commander Gelayev (who changed the name “Ruslan” to “Khamzat”) held high positions in the Armed Forces of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria and the subsequent, after the defeat of the ChRI, armed underground up to the commander-in-chief (from May 2002 until his death).

"Division General". Participant in the war in Abkhazia in 1992-1993 (together with Shamil Basayev). The creator of the Ichkerian special forces detachment “Borz” (i.e. “Wolf”), which included both veterans of the war in Abkhazia and criminal elements. Had the radio call signs “Angel”, “Black Angel” and “Old Man”.

In the Russian press of that period he was often called the “Chechen Robin Hood.”

Until the death of Ruslan Gelayev, the head of Chechnya, Akhmat-Khadzhi Kadyrov, did not lose hope of winning him over to his side, and with him the warring Ichkeria. “I’m ready to meet even with the devil for the sake of peace in our republic,” he said.

...On the night of December 15, 2003, a detachment of thirty-six militants personally led by Gelayev from the territory of Chechnya entered the Dagestan village of Shauri. Having received a message about this from local residents, a reconnaissance and search group of the Mokok border outpost, consisting of nine military personnel, under the command of the head of the outpost, Captain Radim Khalikov, moved there in a GAZ car.

Gelayev himself, setting an example for his fighters, went out onto the road and opened fire on the car, either from a Degtyarev machine gun or from a sniper rifle. While finishing off the wounded, Gelayev simultaneously shot his own fighter: “The tenth victim of this massacre was a young Avar militant. Gelayev gave him a bayonet and ordered to cut off the head of his fellow countryman, the wounded captain Khalikov. The militant refused..." the Kommersant newspaper reported.

A large-scale military operation was launched against the militants, involving artillery, aviation (army and border) and armored vehicles. The Gelayevites split up and tried to escape, but during fierce battles that lasted several weeks, most of the detachment was destroyed, some were captured, and some managed to escape through the passes to Georgia and Chechnya.

...On February 28, 2004, according to the prevailing version, Gelayev was killed during a clash with a squad of “green caps” near the Bezhta outpost.

Having separated, Gelayev went to the village of Nizhnie Khvarshini. There, in one of the sheds not far from the village, he healed his wounds for almost two months. Due to the fact that he could not have completed the main route along which Gelayev planned to leave for Georgia alone, he was offered an easier route - along the Avar-Kakheti road, which has long connected the residents of Bezht with the Avar villages of Georgia - Saruso, Chantles -Kure.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, local activists began to build a road to the Georgian border for vehicle traffic in the hope that a border guard checkpoint would be opened there. Thus, almost to the border there was a good and passable (even in winter) road.

Regarding the border guards, Gelayev was assured that they were not on this road in winter. However, the “Black Angel” still came across two fighters sent to check on the unknown (official version) or who went AWOL (unofficial version). Gelayev shot them during a quick battle, but he himself was seriously wounded - the bone of his arm was broken and hung on the tendons.

Bleeding, Gelayev covered several hundred meters, sat down near a tree on the river bank and cut off his wounded hand. A few minutes later he died from blood loss and painful shock.

“The picture of the last minutes of Gelayev’s life was reconstructed in detail by experts and described in great detail,” our newspaper “Spetsnaz of Russia” reported then. “It was becoming more and more difficult for him to take each step, as blood was gushing from his crushed left arm. The commander, who decided to sacrifice part of himself rather than lose everything, stopped about fifty meters from the battlefield, cut off his left hand and threw it into the snow along with the knife. Then he took out a rubber band, put it on the arm, took a few more steps and fell.

He managed to get up with great difficulty. After walking a few dozen steps, Gelayev stopped, took a can of Nescafe instant coffee out of his pocket and, opening it with all his strength, began chewing the granules, hoping that the coffee would cheer him up and help him reach the cherished border. Then Ruslan Gelayev took out and bit into a bar of Alyonka chocolate, after which he fell and crawled again.”

On February 29, 2004, at about 15:00 local time, Gelayev’s body was discovered by a detachment of border guards.

“I was the first to see Gelayev dead,” said the deputy commander of the Bezhta outpost, Lieutenant A. Nechaev. - True, then I didn’t know that it was Gelayev. On the morning of February 29, I and the soldiers of our outpost went out in search of Kurbanov and Suleymanov who had not returned from the mission. We followed their tracks for several kilometers when I saw a stranger leaning with his back against a tree. Dressed in a warm civilian jacket, warm pants and rubber boots, he did not move. I ordered one of the fighters to take aim at him and began to slowly approach.

The first thing I noticed as I came closer was that the stranger’s eyes were wide open, the pupils rolled upward, but were visible. He looked very neat, it was noticeable that he spent the last days of his life in contentment, then it turned out that even his chest was completely shaved, and he himself was all shaved, and his beard was neatly trimmed, and he was wearing clean, warm woolen socks on his feet. Under the unbuttoned jacket, an unloading container with five magazines was visible.

A machine gun and a grenade lay nearby. There was nothing more, at least at first glance. I radioed the emergency team. It was she who discovered our dead guys.”

The dead contract soldiers Mukhtar Suleymanov and Abdulkhalik Kurbanov were posthumously awarded the title of Heroes of Russia.

As already noted, this is the official version.

According to the second version, Gelayev died on February 29, either coming under fire from a helicopter sent to search for missing soldiers, or being buried by an avalanche.

The version that Gelayev was carried away by an avalanche, oddly enough, began to be supported by the “Ichkerians”, “Imaratchiks” and other radicals themselves. At the same time, the last minutes of Gelayev’s life were described in ridiculous detail, including how he stood leaning against a rock and fired at Russian aircraft from a light machine gun...

Reserve Major Alexander Egorov, the author of an article in "Special Forces of Russia", in three extensive publications for February-April 2015, outlined the third version in the context of everything that was happening then in the North Caucasus. The title of the publication is “The End of the Black Angel.” Operation in the mountains of the “Andean Koisu”.

At the time of the events described, Alexander Egorov had the military rank of “senior lieutenant” and held the position of commander of a reconnaissance unit (commander of a detachment reconnaissance platoon - non-staff company commander) in the 487th Zheleznovodsk Border Special Purpose Detachment (POGUN).

In the most difficult conditions of the winter mountains, Egorov’s group inflicted serious damage on the Gelayevites. And most importantly, as the prisoners later told Yegorov, three iconic figures were killed in that battle, and Gelayev himself was wounded.

The first person killed was the commander of the Arab mercenaries Abu al-Walid and the successor in this capacity to the “Black Arab” Khattab. A career employee of one of the Saudi intelligence services. Professional miner, saboteur-demolitionist. One of the most dangerous enemies of Russia in the North Caucasus. It was he who was among those who planned and paid for the explosion of a military hospital in Mozdok in the summer of 2003. An acquaintance of Osama bin Laden from the war in Afghanistan against the Kabul authorities and Soviet troops.

The second is the criminal “authority” and ally of Dzhokhar Dudayev, foreign emissary and propagandist Khozh-Akhmed Nukhaev. The hero of the book by the editor-in-chief of the Russian version of Forbes magazine, Paul Klebnikov, “Conversation with a Barbarian,” published in the summer of 2003, and he, Nukhaev, ordered the murder of this American journalist.

Indirect confirmation of Nukhaev’s death is the fact that the newspapers “Ichkeria” and “Mekhk-Khel” sponsored by him, which were published underground in Chechnya, have since ceased to appear. No new publications by Nukhaev on the topics of Russian-Chechen and international relations have appeared.

The popular Ichkerian bard performer Timur Mutsuraev, who sang the “Gelaevsky special forces” and the armed struggle of the Chechen separatists against Russia, also found his death at the hands of the border special forces.

According to some reports, the site of the battle on the summer farm "Rekho" was even considered holy among the Wahhabis for some time; there were several revered graves there that were visited by Islamists, one of them is associated with Abu al-Walid.

EGOROV'S VERSION

A month after the special operation in the mountains, the head of UNPOG, Colonel Valery Gorshkov, set Egorov the task of delivering from the Vladikavkaz pre-trial detention center three militants detained by the Georgian border police and handed over to the Russian side.

“During the transfer, I learned from them that they took part in that battle at the cliff,” recalls Alexander Egorov. “The raid by the border guards was unexpected for them; they still didn’t understand how we managed to capture the lead patrol and silently approach the outpost. In battle, they did not see the border guards and considered them ghosts.

The militants were sure that they were fighting with an officer sniper group from the army special forces of the GRU General Staff. After the fighting, they took refuge in the basement of a school in the village of Khushet, and Gelayev lived in the house of the school director.

They also said that during the fighting, border guards killed more than twelve militants, among them Timur Mutsuraev, Khozh-Akhmed Nukhaev, Abu al-Walid. They had to throw several corpses into the Andean Koisu River so that the federal authorities could not identify them: they were very important and respected in their environment.

I learned partial confirmation of this information and the version of Gelayev’s death from several trusted people, including from Magomed, when a month later I found myself in the places where the battles took place. Magomed said that the militants actually took refuge in the basement of the school, and when the troops left, they left too.

As for Gelayev, he lived with the school director for several more weeks. At the end of January, he attempted to cross the Russian state border with Georgia near the village of Khushet. Sent five militants to the village of Diklo in Georgia. Three of them were detained by the Georgian border police and handed over to Russia, and two safely reached the Pankisi Gorge, but did not make contact.

After this, Gelayev, through local residents and, possibly, a police officer, was transported to the village of Metrada, then by police vehicles to the village of Bezhta. This was testified to by several local residents who saw a police car drive up to the village on February 27, 2004, and three people get out of it, one of them was Ruslan Gelayev.

Everything was prepared for the transition. They were expected here. Light signals were periodically sent from the pass. According to the unofficial version, while crossing the state border on the slope of the Simbiriskhevi River gorge, the “Black Angel” was shot by the guides, possibly out of blood feud.

The death of Ruslan Gelayev in the Andean Koisu region is not includedwas included in the plans of the bloodlines. Therefore, they took him away from the Andean Koisu - to the Avar. There he was executed according to rituals of blood feud.

In addition, he had the gang’s cash register; according to some sources, Ruslan Gelayev alone had about 2 million dollars. Some of the money was hidden in a cache in the area of ​​the Reho summer camp.”

Here's the version.

By the way, in the film by military journalist Alexander Sladkov “The End of the Black Angel” the cut of a 7.62 mm bullet on the forearm of Ruslan Gelayev is clearly shown.

Militants, like mountaineers, do not like a 5.45 mm assault rifle, since it is ineffective in the mountains. They prefer the AKM-7.62mm. The border service is armed with the AK-74 (5.45 mm caliber) and AKS-5.45 mm, with the exception of special forces.

All participants in the battle at the rock were presented with the Order of Courage, and some of them, according to Alexander Egorov, should have received “Heroes of Russia”. However, this did not happen.

Photo: This is not a photo of friends. In black - captured militants, in camouflage - border guards

OPERATION IN THE ANDEAN KOISU MOUNTAINS

Continuation.

Loaded with border guards in full combat gear, the Mi-8 helicopters, like huge bumblebees, reluctantly soared into the sky and headed towards the mountains sparkling in the distance with white snow. I looked out the window, watched how the flat landscapes smoothly turned into mountain gorges, and thought about what awaited us in the upcoming operation.

In those days, I had no idea what challenges lay ahead and what life lessons we would have to accept. But he perfectly understood and realized that “war is an area of ​​uncertainty, and three-quarters of the action lies in the fog of the unknown. No matter how well operational (intelligence) and military intelligence units work.

The headquarters leadership will never have all the information about the enemy at its disposal. And any commander has only one thing left to do: dare and take risks. Whoever sees more in war receives a great advantage, this is what commanders and superiors taught me. To anticipate means to predict the enemy. In war, as in a game: to win a battle, you need to create confusion and disorder in the ranks of the enemy, bring him to an emotional level, impose on him your tactical scenario, military cunning, know and apply the psychology of battle, and then use the situation and the result to your advantage .

War is not only forceful opposition, but also work on the mental level, and the struggle for human souls. Nowhere does a person face so many dangers as in battle. Bombs, shells, grenades explode, bullets whistle, smoke fills the space, not only the earth, but also people trembles and shakes. People behave differently in such an environment, some are worthless soldiers, some are good fighters, some undoubtedly have military talent.

All these soldiers have one thing in common - love for the Motherland, moral and moral position, teamwork, responsibility, honesty, the ability to obey their commanders, see, believe and move towards their goals.

A soldier is one of our most valuable assets and must be treated with respect and self-esteem, as if he were his own children, since the success of any battle depends on him. Every person wants to be successful and live a long and happy life. But not everyone is ready to sacrifice their life for the sake of protecting the Fatherland and the prosperity of their country and other people.

Nobody wants to die. Life must be appreciated, it is a priceless gift of fate. And you need to live it in such a way that you are not ashamed of your actions; every day you need to learn to live, rejoice, love and respect the people around you. Being a successful and happy person is a very large and multifaceted concept.

Undoubtedly, if you understand and accept these laws, the world takes care of you, and war is no exception. If you are the author of your life, then you receive self-confidence as a gift from this world, the result is victory and satisfaction from the work done, and if you are a victim or a predator - death, injury and defeat of the unit.

The enemy can and should be hated, but at the same time it is necessary to respect him, treat prisoners with mercy, and provide assistance to the wounded. Be grateful for your studies and experiences. If there is no respect for the enemy, there will be no desire to study his intentions and plans. And, of course, it is very important for every soldier to recognize the state for his services to his homeland, not only for courage, courage and valor, but also for the task completed, depending on the degree of importance and benefit to the state, society and the individual.

At the GRU army special forces training center, this knowledge was classified as “Secret” and was included in the special discipline section “unconventional methods of warfare.” So I taught my fighters to love and respect the people around you and this beautiful world, to serve people and their homeland, and most importantly, to be a successful and happy person in life.

ACT ACCORDING TO CIRCUMSTANCES

As often happens, a person assumes, but life disposes. Our first stop was at the Makok outpost. When many forces from different departments are involved in operations, duplication of tasks occurs and something important is missed. That's what happened this time too. Whether interdepartmental competition or other motives played a cruel joke on my platoon, I don’t know.

As it turned out later, the situation changed significantly, and the management of the operation completely passed into the hands of the interdepartmental operational headquarters, led by a group of senior officers: General Bakhin (Russian Defense Ministry), Streltsov (PS FSB of Russia) and Magomedtagirov (Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia).

The actions of the border guards and special forces of the FSB were directly controlled by the deputy head of the North Caucasus regional border department of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Nikolaevich Streltsov, at that time a major general.

The task that the general set for me was already carried out by the GRU special forces. Then I remembered his phrase: “In case of an unforeseen situation, act according to the circumstances.” These are the circumstances that have arisen.

The group did not work alone. Four reconnaissance platoons of the Zheleznovodsk border detachment, like mine, landed at the Makok, Kioni and Khushet outposts with the task of preventing an illegal armed formation from breaking through from the blocked area towards the state border.

In the Khushetsky sector, where Dagestan on the border with Georgia adjoins Chechnya, general operational leadership was exercised by Colonel Marcel Rashidovich Sakaev, at that time the chief of staff of the linear border detachment (Khunzakh POGO).

Together with him, we developed a new task for my platoon. This task was not easy. It was necessary to reach the Zhirbak pass and block the path to the movement of the militants. As it turned out later, this was the most threatening direction.

At the pass, I could act at my own discretion: organize searches, observation and listening points, and, if necessary, ambushes.

At dawn the next day we moved towards the pass, with difficulty clearing our way along the ancient path leading from the village of Khushet to the Zhirbak pass.

The ancient path, which survived thanks to the local residents who used it as a means of communication between the villages of Dagestan and Georgia, was almost invisible in the mountainous area.

Despite the proximity of the pass, the entire journey took us several hours. In some places, the depth of the snow cover reached one and a half meters, and gusts of wind knocked people off their feet. We navigated avalanche-prone areas with extreme caution. Sometimes it seemed that there was nothing around except white snow, icy wind and face-scorching blizzard. We were either drenched in sweat or freezing from the wind, and what lay ahead was a tedious stay on the cold pass.

When we arrived at the site, the wind suddenly died down and visibility improved. Quickly changing into dry clothes, the group settled down as usual on the pass, establishing observation in sectors: in the west was the Main Caucasus Range, in the north and south its spurs covered with snow spread out, and the old village of Tseykhelakh was visible on the left.

The beautiful view of the majestic mountains and the expanse that opened up to our eyes were mesmerizing. Despite the danger and cold, we could not help but admire the picture that opened up. Everything was clearly visible: the edge of the forest, the village, the road running away from the village into the distance, snow-covered alpine meadows and separate sheds.

There were no signs of militants anywhere. The frost intensified; warm clothes did not protect against the piercing cold. The approaching night at the pass threatened with serious frostbite and loss of combat effectiveness. Therefore, I made a decision: when it got dark, I would go down to the sheds.

Leaving an observation and listening point at the pass, at dusk we moved towards the sheds. Carefully passing by the pilot "Reho", the platoon, taking precautions, approached the outer shed. It contained livestock: cows, bulls and sheep. This means that local residents visited it periodically. Judging by the map, we were only 1.5-2 kilometers from the village of Tseykhelakh.

The lead reconnaissance patrol inspected the buildings, and we chose a fairly spacious barn for placement. It was cold inside, but still much warmer than outside. It protected from wind and snow. Having posted a guard, we whiled away the night.

The next morning an old man came to the sheds. Passing by the barn in which our group was located, he looked inside and was confused when he saw armed men in white camouflage coats.

I knew about his approach from security, so I was ready to meet him.

“Salaam Allaikum,” I greeted him.

“Allaykum al-Salam,” answered the old man.

After the greeting, he softened a little, even calmed down. He was still a strong old man with a thick dark red beard and a wary look in his brown eyes. He was wearing a sheepskin coat, chrome army boots, and a gray hat crowned his head.

Trying to be as friendly as possible, I introduced myself:

— Commander of the intelligence unit of the border service, senior lieutenant Alexander Egorov.

Then he invited him to sit on a makeshift bench. The old man gave his name as Ali and said that he was from the village of Tseykhelakh.

Knowing the dislike of the local population for the alien bandits, as well as religious contradictions, I told him that we are not enemies of the locals and want the same thing as them - to remove the bandits from the area. If he finds it possible to help us in any way, we will be grateful.

The old man said that with the appearance of bandits, grief and misfortune settled in the area, so he will try to help us in capturing the bandits.

I also asked permission to stay in this barn for a while.

“Okay, I’ll give it to the owner of the sheepfold,” Ali answered.

At this point we parted.

An hour later, a young man appeared from the direction of the village of Tseykhelakh. The watchmen escorted him to me.

The local resident turned out to be the owner of the shed. He was dressed almost the same as the old man, only there was more confidence and energy in his movements. He called himself Magomed. During the conversation, Magomed kindly allowed us to use the barn at our discretion, but only asked us not to touch the livestock. He also said that Ali ordered the following to be conveyed: local residents saw armed people on the path below the village. These are not military. Below the village there are also sheds, where militants can hide.

At the border, a common misfortune always united the local population with the border guards, so I had every reason to trust the information received from the young man. But, like any information received from an unverified source, it required confirmation.

Having divided the platoon into combat crews - security, observation, search and rest - I began reconnaissance and search operations. Our location was favorable: the approaches to the pass and to the village were under control, through which we could reach the administrative and state border. Also, at any moment it was possible to block the approaches to the bridge and the path to the village of Tseykhelakh, as well as to the Zhirbak pass. We had to inspect a large area of ​​mountain slopes and try to identify the presence of militants.

START OF OPERATION

Signalman Pavlov with a radio station was located next to me, nearby there was a military guard: Evgeniy Golovchak, Pavel Shashkov, Anton Gruzdev. I heard intense radio traffic on the air. Our communication was closed, and there was no fear that the militants would be able to listen to the conversations of the joint group.

From the beginning of the operation, it became clear that several groups of militants were operating in the Andean and Avar Koisu areas and the ambush on the Makok border outpost was not an accident, but a provocation - a game of “cat and mouse” by the militants.

Meanwhile, the bandits chose new tactics. But this became known later, after interrogations of captured militants. Most of them had to sit in caches and mountain villages, then secretly leave the area of ​​​​the counter-terrorist operation, using infiltration tactics. The general leadership of the main group for the withdrawal of gangs was carried out by Shamil Basayev.

The remaining two groups of 35 people each played the role of “live bait”, the first was the main one, led by field commander Ruslan Gelayev, the second was auxiliary under the leadership of Doku Umarov. They actively interacted with each other, created the illusion of one group and diverted attention to themselves and led federal forces towards the state border with Georgia.

Also in Ruslan Gelayev’s group was an Arab mercenary, Saudi Arabian intelligence officer Colonel Aziz bin Said bin Ali al-Hamadi (Abu al-Walid al-Hamadi), as well as a brigadier general, head of the “Istanbul Bureau” (foreign intelligence of the Republic of Ichkeria) Khozh-Akhmed Nukhaev.

The operation to neutralize the militants was entering a decisive phase.

One of the Ministry of Defense special forces teams operating at the top of the Kusa Ridge discovered the bandits moving in the direction of the Andean Koisu and transmitted coordinates for a bombing attack.

The mortar battery of the Zheleznovodsk POGOUN and attack aircraft processed the indicated square. The militants suffered losses. The wounded and killed militants were transferred to Doku Umarov's group. It was located in a mountain cleft, in the area of ​​​​upper Khvarsheni. The second group headed to the Zhirbak pass area.

Only by lunchtime on December 31st were the GRU special forces able to break through and reach the cave, which my reconnaissance platoon was originally supposed to inspect. Seriously wounded and bodies of dead militants were found there.

Aviation was actively working from dawn, fortunately the weather allowed. Active search and reconnaissance activities were carried out. Border helicopters made sorties. Army aviation carried out strikes on places where militants were likely to gather and move. Ground teams from various departments inspected areas of the area. But so far not a single militant, camp or base has been discovered. There was no confirmation of information about the destruction of militants in the areas of bombing strikes. But, most importantly, there was not a single prisoner to obtain reliable information about the whereabouts of the bandits.

The patrols that I sent to inspect the area have not yet discovered the presence of militants; there was no information from the observation and listening post that I left at the pass. “Did they fall through the ground, or what?” - was spinning in my head.

There were practically no traces of the presence of the militants, only two or three days ago, left by local residents on a trampled snowy path.

Several times already I reported on the radio station about the results, or rather about their absence. From the speaker, along with the crackle of radio interference, came the irritated voice of the communications chief of the Zheleznovodsk detachment, Lieutenant Colonel Ogorodnikov:

- You're doing a bad job! Look better, Elbrus.

After lunch, the owner of the sheds came to us. It was clear from Magomed’s appearance that he was excited. For a more confidential contact, I went with him to a nearby barn. He told me the following:

“There are bandits on the opposite slope behind the bridge; we couldn’t determine how many there are, but there will be about twenty for sure.” For several days they visually observed the sheepfold and mistook it for a remote village. All with machine guns, well equipped, they require food, warm clothing and a guide from the owners of the sheds to leave for Georgia. At night, two militants must move to the lower barns and organize a meeting with another group located in the village of Tseykhelakh.

Magomed also said that the militants know for sure about the presence of border guards at the pass and are planning to destroy them. They don’t know anything about us; they saw two of our border guards in the evening, but mistook them for locals.

This was a chance! I perked up. This was valuable information and confirmed what had been received earlier. Thanking Magomed for his help and returning to the barn, I laid out a topographic map on a rickety chair and called the senior subgroups.

The meeting was short-lived. To verify the information received, we decided to send two subgroups, two people each, to observe the enemy and listen to the area. One was led by contract serviceman “Stary”, the other was led by conscript soldier Private Sergei Timofeev.

As dusk approached, the subgroups, having equipped themselves, set off towards the lower sheds. They managed to get close enough to them without being noticed. The connection was stable, and I received real-time information about what was happening near the lower sheds.

The first three hours of observation did not yield any results. The night also brought little information: a subgroup led by Private Timofeev heard human voices coming from the lower sheds, and saw faint lights on the opposite slope: either from a flashlight, or from a gas burner for cooking.

At dawn, the patrolmen clearly distinguished the silhouettes of people with weapons on the opposite slope. People came out of the lowest shed several times to go to the toilet. Despite the fact that they had no weapons, they could not be local residents. The information received from Ali and Magomed was confirmed.

AMBUSH AND FIRST BATTLE

The decision to conduct an ambush came naturally. On December 29, at about 9 a.m., the reconnaissance platoon secretly advanced. The ambush site was chosen at the dead point of the upper shed, where the area was not visible from the opposite slope and lower sheds. It, this place, was located at the exit of the path towards the village of Tseykhelakh. The exit route was scouted in advance by subgroups of observation and listening.

The location was convenient: it allowed us to control the sheds, the trail and part of the village. Having taken positions, we hid. Long hours passed in anxious anticipation and complete radio silence.

- “Elbrus”, I am “Falcon”. There is some kind of bustle in the village, women often move from house to house, perhaps there are strangers in the village.

- Okay, I accepted! - I answered them. - Continue observing...

The watchmen Alexander Blagodatsky and Sergei Pavlov, who were under observation, were experienced border guards, so I took their message very seriously, and for good reason.

About ten minutes later, two armed men dressed as local residents appeared from the direction of the village. There are quite a lot of weapons in the Dagestan mountains and their presence does not mean they belong to militants, but something in their behavior was alarming. They walked somehow stealthily, constantly looking around. Observer Blagodatsky reported to me in time about their movement towards the sheds. There were only two bandits, so they decided to capture them.

Since we were still hidden from the enemy by the curve of the mountain, I gave the command to the capture group to go down and I went with them. We hid almost right next to the path. White camouflage coats hid our presence, and I hoped that it would be possible to take the enemy by surprise and capture. At the same time, the fire subgroups remaining in positions kept the bandits at gunpoint.

A few minutes later, bearded men armed with machine guns appeared on the slope. We pressed ourselves into the snow and froze. I didn’t have time to explain the capture actions to the fighters in detail, so I was hoping for previously worked out interaction. The bearded men held their machine guns at the ready, I only managed to whisper to the soldiers:

- We let them pass by, attack from behind.

A nervous shiver breaks through me from excitement. “If only they wouldn’t notice,” I think. The crunch of the snow under the feet of those walking seems deafeningly loud, so they pass by us and I, gathering all my strength, jump out from behind a snowdrift and, rushing at the militant closest to me, shout:

- Stop, I’ll shoot!

The militant did not have time to turn to me and point the weapon before I intercepted his barrel, and, moving it upward, hit his foot with the base of my boot. It turned out to be something between a trip and a sweep. The fighter collapsed. The fighters running after me rushed at him and instantly pinned him down.

The second militant quickly rolled onto his side and began to run towards the village of Tseykhelakh along the path. Leaving the first militant, I rush after the second. In a few jumps we manage to catch up with him. I grab his leg with my foot and move it to the inside. This is enough for the bandit’s leg, moving forward by inertia, to catch on the other leg in the area of ​​the knee bend, and the militant collapses face down.

I jump on his back and press him into the snow. The soldiers who arrived in time subdued this militant too. As it turned out later, it was the commander of the special forces battalion of Ichkeria, Khasan Khadzhiev.

Having delivered the militants to the barn where we were based, we interrogated them. It turned out that on the opposite slope, very close, Ruslan Gelayev himself was with his special forces.

Having gathered the senior subgroups, I hold a short meeting and set tasks. It was decided to split the platoon into two search and inspection groups, one of which would deal with the militants in the sheds, and the other would inspect the surrounding area and, if necessary, provide fire support to the first group.

I am reporting on the results of the capture of two militants and the information received from them. The command urgently demands to interrogate the militants on the following issues: the total number of the group, who is in command, who is the commander of our direction, where the groups are moving, their goals, tasks, etc.

To process the information received, the platoon, divided into two subgroups, began a covert advance to the sheds.

“We need to be on the spot as quickly as possible, otherwise the militants may come to their senses and go up the river,” I give instructions. I myself and the control group continue to interrogate the prisoners.

During interrogation, militant Khasan Khadzhiev says:

— In the barn near the third shed there are two more militants, waiting for the return of the head patrol from the village. Armed with a machine gun and a sniper rifle. Behind the bridge on the opposite slope there is a military outpost, and higher up is the main core of the militants. There are many odious personalities in the detachment from among the Chechens, Arabs and Afghans.

Be careful where we run, where on all fours we approach the sheds. The soldiers, silently gliding from building to building, from tree to tree, inspect the sheds.

The whispers of the senior subgroups are heard over the radio station:

- “Elbrus”, I am “Victory”! "Elbrus", I am "Dernov"! All is clear.

By radio I ask the first search group to check the information, and also inform the command about the results of the interrogation.

The radio station goes silent, and I learned later about what happened in the barn from Ensign Danila...

“When we burst into the barn,” he said, “we didn’t see any militants. In one part of the barn, behind a partition, there was hay. I fired several shots there, at places where the militants could be hiding, and then methodically began to probe the hayloft with a bayonet.

Suddenly the barrel of a machine gun pressed against my temple. I didn’t even have time to get scared, but I realized that if they wanted to kill, they would have killed right away. The militants need me either as a hostage, or they haven’t decided what to do next.

The fighters were behind the partition and did not see me, so I could only rely on my own strength. I realized this instantly, all at once. I make a sharp movement with my head forward while simultaneously striking the machine gun with my right hand. Then he grabbed the militant by the hair and threw him into the hay. The soldiers ran up to my cry, and we subdued the militant.

Unfortunately, the second militant could not be found, but his weapon (a sniper rifle) was in the barn. We shot through all possible locations of his location, he was either killed and lay under the hay, or, while the fight was going on with the first militant, he secretly jumped out and ran away. He dropped his weapon, and that saved us. I could even shoot half the group with the SVD.”

CALLING HELICOPTERS

When the captured militant came to his senses, he began to ask not to be killed, offering one hundred dollars for his life - that’s all he had.

This militant turned out to be Magomed Umarov, he willingly cooperated, told almost everything about the detachment, its composition, who is in command, which of the prominent leaders of the gangs are in the detachment, goals and objectives, etc.

The information required verification.

As I already wrote, the details of what happened in the barn became known later, and at the moment, having heard shots, I used the radio to demand from the senior search subgroups that were inspecting the area to block the approaches to the sheds. Therefore, if the second militant did jump out of the barn, he would not be able to warn his own people.

The Pobeda subgroup took up positions on top of the plateau, where the opposite slope was clearly visible, and provided fire cover for the first search subgroup. On the opposite slope, about three hundred meters from the sheds, the search group saw militants.

The soldiers carefully descended to the bridge. The militants did not suspect anything; it was a huge success. Apparently, the shots in the sheds, distorted by the echo, were either not heard or were heard from the other side. They sat calmly near the fire, weapons hanging on tree branches, machine guns placed on the flanks.

The fighters got their bearings instantly: they dispersed and lay down, taking up multi-tiered positions. The remnants of the Pobeda subgroup, which worked in the sheds, also pulled up to the subgroup that had already taken up defensive positions.

Without waiting for the bandits to discover the border guards, warrant officers Yuri Letsky and Pavel Dernov opened fire with silent weapons. Warrant officer Danila and contract service junior sergeant “Stary” bypassed the militants from the left flank and opened fire from a convenient position.

Trying to get closer to the enemy, warrant officer Dernov and a contract soldier crossed the bridge, but came under heavy fire from small arms, they were bombarded with homemade grenades (“khattabkas”) and RGN and F-1 grenades.

The deuce was cut off from the main forces.

- "Elbrus", "Elbrus"! - the station came to life in Ogorodnikov's voice, - urgently change the border radio station to the army R-159 and your call signs. Output on spare frequencies. The enemy has captured the border radio station and is listening to the airwaves.

I go out on the indicated frequencies, in response:

— Urgently cover the direction of the village of Tseykhelakh. A group of several dozen militants is moving in your direction.

Subsequently it became known that this was Doku Umarov’s group.

I could not cover the direction to Tseykhelakh, all that remained was to transmit a false message on the border frequency that reinforcements had arrived in the area of ​​the Zhirbak pass and had moved forward to clean up the area of ​​the village of Tseykhelakh, and that a barrier towards the village of Tseykhelakh had already been organized. The latter was true, but at that moment it consisted of only two conscripts - privates Alexei Shumeiko and Mikhail Famushkin, who were watching the path leading to the village.

Part of the reinforcement subgroup approached. The scouts took up multi-tiered positions and also opened fire.

My platoon fought. By this time, the management group and I were already on site and actively involved in what was happening. I have a grinding sound in my ears: either tracks on a steel sheet, or radio operator Pavlov’s teeth in his headphones. Over the radio, someone shouted: “Take the unit out of the battle!”

Not paying attention to orders from outside, I give the command to tie up the enemy’s actions with fire, I order the two of Ensign Dernov to take shelter in place for now, since the bridge was well under fire. After that I call a helicopter support team.

- “Elbrus”, “Highlander”! Take your unit out of the battle! — again and again I hear someone’s distant creaky voice and suddenly I understand that it is a senior reinforcement officer, chief of communications, Lieutenant Colonel Ogorodnikov.

At this time I see sparks flying off the rocks, the militants opened fire in return.

The radio station reported that in another gorge our “father,” the detachment commander, Colonel Gorshkov, and the scouts of Senior Lieutenant Mogilnikov got into a mess. The helicopter pair mistook them for militants and attacked. Thank God, everything worked out.

The enemy was pinned to the ground and had no opportunity to retreat. Soon combat helicopters of the border troops appeared. I switched to working with aviation. The radio station for communication with aviation provided a stable connection, and the pilots had experience working with an aircraft controller. I reported my coordinates, identified myself as a rocket and began controlling the fire of the helicopters. The NURS began to precisely cover the location of the bandits.

After making several passes, the helicopters left. One machine gun point was destroyed. However, the second machine gun, located above and away from the main location of the bandits, still continued to fire. Machine gunner Private Alexander Potapov, sniper Danila and machine gunner Nikolai Tebelesh entered into a fire duel with them, everyone else also concentrated fire on the enemy machine gun, and soon it fell silent.

Our cut-off team returned to their positions without losses. Early winter twilight interrupted the battle.

I got in touch and reported to Lieutenant Colonel Ogorodnikov about the results of the first day of the battle:

— Three militants were captured, and six were visually destroyed.

Soon the remnants of the reinforcement arrived and an officer from the group’s headquarters arrived to pick up the captured militants. I was glad to get rid of the burden and handed them over with relief, after which the group immediately left for headquarters. It was decided to postpone the inspection of the results of the clash until the morning, and we all returned to our barn.

Having set up tents inside the barn and lit the stove in it, the platoon spent the night relatively calmly. And although the tension of the last day took its toll, we were still able to rest a little and regain our strength.

IN THE WOODS OF MILITATORS

On December 30, early in the frosty morning, Alexey Karychev, at my command, prepared his anti-sniper rifle for shooting, which was very similar to an anti-tank rifle from the period of the Great Patriotic War.

He began to aim at the target using the glare above the battle area. The rifle shook, stunning the sniper. The gun barrel flew back and spewed out a ringing, smoky cartridge case. The shot was fired from a distance of one kilometer. Subsequently, from the interrogation of the prisoners, we found out that the bullet hit a huge stone between two militants, which split in half. I observed the results of the sniper's work through binoculars.

In response, machine gun fire barked. The militants could not understand where they were shooting from. The second shot completely drove them crazy. They hastily began to hide behind trees and rocks.

- Fire!

A blow to the ears, and the cartridge case rings again. The smell of the bewitching poisonous aroma of powder gases intoxicated the heads of the fighters. My head was spinning from the roar of sniper fire echoing from the rocks along the gorge. And no force will hold back the scouts. They are born for battle and victory.

- Beat them! - the soldiers shout.

At about 11 o'clock, soldiers from the reconnaissance platoon of senior lieutenant Rodny and several people from the Khushet outpost arrived to help my platoon. We inspected the site of yesterday's battle with them.

The reinforced group first approached the path at the point where it meanders down to a narrow gorge.

Only a few people from the second reinforcement group came down to us. Senior Lieutenant Rodny and the ensign, his deputy, were not among them. “It’s strange,” I thought, “the experienced guys: are they really lost in the dense forest?” “Everything is possible in the mountains.”

Having gathered the remnants of the reinforcement group, I set a new task, redistributed the subgroups, and appointed seniors to them. He left the fire subgroup behind the bridge at the edge of the forest as a reserve. Private Alexander Potapov was assigned to it with the task of covering the subgroups conducting the search.

I assigned privates Vladimir Kolesnikov, Alexei Kuznetsov, Alexei Sorokin to take positions from the left flank, and privates Sergei Timofeev, Evgeniy Golovchak, Anton Antipin, Alexei Karychev and Vladimir Dyachkov from the right flank.

He considered the two contract soldiers from the outposts to be experienced fighters and took them with him.

With this composition I inspected the site of yesterday's battle.

The group crossed the bridge across the Andiyskoe Koisu River, over which the pair of warrant officer Pavel Dernov crossed yesterday, then to the place where the bandits were.

We hit a steep slope. We had to go steeply up through a snow-covered forest. We stopped. The silence that surrounded us was alarming. Everyone felt an unconscious sense of danger.

At the edge of the forest lay the corpses of three killed militants. Three more were missing; perhaps they were only wounded, and the militants carried them away. Scouts cordoned off the battlefield.

The surrounding area did not reveal the presence of the enemy.

The experienced eyes of the scouts did not find the slightest sign of danger.

Some of the fighters took up a perimeter defense, others searched the corpses of the militants. Material evidence was confiscated. Everything is trampled all around, religious literature, packages, audio and video cassettes are lying around. Separately at the top was a size 40 boot. I take it and apply it to the bare foot of the killed militant; the shoe is clearly someone else’s. The corpse is size 45, which means someone left.

At this time, commands to retreat were heard from the radio station. The voice was unfamiliar. “Who else but me can give such commands? - flashed through my head. “Maybe the militants at the captured station are fooling around, or the border guards got something wrong out of fear?” Addressing on the radio without call signs. And it doesn’t seem like it. This is deza. These are action movies. Only forward!

FIGHT AT THE ROCK

Having completed the inspection, we move further along the path of the probable withdrawal of the militants. We carefully entered the forest and began to climb the slope. For several hundred meters - no one. Let's go ahead with Vasily Okulov. He is on the left, and I am on the right, step by step we remove layers of snow and smell it. Suddenly Private Okulov froze not far from the climbing frame and motioned me over to him. A clear, fresh trail left by a dozen people led up the slope. I answered him:

“I have the same tracks, only they go up to the right, behind the rock.

We do not dare to follow the trail directly.

I leave Vasily to cover the left flank. I begin the climb parallel to the trail, about 50 meters on the left. The climb there is much more difficult, but the likelihood that militants are expecting us from this direction is less.

After ten minutes of climbing, I literally stumble upon bandits guarding me: two bandits are lying under the rock cover, the other two are on its visor. Fortunately, I was not in their observation sector and on the leeward side, so they did not notice me.

At the sight of the bandits, contract soldier Javatkhan assigned to the group “fell into a stupor”: he froze and did not respond to any commands. I had to throw him into the snow and shake him a couple of times. This brought him to his senses a little, but it was impossible to fight with such “ballast”, and I, accompanied by a second contractor (they were both from the outpost), sent them down, without even thinking that I was left alone in close proximity to the bandits.

On their way down, the contract soldiers made a noise. One of the militants decided to look at the source - the crunch of snow. Coming out from behind the rock, he saw me. The distance between us was about three meters. Our eyes met. Have you seen how cats' fur stands on end when they are in mortal danger? Something similar happened to me. Goosebumps ran down my back and legs, instantly turning my body into a coiled spring.

I remember everything next as if in a slow motion movie. The militant is trying to jerk the bolt of the machine gun, but in his excitement he forgot that he has the safety on - he removes the safety, but the bolt frame is frozen in the cold and does not fire a cartridge into the chamber.

Meanwhile, the visor came to life, from which they opened fire from automatic weapons. The militant lying below opened fire with a TT pistol. Hiding behind the trees, I began shooting from a machine gun. And then I realized that I was alone. Shooting as I walked and giving orders, as if I had a whole unit with me, I began to run around the militants, spinning like a snail.

And the machine gun jammed as if someone had spoken to it. Finally, the militant dropped him and grabbed the machine gun and began shooting in confusion. He couldn't figure out where I was? Therefore, he fired wherever he could. To where I heard the shots.

Having walked around the militants from behind, he approached them. This time was enough for the spring of my body to straighten: a quick step (?) towards the militant and a blow with the butt of a machine gun from the right below in the jaw brought the enemy down into the snow.

“A clean knockout, just like Danilov taught...” flashed through my head. But there is no time to tie up or disarm the militant. I jump out from behind the rock to the second militant and shout with all my might:

- Drop your weapon! Face down in the snow!

At the sight of the scout, the second militant was taken aback and, after a moment of confusion, unquestioningly carried out the command. At that time, fire was fired from automatic weapons and a TT pistol from the visor. Luckily I was under a rock in a dead zone.

Either clinging to the rock, or hiding behind the trees, I fired from a machine gun. The understanding suddenly came to me that as soon as the militants realized that I was alone, I would be finished. Shooting and giving orders as if I had a whole unit with me, I tried to mislead the militants. Now everything depended on who would get reinforcements first.

I gave commands, or rather simply shouted:

- Group on the left, group on the right - cover! Special forces on top, outpost below - surround! Petrov, Sidorov, cover...

Holding the militants at gunpoint, he unloaded their weapons and, throwing them aside, shouted:

- If you want to live, lie with your face to the ground and not move!

After that, he walked a few meters towards the gorge and saw that about a dozen militants were running from above and firing towards the bridge.

My series of single shots forced them to lie down. Single shots were also heard from the rear. Looking back, I saw Alexey, whose call sign was “Bald”, he was the first to reach the battlefield and, squatting down, opened fire on the militants.

A few seconds later, Vasily Okulov began to regularly spray from his machine gun from the left flank, and Marcel Dodabaev from the right.

The militants began to retreat. This allowed us to take care of the prisoners, they were disarmed, examined, but they were not tied up because it was impossible to walk along the steep snow-covered slopes tied up.

Leaving the militants under the protection of Marcel Dodabaev, they began to pursue the militants. I called the air force, but after several salvos I had to abandon its use. We were too close to each other, and the fire spotter on the opposite slope turned out to be unprepared; the reconnaissance group was almost covered with missile fire from an Mi-8 helicopter.

In addition, the militants came out on the aviation frequency and, interrupting my words, adjusted their fire on the reconnaissance officers. After some time we gave up the pursuit. The risk of being ambushed or under fire from your own aircraft is too great.

Ending in the next issue.

Newspaper "SPECIAL FORCES OF RUSSIA" and magazine "RAZVEDCHIK"

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