Chopping off heads in the Chechen war. The executioner Sasha Ardyshev tortured Russian soldiers in such a way that even the militants shuddered. Why were prisoners needed?

September 1999. Dagestan. It has been a month since the flames of the “liberation” war unleashed in the mountains of Botlikh, Tsumadinsky and Buynaksky regions have been blazing. She swooped in from neighboring Chechnya unexpectedly and treacherously.

There is a war going on in the mountains, but here, to the north, in the Novolaksky district, it is relatively calm. On the eve, however, the militia commander shared information that several thousand militants had accumulated on the other side, but somehow it was hard to believe that such forces were gathered behind the verdant peaceful hills. The militants are already having a hard time. Most likely, a detachment of some local field commander simply became more active.

The head of the small outpost, which occupied the dominant height on the southwestern outskirts of the village of Tukhchar only five days ago, senior lieutenant Vasily Tashkin did not guess and, having got in touch with Vershina, reported the situation to his command, adding that behind them with that parties are under observation.

In response, he was instructed to triple his vigilance and set up additional observation posts. Across the Aksai River is Chechnya, the large village of Ishkhoy-Yurt is a gangster's nest. The outpost is ready for battle. The position for the bempeshka was chosen well. The trenches are equipped, the firing sectors are targeted. And the garrison of the outpost is not green youth, but twelve proven fighters. Plus, the neighbors are the militia on the left and two posts of the Dagestan police below, to reinforce which the Kalachevsky troops arrived - servicemen of the operational brigade of internal troops. Only ammunition would be enough: in addition to the BMP-2 with full ammunition, there is also a PC with seven hundred rounds of ammunition, SVD and 120 rounds for it, an old Kalashnikov handbrake with three hundred and sixty rounds and four magazines from machine gunners. From the platoon lock, he also has an underbarrel grenade launcher and four grenades each - ergedeshki. Not a lot, but in which case they promised to send help: the battalion is stationed in Duchi, it's not far.

However, in war as in war.

- Tyulenev, - Tashkin called the sergeant, - Vershina again asks to increase vigilance. I'll check the posts tonight!
The night was stuffy and moonlit. Two kilometers away, the ominous lights of a Chechen village shone, there was a strong smell of mint, and restless grasshoppers chirped in the grass until morning, making it difficult to listen to the silence of the night.

As soon as dawn broke, Tashkin picked up the resting fighters and with a sniper moved to the neighboring hill, from where, from the positions of the militia, what was happening on the adjacent side could be seen much better even without optics. From here it was clearly visible how the Chechens, almost without hiding, were fording a shallow river. The last doubts were dispelled, this is war. When the militants, marching in a dense line, became visible to the naked eye, Tashkin gave the command to open fire. The silence was broken by a burst of machine-gun fire, two militants walking in front fell, and other guns rumbled and rattled after them. The outpost accepted the battle when the sun barely appeared from behind the mountains. The day promised to be hot.

As it turned out, the militants still outwitted the Kalachevites. For the same reasons that the outpost could not be taken head-on, with the main forces they hit it from the rear, from the Dagestan village of Gamiyakh. I immediately had to forget about all the carefully calibrated sectors of fire and leave the equipped position for the infantry. She turned into a nomadic, causing effective damage to the enemy "shaitan-arba".

The militants realized that it was not possible to bring down the fighters from a height, and without this it was risky to enter the village. Having entrenched themselves on its outskirts, in the area of ​​​​the village cemetery, they tried to get soldiers out of there. But it was not easy for them to do so. No less steadfastly, supported from a high-rise by fire, the Dagestan policemen fought below. But the poorly armed militias were forced to leave their positions, which were immediately occupied by militants.

Field commander Umar, who was in charge of operations from nearby Ishkhoy-Yurt, was noticeably nervous. For the second hour, his detachment, which was part of the so-called Islamic Special Purpose Regiment, was actually marking time.

But the unequal battle could not last forever. Ammunition was running out, strength was fading, the number of wounded was increasing. The militants have already captured one checkpoint, and then the village police department. Now they broke into the village and almost surrounded the hill. And soon the BMP was also shot down, which only lingered for a minute longer in the field of view of the enemy, aiming at the ZIL crossing the river with bearded men. The crew of the heroic "kopeck piece" managed to get out, but the gunner of the Siberian private Alexei Polagaev was severely burned by fire.

The sight of burning equipment with exploding ammunition caused the militants to rejoice, diverting their attention from the servicemen who continued to hold the height for some time. But the commander, realizing that now it was not only dangerous, but also impossible, and most importantly, inexpedient, decided to leave. There was only one way - down to the policemen holding the defense of the second checkpoint. Under the cover of a smoky car, they were able to go down the hill, taking all the wounded with them. Thirteen more people were added to the eighteen defenders of the now only point of resistance in the village of Tukhchar.

The Russian officer managed to save the lives of all his subordinates by leading them off the hill. At 7.30 am on September 5, the connection between Vershina and the Tukhchar outpost was interrupted. Realizing that it was not possible to destroy the federals, and during the next assault there would be losses, to the last defenders who sat behind the concrete blocks
village militants sent elders:

The militants were told to come out without weapons, guaranteed life.
“We won’t give up,” came the reply.

There is still a chance to get out of the battle, they thought, saving their lives, weapons and honor. After counting and dividing the cartridges, fraternally embracing in the end, the soldiers and policemen, covering each other with fire, rushed to the nearest houses. The wounded were dragged along. Having fallen under heavy fire from the militants, Senior Lieutenant Tashkin and four other soldiers jumped into the nearest building.

A few seconds before that, police sergeant Abdulkasim Magomedov died here. At the same moment, the semi-collapsed building was surrounded, and it was not possible to leave. Ammunition was running out. The militants again offer to surrender. However, they themselves do not risk going to storm the temporary building, where only a handful of armed people have settled. They put pressure on the psyche. They promise to burn them alive if they refuse. Gasoline is ready. Give time to think. In the end, they send in a truce, the owner of the temporary hut, who turned gray in one day. Did our guys have any hesitation at that moment?

Everyone wants to live forever. This is especially acute in a moment of calm, when you realize that life is so beautiful! And the sun, so gentle, now already at its zenith, was so bright, so life-affirming. The day was really hot.

Vasily Tashkin did not believe in the sweet speeches of the militants. The heart-prophet and some experience told the officer that these nonhumans would not leave them alive. But looking at his boys, in whose eyes HOPE was read, the officer nevertheless made up his mind and left the shelter ...

Having instantly disarmed the fighters, roughly pushing them in the back with butts, the fighters drove the soldiers towards the smoking ruins of the checkpoint. The burnt and wounded BMP gunner Private Alexei Polagaev was also soon brought here. The soldier, dressed in civilian clothes, was hidden in her house by Gurum Dzhaparova. Did not help. The militants were told about the guy's whereabouts by local Chechen boys.

The meeting about the fate of the servicemen was short-lived. Amir Umar on the radio station ordered the "execution of Russian dogs", they put too many of his soldiers in battle.

- The first to be brought to execution was Private Boris Erdneev from Kalmykia. The blade cut his throat. The inhabitants of Tukhchar, numb with horror, watched the massacre. The soldiers were defenseless, but not broken. They passed away undefeated.

They died in Tukhchar

The execution of Russian soldiers by Chechen fighters was filmed on a video camera, which dispassionately recorded the last minutes of the soldiers' lives.

Someone accepts death silently, someone escapes from the hands of the executioners.

Now, not far from the place of execution, there is again a checkpoint of the Dagestan police, covering the road to the Chechen village of Galayty. Five years have passed, much has changed in relations between neighboring republics. But the inhabitants of Tukhchar also look with apprehension and distrust in the direction of a restless and unpredictable neighbor.

There is no more military outpost on the high-rise. Instead, an Orthodox cross rises, a symbol of the eternal victory of life over death. There were thirteen of them, six died, ascending to Golgotha. Let's remember their names:

"Cargo - 200" arrived on the Kizner land. In the battles for the liberation of Dagestan from bandit formations, a native of the village of Ishek of the Zvezda collective farm and a graduate of our school Alexei Ivanovich Paranin died. Alexey was born on January 25, 1980. Graduated from Verkhnetyzhminsk basic school. He was a very inquisitive, lively, courageous boy. Then he studied at the Mozhginsky GPTU No. 12, where he received the profession of a bricklayer. True, he did not have time to work, he was drafted into the army. He served in the North Caucasus for more than a year. And so - .

Went through several fights. On the night of September 5-6, the infantry fighting vehicle, on which Alexey served as a gunner, was transferred to the Lipetsk OMON, and guarded a checkpoint near the village. The militants who attacked at night set fire to the BMP. The soldiers left the car and fought, but it was too unequal. All the wounded were brutally finished off. We all mourn the death of Alexei. Words of consolation are hard to find. On November 26, 2007, a memorial plaque was installed on the school building.

The opening of the memorial plaque was attended by Alexei's mother, Lyudmila Alekseevna, and representatives from the youth department from the district. Now we are starting to make an album about him, there is a stand at the school dedicated to Alexei.

In addition to Alexei, four other students of our school participated in the Chechen campaign: Kadrov Eduard, Ivanov Alexander, Anisimov Alexei and Kiselev Alexei, who was awarded the Order of Courage. It is very scary and bitter when young guys die. The Paranin family had three children, but the son was the only one. Ivan Alekseevich, Alexei's father, works as a tractor driver on the Zvezda collective farm, his mother, Lyudmila Alekseevna, is a school worker.

Erdneev Boris Ozinovich (a few seconds before death)

(The essay “Defending Tukhchar” was used)

Of the Chechen murderers, only three fell into the hands of justice: Tamerlan Khasaev, Islam Mukaev, Arbi Dandaev

Tamerlan Khasaev was the first of the thugs to fall into the hands of law enforcement agencies. Sentenced to eight and a half years for kidnapping in December 2001, he was serving a term in a strict regime colony in the Kirov region, when the investigation, thanks to a videotape seized during a special operation in Chechnya, managed to establish that he was one of those who participated in the massacre on the outskirts of Tukhchar.

Khasaev ended up in the detachment at the beginning of September 1999 - one of his friends seduced him with the opportunity to get captured weapons on a campaign against Dagestan, which could then be sold at a profit. So Khasaev ended up in the gang of Emir Umar, who was subordinate to the notorious commander of the ‘Islamic Special Purpose Regiment’ Abdulmalik Mezhidov, Shamil Basaev’s deputy…

In February 2002, Khasaev was transferred to the Makhachkala pre-trial detention center and shown a recording of the execution. He did not retract. Moreover, the case already contained testimonies from residents of Tukhchar, who confidently identified Khasaev from a photograph sent from the colony. (The militants did not particularly hide, and the execution itself was visible even from the windows of houses on the edge of the village). Khasaev stood out among the militants dressed in camouflage with a white T-shirt.

The Khasaev trial took place in the Supreme Court of Dagestan in October 2002. He pleaded guilty only partially: ‘I admit participation in illegal armed formations, weapons and invasion. But I did not cut the soldier ... I just approached him with a knife. So far, two have been killed. When I saw this picture, I refused to cut, gave the knife to another.

“They started first,” Khasaev said of the battle in Tukhchar. - The BMP opened fire, and Umar ordered the grenade launchers to take up positions. And when I said that there was no such agreement, he assigned three militants to me. Since then, I myself have been with them as a hostage.

For participation in an armed rebellion, the militant received 15 years, for the theft of weapons - 10, for participation in an illegal armed formation and illegal possession of weapons - five. For the encroachment on the life of a serviceman, Khasaev, according to the court, deserved the death penalty, however, in connection with the moratorium on its use, an alternative measure of punishment was chosen - life imprisonment.

Islam Mukaev (25 years in prison - in 2005)

It is known that in July 1999, Mukaev joined the Karpinsky jamaat (named after the Karpinka microdistrict in Grozny), headed by Emir Umar, and already in September took part in a raid on Dagestan. After the battle, the bandits captured the post, losing four people in the process. Among them was Mukayev's cousin.

He, like other relatives of the dead militants, was offered to take part in the execution of soldiers in order to ‘take a blood feud’. Mukaev said that he would not be able to cut his throat. However, during the execution he helped to kill the platoon commander Vasily Tashkin. The officer struggled, and then Mukaev hit him and held his hands until another militant finally finished off the senior lieutenant.

Arbi Dandaev (for life in 2009). The remaining participants in the massacre are still on the “federal wanted list”. April 2009

In the Supreme Court of Dagestan, the third trial on the case of the execution of six Russian servicemen in the village of Tukhchar, Novolaksky District, in September 1999, was completed. One of the participants in the execution, 35-year-old Arbi Dandaev, who, according to the court, personally cut the throat of senior lieutenant Vasily Tashkin, was found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment in a special regime colony.

Former member of the national security service of Ichkeria, Arbi Dandaev, according to the investigation, took part in the gangs of Shamil Basayev and went to Dagestan in 1999. In early September, he joined a detachment led by Emir Umar Karpinsky, who on September 5 of the same year invaded the territory of the Novolaksky district of the republic.

From the Chechen village of Galayty, the militants went to the Dagestan village of Tukhchar - the road was guarded by a checkpoint where Dagestani policemen were serving. On the hill, they were covered by an infantry fighting vehicle and 13 soldiers from the brigade of internal troops. But the militants entered the village from the rear and, having captured the village police department after a short battle, began to fire at the hill.

An infantry fighting vehicle buried in the ground inflicted considerable damage on the attackers, but when the encirclement began to shrink, Senior Lieutenant Vasily Tashkin ordered the armored vehicle to be driven out of the trench and open fire across the river at the car that brought the militants.

A ten-minute hitch turned out to be fatal for the soldiers: a shot from a grenade launcher near the infantry fighting vehicle demolished the tower. The gunner died on the spot, and the driver Alexei Polagaev was shell-shocked. The surviving defenders of the checkpoint reached the village and began to hide - some in basements and attics, and some in corn thickets.

Half an hour later, on the orders of Emir Umar, the militants began to search the village, and five servicemen who hid in the basement of one of the houses had to surrender after a short firefight - a grenade launcher shot sounded in response to a machine gun burst. After some time, Aleksey Polagaev joined the captives - the militants "figured out" him in one of the neighboring houses, where the hostess hid him.

By order of Emir Umar, the prisoners were taken to a clearing next to the checkpoint. What happened next was meticulously recorded on camera by the cameraman of the militants. Four executioners appointed by the commander of the militants in turn carried out the order, cutting the throats of an officer and three soldiers (one of the soldiers tried to escape, but he was shot dead). Emir Umar dealt with the sixth victim personally.

Umar Karpinsky (Edilsultanov) in the center. Amir of the Karpinsky jamaat. He personally dealt with Alexei Polagaev - he died 5 months later while trying to break out of Grozny.

Arbi Dandaev was hiding from justice for more than eight years, but on April 3, 2008, Chechen policemen detained him in Grozny. He was charged with participation in a stable criminal group (gang) and its attacks, an armed rebellion in order to change the territorial integrity of Russia, as well as an encroachment on the lives of law enforcement officers and illegal arms trafficking.

According to the materials of the investigation, the militant Dandaev turned himself in, confessed to the crimes committed and confirmed his testimony when he was taken to the place of execution. In the Supreme Court of Dagestan, however, he pleaded not guilty, saying that the appearance took place under duress, and refused to testify.

Nevertheless, the court recognized his previous testimony as admissible and reliable, since they were given with the participation of a lawyer and no complaints were received from him about the investigation. The court examined the video recording of the execution, and although it was difficult to recognize the defendant Dandaev in the bearded executioner, the court took into account that the recording of Arbi's name was clearly audible.

Residents of the village of Tukhchar were also interrogated. One of them recognized the defendant Dandaev, but the court reacted critically to his words, given the advanced age of the witness and the confusion in his testimony.

Speaking in the debate, lawyers Konstantin Sukhachev and Konstantin Mudunov asked the court to either resume the judicial investigation by conducting expert examinations and calling new witnesses, or to acquit the defendant. The accused Dandaev, in his last word, stated that he knew who led the execution, this man is free, and he can give his last name if the court resumes the investigation. The judicial investigation was resumed, but only in order to interrogate the defendant.

As a result, the examined evidence did not leave the court in doubt that the defendant Dandaev was guilty. Meanwhile, the defense believes that the court hastened and did not investigate many important circumstances for the case.

For example, he did not interrogate Islan Mukaev, already convicted in 2005, a participant in the execution in Tukhchar (another of the executioners, Tamerlan Khasaev, was sentenced to life imprisonment in October 2002 and died soon after in the colony).

“Practically all petitions significant for the defense were rejected by the court,” lawyer Konstantin Mudunov told Kommersant. “So, we repeatedly insisted on a second psychological and psychiatric examination, since the first was carried out using a falsified outpatient card. The court rejected this request. He was not sufficiently objective, and we will appeal the verdict.”

According to the relatives of the defendant, Arbi Dandaev developed mental disorders in 1995, after Russian servicemen wounded his younger brother Alvi in ​​Grozny, and some time later the corpse of a boy was returned from a military hospital, whose internal organs were removed (relatives attribute this to with the trade in human organs that flourished in Chechnya in those years).

As the defense stated during the debate, their father Khamzat Dandaev achieved the initiation of a criminal case on this fact, but it is not being investigated. According to lawyers, the case against Arbi Dandaev was opened to prevent his father from punishing those responsible for the death of his youngest son. These arguments were reflected in the verdict, but the court considered that the defendant was sane, and that the case had long been initiated into the death of his brother and had nothing to do with the case under consideration.

As a result, the court reclassified two articles relating to weapons and participation in a gang. According to Judge Shikhali Magomedov, the defendant Dandaev acquired weapons alone, and not as part of a group, and participated in illegal armed formations, and not in a gang.

However, these two articles did not affect the verdict, since the statute of limitations had expired on them. And here is Art. 279 "Armed rebellion" and Art. 317 "Encroachment on the life of a law enforcement officer" was pulled for 25 years and life imprisonment.

At the same time, the court took into account both mitigating circumstances (the presence of young children and confession), and aggravating ones (the onset of grave consequences and the particular cruelty with which the crime was committed).

Thus, despite the fact that the state prosecutor asked for only 22 years, the court sentenced the defendant Dandaev to life imprisonment.

In addition, the court satisfied the civil claims of the parents of the four dead servicemen for moral damages, the amounts for which ranged from 200 thousand to 2 million rubles.

New details of the Tukhchar tragedy

... The battles of 1999 in the Novolaksky district responded with tragic events in the Orenburg region, and in the Topchikhinsky district of the Altai Territory, and in other Russian villages. As the Lak proverb says, "War does not produce sons; war takes away sons." The bullet of the enemy that kills the son also wounds the heart of the mother.

On September 1, 1999, the platoon commander, Senior Lieutenant Vasily Tashkin, received an order to advance to the Chechen-Dagestan border on the outskirts of the village of Tukhchar, Novolaksky District. Not far from the village, at a height, the soldiers dug trenches, prepared a place for an infantry fighting vehicle. From the nearest Chechen village Ishkhoyurt to Tukhchar two kilometers. The border river is not a barrier for militants. Behind the nearest hill is another Chechen village of Galayty, where there were a lot of militants armed to the teeth.

Having taken up all-round defense and observing the village of Ishkhoyyurt through binoculars, Senior Lieutenant Vasily Tashkin, a graduate of the Novosibirsk School of Internal Troops, recorded the movement of militants, the presence of fire weapons, and surveillance of his post. The commander's heart was restless. His task is to provide fire cover for two police checkpoints: at the entrance to Tukhchar and at the exit from it in the direction of Galaita.

Tashkin knew that the militiamen, armed only with small arms, gladly accepted the appearance of his BMP-2 with soldiers on the armor. But he also understood the danger they, the military and policemen, were in. For some reason, the Novolaksky district was poorly covered by troops. It was possible to count only on themselves, on the military commonwealth of outposts of internal troops and the Dagestan police. But thirteen servicemen on one BMP - is this an outpost?

The BMP gun was aimed at a height behind which was the Chechen village of Galayty, but the militants early in the morning of September 5 did not hit where they were expected: they opened fire from the rear. The forces were unequal. With the very first shots, the BMP effectively hit the militants who were trying to knock out the fighters of the internal troops from a height, but the radio frequencies were clogged with Chechens, and it was not possible to contact anyone. Policemen at the checkpoint also fought in the ring. Poorly equipped with firepower, reinforced only by thirty military personnel of the internal troops, they were doomed to death.

Senior Lieutenant Tashkin, fighting at a height, did not expect help. The Dagestan militiamen were running out of ammunition. The checkpoint at the entrance to Tukhchar and the village police department have already been seized. Increasingly violent onslaught of militants on the surrounded height. In the third hour of the battle, the BMP was hit, caught fire and exploded. “The metal burned like a haystack. They would never have thought that iron could burn with such a bright flame, ”said eyewitnesses of that unequal battle.

The enemy rejoiced. And it diverted attention. Covered by the fire of the defenders of the police checkpoint, senior lieutenant Tashkin and his guys, dragging the wounded on themselves, managed to escape from the height. BMP mechanic Aleksey Polagaev, all burnt, ran into the first house he came across ...

Today we are in Tukhchar visiting a woman who ten years ago tried to save the life of a wounded BMP mechanic driver Alexei Polagaev. This story shocked us to the core. Several times we had to turn off the recorder: ten years later, Atikat Maksudovna Tabieva says, bursting into bitter tears:

“I remember this day like it was yesterday. September 5, 1999 When the militants entered the area, I firmly stated: “I won’t go anywhere, let those who came to our land with bad intentions leave.” We sat at home, waiting to see what would happen to us next.

I went out into the yard - I see a guy standing, a wounded soldier, staggering, holding on to the gate. Covered in blood, burned very badly: no hair, the skin burst on the face. Chest, shoulder, arm - everything is cut with fragments. I sent my eldest grandson Ramazan for a doctor, brought Alexei to the house. All his clothes were covered in blood. My daughter and I burned his already charred military uniform, and so that the militants would not interrogate what they had burned, they collected the remains of the fire in a bag and threw them into the river.

In the neighborhood lived with us a doctor, an Avar Mutalim, it was he who came, washed and bandaged the wounds of Alexei. The guy moaned terribly, it was clear that the pain was unbearable, because the wounds were deep. The doctor somehow removed the fragments, smeared the wounds. We gave Alexei diphenhydramine to help him fall asleep and at least calm down a little. The wounds oozed blood, the sheets had to be changed frequently and hidden somewhere. Knowing that the militants might come in and search the house, I nevertheless, without hesitation, rushed to help the wounded Alexei.

After all, it was not just a wounded soldier bleeding to death that got into our house, for me he was just a son, someone's son. Somewhere his mother is waiting for him, and it doesn’t matter what nationality or religion she is. She is also a mother, just like me. The only thing I asked Allah for was that the Almighty would give me the opportunity to save him. The wounded guy was asking for help, and all I thought about was that I had to save him.”

Atikat through the rooms leads us to the most remote. Here in this far room she hid Alyosha from Siberia, closing the door with a lock. As expected, the militants soon appeared. There were sixteen of them. A local Chechen showed the militants the Atikat house. In addition to her daughter, her young sons were at home. The militants searched the basement, ransacked the cellar, the shed.

Then one of the militants pointed a machine gun at the children and yelled: “Show me where you hide the Russians!” The bandit grabbed the nine-year-old grandson of Ramazan by the collar and lifted him slightly: “Where did the mother and grandmother hide the Russian soldier? Tell!" They pointed weapons at Ramadan. I shielded the children with my body and said: "Don't touch the children." Tears welled up in the boy's eyes from pain, but he shook his head to all the questions and stubbornly answered: "There is no one in the house." The children knew that they could be shot at, but they did not betray Alexei.

When the bandits pointed their machine gun at me and their command sounded: “Show me where the Russian is!” I just shook my head. The bandits threatened to blow up the house. And I thought: right next to it, there, in the next room, lies a Russian guy, bleeding. His mother and relatives are waiting. Even if they kill us all, I won't betray him. Let's all die together. Realizing the futility of the threats, the bandits continued the search. They probably heard the groans of Alexei, started shooting at the locks, broke down the door. The bandits shouted “Allahu Akbar!” with joy, jumped on the bed where the wounded Alexei was lying.

Daughter Gurun ran to their room, she, sobbing, looked at Alexei. But I didn’t go into the room, I couldn’t look into his eyes ... When they took the guy out, I began to ask, beg not to take him away. One of the bandits pushed me away and said: “Grandma, don’t defend the Russians, if you defend, you will die the same death.”

I tell them: this is a wounded and burned soldier, the wounded are not divided into friends and foes. The wounded must always be helped! I am a mother, how can I not protect him, the wounded, trouble will come to you, and you will be protected.

I clung to their hands, begged, begged to let Alexei go. A frightened nineteen-year-old boy looks at me and asks: “What will they do to me?” My heart was breaking. I told them that I do not consider Russians to be enemies, and I never distinguish people by nationality. According to Sharia, a great sin is to distinguish people by nationality. We are all humans.

“Go away, grandma, and don’t teach us,” the bandits said, took Alexei away, and left the yard. And I followed him around. It was very hard for me that I could not save him. I wept bitterly and followed them. Even a Chechen who lived next door told the bandits: “Leave him guys, he’s not a tenant!”

Several Russian soldiers remained in one of the nearby houses, they opened fire, and the militants entered the battle, and Alexei was thrown near the wall under the supervision of one of their own. I ran to Alyosha, hugged him. We both wept bitterly...

Again and again he stands before my eyes: he is about to rise to his feet with difficulty, swaying, holding on to the wall and looking directly at the militants. Then he turns to me and asks: “What will they do to me, mother?”

Atikat Tabieva closes her eyes in pain: “The bandits said that they would exchange him for their prisoners. How could you trust their words? Even if they shot me, I would not let Alyosha go. And I shouldn't have let go."

Atikat shows us the route along which Alexei was taken away. When she reaches the gate, she falls to the ground and sobs. Like then, 10 years ago. In the same way, she fell on her back at the gate and sobbed, and Alexei, surrounded by two dozen bandits, was taken away for reprisal.

Atikat's daughter, Gurun, says: “Not far from Tukhchar, at a checkpoint, I, working as a cook, fed the policemen. Although this was not part of my duties, I also took care of the Russian guys who served on the border with Chechnya. The company was headed by senior lieutenant Vasily Tashkin, there were 13 Russian guys in total. When the wounded Alexei entered our house, the first question was: “Gulya, do you live here?”

I did not have time to warn my sons that it was impossible to extradite Alexei, and I was amazed at how courageously my boys behaved. When the militants pointed a machine gun at them and asked the guys: “Where are you hiding the Russian?”, the boys stubbornly answered: “We don’t know.”

Alexey, when he came to himself, asked me to bring a mirror. There was no living place on his face, solid burn marks, but I began to console him: “You are beautiful, as before, the main thing is that you got out of trouble, you didn’t burn out, everything will be fine with you.” He looked into the mirror and said: "The most important thing is that he is alive."

When the bandits broke down the door and entered the room, sleepy Aleksei did not understand at first what was happening. I told him that he was being taken to the hospital. When he woke up, he quietly said to me: “Gulya, discreetly remove the badge from me, if something happens to me, take it to the military registration and enlistment office.”

The militants shouted: "Get up quickly!" He was unable to get up. The guy was courageous, he tells me: “Gulya, so that I don’t fall in front of them, hold me and put a shirt on me.”

My mother ran up to him in the yard, it was impossible to look at her, she was crying, asking the bandits to let him go. “We must cure him,” said the Chechens. “I’ll cure him myself,” I pleaded.
“Whoever hides a Russian will face the same fate,” said the militant. And in their own language, one says to the other (I understand the Chechen language a little): “To kill, or something, is he here?” ...

Not far from Tukhchar, on the way to the Chechen village of Galayty, the militants brutally dealt with six Russian guys. Among them was the driver-mechanic of the BMP Alexei Polagaev. Aunt Atikat never looks in the direction where the soldiers were executed. She always mentally asks for forgiveness from Alexei's relatives, who live in distant Siberia. She is tormented that she could not save the wounded soldier. Not people came for Alexei, but animals. However, sometimes even from animals it is easier to save a human life.

Later, when one of the militant's local accomplices is put on trial, he admits that Atikat's courageous behavior surprised even the militants themselves. This short, thin woman, risking her life and the lives of her loved ones, tried to save a wounded soldier in that cruel war.

“In a cruel time, you need to save the wounded, show mercy, instill goodness in the hearts and souls of Russians and Caucasians,” Aunt Atikat says simply and wisely and grieves that she could not save the Soldier Alyosha. “I'm not a hero, I'm not a brave woman,” she laments. “Heroes are those who save lives.”

Allow me to object, Aunt Atikat! You have accomplished a feat, and we want to bow low to you, mother, whose heart does not divide children into their own and others.

... On the outskirts of the village, at the place of execution of six Kalachev soldiers, riot police from Sergiev Posad installed a solid metal cross. The stones piled at its base symbolize Golgotha. The inhabitants of the village of Tukhchar are doing everything possible to perpetuate the memory of Russian soldiers who died defending the Dagestan land.

Terrible stories about the war, about its terrible everyday manifestations, appear in society in influxes, as if by order. The war in Chechnya has long been taken for granted.

The gulf between well-fed Moscow and the mountains where blood is shed is not just great. She is huge. There is nothing to say about the West at all. Foreigners who come to Russia, as if to another planet, are far from reality, like aliens to the Earth.

No one really remembers the thousands of Russian-speaking residents of Chechnya who have disappeared without a trace since the early 1990s. Entire villages were removed from their places in one night and left for the Stavropol Territory. The fugitives are still lucky. Chaos was going on in the North Caucasus. Violence, murder and brutal torture became the norm under Dudayev. The predecessors of the paranoid president of Ichkeria did not influence the situation. Why? They just couldn't and didn't want to. Cruelty, unbridled and wild, spilled over into the first Chechen campaign in the form of mass abuse of captured Russian soldiers and officers. Nothing new has happened in the current campaign - the militants (by the way, it’s rather strange that they began to call ordinary criminal bandits that way) still cut, rape and show cut-out body parts of the military in front of the cameras.

Where did this cruelty to the Caucasus come from? According to one version, the Mujahideen called up from Afghanistan, who managed to practice during the war in their homeland, set an example for the Chechen fighters. It was in Afghanistan that they did something unimaginable with captured Soviet soldiers: they took scalps, cut open their stomachs and stuffed scatterings of shells into them, put their heads on the roads, and mined the dead. Natural cruelty, which the British in the last century explained as barbarism and ignorance, caused a backlash. But the Soviet military was far from inventive torture of wild Mujahideen.

But not everything is so simple. Even during the period of Chechen resettlement in Kazakhstan and Siberia, terrible rumors circulated in the Caucasus about the bloodthirstiness of the abreks who had gone to the mountains. Witness of the resettlement Anatoly Pristavkin wrote a whole book "A Golden Cloud Spent the Night"... Revenge and blood, passed down from generation to generation - that's what dominated in Chechnya.

Protracted fighting in Chechnya led to inexplicable brutality, killing for the sake of killing. And here "partisans" and "rebels" both local and newcomers do not lose the "palm" in any way. During the capture of the Dudayev Palace in Grozny in 1995, officers from the Marine Corps said that they saw the crucified and decapitated corpses of our soldiers in the windows of the palace. Four years ago, as if ashamed and not saying anything, late in the evening one of the television programs showed a story about military doctors in the liberated Grozny. A tired medical officer, pointing to the bodies of the soldiers who were captured, talked about a terrible thing. Russian boys, who became soldiers according to the constitution, were raped at the moment of their death throes.

Soldier Yevgeny Rodionov was beheaded only because he refused to take off his pectoral cross. I met the mother of a soldier looking for his son during the ceasefire in September 1996 in Grozny. She searched for her son for months and met with almost all the field commanders. The militants simply lied to the woman and did not even show the grave ... The details of the soldier's death were found out much later. According to the latest data, the Russian Orthodox Church is preparing for the canonization of Yevgeny Rodionov.

Last September in Dagestan, in the village of Tukhchar, local Chechens handed over five soldiers and one officer to militants who were trying to get out of the encirclement. All six Wahhabis were executed by cutting their throats. The blood of the captives was poured into a glass jar.

Storming Grozny in December last year, our military again faced barbarism. During the fighting in the suburbs of the Chechen capital Pervomaiskaya, the bodies of three soldiers of one of the units of the Ministry of Defense were crucified on an oil rig. Directly in Grozny, one of the units of the Sofrino brigade of internal troops was cut off from the main forces. Four soldiers were considered missing. Their headless bodies were found in one of the wells.

The correspondent of "Ytra", who visited the area of ​​"Minutka" square at the end of January, became aware of the details of yet another execution. The militants took a wounded soldier prisoner, gouged out his eyes, quartered his body and threw him on the street. A few days later, the reconnaissance group carried the body of a colleague from the area of ​​high-rise buildings. There are many such examples. By the way, the facts of mockery of the military and executions for the most part remain unpunished. The case of the detention of field commander Temirbulatov, nicknamed "Tractor Driver", who personally shot soldiers, can be considered an exception.

In some newspapers, such examples were considered fiction and propaganda of the Russian side. Even information about snipers in the ranks of the militants was considered by other journalists as rumors, which are more than enough in the war. For example, in one of the issues of Novaya Gazeta, they expertly discussed the "myths" associated with "white tights". But "myths" in reality turn into professional shots at soldiers and officers.

The other day, one of the mercenaries, who fought in Chechnya on the side of the militants, spoke to journalists. The Jordanian Al-Khayat spoke about the morals that reign in the detachment of the field commander (a Chechen, not an Arab) Ruslan (Khamzat) Gelaev. Countryman Khattab admitted that he had witnessed the executions of Russian captured soldiers more than once. So, in Grozny, Gelayev's militants cut out the heart of one of the prisoners. According to Al-Khayat, he miraculously managed to escape from the village of Komsomolskoye and surrendered to the military near Urus-Martan.

According to the Jordanian, mercenaries from Afghanistan, Turkey and Jordan remain subordinate to Khattab. As you know, the Black Arab is considered one of the most bloodthirsty field commanders. His handwriting - personal participation in the executions and torture of prisoners. According to the captive Jordanian, most of the Arabs in Khattab's gangs came to Chechnya for the promised money. But mercenaries, they say, are being deceived. True, in fact it turns out that both gullible and deceived Arabs practice atrocities against Russian soldiers. By the way, the contradictions between Chechen fighters and mercenaries have recently become open. Both sides do not miss the opportunity to reproach each other for cruelty, although in reality both of them are not much different from each other.

When the war becomes something like a hobby (and the vast majority of militants from the detachments of irreconcilable field commanders will never lay down their arms and will fight to the end), then the death of the enemy for a professional warrior becomes the only meaning of life. Butchers are fighting against Russian soldiers. What kind of amnesties can we talk about? Any "peaceful" initiatives coming from the militants can be regarded as a way to continue the war and the killings. So far, only a few have been answered for thousands of crimes. When will the majority answer? The life of those who pull the trigger is not worth a penny. Moreover, Russia should not forgive the bloodthirsty "commanders". Otherwise, the place of the killers will be taken by their successors.

Utro.ru

Oleg Petrovsky

Viewing this material is contraindicated: for minors, people with a weak and unstable mentality, pregnant women, people with nervous disorders, the mentally ill.

This video is recommended for viewing by persons from the Human Rights Society "Memorial", in particular S.A. Kovalev, foreign citizens who are interested in the Chechen war, as well as Western journalists covering the topic of the war in Chechnya.

02.11.2011. Found details on this case:

The Supreme Court of the Chechen Republic sentenced a certain Ilyas Dashaev to 25 years in prison. Only one episode of the criminal activity of this young man, born in 1982, appears in the verdict. This case nevertheless goes beyond all limits both in its savagery and in its cruelty.

The court found that Dashaev, a native of the village of Gekhi, as part of an armed gang commanded by the infamous thug Islam Chalaev, kidnapped three people in early October 2001 - two women and a man. The bandits took them to the village of Alkhan-Kala. At first they were interrogated and beaten. Then one woman's head was cut off, the second was shot, and the man was released. The crime of bandits, which later became the starting point for the investigators of the republican prosecutor's office.

At one time, many shocking records circulated around Chechnya. But then the investigators were faced with the fact that the bandits abducted a family in which the husband Khasan Edilgireev was a Chechen, and his wife Tatyana Usmanova was Russian. Her friend Lena Gaevskaya was also Russian. Later, at the trial, the only defendant Dashaev - the rest of the gang members, along with the leader, had been destroyed by that time - tried to imagine that the family had been kidnapped, allegedly for cooperation with the federal authorities.

But the prosecutor thought otherwise. The frames of the terrible video capture the last moments of the lives of unfortunate women, and those who can stand the nerve to watch the recording to the end will understand that the murders were committed only because, according to the bandits, the Russian woman should not have lived with a Chechen in peace and one family .

By the early 2000s, the situation in Chechnya had changed a lot compared to the mid-nineties. If in the first Chechen campaign the Chechens did not have to be persuaded to fight the federals, then after the attack of the Basayev and Khattab gangs on Dagestan, people began to look at the role of the so-called field commanders in a completely different way. Many Chechens realized that their real enemies were not in Russia at all, and began to help the federal government to establish a peaceful life in the ruined republic.

It was the bandits of Chalaev who did not give rest. Therefore, after killing his wife and her friend, they released the Chechen. The prosecutor's office is sure that the Chechen Edilgireev was left alive not because he cooperated with the authorities less than his wife. The bandits had to defiantly pit the Russian population against the Chechens. Therefore, they filmed everything, for this they later replicated terrible footage of Chechnya.

In front of the husband, his wife was laid on the ground and a hole was dug to drain the blood. Dashaev held the unfortunate hands and feet. Arbi Khaskhanov was the first to approach the victim with a knife. He made several incisions on the woman's neck. Then Adlan Baraev took up the knife, who also slashed the throat with a real butcher's movement. The work was completed by Dashaev, who separated the woman's head from the body, and then stood up and, holding her by the hair, began to pose for the camera with a satisfied look. The cameraman, another of the bandits, the notorious Khamzat Tazabayev, nicknamed Basin, was satisfied with the terrible action.

Edilgireev still cannot remember without a shudder the cruelty with which they killed his wife. The video shows that the executioners like their "work".

The prosecutor's office at the trial demanded a life sentence for Dashaev, but the court did not agree with the arguments of the state prosecutor. The judge, although he considered Dashaev's guilt proven, gave the defendant 25 years. The prosecutor's office did not agree with the verdict and one of these days is going to file a cassation submission.

She believes that a demonstrative terrible murder requires the maximum punishment. The bandits who are trying to kindle the flames of ethnic hatred with such bloody acts should know that only one prospect awaits them - to sit behind bars for the rest of their days.

Photo from www.newsru.com

The British newspaper The Sunday Times published excerpts from the personal diary of a high-ranking Russian special forces officer who participated in the second Chechen war. Columnist Mark Franchetti, who independently translated the text from Russian into English, writes in his commentary that nothing like this has ever been published.

“The text does not pretend to be a historical review of the war. This is the author's story. A testimony that took 10 years to write, a blood-curdling chronicle of executions, torture, revenge and despair over 20 business trips to Chechnya,” he characterizes this publication in the article “The War in Chechnya: Diary of a Killer”, which InoPressa refers to.

Excerpts from the diary contain descriptions of military operations, the treatment of prisoners and the death of comrades in battle, impartial statements about command. “To save the author from punishment, his identity, names of people and place names are omitted,” Franchetti notes.

The author of the notes calls Chechnya “damned” and “bloody”. The conditions in which they had to live and fight drove even such strong and “trained” men as special forces crazy. He describes cases when their nerves gave out and they began to rush at each other, arranging brawls, or mocked the corpses of militants, cutting off their ears and noses.

At the beginning of the above entries, apparently related to one of the first business trips, the author writes that he felt sorry for the Chechen women, whose husbands, sons and brothers joined the militants. So, in one of the villages where the Russian unit entered and where wounded militants remained, two women turned to him with a plea to release one of them. He accepted their request.

“I could have executed him on the spot at that moment. But I felt sorry for the women, ”the commando writes. “Women did not know how to thank me, they shoved money into my hands. I took the money, but it settled on my soul like a heavy burden. I felt guilty before our dead guys.”

The rest of the wounded Chechens, according to the diary, were treated quite differently. “They were dragged outside, stripped naked and stuffed into a truck. Some walked on their own, others were beaten and pushed. One Chechen, who lost both feet, climbed out on his own, walking on his stumps. After a few steps he lost consciousness and sank to the ground. The soldiers beat him, stripped him naked and threw him into a truck. I didn't feel sorry for the prisoners. It was just an unpleasant sight, ”the soldier writes.

According to him, the local population looked at the Russians with hatred, and the wounded militants - with such hatred and contempt that the hand itself involuntarily reached for the weapon. He says that the departed Chechens left a wounded Russian captive in that village. They broke his arms and legs so that he could not escape.

In another case, the author describes a fierce battle during which the special forces drove the militants out of the house where they sat down. After the battle, the soldiers ransacked the building and found several mercenaries in the basement who fought on the side of the Chechens. “They all turned out to be Russians and fought for money,” he writes. “They started screaming, begging us not to kill them because they have families and children. Well, so what? We ourselves didn’t end up in this hole straight from the orphanage either. We executed everyone."

“The truth is that the courage of people fighting in Chechnya is not appreciated,” the commando says in his diary. As an example, he cites a case about which the soldiers of another detachment told him, with whom they spent one of the nights together. In front of one of their guys, his twin brother was killed, but not only was he not demoralized, but he desperately continued to fight.

"This is how people go missing"

Quite often in the records there are descriptions of how the military destroyed traces of their activities related to the use of torture or executions of captured Chechens. In one place, the author writes that one of the dead militants was wrapped in polyethylene, thrust into a well filled with liquid mud, covered with TNT and blown up. “This is how people go missing,” he adds.

They did the same with a group of Chechen suicide bombers who were captured on a tip from their shelter. One of them was in her 40s, the other was barely 15. “They were stoned and smiled at us all the time. On the basis of all three interrogated. At first, the eldest, a recruiter of suicide bombers, refused to speak. But this changed after beatings and exposure to electric shocks,” the author writes.

As a result, the suicide bombers were executed, and the bodies were blown up to hide the evidence. “So, in the end, they got what they dreamed of,” says the soldier.

"The upper echelons of the army are full of mud**ov"

Many passages of the diary contain sharp criticism of the command, as well as politicians who send others to their deaths, while they themselves remain in complete safety and impunity.

“Once I was struck by the words of an idiot general: he was asked why the families of the sailors who died on the Kursk nuclear submarine were paid large compensation, and the soldiers killed in Chechnya are still waiting for theirs. “Because the losses at the Kursk were unforeseen, while they are predicted in Chechnya,” he said. So we are cannon fodder. The upper echelons of the army are full of wits like him, ”the text says.

On another occasion, he tells how his unit was ambushed because they were deceived by their own commander. “The Chechen, who promised him several AK-47s, persuaded him to help him commit a blood feud. There were no rebels in the house that he sent us to clean up, ”the commando writes.

“When we returned to the base, the dead guys were lying in bags on the runway. I opened one of the bags, took my friend's hand and said: "I'm sorry." Our commander did not even take the trouble to say goodbye to the guys. He was drunk as hell. At that moment, I hated him. He always didn't care about the guys, he just used them to make a career. Later, he even tried to blame me for the failed purge. Mu**k. Sooner or later he will pay for his sins,” the author curses.

“It’s a pity that you can’t go back and fix something”

The notes also talk about how the war affected the soldier's personal life - in Chechnya he constantly missed home, his wife and children, and when he returned, he constantly quarreled with his wife, often got drunk with colleagues and often did not spend the night at home. Going on one of the long business trips, from where he could no longer return alive, he did not even say goodbye to his wife, who had rewarded him with a slap in the face the day before.

“I often think about the future. How much more suffering awaits us? How much longer can we hold out? For what?" - writes the commando. “I have a lot of good memories, but only of guys who really risked their lives for a part. Too bad you can't go back and fix things. All I can do is try to avoid the same mistakes and try my best to live a normal life.”

“I gave spetsnaz 14 years of my life, lost many, many close friends; for what? At the bottom of my heart, I am left with pain and a feeling that I was treated dishonestly,” he continues. And the final phrase of the publication is as follows: “I regret only one thing - that maybe, if I behaved differently in battle, some guys would still be alive.”

Viewing this material is contraindicated: for minors, people with a weak and unstable mentality, pregnant women, people with nervous disorders, the mentally ill.

This video is recommended for viewing by persons from the Human Rights Society "Memorial", in particular S.A. Kovalev, foreign citizens who are interested in the Chechen war, as well as Western journalists covering the topic of the war in Chechnya.

The Supreme Court of the Chechen Republic sentenced a certain Ilyas Dashaev to 25 years in prison. Only one episode of the criminal activity of this young man, born in 1982, appears in the verdict. This case nevertheless goes beyond all limits both in its savagery and in its cruelty.

The court found that Dashaev, a native of the village of Gekhi, as part of an armed gang commanded by the infamous thug Islam Chalaev, kidnapped three people in early October 2001 - two women and a man. The bandits took them to the village of Alkhan-Kala. At first they were interrogated and beaten. Then one woman's head was cut off, the second was shot, and the man was released. The gangsters recorded the crime on video, which later became the starting point for the investigators of the republican prosecutor's office.

At one time, many shocking records circulated around Chechnya. But then the investigators were faced with the fact that the bandits abducted a family in which the husband Khasan Edilgireev was a Chechen, and his wife Tatyana Usmanova was Russian. Her friend Lena Gaevskaya was also Russian. Later, at the trial, the only defendant Dashaev - the rest of the gang members, along with the leader, had been destroyed by that time - tried to imagine that the family had been kidnapped, allegedly for cooperation with the federal authorities. But the prosecutor thought otherwise. The frames of the terrible video capture the last moments of the lives of unfortunate women, and those who can stand the nerve to watch the recording to the end will understand that the murders were committed only because, according to the bandits, the Russian woman should not have lived with a Chechen in peace and one family .

By the early 2000s, the situation in Chechnya had changed a lot compared to the mid-nineties. If in the first Chechen campaign the Chechens did not have to be persuaded to fight the federals, then after the attack of the Basayev and Khattab gangs on Dagestan, people began to look at the role of the so-called field commanders in a completely different way. Many Chechens realized that their real enemies were not in Russia at all, and began to help the federal government to establish a peaceful life in the ruined republic. It was the bandits of Chalaev who did not give rest. Therefore, after killing his wife and her friend, they released the Chechen. The prosecutor's office is sure that the Chechen Edilgireev was left alive not because he cooperated with the authorities less than his wife. The bandits had to defiantly pit the Russian population against the Chechens. Therefore, they filmed everything, for this they later replicated terrible footage of Chechnya.

In front of the husband, his wife was laid on the ground and a hole was dug to drain the blood. Dashaev held the unfortunate hands and feet. Arbi Khaskhanov was the first to approach the victim with a knife. He made several incisions on the woman's neck. Then Adlan Baraev took up the knife, who also slashed the throat with a real butcher's movement. The work was completed by Dashaev, who separated the woman's head from the body, and then stood up and, holding her by the hair, began to pose for the camera with a satisfied look. The cameraman, another of the bandits, the notorious Khamzat Tazabaev, nicknamed Tazik, satisfied with filming the terrible action. Edilgireev still cannot recall without a shudder the cruelty with which they killed his wife. The video shows that the executioners like their "work".

The prosecutor's office at the trial demanded a life sentence for Dashaev, but the court did not agree with the arguments of the state prosecutor. The judge, although he considered Dashaev's guilt proven, gave the defendant 25 years. The prosecutor's office did not agree with the verdict and one of these days is going to file a cassation submission.

She believes that a demonstrative terrible murder requires the maximum punishment. The bandits who are trying to kindle the flames of ethnic hatred with such bloody acts should know that only one prospect awaits them - to sit behind bars for the rest of their days.