A number of units and subunits, having completed combat missions to defeat gangs during the counter-terrorist operation, returned to their permanent locations, but understanding the experience of Chechen everyday life continues. The material of our permanent correspondent tells about how the Northern Fleet marines performed their military duty far from the elements they were used to.

...In the evening, Kombat Lieutenant Colonel Belezeko, who arrived at the combat positions of the 1st Airborne assault company, presented battle orders and medals to Captain Shashin, Senior Lieutenant Sushko, Senior Ensign Bagryantsev, their subordinates, and sailors. In addition to awards, the commander of the amphibious assault battalion brought and... brand new captain's shoulder straps. For Vitaly Sushko. After that, Anatoly Alekseevich announced that the major (already!) Sergey Shashin was appointed deputy commander, and instead of him, Captain Sushko will command the "first".

I went up to Vitaly. Congratulate.

- What is going on in your heart right now, Comrade Company Officer? I asked, giving him a firm, hearty squeeze of his broad Marine palm.

"To be honest, I'm proud to serve in the Marine Corps," the officer said with a smile. "I had a similar feeling when we were on our way to Gudermes. And a day earlier they completed the assigned combat task. The battalion was then part of the Airborne Forces group, where they beat themselves in the chest: they say, we are the "winged guard". And here they are watching: some "black berets" - and the task... a day earlier?! A little sad, of course: on the newspaper pages, in TV reports, everywhere you look, there are only Airborne troops everywhere! Maybe this is to some extent a custom advertisement: they say, the elite of the Armed Forces, peacekeepers. Well, if we cannot, like them, also appear before the people on a television screen, then we will prove our right to elitism in another way-by deeds, in battle.

However, the military orders, medals and military ranks awarded eloquently indicate that the Northern Fleet Marines have repeatedly demonstrated their military elitism far from the sea element on Chechen soil. Here are just some episodes of their everyday combat life.

Near Gudermes and Vedeno

The militants hate and fear the "black berets" for two, so to speak, characteristic features inherent in the North Sea Marines - complete tactical unpredictability and polar thoroughness.

..Federal troops were advancing on Vedeno. The amphibious assault battalion of the Marine Corps and airborne units operated in parallel. And the distinctive feature of the "winged guard" is never, under any circumstances, to leave your equipment. And so it happened that on the road near the height to which the Marine corps company of Captain Sergei Lobanov "pekhom" went, a column of Airborne troops was ambushed. Bandits hit several cars. A fierce battle ensued. And suddenly from the mountain to the flank of the militants hit the "black berets". The bandits immediately retreated.

At this time, the dshb command received a radio intercept: the "Czechs" were perplexed, asked their leaders what to do next. They say that we are waiting for them (in the sense of Marines) on serpentines, mined all the roads, and they came across the mountains, on foot.

Earlier, in the autumn, when the North Sea people were just approaching Gudermes, the path was blocked by a "field camp", from where the militants fired a machine gun at the parachute company. The Black Berets spread out, dug in, and radioed for fire support. Helicopter pilots, gunners, tankers hit so hard that only ruins remained of the "camp"...

After this battle, the Marines moved on. We walked in general calmly. However, sometimes they were lost in guesses: "Where are the bandits?" Radio operators only reported to the battalion commander, Lieutenant Colonel Belezeko: they say that there the motorized infantry was ambushed, and there the "Czechs" resisted the paratroopers. And who are the Marines fighting with? With the windmills? Still, you must agree, it is strange that the militants do not go to the "black berets"for so long.

The situation became somewhat clearer in one of the villages where the "Czechs" took off the day before. Local residents claimed that the bandits, having learned about the approaching Marines, talked among themselves: "Mess with this 'plague'? They were given one burst, so they leveled the" field camp " to the ground! No way! We don't need such a war!.."

- So it was or not, - they told me in the 1st Airborne assault

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but at least, no matter where we appeared, the militants did not engage in prolonged fights with us. Either they left in advance, or if they fired, they covered the withdrawal of the main forces...

Among the bandit "Gulyai-polye"

As soon as the amphibious assault battalion of the Northern Fleet Marines began fighting as part of the Combined Group of Federal Forces, the separatists immediately hysterically announced: "Do not take the Marines prisoner!" To which the North Sea people replied: they say, we should spit on bandit threats and grind them. "We have our own tasks, and we will fulfill them at all costs."

I was convinced of this more than once during my business trip personally. But it was foolish to assume that the Marines in the North Caucasus are opposed by "simple shepherds" with berdankas of the last century.

In the headquarters of the dshb, in the combat positions of amphibious assault platoons and companies, I have repeatedly heard from the North Sea people that according to intelligence data, only about twenty percent of the so-called "pure-blooded" Chechens remained in the ranks of bandits. The rest are mercenaries, "messengers" from both near and far abroad. And they are not armed with bows and arrows. At their disposal are (or at least reliably were) Dragunov sniper rifles, American M-16 automatic rifles, various modifications of Kalashnikov assault rifles, light machine guns, anti-tank installations, mountain guns, AGS-17 "Flame" grenade launchers, disposable Mukha grenade launchers, anti-aircraft missile systems, and even, presumably, the notorious "Stingers", not to mention armored vehicles, mobile and satellite communication systems.

Once, in the" reserved "kutka of the Vedensky Gorge, scouts assigned to the Marine corps group accidentally stumbled upon the" preserved " military equipment of bandits. Among the trophies: an amphibious assault vehicle, an infantry fighting vehicle, a T-72 tank, an artillery installation "based on" an armored personnel carrier, a GAZ-66 car, packed to the eyeballs with shells. All with the "Ichkerian wolf" on the frontal areas, and most importantly - in working order. Fill up the fuel, start it up-and fight.

- And so the bastards masked it well, - the scouts shared their impressions. "If we hadn't run our noses in, we wouldn't have found it."..

I think they would have found it anyway.

- The militants are fighting well. And it would be ridiculous to underestimate their training, " Vitaly Sushko told me. - Here, in the war, I first encountered such concepts as, for example, the tactics of Arab mercenaries. Just imagine: the Arabs usually go to storm the mountain in a group of twenty people. With you - three mortars. The attack on the summit begins from three sides. Naturally, under fire, the defending unit will not rush to its full height to its trenches. Every normal person will make their way to the positions, hiding from bullets and shrapnel.

Meanwhile, five bandits, again under the cover of mortars, are climbing the slope. And from some neighboring high-rise, they can also be supported by a sniper. In short, by the time the mortar attack is completed, the Arabs, by the way, are quite trained

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run around the mountains, "come up" already in front of the very nose of the defending fighters. And a continuous automatic fire begins. So much so that you can't lift your head.

"The company commander and I once figured out that if we didn't 'calculate' their actions in time, "the officer concluded," then fifteen or twenty trained mercenaries could take a platoon stronghold on the mountain in just thirty or forty minutes. So it's not amateurs who are fighting us. But, to be honest, even with their tactics, they are not particularly eager to join the battle with the battalion.

"Afraid?"

"Probably. They can't fully understand the "sea soul"...

To the height of

In early December last year, Lieutenant Colonel Anatoly Belezeko's airborne assault battalion was assigned the task of crossing the Andiya Ridge and entering the village of Vedeno from the south-east.

A column of Black Berets came out of Botlich. The direction is the border of Dagestan with Chechnya. The Marines still remember this march with a strong word. Narrow mountain serpentines, steep ascents, descents. The armored personnel carriers, which were not small enough by themselves, overcame each turn in three or four stages. On the left is a sheer cliff that goes vertically upwards, on the right is a chasm, from a multi-meter gap that reeks of sepulchral cold. And on the armor of paratroopers - guys whose lives depend entirely on the skill of drivers. One wrong turn of the steering wheel, a wrong "gear" or a sharp acceleration-and the car will fall into the "underworld", on a scattering of blood-thirsty stones.

During the multi-kilometer march, the Marines did not lose a single piece of military equipment. Breakdowns? Yes, they were. So, the car of the sailor Alexander Kudryashov was seriously damaged. It is a problem to eliminate such a malfunction even under normal conditions. And here we also received a message from the scouts: the enemy is near. At any moment, the immobilized Marine column could become a target for militants. But Alexander quickly put the damaged unit into operation, and the Black Berets continued on their way.

The amphibious assault battalion arrived in the area of concentration exactly at the appointed time. All military drivers of the dshb-sailors Alexander Kudryashov, Vladimir Petrochenko, Mikhail Luzhin, Maxim Bukreev, Alexey Tilichenko, Yuri Apasov, Yuri Antonov and others - were presented with state awards.

With the end of the march, the serpentines laid earlier also came to an end. Under the Marines ' feet, there were now only icy, often uncharted trails. And those that are drawn with a barely visible dotted line have long been erased from the face of the mountains by rockfalls.

We walked, like Suvorov. We carried as much ammunition and food as we could carry. On each - kilograms on thirty-forty. And this is taking into account that the Marines still have weapons, bulletproof vests, and hard hats. And all around are insurmountable steeps. A terrible hike. The thin mountain air made him dizzy, he coughed and vomited, and his nose bled. The physical and nervous strain was like a vise on my temples. We slept in the snow, laying out cardboard boxes from crates of dry food so as not to get cold. And sometimes they went straight into the night, into the fog, when you couldn't see anything in the mountains at all...

The first amphibious assault company of Captain Sergey Shashin was ordered to take the mountain on which the "Czechs" were entrenched. During the day, the Marines watched them from a nearby peak. The bandits even opened fire on the" black berets". To which the Marines immediately "showed their teeth".

Intelligence clearly reported that the enemy had anti-aircraft guns. Since their mountain was one slope away from the village, so there was also a road. The Marines could only oppose the heavy machine gun "Utes", which was dragged by the donkey Mashka, and the installation of ATGMs (anti-tank guided missiles) carried on the sailors ' backs and hands. And then - the assault! The ascent is high and quite steep. At the top are bandits bursting into the ground. And the "black berets" will have to climb up openly. Internally, it's hard to convince yourself that in such a scrape, you can, figuratively speaking, get away with it.

But as in Vysotsky's song: "The situation before the fight is not ours, but we will play!" Will be! Therefore, at three o'clock in the morning, a short command was issued for 1 dshr:"Go!"

They walked in a line, almost holding on to each other. I can't see the ground. Another step-as if into the abyss, into the unknown. Marines under the" pressure " of equipment stumbled, fell, rolled down a meter or two down. But none of the Black Berets made a sound. In the minds of each of them, weighed down by the huge load, the thought was firmly embedded: an involuntary cry, a loud noise - and the company will be discovered. Then everyone has Hana...

They reached the height at the appointed time. But the battle did not happen: the militants withdrew from the mountain earlier. The "old men" took over the guard on their own initiative. The others simply collapsed in the snow, exhausted.

- Of course, after such a climb, it is very difficult to take the fight. The real advantage is on the side of the enemy, " Senior Lieutenant Vitaly Sushko told me. - But the guys, you won't believe it, had such a fighting spirit! I was surprised myself. Maybe because they were taught that the first company should always be the best.

"You didn't find out why the bandits left?" I asked curiously.

- Although the sailors 'motto is" Where we are, there is victory!", but any of our offensive

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"it's not like the joke' With a bare heel and a Chapaev saber', " the platoon leader began to explain. - Previously, artillery is "working" on the mountain. That's the first thing. And secondly, practice has already shown that bandits do not always sit on heights. They usually occupy the dominant peaks near villages. And since they are basically just a bunch of rabid mercenaries who are unlikely to be paid extra for their nightly vigils in the frozen trenches, then, in my opinion, they simply went to spend the night in the village. In short, we were ahead of the Czechs. And when they got to us, a shootout broke out. But in the mountains, it is usually fleeting. Why? The bandits mostly travel light: each of them has small arms, small ammunition, and a few grenades. So in our episode, they probably weren't ready for a long fight.

The Marine said-the Marine did

By ten o'clock, the sun had melted the fog. The earth, which had tasted a long downpour during the night, began to exhale with a hazy shiver, as if reluctantly.

It was drying up. Instead of muddy smudge, worn tracks with casts of armored personnel carriers ' treads were becoming more and more clearly outlined. Birds called to each other in the thorn bushes, dazed from the warmth. Neither give nor take - universal grace! As if there was no war, and people dreamed of it...

But no. At the" Wolf Gate", the entrance to the Argun Gorge, the cannonade continued to" swear " in many voices.

Suddenly, we saw an infantry fighting vehicle with armored paratroopers crawl out of Serzhen-Yurt and set a course for the North Sea people.

- To visit us, - Vitaly Sushko stated softly, peering from under the palm of his hand at the beempekhu rustling on the off-road. "Who would that be, and what would they want here?"..

The guests were sobrovtsy. "Delighted"; in a Shawl (just a stone's throw from Serzhen-Yurt), they caught a "Czech". He confessed that about fifteen bandits were hiding in the village. The SOBR command is preparing a night operation to capture them. They ask for permission, if necessary, to go to the village from the marine positions.

"No problem," Vitaly said.

Sobrovets waved his hand: "Then I don't say goodbye!" - and the BMP, spinning like a top, rushed back.

"When will it all end?" the platoon leader sighed to no one in particular. "Back from the war... by God.. I'll get married right away.

After seeing off their fellow soldiers, they entered the "headquarters" tent. They lit up. Sushko, his eyes fixed on the far corner, intently blew out several smoke rings and, as if continuing a conversation that had begun, said in a muffled voice::

- ...And yet the bastards have passed. And somewhere close to us. What should I do? Platoons are like islands in a rough sea... Do you remember what we talked about yesterday? They don't go head-on, they make their way on the sly: through hollows, bushes, like mice...

"You don't have the guts, do you?" I asked Vitaly.

"Don't tell me, brother. There is still enough of this filth in Chechnya. A bandit is a bandit everywhere. And his tactics are appropriate: he tries more and more to come around the corner, to hit me in the back. We need to finish with them... I was born and raised in the North Caucasus. And after all that has happened, I have an incredible desire... I won't say revenge. But people, if they can still be called people, did this and left with impunity?! I think this is wrong. Evil must be punished. Otherwise, you know, impunity leads to permissiveness. That's what we got in the end: Pervomaiskoe, Grozny on the 96th... After all, they, by and large, got away with everything! And in the last three years, they have become completely impudent. Therefore, it is simply necessary to make it clear to the bandits that excessive self-confidence is terribly dangerous for health. Yes, and Russia should be a single state, and not akin to a patchwork quilt spreading in all directions.

- Did the Marines go to Chechnya with such a mood?

- To be honest, behind the bustle of fees, it was somehow not up to philosophy. Everyone understood that there was an order to be carried out. But later, in Dagestan, from the conversations of officers and ensigns, especially those who had already passed the so-called first Chechen campaign, I learned for myself: "black berets" will perform all combat tasks. The intention is one-if you beat, then beat to the end. You know, in our war: the Marine said-the Marine did...

FROM THE EDITORIAL OFFICE. The names of the actors have been changed.

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