29/07/2016

Airborne Forces Day in Pskov. Pskov Airborne Division

76th Guards Chernigov Red Banner Airborne Assault Division - the oldest unit of the Airborne Forces. Formed on September 1, 1939. Stationed in Pskov, one of the parachute regiments is located in the suburban village of Cherekha.

Pskov will celebrate the 86th anniversary of the creation of the Airborne Forces (Airborne Forces Day)

August 2, 2016 Events will be held in Pskov to celebrate the 86th anniversary of the creation of the Airborne Forces. For Pskov, where almost every resident has a relative or at least an acquaintance who served in the airborne forces, August 2 is perhaps the main holiday for the city.

Paratrooper Day 2016 program in Pskov:

08.00 - laying flowers at the bust of the founder of the Airborne Forces, Army General Vasily Margelov (Margelova, 19)

08.15 – ceremonial formation of personnel of military units of the Zavelichye military town

08.30 – march of personnel to the Alexander Nevsky Church

09.00 – solemn liturgy in the Alexander Nevsky Church in honor of the Airborne Forces

10.00 – laying of the garland and rally of Military Glory on the Square of Heroes-Paratroopers

10.20 – Ceremonial procession of personnel of the 76th Airborne Artillery Division and veterans through the Mashinostroitel stadium

11.00 – celebration in honor of the 86th anniversary of the Airborne Forces, concert program, demonstration performances by paratroopers and students of the “Master” school

In addition, during the celebration there will be a field kitchen (from 11.00 to 15.00), an exhibition of military equipment and weapons (from 11.00 to 14.00) and an information point as part of the campaign “Contract service in the 76th Airborne Division - your choice!”

Congratulations on Airborne Forces Day 2016

Pskov regional branch of the "Union of Paratroopers" - Congratulations on Airborne Forces Day:

People often gossip about this day
However, that's not the point at all.
For your happiness in battle
Airborne Forces Day is sung by a poet!
Anyone can be born
But you MUST become a paratrooper
After all, there are few titles in this business
They don't live for rewards!
When trouble knocks on the door
... but in our life everything is so complicated
We are used to believing guys
Everything is accurate and possible with them!

From August 18, 1999 to 2004 Pskov Airborne Division participated in the second Chechen war. During this period of time, paratroopers took part in the liberation of the settlements of Karamakhi, Gudermes, Argun, and blocking the Vedeno Gorge. In most operations, the personnel received high praise from the Joint Command of the group of forces in the North Caucasus.

Speech by Vladimir Putin at the unveiling ceremony of a memorial stone on the site of the future monument to soldiers of the sixth company of the 76th Guards Airborne Division who died heroically in Chechnya. Photo from the press service of the President of Russia, Pskov, August 2, 2000.

The personnel of the 6th company of the 104th parachute regiment showed massive heroism in the battle at height 776 with Khattab’s gangs. At the cost of their lives, the paratroopers inflicted serious damage on the enemy group. For this feat, 22 guardsmen (21 of them posthumously) were awarded the title of Hero of Russia, 63 were posthumously awarded the Order of Courage.

Since 2006 Pskov division is an air assault unit. According to the commander of the Airborne Forces, Colonel General Alexander Kolmakov, in both the airborne division and the air assault division, 100 percent of the personnel are ready to parachute. In an air assault division, unlike an airborne division, each regiment has one reinforced battalion capable of landing with equipment. This is due to the real state of military transport aviation, the geographical location of the locations of airborne units and the optimization of the organizational and staff composition of the troops.

Paratroopers today show everything they can: storming an enemy base, rescuing colleagues, parachuting, and, as expected, breaking bricks and pieces of wood.

But this will no longer surprise local residents. In Pskov, every child knows what a “landing tour” is:

A paratrooper is a very strong person, I think that the Airborne Forces are the best branch of the military.

Local residents jokingly call the 76th Red Banner, twice Order of Lenin, Pskov Air Assault Division a “city-forming enterprise.” But in reality this is no longer a joke: in Pskov- in a city with a population of 190 thousand people, every family has a paratrooper in its family. Under the motto "Glory to the Airborne Forces!" More than one generation has grown up here.

Voice congratulations on Airborne Forces Day

Don’t be like everyone else - make your congratulations unforgettable and unique. We suggest using the audio congratulations service to organize a small but pleasant surprise for people dear and close to you.

Such congratulations will be original and memorable, which will definitely add to the mood of the recipient. And a good mood is the best gift! After all, it is with him that all the most intimate and vivid wishes and their immediate fulfillment begin!

This could be a musical, cheerful congratulation to a paratrooper based on a popular song, or a voice postcard for a notary with beautiful verses. A great surprise would be a congratulation for the paratrooper from President Putin, who will personally address him with a solemn speech and wish him all the best at work and happiness in the family.

Congratulations on Airborne Forces Day to your phone you can listen to and send to the recipient on a mobile or smartphone as a musical or voice greeting. You can order and send congratulations on Airborne Forces Day to your phone either immediately or by pre-specifying the date and time of delivery of the audio postcard.

Good luck to you! As a last resort, just listen to audio congratulations, fortunately it’s free!

6th Company - Top Secret

The official investigation into the tragedy has long been completed, its materials are classified. No one is punished. But the relatives of the victims are sure: the 6th company of the 104th Airborne Regiment was betrayed by the command of the federal group.

By the beginning of 2000, the main forces of Chechen militants were blocked in the Argun Gorge in the south of the republic. On February 23, the head of the united group of troops in the North Caucasus, Lieutenant General Gennady Troshev, announced that the militants were finished - supposedly only small gangs remained, only dreaming of surrendering. On February 29, the commander hoisted the Russian tricolor over Shatoy and repeated: Chechen gangs do not exist. Central television channels showed Defense Minister Igor Sergeev reporting to the acting President Vladimir Putin about the “successful completion of the third stage of the counter-terrorism operation in the Caucasus.”

At this very time, non-existent gangs with a total number of about three thousand people attacked the positions of the 6th company of the 104th parachute regiment, which occupied height 776.0 near the village of Ulus-Kert, Shatoi region. The battle lasted about a day. By the morning of March 1, the militants destroyed the paratroopers and marched to the village of Vedeno, where they dispersed: some surrendered, others went to continue the partisan war.

Ordered to remain silent

On March 2, the Khankala prosecutor's office opened a criminal case into the massacre of military personnel. One of the Baltic TV channels showed footage filmed by professional cameramen from the militants: a battle and a pile of bloody corpses of Russian paratroopers. Information about the tragedy reached the Pskov region, where the 104th Parachute Regiment was stationed and where 30 of the 84 dead were from. Their relatives demanded to know the truth.

On March 4, 2000, the head of the OGV press center in the North Caucasus, Gennady Alekhin, said that the information about the large losses suffered by the paratroopers was not true. Moreover, no military operations took place during this period at all. The next day, the commander of the 104th regiment, Sergei Melentyev, came out to journalists. Five days had passed since the battle, and most families already knew about the death of their loved ones through colleagues in the Caucasus. Melentyev clarified a little: “The battalion carried out a blocking mission. Intelligence discovered a caravan. The battalion commander moved to the battlefield and controlled the unit. The soldiers fulfilled their duty with honor. I'm proud of my people."

On March 6, one of the Pskov newspapers reported on the death of the paratroopers. After this, the commander of the 76th Guards Chernigov Air Assault Division, Major General Stanislav Semenyuta, prohibited the author of the article, Oleg Konstantinov, from entering the unit’s territory. The first official to admit the death of 84 paratroopers was the governor of the Pskov region, Evgeny Mikhailov - on March 7, he referred to a telephone conversation with the commander of the Airborne Forces, Colonel General Georgy Shpak. The military themselves remained silent for three more days.

Relatives of the victims besieged the division checkpoint, demanding that the bodies be returned to them. However, the plane with the “cargo 200” was not landed in Pskov, but at a military airfield in Ostrov and the coffins were kept there for several days. On March 9, one of the newspapers, citing a source at the Airborne Forces headquarters, wrote that Georgy Shpak had had a list of the dead on his desk for a week. The commander was reported in detail about the circumstances of the death of the 6th company. And only on March 10, the silence was finally broken by Troshev: his subordinates allegedly did not know either the number of dead or what unit they belonged to!

The paratroopers were buried on March 14. Vladimir Putin was expected to attend the funeral ceremony in Pskov, but he did not come. The presidential elections were just around the corner, and zinc coffins were not the best “PR” for a candidate. It is more surprising, however, that neither the head of the General Staff Anatoly Kvashnin, nor Gennady Troshev, nor Vladimir Shamanov came. At this time, they were on an important visit to Dagestan, where they received the titles of honorary citizens of the Dagestan capital and silver Kubachi sabers from the hands of the mayor of Makhachkala, Said Amirov.

On March 12, 2000, Presidential Decree No. 484 appeared on awarding 22 dead paratroopers the title of Hero of Russia, the rest of the dead were awarded the Order of Courage. President-elect Vladimir Putin nevertheless came to the 76th division on August 2, Airborne Forces Day. He admitted the guilt of the command “for gross miscalculations that have to be paid for with the lives of Russian soldiers.” But not a single name was named. Three years later, the case of the death of 84 paratroopers was closed by Deputy Prosecutor General Sergei Fridinsky. The investigation materials have not yet been made public. For ten years, relatives and colleagues of the victims have been collecting the picture of the tragedy bit by bit.

Height 776.0

The 104th Parachute Regiment was transferred to Chechnya ten days before the tragic battle. The unit was consolidated - it was staffed on the spot with fighters from the 76th division and airborne brigades. The 6th company included soldiers from 32 regions of Russia, and special forces major Sergei Molodov was appointed commander. He didn’t even have time to meet the soldiers before the company was already sent on a combat mission.

On February 28, the 6th company and the 3rd platoon of the 4th company began a 14-kilometer forced march towards Ulus-Kert - without preliminary reconnaissance of the area, without training young soldiers in combat operations in the mountains. A day was allotted for the advance, which is very little, given the constant descents and ascents and the altitude of the terrain - 2400 meters above sea level. The command decided not to use helicopters, allegedly due to the lack of natural landing sites. They even refused to throw tents and stoves at the deployment point, without which the soldiers would have frozen to death. The paratroopers were forced to carry all their belongings on themselves, and because of this they did not take heavy weapons.

The goal of the forced march was to occupy height 776.0 and prevent the militants from breaking through in this direction. The task was obviously impossible. Military intelligence could not help but know that about three thousand militants were preparing to break through the Argun Gorge. Such a crowd could not move unnoticed for 30 kilometers: at the end of February there is almost no greenery in the mountains. They had only one way - through the gorge along one of two dozen paths, many of which went straight to the height of 776.0.

“The command gave us arguments: they say, you can’t put a company of paratroopers on each path,” said one of the servicemen of the 76th division. “But it was possible to establish interaction between units, create a reserve, and target the routes along which the militants were waiting. Instead, for some reason, the positions of the paratroopers were well targeted by the militants. When the battle began, soldiers from neighboring heights rushed to help, asked for orders from the command, but the answer was a categorical “no.” There were rumors that the Chechens bought passage through the gorge for half a million dollars. It was beneficial for many officials on the Russian side to break out of encirclement - they wanted to continue making money from the war.
The first clash between scouts of the 6th company and militants occurred on February 29 at 12.30. The separatists were surprised to meet paratroopers on the way. During a short firefight, they shouted that they should be let through, because the commanders had already agreed on everything. It is no longer possible to verify whether this agreement actually existed. But for some reason all the police checkpoints on the road to Vedeno were removed. According to radio intercepts, the head of the militants, Emir Khattab, received commands, requests, and tips via satellite communications. And his interlocutors were in Moscow.

Company commander Sergei Molodov was one of the first to die from a sniper bullet. When battalion commander Mark Evtyukhin took command, the paratroopers were already in a difficult position. They did not have time to dig in, and this sharply reduced their defense capability. The start of the battle caught one of the three platoons rising to a height, and the militants shot most of the guardsmen like targets at a shooting range.

Evtyukhin was in constant contact with the command, asking for reinforcements, because he knew: his paratroopers were standing 2-3 kilometers from height 776.0. But in response to reports that he was repelling an attack by several hundred militants, he was calmly answered: “Destroy everyone!”

The paratroopers say that the deputy regiment commander forbade entering into negotiations with Evtyukhin, because he was allegedly panicking. In fact, he himself was panicking: it was rumored that after a business trip to Chechnya, Lieutenant Colonel Evtyukhin was supposed to take his position. The deputy regiment commander told the battalion commander that he had no free people and called for radio silence so as not to interfere with the work of front-line aviation and howitzers. However, fire support for the 6th company was provided only by regimental artillery, the guns of which operated at maximum range. Artillery fire needs constant adjustment, and Evtyukhin did not have a special radio attachment for this purpose. He called fire via regular communication, and many shells fell in the paratroopers’ defense zone: 80 percent of the dead soldiers were later found to have shrapnel wounds from foreign mines and from “their” shells.

The paratroopers did not receive any reinforcements, although the surrounding area was filled with troops: the federal group within a radius of one hundred kilometers from the village of Shatoi numbered over one hundred thousand troops. The commander of the Airborne Forces in the Caucasus, Major General Alexander Lentsov, had at his disposal both long-range artillery and high-precision Uragan installations. Height 776.0 was within their reach, but not a single salvo was fired at the militants. Surviving paratroopers say that a Black Shark helicopter flew to the battle site, fired one salvo and flew away. The command subsequently argued that helicopters could not be used in such weather conditions: it was dark and foggy. But didn’t the creators of “Black Shark” buzz the ears of the whole country that this helicopter was all-weather? A day after the death of the 6th company, the fog did not prevent the helicopter pilots from seeing with the naked eye and reporting how the militants were collecting the bodies of dead paratroopers at altitude.

At three o'clock in the morning on March 1, when the battle was already going on for about 15 hours, fifteen guardsmen from the 3rd platoon of the 4th company, led by Major Alexander Dostovalov, arbitrarily broke through to the encircled people. It took Dostovalov and his soldiers forty minutes to reunite with the battalion commander. Another 120 paratroopers under the command of the chief of reconnaissance of the 104th regiment, Sergei Baran, also voluntarily withdrew from their positions and crossed the Abazulgol River, moving to help Evtyukhin. They had already begun to rise to the height when they were stopped by an order from the command: stop advancing, return to their positions! The commander of the Northern Fleet marine group, Major General Alexander Otrakovsky, repeatedly asked for permission to come to the aid of the paratroopers, but never received it. On March 6, because of these experiences, Otrakovsky’s heart stopped.

Communication with Mark Evtyukhin stopped on March 1 at 6:10 am. According to the official version, the battalion commander’s last words were addressed to the artillerymen: “I call fire on myself!” But his colleagues say that in his last hour he remembered the command: “You betrayed us, bitches!”

The feds appeared at the height only a day after this. Until the morning of March 2, no one fired at height 776.0, where the militants were in charge. They finished off the wounded paratroopers, dumping their bodies in a heap. They put headphones on the corpse of Mark Evtyukhin, installed a walkie-talkie in front of him and hoisted him to the very top of the mound: they say, call or don’t call, no one will come to you. The militants took with them the bodies of almost all of their dead. They were in no hurry, as if there was no army of a hundred thousand around, as if someone guaranteed that not a single shell would fall on their heads.

After March 10, the military, who hid the death of the 6th company, fell into patriotic pathos. It was reported that at the cost of their lives, the heroes destroyed about a thousand militants. Although no one to this day knows how many separatists were killed in that battle. Having broken through to Vedeno, the Chechens threw off ballast: several dozen wounded surrendered to the internal troops (they categorically refused to surrender to the paratroopers). Most of them soon found themselves free: local police officers gave in to persistent requests from local residents to return their breadwinners to their families. At least one and a half thousand militants went into the mountains to the east through the places where the federals were deployed. How they managed this, no one has figured out. After all, according to General Troshev, all that remained from the bandit formations were scraps, and the dead paratroopers came in very handy for the authors of the version: they say, these heroes destroyed all the bandits. It was agreed that the 6th Company, at the cost of its life, saved Russian statehood, thwarting the plans of the bandits to create an Islamic state on the territory of Chechnya and Dagestan.

13 years ago, on March 1, 2000, near Argun in Chechnya, at the Ulus-Kert - Selmentauzen line, she died heroically at an altitude of 776 6th company of the 104th parachute regiment of the 76th Guards Pskov Airborne Division. By decree of the President of the Russian Federation, 22 paratroopers were nominated for the title of Hero of Russia (21 of them posthumously), 69 soldiers and officers of the 6th company were awarded the Order of Courage (63 of them posthumously)...

LET'S REMEMBER THESE GUYS WHO DID THEIR DUTY TO THE END. MAY THE EARTH BE THEM IN REST AND OUR MEMORY ETERNAL!

On the afternoon of February 29, 2000, the federal command hastened to interpret the capture of Shatoy as a signal that the “Chechen resistance” had been finally broken.

President Putin was reported “on the completion of the tasks of the third stage” of the operation in the North Caucasus, and... O. OGV commander Gennady Troshev noted that operations to destroy the “escaping bandits” would be carried out for another two to three weeks, but the full-scale military operation had been completed.

Gangs of Chechen field commanders found themselves in a strategic pocket. This happened after a tactical landing, which, as if with a sharp knife, cut the Itum-Kale-Shatili mountain road, built by the slaves of “free Ichkeria”. Operational group "Center" began to methodically shoot down the enemy, forcing him to retreat down the Argun Gorge: from the Russian-Georgian border to the north.

Intelligence reported: Khattab moved to the northeast, to the Vedeno region, where he created an extensive network of mountain bases, warehouses and shelters. He intended to capture Vedeno, the villages of Mekhkety, Elistanzhi and Kirov-Yurt and provide himself with a springboard for a breakthrough into Dagestan. In the neighboring republic, the “Mujahideen” planned to take a large number of civilians hostage and thereby force the federal authorities to negotiate.

Reconstructing the chronicle of those days, you need to clearly understand: talk about “reliably blocked gangs” is a bluff, an attempt to pass off wishful thinking. The strategically important Argun Gorge has a length of more than 30 kilometers. Units not trained in mountain warfare were unable to establish control over a branched and completely unfamiliar mountain system. Even on the old map you can count more than two dozen trails in this area. And how many are there that are not marked on any maps at all? To block each such path, you need to use a company. This turns out to be an impressive figure. With the forces that were at hand, the federal command could not only destroy, but reliably block the gangs going for a breakthrough only on paper.

In what later turned out to be the most dangerous direction, the OGV command deployed soldiers of the 104th Guards Parachute Regiment of the 76th Pskov Airborne Division. Meanwhile, Khattab chose a simple but effective tactic: after conducting reconnaissance in force, he intended to find the weakest points, and then, with his entire mass, break out of the gorge.

On February 28, the “Mujahideen” went ahead. The first to take the blow were the paratroopers of the 3rd company, led by Senior Lieutenant Vasilyev. They occupied commanding heights five kilometers east of Ulus-Kert. Khattab's troops unsuccessfully tried to break through a well-organized fire system and retreated, suffering significant losses.

Units of the 2nd battalion kept control of the dominant heights above the Sharoargun Gorge. There remained a passage between the beds of the Sharoargun and Abazulgol rivers. To exclude the possibility of militants “infiltrating” here, the commander of the 104th regiment ordered the commander of the 6th company, Major Sergei Molodov, to occupy another commanding height 4-5 kilometers from Ulus-Kert. And since the company commander was literally transferred to the unit the day before and did not have time to thoroughly understand the operational situation and get to know the personnel, the commander of the 2nd battalion, Mark Evtyukhin, protected him.

The paratroopers set out while it was still dark. In a few hours they had to make a fifteen-kilometer forced march to a given square, where they would set up a new base camp. They walked with full combat gear. They were armed only with small arms and grenade launchers. The attachment for the radio station, which provides covert radio communication, was left at the base. They carried water, food, tents and potbelly stoves, without which it is simply impossible to survive in the mountains in winter. As a result, the unit stretched over 5-6 kilometers, covering no more than a kilometer per hour. We also note that the paratroopers went to the heights immediately after a difficult throw along the Dombay-Arzy route, i.e., without proper rest.

A helicopter landing was ruled out because the aerial reconnaissance did not find a single suitable site in the mountain forest.

The paratroopers walked to the limit of their physical strength - this is a fact that no one can dispute. From the analysis of the situation, the following conclusion suggests itself: the command was late with the decision to transfer the 6th company to Isty-Kord, and then, realizing it, set obviously impossible deadlines.

Even before sunrise, the 6th company of the 104th Guards Parachute Regiment, reinforced by a platoon and two reconnaissance groups, was at the target - the interfluve of the tributaries of the Argun south of Ulus-Kert. The actions of the paratroopers were led by the battalion commander, Lieutenant Colonel Mark Evtyukhin.

As it later became known, 90 paratroopers, on an isthmus 200 meters away, blocked the path of Khattab’s two thousand strong group. As far as one can judge, the bandits were the first to discover the enemy. This is evidenced by radio interceptions.

At this moment, the “Mujahideen” were moving in two detachments along the Sharoargun and Abazulgol rivers. They decided to bypass height 776.0, where our paratroopers were catching their breath after a difficult forced march.

Moving ahead of both gangs were two reconnaissance groups of 30 people each, followed by two combat security detachments of 50 militants each. One of the head patrols was discovered by Senior Lieutenant Alexei Vorobyov and his scouts, which saved the 6th company from a surprise attack.

It was noon. Scouts discovered militants at the foot of height 776.0. The opponents were separated by tens of meters. In a matter of seconds, with the help of grenades, the vanguard of the bandits was destroyed. But after him dozens of “Mujahideen” poured in.

The scouts with the wounded on their shoulders retreated to the main forces, and the company had to take on an oncoming battle on the move. While the scouts could hold back the onslaught of the bandits, the battalion commander decided to gain a foothold on this forested height of 776.0 and not give the bandits the opportunity to escape and block the gorge.

Before the assault began, Khattab field commanders Idris and Abu Walid radioed the battalion commander and suggested that Yevtyukhin let the “Mujahideen” through:
“There are ten times more of us here.” Think about it, commander, is it worth risking people? Night, fog - no one will notice...
It’s not hard to imagine what the battalion commander responded. After these “negotiations,” the bandits unleashed a barrage of fire from mortars and grenade launchers on the paratroopers’ positions. By midnight the battle reached its highest intensity. The guards did not flinch, although the enemy outnumbered them by more than 20 times. The bandits advanced to positions to throw a grenade. In some areas, the paratroopers came into hand-to-hand combat. One of the first in the 6th company to die was its commander Sergei Molodov - a sniper’s bullet hit him in the neck.

The command could only support the company with artillery fire. The fire of the regimental gunners was adjusted by the commander of the self-propelled battery, Captain Viktor Romanov. According to General Troshev, from noon on February 29 until the early morning of March 1, regimental gunners poured 1,200 shells into the Isty-Kord area.

They did not use aviation for fear of hitting their own people. The bandits covered their flanks with water flows that were on the right and left, which did not make it possible to freely maneuver and provide effective assistance. The enemy set up ambushes and took up defensive positions on the shore, not allowing them to approach the tributaries of the Argun. Several crossing attempts ended in failure. The 1st company of paratroopers, sent to the rescue of their dying comrades, was able to break through to height 776.0 only on the morning of March 2.

From three to five in the morning on March 1, there was a “respite” - there were no attacks, but the mortars and snipers did not stop shelling. Battalion commander Mark Evtyukhin reported the situation to the regiment commander, Colonel Sergei Melentyev. He ordered to hold on and wait for help.

After several hours of battle, it became obvious that the 6th Company simply did not have enough ammunition to hold off the continuous attacks of the militants. The battalion commander radioed for help from his deputy, Major Alexander Dostovalov, who was located one and a half kilometers from the dying company. There were fifteen fighters with him.

We like to say various beautiful phrases on any occasion, without really thinking about their meaning. I also liked the expression “heavy fire”. So here it is. Despite the heavy, unquote, enemy fire, Alexander Dostovalov and a platoon of paratroopers somehow miraculously managed to get through to their comrades, who were holding back the frantic onslaught of Khattab’s bandits for the second hour. For the 6th Company this was a powerful emotional charge. The guys believed that they were not abandoned, that they were remembered, that they would be helped.

The platoon lasted for two hours of battle. At 5 o'clock Khattab launched two battalions of suicide bombers - "white angels" - into the attack. They completely surrounded the height, cutting off part of the last platoon, which never managed to rise to the height: it was shot almost in the back. The company itself was already collecting ammunition from the dead and wounded.

The forces were unequal. One after another, soldiers and officers died. Alexei Vorobyov had his legs broken by mine fragments, one bullet hit his stomach, and another pierced his chest. But the officer did not leave the battle. It was he who destroyed Idris, Khattab’s friend and intelligence chief.

On the night of March 1, at height 776 there was hand-to-hand combat, which took on a focal character. The snow at the height was mixed with blood. The paratroopers repelled the last attack with several machine guns. Battalion commander Mark Evtyukhin realized that the life of the company was gone for minutes. A little more, and the bandits will break out of the gorge over the corpses of the paratroopers. And then he turned to captain Viktor Romanov. He, bleeding, with the stumps of his legs tied with tourniquets, lay nearby - on the company command post.
- Come on, let's call fire on ourselves!
Already losing consciousness, Romanov transferred the coordinates to the battery. At 6:10 am the connection with Lieutenant Colonel Evtyukhin was lost. The battalion commander fired back to the last bullet and was hit by a sniper's bullet in the head.

On the morning of March 2, the 1st company reached the Isty-Kord pass. When the paratroopers pushed the militants back from Height 776, a terrible picture opened before them: perennial beech trees, “trimmed” by shells and mines, and corpses everywhere, the corpses of “Mujahideen.” Four hundred people. In the company stronghold there are the bodies of 13 Russian officers and 73 sergeants and privates.

The location of the 104th Guards Air Assault Red Banner Regiment, or military unit 32515, is the village of Cherekha, Pskov Region. The unit belongs to the airborne forces performing combat missions to destroy and capture the enemy from the air, as well as the destruction of ground weapons and cover or defense of individual areas. For some combat missions, airborne forces are used as quick reaction formations.

Insignia of the 104th Air Assault Regiment

Story

The formation of the regiment began in January 1948. It included units of the 346th, 104th and 76th Guards Airborne Divisions. The connection was finally organized in early January 1949.
In 1976, the regiment was awarded the Red Banner for success in combat training. From 1979 to 1989, the regiment's personnel and officers carried out combat operations in Afghanistan. In February 1978, he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner for his success in mastering new weapons.
From 1994 to 1995, the regiment was among the units of the 76th division that participated in the fighting in Chechnya. In 1999 and 2009 he participated in anti-terrorist missions in the North Caucasus.
Since the beginning of 2003, it has been partially transferred to a contract acquisition basis. At the same time, the reconstruction of old and construction of new residential premises, as well as facilities on the territory of military unit 32515, began.

Regiment parade ground

Eyewitness impressions

The material and living conditions of service are in part satisfactory. Military personnel live in quarters barracks, with one shower per block and a storage closet in the hallway. The dormitory has a recreation room and a gym. The dining room is located in a separate room; officers and soldiers eat together. The organization of catering, as well as the work of cleaning the barracks and the surrounding area, is assigned to civilian personnel.
Soldiers of such a unit as military unit 32515 devote a lot of time to general physical and airborne training, regardless of the time of year. Mandatory activities for paratroopers include acquiring and improving the skills of camouflage, crossing water and fire barriers.
A lot of time is devoted to the basic skills of fighters - jumping. At first, soldiers of military unit 32515 train at the airborne complex on the territory of the unit. The first jump takes place from a five-meter tower. Then, in groups of 10 people, the paratroopers make three jumps from the AN aircraft, and then in the same composition from the IL-a.

View of the VDK regiment

There are no hazing or hazing in the unit, because recruits from military unit 32515 live on a separate floor of the barracks, and old-timers and contract soldiers live on the floor above, but in the same block.
The oath of office in the 104th Regiment takes place on Saturdays at 10:00 am. Sometimes due to weather conditions it may be moved forward or back an hour. After taking the oath, military personnel are allowed leave until 20.00. Soldiers are also released on leave and on holidays. Distribution among the companies of the 104th Regiment occurs on Monday after taking the oath.
Calls to relatives by mobile phone are allowed only at certain times - an hour before lights out. The rest of the time, the telephones are kept by the unit commander and are issued to soldiers only after being noted in the appropriate log.

At the oath-taking ceremony in the regiment

Field exercises take place regardless of the time of year. Sometimes employees of a unit such as military unit 32515 can spend up to two months on the road (usually these are combined arms exercises).
Psychologically stable applicants who have good physical fitness and a health certificate of at least form A-1 are accepted for contract service in military unit 32515. Preference is given to applicants who have martial arts skills, who previously served in airborne units and were involved in parachuting.
Paratroopers of military unit 32515 receive their allowance on a Sberbank of Russia card. For contract military personnel, it is accrued twice a month (advance and salary), and for conscript soldiers - once a month. The Sberbank ATM, like the Baltic Bank ATM, is located at the checkpoint of the unit. You can send money to a fighter at a bank branch, in a Sberbank terminal, through an online system or through the Qiwi payment system.

Airborne Forces Day in St. Petersburg

Information for mom

Parcels and letters

It has become the “center” of attention of all news channels. Murder, investigation, funeral march. Of course, one feels sorry for him, like any other person... But about the dead it’s either good or nothing. Therefore, there is nothing to add to the word “sorry”.

But the country learned only on March 5, 2000 that on February 29, 2000, a company of paratroopers took on battles with many times superior forces of militants. For three days, 90 guys held back, according to various sources, from 2.5 to 3 thousand militants breaking through from the territory of Chechnya through the Argun Gorge.

And how many people on March 1, 2015 remembered that 15 years ago, on February 29 - March 1, almost the entire 6th company of the 2nd battalion of the 104th Parachute Regiment of the 76th Guards Pskov Airborne Division died in an unequal battle?

About 21 thousand people came to the funeral march in memory of Nemtsov, and about 200 people came to the peaceful rally in memory of the Pskov paratroopers in the capital. Yes, perhaps in 15 years no one will remember about Nemtsov, but that’s not the main thing...

It is important whether the people remember those who, without sparing their bellies, defend the peace and quiet of our cities, even at the cost of their lives.

On February 29, troops of the federal group liberated the last populated area of ​​Chechnya from militants. General Troshev (at that time deputy commander of the OGV in the North Caucasus) brought the Russian flag to Shatoy to symbolically hoist it over the city. At the same time, Troshev stated in his interview that large organized gang formations no longer exist, and the remnants of the militants “are scattering in small groups in order to save their skins.” On the same day, Minister of Defense I.D. Sergeev reported to... O. President V.V. Putin on the successful completion of the 3rd stage of the counter-terrorism operation. And just a few hours after that, the battle began at an altitude of 776.0.

March 3, 2000 Russian generals Viktor Kazantsev, Gennady Troshev, Vladimir Shamanov, as well as the Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces Anatoly Kvashnin became honorary citizens of Makhachkala. A decree on this was signed by the head of the Makhachkala administration, Said Amirov.
Honorary citizenship was awarded to the generals for their contribution to the defeat of the bandit formations that attacked Dagestan in August-September last year. As it became known, in addition to special addresses, Kazantsev, Shamanov, Troshev and Kvashnin will be presented with a personal name - Kubachi sabers.

And at the same time, there is not a word in the media about the dead paratroopers. To avoid causing dissonance?

From the memoirs of Andrei Velichenko (as part of a group of paratroopers of the 104th regiment, he marched and crossed the Abuzalgol River, but due to dense enemy fire they were unable to break through to the aid of the soldiers of the 6th company):

The picture was very creepy. In an area of ​​about 200 by 200, almost the entire personnel of the 6th Airborne Company was located.

Showing incredible courage, 90 paratroopers repelled attacks by more than 2.5 thousand militants. According to various sources, from 370 to 700 militants were killed. 84 paratroopers died, six were lucky - they survived.

In 2006, director Vitaly Lukin made the feature film “Breakthrough,” based on the last battle of the heroic 6th company of the 104th Guards Regiment. The script was written by Ivan Loschilin and Vyacheslav Davydov. The main roles were played by Igor Lifanov, Marina Mogilevskaya, Anatoly Kotenev and other domestic actors. True, the film turned out to be controversial both from the director’s point of view and from the point of view of historical accuracy.

On March 12, 2000, Presidential Decree No. 484 appeared on awarding 22 dead paratroopers the title of Hero of Russia, the rest of the dead were awarded the Order of Courage.

Three years later, the case of the death of 84 paratroopers was closed by Deputy Prosecutor General Sergei Fridinsky. The investigation materials have not yet been made public. For ten years, relatives and colleagues of the victims have been collecting the picture of the tragedy bit by bit.

In July 2003, an open appeal from a regional public organization of families of fallen military personnel to President Vladimir Putin was published. In it, the relatives asked a number of questions to the acting. the commander of the OGV, General Gennady Troshev, the Chief of the General Staff, General A.V. Kvashnin, and the command of the Airborne Forces.

1. Why was the company’s exit delayed by the command for a day?
2. Why couldn’t the company’s property be dropped off by helicopter?
3. Why did the company move into an ambush that had been prepared in advance for it?
4. Why was the company not supported by long-range artillery?
5. Why was the company commander not warned about the presence of the main enemy forces on the route? How did information about the company's movements become known to the militants?
6. Why did the regiment commander demand to hold on and promise help, although the company could have been withdrawn at any moment, and the company sent to help went along the most inconvenient route?
7. Why did the military leave the battlefield to the militants for three days, allowing them to bury their dead and collect the wounded?
8. Why did the information published by Pskov journalists five days later take the generals by surprise?

These questions were partially answered by Gennady Troshev in his book “My War. Chechen diary of a trench general." In particular, Troshev points out that the paratroopers were nevertheless provided with fire support. The regimental 120-mm 2S9 guns “worked” at height 776 almost continuously from the afternoon of February 29 until the morning of March 1 (when Lieutenant Colonel Evtyukhin called fire on himself), firing about 1,200 shells during this time. Moreover, according to the author, most of the losses of the militants in this battle were caused precisely by artillery shelling. Troshev also mentions the impossibility of transporting company personnel by air, since during the reconnaissance of the area carried out in advance, it was not possible to find a single suitable site.

What a shame that someone has to become a hero to “compensate” for the incompetence or corruption of others!