I'm running. The lungs are bursting. The damned wheeze is a murder.
Have to run a zigzag path (in our brigade we call it "run a screw").
God, help... Please help. Help keep this insane tempo. That's it, if I
ever get out of here - quit smoking. Zapp... Zapp... Sniper!!??... Get down
and crawl, crawl out of the killing zone.
Lying. All seems OK - no sniper, probably just "shul'nyak".
Alright, now catch your breath, find your way around and race ahead -
to the Central Post of our brigade's the first battalion. Just a few hours
ago they reported on catching a sniper. From the report we knew he was
Russian and, from his own words, even from Novosibirsk. F..ing compatriot.
On two APCs, along with the recon squad I set off to pick up "the clapper".
En route to the Central Train Station, the streets are crammed with
burnt and mangled hulks of "armour" and strewn with dead bodies. The bodies
of our Slavic brothers, all that's left of the Mikop Brigade, the one that
"spooks" burnt and wiped out on the New Year's Eve 95-96. God, help me...
let me out of here... They said, when the First Battalion busted the
"demons" out of the Station building, as the gunfire slacked off, one of the
grunts, having looked around, howled. From then on other grunts stayed away
from him - another crank. Now charging through the walls like spellbound,
scared of nothing. And there are enough screwballs like that in every unit,
the enemy and ours. Eh, Mother Russia, what've you done to your sons? We
thought, maybe medivac the fellow, but then again, can't even medivac the
casualties, and this one, though a crank, still fighting. Up there on "The
Continent" he'd definitely go nuts.
Literally in a few blocks we came under ferocious gunfire. The spooks
were spraying from above, madly (about 20 guns) but disorganised. With a
couple of grunts now had to leave our APCs behind and sneak our way over to
the headquarters. At least the dogfaces are more confident now, more or less
used to this, all were tested by fire. In the beginning I howled a wolf,
just like that mad grunt. The men were all "green", some rushing forward,
others still fear struck in their "armour". I had to boot and kick them out
of their APCs and foxholes. As for myself, I'm OK. Baku, Kutaisi - 90,
Tshinvali -91, Moldova - 92 and now Chechnya. Alright, just let us get the
hell out of here. But only in one piece. If crippled, I've got a little toy
in my pocket - RGD-15. Surely enough for me. I've seen enough of our
crippled post-war heroes living in peace life. They too were following
orders of their Motherland, their Party, their Government and hell knows
whom else. "Reinstating Constitutional Order" on the territory of the former
Soviet Union. And now again, we are beating our own Russian land on
somebody's hugger-mugger order...
All this sped through my mind in a few seconds. Turned around - all my
grunts are fine, prone on the ground, watching. Their faces are all black
from gunpowder, eyeballs and teeth are shining. I'm probably no better. Nod
to one, point direction to another and we are all off sprinting forward,
zigzag, "screw" and roll. Although, these coats were surely not made for
rolling. The sweat is blanketing my eyes, fatigues are steamy; the taste of
blood in my mouth is unbearable and temples are pounding heavily. Blood is
jammed with adrenaline. Short streaks forward, bits of bricks, chips of
concrete and broken glass everywhere. Carefully avoiding open spaces. Still
alive, thank God.
Zapp... zapp... again! Damn it, could it really be a sniper? Ducking
into the nearest basement, grenades on stand-by. Who or what is waiting for
us in there? Pair of corpses. Fatigues seem like ours - Slavic. Nod to one
of the grunts to secure the window, and then myself move to the doorframe.
The second grunt kneels near one of the bodies, unbuttons his coat and flank
jacket and fetches his papers and the dog tags. Same with the second corpse.
The boys wouldn't mind anymore but their families must be notified.
Otherwise smart asses in the Government won't pay them their pensions,
reasoning that soldiers are missing in action and who knows, maybe even
crossed over to the other side.
- Now, via this basement we run across to the neighbouring street, then
to the first batt (battalion). Do we have radio contact with them? - I'm
asking my RTO (Radiotelephone operator), private Harlamov. His nickname is
"Glue". His arms are long, sticking out of his BDU, like sticks, no one size
fits. Wrists are disproportionately huge. First time you see the guy the
impression is like torn gorilla arms were sewn to a man's body. Now probably
no one could recall where his nickname "Glue" originated.
Our soldiers are Siberians and all together we are "mahra" (Russian
word for cheap tobacco). In the WWII books and movies, infantry is called
"The Queen of the battle field ". In real life, however, we are just
"mahra". And one individual infantryman is a "mahor". That's life.
- Get on the APCs too, - that's me about the left behind at the Railway
Station APCs, - ask how they're hanging.
Glue moves away from the window and a starts muttering into his
handset, calling onto the 1st Battalion's Road Post and our APCs.
- All OK, comrade Capitan, - says RTO. - "Sopka" is waiting for us,
"boxes" were fired upon and rolled back a block.
- Fine, let's go, or we'll frost down here, - I make terrible hoarse
sounds coughing. At last my normal breathing came back. I spat with green
and yellow slime - consequence of my many years of smoking. - Eh, mama told
me: "learn English"
- My mama told me: "Do NOT crawl into wells, sonny". - Picked up
Semeon.
No sign of the enemy in the window at the other side of the house and
we leapfrog, taking short streaks, stooped four times our normal hight,
towards the Central Train Station. High above in the sky, a jet fighter is
barraging the city with high explosives and shooting at somebody's positions
from an unreachable hight. Down here, there is no single front line.
Gunfights are starting everywhere sporadically and sometimes turn into some
kind of cheesecake: ragheads, us, ragheads again and so on (US Marines call
it a "cluster fuck"). All of it, in one word could be called a madhouse,
almost no interaction anywhere. Especially difficult to work with are the
Internal Forces. To be precise: all THIS is their operation, but we, mahra,
are doing their job for them. Often we storm the same objects in complete
ignorance of each other's presence. Sometimes we even point the Air Force
guys onto them and they onto us. In the dark we fire on each other and take
our own grunts prisoners.
Now we are going to the Central Train Station, where, in almost full
complement, was wiped out the Mikop Brigade. Vanished into the night.
Nothing was done before they were sent in. No reconnaissance to ascertain
the spooks' defensive structures, no artillery runs to soften them up. When
after the battle they began to fall asleep (imagine no sleep for a week,
adrenaline and Vodka for breakfast, lunch and dinner), spooks slunk up and
wasted them from a point blank range. Just the mistake Chapaev made: no
guards along perimeter. Here, though, all guards were soundly asleep or
spooks gashed them quietly. Everything was on fire, all that could burn and
even all that couldn't. It seemed like the Earth, asphalt and house walls
were ablaze from the burning fuel. People panicked in the inferno, some
tried to return fire, some helping the wounded. Some even shot themselves
not to get into the ragheads' hands. Few were trying to flee. No one of them
must be judged. What would you, my reader, do in that hell on earth? Don't
know? Ha? That's it. Then don't you dare judging them!
No one knows what exactly happened there. Their commander, with both
his legs injured; still tried to reassert control, although he could retreat
to the rear. He stayed though. God, guard their souls and our lives...
When our brigade fought its way through heavy rebel defences to help
them, our tanks had to struggle through barricades of corpses of our Slavic
brothers... When you see how tracks chop and hummer human flesh, how heavy
leading wheels coil intestines of people just like yourself... When heads
pop open with a crunch under a steel caterpillar and all around it is
sprayed with a grey and red mass of brain. Brain of a maybe unaccomplished
genius, poet, scientist or just good lad, father, brother, son, friend who
didn't chicken out and came here in this shithole of a place called Chechnya
and, may be, to his last moment, didn't even realised what the hell happened
to him. When your boots slip on the bloody mucus, then the important thing
is to think of nothing, and concentrate on only one objective: survive,
survive and save your men. Because those you'd lose will come to you in your
dreams.
As their CO you'd then have to write up their Death Notifications and
body ID reports. The job I don't even wish to my worst enemy. I'd rather
choke in an attack, blasting from my beloved AKS left, right and forward
with my eyes popping out, rather than write those horrible papers. Why all
these wars? Although, honestly, no one of us has really understood what has
transpired here. At all times only one goal in mind - survive, complete the
task and save your men. And what if you don't? They'll send more in, who,
maybe, because of your inexperience, cowardice and desire to go home, will
drop under machinegun fire and will be ripped to pieces by grenades, mines,
mortar or be captured. All THIS: because of YOU. The very thought of this
responsibility makes my stomach rumble. How about you, my reader?
Glue noticed some movement in a window of the five-story building, next
to the Station Plaza. He yelled out: "Spooks!!!" and leaped back. Semeon and
myself too hastened to take cover behind the nearest heap of rubble. From
behind his corner, Glue opened up at the window from his AK. Shivering, we
too began to load up grenades in launchers.
Eh, what a wonderful device, this launcher (Russian GP-25, under-barrel
grenade launcher for AK assault rifles, similar to M203 - grenade-launching
tube sometimes mounted under the rifle barrel of an M-16). We call it
lovingly: "podstvol'nichek", although, weight of the device could prove a
bit too much (about half a kilo). It is mounted under the rifle's barrel and
can be fired straight into the target or launch in an overhead trajectory.
It could be described as a tube (about 2.5 inches in diameter) with a
trigger and a safety pin. There is also an aiming mechanism, but since the
first days we conned it so that now easily can do without it. From a
standard issue GP-25, a grenade can easily be dropped into the smallest
window or thrown over any structure. In a straight line it delivers its
mighty punch to about 400 meters, its shrapnel (after the explosion) cover
an area of about 14 meters. A fairytale of firearms. It saved countless
lives in Grosny. How would you bust sharpshooters from upper floors in a
quick gunfight in town? There is no other way but the GP-25, believe me. You
could call for an air strike or long range artillery and then pull out or
try to contact your own "armour", which, by the way, can be easily burnt by
RPGs... On the other hand, there is an every soldier's personal launcher
that he can use to bust the ragheads by himself. The device also possesses
one other undisputed advantage: its grenades explode on impact. Imagine a
gunfight inside a block of units when a raghead is above you on the third
floor. Next, you throw a standard issue grenade with a time-delay of about 5
seconds. Now, count: fetch the safety pin and throw, then the bitch hits
something on the way up and falls right back into your lap. Only later on in
January they shipped us these mountainous grenades, or as we call them
"afghan" grenades. These babies only explode when they hit something hard.
Before then, some local "Kulibin" (famous Russian inventor of the 19th
century) guessed to slam the grenade up his heel, thus arming it, and throw
the darling as far as he could away from his persona. And, ramming an
obstacle, it burst with shrapnel, obliterating every living thing around it.
Now Semeon and I were blasting off our grenades into the window where
Glue spotted motion. Semeon hit the target from his first attempt; I made it
with my second. The first one slammed into the wall and burst, tearing off a
decently sized piece of masonry and making a huge cloud of dust.
Putting to work the results of our little skirmish, all three of us,
glinting at the dreaded house, quickly cleared the open space, then,
sprinting and sneaking, a few blocks later, at last made it to the HQ.
The silly bastards imagined we were ragheads and nearly shot us.
They escorted us to the outpost where we found our Com-batt (Battalion
Commander).
Tough chap is our Com-batt. Physically not so much a big man, but as a
commander and a person: giant. I won't hide the fact that our brigade is
blessed with battalion commanders. It'd take a while to describe each one of
them, so I'll pass on that, but to say the least - all are real men. Who
once went to war, would know what I mean.
1[[st]] battalion's HQ was situated in the
Railway Station's basement. As we walked in, the Com-batt was boldly cursing
somebody on the field radio.
- F...ing hell, where are you charging, moron? You schmuck, they are
luring you out there. And you are buying it with your dogfaces. Clean up the
area around you! To the last "spook"!!! - Com-batt was yelling into the
handset. - Pull the "boxes" out of there, let the grunts work! Yourself,
stay on the BP and don't stick your head out there.
He hung up and saw me.
- Hey man, - he smiled.
- God bless, - I said shaking his hand.
- What's new in the Group's HQ? Let's go eat, - he offered, looking at
me merrily. At war, seeing a familiar face before you is always a delight.
That means that luck not only follows you but also your comrades.
Still in the heat of the past clash, I knew that if I don't have a
drink now, I'd soon be shaking with a nervous, drumbeat-like fever or turn
hysterical and just keep gabbling ... So I accepted the man's offer with
appreciation.
Setting himself on a box from artillery rounds, Com-batt softly called:
"Ivan, we've got guests, come on eat". Then from a neighbouring basement
appeared the 1[[st]] Battalion's chief of staff
captain Ilin. Skinny fellow, the biggest volleyball aficionado in our
brigade, although, at his job, pedant and perfectionist. In peace life
always tight, in perfectly ironed and shiny uniform, now he looked barely
any different than any other man around us. Same gunpowder- parched face,
unshaven and in need of sleep.
- Hey, Slava, - he said and his eyes glinted a little. We were almost
of the same age, only I was a senior officer in the Brigade's HQ and he was
a chief of staff in the battalion. Both captains. We had a history of
friendship, so did our wives and kids.
I couldn't conceal my emotions and went straight for a hug. Slowly my
nerves were giving in and I was turning a bit hysterical after our little
adventure.
I wasn't worried for my grunts. They were all here, amongst their own,
thus will be worm and fed in no time.
- You've come for the sniper, Slava? - Asked Com-batt.
- Sure, who else, - I replied. - How did you manage to grab that son of
a bitch?
- He just wouldn't let us breath for three days, - Ivan turned grim. -
He made up a nest by the Station and plinked at us over the plaza. Knocked
down three grunts and shot our first company leader through his leg. We were
unable to medivac the wounded and had to fetch the medics over here to
operate on them.
- And how is he, - I asked. That story about the medics I've already
heard: fine job. But the company leader: would he live and walk again?
- Yeah, yeah, sure, - Com-batt confirmed merrily, - I let him rest for
now, only the problem is we're short on company leaders, you know it too
well yourself. So we have to use the two-year-termers ("civilian officers",
college graduates on the obligatory military duty, in officers ranks by
default). But this lad is rather snappy. A bit of a hotshot though: like
Chapaev on his horse, rushes to free all Chechnya by himself.
- What did the sniper have on him? - I asked. - Maybe, he wasn't even a
sniper after all. You know, could've been some daunted local, a great deal
of them bumming around town these days.
Com-batt and the CoS almost seemed upset. Ivan leapt to his feet, raced
to his niche and fetched a soviet SKS rifle. Only the scope was foreign, I
noticed that instantly, - I've seen those before. Most probably Japanese:
fine toy.
Pal Palych - com-batt - while Ivan and myself were inspecting the
carbine, was telling that the detained shooter had two boxfuls of rounds in
his pockets and in his nest they found a case of beer and two packs of
cigarettes. While recounting this, Palych was setting up the table: carving
bread, opening stewed meat cans, condensed milk containers, salads (God
knows where those came from), pickles and marinated tomatoes. And at last,
positioned a bottle of Vodka on this improvised table.
By then I counted all slashes on the carbine's butt: equalled
thirty-three. Thirty-three chopped lives. The way the snipers worked here we
all knew first hand. They met us while we were coming into town, at night,
by early WWII maps. Though we raced, crushing our heads against the walls
inside our APCs, ragging our teeth from the mad ride and damning everyone
and everything, snipers managed to shoot off dangling antennas from the
passing armoured vehicles, at night and in clouds of dust. Without intercom
they'd stop and officers sent men to check out what the hell happened, this
very moment snipers picked them out. They also had another slick idea: they
didn't always finish off their "game", but rather wounded him, shooting him
through his legs, so that he wouldn't crawl out of the killing zone and then
held back. The downed men cried out and snipers picked the speeding helpers,
just like the duck silhouettes at a shooting gallery. By now, our brigade
has lost about thirty men to this kind of sniper fire, thus adding to our
special account to be "invoiced" to "spooks" some day. Amazing that the
grunts brought this cocksucker alive.
A few days ago, grunts from the second battalion discovered a nest, by
all clues - female. All was like always: a sofa or a chair, soft drinks, a
doll and a rifle, hidden close by. The grunts spent all day stalking her
concealed, completely motionless. No piss, no shit, no smoke. Finally they
succeeded. What happened next - no one knows, but the Chechen woman took a
flight off the roof of a nine-storey building, but half way down her body
burst from a grenade explosion. Afterwards, the grunts solemnly swore that
the woman sensed the stench of their unwashed bodies and sprinted for the
roof, and from up there, dived by herself. Everyone, of coarse, showed
compassion, but still regretted that themselves couldn't help her flight.
Nobody believed, however, that for her last dive with grenade she went by
herself. Chechens never committed suicide - that is in OUR character - fear
of captivity, dishonour and torture. After this memorable event, their
com-batt declared a phrase, which was then to become our brigade's motto:
"Siberians do not surrender, and do not take prisoners".
By now Com-batt poured out Vodka and Ivan and myself settled down too.
If anybody tells you that we fought here intoxicated, - spit him in his
face. At war, people drink for disinfection. Not often you can boil your
water or wash your hands properly. Our corpsmen's motto is: "Red eyes never
go yellow". As for the drinking water, we had to get it from the Sunzha
River - a tiny river that flows thought the whole of Chechnya and, of
coarse, through the Grozny. Only no one could possible tell how many human
and animal corpses drifted in there, which meant we could forget about the
proper hygiene. I'm telling you, at war, nobody would drink to get shitfaced
- that would mean certain death. Your comrades, too, would never let you do
that kind of stuff - with firearms, who knows what's on the drunk's mind?
We lifted up our plastic glasses - lots of these we chunked at the
"North" airport - and struck them together. There was no ding, just rustle,
"so that our zampolit wouldn't hear", officers jested.
- Here is to good luck, men, - Com-batt enounced, and, having exhaled
all air from his lungs, "capsized" half a glass.
- To her, the damned, - I picked up and tipped my glass. The heat
flooded my throat, worm wave swamped my guts and halted somewhere inside the
stomach. My body suddenly relaxed. Then all of us attacked the food: who
knows when the next opportunity like this would present itself. Bread,
stewed meat, pickles, tomatoes. All vanished in our stomachs. Now, Ivan
poured out Vodka; we toped, with the usual silent rustle. Lit up some
smokes. I almost pulled out mine, from home, "TU-134", but noted Ivan's and
Com-batt's Marlboro and tossed mine back.
- Sniper's? - I inquired, reaching for one.
- Yep, - Replied Com-batt.
- How is the Second Battalion hanging? - Ivan asked, taking a deep
puff.
- Storming the hotel "Kavkaz", now we're throwing the Third Batt in to
help them and some tanks too. Ragheads are deeply entrenched there and
holding it so far. Ul'yanovtsy and marines are attempting the assault on the
Minutka Square and Dudaev's Palace. But having no luck there as yet, just
loosing men.
- All of which means that we'll be sent in to help them soon - Com-batt
broke in our conversation. - It's not as simple as a slugfest in a corner
bar; some thinking must be done beforehand. To save the men and complete the
task... I could never grasp the concept of the airborne troops: how is it so
that they, absolutely sober and voluntarily, would jump off of a perfectly
good aircraft, ha? - Palych made a joke.
- And I never understood the rangers, - picked up Ivan, - for four
years in college, they learnt how to use binoculars and tail behind a K-9...
I'm sensing with my heart: we'll be crunching on asphalt down there at that
freaking Square.
In my mind I've already made a conscious decision: the captured sniper
wouldn't make it to my HQ. He'll die on the way back, attempting an escape.
He's already told everything he knew.
In movies, agents, working with "a clapper", try to formulate the
necessity to give up the information he possesses as well as break his
ideology. Real life, however, is much simpler. Everything depends on your
imagination, rancour and time on hands. If time permits and there is a
matching desire, we can try to scrape enamel from his teeth, with a rasping
file. Or we can use our field phone. A brown box with a side-handle. Connect
your interlocutor to it with two stripped wires and spin the handle, having
asked him a few questions beforehand. But all this is fine if you're housed
comfortably and he's to stand trial afterwards. This kind of questioning
will leave no marks. Of coarse it's best to soak him in water first. As far
as the screaming is concerned, for that you fire up a heavy armoured truck
near by. But, again, all this is for aesthetes.
In the trenches it becomes even simpler. You shoot the fingers off his
feet, one by one, with your assault rifle. There is no one human being who
could take that. He'll tell you everything he knew and everything he ever
remembered. Feeling a little seek, ha? During which time, you, my reader,
celebrated New Years Eve, visited your friends, skied shitfaced from a
hilltop with your kids. You didn't come out on the Red Square demanding to
pull our soldiers out of that shithole. Neither were you collecting worm
cloths or money for those Russians who fled Chechnya. Cold soldiers in their
frozen bunkers never got so much as a cigarette from you. Therefore, do not
look away. Listen to this truth of war.
- OK, let's get the third one over with and we'll go take a look at
your shooter, - I said pouring out the remains of Vodka.
We stood silently for a few seconds, and toped without cheers. Third
glass - is the most important in the military. Civilians drink it "to love",
students: to something else, but soldiers always drink it "to the fallen",
always standing up and in silence. Every one sees before him those he has
lost. It is a chilling toast. Although, on the other hand, you know for
sure, that if you perish, regardless of how many years would pass, some
green lieutenant, in a God forsaken garrison in the Far East, or a stale
colonel in the most prestigious headquarters, will stand up and drink their
third glass to You.
We toped; I cast another piece of stew in my mouth, a few bits of
garlic and "the officers lemon" - onion. There are no vitamins at war,
although your body constantly demands them. That's why we refer to onion as
"our lemon". At war onion is a commonplace. The stench around is horrible
though, but we've no women here, so we've grown used to it by now and
wouldn't even notice anymore. Moreover, it fights the sickening odour of
decomposing human flesh that otherwise turns your stomach inside out. I've
chased the alcohol with refection, sipped condensed milk right out of its
container, fished a smoke out of the Com-bat's packet and started for the
exit. Com-bat and Ivan followed me.
In about 30 yards from the basement's entrance, grunts encircled a tank
and were having a loud discourse. I also noted that the tank's gun is
unnaturally cocked upwards. As we walked closer to the scene, we also saw
that a stretched rope was hanging from the barrel.
The grunts saw us coming and gave way. The view that opened up in front
of us was picturesque but terrible. At the end of that rope a man was
hanging. His face was swollen from beatings, his eyes half shut, his tongue
hanging out and his hands tied up behind him. Although, by now
I've seen lots of stiffs, still, can't get used to them.
Com-batt started yelling at the grunts:
- Who did this?! You sons of bitches! - I'll leave out the rest of the
names he called them. Ask any line officer, who served in the Army for 10
years or more, to swear a little and you'll greatly increase your vocabulary
with all sorts of idiomatic expressions.
Com-batt kept going at them, trying hard to beat the truth out of them,
although I somehow knew, looking at his sly face, that he's not mad at them
at all. He might've felt a bit regretful that he didn't send the bastard on
his last journey, but mostly my presence, the HQ officer, drove him to this
theatrical performance. All of us: the grunts and myself read it well. We
also realise that no one commander would ever report anything of this kind.
All this breezed through my mind while I was sucking on my cigarette. It's
funny, but these cigarette belonged to this hangman, whose limbs are now
dangling before my eyes, then to the Com-bat and now, I am smoking it while
observing this spectacle.
Tired of the circus, I asked surrounding us grunts, amongst which I
picked Semeon and Glue:
- What did he say, before he died?
Out of the clear blue sky the grunts exploded. They told, interrupting
one another, that the son of a bitch (the most delicate epithet they chose
for him) squalled that he regretted he only managed to nock off only
thirty-two of "your kind" (as he put it).
In their recount the grunts especially emphasized the words "you kind".
I gathered they were telling the truth and if he hadn't said this memorable
phrase, he might've lived a little longer.
All of a sudden, one of the grunts announced, invigorating everyone:
- He throttled himself, comrade Captain.
- With his hands trussed, he tied the rope around his neck and leaped
off the "armour", all by himself. Right? - I choked laughing.
Then I turned to the Com-batt:
- Alright, take your hangman down. Let's write in the report that he
couldn't take the torture of his guilty conscience anymore and thus ended
his life strangling himself. - I spewed the cigarette's butt and pressed it
into the mud. - His rifle, however, I'll take with me.
- Nickolaich, please, - First time the Com-batt called me by my full
name, - leave the rifle: every time I look at it, my body bends.
I glanced into his praying eyes and knew: it would be of no use to try
taking carbine away from him.
- OK, you owe me one, and you, - I turned to Ivan, - bear witness.
- Many thanks, Nikolaich, - Palych was violently shaking my hand.
- Because of this moron I had to drag my ass all the way down here,
under fire. And now I have to hoof back.
- Take him with you, if you like. Tell them he was shot during an
ambush or something, - Ivan tried to make a joke.
- Go to hell, - I jested back. - Why don't you try and drag this stiff
back. And if you ever have a misfortune taking a prisoner, drag him to the
HQ yourselves or waste him down here please. Another thing: get something
nice for the grunts that grabbed him, will you? That's it. We're off. Give
us some escort for a few blocks, OK?
We shook hands and Com-batt, sniffing, pulled out a brand new Marlboro
packet from his inner pocket. I thanked him and sent for my grunts:
- Semeon, Glue, let's go.
They came up, fixing their rifles.
- Ready? Did they feed you?
- Yep. And a few drinks along with it, - said Semeon. - Also restocked
on ammo and grenades for launchers.
- Cheers men, let's run. We have to get to the HQ before the nightfall,
- I muttered, buttoning my coat and attaching new magazine to my rifle.
I made a "royal mag" by binding two 45-round RPK machinegun clips
head-to-toe with an electric tape. This gave me 90 rounds always at the
ready. It's a pity though, the calibre is 5.45, not 7.62, like before. The
5.45 bullet has some ricochet and once fired is all over the place. The 7.62
round, on the other hand, goes straight as. There is a legend - during the
Vietnam War, American GIs had complained to the gunmakers that their M-16s
wounded too many while killing very few (our AK-47 and AKM suffers from the
same imperfection). Then, the gunsmakers came right to the trenches, studied
the problem and began experimenting on the spot. Here's what they did: they
drilled a hole through the bullet's tip and soldered a needle inside the
hole. These modifications resulted in shifting of the bullet's centre of
gravity and when it hit the target, it reeled on almost all of the target's
guts too. Although the rounds' stability suffered greatly and the bullet did
produce more ricochets than before, the end result was more enemy fatalities
after all.
Soviet Army didn't produce anything original but rather copied the
American idea and, during the Afghan Campaign, swapped all 7.62 calibre AKs
with the 5.45 ones. Maybe fine for some, but I am personally not ecstatic.
We geared up, jumped a few times to warm up and studied each other.
- God help us, - I said and turned around. The five escort grunts were
busy carrying out the same manipulations. They were getting themselves ready
to see us off.
I looked again where the strangled sniper was meant to be hanging, but
the tank's gun was back to its normal state and the rope with the dead man
on it was already gone.
- Alright, let's move, - I ordered and nodded to the escorting grunts
to go first.
Knowing the surrounding terrain much better, they didn't select the
path we had chosen coming down, but rather dived into some basement first
and then took us through piled up slabs and breaches. At some stage we even
went down underground sewage network and afterwards and had to climb back
up. I completely lost my sense of direction and could only glance at my
wrist compass at times to see whether the overall course was correct. All
seemed right though. In about 30 minutes, the sergeant, who headed our
venture, halted and lit up a cigarette. All of us did the same. Then he
enounced:
- That's it. Now, from here, it's about 7 blocks, no more, till you
reach your "boxes". Although, no more cover, only open spaces.
I finished off my cigarette and shook the sergeant's hand. Then, I
thanked every one of the escorting grunts and said:
- Good luck! We all need it, don't we?
- You guys go ahead; we'll stay here 10 more minutes. Just in case, -
said the sergeant.
- Let's move, - I ordered, turning to Semeon and Glue, pointing the
direction to them. Myself first, I popped out from the basement, tumbled,
whirled, finally coming up on one knee and scanning the surroundings in my
sights. There was nothing suspicious there and I waved to the guys the go
ahead. First, Semeon quickly popped out and then Glue emerged with his radio
transmitter.
Scurrying this way during the next forty minutes, we finally touched up
with our "boxes". As we started for the home base, furious fire came down at
us from the upper floors. I rode on the APC in the head of our convoy. The
vehicle took a spin to the left and hit the corner, then slowed down and
finally came to a complete halt. All of us, riding atop of the "box", opened
up in bursts of suppressive fire.
- Driver... You, screwed in the head mother! Get the hell out of here,
- I yelled into the hatch. Then ordered the grunts next me to start setting
up the smoke diversion.
- One of the caterpillars is torn! - The driver shouted back at me.
- F...ing hell... everyone off the "armour", now! Four of you start
pulling the track back on, the rest - secure our perimeter. I need two
GP-25s with me; second APC, load your cannon. That's all. Move it!
Again, the heat of the battle consumed me. The first feeling,
naturally, is fear. But after overcoming it, you begin to taste blood in
your mouth and suddenly find yourself feeling cool and mighty; all of your
senses sharpened. You note everything around you and your brain is like a
computer, always gives off the right decision as well as lots of other
possible options and combinations. I instantly leapfrogged off the "armour"
and hopped behind the piece of concrete wall close about. Convulsively,
trying to find the target but so far, can't find anything to fire at. OK,
now breathe... I'm ready... let's rock, men! Give them Hell! Blood is full
of adrenaline and I'm on fire again.
The grunts didn't have to be told twice. They promptly pulled the pins
out of smoke makers and our APC was wrapped up in the colourful clouds.
Russian soldier is very resourceful and, just in case, nicks off everything
that lies around unattended. After we took the Airport "North", the lads
collected all kinds of these smoke makers. In the second APC, fellows echoed
our little trick with the smokes. Actually, they did it just in time. The
"spooks", obviously, realised that it'd be too hard to blindly mow our
grunts off the "armour" and this time went for their RPGs.
What is RPG? It is a standard rocket grenade launcher. The toy has a
sister too: called "Muha", a tube-like devise (first versions were
telescopic). "Muha" is an antipersonnel weapon, whereas the RPG is for the
anti armour use. When a rocket-propelled grenade hits an obstacle (usually
an armoured plate), it blasts off thin, needle-like, piss that burns through
steel and creates a temperature of about three thousand degrees Celsius
inside the vehicle. Obviously, tank's ammunition detonates which, in turn,
rips off the tank's multi-tonne turret, tosses it off to about 30 meters and
tears to pieces bodies of the crew and infantry inside it. Many died while
they were still confined inside their mobile steel traps. In some cases,
drivers watched the road from the open hatch and were only cast out of their
vehicles by explosion, broken and muffled a little, but still alive and
mostly in one piece.
Now, these sons of bitches opened up on us from their RPGs and added
Shmels to the chorus. (AD. Shmel" (Russian word for bumblebee), is an
antipersonnel rocket Infantry flame-thrower (RPO-A, so-called bunker buster.
End of comment. AD) Although, neither they could clearly see us, nor could
we see them. In fact, the whole scene looked pretty comical. Wrapped up in
heavy, standard black smoke, from which the coloured fumes were raising,
like geysers into the sky: blue, red and yellow. They tangled in the air,
mixing up and coming apart again, diverting the ragheads' attention away
from us.
Our second APC's cannon let off a burst, firing blindly in the
direction where the spooks' rockets came from. Then suddenly, somewhere in
there something blew up. May be it was us, actually hitting something, or
their RPG gunner made a mistake in the heat of the gunfight. "Shmel", same
as "Muha", is just a pipe. For the total fuckheads, there is a direction
arrow with the description printed on it. Anyway, no one knew what happened
up there, but the God, evidently, was on our side today. As there was no
more gunfire coming from the spooks' positions, my grunts have gone
jubilant. Mostly they yelled out curses that could probably be understood by
soldiers of any army.
- Shut it! - I barked at them. - Keep pulling the track on. Second APC!
Secure our perimeter. Move it!
I rose and tried to loosen up my back and numb feet, I was still wary
and scrutinising the building where the shooting came from.
Judging from the angle: third floor. In the havoc and because of the
fumes, I never got the clear picture of what took place. Now, through the
clearing smoke, I could see a huge hole in the third floor's reinforcement,
blasted by the explosion. Thick black smoke was coming out of there.
During the whole encounter, Semeon stayed next to me and now declared,
pointing at the breach:
- Cooked the mothers! Vechaslav Nikolaevich, can we go check?
He was practically begging. It seemed like his fiance was holding it
off for him up there. I was curious myself though.
- Hold on, - I said to him and asked the crew, labouring near their
"armour", - How much longer?
- Any time now, comrade Captain, maybe 5 more minutes, - coughed up one
of the grunts, forcing the busted caterpillar onto the leading wheel.
- Semeon, Glue, Mazur, Americanets, Picasso - come with me. The rest
stays here, assisting the repairs and watching our backs. If we do not
return in half an hour, move forward, two blocks to the north. Over there,
you wait for another half an hour and then ride back to base. Gunnery
sergeant Sergeev will take over from me for the time being. All call signs
are the same.
Now to the grunts who'd come with me:
- OK, children, let's move it. Picasso leads, Glue at the rear. Semeon
- right flank, Mazur, take the left one. Have your grenades on stand-by.
- And me? - The skinny private put up his voice. The chap was a
qualified rock climber, nicknamed "Americanets" (the American). When he was
drafted, he came into the office wearing his American flag shorts.
- And you will walk by my side and watch your ass, - I replied in jest.
- Let's go clean them up.
Everyone understood perfectly what the words "clean up" meant. They
meant, "take no prisoners". "Good apache - dead apache", - Conquistadors'
motto was a close match in our case. What could we possible squeeze out of a
live spook? Nothing: no maps, no storage hides, no communication system
layouts - NO-THING. Moreover, a wounded raghead would be a major pain in the
ass. First, you'd have to pool men to guard him. Second, he'd still be
perfectly capable of pulling some kind of shit on us. Nor could he be
exchanged for anything. Finish him off on the spot and that's that. He too
would surely like it better than torture.
2
With caution, we came up the third floor. In two neighbouring flats the
rag-heads made up their firing nests. In the first one we found the "Shmel"
shooter, in the second - two of his unlucky comrades, with one RPK each. The
most disturbing thing was: they were just kids, most probably only about 13
to 15 years old. One of them was still alive and while unconscious was
quietly groaning. Judging from the fact that one of his legs was torn off
and he was bleeding heavily, I figured he wouldn't live for much longer. It
seemed like one of our cannon rounds dropped into the room where he was
launching his rockets from and blasted to shit his ammunition store. I
looked around, my good mood was totally gone by now. Of coarse these
rag-heads tried to blow us and all but... they're just kids for God's sake.
Damn it. I spewed and gave another order to my grunts: "Finish him off and
then sweep the block, someone might've got away." Although even I had doubts
that anyone of them could escape.
My grunts, Semeon, Glue and Picasso each let off a burst into the
disfigured body, one after another. The kid's body flexed out, bullets
ripping his chest open, some blasted his head to pieces and it sprayed the
walls in red clots of his brain. I calmly watched this murder. Then I looked
away from the corpse, still not used to this or maybe it's just normal human
reaction? Who can tell? I fetched the sniper's Marlboro packet and handed
some cigarettes to my grunts.
- Didn't you hear what I just said? "Sweep the block". Anyone not
clear? - I uttered, taking a puff. The grunts left, mumbling something.
Left alone, trying hard no to vomit, I went through the dead rag-heads'
pockets.
Wow! An Army ID tag and many of them, OK, let's see: Semeonov Aleksey
Pavlovich, born 1975. Semeonov, Semeonov, Semeonov... It suddenly clicked in
my mind. Is that the Semeonov from the engineering regiment, which went
missing after we stormed the Airport? They sent the fellow for some mine
sweeping cord and he vanished. Was that he, shooting at us? I carefully
studied the dead rag-heads' faces, matching them to the badly preserved
photo on the ID Tag; I even looked inside the breach in the wall and at the
dead "Shmel" launcher's face. No, not him, thank God. Turned a few more
pages in his ID. Shit! Yes! Our division. Our Semeonov. Your deaths saved
you a lot of trouble, assholes! Your end would've been brutal. I would've
dealt with you myself. During my adventures in the former Soviet Union, I
learnt well how to make people talk, make them last long and stay conscious
all the way.
My sadness was gone in a heartbeat. I cared about the dead boys' souls
no more. My teeth cramped in rancour. If needs be, I'll tear anybody apart
for Russian soldier. I'll crush anything just to return the youngster home
alive and in one piece.
All of a sudden somebody was screaming from upstairs:
- Comrade Captain, Comrade Captain, they found some guy up there on the
roof. I think one of ours! - Americanets was fretting.
I flew up the stairs and felt no wheeze. On the roof, nailed to the
cross, a dead soldier's body was resting, just like Jesus. His own cut off
penis stuck in his mouth. Without even looking at his dirty face, I knew: it
was he, Semeonov. I probably only saw him about 10 times before and never
even spoke to the man. But suddenly tears were in my eyes and something
pinched in my nose. Now I regretted that I never got the chance to properly
meet the lad. I think he wasn't even one of the permanent staff. Right
before the Chechen campaign, he was attached to our brigade from Abakan.
- They nailed him to the cross and put it up on the roof. The cross
collapsed from the explosion and that's probably why we didn't notice it
before. - Picasso tried to explain something to me, feeling a little awkward
that we didn't discover the body earlier.
- He's one of ours. - I pronounced, labouring to stay calm, - Semeonov,
of the sappers. Disappeared off the "North" while minesweeping. I found his
ID tag on one of the shooters.
The grunts were like lightning-struck; they fussed about Semeonov,
removing him carefully from the cross. While doing that, they tried not to
hurt him, handling his body like he was still alive, whispering not to wake
him up and tears were falling down their faces complicating this chilling
job even further. I looked away, pulled out a smoke and lit it up. Thirstily
inhaling I tried to push the clog in my throat further down, glancing at the
hustling grunts at times to see how things were moving along. When
Semeonov's body was at last removed from the cross, lads placed it on some
kind of stretchers they put together from all sorts of rubbish they could
collect around here. When it was all over I said:
- Glue, get on the "boxes". Tell them to come closer and that we are
coming with a "cargo 200"... Our "cargo 200".
I was coming down the stairs ahead of the rest, checking for anything
suspicious along the way. My grunts were carefully carrying the stretchers,
like the man on them was only wounded. At the rear, Glue was struggling
under the weight of his radio transmitter and scraps of the armoury we
discovered at the rag-heads' nest.
We loaded the body into the infantry compartment inside our APC and
started for the home. I felt that for any "spook" that tried to stick his
nose out now, this attempt would be, for sure, his last. Confirmation to my
thoughts was the empty and terrifying look in my grunts' eyes, were I could
see the reflection of my own feelings. Only the fire of vengeance was
blazing inside them and nothing else. Blood; blood; I now only craved for
blood to drown my rage, breaking their skulls with my rifle's butt, crushing
their ribs under my boots, tearing and ripping their veins with my finger
nails, looking in his, her, their eyes and asking: "Why, why did you shoot
at the Russian soldiers?"
OK, hold on motherfuckers, I'm coming. No mercy for anyone, not for the
elderly, not for the children, not for the women - NO BODY will be spared.
Ermolov and Stalin were both right - these folk are not to be re-educated,
only exterminated.
Our APCs were both speeding ahead. It seemed they were feeling our mood
too with their engines running absolutely fine now. Periodically, they
drenched us with their oily exhaust fumes, adding some kind of foppish gloss
to our black appearance. But our eyeballs were ablaze with mad fury,
demanding vengeance and there was now no place in our minds for fear.
Probably, in this state of mind, men run at machinegun nests to save others'
lives at the price of their own. Desire for vengeance suddenly grows into
care for those who are close to you and self-sacrifice for others.
Glinting at the surroundings I could feel movement inside the rubbles
with my skin. Resting AK on my elbow, I pulled out other ID tags and flicked
through a few more. Petrov Andrey Aleksandrovich - Maikop Brigade. Elizariev
Evgeniy Anatolievich - Internal Forces (they and the Rangers have their
garrison numbers marked with four digits and The Army have theirs marked
with five). Altogether, eight IDs - eight lives. Where are you boys?
Probably, no one will ever know and your mothers will be crying tears until
the end of their lives: their dead sons will have no graves. All of this is
awful. I finished off reading all of the remaining IDs, I was positive there
were no more grunts from our brigade in there. I hid them back in my inner
pocked, looked at my "cavalry" and shook my head, assuring them that none of
the remaining IDs belonged to anyone of ours. They again turned away,
watching out, racing past onetime battlefields. Demolished houses, torn down
trees, burnt and given up machinery. It was mostly tanks with torn
caterpillars and their turrets ripped off and tossed over to great
distances. APCs, with their thinner armour plates, were just blasted to
pieces. All depended on where the rockets hit and how much ammo the "boxes"
had onboard. Some drivers were lucky, others - not so much.
With pain I was looking at the trees. I like nature. Humans have a
choice. They can refuse to come here and go to jail for desertion or self
inflict an injury, thus buying themselves "the white" ticket out of here:
crafty Russians are capable of anything. But the trees and animals are
helpless. Men planted them at will; others came and wiped them out. And they
can do nothing in response. Neither trees, nor animals can flee or defend
themselves. Thus many died together with their owners on their porches. What
remain, people will eat later because of the famine. These-days people are
frequently seen tottering about like shadows amongst the rubble. Mostly
these are elderly men or middle-aged women. Everyone, who could fire weapons
and more or less think clearly, escaped into the mountains seeking
vengeance. No problem, we, in turn, will take revenge on them. Thus, closing
up this vicious circle. Every one of us thinks he's right. We all believe in
our own gods, praying them to help us and demanding retribution for deaths
of our friends and brothers. But God deals spoils and losses equally for
everyone. OK, so we'll fight. It would be pretty tough to fight the whole
nation though, as opposed to a regular army of one particular state. That's
what we've been taught to do. In an open field, busted your opponent,
occupied a town, picked up the spoils and back to the field. Here it's more
like in Afghanistan, fight the folk all you want. The whole thing is not
even a war. According to the law, all this is a piddling policing operation,
exclusive purpose of which is reinstating of the constitutional order.
However, no one knows what this order used to be like in the first place.
OK, while the "spooks" and us are mincing one another, someone in Moscow has
hit the jackpot. We've all seen a lot of that going on. For some, war is
like their mother. Not even one son of a bitch went down for all the blood
they've spilt in our spacious former Union. Not counting the Baltic States -
a couple of squealers and OMON guys went to jail, so what? They did nothing
but avenge the deaths of their friends, but those who gave them orders...
their bellies I would twitch with my bayonet, looking in their wide-open
from pain and fear eyes, listening to their deafening screams and breathing
in smell of their blood. That would be fun.
Yet here, people lived by penitentiary laws for four years. We fed them
with money, supplied with weapons and taught how to use them. Then we sent
them to fight in Osetia and Abhazia for us, - like we are not even aware of
what's going on. And when there was no longer need for them, they should've
been eliminated, but no, - we tried to domesticate the Chechen. Yeah, right!
He turned against our Moscow gang. Why, though, should the whole country
suffer? We even came here from Siberia to break up the dogs. China is closer
to us than Chechnya. Then men from ZabVO, DalVO and TOF were dragged down
here too. They can walk to the States or Japan. One thing isn't clear
though. Why is it so that the rag-heads left the oil refinery intact? We,
too, were strictly ordered not so much as touch it. Here is our Air Force,
happily bombing the city's living quarters, but as for the Staropromyslovsky
part - no way.
All of which means: the plant is somebody's property. Somebody who can
hush our Defence Minister and tell him specifically to leave it alone, - you
can level the whole town to the ground, but don't you dare ruining the
refinery. Of coarse, when Russian soldier is in rage, he's very difficult to
hold back, so too the rag-heads, not all are aware of the refinery's
importance. They naively think that they are actually fighting for their own
fucking freedom and don't get it, morons, that we are all simply taking part
in an ordinary criminal quarrel, very big though. One little baron decided
to screw The Big Daddy and start his own business. Then, Big Daddy sent his
own hood, the Russian Army, over, to bang the little fellow. But the baron
was a smart chap; he squalled with independence and sent his "bulls" in.
That's how the quarrel has begun. Now, no one can remember why the whole
thing started in the first place. The hoods are busy taking vengeance on
each other; meanwhile, their barons are making big bucks expropriating
salaries and pensions. The little one is pulling in Islamic World now, with
his cheap religious mottos. God, help us and forgive!
My APC took a sharp U-turn, which nearly cast me off the "armour".
That's right, moron, your business is to keep your teeth from clapping:
you'll break your neck one day, falling off the "armour" or a sharpshooter
snaps you. Your COs are there to think for you and supply you with the
ready-made decisions. Your objective is to survive and complete the task.
All else is shit. Take Andrei Petrov, former mortar platoon commander. He
had principles, right? He demanded that he be given two weeks to prepare his
men, considering the fact that his grunts were only drafted in November and
have only seen their rifles once before - during the oath. He was dismissed,
made an example, like a coward, a deserter. Replaced with a raw lieutenant -
two-year-termer college graduate. Where is that lieutenant now with his
mortar platoon? During the Airport assault he lost almost all of his men
and, himself, perished too. You see? They draft too many morons in The Army.
Some of them you have to stand for two years, others for twenty-five.
We tried to reason with our multi-star commanders that we are not ready
for any war, not technically, not logistically. Men are not prepared
physically. Then, in December, when the order came to load the gear onto the
locomotives and step out, the weather was freezing cold. As it is always
done in our Army, the diesel fuel, that vehicles were filled with, was of
the summer kind and rather depicted a tomato sauce. So, some smart ass from
our garrison came up with the idea to mix this "sauce" with kerosene. Yep!
You guessed it. One of the APCs blew up right in the parking lot with its
full ammo complement onboard; by some weird luck nobody was hurt. Second
burst while loading onto cars. And again God was on our side. And, as it is
customary in The Army, these events were used to write off much of the
property, just like Suvorov described in his "Saviour". According to the
official documents, those APCs had on board: not less than fifty uniform
coats, twenty-five night-vision devices, no fewer than a hundred pairs of
shoes and BDUs. When the papers were to be signed by the HQ representative,
he read that masterpiece and pronounced: "Add one more parka plus one more
BDUs, for me". Supplies XO added each of them by one and the General signed
the papers with his eyes shut.
Now this general is here somewhere. Thank God, he's just signing
papers. "Material battle losses" is probably his credo.
For now, my mind was occupied by thoughts of the dead sniper. What do I
tell at the HQ? How did it happen that he didn't make here? I knew well,
that no one would be breathing in my face with his honourable anger, only
with disappointment that they couldn't hank his guts themselves.
Particularly, the GRU and recon guys will be sad. It's their cup of tea,
just let them play with the fellow, they'd make him talk. We can do that
too, quick and simple, but they handle it gracefully. Liquor can't kill the
mastery.
Suddenly something moved in the rubble, twinkling with rays of the
setting sun. My mind hasn't even produced a thought yet, but my hands
already responded, quickly raising my AK, finger clung to the trigger. And
only then my judgement kicked in - I saw our artillery spotters, the lads
constructed their positions in one of the remaining pieces of a house by the
road. They too met us with their rifle barrels. All of us, however, managed
to keep our cool and hold fire. Moreover, they just began to wind their
"Shilka" in our direction. It is a large calibre anti-aircraft gun (ZSU)
with four barrels. It would've chopped us to chips for sure. Alright, at
least we identified each other in time. We shouted merrily something to each
other for greetings. This meant the HQ is near. Yep, there is the blazing
fire-fountain from the breached gas pipe. 200 or so yards and we're "home".
Now we can relax a little.
- Hey, radioman, - I said to Glue, - Let them know we're coming, or
they'll shoot us to hell.
Glue tattled something in his headset and nodded to me that we were OK
to go. Talking or rather shouting through roaring diesels seemed senseless
and inappropriate with the dead man onboard our APC. Everyone felt a little
guilty for some strange reason, although, on the other hand, knew well that
he, himself, could've been down there in his place.
Cars retarded a bit and, manoeuvring this way, we passed a virtual
labyrinth of remaining concrete blocks and bricks. Soldiers watched us
through their sights from behind every corner. Their faces were all covered
with dust and, from that, seemed made of stone. They all looked exhausted,
with their dog-tired red eyes. The lads greeted us with smiles and gestures,
lowering their guns. We greeted guards the same way. I knew, our officers
and men would be betting on me delivering the sniper alive and well.
Personally, I wouldn't put my money on his safe journey.
Lucky, we returned before the daybreak. Some smarty-pants in the
defence ministry invented a new password system for us. Before, everything
was nice and simple, but now, the thing is a brain surgery, without ten
years of high school or lots of liqueur, impossible to translate. For
example, before, the password was "Saratov" and the reply to it was
"Leningrad", even a moron could understand that. Some grunts can barely read
or write: outcomes of the "perestroika". The core of the new system is the
number: say thirteen. The guard, seeing a silhouette in the dark, calls out:
"Stop! Password - seven!" Now, you have to instantly take away seven out of
thirteen and quickly yell back: "Reply - six!". After all this, the guard
must add his "seven" and your "six", get "thirteen" and then let you pass.
But, if any one of you can't count well enough or has something else on his
mind, then, according to the Statute of the armed guard service, the guard
can, and will, shoot you on the spot without any further investigation. And
no one prosecutor would lift his finger to pursue this issue any further.
You, moron, should've been learning your math back in high school. Fine, if
you are not completely deaf and the grunt on duty can actually count, but
some smart asses call out fractions and negative numbers. That's when you
recall all of his relatives, and your math skills, while you're at it. For
all this, some shithead got promoted back in Moscow, or maybe, even a medal
on his chest. Those snakes are capable of anything.
Thinking this way, we stopped near the partly demolished kindergarten,
where our brigade's HQ was now situated. I jumped off the APC, rubbed my
stalled and frozen feet and started for the entrance dragging my stiff legs.
I had to see our HQ's CO, Lieutenant Colonel, Alexandr Alexandrovich Bilich
first. All of us called him San Sanych. Already on my way, I ordered my
grunts:
- Start offloading our hero, carefully.
Grunts nodded understandingly.
San Sanych was about 1.75m tall with broad shoulders and constant
sparks in his blue eyes. Or were the sparks just a fruit of our imagination?
San Sanych was somehow different from all the officers in our Brigade. He
was actually well mannered. At first, it seemed superficial, but the more
you got to know him the more you were convinced that it is really in his
nature. It seemed, he should've been born in times of chivalry, high society
and duels, definitely not in our mad century. Even now, when we are more or
less bottled in OK and started hammering our opposition, when the war, maybe
only at times for now, but has taken a proper shape of the trench warfare,
every day our lieutenant colonel Bilich has found the time for brief morning
exercises.
Every morning, if it was possible to catch any sleep at all at night,
we crawled out of our cellars shacking from the cold. Because it's winter,
may be southern, but still a winter. As a rule, there was no water, and our
old unshaven whiskers were no longer rough, but felt rather fuzzy. However,
looking at your CO, you, unwillingly, pick yourself up and find the time,
the water and the razor. Although, many officers, some superstitious or some
just plane lazy, grew beards and moustaches. Some even looked great like
that. The only one who looked exactly like a Chechen, was, our recon platoon
leader, Hlopov Roman, naturally possessing dark skin and having grown a
dense beard. This way, during the Station siege, he was nearly shot by his
own grunts. Luckily, he put on a helmet and his armoured west; otherwise,
our sporty protectors would've definitely done him. Since then, Hlopov - we
called him Hlop - developed a habit to shave every morning no matter what.
About one and a half weeks ago, when he and the reconnaissance CO broke
through to the Airport "North", the allied commander's HQ, on the way back
they ran into an ambush. Their APC was blasted by RPG fire from a point
blank range. Hlop died instantly, the CO had a bad concussion. For two days,
skirmishing along the way, their grunts were slowly sneaking home. They
brought back the Hlop's mutilated body and the severely concussed, almost
deaf and blind, reconnaissance CO, Captain Stepchenko Sergey Stanislavovich.
As they recounted afterwards, the days they spent in basements and at
nights, risking the bullet from Chechens or from us, they crept back to
their home base. They slept in turns, using parts of the poor Hlop's body as
pillows.
Maybe after his concussion or maybe after hiding in basements with the
corpse, Sereoga Stepchenko started having problems. We almost cured his
sight and hearing with liquor, but he couldn't stand closed and tight spaces
anymore. Mostly he's OK, working and fighting, but sometimes he's just
mumbling something completely out of this world. Our brigade's Commander,
Colonel Bahel Alexandr Antonovich, placed an order to dismiss Stepchenko
from his post, and watch him so he doesn't make any trouble. There was no
chance to medivac the man as even our wounded were lying in bunkers:
choppers couldn't land. He was, temporarily, replaced by senior lieutenant
Krivosheev Stepan. Bilich San Sanych was taking care of Stepchenko, not just
him though, of everyone around him. He arranged for the grunts that brought
him and the Hlop's body back, to be awarded each by the Hero Of Russia
Medal. But for now, the papers were kept in Chiefs of Staff's safe.
Out of his principles, Bilich didn't recognised physical methods during
conversations with the enemy or cursing with his own men. But the
interesting part was, I knew from my own personal experience, that if you
yell cursing at somebody, everything is done more quickly and clearly.
And now I had to explain to this gentleman that I failed to deliver the
sniper because grunts' thin patience wore off and they hung him off a tank's
barrel. Trying a few combinations in my mind that could spare San Sanych's
delicate hearing and let the Com-Batt and Ivan off the hook, I entered the
HQ. On the way in I met our Supplies XO, Kleymeonov Arkadi Nikolaevich.
Everybody was describing him with Suvorov's words: "...we can comfortably
hang any supply officer in one year time...". Looking at the well-shaped
figure of our "rear XO", you knew that the Generalissimos was absolutely
right: in his time, Kleimeonov would've being dangling off the tree by now.
His personal luggage has been growing in size by the day, regardless of the
heavy fighting.
- Ah, Slava, how was the trip? Got the sniper?
- No such luck, Arkadiy Nikolaeich, he passed away, - I made a
compassionate face, my eyes were telling a different story though and the
rear XO picked up on my game.
- Really? - Kleymeonov made a puzzled face and asked me, sounding
surprised.
- Weak heart, - I smiled, - he was wounded too, so didn't survive the
departure. Now I have to delicately explain it to San Sanych. He'll be
really sad.
- He's too busy for that now. By the way, nobody believed you'd bring
him anyway. Il'in and yourself could've thrown him harakiri over there on
the spot. It is a petty though; we had people queuing up to converse with
him, - Kleymeonov shone his teeth.
- They were betting, weren't they? - I asked.
- Sure, but mostly on your failure.
- By the way, I also brought a soldier with me, Semeonov, disappeared
during the "North" siege; my grunts are offloading him now. What else is
new?
- You were only gone for four hours. Oh, yeah, - his voice turned
gloomy, - Chief of Staff of the Second Battalion was wounded.
It seemed that the walls around us swayed.
- Sashka Pahomenko? - I asked.
- Himself. They are trying to break through to the hotel "Kavkaz".
There are as many rag-heads there as there are demons in hell, so he caught
a bullet in his chest. Medics couldn't get up there. Sargent patched him up
for now. Now we're getting a storm group ready, made of scouts. Under the
cover of dark, they'll try to get him out of there, - I could see Kleymeonov
was pretty sad, telling me all that.
Captain Pahomenko Alexandr Il'ich was loved by all in our brigade. Very
tall fellow, open-minded, he loved having fun. He knew countless gags, funny
stories and practical jokes, never malicious. The main thing about him was
his openness and honesty. It always deeply affected people who knew him.
While taking to him, in about ten minutes you felt like you had known the
man since your college years. With all that he was never a layabout or an
idler. He was always the first one where it was the hardest, always rushed
in to help everyone. Our officers and men liked him unmeasurably. He could
help with his words or action, he could also swear like hell - was a real
virtuoso in that field. He could get behind the steering wheel of an APC, in
freezing cold fix an engine or give soldiers a good lecture. Well, the very
type of officer that our information sources were always pounding us with.
Detesting his enemy, never hiding his genuine feelings, never refusing to
give a helping hand. A bit loud at times, but you get used to it in time.
That's what he's been to us, Sashka Pahomenko, who always asked to call him
"simply Il'ich". Strange, but at war, these little, long forgotten things
are suddenly surfacing in your mind. And now this young man was lying in
some basement with a hole in his chest. God help him.
- OK, Arkadiy Nikolaevich, I'm off to see San Sanych, - I nodded and
headed off along the corridor.
- He's in there with an Allied HQ representative. Bahel is out in the
Third Battalion's HQ, meanwhile this clean-cut chap is stamping Sanych's
brain. They'll probably throw us in to push somewhere, where our elite
forces shitted themselves. It's always like that, they get to receive medals
and fire at the parliament palace in Moscow and we, Siberian mahra, to
crunch asphalt in winter. For that, we get to go home and they will pose for
cameras and tell stories to girls, - he spewed and wondered off.
The corridor was full of officers and soldiers. Some were smoking, some
taking a snooz, leaning against walls riddled by bullets and shrapnel and
raising their heads time to time from close explosions.
We paid one hell of a price for this kindergarten. In his time, Dudaev
announced that Chechnya does need scientists but needs warriors. Thus, boys
should go to school for three years and girls for only one. Since women stay
at home at all times anyway, kindergartens became obsolete. Then, people,
close to his government, some with bribes, some with force, has claimed them
all. This one too was rebuilt as a villa and belonged to one of the Dudaev's
bandits. The owner and his gang fought for it with ferocity.
We were busting these snakes out of here for 12 hours straight and when
finally broke in, learnt that he maintained a pretty good live style in
here: all floors were covered in carpets, not the cheap stuff but handmade.
Design furniture, crystal and china, appliances we only ever saw in
brochures. Left around photos had all his family pictured. We lacked women
here, that's for sure, but I have never seen a pretty Chechen, not on
pictures, not in real life. All had small faces, narrow eyes, hooklike noses
and thin lips. Just like rats, if you ask me. Everyone has different tastes
though. As we say, - "there are no ugly women, there is just not enough
liquor, but I couldn't drink that much..."
Occupied by this kind of thoughts I entered the main HQ's room in the
basement. I pushed the door covered up by a raincoat-tent and felt the
warmth coming from the army camping heater in the corner. I guess these
heaters are only still alive in the Army. As long as the army exists they'll
always be there on manoeuvres and at war, to offer soldiers warmth and
comfort.
- Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, captain Mironov, reporting back to duty,
- I reported, looking at Bilich, who was leaning at the map. Next to him,
bent over the map, were my partner or, as we called each other, "henchman",
major Ryzhov Yuri Nikolaevich and some other officer.
- We've been waiting for you, Vechaslav Nikolaevich. Did you pick up
the sniper? - The Chief of staff asked me, inquisitively looking in my eyes.
- Here is your mate, - he nodded at Ryzhov, - was betting a six-pack of
cognac that you won't.
- If I had only known about the cognac, Alexandr Alexandrovich, I
would've brought back at least his head. But the dog died from his wounds
and probably from some kind of heart condition. The son of a bitch was, from
his own words, our compatriot, from Siberia. Thirty-two slashes I found on
his rifle's butt and a fine Japanese scope too.
- Where is the rifle? - Took interest in our conversation Ryzhov.
- I left it back there. They show it to the grunts for ferocity and not
a bad feed for themselves too.
- Yeah right, "feed". We all need only one feed now - air support,
probable enemy positioning and where the bustards are getting their
resupplies from. They were not ready for this war for sure and prepared
nothing: no arms, no ammunition and no food.
- That's not all, - I interrupted Bilich, - on the way back we were
fired upon and took on the rag-heads. After the counterattack, destroyed our
enemy and found these on the corpses... - I reached my hand out with the
dead soldier's ID tag. - One of ours. Semeonov.
Again a clog was stuck in my throat, making it difficult to talk or
breath. I pulled my cigarettes out. Bilich wouldn't object, realising what
state I was in, although himself was a non-smoker. After a few deep gasps I
felt the clog disappearing and continued:
- The snakes, probably, were torturing him for some time, and likely
while he was still alive, cut his penis off. Then nailed him to a cross,
like Jesus. Penis stuck in his mouth. We brought him back; my grunts are
probably offloading him now. Here is some more, - I fetched the rest of the
IDs, - them too I got off the dead "spook". No more of ours though.
San Sanych carefully listened to me, looking straight into my eyes,
then, took the ID tags, briefly flicked through them, noting only the
garrison numbers, added them up in a little pyramid and handed it to the
unfamiliar officer.
- By the way, let me introduce you, - he turned to the major, - Major
Karpov Vechaslav Viktorovich, Allied HQ representative, General Command HQ
officer. And this, - he said pointing at me, - Captain Mironov, our
Brigade's HQ senior officer, an adventurer and a warrior. Still can't get
accustomed to the fact that he is a HQ officer now not a combat company
commander, - San Sanych somewhat fatherly lectured me.
I was a bit stunned by the fact that my CO would speak of me so
heartily. I reached out and shook the major's hand.
- Vechaslav, - he introduced himself.
Namesake. We'll see, what kind of bird you are and what the hell you're
here for. I figure, one of the big boys, since was sent to us. They might
want us softened up before giving some suicidal task or maybe find out in
what state of affairs the brigade is in and then fire the CO. These fat cats
from Moscow love this kind of tricks.
I looked at him a bit more carefully this time. The face definitely
looks familiar, but where I saw him before, I, for now, couldn't recall. OK,
we'll figure that one out later. The fact that he was from Moscow and from
the General Command HQ, immediately made me, like any other line combat
officer, dislike him. All grievances come from them. They are all bastards
and voracious rats. All soldiers knew this axiom, watching them do nothing
but drink themselves stupid at every inspection and then departing for home
with generous gifts. Human garbage, from first to last. It's their fault
we're here in the first place. Moscow has planned the first and this Grozny
assaults. 25[th] of November and 1[st] of January will
both be black pages in the Russian Army's History Book.
I thought about it while I was shaking the Moscow officer's hand and
squeezing out of my face some kind of smile. Although, I think, my parched
face reflected all my thoughts pretty well. But I couldn't send this coxcomb
to hell right here, in front of San Sanych, whom I respected too much.
- Vechalsav, - I introduced myself back to this Moscow rooster.
- Major Karpov, take these IDs to the HQ please, let them work out
which regions the soldiers are from and notify their families, - San Sanych
passed the tags to him.
The rep nodded, took the IDs and without even looking or counting,
dropped them into one of his parka's outer pockets. Any normal officer
would've at least counted them respectful of the dead.
I was a bit disturbed by this and asked the son of a bitch with badly
hidden irritation:
- Aren't you going to loose them like this, my honourable man? Human
lives are behind them.
Spotting the rage in my voice, San Sanych and Ryzhov looked at the guy
like he was an enemy of the state. He must've understood his lapse, mumbled
something and placed the IDs in one of his flank jacket inner pockets,
meanwhile giving me a very expressive look, like he wanted to grind me into
dust. Alright, my boy, look all you want, I can chill a drunken soldier with
my look, as for you, dandy ass, I can bring you down to your knees. I calmly
stood the look of his watery eyes. He even seemed flimsy. About a meter
seventy in hight, may be less, skinny and with small head. All blond, like
albino, except his eyes, they weren't red, but rather colourless. His
appearance was just repulsive, and his quiff, that he was fixing constantly,
was even adding something female to it. Maybe he's gay: a funny thought
breezed through my mind. The General Command HQ Officer is a homo. That
would make a lot of noise. Well, I heard, in Moscow, it's very fashionable
these days - alternative sexual lifestyles. I don't think I'll be sleeping
next to him. Though, I think he's just lifeless, like a jellyfish. I might
offer to paint this queer orange, for fun. Would make snipers' job easier
too.
For a second, I imagined the major painted in red colour and a smile
stretched my lips. Karpov studied himself nervously - something wrong with
his dress? Having ensured that his uniform was intact and finally realising
that I'm just laughing at him, he stared at me angrily in response.
Knowing my wild character and to relieve the tension in the air, San
Sanych declared, talking to everyone at the same time:
- Let's stop plotting against each other for now and go see Semeonov's
corpse. We'll fill in the paperwork and you, Vechaslav Viktorovich, - he
looked at Karpov, - would have to take him with you to the airport and send
home.
We all moved for the exit. Officers and men were already out in the
yard. The corpse was carefully placed on the rolled out canvas, hands folded
on his chest. Nail holes in the wrists were clearly seen, his face was
thoughtfully covered with a soldiers' handkerchief. Hats off, all present
were just standing around in silence. What was on their minds could only be
read on their tight-lipped faces. Lucky for the sniper, he was dead. Here,
he would've lived a long time, to his distress.
Bilich came over to the diseased, lifted up the handkerchief, looked at
his dirty face with forever frozen mask of terror on it, sighed and, turning
toward standing next to him Kleymeonov, gave him an order:
- Arkadiy Nikolaevich, fill in the ID report and prepare the body to be
sent home. The HQ representative will take it with him.
- Sure, Alexandr Nikolaevich, - and then to the surrounding him grunts,
- Take the man inside. It's warmer in there. Call for the bookkeeper; tell
him to write up the ID Act, the death notification and whatever else is
needed.
Everyone suddenly went active. Bilich announced, talking to Ryzhov, the
Moscow dandy and me:
- Let's go eat.
I had, of coarse, nothing against throwing something in my stomach and
tipping a nip or two, but not in the company of this faceless shit, that's
why I politely refused his offer:
- Thank you so much, comrade Colonel, but I'd rather do it later. I
have to wash off the dust first and get the sniper and Semeonov's reports
out of the way. Other paperwork can't wait for too long either.
- As you wish. But at 2100, please be here at my meeting. Com-brig
should be too back by then, - carefully looking at me, said San Sanych. It
seemed that he figured out what the real reason for my refusal was.
They went inside. I watched the grunts carrying away all that remained
of Semeonov, then turned around and wandered off to my truck. Every
brigade's HQ officer had his own truck. With Yurka Ruzhov, between the two
of us, we shared GAZ-66 with a plywood cab. Although, most officers
preferred to spend those few minutes of rest in basements, we loved our cab.
We also had a personal driver, Harin Pashka, one meter and seventy tall,
with broad bone, big and always twinkly face, little eyes but red hair,
short, almost shaved, hairdo at the back, according to soldiers' fashion,
and always waving long quiff. Naturally, Pashka was a crook and a worm, but
I repeatedly observed him in gunfights: many times he pulled out the truck,
with us, from under fire, for that we cared for him and trusted him. In
peacetime Pashka was a leave abuser, bitter disciplinary offender, big
liquor fan and a womaniser. His pregnant fiance was waiting for him back
where we came from. He had another year to serve before discharge. Pashka
knew practically everything that was going on in the brigade thanks to his
friendship with the grunts from the HQ, communications hub and canteen. He
supplied us with news, some of which he found out significantly earlier than
we did, receiving his information from the comms operators. All of this gave
us more time to think about it and then come forward with good advice and
initiatives during the Sanych's or Com-brig's meetings, while others were
only chewing on the newly received information. For that our superiors
regarded us highly as competent officers. Although, we've always been on top
as it is, the head start was never a burden.
Walking up to our truck I noticed with satisfaction that Pashka managed
to fill up the sandbags and enclosed the truck with them. Now we can breath
almost freely. There was a thin puff of smoke rising from the pipe meaning
that we've got heat, hot water and dry cigarettes. I came up to the door and
called out without opening:
- Pashka! Where are you?
- I'm here, comrade Captain. Guarding.
Pashka's figure emerged from the dark; I glanced at the position, he
has chosen for his guard and noted to myself that he did it rather cleverly.
- All right, my lovechild, what've you got to make your father happy?
Did you behave? - I asked him jokingly.
- Everything's fine, Vechaslav Nikolaevich. Enclosed the truck with
sand, got some food too.
Food was a problem, same as matrasses, linen and the BDUs.
Reinforcement columns were left behind at the airport; it made no sense
dragging them down with us under fire. Only the tankers, carefully guarded,
carried over fuel for vehicles and power generators. Of coarse, every
officer and soldier had reserves in their tanks and APCs: canned stew and
meat kasha containers. But that's no real food, a paved road to stomach
ulcer. That's why everyone was constantly busy hounding for nutrition.
During the assault on this nice kindergarten, in its basements, we
found a decent supply of food and beverages. Much of that we've already
eaten and drunk, but we all knew who amassed most of it and using Pahka's
personal charm or his cheeky character, periodically expropriated some from
the comms operators.
- Sonny, - talking to Pashka, I worked my way into the cab, - What
kinds of entree and oversees brandy do you have to soften up your old and
sick father?
- Dutch ham, roasted lamb, sardines, I think French, and two bottles of
cognac, judging from the labels, also French.
- Got the hot water? - I inquired taking off my rifle, coat and other
apparel.
- Yep, full kettle, - reported Pashka, throwing the rifle behind his
back.
- Let's go, flush some on to me and then have dinner, - I have already
comfortably settled in the warm atmosphere of the cab and now unwillingly
stepped out into the night cold undressed.
I scrubbed myself slowly and carefully, huffing and spitting out dirt
and dust that clogged my nostrils and mouth. We had no steamer here so far;
for that reason we gathered a lot of fresh towels and some cheap polish
fragrance in the airport and periodically, stripping naked, rubbed ourselves
with them. Our underwear we just chucked, putting on new pairs each time.
I got back into the cab, put some cloths on and was wiping up my rifle
with a piece of cloth. Meanwhile, Pashka cut up the ham and smelly lamb ribs
and opened up a can of sardines. In the centre of the table he set up the
sealed bottle of cognac "Hennessey". I opened it and smelled the contents.
Not bad at all. Poured out some of it into plastic glasses, a bit more for
myself. I lifted the glass, looked though it at the light, shook it and
smelled once more, I definitely liked the aroma.