The blog, despite its somewhat frivolous title, is not about the attributes of women's clothing, not about women's legs, which are worthy of a separate topic, and not even about fetishism ... "White tights" or "white stockings" is the slang name for a squad of female snipers who fought on the side of anti-Russian forces and separatist regimes in the territory the former USSR: in Transnistria (on the side of Moldova), in the Georgian-Abkhaz and Chechen wars, in Nagorno-Karabakh, during the events in Dagestan in 1991. I have already raised this topic in my blog post "Farewell to Arms", but yesterday's murder of Colonel Budanov, who was once convicted for the innocent murder of Elsa Kungaeva, forced to create this blog. There is still no answer to the question whether the "white stockings" is a myth, as the official authorities want to convince us, whether it is true that on the other side of the hostilities, biathletes from the Baltic states, Ukraine, Russia took part. In order not to be unfounded, I will quote the words of the FSB Colonel Sh: You, of course, have heard about the Chechen "black widows". But at that time, this was not the name of female suicide bombers, but female snipers. They were also called "white tights". So we then took one of these "widows". It turned out that she was a Leningrad girl, a biathlete. She shot our brother for money.
Dmitry, in order to redirect the vector of installations that are made to our citizens through the media, and there is still an uncensored Internet authorities. Anyone here can express their opinion, which is different from the opinion of the "party and government", and, roughly speaking, I do not care deeply who gave what grade to me.
Gee-gee-gee, thanks. :))
True, I'm not sure what the author of the blog wanted to say that we (Russians, including Colonel Budanov) in Chechnya are at war with ourselves, but so far something turns out from his blog. For some reason, the FSB also dragged in. As if there are some duremars sitting and do not understand that one should not draw general conclusions from the particular.
P.S. In order not to be unfounded, I will quote the words of FSB Colonel Yu: “Unfortunately, so far we cannot do anything about the guidelines that are given to our citizens through the media. We do not have the ability to control this process, because of this, tense and angry moods, and often apathy, prevail in society. " :)
I just put it for you :)) For some reason I didn’t put it before: /
I don’t understand where the “COL” went? Have I already put it on?
Why can't you put it on again? The site needs urgent completion! :))
The murder of Yuri Budanov was of a custom-made nature, and its traces lead to Chechnya. The law enforcement agencies came to this conclusion on the basis of the first results of the investigation and operational data.
As several sources in law enforcement agencies and special services told Rosbalt, after three weeks of investigating the murder of Yuri Budanov, it became obvious that traces of the crime lead to Chechnya. It is this version that has become a priority and every day finds more and more confirmation.
In the course of the investigation, it was established that the criminals had already tried more than once to organize the murder of the former colonel. At first, the "operation" was being prepared in the spring of 2009 on the territory of the Rostov region, shortly after his release from the colony. The second attempt was made in early May 2011, when the criminals received identification data on the location of Budanov. This data was provided by an employee law enforcement Moscow region at the request of their friends from Chechnya.
In early May, the alleged organizers of this crime arrived in the capital from Chechnya. “In this case, a lot has already become clear: how the preparation went, the motives, an approximate circle of performers was outlined,” said a source in the special services of the agency. - There are no detainees yet, but they will certainly be. But whether it will be possible to bring the "customers" to justice is a big question. Now we can say with confidence that this crime was planned on the territory of the Chechen Republic. "
And here's another, so as not to relax.www.youtube.com
Olga Pavlovna, I repeat, we do not need invented provocative horror stories. You have no reference to the document.
Thanks to everyone who did not remain indifferent to the blog topic, in general, far from sports. But our life is so arranged that sports and politics are closely interconnected in it. Take, for example, the participation of biathletes in local wars in the Caucasus - is it a myth or a reality? We do not know the answer to this day. But today we are not talking about that. The murder of Yu. Budanov — what is it: a blood feud ?, a provocation of the special services ?, personal “showdowns” of Budanov, as Kungaeva's father wants to convince today? One thing is clear - the murder was a well-planned action specially timed to coincide with the Day of Russia. We will probably never find out who the killer is, or the investigation will slip the “left” killers on us!
Mercenaries, under martial law, are not subject to any convention. For some reason, no one particularly remembers what they did to our servicemen and the Russian-speaking population. And, as soon as the conversation about our adversaries comes up - a sea of sympathy. I would like to recall the words of a certain “human rights activist”, deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation S. A. Kovalev “... I will defend the rights of any people, except for the Russian ..”, the diagnosis is clear. All these PACE, The Hague Tribunal, the OSCE - all this is an instrument in the hands of dirty politicians who will ALWAYS cause maximum damage to our Motherland, will do everything to destroy it. And we will throw everything that we have - all the gold, all the material power to fool and fool people. Human brain, the consciousness of people is capable of change. Having sowed chaos there, we will invariably replace their values with false ones and make them believe in these false values. How? We will find our like-minded people, our allies in Russia itself. Episode after episode, the tragedy of the death of the most rebellious people, the final, irreversible extinction of its self-consciousness, will be played out, grandiose in its scale. " Allen Dulles
Grisha. Unfortunately, this is not a fictional horror story. The unit commander then almost got on trial. For the lynching of his fighters.
Budanov will be buried with military honors
Russia, Moscow region, Khimki
Hundreds of people in Moscow came to say goodbye to Yuri Budanov
The funeral service for former Colonel Yuri Budanov, who was killed in Moscow on June 10, was held at the Church of Saints Unmercenaries and Wonderworkers Cosmas and Damian in Khimki. The closed coffin with the body was carried out of the church, carried around it, loaded into a car and funeral procession moved towards the Khimki cemetery, where the former colonel will be buried. Izvestia 13:36
Hundreds of people came to Pravoberezhnaya Street in Moscow, where the funeral service took place. Even more people - up to 2 thousand are expected at the Khimki cemetery, where the body of the shot colonel will find its last shelter. Lifenews.ru 13:14
Former Colonel Yuri Budanov will be buried at the Central Cemetery of Khimki with military honors, representatives of the Moscow military commandant's office, who arrived at the ceremony, told Interfax-AVN. "The honorary escort will fire three volleys into the air," said the agency's source.
Budanov will be buried with military honors. He is in the ranks - one of many. Rokhlin, Troshev, Budanov ... The war is not over, it continues, some naive people believe that it is going on between Chechens and Russians, by no means, the war is going on between the West and the East. The West is quite successful in promoting the divide and rule policy. According to the reviews of my good acquaintances, I have no reason not to believe them (not for one business trip to "hot spots" Budanov was a good commander, and according to the reviews of his subordinates "Servant to the king, father to soldiers." After all, they will be able to defend the Motherland in difficult times, and not sell it wholesale and retail, as the current Ministry of Defense does, headed by its leader.
"She died terribly: she was torn apart by tanks."
There is no need for such invented horror stories.
I will take the liberty of assuming that among us it is easy to find people who have directly experienced this horror, who personally saw blood, tears, buried loved ones with their own hands ... People who still wake up in the night from horror, who are not on a single google map "They will never see their home again, who will live with this pain to the end ... Where is the truth? I don't know, friends: / I think that the truth is in their pain, in their losses, in what they have experienced ... Not for us to reason, and even more so not for us to judge: /
Sorry if you hurt anyone ...
A taboo topic ... which cannot be kept silent! What Olga Pavlovna wrote is pure truth ... But it was done under certain circumstances, well, she was not right, this girl was! And there were other methods of "debt recovery", but the focus of the site is not the same, and it is not necessary ... We can only say that well, these "girls" did not want to be taken prisoner, and therefore with great enthusiasm they shot themselves at the threat of being captured. captivity! God will judge them ... But he will not judge them!
War is a terrible thing. And God forbid any of us survive it ...
Thanks everyone!
And this is the answer of impressionable ladies in my private messages. Is it weak or weak to respond in public? - "Hey, you, fighter for the rights of the oppressed, watch the bazaar ... moralist, watch your head ..." so in a personal? Huh, well, well ...
That's why I write that I know that it will always be
I don’t know if there will always be blood feud in the North Caucasus, but there was and is. Do you disagree with that? Or did we just not understand each other? I wrote that there is a blood mark. Only often crimes are passed off for her, for other reasons. After all, there, if you look at it, almost everyone has "bloodlines". Many Ossetians and Chechens do not want to live there. Many live in Russia. And they don't want to go back there.
Bagheera, please do not write about what you found on the search, and on Wikipedia. Blood feud in the Caucasus has always been, is now, and always will be. All these quotes from Soviet propaganda brochures have nothing to do with reality.
mitrius
According to Chechen concepts, there is no statute of limitations for blood feud ("chir" in Chechen). Even if the avenger does not get to his goal, then the next of kin, and maybe even the descendants of the offender, can become the target of persecution.
Blood feud was fought in Chechnya both during the times of the Russian Empire and during the times of the USSR, however, it was not possible to eliminate the old cruel custom.
The custom of blood feud is an element of legal systems in which the state either does not exist or is unable to ensure the rule of law (the state does not have a monopoly of the right to violence)
As of the beginning of 2009 legislation Russian Federation He considers the motive of blood revenge in the commission of a murder as an aggravating circumstance. V Soviet time learned how to effectively fight blood feud, flexibly applying both the Criminal Code and educational measures. There was article 231 in the Criminal Code, punishing for evading reconciliation (up to two years in prison). It was a strong lever of pressure on those who did not want to be reconciled. In every region of Dagestan and Chechnya, there were commissions for the reconciliation of bloodlines, which included elders, party and Soviet functionaries, who stifled any conflicts between families and clans in the bud. Now this whole system is destroyed. Moreover, the ancient tradition of blood feud was superimposed on the lawlessness that is now taking place in the North Caucasus. People are killed for economic, political and purely criminal reasons, and they hide behind blood feud
november
In 1996 I happened to visit Ossetia. Then we traveled all over the republic. In one village we were shown a radio relay support, which was blown up by our soldiers during the war. We were forced to do this, since a sniper was sitting at the very top. When the sniper was removed in this way, he turned out to be a woman. I don't remember the details of that story, but she is from Chelyabinsk. Former biathlete. I went to the militants because I had to raise my little son. Her name was not mentioned anywhere. She died terribly: she was torn apart by tanks. The son stayed with his old mother.
Such is the story.
Such layers of "culture" must be burned out, with fire and sword. And there was a full opportunity to eradicate this infection
Well, that's actually the "dirt" itself. Before writing about dirt, it would be nice to at least respect the memory of the dead military and civilians. It is only thanks to them that your head is on your shoulders, and not on your windowsill ((www.youtube.com
www.youtube.com Cow revenge is not a layer of culture, it is heredity, that is, a defective genetics www.perunica.ru
The ends are known to everyone, they are called blood feud.
Our government made Budanov the scapegoat. And now he was killed and no end will be found
Dear Olga-Helga! This dirt, as you put it, is possibly someone's life! I understand that this did not affect you, but, as it were, it is possible without these epithets. You don't have to look here so that you don't get dirty in the mud ...
In the case of the murder of Budanov, a version of blood feud will be considered.
Visa Kungaev, father of a Chechen girl killed by a former colonel. “It is neither easier nor harder for us from what has happened,” he said.
One of the main versions, which the investigation is currently working on, is "murder for the purpose of provocation."
-----
First Vice-Speaker of the Federation Council, Alexander Torshin, acting chairman of the chamber, urged "not to make hasty conclusions and not to appoint the guilty without trial and investigation."
He noted that the murder of Budanov is, first of all, a criminal offense committed in broad daylight in the capital of our country.
"It's a challenge. So let's look for murderers, not extreme ones, ”he stressed, reminding that“ the duty of honor of law enforcement agencies is to find criminals, and the courts - to punish them ”.
Torshin recommended that everyone "refrain from political fuss."
Found another ...
from the harsh war, their children are waiting ...
Do not believe in the cruel verdict of the funeral,
the sympathy of those close to the soul, not letting go,
taking out from the casket memorial caches
those letters that the children wrote on the way.
In them: “Mom, don't cry! I'll be back soon Mom!
It's not scary here, and we will win! "
And the mother believed ardently and stubbornly,
that her son is strong, that he is not alone,
that spring is coming, the awakening of nature,
that victory is coming soon - just a little bit left ...
But the days went by, adding years to her
and lay like a stone of separation on my chest ...
Soldier's mothers! Everlasting memory -
about those who will not return home ...
A sorrowful flame burns in the heart of the mother
about the lost son, who is forever alive!
Soldier's mothers are proud, steadfast,
children who lost in a terrible hell ...
Soldier's mothers are worthy of happiness,
from the harsh war, their sons are awaiting ...
At least, on weekends, they did not carry this filth, abomination and shed blood on display!
Didn't find the poem.
At the high-rise, two mothers met. Who lost their sons. Fighting with each other. Both mothers hugged and together mourned the dead ... War. This is mutual grief. There are no winners in war ...
Budanov is equally alien to me both in the guise of a murderer and in the guise of a hero. Would have preferred not to have this topic at all: /
november
Thanks for the Blog. I myself thought to write yesterday, but I could not ... I will leave a comment later. (For a couple of minutes in the net).
On the evening of June 10, football fans began to pull up to the site of the former colonel's murder. Fans bring flowers to their house on Komsomolsky Prospekt in Moscow and light candles. Security measures around the courtyard have been reinforced by law enforcement officials.
Currently, several dozen people have already laid flowers, most of whom are fans of the Moscow Spartak.
About 15 trucks and buses of police officers, riot police and servicemen of the Internal Troops arrived at the place of Budanov's murder. Despite the fact that the territory is still cordoned off, law enforcement officers are allowed to lay flowers on everyone, Interfax reports.
The murder of Budanov from an illegally (he did not start the war) convict made him the hero he was!
Yaroslav SHAPOCHKA,
Igor KOZLOV
"FACTS"
At the end of last week, the main topic of the Russian media was the event in the village of Ishcherskaya on the border of Chechnya with North Ossetia: a task force of the FSB and the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia detained 27-year-old Elena, allegedly a sniper of Shamil Basayev's armed group in 1995-1996. According to the Izvestia newspaper, Elena, nicknamed Lolita, is suspected of killing 20 Russian soldiers, police officers and FSB officers. The Russians claim that the sniper is a citizen of Ukraine, originally from Poltava, and it was there, according to the special services of the Russian Federation, that she was engaged in biathlon throughout her childhood and youth ... , and then, after the first Chechen war, she married one of the field commanders. When her husband was killed, Elena went to work for the Chechen customs.
We took the sniper right at the station of the village. During the arrest, they found a Ukrainian passport (albeit for some reason with two completely different photographs), according to which the Poltava biathlete permanently resides in the city of Konstantinovka, Donetsk region. But the passport turned out to be ... stolen. And in general, there is so much incomprehensible and even absurd in Elena's story that no one in Moscow undertakes to officially comment on this information. By the way, during the operational video filming, the detainee, denying all the charges against her, claimed that she had held the weapon only once in her life - during the wedding, Lena's late husband allowed her to shoot into the air from a Kalashnikov assault rifle.
Elena was transferred to Mozdok, where the investigative team of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia is currently studying some of the facts of her biography.
The arrest of Elena-Lolita is regarded by Russian journalists as confirmation of the real existence in Chechnya of mythical girls-snipers, the so-called "white tights". They were first spoken about during the conflict in Karabakh. As a rule, these were Lithuanians or Latvians involved in biathlon.
The head of the SBU press center Anatoly Sakhno commented on the information about the Ukrainian sniper as follows:
The Ukrainian security service has a negative attitude towards mercenaries, regardless of where they are fighting - in Chechnya or in another region. Today in Russia they say that Ukrainians are fighting on the side of the Chechens, but in fact there is no real evidence of this. The SBU from the FSB of Russia did not receive a single official inquiry about our citizens suspected of participating in the Chechen conflict, nor were they interested in Yelena, mentioned in Izvestia, or, as she was also called in a newspaper article, Lolita. We do not know anything about her.
I would like to add that during the Chechen campaign, a negative image of a Ukrainian may develop, but this question should be asked not by the SBU, but by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
By the way, discussing the possibility of the existence of special units of female snipers fighting on the side of Chechen militants, Boris Kagarlitsky, an employee of the Institute of Comparative Politics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, made the following conclusion last fall: this is a myth that works into the hands of military propaganda. “When there is a war, the public needs to create a hateful enemy image. The image of "white stockings" is perfect for this purpose. In this case, we are dealing with the merging of two images of Evil. On the one hand, there is a blue-eyed blonde sniper with the appearance of a fascist. A typical image of a witch, so strong in Russian culture. On the other hand, evil is embodied in the image of a swarthy Muslim. Their unity perfectly nourishes hatred of the enemy in the Chechen conflict in society ... "
White tights ". REFERENCE-2
How many were there? According to information from military sources - at least 150 (as many, apparently, they managed to destroy - Ed.). How much is actually - no one knows. The soldiers hated the mercenaries more than their masters. The snipers were not even taken prisoner - they were killed on the spot. They were judged by the laws of wartime. Cruel, but deserved. In the second war, there were no more "white tights".
Nagorno-Karabakh, North and South Ossetia, Ingushetia, Abkhazia, Transnistria, Chechnya ... The list is quite impressive. Lessons have been learned from each local conflict, many articles, books have been written about each bloody intersub-conflict, dozens of documentaries and feature films have been shot. But, even carefully shoveling and comprehending all the available rich material, you can hardly find more or less noteworthy information about participation in wars on the territory of the ex-Union of women mercenaries.
Probably everyone has heard about the semi-mystical unit "White Tights". Rumor has it that the myth of the elusive Amazons, shooting without a miss and not knowing compassion for those captured, was born during the First World War. Moreover, they frightened recruits on both sides of the fronts. The newest era did not dot the "i" either: the stories of participants in all kinds of hostilities about the Baltic biathletes, where truth interferes with fiction, were quickly picked up and replicated by the authors of newfangled bestsellers like "read and threw away." The people have swallowed the bait, and now they have almost no doubts about the reality of "white tights".
Trying to get at least something similar to the facts confirming the existence of "white tights", I have not heard enough horrors. On both sides of the Karabakh front, adult men with superstitious horror in their eyes talked about furies with sniper rifles, receiving large sums for each successful "shooting". Here is one of my favorites, with each new retelling additionally acquiring heartbreaking details, plots: the massacre of volunteer Cossacks who fought for Transnistria over a young blonde sniper who had the imprudence to fight on the side of the Moldovans. In Georgia, and then in Abkhazia, they were already called "black tights". True, the essence of the myth did not change from this: the girls were still credited with fabulous accuracy, incredible cruelty, a thirst for profit. It was almost believed in smoke without fire when His Majesty Chance intervened.
In the compartment of the fast train "Astrakhan - Moscow" I met a pretty girl who introduced herself as Inga. Once or twice we went out to smoke in the vestibule, quickly got into conversation. By the way, I threw something like: "Those who have not been in the war will not understand ...", and suddenly ... However, this psychological phenomenon has already been described many times: it is sometimes the easiest thing for a casual fellow traveler to throw out what has boiled over: pain, doubts, revelations.
Inga spoke mainly. She spoke not for the sake of a catchphrase, but in order to ease the soul, it was felt. Obeying my professional journalistic duty, I asked her permission and turned on the recorder. “Write. Worse than what has already happened will not be "... The first Chechen woman remained behind Inga's fragile shoulders. No marks in documents, no military ranks, she has no awards - the girl did not serve a day in the army. But she knows army life quite well: in the few months that she "sniper" on the side of the separatists, she studied it thoroughly through the telescopic sight of her SVDshki.
Inga was born and raised in the city on the Neva. Since childhood I was fond of sports: at first athletics, then more seriously - bullet shooting and biathlon. She got married early, at less than eighteen years old, and family life, as often happens, did not work out. The husband fled in an unknown direction, and Inga was left with a one-year-old son and a disabled mother. Life went on, and it was necessary to build something more stable than the house of cards of a failed marriage. In the mid-90s, working in St. Petersburg, as elsewhere, was difficult. And who, in the heyday of the shuttle era, needed a candidate for master of sports in biathlon? Long months went by, and she kept looking and looking for any, even the smallest earnings.
Everything was decided by a chance meeting with an old friend, with whom Inga once conquered sports heights. We went to a cafe and started talking. Inga told about all her ordeals, cried into her waistcoat, asked for advice. After a little silence, as if hesitating, her friend scribbled the phone number of the recruiting office on a napkin. In a whisper, in a nutshell, she outlined the nature of the "work". Then she threw up her hands helplessly: “You don’t know how to do anything in this life. Just shoot. "
“Point” turned out to be an ordinary St. Petersburg communal apartment, and a certain Zinaida, a stout young lady, whose age is difficult to determine the first time, was in charge of all personnel work. As Inga found out later, Mom-Zina herself, before becoming a "dispatcher", had won back on the side of the Armenians in Karabakh for almost two years. A week was spent on the registration of "leftist" documents, three more - on retraining for a new weapon for Inga, a Dragunov sniper rifle. Then buyers appeared, and now a contract has already been signed, according to which Inga received 7 thousand dollars in her hands, after a complete lack of money the amount for her is simply incredible.
The term of "work" is three months. The place is the self-proclaimed Ichkeria-Chechnya. The enemy is the armed anti-Dudaev opposition. But this point worried Inga least of all: the mother and child were now provided for, and she was not going to take the next showdown of some Caucasian clans (this is how Inga, who was not interested in politics, represented her future war) to her heart. It was late autumn 1994 in the yard.
It took more than a week to get to Chechnya. She and several other girls ("wild geese" flew to the North Caucasus from all over the former Soviet Union) were accompanied by Dudayev's emissaries. When they arrived at the place, they had another talk with them, held the last briefing, and assigned them to the detachments.
The war for Inga did not begin immediately. They worked in fours: a sniper, a grenade launcher, two machine gunners. The "Czechs" closely watched how the mercenaries fulfill the terms of the contract, noted how many Labazanovites were sent to Allah. Inga's group was kept in reserve, which she was incredibly happy about: no matter how mentally she prepared herself, she did not want to kill.
Closer to mid-December, they were transferred to Grozny. Everything changed dramatically, tension and anger reigned all around. If the first two weeks went on the "hunt" only with the onset of darkness, now they were exhibited even during the day. Somewhere in the distance, shells were exploding, and the clatter of machine guns was heard.
Of course, Inga did not know that federal troops were sent to Chechnya to pacify the bandit lawlessness. And one day she saw tanks, which, as Dudayev's "buyers" assured, the opposition does not and cannot have. The final enlightenment came when she saw through the optics of the rifle the lieutenant stars, barely distinguishable on the black camouflage pea jacket black from the Chechen dirt. And blue, boyish eyes ... I pretended that the cartridge was skewed in the store, since I learned such tricks. "Czechs" unkindly hissed in their own way, but there was no other rifle. The group had to retreat without firing a shot.
She still had to shoot hers, otherwise she would not survive. I tried to “smear” as much as possible, but I wounded several, and one had to be killed. Fortunately, he stood with his back, looking into the eyes of the victim, she could not pull the trigger. The term of her three-month contract expired, but those who remembered about it were long gone. And how, what ways to get home? Inga didn't know.
She retreated from Grozny together with the militants. The bearded men from the detachment to which she nailed several times tried to rape her, the field commander was rescued, whom the thugs obeyed unconditionally. By the end of April 1995, Inga looked like a zombie. Sleep, eat, take care of weapons, "work" ... At nights, when I managed to sleep longer, it was like falling into a black well. Without dreams, but Inga even rejoiced at this: there were enough nightmares in reality, but she would hardly dream of something else in the war. And constant fear. She was afraid of the "Czechs", who were becoming more and more furious every day, she was afraid of her own people, who, according to rumors, did not stand on ceremony with mercenary snipers. Surrender, and "squint" under the nurse would not allow the shoulder, to the blue beaten off by the butt, and the powder fumes that have eaten into the skin of the hands. She lived with the hope of seeing her son and mother and returning home.
A miracle happened. In May, their detachment was almost completely defeated. In battle, Inga received a severe concussion, almost a week did not regain consciousness. I woke up in one of the field hospitals of the group of internal troops. Everyone was not up to her, and they didn’t really deal with Inga - they believed her ridiculous legend that she lived in Grozny, worked as a nurse in a city hospital, and then, they say, the "spirits", retreating, took with them. Fortunately, the rifle was thrown away from her by an explosion of ten meters, and the sniper's bruise against the background of other large and small bruises did not strike anyone's eye.
In June she got from Rostov to St. Petersburg, where her mother had already buried her. I had to move first to another area, and then to the city: everyone was afraid that either their own special services or Chechens would go to it. And no one knows which is worse. A year later she got married, changed her last name, changed her habits and hair color. My husband and I started their own business, life slowly began to return to normal.
And only then did she start dreaming about the war. And as the most nightmarish - in the crosshair of the sight are the bottomless blue eyes of the lieutenant she saved. Only here, in a recurring nightmare, did she kill him. Again and again…
I will not hide: I was not at ease when I listened to Inga's confused story. It's even worse when I write these lines. By the way, for me it was she who finally dispelled the myth about "white tights": women do not wear white tights in a war. They don't wear any at all, under the "camouflage" they still can't be seen.
Road acquaintance is a frivolous thing, we drove to the destination station and fled. We didn’t exchange coordinates, and, to be honest, I didn’t want to. At that moment, for some reason, I thought about dozens, perhaps hundreds of "wild geese" hurrying to the next hotbed of tension for a long foreign currency ruble. Ruining someone's lives and their souls, they will pass or perish on the roads of someone else's war. And only having survived in spite of everything, they will understand that these roads lead nowhere.
I will kill you slowly because I love you. First I'll shoot you in the leg, I promise to aim for your kneecap. Then a hand. Then the eggs. Do not be afraid, I am a candidate for master of sports. I won't miss, - the voice of the sniper Masha sounded clear on the radio, as if she was lying somewhere very close, and not hiding hundreds of meters away.
A seventeen-year-old biathlete who came to Chechnya to earn money from a small Ural town. She had to shoot at her own. However, she didn't care who to aim at. They just paid better on the other side. The contractor with whom she chatted out of boredom on the radio every night was already used to the stinging notes in her voice. Like bullets from her rifle. How to "load 200". She did not have time to kill anyone. And it didn't work. I came across a stretch that ours put in the mountains. And a day later they killed him. Headshot, bullet - 7.62. Sniper.
"White Tights" are ruthless ghosts that hit right on target. They are hated. They are afraid. They are hunted. Only those who kill them know their faces.
Caught alive, these women perceive being shot on the spot, a bullet in the forehead, instant death as the greatest mercy. After them, nothing remains, not even a real name. Only legends and curses.
The True Story of Lolita
A double pink robe is tightly tightened at the waist, with a transparent white scarf on the head. She then fiddles with him in her hands, then brushes them away a tear. Dyed blonde hair, gold teeth, faded gray-green eyes and white, almost matte skin, it seems not ugly, but it will pass - and you will not notice.
Every evening, when dozens of prisoners gather in front of the TV after work in the sewing shop to watch the evening news, she huddles into the farthest corner of the camera. "Well, he did the right thing, that he killed. So she, the bitch, should be!" - the women shout excitedly, seeing on the screen the trial of Colonel Budanov. "Yes, crush them, you bastards! Get them wet in the toilet!" - the president's favorite quote is heard from everywhere.
Nobody in the zone knows that she was a sniper in Chechnya and shot at Russian soldiers. Yes, and in her criminal case there is not a word about this, - I was immediately warned in one of the women's colonies in the Krasnodar Territory. - She does not shy away from anyone, but she is not friends with anyone either. If you write her real name, she will be killed immediately.
It was about Lena that a terribly romantic story went about in the first war in Chechnya. For her extraordinary beauty, youth and ability to shoot accurately, the militants nicknamed her Lolita. She appeared in Shamil Basayev's detachment in 1995. She came from her native Ukraine to earn money ... for her wedding and dowry. However, she quickly forgot her fiancé, because she fell in love with a real "wolf", field commander Sulima Yamadaev. Amid the roar of battle and the whistle of bullets, their happiness did not last long - the "wolf" was killed, much later Aslan Maskhadov posthumously awarded him the rank of brigadier general, and the inconsolable "she-wolf" began to take revenge. Moreover, she aimed at our fighters at the "causal place", below the belt. So, in any case, the legend said.
I don't know anything about Lolita and "white tights", - Lena theatrically rolls her eyes and immediately brings her handkerchief to them. - And I got to Chechnya long before the war, at the very beginning of the 90s. She lived with her parents and little brother in Konstantinovka, Donetsk region, studied well. Mom then worked in a warehouse as a manager, and my father also did not sit without work. True, he often applied to the bottle. After the 8th grade, together with Marinka, my school friend, we went to Nikolaev to study as a cook. For spring break, Marinka offered to go to Chechnya and sell clothes. We got to Prokhladny by train, from there we got to Grozny by bus. On the train, our birth certificates were taken away, and I was not yet 16 then. They locked us in an apartment for four days, they said that we wouldn’t work our way with clothes alone. We worked it out ... Now they would be taken out to the field, then into the mountains - whoever shoots, who else does what - they had fun as they wanted. My friend periodically disappeared somewhere, and they sold me to a new tormentor. I can't remember all this ... - and she cries. “My torment ended only when Musa heard about me and saved me. He knew nothing of my past. For some reason I believed him.
From the dossier "MK".
Musa Charaev, field commander. An active participant in the hostilities of 1994-1996, together with his detachment, he was "spotted" in many bloody skirmishes. Basayev's friend who often visited his house. And if before the war Charaev was a simple rural tractor driver who earned money by selling wine brought from the Kalinin winery, then after that he is the owner of a decent "piece" of the Baku-Novorossiysk oil pipe, generously presented to him by the President of Ichkeria, Aslan Maskhadov.
As numerous witnesses assured investigators, during the first Chechen campaign, Lena walked with her head held high and a sniper rifle at the ready. About that combat period of her life, which she does not want to talk about in any way, the only documentary evidence has survived. A red book with a photograph and her real name. Next to Basayev's signature is a modest position - a nurse. During the investigation and trial, Lena did not hide the fact that in March 1995 she joined the detachment of field commander Abdula Khadzhiev-Aslambek in Argun. Although she was listed there only as a nurse, in fact, she did whatever they said: she washed, cooked, and sometimes, out of old memory, appeased the bearded freedom fighters. However, she did not stay in Abdula's detachment for long.
"If only you were alive"
End of 95th. A bloody raid by Salman Raduev's gang on Kizlyar and Pervomayskoye. For two weeks the whole country did not leave the television screens, watching the development of dramatic events. Capturing the helipad. Executions of people. An impetuous "visit" to the hospital, which almost ended in a repetition of Budennovsk. The ceremonial departure to Pervomayskoye in a convoy of buses with the captured hostages. And, finally, the mysterious disappearance from the village, practically demolished by artillery from the face of the earth and surrounded by Russian troops in a triple ring. Lena was among several women who participated in that famous Raduev campaign.
This fact became known only after the arrest of Salman Raduev himself. An interesting document was found in his archives, in which he asked the head of the Oktyabrsky district of Grozny to allocate a two-room apartment for Elena P. "as an active participant in the hostilities in Kizlyar and Pervomaisky." She received an apartment. Then she met Musa Charaev. "Wolf" and "she-wolf" fell in love with each other - and this was true in the legend about Lolita.
There was a war, - Lena continues. - Musa and his guys were hiding in the mountains, and rarely came to Ishcherskaya (a large border junction station, where the militants sometimes lay down after wounds. - EM). I spoke Chechen very well. Mother-in-law somehow accepted me and even fell in love with me - she became like a mother. She prayed all the time. Looking at her, I also converted to Islam. And soon Musa and I were married by a mullah.
Having arranged their personal life Lena finally called her parents in Konstantinovka. Mother, who for several years did not know anything about her at all, heard her voice and fainted. “If only you were alive,” she said, and burst into tears. After this call, she began to drink with her father. And six months later, in the summer of 1996, the whole family was poisoned by mushrooms bought at the bazaar. The doctors pumped out the father and brother. Lena saw mom already in the coffin.
As an active militant and the wife of a field commander, Lolita was included in all operational reports. And she was immediately given new documents. “To pull less,” Lena explains. She used them to come home to the funeral.
After the war, a son was born in the fighting family of the Charaevs. Musa still did not part with the machine gun and his soldiers, guarding the piece of the oil pipeline entrusted to him. Lena got a solid position in customs. “I cleared the goods through customs, processed paperwork, took money to Grozny. Nothing special,” Lena is clearly shy, because the treasury will not be trusted to just anyone. But Lena was not appreciated for this - she checked freight and passenger trains, looking for "FSB agents" in them. If a person seemed suspicious to her, he was removed from the train and taken away in an unknown direction. “She-wolf,” the peaceful villagers feared. “Our she-wolf! Lucky commander,” the former militants approved.
In March 1999, Musa was killed. He was found in his own car, not far from the "pipe", with an invariable submachine gun in his hands and two dozen bullets in his back and neck. He never found out that Lena was pregnant again - she wanted to please him the next day.
By order No. 101 of the CRI President Maskhadov, Charayev was posthumously awarded the rank of brigadier general and his native village of Severnaya, Naurskiy district, where he plowed the land for so little time, was renamed to Musa-yurt.
It turns out that the legend did not lie again.
Fake calculation
Baltic women, Ukrainian women, Belorussians, Siberians, Uralochki, Leningrad women, Muscovites and, of course, the Chechen women themselves - there is no end to the terrible stories about ruthless snipers-mercenaries, who have been wandering in trenches, hospitals and newspaper pages for many years now. True, it is worth noting that the militants themselves are afraid of some fantastic and terribly hating Ossetian women, allegedly fighting on the Russian side.
The most enduring myth about "white tights" is that most of them are biathletes, moreover, from the Baltic states. If we put together all the stories about blonde beauties who speak Russian with a pleasant light accent and who shot at our soldiers, it turns out that not a single athlete who ever held a weapon in her hands has long been left there - or has already been killed. or is still at war.
However, in the first Chechen war, our law enforcement agencies nevertheless tried to check one chilling story about a Baltic sniper dropped by wounded paratroopers from a helicopter with a grenade in her vagina.The name of the mercenary-biathlete Milita Trankautene and she became famous for the fact that, with special cynicism, she castrated the young Russian with well-aimed bursts officers. Maybe some girl fell, reaching for a cigarette, from a Russian "turntable", only the corpse was never found. As they did not find in the Baltic republics, and no trace of a biathlete named Trankautene ...
The very name "white tights" came from a white tights, tight-fitting thighs, in which biathletes compete. Before Chechnya, they flashed across practically all "hot spots" of the former Soviet Union, from Transnistria to Nagorno-Karabakh. However, then the stories about mercenaries caused only surprise among the military. And the snipers themselves could be counted on the fingers. Chechnya is another matter. Here is a big war and, accordingly, completely different money.
In most cases, the Chechens signed a contract with a new girl for a month. According to captured militants, before the crisis, snipers were paid up to 10 thousand dollars. Sometimes they paid "without exception" from 500 to 800 bucks "unfastened" for the killed officer and 200 - for the soldier. However, such fees were more likely to lure new mercenaries than to pay them in reality - either the dollars would turn out to be fake, or the field commander would think that the lady wanted too much and it would be cheaper to just kill her. But all the same: in six months in Chechnya - unless, of course, the federals caught or sewed their own militants - one could earn for the rest of his life. "Fatima - 170 thousand rubles, Oksana - 150 thousand, Lena - 30 (for two killed scouts)" - this "check sheet" was found in the pocket of a killed sniper near the village of Bechik.
Sniper war
It's only in cheap movies that the sniper works alone. In the worst case, he has one assistant - he will provide cover and count the dead. In the best and most widespread in Chechnya - "hunter shooting from an ambush" (translated from English - EM), a pair of submachine gunners, a machine gunner, and grenade launchers are covered by an ammunition carrier. By the way, the role of the last member of such a mobilegroups in general can hardly be overestimated - thanks to him, militants can "beat" for two hours without a break.
"It's better to be undernourished than not to sleep enough" and "you need to shoot like a waltz to dance: one-two-three - and change your position, it is not recommended to sit still" - the "golden rules" of every sniper who know both on that and on this side ... Before "showing up", a good "hunter" prepares 5-8 positions in advance and only then opens fire. "Find and neutralize" the enemy sniper, signalman and senior officers - the combat mission has not changed since the middle of the 18th century, when the first mentions of "skirmishers" appeared in archival documents.
According to the number of wounds to the head and chest, military doctors dubbed the current war in Chechnya a sniper war. But it begins only when the troops are conducting positional battles.
Previously, snipers were sought among professional shooters. It was believed that accurate shooting was the most important thing in such work. But recently, especially after Chechnya, we have become convinced that strong nerves and the ability to hide well are still more important, - says Colonel Alexander Abin, author of the book "Tactics of using snipers in the city", immediately classified by the FSB, teacher of the department of tactical and special training St. Petersburg University of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation. - A real sniper works primarily with his head - he knows engineering, topography, and medicine. There are few such professionals, and they have been improving all their lives.
Alexey, a sniper of the elite St. Petersburg special forces, is one of them. "The most self-possessed and calm person, never conflicts with anyone," - they say about him in the detachment.
To aim, I need 2-3 seconds, maximum 10, - says Alexey. “I’m only worried when I don’t see the target. As soon as she is in front of my eyes, I instantly calm down and pull the trigger. A good shot comes in between heart beats, and women have a lower heart rate. It's easier for them, that's why they shoot better. By by and large biathletes need to be taught only tactics, the technique is no longer there. Sportswomen are hardy, and without it there is nowhere in the mountains. And they are better armed. They have both SV-94 sniper rifles of 12 mm caliber, and "vintorez", and our same SVDs (Dragunov sniper rifle, the "workhorse" of Russian snipers. - EM), only modernized. In addition, all their optics are anti-reflective. We can only dream of such weapons.
Hunt for Khattab
Last summer, when the hunt for Khattab was announced, a special sniper group was thrown into the mountains on "turntables". After passing twenty kilometers deep behind enemy lines, the soldiers lay down under a camouflage net - in the place where, according to intelligence, the elusive Jordanian was supposed to pass. We waited three days. They lay still, eating biscuits and condensed milk from tubes. Wanting a lo-small - crawl to the right, in a big way - to the left. From time to time, Chechen women came out on the road. Looking around carefully, they hid the stray strand of hair under a handkerchief. The conventional sign is "clean". By the end of the third day, the car finally started. A few minutes later, only a skeleton remained of it, the passengers were ragged ... But Khattab was not there. As if sensing an ambush, he sent a deputy in his place just a few minutes before departure.
There were two people to shoot - an athlete-shooter and a sniper of the GRU special forces.
I take the carrier through the front, and then we finish off those who jump out. Is it going? - suggested the athlete.
Nope. I hit the half-empty gas tank with a tracer, because they have walked eighty kilometers, and there is a lot of gasoline vapors. After the explosion, we begin to work on the shell-shocked without any fuss. Yes, and do not forget to warm the bullet on your chest, it must be warmer than the air temperature, - already as an order the geerushnik threw.
... How the special forces then escaped from the pursuit, from both sides covered by our heavy fire, is a separate song. The main thing is that they left, and without losses.
There are definitely no snipers of this class in Chechnya, - no doubt Mikhail Korolev, a psychologist at the St. Petersburg SOBR. - Although, on the other hand, women are better adapted for such work. They are more attentive, calmer, more diligent, they have better results in shooting. Not to mention intelligence - in order to lure out the enemy, women come up with such tricks that a peasant will not even dream of a nightmare. Studies have shown that even diseases and blood loss purely at the cellular level are better tolerated by a woman. But despite all this, only men are taken into the special forces - they are still more suitable for our work. And as such, "sniper duels" are no longer there.
Terrible curses and threats coming from the radio. Night shooting is dull and boring, like a toothache. Aimed fire into the crotch of the cutest fighter - in Chechnya, for a long time, sitting on armor, they hold the butts of machine guns between their legs. Otherwise, "white tights" will quickly remind you that you were once a man.
"They just got lucky"
How many were there in Chechnya - one hundred, two hundred, five hundred? There is no exact data, but, according to the military, it is hardly more. If you write down not only snipers, but also nurses, cooks, etc., in "white tights", you will definitely get half a thousand. Certainly different - they are really terribly hated.
In the first Chechen war against the "white pantyhose" not a single criminal case was initiated, because not one of the snipers fell into the hands of investigators alive. Their disfigured bodies were not shown to journalists or shown on TV, so as not to shock the public, and therefore for a long time the very existence of women mercenaries was put onquestioned. "Military tales about women with rifles are just myths," the townsfolk wondered.
Evidence appeared already in 1999, when the war in Chechnya resumed and our troops began to take prisoner detachments of large field commanders. Igor Tkachev headed a special group of investigators from the General Prosecutor's Office that had been working in Chechnya from the very beginning of the second military campaign.
I initiated a large criminal case against active members of illegal armed gangs, - says Igor Viktorovich. - We have brought charges against more than 430 militants. Among them were only two women - Lena-Lolita and 20-year-old Muscovite Anya Klinkevich. We failed to prove that Lena was a sniper, besides, after the first war, she fell under the amnesty. In fact, they were so afraid of her that no one wanted to testify. Lena was sentenced only for participation in gangs and forgery of documents - for 2.5 years. They were just lucky - the war had just begun, and ours were not so angry yet. Had these girls been caught a little later, they simply would not have beaten them off.
In February 2000, during the breakthrough of Basayev-Gelayev's column from Grozny, one and a half hundred militants were captured, surrounded by federals in a minefield. They were taken with weapons in their hands. But the militants immediately threw it away, and ours stupidly collected it as trophies of war.
There were women among those who surrendered, - continues Igor Tkachev. - Snipers? There are no weapons, and in combat conditions there was no question of any forensic medical examination. True, we sent one to the "filter", but while we got there, she already had a bruise from the sight on her eye. Another militant turned out to be pregnant. A third had a leg blown off. The rest swore amicably that "they were only nurses." Then several amnesties followed, and there was no point in dealing with them - they would have been released anyway.
Outdoor spy games
Anya Klinkevich appeared in Moscow a few days before the September explosions on Guryanov and Kashirka. I didn't go home, I just called my mother and made an appointment at the subway passage. And before that, her parents received a letter from her: "I am leaving for the autumn and winter. I am going to Chechnya, I will bring good money. I'm tired of asking you ..."
Don't worry about me and don't look for me. I’m fine, it’s great in the field camps, I liked it - especially the shooting and hand-to-hand combat, ”she rattled off to her mother at the last meeting and kept looking around, as if looking for a" tail ". For a few more minutes she absentmindedly listened to objections, and then threw "I have no time" and rushed off somewhere.
The same evening she was detained by a police patrol. A pretty blonde girl, a native Muscovite, had bullet pockets popping. Another would be immediately taken to the station with all the consequences, and Anechka smiled, laughed, flirted. And the police willingly believed that she had just found them on the road!
The next time, Klinkevich tested her artistic abilities at the rector of a prestigious institute, where her parents put her in a paid department. "Mom and Dad died in a car accident. There is nothing to bury ... Please return the money!" - Anya was so naturally strained and groaned that, of course, her tuition fees were returned to her. The rector almost roared with her when he heard that now, in order to feed her little daughter, she would have to wash the floors in some entrance. And a month later, to the same rector, the "crashed" parents. Then the whole institute came to look at the "resurrected ancestors".
But Anya was already in Chechnya. What did she forget there, why did she go? In any case, definitely not because of money - the case among "white tights", apart from the ideological Chechen snipers, is simply unique.
Not everyone lives in an elite house in the center of Moscow with Ivan Rybkin, Yuri Baturin, Alexei Bolshakov, Sergei Dubinin and other dignitaries. Not everyone's parents are millionaires. And not "ruble", but real, dollar. Anya Klinkevich, whatever you say, was lucky. For all of the above is about her.
From the dossier "MK".
Anya's mother, Margarita Klinkevich, for a long time held the position of financial director of the most popular lottery - "Russian Summer", and her husband, Alexander Yanovsky, was the general manager of the same company. In 1995, when the "Russian Lotto" began its first problems, the spouses were suspected of an unclean game and asked to leave the business. Immediately after that, Mr. Yanovsky was hit with a piece of reinforcement at the entrance of his own house, and a week later their previous apartment - on Patriarch's Ponds - was blown up. Fortunately, no one was at home then. The spouses blamed the owner of the "Russian Lotto" Chechen Malik Saydullaev for their troubles, and he blamed themselves for their troubles, who started everything for the sake of a scandal. Be that as it may, the Klinkevich-Yanovsky couple worked for some time at the National Sports Fund, even more scandalous than the lottery itself. And then the twin sister of the "Russian Lotto" - the "Golden Key" lottery, was born. A few months after the debut of the company's account,created by Klinkevich, were arrested, and she herself is accused of tax evasion on an especially large scale and has been on the run for a year.
While her parents were solving their financial problems, Anya managed to finish school, try drugs and even give birth to a daughter. Soon the child's father thundered on the bunk for drugs. "Anya got in touch with the Chechens when her mother was still working at the Russian Lotto," he confirmed to the investigators who visited him in the colony.
The "risky girl" was taken in January 2000 near Grozny after the shelling of the convoy. Anya was wearing jeans and a jacket, no camouflage and no sniper rifle. “My husband is a Chechen, I came to him,” she stubbornly repeated, not splitting at anything else. Slender, pretty, very sociable, Klinkevich was able to pick up her "golden key" for each tracker. And in the end they were already unanimously repeating: "Our Anechka is so glorious. She simply cannot be a sniper!" She denied everything in court, putting forward the most fantastic versions for each question, which were simply impossible to verify.
She was sentenced to three years in prison last October. A month later, Anya was released under an amnesty. She served only 10 months.
Klinkevich, despite his angelic appearance, is a cunning enemy, says the investigator Igor Tkachev.
She is an adventurer and she loves that kind of life. Anya will not lose contact with the militants, and I think we will hear about her again.
"I would catch it, rip it again"
On New Year's Eve 2000, a separate reconnaissance battalion was ambushed in the Argun Gorge. Ten hours, until help arrived, the paratroopers fired back to the last bullet. "Czechs! .. We are in the cauldron! .. Fire! .. Tva-a-ry !!! - and the radio went down hopelessly." He must live! "heard nothing.
Of the 76 fighters, only four remained intact, the rest - "two hundredth" and "three hundredth". Having cut off the bloody clothes, Vitkalov was identified as "load 200".
He woke up two weeks later in St. Petersburg. For another two months he jumped up at night in a hospital bed and grabbed the "machine gun" - he shot all the "spirits."
Because of the sniper, I became one-legged - a 7.62 bullet flew into the knee, and Volodya pokes into his left stump. - And I personally spanked the first such "she-wolf" in that war, in 1995, near Borzoi. She hid behind the monument and clicked from there. Wounded one in the leg. The other two crawled to pull him out - she hit them in the head. Three more crawled ... While she was bitten, she managed to put ten and moved to another place. We caught her. She asked everything not to kill. “I could have put more, there, by the bucket. And I was aiming at my legs ...” And indeed I could - before hiding behind the monument, some sniper was working behind the bucket - the guys could not even raise their heads. She said that the biathlete, from the Baltic states, had come to earn money, and if she had not fired, she would have been killed herself - however, they all said so. She had no documents with her - maybe she lied, who knows. We took pity on her - we didn't torture her, we just slapped her ... The guys from another company, near Shatoi, also caught a sniper and also a Baltic woman. She was 25 years old, blonde hair, to the waist. Very beautiful and very angry. "I hate it !!! Nate, Russian pigs", - and slowly spread her legs. They didn’t rape her - they tied her by the slings to two armored personnel carriers and slightly gasped ... The last one, by whose grace I was left without a leg, was ours, Russian. He himself shot her with a Kalash. And the guys then gouged out her eyes with bayonets. Well, I'm sorry for these creatures, right? But I do not regret them at all. Caught again - tore apart do it yourself ...
Lena-Lolita will be released from the colony from day to day - amnesty, all the documents have already been signed. "I will go to Chechnya, to my mother-in-law. Glory to Allah, she has been raising my boys all this time. She wrote to me that real horsemen are growing up," Lena rejoices.
After her release, Anya Klinkevich lived in Moscow for some time, and then disappeared somewhere. They say she left for Chechnya again.
At gunpoint: Was there a female death battalion / Was there a sniper squad "White Stocking"
"Untold Secrets"
In the early 1990s, there were rumors about either a mythical or a real sniper squad "White Stocking" or "White Tights". Violent women, mainly from the Baltic states, fought on the side of militants in local conflicts in the CIS. They were described as blond and ruthless, and were regularly reported in the media and mentioned by politicians. They became heroines in literature, cinema and army folklore. But no one has ever seen the detachment with their own eyes. The fact of its existence has not been proven for certain. Other "Untold Secrets"
"Ruthless Amazons": how much did a woman sniper pay for the war? Why did the weaker sex enroll in the death battalions? Feat of Maria Bochkareva. How an illiterate peasant woman became a symbol of gender equality in Russia. "White Stocking" - Reality or Myth? Why, after years, the debate about the existence of a sniper squad does not subside?
"White stocking" - someone's fantasy, myth or reality? See about this in "Untold Secrets" and in the documentary investigation of the Moscow Doverie TV channel.
Untold Secrets. Was there a detachment of snipers "White Stocking"
Furies with sniper rifles
In the early 1990s, rumors about a sniper squad were circulating in the countries of the former USSR. It is called "White Stocking" or "White Tights". The detachment allegedly fights in local conflicts in the post-Soviet space. Grown men with fear in their eyes talk about furies with sniper rifles. For every successful shooting of soldiers, and especially officers, women receive fabulous money.
Late 1980s-early 1990s. The huge country of the Soviets is bursting at the seams. Former fraternal republics are disconnected from each other and somewhere they even fight for independence. Hundreds of minor interethnic conflicts, five bloody wars, thousands of killed and maimed.
"There were 203 hotbeds in total. A lot of people died in them. Now we don't even remember the small ones, but there were five large ones: Tajik, Karabakh (it was a detonator for the explosion of the entire Soviet Union), Georgian-Abkhazian, Georgian-South Ossetian and Transnistria, "says historian Vladimir Pryakhin.
Armed conflict in Transnistria, 1992
Vladimir Pryakhin has been studying this period in history for many years. He was born in Nagorno-Karabakh. She recalls that women took an active part in this war. There were also mercenaries who came from afar. Then he heard the chilling stories about "White Stockings".
“People are different. There are those who went for it for money. It seems that the risk is not so great, I’ll stay in the mountains for a month, shoot, but then I’ll buy a car, an apartment. Moreover, it was not ethnic in nature, there was also our Rostovite, a master of sports. It was even removed by her own student, "Pryakhin says.
It was in Nagorno-Karabakh that the Baltic biathletes were captured. True, this fact has not received official confirmation. They supposedly came to the war to earn money as snipers. And the romantic name "White Stocking" was given for the form of clothing. Thigh-tight leotards worn for sports. After the Amazons they will move to Ossetia, and from there to Transnistria and Abkhazia. And they will take root in Chechnya. True, there legends about Ukrainian avengers will be added to the stories about the Baltic "stockings".
"Media reports that mysterious snipers in white tights appeared in hot spots in Yugoslavia and Transnistria, suggest that individuals were exchanging their sportsmanship for blood fees," says historian Oleg Khlobustov.
Women's Death Battalions
Major Vyacheslav Izmailov in the mid-1990s worked in the military registration and enlistment office of the city of Zhukovsky. One day from the local press, he learns about the snipers from the White Tights squad.
“In 1995, an article appeared in“ Pskovskiye Vesti ”-“ Pal from our city. ”On one or two pages of an interview with a man who was wounded in Chechnya, he saw how a sniper was caught from White Tights. there were several crosses - the killing of soldiers, and a few stars - officers, "says Vyacheslav Izmailov.
Major Izmailov begins his own investigation. The myth of the most brutal wars that do not know compassion for prisoners has been strengthened since the First World War. Since 1917, Russian shock death battalions have been fighting against Germany. They are composed exclusively of women.
“This is a photograph of my grandmother Bazanova Evdokia Ivanovna. In 1917, she voluntarily enrolled in the Second Moscow Death Shock Battalion,” says historian Sergei Bazanov.
She did not have to fight at the front, but the family tradition says that she was ready at any moment to leave two young children and go to death.
Heroes of the Soviet Union Natalya Kovshova and Maria Polivanova, 1941
The military archives preserved figures: about 5,000 Russian women by 1917 they were in the death battalions. There are eleven such battalions in total. The initiator of the movement is the complete St. George Knight, Lieutenant Maria Bochkareva.
“She fought very bravely before the February Revolution. In the spring of 1917, a member of the Provisional Government, Rodzianko, found out about her. In a conversation with him, she suggested the idea of creating female infantry units,” says Sergei Bazanov.
Feminization of the Russian army
The beginning of the XX century. Russia is engulfed in a war with Germany and the solution of the women's issue. The weaker sex is fighting for a place in the sun. Since 1905, conferences have been held everywhere under the motto: "It's time for us to equalize our rights." They have just been allowed to study at universities on an equal basis with men. On March 8, 1913, International Women's Day was celebrated for the first time.
The Bolshevik Party, headed by Lenin, begins to publish the magazine Rabotnitsa underground. In 1914, a Siberian peasant woman Maria Bochkareva comes to the assembly point to enroll in the army. However, making the dream come true is not easy. To be enrolled in the regular army, she had to write a telegram to Emperor Nicholas II. This moment can be considered a starting point - the feminization of the Russian army has begun.
3rd Belorussian Front. Snipers Rosa Shanina, Alexandra Ekimova and Lydia Vdovina (left to right), 1944
“When the war began, Bochkareva announced that she wanted to fight in the active army, as a soldier. To which the chief replied that women were not hired. Strangely enough, the Imperial decree came to enroll her as a private. During her stay at the front, she was wounded four times, became a full Knight of St. George, these are four crosses and medals, and rose to the rank of "senior non-commissioned officer" ) ", - explains the historian Sergei Bazanov.
After three years of war, on June 21, 1917 in the square near St. Isaac's Cathedral in Petrograd, the ceremony of presenting the white banner of a new military unit - the first female military command of the death of Maria Bochkareva. The Council under the Provisional Government approved the "Regulations on the formation of units from women volunteers." One of the team's tasks is to inspire the troops for exploits and reduce the number of deserters. True, as time has shown, it was not possible to stop the flight of men from the front.
Ruthless female snipers will be talked about in 1939. Soviet-Finnish war. The Red Army soldiers are methodically killed by the arrows of the Finnish army. Their gender identity becomes known by chance.
“Strictly speaking, I would not start counting from“ White Tights. ”For the first time, female snipers showed themselves during Winter War 1939-40. Then many "cuckoos" killed our soldiers, Finnish girls, who shot perfectly. I know from stories that when they took off the first sniper, they saw beautiful red hair up to their shoulders, they were amazed - it turned out that they were women, "says historian Vladimir Pryakhin.
Soviet sleep women
The fate of "White Tights"
After the collapse of the USSR, in a series of wars, the myth of "White Tights" is gaining epic proportions.
“How did they actually get into these units. It is clear that these were women with a certain physical training, they had shooting skills, most likely they were recruited among athletes,” says journalist Elizaveta Maetnaya.
Late 1990s, Chechnya. Information appears in the media that will turn the myth into reality. In the pocket of a female sniper killed by the federals they find a note: "Fatima - 170 tr, Oksana - 150 tr, Lena - for two scouts - 30 tr." So it becomes known about the approximate prices for the services of female snipers. In 1990, this information was confirmed to the journalist Elizaveta Maetnaya by representatives of the special services. She was then investigating the White Pantyhose phenomenon.
"Of course, no one has seen the statements about their salaries. Any war is a business for someone. I would not be surprised that the same" White Tights "are now fighting somewhere in Syria," says Elizaveta Maetnaya.
Her article in Moskovsky Komsomolets then received a great response. In part, the information about "White Tights" was confirmed. In the North Caucasus, a sniper from the detachment of the militant Shamil Basayev was arrested. She participated in the attack on the village of Pervomayskoye and on Kizlyar. Maetnaya managed to get an interview. She turned out to be the one who in the military terminology of those years was called Lolita - one of the most cruel snipers. The woman shot without mercy at the soldiers and officers of the federal troops. True, she was born not at all in the Baltics, but in Ukraine. The meeting of the journalist with Lolita (Lena) took place already in the colony.
Oksana T., Russian female sniper who fought in the ranks of Chechen fighters, 2000
“She told me in the colony that in fact, she and her friend went to work to sell clothes, but they were stolen. She did not tell about the period of her life, how she tracked down and killed, otherwise she would have had a very bad time in the colony. once at that time Basayev was tried, "recalls Mayetnaya.
However, according to legend, "White Tights" are biathletes from the Baltic states. In the First Chechen War, Russian special services check one name: Milita Tralkautene. She allegedly became famous for killing young Russian officers with special cynicism. The story of a sniper who was captured and then thrown out by wounded paratroopers from a helicopter was often retold among the troops. Alexander Mikhailov, then the head of the FSB's public relations center, admits: there was no official data on the mercenaries, but there was more than enough operational information.
“According to intelligence, former biathletes from the Baltic republics fought on the side of the militants. This is a piece commodity, and it’s ridiculous to say that some kind of detachment existed. Then the task was set to take them prisoner, but the same snipers are fighting against snipers, and after completing the assignment, of course, they had no documents with them, so it was impossible to identify their belonging to any group, "says Alexander Mikhailov.
During the first and second Chechen wars... They were described as blond beasts, mercenaries, who are distinguished by cruelty to enemies, hate Russians, and in their free time "from work" they wear tight white tights, from which they got their nickname.
Russian polytechnologists considered the appearance of the rumor about "White Tights" as propaganda, playing off the peoples and referring to the memories of the atrocities of the Nazis.
Chiaite also: Summaries from the Novorossiya militia today
There were and were not
But did they really exist? Until now, phrases like: "I knew the commander who captured the sniper" flashed on military forums, and then follows a story about the massacre of a mercenary, in which either armored personnel carriers or a helicopter are involved. However, no one ever says: “I personally saw”, “I was present”, since a counter-terrorist operation was taking place in Chechnya and those who confessed to the massacre may be put on trial. As a rule, forum visitors quickly debunk such stories, noticing inconsistencies in the narrative.
According to rumors, snipers first appeared in Nagorno-Karabakh in 1992. And it is there that they are not only seen, but are allegedly taken prisoner, however, there is no official confirmation of this. Historian Vladimir Pryakhin, a native of Karabakh, told reporters that one sniper was indeed killed, but she was Russian, from Rostov, and the “warrior” was “removed” by her student.
After Karabakh, "White Tights" will appear in Ossetia, then in Transnistria, in Abkhazia, in Chechnya and even in Yugoslavia. Researchers of the issue refer to the newspaper "Pskovskie Vesti", which in 1995 published an interview with a military man who saw how a sniper from the detachment was caught. However, there is no such newspaper in Pskov now, which means that it is impossible to verify the information.
And yet they were
Yes, women snipers actually participated in military conflicts in the CIS as mercenaries. This is evidenced by the criminal case instituted against the mercenary Lena (Lolita), who was caught in Chechnya, who fought in the detachment of the terrorist Basayev, in particular, together with the militants, she attacked Pervomayskoye and Kizlyar. However, she was born not in the Baltics, but near Poltava. Yelizaveta Maetnaya, a journalist from Moskovsky Komsomolets, talked with the convict already in the colony. But she refused to discuss the sniper's combat past, but she told how she was going to trade in clothes, shopping in Russia.
Elizaveta Maetnaya cites information, which was confirmed to her by the special services, that records of the salaries of snipers were found in the pockets of killed militants in Chechnya. They read the following: "Fatima - 170 thousand rubles, Oksana - 150 thousand rubles, Lena - for two scouts - 30 thousand rubles." But there is ambiguity here: if this information refers to 1994, then the numbers are too small, and if to the period after the denomination - too large.
The head of the public relations center of the FSB of the Russian Federation, Alexander Mikhailov, admitted to media representatives that there was a lot of operational data about the "White Tights", but he denied the existence of the detachment, because snipers are "piece goods", and the detained women cannot be attributed to any detachment. if they are unarmed and in civilian clothes.
Colonel-General Gennady Troshev writes in his book "The Chechen Diary of a Trench General" that the militants were mostly Arabs, natives of the Central Asian republics, but there were blacks and "sniper from the Baltic states."
In 2006, the Lenta.ru agency reported that a terrorist from Beslan, Kazbek Misikov, testified that among the bandits at the Beslan school there was a blonde female sniper and a man with a Baltic accent, and the woman simply left wearing a medical gown. I told the reporters the same “ Russian newspaper"And Stanislav Kesaev - Vice Speaker of the Parliament of Alania (RG, 2005, No. 12).
Sergei Yastrzhembsky told the press on February 17, 2000 that intelligence has evidence that mercenaries are fighting on the side of the bandits. In the same year, "Interfax" reported about the surrendered sniper Fatima. And in the spring of 2001, the military captured a woman sniper from Tajikistan in Grozny, who, having taken up a combat position, went on the air with advice to preserve her reproductive organs - the mercenary was killed while trying to escape (RBK daily newspaper, March 31, 2001).
Sergei Shavrin, who was in charge of the FSK special operations control group, also told the RG journalists about the existence of a mercenary from St. Petersburg (RG dated December 16, 2005).
There is still a chance to catch
As you can see, not a single Baltic mercenary has come to the attention of Russian law enforcement agencies. But the chance to catch the warlike Amazons remains: it is known that snipers from the Ukrainian "Right Sector" are fighting on the side of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. For example, Natasha, a mercenary from Belarus, was killed near Ilovaisk. And the portal "Vasiliev Grad" reported that in July 2014 a mercenary from Poland was killed near Saur-Mogila.
On April 9, 2017, a representative of the People's Militia of the Lugansk People's Republic, Lieutenant Colonel Andrei Marochko, told reporters that mercenaries from Latvia, Lithuania and Poland had been transferred to the conflict area. Colonel Eduard Basurin (DPR) informed that "the arrival of several sniper groups ... armed with foreign-made rifles in the Mayorsk area was recorded."
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