The beginning of the first Chechen. Chechen War

Chechen War went down in history as one of the largest military operations. This war was a serious test for Russian soldiers. She did not leave indifferent any heart, did not remain without a trace for anyone. The Chechen war was shed not only by the tears of the relatives of the victims, but also by those who sympathized with them. (Annex 3)

The path of the Russian soldiers was long and difficult. A lot of time has passed since those tragic events, but the memory lives in the heart of everyone and the pain of loss reverberates in the heart.

The further the years of the Chechen war go down in history, the brighter and more fully the majesty of the exploits of Soviet and Russian soldiers is manifested. They proved that unity and faith in victory defeat injustice and impunity. From the time when these bloody wars passed, the objective and indisputable fact - Victory - has become even more visible and distinct. A victory that has been achieved at great cost and which cannot be measured by existing metric measures. Here the measurement is unconventional - human lives. Millions of dead, dead of wounds, missing and burned in the fire of war. They died, died from wounds and diseases, disappeared without a trace, perished in captivity ... - such concepts are an indispensable companion of the statistics of military losses.

Chechen war - large-scale hostilities between federal troops Russian Federation and Chechen armed formations.

Russia's attempts to peacefully resolve the protracted Chechen crisis that arose after Chechnya declared independence in 1991 and seceded from Russia were unsuccessful.

The assault on Grozny by the anti-Dudaev opposition, supported by the federal center in order to overthrow the regime of D.M. Dudayev, ended in failure. On November 30, 1994, President Yeltsin signed a decree "On measures to restore constitutionality and law and order on the territory of the Chechen Republic." It was decided to use the regular army. The generals intended to easily capture the rebellious republic, however, the war dragged on for several years.

December 11, 1994 Russian troops crossed the border of Chechnya, bloody battles began for Grozny. Only by March 1995 did Russian troops succeed in ousting the Chechen militias from it. The Russian army, using aviation, artillery, armored vehicles, gradually expanded the radius of its control, the position of the Chechen formations, which switched to the tactics of guerrilla warfare, worsened every day.

In June 1995, a detachment of militants under the command of Sh. Basayev raided the city of Budyonnovsk and took hostage everyone who was in the city hospital and other residents of the city. To save the lives of the hostages Russian government fulfilled all the requirements of the militants and agreed to start peace negotiations with Dudayev's representatives. But the complex negotiation process was disrupted in October 1995 as a result of an assassination attempt on the commander of the Russian troops, General A.S. Romanova. The hostilities continued. The war revealed the insufficient combat capability of the Russian army and required more and more budgetary investments. In the eyes of the world community, Russia's authority was falling. After the failure of the operation of the federal troops in January 1996 to neutralize the militants of S. Raduev in Kizlyar and Pervomaisky in Russia itself, demands to stop hostilities intensified. The pro-Moscow authorities in Chechnya failed to win the trust of the population and were forced to seek protection from the federal authorities.

The death of Dudayev in April 1996 did not change the situation. In August 1996, Chechen formations actually captured Grozny. Under these conditions, Yeltsin decided to hold peace talks, which he instructed the Secretary of the Security Council A.I. Lebed.

On August 30, 1996, peace agreements were signed in Khasavyurt, which provided for the complete withdrawal of Russian troops from the territory of Chechnya, the holding of general democratic elections, the decision on the status of Chechnya was postponed for five years.

After the end of the first Chechen campaign of 1994-1996, the fate of more than 1,200 Russian servicemen remained unknown.

Chechnya, 1999 War resumed

In 1999, the Chechen war resumed after Chechen fighters invaded Dagestan, attempted to seize the highlands and proclaim the establishment of an Islamic state. Federal troops again entered Chechnya and in a short time took control of the most important settlements.

At the referendum, the inhabitants of Chechnya voted for the preservation of the republic as part of the Russian Federation.

The war in Chechnya was the largest military clash since the Second World War and claimed the lives of tens of thousands of people. This war was a serious warning to the authorities about the dire consequences of civil conflict.

In total, according to official data, about 6,000 Russian servicemen, border guards, police officers and security service personnel died or went missing in Chechnya during the entire conflict. Today we do not have any summary data on the irretrievable losses of the Chechen army. One can only assume that due to the smaller number and more high level combat training, the Chechen troops suffered significantly fewer losses than the federal troops. The total number of dead residents of Chechnya is most often estimated at 70,000-80,000 people, the overwhelming majority being civilians. They became victims of shelling and bombing by the federal troops, as well as the so-called "cleansing operations" - inspection by Russian soldiers and employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the cities and villages left by the Chechen formations, when civilians often died from bullets and grenades of the federals. The bloodiest "mopping-up operations" were carried out in the village of Samashki near the border with Ingushetia.

Cause of the war

How did this war actually start, which turned the lives of the people of the two peoples upside down? There were several reasons for its inception. First, Chechnya was not allowed to secede. Secondly, the oppression of the Caucasian peoples has been going on since ancient times, that is, the roots of this conflict go very far. First they humiliated the Chechens, and then they - the Russians. In Chechnya, after the start of the conflict, the life of Russians could be compared to hell.

Did this war affect the fate of those guys who participated in it? It definitely influenced, but in different ways: it took someone's life, others had the opportunity to live fully, someone, on the contrary, could become a man with a capital letter. The surviving guys, from what they saw and experienced, sometimes went crazy. Some of them committed suicide, perhaps because they felt guilty before those who were gone. Their destinies developed differently, some are happy and found themselves in life, others are vice versa. Of course, to a greater extent, war cannot positively affect the future fate of a person, it can only teach you to appreciate life and everything that is in it.

Ever since the beginning of the "perestroika" carried out by Gorbachev, nationalist groups began to "raise their heads" in many republics. For example, the National Congress of the Chechen people, which appeared in 1990. He set himself the task of achieving Chechnya's withdrawal from the Soviet Union. The primary goal was to create a completely independent state entity. The organization was headed by Dzhokhar Dudayev.

When the Soviet Union collapsed, it was Dudayev who announced the secession of Chechnya from Russia. At the end of October 1991, elections were held for the executive and legislative authorities. Dzhokhar Dudayev was elected President of Chechnya.

Internal divisions in Chechnya

In the summer of 1994, military clashes began in the state education. On one side were troops who swore allegiance to Dudayev. On the other - the forces of the Provisional Council, which is in opposition to Dudayev. The latter received unofficial support from Russia. The parties were in a difficult position, the losses were huge.

The entry of troops

At a meeting of the Security Council of the Russian Federation at the end of November 1994, Russia decides to send troops to Chechnya. Then Minister Yegorov declared that 70% of the Chechen people would be for Russia in this matter.

On December 11, units of the Ministry of Defense and Internal Troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs entered Chechnya. Troops came from 3 sides at once. The key blow was from the western and eastern directions. The northwestern group advanced best of all. Already on December 12, she came close to settlements located just 10 kilometers from the city of Grozny. Other units of the Russian Federation advanced successfully at the initial stage. They occupied the north of the republic almost without hindrance.

Assault on Grozny

The assault on the capital of Chechnya began a few hours before the chiming clock, which marked the beginning of the New Year 1995. About 250 pieces of equipment were involved. The problem was that:

• The troops were initially poorly trained.
• There was no coordination between departments.
• The soldiers did not have any combat experience.
• Maps and aerial photographs of the city are long outdated.

At first, armored vehicles were massively used, but then the tactics changed. The paratroopers went to work. Exhausting street battles began in Grozny. Only on March 6, the last detachment of separatists, led by Shamil Basayev, retreated from the city. A new pro-Russian administration was immediately formed in the capital. These were "elections on the bones", because the capital was completely destroyed.

Control over the plains and mountains

By April, federal troops occupied almost the entire flat territory of Chechnya. Because of this, the separatists switched to conducting sabotage and partisan attacks. In the mountainous regions, a number of the most important settlements were taken under control. It is noted that many separatists managed to escape. The militants often transferred part of their forces to other areas.

After the terrorist attack in Budyonnovsk, where he was injured and killed a large number of people from 2 sides, managed to achieve the introduction of indefinite term moratorium on further hostilities.

At the end of June 1995, we agreed:

• on the exchange of prisoners according to the formula "all for all";
• about the withdrawal of troops;
• about the holding of elections.

However, the truce was violated (more than once!). Throughout Chechnya, there were small local clashes, the so-called self-defense units were formed. In the second half of 1995, towns and villages passed from hand to hand. In mid-December, Russian-backed elections were held in Chechnya. Nevertheless, they were recognized as valid. The separatists boycotted everything.

In 1996, the militants not only attacked various cities and villages, but also made attempts to attack Grozny. In March of that year, they even managed to subjugate one of the districts of the capital. But the federal troops managed to beat off all attacks. True, this was done at the cost of the lives of many soldiers.

Liquidation of Dudayev

Naturally, from the very beginning of the conflict in Chechnya, the task of the Russian special services was to find and neutralize the leader of the separatists. All attempts to kill Dudayev were in vain. But the secret services got important information that he likes to talk on the satellite phone. On April 21, 1996, two Su-25 attack aircraft, having received coordinates thanks to the bearing of the telephone signal, fired 2 missiles at Dudayev's motorcade. As a result, he was eliminated. The militants were left without a leader.

Negotiating with separatists

As you know, in 1996 presidential elections were to be held in Russia itself. Yeltsin needed victories in Chechnya. Thus the war dragged on, it aroused distrust among the Russians. Our young soldiers were dying on "foreign" land. After the May negotiations, from June 1, a truce and an exchange of prisoners were announced.

As a result of consultations in Nazran:

• elections were to be held on the territory of Chechnya;
• detachments of militants were to be completely disarmed;
• federal troops will be withdrawn.

But this truce was broken again. Nobody wanted to give in. Attacks began again, blood flowed like a river.

New fights

After the successful re-election of Yeltsin, fighting in Chechnya resumed. In August 1996, the separatists not only fired at checkpoints, but also stormed Grozny, Argun and Gudermes. More than 2,000 Russian servicemen died in the battles for Grozny alone. How much more could be lost? Because of this, the authorities in the Russian Federation agreed to sign the famous agreements on the withdrawal of federal troops.

Khasavyurt agreements

August 31 was the last day of summer and the last day of hostilities. In the Dagestan city of Khasavyurt, sensational armistice agreements were signed. The final decision on the future of the republic was shelved. But the troops had to be withdrawn.

Results

Chechnya remained an independent republic, but no one legally recognized it as a state. The ruins were as they were. The economy was extremely criminalized. Due to the ongoing ethnic cleansing and active fighting, the country was "crucified". Almost the entire civilian population left the republic. There was not only a crisis in politics and the economy, but also an unprecedented growth of Wahhabism. It was he who served as the reason for the invasion of militants in Dagestan, and then to the beginning of a new war.

The wars of the Russian Federation with one of its subjects - the Chechen Republic, which at the end of 1991 declared its state independence.

Actually the Russian-Chechen war began on December 11, 1994 with the invasion of federal troops into Chechnya. This was preceded by a three-year process of distancing the Chechen authorities from Moscow, which began in the fall of 1991 under the leadership of the former general of the Soviet Army, General Dzhokhar Dudayev, who was elected the first president of Chechnya. After the collapse of the USSR, Dudayev announced the independence of Chechnya from Russia, although he did not break all ties with Moscow, especially in the financial and economic sphere. After the liquidation of dual power in October 1993, the Russian authorities tried to restore their control over Chechen territory. Dudayev's power, opposition groups armed with Russian weapons were created with Russian money. On November 26, 1994, with the support of tanks with Russian crews, the opposition tried to capture the capital of Chechnya, Grozny, but were almost completely destroyed and captured by troops loyal to Dudayev. More than 70 Russian servicemen were captured. They were released even before the start of a full-scale Russian-Chechen war. Among the dead and captured tankers were officers of the Kantemirovskaya division hired by the Russian special services, who in October 1993 fired at the Moscow White House.

After the failure of attempts to overthrow Dudayev with the help of the Chechen opposition, a full-scale military operation was launched by several divisions of the army and internal troops. The number of the group reached 60 thousand soldiers and officers, including the elite airborne troops and the Moscow division of internal troops ( former name Dzerzhinsky). They were opposed by the regular Chechen army created by Dudayev, called the militia and numbering up to 15 thousand people. It was armed with tanks, armored personnel carriers, infantry fighting vehicles (IFVs), artillery, machine guns and small arms left in army depots after the withdrawal of Russian troops from Chechnya in 1992. Some of the weapons and ammunition Dudayev later managed to illegally purchase in Russia. The Chechens did not have combat aircraft, and all the training transport aircraft located at the airfield near Grozny were destroyed before the invasion as a result of the bombing of Russian aircraft.

Officially in Russia, the war was called "measures to restore constitutional order in the Chechen Republic" and pursued the goal of "disarmament of illegal armed formations." Russian politicians and the military expected that the hostilities would not last more than two weeks. Defense Minister General Pavel Grachev said on the eve of the invasion of Chechnya that Grozny could have been taken in two hours by one Russian airborne regiment. However, the federal troops met fierce resistance and immediately suffered heavy losses.

The Chechens did not have aviation, they were many times inferior to the enemy in artillery and tanks, but over the three years of independence they managed to turn into professional fighters, and in terms of combat training and command they significantly surpassed Russian soldiers, many of whom had recently been drafted into the troops. Chief of the General Staff General Aslan Maskhadov, former Colonel of the Soviet Army. The Chechen troops successfully combined positional defense with mobile defense, managing to get away in time from the massive attacks of Russian aviation.

Only on December 21 did the federal units reach Grozny and, on New Year's Eve 1995, launched an ill-prepared assault on Grozny. The Chechens almost unhindered let the attackers into the center of Grozny, and then began to shoot armored vehicles and infantry from fortified positions on the streets of the city that had been shot in advance. The fighters of the federal troops did not have plans for the city and had almost no orientation in it, they acted inconsistently and, in fact, without a single command. Some of them were destroyed, some were blocked in occupied buildings, and only a few managed to break through back. Up to 500 people were captured. Almost all Russian tanks brought into Grozny were burned or taken by the Chechens. Protracted street fighting began as Russian soldiers slowly occupied the city, house by house, block by block. In these battles, the Chechens fought more skillfully, operating in small mobile groups, whose commanders could independently make decisions in a rapidly changing environment without a continuous front line. Only a few of the Russian commanders possessed these qualities. Aviation bombed Grozny and other cities and villages of Chechnya aimlessly, in squares. The bombings affected almost exclusively the civilian population. The death of relatives and friends only increased the hatred of Chechen soldiers and officers for the federals. In Grozny, by an evil irony of fate, Russian residents became the victims of bombs and shells in the first place. The civilian Chechen population mostly managed to leave the besieged city and take refuge with relatives in the mountains, while the Russians had nowhere to go. and May Russian army broke into the foothills and mountainous regions in the south of Chechnya, having mastered all the cities of the republic. In order to buy time for the regular army to switch to guerrilla warfare from hard-to-reach bases in the mountains, in mid-June, a detachment of 200 people under the command of one of the most famous Chechen field commanders, Shamil Basayev, a former student and now a general, raided the Stavropol city of Budennovsk. Here, Basayev's soldiers took up to a thousand civilians hostage, drove them to the city hospital and threatened to kill them unless a ceasefire was announced and the beginning of Russian-Chechen negotiations (the day before, almost the entire Basayev family died under Russian bombs). Federal troops launched an unsuccessful assault on the hospital, during which several dozen hostages died. After that, Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin agreed to comply with the terrorists' demands, and also provided the terrorists with buses so that they could get to the Chechen mountains with some of the hostages to guarantee security. In Chechnya, Basayev freed the remaining hostages and found himself out of reach of Russian troops. In total, about 120 civilians died on the streets of Budyonnovsk and in the hospital. Basayev undertook his raid without the sanction of the Chechen command, but subsequently Dudayev and Maskhadov approved of his actions.

Basayev's inhuman action, however, brought a temporary halt to the bloodshed in Chechnya while the negotiations continued. In October, they were interrupted after the head of the Russian delegation, the commander of the internal troops, General Anatoly Romanov, was seriously wounded in an assassination attempt (he is still in an unconscious state). The circumstances of this assassination attempt, carried out with the help of a radio-controlled landmine, are not clear even today.

After the breakdown of negotiations, federal troops resumed their offensive in the mountainous regions of Chechnya. They captured cities and villages there more than once, but to keep their positions long time it turned out to be impossible, since the Chechens blocked the supply routes. The Russian units are tired of the war. Their combat effectiveness, already low, fell to a critical limit. The federal troops never managed to defeat the main Chechen forces. Maskhadov and Dudayev were able to maintain control over their main units. In December, Chechen forces occupied the republic's second largest city, Gudermes, for several days, demonstrating their strength to Russia and the world.

At the end of December 1996, a detachment of about 200 people under the command of Dudayev's son-in-law Salman Raduev, later promoted to general, raided a helicopter base in the Dagestan city of Kizlyar. The raid ended in failure, and the detachment was threatened with encirclement by federal troops. Then Raduev, following the example of Basayev, took hostages in the city hospital. At first, he demanded an end to the war and the withdrawal of Russian troops from Chechnya, then, under pressure from the authorities of Dagestan, he was satisfied with the promise of a free pass to Chechnya under the cover of a human shield from the hostages. In January 1996, near the border of Dagestan and Chechnya, a convoy of buses with terrorists was fired upon by Russian helicopters. Raduev and his people captured a militia post from the fighters of the Novosibirsk Special Purpose Police Detachment (OMON) and took up defense in the nearby Dagestan village of Pervomayskoye. Raduev's detachment was besieged by internal troops and special units of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the security service, numbering 2.5 thousand people. A few days later, the troops launched an assault, broke into Pervomaiskoye, but were driven back to their original positions. Police special forces, trained to fight armed criminals, were ill-equipped to conduct conventional street combat with an enemy unit. Under the cover of night, most of the Radyevites with some of the hostages managed to break out of the encirclement. The battle near Pervomaisky once again proved to the Chechens the weakness of the Russian troops.

All attempts by Moscow to create a viable Chechen administration ended in failure. In the last period, the head of the pro-Russian government was Doku Zavgaev, former leader Communist Party and Chairman of the Supreme Council of Checheno-Ingushetia, dispersed on the initiative of Dudaev by demonstrators in the fall of 1991. Trillions of rubles allocated for the restoration of the ruined economy of Chechnya were embezzled by bankers and officials of various levels. Zavgaev's administration, having no real power, was unable to prevent shelling and bombardment of Chechen villages by Russian artillery and aircraft. As a result, Zavgaev lost popularity in his native Nadterechny district, whose inhabitants had previously been in opposition to Dudayev.

In March 1996, Basayev entered Grozny for several days. "Terrorist No. 1" this time put his fighters on cars. At high speed, they moved through the streets, attacking federal checkpoints and commandant's offices, remaining practically invulnerable themselves. The Russian army was unable to do anything with the Basayevites, passively waiting for them to leave the city. As it became clear later, Basayev's March raid was just a rehearsal for a larger operation.

In mid-April, near the village of Yarysh-Mardan, a convoy of federal troops was ambushed, losing about 100 people dead. The Chechens suffered practically no losses in this battle.

On April 21, 1996, Dudayev was killed as a result of the explosion of an aircraft missile aimed at the signal of his cell phone. The post of President of Chechnya was taken by Vice-President Zelimkhan Yandarbiev, a famous Chechen poet, but as a politician inferior in popularity to Dudayev, Maskhadov and Basaev. At the end of May, during Yandarbiev's visit to Moscow, a ceasefire agreement was concluded with him. On the eve of the presidential elections, the Russian leadership was interested in achieving at least temporary peace in Chechnya. It hoped that after the death of Dudayev, the resistance of the Chechens would weaken and it would be possible to establish the government of Zavgaev in the country.

After the victory of Boris Yeltsin in the elections, the federal troops resumed their offensive in Chechnya and the bombardment of mountain villages. On August 6, the Chechen army entered Grozny. This operation was developed by Maskhadov in the spring. However, the Chechen leadership postponed it until after the presidential elections in Russia, believing that Yeltsin's victory would be the least evil for Chechnya. A few days before the start of the operation, residents of Grozny were warned in special leaflets that fighting would begin in the city in the very near future and they needed to stock up on water and food and not go out into the street. However, the command of the federal troops did not attach any importance to these leaflets and was taken by surprise. In the city and its environs there were up to 15 thousand soldiers and officers of the army and internal troops and riot police.

Initially, about 2 thousand Chechen militias entered Grozny under the personal leadership of Maskhadov and Basayev (the latter directly commanded the Grozny group). By that time, the Chechens no longer had armored vehicles and almost no artillery left. However, in terms of combat experience, ability to fight and morale, they far surpassed the soldiers of the federal troops, who did not show any desire to die in the name of "restoring constitutional order in Chechnya." Many Russian units actually took up a position of armed neutrality, not firing at the enemy, if he, in turn, did not encroach on the positions they occupied.

In a week of fighting, the Chechens captured most of Grozny, blocking Russian troops in the main administrative buildings and premises of checkpoints and commandant's offices. By that time, the number of the Chechen group in Grozny had increased to 6-7 thousand people, thanks to the transfer of part of the city police subordinate to Zavgaev to its side and the transfer of reinforcements from other regions of Chechnya. Counterattacks by federal troops from Khankala located in the Grozny suburbs and Severny airport were repulsed. The Russian units suffered heavy losses. In order to break out of the encirclement and obtain medical supplies for the wounded, separate units of the federal troops resorted to the shameful practice of taking hostages among the civilian population. According to some estimates, up to 200 armored vehicles were burned, and the Chechens managed to capture several tanks and infantry fighting vehicles (IFVs) unharmed. As the Russian press wrote in those days: "Under the onslaught of disparate bandit formations, our troops left the city of Grozny." Chechen troops also liberated the cities of Gudermes and Argun and delivered a series of strikes against federal units in the foothills.

The commander of the Russian troops in Chechnya, General Konstantin Pulikovsky, demanded that the residents of Grozny leave the city in two days, intending to subject it to massive bombing and shelling. In this case, the death of not only about 2,000 federal servicemen blocked in besieged buildings and left without food, water and ammunition, but also tens of thousands of citizens who could not leave the city in such a short time would have been inevitable. The Secretary of the Russian Security Council, General Alexander Lebed, who urgently arrived in Chechnya, succeeded in canceling Pulikovsky's order to storm Grozny again. Lebed became convinced of the complete incompetence of the Russian troops in Chechnya, which he declared publicly.

At the end of August, in the Dagestan city of Khasavyurt, he signed agreements with the Chechen leadership, according to which a ceasefire was established, federal troops, with the exception of two brigades, were withdrawn from Chechnya (supporters of independence call the country Ichkeria), and the determination of the political status of the republic was postponed until the end of 2001. The Chechens, however, insisted on the withdrawal of all federal troops and refused to guarantee the safety of the military brigades remaining in the vicinity of Grozny.

On November 23, 1996, President Yeltsin signed a decree on the withdrawal of the last two brigades from Chechnya by the end of the year. When the federal troops left the republic, presidential elections were held there. Maskhadov won them. His power extended to the whole republic. Returning to the Nadterechny district, local militias forced Zavgaev's supporters to give up power. In May 1997, Presidents Yeltsin and Maskhadov signed a peace treaty between Russia and Chechnya, in which the parties pledged never to use or threaten to use force against each other. This means that Russia recognizes Chechnya as de facto independent. However, to recognize Chechen independence de jure, i.e. officially agree that the Republic of Ichkeria is no longer part of the territory of Russia and establish diplomatic relations with it as with a foreign state, the Russian leadership is not yet ready. History knows examples when decades passed between the real acquisition of independence and its recognition as a former metropolis. So, the Netherlands actually separated from Spain by 1572, but the Spanish monarchy recognized the new state after a series of wars only in 1607.

According to official figures, about 6,000 Russian servicemen, border guards, police officers and security service personnel have died or gone missing in Chechnya during the entire conflict. Today we do not have any summary data on the irretrievable losses of the Chechen army. One can only assume that due to the smaller number and higher level of combat training, the Chechen troops suffered significantly fewer losses than the federal troops.

The total number of dead residents of Chechnya is most often estimated at 70-80 thousand people, the vast majority - civilians. They became victims of shelling and bombing by the federal troops, as well as the so-called “cleansing operations” - inspection by Russian soldiers and employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of cities and villages left by Chechen formations, when civilians often died from bullets and grenades of the federals. The bloodiest "mopping-up operations" were carried out in the village of Samashki near the border with Ingushetia.

The second Chechen war began after the invasion in August 1999 of the Chechen detachments of Shamil Basayev and Khattab into Dagestan, counting on the assistance of local Wahhabis, the explosions of residential buildings in Moscow and Buynaksk, and the invasion of federal troops in September. The plan for this invasion, according to some reports, was developed in the spring of 1999. By the beginning of February 2000, the Russian army captured Grozny, which was practically wiped off the face of the earth. In February - March, federal troops penetrated into the southern mountainous regions of Chechnya, but failed to establish effective control over them. A large-scale guerrilla war is currently going on throughout Chechnya. By the end of 2000, Russian losses, according to official, probably significantly underestimated data, amounted to about 3 thousand dead and missing. There is no reliable data on the losses of Chechen armed formations and civilians. It can only be assumed that several times more civilians died than the military. Time will tell how events in Chechnya will develop in the future.

The first and second Chechen wars, otherwise known as the "First Chechen conflict" and the "counter-terrorist operation in the North Caucasus" became, perhaps, the bloodiest pages recent history Russia. These military conflicts are striking in their cruelty. They brought terror and explosions of houses with sleeping people to the territory of Russia. But, in the history of these wars, there were people who, perhaps, can be considered criminals no less terrible than terrorists. These are traitors.

Sergei Orel

He fought in the North Caucasus under a contract. In December 1995, he was taken prisoner by militants. They released him a year later and sent the rescued "prisoner of the Caucasus" to Grozny. And then the unbelievable happened: a Russian soldier, languishing in cruel captivity and happily freed, stole a Kalashnikov assault rifle, uniforms and personal belongings from the military prosecutor's office, stole a Ural truck and sped off towards the militants. Here, in fact, it became clear that in captivity Orel was by no means in poverty, but allowed himself to be recruited without much trouble. He converted to Islam, studied sapper business in one of the Khattab camps, and took part in the hostilities. In 1998, with a fake passport in the name of Alexander Kozlov, he showed up in Moscow, where he controlled the construction markets. He transferred the proceeds through special contacts to the Caucasus, to support his “brothers in arms”. This business stopped only when the special services came on the trail of Orel-Kozlov. The defector was tried, and he received a serious sentence.

Limonov and Klochkov

Privates Konstantin Limonov and Ruslan Klochkov in the fall of 1995 decided to somehow go for vodka. They left their checkpoint and went to the village of Katyr-Yurt, where the militants tied them up without any problems. Once in captivity, Limonov and Klochkov did not think for a long time and almost immediately agreed to become guards in the federal POW camp. Limonov even took the name Kazbek. They performed their duties very diligently, surpassing even the Chechens themselves in cruelty. One of the captives, for example, was smashed in the head with a rifle butt. Another was thrown onto a red-hot furnace. The third was beaten to death. Both participated in the execution of sixteen Russian soldiers condemned to death by the Islamists. One of the militants personally showed them an example by cutting the throat of the first convict, and then handed the knife to the traitors as well. Those carried out the order, and then finished off the agonizing soldiers from the machine gun. All this was recorded on video. When in 1997 the federal troops cleared the area where their gang operated, Limonov and Klochkov tried to impersonate the released hostages and hoped that the most serious thing that threatened them was a term for desertion. However, the investigation made their "exploits" known to Russian justice.

Alexander Ardyshev - Seraji Dudayev

In 1995, the unit in which Ardyshev served was transferred to Chechnya. Alexander had very little to serve, just a few weeks. However, he decided to drastically change his life and deserted from the unit. It was in the village of Vedeno. By the way, it cannot be said about Ardyshev that he betrayed his comrades, since he had no comrades. During his service, he was distinguished by the fact that he periodically stole things and money from his fellow soldiers, and there was not a single one among the soldiers of his unit who would treat Ardyshev as a friend. First, he got into the detachment of the field commander Mavladi Khusain, then fought under the command of Isa Madaev, then in the detachment of Khamzat Musaev. Ardyshev converted to Islam and became Seraji Dudayev. Seraji's new job was to guard captives. Stories about how yesterday's Russian soldier Alexander, and now the warrior of Islam Seraji, subjected his former colleagues to bullying and torture, are simply terrible to read. He beat the prisoners, shot the unwanted on the orders of his superiors. One soldier, wounded and exhausted by captivity, was forced to memorize the Koran, and when he made a mistake, he was beaten. Once, for the amusement of the militants, he set fire to gunpowder on the back of the unfortunate. He was so sure of his impunity that he did not even hesitate to show up to the Russian side in his new guise. Once he arrived in Vedeno with his commander Mavladi to settle the conflict between local residents and federal troops. Among the feds was his former boss Colonel Kukharchuk. Ardyshev approached him to show off his new status and threatened him with reprisals.

When the military conflict ended, Seraji got his own house in Chechnya and began to serve in the border and customs service. And then one of the Chechen bandits Sadulayev was convicted in Moscow. His comrades and associates in Chechnya decided that a respected person should be exchanged. And they exchanged for ... Alexander-Seradzhi. The deserter and traitor was completely uninteresting to the new owners. To avoid unnecessary trouble, Seraji was drugged with tea with sleeping pills, and when he passed out, they handed over to the authorities of the Russian Federation. Surprisingly, once outside of Chechnya, Seraji immediately remembered that he was Alexander and began to ask to return to the Russians and Orthodox. He was sentenced to 9 years of strict regime.

Yuri Rybakov

This man, too, was by no means wounded and unconscious in captivity by the militants. He defected to them voluntarily in September 1999. Having undergone special training, he became a sniper. I must say that Rybakov was a good sniper. In just one month, he made 26 notches on the butt of his rifle - one for each “removed” fighter. Rybakov was taken in the village of Ulus-Kert, where federal troops surrounded the militants.

Vasily Kalinkin - Wahid

This man served as an ensign in one of the parts of Nizhny Tagil, and he was stealing big. And when it smelled of fried food, he ran away and joined the army of "free Ichkeria". Here he was sent to study at an intelligence school in one of the Arab countries. Kalinkin converted to Islam, became known as Wahid. They took him in Volgograd, where the newly-minted spy appeared for reconnaissance and preparation of acts of sabotage.

1. The First Chechen War (the Chechen conflict of 1994-1996, the First Chechen campaign, the Restoration of the constitutional order in the Chechen Republic) - hostilities between the troops of Russia (AF and the Ministry of Internal Affairs) and the unrecognized Chechen Republic of Ichkeria in Chechnya, and some settlements in neighboring regions of the Russian North Caucasus, in order to take control of the territory of Chechnya, on which the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria was proclaimed in 1991.

2. Officially, the conflict was defined as "measures to maintain constitutional order", military operations were called the "first Chechen war", less often the "Russian-Chechen" or "Russian-Caucasian war". The conflict and the events preceding it were characterized by a large number of casualties among the population, military and law enforcement agencies, there were facts of ethnic cleansing of the non-Chechen population in Chechnya.

3. Despite certain military successes of the Armed Forces and the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, the results of this conflict were the withdrawal of Russian units, massive destruction and casualties, the de facto independence of Chechnya before the Second Chechen War, and a wave of terror that swept through Russia.

4. With the beginning of perestroika, various nationalist movements became more active in various republics of the Soviet Union, including Checheno-Ingushetia. One of these organizations was the All-National Congress of the Chechen People (OKCHN), created in 1990, which set as its goal the secession of Chechnya from the USSR and the creation of an independent Chechen state. It was headed former general Soviet Air Force Dzhokhar Dudayev.

5. On June 8, 1991, at the II session of the OKChN, Dudayev proclaimed the independence of the Chechen Republic Nokhchi-cho; Thus, a dual power developed in the republic.

6. During the "August coup" in Moscow, the leadership of the CHIASSR supported the GKChP. In response to this, on September 6, 1991, Dudayev announced the dissolution of the republican state structures, accusing Russia of a "colonial" policy. On the same day, Dudayev's guards stormed the building of the Supreme Council, the television center and the Radio House. More than 40 deputies were beaten, and the chairman of the Grozny City Council, Vitaly Kutsenko, was thrown out of a window, as a result of which he died. On this occasion, the head of the Chechen Republic Zavgaev D. G. spoke in 1996 at a meeting of the State Duma "

Yes, on the territory of the Chechen-Ingush Republic (today it is divided), the war began in the fall of 1991, it was the war against the multinational people, when the criminal criminal regime, with some support from those who today also show an unhealthy interest in the situation here, filled this people with blood. The first victim of what is happening was the people of this republic, and the Chechens in the first place. The war began when Vitaly Kutsenko, chairman of the Grozny city council, was killed in broad daylight during a meeting of the republic's Supreme Council. When Besliev was shot in the street, vice-rector state university. When Kankalik, the rector of the same state university, was killed. When every day in the fall of 1991, up to 30 people were found killed on the streets of Grozny. When, from the autumn of 1991 until 1994, Grozny's morgues were packed to the ceiling, announcements were made on local television asking them to pick them up, find out who was there, and so on.

8. Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR Ruslan Khasbulatov then sent them a telegram: "I was pleased to learn about the resignation of the Republic's Armed Forces." After the collapse of the USSR, Dzhokhar Dudayev announced the final withdrawal of Chechnya from the Russian Federation. On October 27, 1991, presidential and parliamentary elections were held in the republic under the control of separatists. Dzhokhar Dudayev became the President of the Republic. These elections were recognized by the Russian Federation as illegal

9. On November 7, 1991, Russian President Boris Yeltsin signed the Decree "On the introduction of a state of emergency in the Chechen-Ingush Republic (1991)". After these actions of the Russian leadership, the situation in the republic sharply escalated - supporters of the separatists surrounded the buildings of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the KGB, military camps, blocked railway and air hubs. In the end, the introduction of the state of emergency was frustrated, the Decree "On the introduction of a state of emergency in the Chechen-Ingush Republic (1991)" was canceled on November 11, three days after its signing, after a heated discussion at a meeting of the Supreme Council of the RSFSR and from the republic the withdrawal of Russian military units and units of the Ministry of Internal Affairs began, which was finally completed by the summer of 1992. The separatists began to seize and loot military depots.

10. Dudayev's forces got a lot of weapons: Two launchers of an operational-tactical missile system in a non-combat-ready state. 111 L-39 and 149 L-29 training aircraft, converted into light attack aircraft; three MiG-17 fighters and two MiG-15 fighters; six An-2 aircraft and two Mi-8 helicopters, 117 R-23 and R-24 aircraft missiles, 126 R-60s; about 7 thousand GSh-23 air shells. 42 T-62 and T-72 tanks; 34 BMP-1 and BMP-2; 30 BTR-70 and BRDM; 44 MT-LB, 942 vehicles. 18 MLRS Grad and more than 1000 shells for them. 139 artillery systems, including 30 122-mm D-30 howitzers and 24,000 shells for them; as well as self-propelled guns 2S1 and 2S3; anti-tank guns MT-12. Five air defense systems, 25 memory various types, 88 MANPADS; 105 pcs. ZUR S-75. 590 units of anti-tank weapons, including two Konkurs ATGMs, 24 Fagot ATGMs, 51 Metis ATGMs, 113 RPG-7 systems. About 50 thousand small arms, more than 150 thousand grenades. 27 wagons of ammunition; 1620 tons of fuel and lubricants; about 10 thousand sets of clothing items, 72 tons of food; 90 tons of medical equipment.

12. In June 1992, the Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation, Pavel Grachev, ordered that half of all weapons and ammunition available in the republic be transferred to the Dudaevites. According to him, this was a forced step, since a significant part of the “transferred” weapons had already been captured, and there was no way to take out the rest due to the lack of soldiers and echelons.

13. The victory of the separatists in Grozny led to the collapse of the Chechen-Ingush ASSR. Malgobeksky, Nazranovsky and most of the Sunzhensky district of the former CHIASSR formed the Republic of Ingushetia as part of the Russian Federation. Legally, the Chechen-Ingush ASSR ceased to exist on December 10, 1992.

14. The exact border between Chechnya and Ingushetia has not been demarcated and has not been defined to date (2012). During the Ossetian-Ingush conflict in November 1992, Russian troops entered the Prigorodny district of North Ossetia. Relations between Russia and Chechnya deteriorated sharply. The Russian high command proposed at the same time to solve the "Chechen problem" by force, but then the entry of troops into the territory of Chechnya was prevented by the efforts of Yegor Gaidar.

16. As a result, Chechnya became de facto independent, but not legally recognized by any country, including Russia, as a state. The republic had state symbols - a flag, emblem and anthem, authorities - the president, parliament, government, secular courts. It was supposed to create a small Armed Forces, as well as the introduction of their own state currency - nahara. In the constitution adopted on March 12, 1992, the CRI was characterized as an "independent secular state", its government refused to sign a federal treaty with the Russian Federation.

17. In reality, the state system of the CRI proved to be extremely inefficient and in the period 1991-1994 was rapidly criminalized. In 1992-1993, over 600 premeditated murders took place on the territory of Chechnya. During the period of 1993, at the Grozny branch of the North Caucasian Railway, 559 trains were subjected to an armed attack with complete or partial looting of about 4 thousand wagons and containers in the amount of 11.5 billion rubles. For 8 months in 1994, 120 armed attacks were carried out, as a result of which 1,156 wagons and 527 containers were looted. Losses amounted to more than 11 billion rubles. In 1992-1994, 26 railway workers were killed in armed attacks. The current situation forced the Russian government to take a decision to stop traffic on the territory of Chechnya from October 1994

18. A special trade was the manufacture of false advice notes, on which more than 4 trillion rubles were received. Hostage-taking and the slave trade flourished in the republic - according to Rosinformtsentr, since 1992, 1,790 people have been kidnapped and illegally held in Chechnya.

19. Even after that, when Dudayev stopped paying taxes to the general budget and forbade employees of the Russian special services from entering the republic, the federal center continued to transfer money to Chechnya cash from the budget. In 1993, 11.5 billion rubles were allocated for Chechnya. Until 1994, Russian oil continued to flow to Chechnya, while it was not paid for and resold abroad.

21. In the spring of 1993, the contradictions between President Dudayev and the parliament sharply aggravated in the CRI. On April 17, 1993, Dudayev announced the dissolution of the Parliament, the Constitutional Court and the Ministry of Internal Affairs. On June 4, armed Dudayevites under the command of Shamil Basayev seized the building of the Grozny City Council, in which meetings of the parliament and the constitutional court were held; thus, a coup d'état took place in CRI. The constitution, adopted last year, was amended, Dudayev's regime of personal power was established in the republic, which lasted until August 1994, when legislative powers were returned to parliament

22. After the coup d'état on June 4, 1993, in the northern regions of Chechnya, not controlled by the separatist government in Grozny, an armed anti-Dudaev opposition was formed, which began an armed struggle against Dudayev's regime. The first opposition organization was the National Salvation Committee (KNS), which held several armed actions, but was soon defeated and disintegrated. It was replaced by the Provisional Council of the Chechen Republic (VSChR), which proclaimed itself the only legitimate authority on the territory of Chechnya. The VChR was recognized as such by the Russian authorities, who provided it with all kinds of support (including weapons and volunteers).

23. Since the summer of 1994, hostilities have unfolded in Chechnya between troops loyal to Dudayev and the forces of the opposition Provisional Council. Troops loyal to Dudayev carried out offensive operations in the Nadterechny and Urus-Martan regions controlled by opposition troops. They were accompanied by significant losses on both sides, tanks, artillery and mortars were used.

24. The forces of the parties were approximately equal, and neither of them was able to prevail in the struggle.

25. Only in Urus-Martan in October 1994, the Dudayevites lost 27 people killed, according to the opposition. The operation was planned by Aslan Maskhadov, Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the CRI. The commander of the opposition detachment in Urus-Martan, Bislan Gantamirov, lost from 5 to 34 people killed, according to various sources. In Argun in September 1994, a detachment of the opposition field commander Ruslan Labazanov lost 27 people killed. The opposition, in turn, on September 12 and October 15, 1994, carried out offensive actions in Grozny, but every time they retreated without achieving decisive success, although they did not suffer heavy losses.

26. On November 26, oppositionists unsuccessfully stormed Grozny for the third time. At the same time, a number of Russian servicemen who “fought on the side of the opposition” under a contract with the Federal Counterintelligence Service were captured by Dudayev’s supporters.

27. Entering troops (December 1994)

At that time, the use of the expression "the entry of Russian troops into Chechnya", according to the deputy and journalist Alexander Nevzorov, was, to a greater extent, caused by journalistic terminological confusion - Chechnya was part of Russia.

Even before the announcement of any decision by the Russian authorities, on December 1, Russian aircraft attacked the Kalinovskaya and Khankala airfields and disabled all the aircraft at the disposal of the separatists. On December 11, President of the Russian Federation Boris Yeltsin signed Decree No. 2169 "On Measures to Ensure Law, Law and Order and Public Security on the Territory of the Chechen Republic." Later, the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation recognized most of the decrees and resolutions of the government, which substantiated the actions of the federal government in Chechnya, as consistent with the Constitution.

On the same day, units of the United Group of Forces (OGV), consisting of parts of the Ministry of Defense and the Internal Troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, entered the territory of Chechnya. The troops were divided into three groups and entered from three different sides - from the west from North Ossetia through Ingushetia), from the north-west from the Mozdok region of North Ossetia, directly bordering on Chechnya and from the east from the territory of Dagestan).

The eastern group was blocked in the Khasavyurt district of Dagestan by local residents - Akkin Chechens. The Western group was also blocked by local residents and came under fire near the village of Barsuki, however, using force, they nevertheless broke through into Chechnya. The Mozdok grouping advanced most successfully, already on December 12 approaching the village of Dolinsky, located 10 km from Grozny.

Near Dolinskoye, Russian troops came under fire from the Chechen Grad rocket artillery installation and then entered the battle for this settlement.

The new offensive of the units of the OGV began on December 19. The Vladikavkaz (western) group blockaded Grozny from the western direction, bypassing the Sunzha Range. On December 20, the Mozdok (northwestern) group occupied Dolinsky and blocked Grozny from the northwest. The Kizlyar (eastern) group blocked Grozny from the east, and the paratroopers of the 104th airborne regiment blocked the city from the side of the Argun Gorge. At the same time, the southern part of Grozny was not blocked.

Thus, at the initial stage of hostilities, in the first weeks of the war, Russian troops were able to occupy the northern regions of Chechnya practically without resistance.

In mid-December, federal troops began shelling the suburbs of Grozny, and on December 19 the first bombing of the city center was carried out. Many civilians (including ethnic Russians) were killed and wounded during artillery shelling and bombing.

Despite the fact that Grozny was still not blocked from the south side, on December 31, 1994, the assault on the city began. About 250 units of armored vehicles, extremely vulnerable in street battles, entered the city. The Russian troops were poorly trained, there was no interaction and coordination between the various units, and many soldiers had no combat experience. The troops had aerial photographs of the city, outdated city plans in limited quantities. The means of communication were not equipped with closed communication equipment, which allowed the enemy to intercept communications. The troops were given the order to occupy only industrial buildings, squares and the inadmissibility of intrusion into the homes of the civilian population.

The western grouping of troops was stopped, the eastern one also retreated and did not take any action until January 2, 1995. In the northern direction, the 1st and 2nd battalions of the 131st separate Maikop motorized rifle brigade (more than 300 people), a motorized rifle battalion and a tank company of the 81st Petrakuvsky motorized rifle regiment (10 tanks), under the command of General Pulikovsky, reached the railway station and the Presidential Palace. The federal forces were surrounded - according to official data, the losses of the battalions of the Maykop brigade amounted to 85 people killed and 72 missing, 20 tanks were destroyed, the brigade commander Colonel Savin died, more than 100 servicemen were captured.

The eastern group under the command of General Rokhlin was also surrounded and bogged down in battles with separatist units, but nevertheless, Rokhlin did not give the order to retreat.

On January 7, 1995, the Northeast and North groups were united under the command of General Rokhlin, and Ivan Babichev became the commander of the West group.

The Russian troops changed tactics - now, instead of the massive use of armored vehicles, they used maneuverable air assault groups supported by artillery and aviation. Fierce street fighting ensued in Grozny.

Two groups moved to the Presidential Palace and by January 9 occupied the building of the Oil Institute and the Grozny airport. By January 19, these groups met in the center of Grozny and captured the Presidential Palace, but detachments of Chechen separatists withdrew across the Sunzha River and took up defense on Minutka Square. Despite the successful offensive, Russian troops controlled only about a third of the city at that time.

By the beginning of February, the strength of the OGV had been increased to 70,000 people. General Anatoly Kulikov became the new commander of the OGV.

Only on February 3, 1995, the South grouping was formed and the implementation of the plan to blockade Grozny from the south began. By February 9, Russian units reached the boundary of the Rostov-Baku federal highway.

On February 13, in the village of Sleptsovskaya (Ingushetia), negotiations were held between the commander of the United Forces, Anatoly Kulikov, and the chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the CRI, Aslan Maskhadov, on the conclusion of a temporary truce - the parties exchanged lists of prisoners of war, and both sides were given the opportunity to take out the dead and wounded from the streets of the city. The truce, however, was violated by both sides.

In the 20th of February, street fighting continued in the city (especially in its southern part), but the Chechen detachments, deprived of support, gradually retreated from the city.

Finally, on March 6, 1995, a detachment of militants from the Chechen field commander Shamil Basayev retreated from Chernorechye, the last district of Grozny controlled by the separatists, and the city finally came under the control of Russian troops.

A pro-Russian administration of Chechnya was formed in Grozny, headed by Salambek Khadzhiev and Umar Avturkhanov.

As a result of the assault on Grozny, the city was actually destroyed and turned into ruins.

29. Establishing control over the flat regions of Chechnya (March - April 1995)

After the assault on Grozny, the main task of the Russian troops was to establish control over the flat regions of the rebellious republic.

The Russian side began to conduct active negotiations with the population, persuading local residents to expel the militants from their settlements. At the same time, Russian units occupied the dominant heights above the villages and cities. Thanks to this, on March 15-23, Argun was taken, on March 30 and 31, the cities of Shali and Gudermes were taken without a fight, respectively. However, the militant groups were not destroyed and freely left the settlements.

Despite this, local battles were going on in the western regions of Chechnya. March 10 began fighting for the village of Bamut. On April 7-8, the combined detachment of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, consisting of the Sofrinsky brigade of internal troops and supported by detachments of SOBR and OMON, entered the village of Samashki (Achkhoy-Martanovsky district of Chechnya). It was alleged that the village was defended by more than 300 people (the so-called "Abkhazian battalion" of Shamil Basayev). After the Russian servicemen entered the village, some residents who had weapons began to resist, and skirmishes began on the streets of the village.

According to a number of international organizations (in particular, the UN Commission on Human Rights - UNCHR), many civilians died during the battle for Samashki. This information, disseminated by the separatist agency "Chechen-Press", however, turned out to be quite contradictory - thus, according to representatives of the human rights center "Memorial", these data "do not inspire confidence." According to Memorial, the minimum number of civilians who died during the cleansing of the village was 112-114 people.

One way or another, this operation caused a great resonance in Russian society and increased anti-Russian sentiment in Chechnya.

On April 15-16, the decisive assault on Bamut began - Russian troops managed to enter the village and gain a foothold on the outskirts. Then, however, the Russian troops were forced to leave the village, as now the militants occupied the dominant heights above the village, using the old missile silos of the Strategic Missile Forces, designed for nuclear war and invulnerable to Russian aircraft. A series of battles for this village continued until June 1995, then the fighting was suspended after the terrorist attack in Budyonnovsk and resumed in February 1996.

By April 1995, almost the entire flat territory of Chechnya was occupied by Russian troops, and the separatists focused on sabotage and partisan operations.

30. Establishing control over the mountainous regions of Chechnya (May - June 1995)

From April 28 to May 11, 1995, the Russian side announced the suspension of hostilities on its part.

The offensive resumed only on May 12. The blows of the Russian troops fell on the villages of Chiri-Yurt, which covered the entrance to the Argun Gorge and Serzhen-Yurt, located at the entrance to the Vedeno Gorge. Despite a significant superiority in manpower and equipment, Russian troops were bogged down in the enemy's defense - it took General Shamanov a week of shelling and bombing to take Chiri-Yurt.

Under these conditions, the Russian command decided to change the direction of the strike - instead of Shatoi to Vedeno. The militant units were pinned down in the Argun Gorge and on June 3 Vedeno was taken by Russian troops, and on June 12 the regional centers of Shatoi and Nozhai-Yurt were taken.

Also, as in the plains, the separatist forces were not defeated and they were able to leave the abandoned settlements. Therefore, even during the "truce", the militants were able to transfer a significant part of their forces to the northern regions - on May 14, the city of Grozny was shelled by them more than 14 times

On June 14, 1995, a group of Chechen fighters numbering 195 people, led by field commander Shamil Basayev, drove trucks into the territory of the Stavropol Territory and stopped in the city of Budyonnovsk.

The building of the GOVD became the first object of attack, then the terrorists occupied the city hospital and drove the captured civilians into it. In total, about 2,000 hostages were in the hands of the terrorists. Basayev put forward demands to the Russian authorities - the cessation of hostilities and the withdrawal of Russian troops from Chechnya, negotiating with Dudayev through the mediation of UN representatives in exchange for the release of the hostages.

Under these conditions, the authorities decided to storm the hospital building. Because of the leak of information, the terrorists had time to prepare to repel the assault, which lasted four hours; as a result, the special forces recaptured all the corps (except the main one), releasing 95 hostages. Spetsnaz losses amounted to three people killed. On the same day, an unsuccessful second assault attempt was made.

After the failure of military actions to free the hostages, negotiations began between the then Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Viktor Chernomyrdin and field commander Shamil Basayev. The terrorists were provided with buses, on which they, along with 120 hostages, arrived in the Chechen village of Zandak, where the hostages were released.

The total losses of the Russian side, according to official data, amounted to 143 people (of which 46 were employees of law enforcement agencies) and 415 wounded, the losses of terrorists - 19 killed and 20 wounded

32. The situation in the republic in June - December 1995

After the terrorist attack in Budyonnovsk, from June 19 to June 22, the first round of negotiations between the Russian and Chechen sides took place in Grozny, at which it was possible to achieve a moratorium on hostilities for an indefinite period.

From June 27 to June 30, the second stage of negotiations took place there, at which an agreement was reached on the exchange of prisoners "all for all", the disarmament of the CRI detachments, the withdrawal of Russian troops and the holding of free elections.

Despite all the agreements concluded, the ceasefire regime was violated by both sides. Chechen detachments returned to their villages, but not as members of illegal armed groups, but as "self-defense units." There were local battles throughout Chechnya. For some time, the emerging tensions could be resolved through negotiations. So, on August 18-19, Russian troops blocked Achkhoy-Martan; the situation was resolved at the talks in Grozny.

On August 21, a detachment of militants of the field commander Alaudi Khamzatov captured Argun, but after a heavy shelling undertaken by Russian troops, they left the city, into which Russian armored vehicles were then introduced.

In September, Achkhoy-Martan and Sernovodsk were blocked by Russian troops, since militants were in these settlements. The Chechen side refused to leave their positions, because, according to them, these were "self-defense units" that had the right to be in accordance with the agreements reached earlier.

On October 6, 1995, an assassination attempt was made on the commander of the United Group of Forces (OGV), General Romanov, as a result of which he ended up in a coma. In turn, "retaliation strikes" were inflicted on Chechen villages.

On October 8, an unsuccessful attempt was made to eliminate Dudayev - an air strike was launched on the village of Roshni-Chu.

The Russian leadership decided before the elections to replace the leaders of the pro-Russian administration of the republic, Salambek Khadzhiev and Umar Avturkhanov, with the former head of the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, Dokka Zavgaev.

On December 10-12, the city of Gudermes, occupied by Russian troops without resistance, was captured by detachments of Salman Raduev, Khunkar-Pasha Israpilov and Sultan Geliskhanov. On December 14-20, there were battles for this city, it took Russian troops about a week of “cleansing operations” to finally take Gudermes under their control.

On December 14-17, elections were held in Chechnya, which were held with a large number of violations, but nevertheless recognized as valid. Supporters of the separatists announced in advance the boycott and non-recognition of the elections. Dokku Zavgaev won the elections, having received over 90% of the votes; at the same time, all military personnel of the UGV participated in the elections.

On January 9, 1996, a detachment of 256 militants under the command of field commanders Salman Raduev, Turpal-Ali Atgeriev and Khunkar-Pasha Israpilov raided the city of Kizlyar. Initially, the goal of the militants was a Russian helicopter base and an armory. The terrorists destroyed two Mi-8 transport helicopters and took several hostages from among the soldiers guarding the base. Russian military and law enforcement agencies began to pull up to the city, so the terrorists seized the hospital and the maternity hospital, driving about 3,000 more civilians there. This time, the Russian authorities did not give the order to storm the hospital, so as not to increase anti-Russian sentiment in Dagestan. During the negotiations, it was possible to agree on providing the militants with buses to the border with Chechnya in exchange for the release of the hostages, who were supposed to be dropped off at the very border. On January 10, a convoy with militants and hostages moved to the border. When it became clear that the terrorists would leave for Chechnya, the bus convoy was stopped by warning shots. Taking advantage of the confusion of the Russian leadership, the militants captured the village of Pervomaiskoye, disarming the police checkpoint located there. Negotiations were held from January 11 to 14, and an unsuccessful assault on the village took place on January 15-18. In parallel with the assault on Pervomaisky, on January 16, in the Turkish port of Trabzon, a group of terrorists seized the Avrazia passenger ship with threats to shoot the Russian hostages if the assault was not stopped. After two days of negotiations, the terrorists surrendered to the Turkish authorities.

The loss of the Russian side, according to official figures, amounted to 78 people dead and several hundred wounded.

On March 6, 1996, several detachments of militants attacked Grozny, which was controlled by Russian troops, from various directions. The militants captured the Staropromyslovsky district of the city, blocked and fired at Russian checkpoints and checkpoints. Despite the fact that Grozny remained under the control of the Russian armed forces, the separatists, when withdrawing, took with them stocks of food, medicine and ammunition. The losses of the Russian side, according to official figures, amounted to 70 people killed and 259 wounded.

On April 16, 1996, a column of the 245th motorized rifle regiment of the Russian Armed Forces, moving to Shatoi, was ambushed in the Argun Gorge near the village of Yaryshmardy. The operation was led by field commander Khattab. The militants knocked out the head and trailing column of the vehicle, thus the column was blocked and suffered significant losses - almost all armored vehicles and half of the personnel were lost.

From the very beginning of the Chechen campaign, Russian special services have repeatedly tried to eliminate the President of the CRI, Dzhokhar Dudayev. Attempts to send assassins ended in failure. It was possible to find out that Dudayev often talks on the satellite phone of the Inmarsat system.

On April 21, 1996, the Russian AWACS A-50 aircraft, on which equipment was installed for the bearing of a satellite phone signal, received an order to take off. At the same time, Dudayev's cortege left for the area of ​​the village of Gekhi-Chu. Having unfolded his phone, Dudayev contacted Konstantin Borov. At that moment, the signal from the phone was intercepted, and two Su-25 attack aircraft took off. When the aircraft reached the target, two missiles were fired at the cortege, one of which hit the target directly.

By a closed decree of Boris Yeltsin, several military pilots were awarded the title of Hero of the Russian Federation

37. Negotiations with separatists (May - July 1996)

Despite some successes of the Russian Armed Forces (the successful elimination of Dudayev, the final capture of the settlements of Goiskoye, Stary Achkhoy, Bamut, Shali), the war began to take on a protracted character. In the context of the forthcoming presidential elections, the Russian leadership decided once again to negotiate with the separatists.

On May 27-28, a meeting of the Russian and Ichkerian (headed by Zelimkhan Yandarbiev) delegations took place in Moscow, at which it was possible to agree on a truce from June 1, 1996 and an exchange of prisoners. Immediately after the end of the negotiations in Moscow, Boris Yeltsin flew to Grozny, where he congratulated the Russian military on their victory over the "rebellious Dudayev regime" and announced the abolition of military duty.

On June 10, in Nazran (Republic of Ingushetia), during the next round of negotiations, an agreement was reached on the withdrawal of Russian troops from the territory of Chechnya (with the exception of two brigades), the disarmament of separatist detachments, and the holding of free democratic elections. The question of the status of the republic was temporarily postponed.

The agreements concluded in Moscow and Nazran were violated by both sides, in particular, the Russian side was in no hurry to withdraw its troops, and the Chechen field commander Ruslan Khaykhoroev took responsibility for the explosion of a regular bus in Nalchik.

On July 3, 1996, the current President of the Russian Federation, Boris Yeltsin, was re-elected to the presidency. The new Secretary of the Security Council Alexander Lebed announced the resumption of hostilities against the militants.

On July 9, after the Russian ultimatum, hostilities resumed - aircraft attacked militant bases in the mountainous Shatoisky, Vedensky and Nozhai-Yurtovsky regions.

On August 6, 1996, detachments of Chechen separatists numbering from 850 to 2,000 people again attacked Grozny. The separatists did not set out to capture the city; they blocked administrative buildings in the city center, and also fired at roadblocks and checkpoints. The Russian garrison under the command of General Pulikovsky, despite a significant superiority in manpower and equipment, could not hold the city.

Simultaneously with the storming of Grozny, the separatists also captured the cities of Gudermes (taken by them without a fight) and Argun (Russian troops held only the building of the commandant's office).

According to Oleg Lukin, it was the defeat of Russian troops in Grozny that led to the signing of the Khasavyurt ceasefire agreements.

On August 31, 1996, representatives of Russia (Chairman of the Security Council Alexander Lebed) and Ichkeria (Aslan Maskhadov) signed ceasefire agreements in the city of Khasavyurt (Dagestan). Russian troops were completely withdrawn from Chechnya, and the decision on the status of the republic was postponed until December 31, 2001.

40. The result of the war was the signing of the Khasavyurt agreements and the withdrawal of Russian troops. Chechnya has again become de facto independent, but de jure unrecognized by any country in the world (including Russia) as a state.

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42. Destroyed houses and villages were not restored, the economy was exclusively criminal, however, it was criminal not only in Chechnya, so, according to the former deputy Konstantin Borovoy, kickbacks in the construction business under the contracts of the Ministry of Defense, during the First Chechen War, reached 80% of the contract amount. . Due to ethnic cleansing and hostilities, almost the entire non-Chechen population left (or was killed) Chechnya. An interwar crisis began in the republic and the growth of Wahhabism, which later led to the invasion of Dagestan, and then to the beginning of the Second Chechen War.

43. According to data released by the headquarters of the United Forces, the losses of Russian troops amounted to 4,103 people killed, 1,231 missing / deserted / captured, 19,794 wounded

44. According to the Committee of Soldiers' Mothers, the losses amounted to at least 14,000 people killed (documented deaths according to the mothers of dead soldiers).

45. However, it should be taken into account that the data of the Committee of Soldiers' Mothers include only the losses of conscript soldiers, without taking into account the losses of contract servicemen, special unit soldiers, etc. The losses of militants, according to the Russian side, amounted to 17,391 people. According to the chief of staff of the Chechen divisions (later the President of the CRI) A.Maskhadov, the losses of the Chechen side amounted to about 3,000 people killed. According to the HRC "Memorial", the losses of militants did not exceed 2,700 people killed. The number of civilian casualties is not known for certain - according to the human rights organization Memorial, they amount to up to 50 thousand people killed. Secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation A. Lebed estimated the losses of the civilian population of Chechnya at 80,000 dead.

46. ​​On December 15, 1994, the “Mission of the Commissioner for Human Rights in the North Caucasus” began to operate in the conflict zone, which included deputies of the State Duma of the Russian Federation and a representative of “Memorial” (later called the “Mission of public organizations under the leadership of S. A. Kovalev "). The Kovalev Mission did not have official powers, but acted with the support of several human rights public organizations, the work of the Mission was coordinated by the Memorial Human Rights Center.

47. On December 31, 1994, on the eve of the storming of Grozny by Russian troops, Sergei Kovalev, as part of a group of State Duma deputies and journalists, negotiated with Chechen fighters and parliamentarians in the presidential palace in Grozny. When the assault began and Russian tanks and armored personnel carriers began to burn on the square in front of the palace, civilians took refuge in the basement of the presidential palace, soon wounded and captured Russian soldiers began to appear there. Correspondent Danila Galperovich recalled that Kovalev, being at the headquarters of Dzhokhar Dudayev among the militants, “was almost all the time in the basement room equipped with army radio stations,” offering Russian tankers “a way out of the city without firing if they mark the route.” According to journalist Galina Kovalskaya, who was there, after they were shown burning Russian tanks in the city center,

48. According to the Institute of Human Rights headed by Kovalev, this episode, as well as Kovalev's entire human rights and anti-war position, became the reason for a negative reaction from the military leadership, government officials, as well as numerous supporters of the “state” approach to human rights. In January 1995, the State Duma adopted a draft resolution in which his work in Chechnya was recognized as unsatisfactory: as Kommersant wrote, "because of his "one-sided position" aimed at justifying illegal armed groups." In March 1995, the State Duma removed Kovalev from the post of Commissioner for Human Rights in Russia, according to Kommersant, "for his statements against the war in Chechnya"

49. Since the beginning of the conflict, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has launched a massive relief program, providing more than 250,000 internally displaced people with food parcels, blankets, soap, warm clothes and plastic covers in the first months. In February 1995, of the 120,000 inhabitants remaining in Grozny, 70,000 thousand were completely dependent on ICRC assistance. In Grozny, the water supply and sewerage system was completely destroyed, and the ICRC hastily set about organizing the supply of the city drinking water. In the summer of 1995, about 750,000 liters of chlorinated water per day, to meet the needs of more than 100,000 residents, was delivered by tank trucks to 50 distribution points throughout Grozny. Over the next year, 1996, more than 230 million liters of drinking water were produced for the inhabitants of the North Caucasus.

51. During 1995-1996, the ICRC carried out a number of assistance programs for the victims of the armed conflict. Its delegates visited about 700 people detained by federal forces and Chechen fighters in 25 places of detention in Chechnya itself and neighboring regions, delivered more than 50,000 letters on Red Cross letterhead, which became the only opportunity for separated families to establish contact with each other, so as all forms of communication were interrupted. The ICRC provided medicines and medical supplies to 75 hospitals and medical institutions in Chechnya, North Ossetia, Ingushetia and Dagestan, participated in the rehabilitation and provision of medicines to hospitals in Grozny, Argun, Gudermes, Shali, Urus-Martan and Shatoi, provided regular assistance to nursing homes and orphanages shelters.