The feat of Russian tankers-penalty box in 1992

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

In the officers' hostel, three young officers dismissed from the armed forces "for discrediting the officer rank" arranged a "dump" with drinking alcoholic beverages. At 15.30, about 200 armed Georgian guards broke into the territory of the regiment.

They immediately blocked the entrances of the buildings, preventing anyone from leaving. The officers and warrant officers who ran from the city to the noise of gunfire were also cut off. The attackers did not know to block the buildings from the rear. When the shooting began, the officers who took on the chest jumped out of the window, reached the fleet of military vehicles, brought in three tanks (one officer per tank) and began crushing the attackers and their vehicles with tracks. Moreover, there was no ammunition in the tanks.

The attackers clearly miscalculated when they released several of the arrested soldiers in the regimental guardhouse, expecting to see them as their allies. "Gubari" immediately disarmed their "liberators" and entered the battle. The attackers also did not expect that there would be two paratroopers in the regiment, who had come to get bread for their unit. The balance of forces was: one of ours against 20 militants.

Moreover, ours defended themselves mainly with selected weapons. They acted spontaneously, without any guidance. According to official data, 12 guardsmen were killed on the Georgian side, 20 were wounded and 28 were taken prisoner. The rest retreated in disorder, abandoning their vehicles at the regiment's fence. From our side, senior lieutenant Andrei Rodionov, captain Pavel Pichugin and 8-year-old girl Marina Savostina were killed, six of our servicemen were injured. The girl who was swimming in the outdoor pool was deliberately finished off by a stoned Georgian sniper.

Amazing things happened next. Immediately after the end of the battle, a passenger car drove into the regiment without any security, in which were the deputy commander of the ZakVO, Lieutenant General Beppaev, the Georgian Minister of Defense Kitovani and the Deputy Prime Minister of Georgia Kavkadze. General Beppaev publicly swore at the losses. True, none of those present did not understand the loss of which side he had in mind. Nearby stood dejectedly dressed servicemen - some only in boots and shorts, who also wore a torn T-shirt, that is, they fought in what the militants found them in. Beppaev shouted (wrote down from the words of eyewitnesses): “Scum! Bastards! What have you done?"

Then the general ordered the immediate release of the prisoners, although an investigation of the bloody incident was required. On the contrary, the regiment began to identify those servicemen who took up arms and fired. All the heroes of that battle disowned everything. The arriving paratroopers, having not received bread, quietly retreated. In a few days, the regiment was disbanded, and all its weapons were transferred to the Georgian side. The question is, why did the two young officers and the little girl die?

I managed to meet at the district hospital with some of the participants in that clash. They told me that all the personnel of the regiment, including family members, were ordered to remain silent. The officers dismissed from the armed forces for discrediting the officer rank and who played a decisive role in defeating the attackers were immediately sent by plane to Russia. It must be admitted that they accomplished a feat and were worthy of military awards. I am very sorry that at one time I did not write down their names. They did what they were taught and brought up in a military school.

This whole story, in my opinion, was an obvious set-up. How else to explain the following facts? The day before the attack, all officers and soldiers were ordered to surrender their personal weapons. On the day of the attack, the regimental commander and chief of staff had allegedly (and maybe really) gone to a meeting at the headquarters of the ZakVO. The regiment officers were given a day off. The units had a minimum number of servicemen. Soon after that battle, I had to be at the Georgian General Staff. This was the first day of the Georgian-Abkhaz war (August 14, 1992). I was ordered to come to an agreement with the Georgian military leadership in order to exclude a combat impact on air defense units. They asked me with surprise why resistance was shown in Gori - after all, there was an agreement in advance on the transfer of the regiment's tanks for their subsequent use against the Abkhaz.

By the way, the leader of the attackers, Besik Kutateladze, was killed in that battle. He was proclaimed a national hero and buried with state honors in the Tbilisi Pantheon. Our murdered Russians were sent to Russia without proper honors in hastily knocked together wooden boxes as "cargo 200".

I will tell you about another feat that shocked me even more than what happened in Gori. On July 10, 1992, Lieutenant Alexander Shapovalov with four paratroopers, by order of his command, transported an anti-aircraft twin installation in a Ural vehicle from Gyumri to Yerevan. They were the last in the column and left behind. In the very center of Gyumri, the car was blocked by Armenian militants. In a completely hopeless situation, the lieutenant refused to surrender his weapon and car. The militants opened heavy fire on our servicemen. Then 102 bullets were seized from the car. Together with the lieutenant, sergeants Yevgeny Poddubnyak and Oleg Yudintsev, privates Mikhail Karpov and Nikolai Maslennikov were killed. The honor of a Russian officer and a Russian soldier was dearer to them than their own lives.

Author - Valery Simonov - retired colonel, intelligence chief of the 19th separate air defense army in the ZakVO (1989-1993). He currently works as a translator for a German company and as a lecturer at the Russian State Social University.