Storming of Amin's Palace
In 1978, a coup d'etat took place in Afghanistan, after which the People's Democratic Party led by Taraki came to power. But very soon a civil war broke out in the country. The opponents of the authorities loyal to Moscow, the radical Islamist Mujahideen, who enjoy the support of a considerable number of the population, were rapidly advancing towards Kabul. In the situation that had arisen, Taraki conjured the entry of Soviet troops into his country. Otherwise, he blackmailed Moscow with the fall of his regime, which would unequivocally lead the USSR to the loss of all positions in Afghanistan.
However, in September, Taraki was unexpectedly overthrown by his colleague Amin, dangerous for Moscow because he was an unprincipled usurper of power, ready to easily change his external patrons.
At the same time, the political situation around Afghanistan was heating up. In the late 1970s, during cold war» The CIA was actively involved in creating a "New Great Ottoman Empire with the inclusion of the southern republics of the USSR. According to some reports, the Americans even intended to deploy the Basmachi movement in Central Asia in order to later access the uranium of the Pamirs. On South Soviet Union there was no reliable air defense system, which, if American Pershing missiles were deployed in Afghanistan, would endanger many vital facilities, including the Baikonur Cosmodrome. Afghan uranium deposits could be used by Pakistan and Iran to create nuclear weapons. And? In addition, the Kremlin received information that the President of Afghanistan, Amin, may be collaborating with the CIA ...
Even before the final decision was made - and it took place in early December 1979 - to eliminate the president of Afghanistan, the so-called "Muslim" battalion of 700 people had already arrived in Kabul in November. It was formed a few months earlier from special forces soldiers who were of Asian origin or simply looked like Asians. Soldiers and officers of the battalion wore Afghan military uniforms. Officially, their goal was to protect the Afghan dictator Hafizullah Amin, whose residence was in the Taj Beck Palace in the southwestern part of Kabul. Amin, on whose life several attempts had already been made, feared only his fellow tribesmen. Therefore, the Soviet soldiers seemed to him the most reliable support. They were placed near the palace.
Afghan Mujahideen
In addition to the "Muslim" battalion, special groups of the KGB of the USSR, subordinate to foreign intelligence, and a detachment of the GRU of the General Staff were transferred to Afghanistan. At the request of Amin, it was planned to bring a "limited contingent" of Soviet troops into Afghanistan. The Afghan army already had Soviet military advisers. Amin was treated exclusively by Soviet doctors. All this gave a special character to the event to overthrow and eliminate him.
The security system of the Taj Beck Palace was - with the help of our advisers - organized carefully and thoughtfully, taking into account all its engineering features and the nature of the surrounding area, which made it difficult for attackers. Inside the palace, the guards of X. Amin, consisting of his relatives and especially trusted people, served. In their free time from service in the palace, they lived in the immediate vicinity of the palace, in an adobe house, and were constantly on alert. The second line consisted of seven posts, each of which had four sentries armed with machine guns, grenade launchers and machine guns. The outer ring of protection was provided by three motorized rifle and tank battalions of the security brigade. On one of the dominant heights, two T-54 tanks were dug in, which could shoot through the area adjacent to the palace with direct fire. There were two and a half thousand people in the security brigade. In addition, anti-aircraft and construction regiments were located nearby.
The operation to eliminate Amin itself was code-named "Storm-333". The scenario of the coup looked like this: on day X, the fighters of the Muslim battalion, taking advantage of the fact that outwardly they are indistinguishable from the Afghan military, capture the general headquarters, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Puli-Charkhi prison, where thousands of Amin’s opponents were kept, a radio station and telephone nodes, some other objects. At the same time, an assault group of 50 people, staffed by KGB foreign intelligence special forces officers (Grom and Zenit groups), breaks into Amin's palace and eliminates the latter. At the same time, two divisions of the Airborne Forces (103rd and 104th) landed at the Bagram airfield, which is the main base of the Afghan Air Force, which completely took control of the base and sent several battalions to Kabul to help the Muslim battalion. At the same time, tanks and armored personnel carriers of the Soviet army begin an invasion of Afghanistan through state border.
Preparations for hostilities to capture the palace were headed by V.V. Kolesnik, E.G. Kozlov, O.L. Shvets, Yu.M. Drozdov. The matter was complicated by the lack of a plan for the palace, which our advisers had not bothered to draw up. In addition, they could not weaken its defenses for reasons of secrecy, but on December 26 they managed to lead scouts-saboteurs into the palace, who carefully examined everything and made up its floor plan. Special Forces officers conducted reconnaissance of firing points at the nearest heights. Scouts conducted round-the-clock surveillance of the Taj Beck Palace.
By the way, while a detailed plan for storming the palace was being developed, units of the Soviet 40th Army crossed the state border of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan. This happened at 3:00 pm on December 25, 1979.
It was impossible to launch an assault without capturing the dug-in tanks, which held all the approaches to the palace at gunpoint. To capture them, 15 people and two snipers from the KGB were allocated.
In order not to arouse suspicion ahead of time, the “Muslim” battalion began to carry out diversionary actions: shooting, going out on alarm and occupying established defense sectors, deployment, etc. At night, they launched flares. Because of the severe frost, the engines of armored personnel carriers and military vehicles were warmed up so that they could be started immediately on a signal. At first, this caused concern to the command of the palace guard brigade. But they were reassured, explaining that the usual training was going on, and rockets were being launched to exclude the possibility of a surprise attack by the Mujahideen on the palace. The "exercises" continued on the 25th, 26th and the first half of the day on December 27th.
On December 26, in order to establish closer relations in the “Muslim” battalion, a reception was held for the command of the Afghan brigade. They ate and drank a lot, toasts were proclaimed for military commonwealth, for Soviet-Afghan friendship ...
Immediately before the storming of the palace, a special group of the KGB blew up the so-called "well" - the central node of the palace's secret connection with the most important military and civilian facilities in Afghanistan.
The advisers who were in the Afghan units received different tasks: some had to stay in the units for the night, organize a dinner for the commanders (for this they were given alcohol and food) and in no case prevent the Afghan troops from speaking out against the Soviet ones. Others, on the contrary, were ordered not to stay in the units for a long time. Only specially trained people remained.
Unsuspecting Amin expressed his joy at the entry of Soviet troops into Afghanistan and ordered the Chief of General Staff Mohammed Yakub to establish cooperation with their command. Amin arranged a dinner for members of the Politburo and ministers. Later he was going to appear on television.
However, this was prevented by one strange circumstance. Some participants of the dinner were suddenly drawn to sleep, some lost consciousness. "Disconnected" and Amin himself. His wife raised the alarm. Doctors were called from the Afghan hospital and from the clinic of the Soviet embassy. Products and pomegranate juice were immediately sent for examination, Uzbek chefs were arrested. What was it? Most likely a strong, but not a lethal dose of sleeping pills, in order to literally "lull" the vigilance of Amin and his entourage. Although who knows….
Perhaps this was the first, but failed attempt to eliminate Amin. Then there would be no need to storm the palace and dozens and hundreds of lives would be saved. But one way or another, Soviet doctors prevented this. There was a whole group of them - five men and two women. They immediately diagnosed "mass poisoning" and immediately began to provide assistance to the victims. Doctors, colonels of the medical service V. Kuznechenkov and A. Alekseev, fulfilling the Hippocratic oath and not knowing that they were violating someone's plans, set about saving the president.
The one who sent the doctors did not know that they were not needed there.
The palace guards immediately took additional security measures: set up external posts, tried to contact tank brigade. The brigade was brought to a state of combat readiness, but did not receive an order to march, because the special communications well had already been blown up.
The coup began at 19:30 on December 27, 1979, when two special forces - the GRU of the General Staff and the KGB? - began a special operation in close cooperation. With a dashing "cavalry" raid on a GAZ-66 car, a group led by Captain Satarov managed to capture dug-in tanks, take them out of the trenches and headed towards the palace.
Anti-aircraft self-propelled guns began to hit the palace with direct fire. Subdivisions of the "Muslim" battalion advanced to the destination areas. A company of infantry fighting vehicles moved towards the palace. On ten infantry fighting vehicles, two KGB groups were deployed as landing troops. The general management of them was carried out by Colonel G.I. Boyarinov. The infantry fighting vehicles shot down the outer guard posts and rushed to the Taj Beck along a narrow mountain road, serpentine rising up. The first BMP was hit. The crew members and the landing force left it and began to climb the mountain with the help of assault ladders. The second BMP pushed the wrecked car into the abyss and cleared the way for the rest. Soon they were on a level ground in front of the palace. A group of Colonel Boyarinov who jumped out of one car rushed into the palace. The fighting immediately took on a fierce character.
The commandos rushed forward, frightening the enemy with shots, wild cries and loud Russian obscenities. By the way, it was by this last sign that they recognized their own in the dark, and not by the white armbands on the sleeves, which were not visible. If they did not leave any room with their hands up, then the door was broken open and grenades flew into the room. So the fighters moved up the corridors and labyrinths of the palace. When assault groups scouts-saboteurs broke into the palace, the special forces of the "Muslim" battalion who participated in the battle created a ring of fire, destroying all life around and protecting the attackers. The officers and soldiers of Amin's personal guard and his personal bodyguards desperately resisted without surrendering: they mistook the attackers for their own rebellious part, from which no mercy could be expected. But, having heard Russian shouts and obscenities, they began to raise their hands - after all, many of them were trained at the landing school in Ryazan. And they surrendered to the Russians because they considered them the highest and just power.
The battle was not only in the palace. One of the units managed to cut off the personnel of the tank battalion from the tanks, and then capture these tanks. The special group took an entire anti-aircraft regiment and its weapons. Almost without a fight, the building of the Ministry of Defense of Afghanistan was captured. Only the chief of the general staff, Mohammad Yakub, barricaded himself in one of the offices and began to call for help on the radio. But, making sure that no one was in a hurry to help him, he gave up. The Afghan, who accompanied the Soviet paratroopers, immediately read out the death sentence to him and shot him on the spot.
Meanwhile, strings of released opponents of the regime of the overthrown dictator were already stretching out of prison.
What was happening at that time with Amin and the Soviet doctors? Here is what Yu.I. Drozdov in his documentary book "Fiction is excluded":
“Soviet doctors hid wherever they could. At first they thought that the Mujahideen attacked, then N.M.'s supporters. Taraki. Only later, upon hearing a Russian swear word, did they realize that Soviet servicemen were operating.
A. Alekseev and V. Kuznechenkov, who were supposed to go to help the daughter of X. Amin (she had a baby), after the start of the assault, found "shelter" at the bar. Some time later, they saw Amin walking along the corridor, all in the reflections of the fire. He was in white shorts and a T-shirt, holding vials of saline solution in his hands, entwined with tubes, raised high, like grenades. One could only imagine how much effort it cost him and how they pricked the needles inserted into the cubital veins.
A. Alekseev, running out of hiding, first of all pulled out the needles, pressing the veins with his fingers so that blood would not ooze, and then brought him to the bar. X. Amin leaned against the wall, but then a child's cry was heard - from somewhere in the side room, Amin's five-year-old son was walking, smearing his tears with his fists. Seeing his father, he rushed to him, grabbed his legs. X. Amin pressed his head to him, and the two of them sat down against the wall.
According to the testimony of the participants in the assault, a doctor, Colonel Kuznechenkov, was hit by a fragment of a grenade in the conference room. However, Alekseev, who was next to him all the time, claims that when the two of them were hiding in the conference room, some submachine gunner, having jumped in there, fired a line into the darkness just in case. One of the bullets hit Kuznechenkov. He screamed and died immediately...
Meanwhile, a KGB special group broke through to the premises where Hafizullah Amin was, and during the shootout he was killed by an officer of this group. Amin's corpse was wrapped in a carpet and taken out.
The number of Afghans killed has never been established. They, along with Amin's two young sons, were buried in a mass grave near the Taj Beck Palace. The corpse of X. Amin, wrapped in a carpet, was buried there that same night, but separately from the others. No tombstone was placed.
The surviving members of Amin's family were imprisoned by the new Afghan authorities in Puli-Charkhi prison, where they replaced N.M.'s family. Taraki. Even Amin's daughter, whose legs were broken during the battle, ended up in a cell with a cold concrete floor. But mercy was alien to people whose relatives and friends were destroyed by order of Amin. Now they took revenge.
The battle in the courtyard did not last long - only 43 minutes. When everything was quiet, V.V. Kolesnik and Yu.I. Drozdov moved the command post to the palace.
That evening, the losses of the special forces (according to Yu.I. Drozdov) amounted to four killed and 17 wounded. Colonel G.I., the general head of the KGB special groups, was killed. Boyarinov. In the "Muslim" battalion, 5 people were killed, 35 were wounded, of which 23 remained in the ranks.
It is likely that in the turmoil of the night battle, some people suffered from their own. The next morning, the special forces disarmed the remnants of the guard brigade. More than 1,400 people surrendered. However, even after lifting white flag shots were fired from the roof of the building, one Russian officer and two soldiers were killed.
The wounded and surviving KGB special forces were sent to Moscow just a couple of days after the assault. And on January 7, 1980, the “Muslim” battalion also left Kabul. All participants in the operation - living and dead - were awarded the Order of the Red Star.
“On that dramatic night in Kabul, there was not just another coup d'état,” an officer of the “Muslim” battalion later recalled, “in which power passed from the hands of the Khalqists into the hands of the Parchamists, supported by the Soviet side, but the beginning of a sharp intensification of civil war in Afghanistan. A tragic page was opened both in Afghan history and in the history of the Soviet Union. Soldiers and officers - participants in the December events - sincerely believed in the justice of their mission, that they were helping the Afghan people to get rid of Amin's tyranny and, having fulfilled their international duty, would return to their home.
Soviet strategists, even in a nightmare, could not foresee what awaited them: 20 million highlanders, proud and warlike, fanatically believing in the tenets of Islam, would soon rise to fight against foreigners.
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With the beginning of the autumn of 1979, an aggravation of the internal situation took place in Afghanistan. The Islamic opposition began armed uprisings, which gave rise to mutinies in the army. The intra-party struggle in the ranks of the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan led first to the arrest of its leader N. Taraki, and then to his murder on the orders of Hafizullah Amin, who removed him from power.
All these events could not but cause serious concern among the leadership of the Soviet Union, which carefully followed the actions of Amin, being well aware of the latter's ambitions and his personal cruelty in achieving his goals.
Hafizullah Amin: traitor, nationalist or American spy?
The figure of H. Amin was very controversial. After graduating first from a higher pedagogical school, and then from the faculty of science at the University of Kabul in his homeland, he continued his education at Columbia University College in New York in the USA. It was there that Amin's passion for Marxist teaching began. According to former employee KGB V. Shironin somewhere in 1958 began cooperation between Amin and the CIA, Shironin mentions this in his book “KGB - CIA. Secret springs of perestroika. Returning to his homeland, Amin gained a reputation as a Pashto nationalist, and when he was transferred from PDPA candidate to full member in 1968, it was noted that as a person he compromised himself with "fascist features."
Hafizullah Amin
Former Afghan Prime Minister Sultan Ali Keshtmand in his book Political Records and historical events called the period of Amin's rule a dark spot in the history of Afghanistan, since the latter, having concentrated all the levers of power in his hands, thereby created a totalitarian regime in the country. Under Amin, a real terror unfolded in Afghanistan, the repression of which affected both the Islamists and former supporters of Taraki, and, most importantly, the army, the main pillar of the PDPA, which gave rise to mass desertions.
The Soviet leadership was quite justifiably worried that the weakening of the army could lead to the fall of the PDPA regime and the possibility of unfriendly forces of the USSR coming to power in the country. In addition, the secret services of the Soviet Union knew about Amin's ties with the CIA since the 1960s and about today, after the assassination of Taraki, secret contacts of his envoys with American officials. Since the Amin regime did not enjoy support among the inhabitants of Afghanistan and his position as president was very fragile, Hafizullah could well allow the deployment of NATO military bases on the territory of his country. But the leadership of the Soviet Union could not in any way allow the development of such a scenario and the appearance, according to it, of the troops of a potential enemy at its borders.
On December 12, 1979, a meeting of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU was convened, the resolution of which was the secret resolution "On the situation in Afghanistan." The Soviet leadership decided to eliminate H. Amin and bring to power a leader more loyal to the USSR - B. Karmal, who was then the Afghan ambassador to Czechoslovakia and whose candidacy was proposed by the chairman of the KGB, Yu. Andropov.
"On the Situation in Afghanistan" looked something like this:
- Approve the considerations and activities set out in vols. Andropov Yu. V., Ustinov D. F., Gromyko A. A. Allow them to make adjustments of an unprincipled nature during the implementation of these measures. Questions that require the decision of the Central Committee must be submitted to the Politburo in a timely manner. The implementation of all these measures is to be assigned to TT. Andropova Yu. V., Ustinova D. F., Gromyko A. A.
- Instruct tt. Yu.V.
It was also decided to send a limited contingent of Soviet troops to Afghanistan to stabilize the situation. It should be mentioned that since the beginning of December, the so-called “Muslim battalion” has been stationed in the city of Bagram (Afghanistan). Soviet army to protect President Taraki and perform special tasks in Afghanistan. "Muslim battalions" called formations special purpose The Soviet Army (GRU) of the USSR Armed Forces, which were formed to serve in Afghanistan and were staffed by officers and military personnel of Central Asian nationalities, which potentially should not have been hostile to the Muslim inhabitants of Afghanistan. The operation to overthrow the Amin regime was planned to be carried out by the forces of the 154th detachment of Kh. T. Khalbaev and the OSN "Zenith" of the KGB of the USSR, which was legendary for the 6th company of the "Musbat" and consisted of the most trained employees from among the commanders of operational combat groups.
On December 9 and 10, the personnel of the 154th special forces detachment were airlifted to the base in Bagram. All the upcoming events were part of a single operational plan, the plan of which was approved by representatives of the KGB of the USSR and the USSR Ministry of Defense. The future potential chief leaders of the new government of Afghanistan, including Babrak Karmal, were brought in and placed at the air force base in Bagram, where they were taken under guard by members of the anti-terrorist unit of the KGB of the USSR. Analysts, having studied the decision-making system under Amin, singled out only three people who could lead and give orders to the forces in Kabul. These were Amin himself, Chief of the General Staff Mahammad Yakub and the head of the security service Asadullah, by the way, he was the nephew of the dictator. Therefore, in the first place it was necessary to neutralize precisely these persons.
The operation was divided into several stages. It was planned to "help" the "healthy forces in the PDPA" eliminate the central three with the help of Soviet agents. Then, Soviet units should be thrown out of Bagram and, together with the forces of Amin's opponents united among themselves from the Khalq and Parcham factions, important state and strategic objects in Kabul were captured. And, avoiding the occurrence of complications, the stabilization of the situation in the country under the control of Soviet troops. On December 25, the entry of a limited contingent of Soviet troops into Afghanistan began.
On December 27, the 103rd Guards Airborne Division landed in Kabul, which, blocking Afghan aviation and air defense batteries, established control over the airport. Other units of this division began to block the main government offices, Afghan military units, important objects in the city and its environs. Control was also established over the Bagram airfield.
The assault on Amin's palace: a chronology of events
Directly in charge of the assault on the Taj Beck, as Amin's palace was called, was entrusted to KGB Colonel Boyarinov G.I., then head of the Advanced Courses for Officers of the KGB of the USSR. Two groups were under his command: "Thunder", of 24 fighters of the Alpha group under the command of M. M. Romanov, and "Zenith", consisting of 30 officers of the special reserve of the KGB of the USSR with commander Semenov Ya.F. The “second echelon” of cover was 520 “Musbat” fighters under the command of Kh.T. Khalbaev. and the 9th company of the 345th separate guards airborne regiment, 80 fighters with commander V. Vostrotin at the head. All Soviet soldiers participating in the assault wore Afghan military uniform with no insignia. Only a white bandage on the sleeve could serve identification mark for his own and shouting-passwords Yasha "-" Misha ".
On December 27, in the afternoon, during a solemn dinner on the occasion of the return from Moscow of the Secretary of the Central Committee of the PDPA Panjshiri, many guests and H. Amin himself felt unwell, some, including Amin, lost consciousness. This made itself felt by the so-called "special event" of the KGB. Since the date of the gala dinner was known in advance, and there was an opportunity to prepare, an illegal immigrant introduced into the environment of Amin’s guards mixed a powder into the food during the reception, which caused food, non-fatal poisoning of the Afghan President and his closest associates. Before the start of the operation, it was necessary to put the country's leadership out of action, at least for a while. Medical assistance was urgently called from the Central Military Hospital and the clinic of the Soviet embassy. Food and drinks were sent for urgent examination, and the chefs were detained. The incident alerted the guards and an alarm was declared.
By an evil irony of fate, it was the Soviet doctors who were involved in saving Amin, who had no idea about the planned operation to overthrow the dictator. There are memories of S. Konovalenko, a colonel in the medical service of the reserve, who was sent to Afghanistan as part of a surgical team in May 1979 at the invitation of the Afghan government. With the outbreak of the civil war, many local doctors left the country and Afghanistan was in great need of doctors, especially surgeons. On December 27, 1979, Dr. Tutokhel, chief surgeon of Afghanistan, lieutenant colonel of the medical service, came for a team of Soviet doctors, saying that it was urgent to go to the Palace. Military surgeons Alekseev A. and Konovalenko S., anesthesiologist Shanin A. and therapist Kuznichenko V. immediately went there. Passing through the meeting room, they saw an unusual picture - members of the government, and there were about eight of them, either asleep or unconscious. On the table were various drinks, snacks ... The doctors were quickly led past, straight to Amin's office, where in the back room he lay unconscious on the bed. Doctors began to bring him to his senses, using all the means necessary for this. When Amin came to his senses 20 minutes later, he immediately, taking a machine gun, went somewhere, accompanied by guards. According to the doctors, both Amin and the members of the government were not poisoned, most likely they were given sleeping pills to “turn off” for some time. Having done their job, the doctors were about to leave the palace, but literally immediately shooting began and suddenly the lights went out everywhere, explosions were heard. S. Konovalenko recalled: “Everyone was shooting, from all sides, and we were lying on the floor. The darkness is complete. The attackers, occupying every room, certainly fired. Those who burst into ours shouted - “Are there Russians?” and when they heard our answer, they were very happy that they finally found us. In this assault, the doctor Kuznichenko V.
The assault on the Taj Beck began on December 27, 1979 at 19:30 local time. Soviet snipers removed sentries from the tanks, which were dug into the ground next to the palace. Then the Shilka self-propelled anti-aircraft guns opened fire on the palace and on the location of the Afghan tank guard battalion in order to prevent the Afghan crews from reaching the tanks. The musbat fighters blocked the security battalion with dense fire, preventing them from getting out of the barracks. Under this cover, the KGB special forces in four armored personnel carriers headed for the palace. Once in the building, the attackers "cleaned" floor after floor, firing machine guns and using grenades in the premises.
The battle that began in the palace building was fierce. Only a group of twenty-five fighters managed to break inside, and many of them were wounded. The commandos acted desperately and decisively. Colonel Boyarinov died, who could not send his subordinates to storm, and he himself would lead the battle from headquarters. He not only coordinated the actions of special forces groups, but actually acted as a simple attack aircraft. The officers and soldiers of Amin's personal guard, and there were about 150 of them, resisted staunchly, not surrendering. But basically they were all armed with German MP-5 submachine guns, which did not penetrate Soviet body armor, so their resistance was doomed in advance. According to the adjutant Amin, who was later taken prisoner, the "master" last minute doubted that he had been attacked by Soviet troops. When the smoke from the explosions cleared and the shooting stopped, the body of the dead Amin was found near the bar. It remains unclear what exactly caused his death: a commando bullet, or a fragment of a grenade, or maybe the Afghans themselves shot him (there was such an assumption).
Let's not forget these dead soldiers from the 345th Opdp and the 154th OoSpN ("Muslim Battalion"), together with the KGB officers of the USSR 21 people: !!!
They were the first to die in this war. On December 27, 1979, the Dar-ul-Aman (Taj-Bek) palace, also known as "Amin's Palace", was stormed.
Eternal memory to them!
345th OPDP (separate airborne regiment):
GOLOVNYA Oleg Pavlovich
(01.01.1960 - 27.12.1979)
Corporal, ATGM operator. Born on 01/01/1960. on the farm Bolshoi Log, Aksakai district Rostov region. He worked as a repairman at the Rosselmash plant in Rostov-on-Don. He was drafted into the Armed Forces of the USSR on 11/11/1978. Aksakay RVC.
Buried at home.
DVOYNIKOV Alexey Sergeevich
(13.03.1960 - 27.12.1979)
Junior sergeant, squad leader. Born on 03/13/1960. in the city of Sterlitamak, Bashkri Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. He worked at the plant named after Lenin in Serlitamak. He was drafted into the Armed Forces of the USSR on 04/23/1978. Sterlitamak RVC.
In the Republic of Afghanistan since December 1979.
Died 12/27/1979. during the storming of the Taj Beck Palace.
For courage and bravery awarded the order Red Star (posthumously).
Buried at home.
KALMAGAMBETOV Amandelgi Shamshitovich
(17.06.1960 - 27.12.1979)
Corporal, grenade launcher. Born on 06/17/1960. in Karaganda. He worked as a miner at the Sarnaskaya mine. He was drafted into the Armed Forces of the USSR on 11/02/1978. Soviet RVC of Karaganda.
In the Republic of Afghanistan since December 1979.
Died 12/27/1979. during the storming of the Taj Beck Palace.
For courage and courage he was awarded the Order of the Red Star (posthumously).
He was buried in the cemetery of Karaganda-sorting station.
KASHKIN Valery Yurievich
(24.04.1959 - 27.12.1979)
Private, senior shooter. Born on 04/24/1959. in the city of Jalala-Abad Osh, Kirghiz SSR. He worked as a carpenter. He was drafted into the Armed Forces of the USSR on May 9, 1978. Jalalabad GVK.
In the Republic of Afghanistan since December 1979.
Died 12/27/1979. during the storming of the Taj Beck Palace.
For courage and courage he was awarded the Order of the Red Star (posthumously).
Buried at home.
OCHKIN Vladimir Ivanovich
(15.01.1961 - 27.12.1979)
Private, shooter. Born on 01/15/1961. in the village of Maiskoye, Pervomaisky district Altai Territory. He worked as an electrician in the Khimvolokno Production Association in Barnaul. He was drafted into the Armed Forces of the USSR on May 10, 1979. Oktyabrsky RVC in Barnaul.
In the Republic of Afghanistan since December 1979.
Died 12/27/1979. during the storming of the Taj Beck Palace.
For courage and courage he was awarded the Order of the Red Star (posthumously).
Buried at home.
POVOROZNYUK Vladimir Vasilievich
Data on the All-Union Book of Memory is not available
SAVOSKIN Vladimir Vasilievich
(01.04.1960 - 27.12.1979)
Private, anti-aircraft gunner. Born on 04/01/1960. in the village of Ust-Lukovka, Ordynsky district Novosibirsk region. He worked as a turner at the Altai Tractor Equipment Plant in Rubtsovsk. He was drafted into the Armed Forces of the USSR on 04/23/1979. Rubtsovsky GVK.
In the Republic of Afghanistan since December 1979.
Died 12/27/1979. during the storming of the Taj Beck Palace.
For courage and courage he was awarded the Order of the Red Star (posthumously).
Buried at home.
SHELESTOV Mikhail Vasilievich
(25.11.1960 - 27.12.1979)
Private, senior radiotelegrapher. Born on 11/25/1960. in the village of Zimari, Kalmansky district, Altai Territory. He worked as a grinder at a hardware and mechanical plant in Barnaul. He was drafted into the Armed Forces of the USSR on May 10, 1979. Central RVC of Barnaul.
In the Republic of Afghanistan since December 1979.
Died 12/27/1979. during the storming of the Taj Beck Palace.
For courage and courage he was awarded the Order of the Red Star (posthumously).
Buried in Barnaul.
154th OoSpN ("Muslim battalion"):
Kurbanov Khojanenes
(25.04.1959 - 27.12.1979)
Soldier, grenade launcher. Born on 04/25/1959. in the village of Kum-Dag, Krasnovodsk district Turkmen SSR. He worked in the city of Kizil-Arvat at a car repair plant. He was drafted into the Armed Forces of the USSR on 11/02/1978. Kizil-Arvatsky RVC of the Krasnovodsk region.
In the Republic of Afghanistan since December 1979.
Died 12/27/1979. during the storming of the Taj Beck Palace.
For courage and courage he was awarded the Order of the Red Star (posthumously).
He was buried at the Turkmen cemetery in Kizil-Arvat.
MAMAJANOV Abdunabi Gaidzhanovich
(05.08.1958 - 27.12.1979)
Private, shooter. Born on 08/05/1958. in the city of Osh, Kirghiz SSR. He studied at the trade technical school in Osh. He was drafted into the Armed Forces of the USSR on May 9, 1978. Osh GVK.
In the Republic of Afghanistan since December 1979.
Died 12/27/1979. during the storming of the Taj Beck Palace.
For courage and courage he was awarded the Order of the Red Star (posthumously).
He was buried in the village of Kashgar-Kyshtak, Karasu district, Osh region.
RASULMETOV Kurbantai Muradovich
(08.06.1959 - 27.12.1979)
Private, senior shooter. Born on 06/08/1959. in the city of Chimkent, Kazakh SSR. He was drafted into the Armed Forces of the USSR on 11/09/1978. Chimkent GVK.
In the Republic of Afghanistan since December 1979.
Died 12/27/1979. during the storming of the Taj Beck Palace.
For courage and courage he was awarded the Order of the Red Star (posthumously).
Sulaimanov Shokirzhon Sultanovich
(25.08.1959 - 27.12.1979)
Private, radiotelegrapher. Born on 08/25/1959. in the city of Chimkent, Kazakh SSR. He was drafted into the Armed Forces of the USSR on 11/09/1978. Chimkent GVK.
In the Republic of Afghanistan since December 1979.
Died 12/27/1979. during the storming of the Taj Beck Palace.
For courage and courage he was awarded the Order of the Red Star (posthumously).
He was buried in the Muslim cemetery of Chimkent.
Khusanov Sabirjon Kamilovich
(22.10.1959 - 27.12.1979)
Private, driver-mechanic. Born on 10/22/1959. in Tashkent. He worked as a mechanic in the village of Yanga-Sariy, Tashkent region. He was drafted into the Armed Forces of the USSR on 11/16/1978. Aklmal-Ikramovsky RVC of Tashkent.
In the Republic of Afghanistan since December 1979.
Died 12/27/1979. during the storming of the Taj Beck Palace.
For courage and courage he was awarded the Order of the Red Star (posthumously).
Buried in Tashkent.
SHERBEKOV Mirkasym Abrashimovich
(29.09.1958 - 27.12.1979)
Junior sergeant, BMP commander. Born on 09/29/1958. in the collective farm named after Sverdlov, Galabinsky district, Tashkent region. He was drafted into the Armed Forces of the USSR on 11/03/1978. Galabinsky RVC of Tashkent.
In the Republic of Afghanistan since December 1979.
Died 12/27/1979. during the storming of the Taj Beck Palace.
For courage and courage he was awarded the Order of the Red Star (posthumously).
Buried at home.
“It just so happened that it was I who eliminated Hafizullah Amin ...”
Plyusnin Alexander Nikolaevich, senior lieutenant. In the KGB - from December 1974 to 1982. Detective in the first set of group "A". Member of the Kabul operation, stormed Amin's palace.
“We were called at night, we were collecting special weapons all night, preparing for loading ... Why did we fly to Kabul, I learned from my colleagues in Bagram. They told me about the preparations for the assault. In the same place, on the territory of the military airfield, we met ours - a group of Yuri Izotov, under the protection of which were Babrak Karmal and other members of the government. They lived there, on the airfield, in caponiers, and everything was arranged so secretly that neither I nor anyone from my group knew about Karmal's whereabouts. If there was a leak, they would all be slammed by Amin's people. So everything was VERY serious. The jokes are over. Or us - or we ...
When we saw the object, which was to be taken by the forces of two platoons, we immediately fell silent. We were opposed by 200 Amin's guards, who occupied a perfectly defended "hard nut". They took the palace with the following forces: 500 people (battalion) of the GRU - “musbat” and KGB special forces. The task of "musbat" is to carry out external blocking. Some of their fighters were actually sitting behind the levers of military vehicles - ordinary conscripts, mainly of Tajik and Uzbek nationality. There were 48 of us - fighters from the KGB special forces. 24 officers from Grom and 24 from Zenith.
They began to prepare for battle. For several days, in order to dull the vigilance of the palace guards, we accustomed the guards to the noise of car engines, deliberately drove back and forth at night, practiced disembarking from the BMP on the move. To the questions of the guardsmen, they reasonably answered that we were conducting exercises. 2 days before the assault, they settled in the barracks, changed into the issued uniform of the Afghan army, sewed additional pockets for grenades and magazines on it ... They broke into fives, each dragged 45 kilos of ammunition, sat down in cars. We, the Grom group, were sitting in the BMP, the Zenit troops were in the armored personnel carriers. There were nine cars in total. Five - at "Thunder" and four - at "Zenith". On the day of the operation, I was worried, jittery. None of our real experience of military operations had ... We drank 150 grams. Before landing on the technique, I retired to tune in. I said goodbye to my family, to loved ones just in case. One of my commanders, Balashov, teased me just before the jump: "Now let's see how the saboteurs behave in battle!" It pissed me off.
The start of the assault is 19.00. Immediately, the first car was knocked out at the very top, before leaving for the upper platform near the Taj Beck. The second "armor" pushed her, and I rode in the third. In total, the guards burned two of our armored personnel carriers and damaged one infantry fighting vehicle. Perhaps our five were lucky that they managed to “bring the limousine” to the very porch, almost stopped at the steps! The entrance doors were taken out of the BMP turret cannon (one second), dismounted (two seconds) and jumped under the visor (three more seconds). I landed first. Then we covered the landing (half a minute), then, under the fire of the guards, we leaked into the hall of the palace (five minutes, or even less). In battle, time passed unusually slowly. Every jerk, every throw from column to column, from corner to wall - these seconds, they were so long, my legs didn’t want to move, and I still remember some columns, because I looked at them and thought - I’ll have time to run to cover up?
The fight itself in the lobby took another five minutes. It was necessary to act quickly. Rapidly!
At first there was chaos. We were all untouched. When you shoot live at people, and they shoot at you, when you run past your corpses, when you slip on their blood... How many guards did I kill then in battle? I honestly don't remember... Maybe five, maybe more... Knowing that our strength is getting smaller every second (we already had dead and seriously wounded), I immediately ran up the front stairs to the second floor. Kolomeets ran after me. Before reaching two steps to the top of the flight of stairs, I was forced to lie down: the fire was dense, and grenades fell like cucumbers. Some, however, did not explode ... The Afghans with whom we fought were athletic guys, under two meters tall, many were trained at the Ryazan airborne school. Anisimov removed one such athlete in front of my eyes from the “Fly”. He fired from below, from a distance of 15 meters. A tall Afghan machine gunner, who was sitting on the balcony with a light machine gun, fell with a crash from above to the floor of the marble hall. After the fall, he ... climbed into full height, walked four meters to the porch, sat down near the column and died there.
I threw a grenade at the door of the meeting room of the Council of Ministers. It was located to the left of the glass door of the dictator's private quarters. I did not calculate the force of the throw, the grenade hit the wall and bounced back towards me. Fortunately, the brace did not allow it to roll smoothly, and the explosion went into the column. I was only shell-shocked and doused with marble chips. Kolomeets could not stand the tension and ran downstairs. I do not blame him, of course, especially since he was wounded in battle. Rolling over on my back, I began to shoot prone, from the bottom up, at the guardsmen, this duel continued for another half a minute. Then I looked around and realized that on the patch in front of the entrance to the terrace of the second floor I was left ... alone. I kept firing until I ran out of ammo. I immediately found a dead corner, where bullets and shrapnel did not reach. Hiding behind the walls and taking advantage of the fact that the rapid-fire "Shilka", firing from the outside, did not allow the guardsmen to stick out in this area, I "tweeted" cartridges into the magazine from the bag. I equipped five or six magazines from a bag, and then Golov, Karpukhin, Berlev and Semenov climbed the stairs ...
So, there were five of us at this door, and we had to act. Move on. Until the guards guessed to take up an all-round defense and crushed us. I kicked the glass door open and threw a grenade inside. Deafening explosion. Then immediately a wild, heart-rending, piercing female cry “Amin! Amine! Amin! ”, Scattered through the corridors and floors. Jumping into the room, I saw Amin's wife first. She sobbed loudly, sitting over the corpse of the dictator. There was no longer any doubt that Hafizullah Amin was dead. He was lying on the floor, wearing only shorts and a T-shirt. He lay on his side, in a pool of his own blood, crooked and somehow small. It was dark in the room, we shone our flashlights and made sure that everything was ready. It just so happened that my grenade exploded in the very depths of the small room, killing Amin himself, who was hiding behind his women and children, and injuring his household. I remember that in addition to Amin's family, in the room we found our nurse from the brigade of Soviet doctors assigned to the dictator after an attempt to poison him ...
If the guards took up all-round defense and managed to hold out until the approach of their fifth tank army, then we would have had a very difficult time, but almost immediately after the elimination of Amin, his guards began to surrender. They were seated in the hall, on the floor, squatting, hands on the back of the head. And they filled the whole hall and lobby...
For the official identification of the corpse of Amin, our Afghan comrades Gulabzoya and Sarvari were invited, whom I later ordered to take out of the palace at any cost and deliver to our embassy. It took us three hours. We got drunk. Either the BMP will stall, then we will get lost. Then, after their speech on the Kabul radio, in which they spoke about the “victory of the people over the bloody dictator,” we fiddled with them for another three days until we returned to our location.
The Kabul operation of the KGB special forces entered the history of the world's special services. The history of the department had never known anything like this before. However, such was political will leadership of our state. Now I think that it was not necessary to climb there, into Afghanistan. And now I wouldn't go there. It is a pity for the Soviet guys who laid down their heads “across the river” for ten years, and those who were crippled in a foreign country, and then forgotten by our state.
I was discharged from the authorities in 1982 with the rank of senior lieutenant. After my dismissal, I could not find a job for three years. First he went to work in a factory. Welder again. Then he got a job in the security service of a hotel. I kept silent about my work in the KGB special forces for twenty years.
Later I heard a tale about the fact that in case the assault bogged down, there was an order to cover the palace itself with “Grad” with everyone who would be there. I don't know if this is true or not. Many of us believe this. There was also a rumor that the plane on which we flew home should have been shot down. Well, so as not to leave witnesses... On the other hand, why didn't they shoot down? And the assault itself, the battle itself with the guards, without cleaning up, took about forty minutes, an hour at most. But it felt like an eternity to me. We were few. The only advantage of the KGB special forces on the evening of December 27, 1979 was only speed, Russian mate and luck. I often think of that evening in December. Many of the KGB special forces consider December 27 their second birthday.
* * *
“In the hospital, we danced for joy that we had survived in hell near Kabul ...”
Repin Alexander Georgievich, colonel of the KGB of the USSR, work in the KGB - from 1974 to 1998, detective in the second set of Group "A" since 1978.
At the time when the Kabul epic started, I was in the rank of ensign and I was only 26 years old. I, like most of my colleagues in the Group, was born in peacetime, and I imagined what war was only from films about the Great Patriotic War, I had no combat experience. I was called to the emergency department. Everyone was gathered in Lenin's room and announced that we were flying on a business trip. Each was given a bottle of vodka and a set of equipment: body armor, reinforced ammunition, machine gun, pistol. I also received an SVD sniper rifle. We took quite a lot of warm clothes, because the previous shift told us: "Heat is not waiting for you there." To tell the truth, the nights in the winter in Afghanistan are very cold, and we, in addition to dressing very warmly, warmed ourselves with vodka for sleep. We set off on board Andropov from Chkalovsky, just before the flight, Seryoga Kuvylin managed to photograph us, despite the prohibitions of the special officers. He also filmed us afterwards - there, in Bagram and in the Musbat. If not for him, there would be no historical memory about the Kabul operation. I flew in a plane next to Dima Volkov, who later died in battle, in Kabul. Some of our vodka was printed on the plane. Before landing, the Tu-154 suddenly turned off all landing lights. They sat down in total darkness. A minute before the wheels touched the take-off Bagram, Romanov ordered everyone: “Recharge!” This was the very first sign that something serious was waiting for us. However, they sat down safely, "regularly", as they say.
The next day, upon arrival, we went to shoot weapons. My teacher was Golovatov. He prepared me well. I understood that the entire outcome of the operation could depend on the effectiveness of the sniper's work. I already knew that in the mountainous rarefied air, the bullet flies along a different trajectory, as if being attracted to the ground, so before work it was necessary to understand what the excess was, to make corrections on the sights. We have done it. We were settled in one of the Musbat barracks. Meals in the battalion were well organized, and I remember that I slept excellently all the nights spent near Kabul. Nothing worried. When on the evening of December 26 the whole future of the Politburo of Afghanistan was delivered to the Musbat, they were not shown to anyone. I had no idea who was being delivered. Everyone was hidden in a separate room, in the most inconspicuous corner of the battalion. In addition to the external security of the “musbat” itself, guards were also posted around the perimeter of the premises where people unknown to us were sheltered. V. Grishin and I were assigned to guard for the night. I remember that it was very cold that night, and we envied with black envy our employees N. Shvachko and P. Klimov, who closed themselves together with unknown persons from the inside and, as we suspected, drank tea or something stronger with them. So the night passed. The next day, Romanov finally told us that an order had been received to storm the residence of the President of Afghanistan, the Taj Beck Palace, and destroy the “X-Man” who was in the palace. No special political work was carried out, no one was gathered and no lectures were given, but they simply said that “unhealthy forces” were rushing to power in a country friendly to us and we needed to help stop them. Before that, “quiet” conversations had already been going on in the battalion that we would storm the handsome palace, located on the mountain, right above us, a 15-minute drive along the serpentine, and joked about the assault ladders. We even began to knock them together, according to the order of Romanov. Mikhail Mikhailovich also instructed to “drive” the equipment so that the palace guards got used to the noise of military vehicles, and to conduct reconnaissance. I did not take all this seriously then, because of my youth. No, I understood that real combat work was ahead, that it would be necessary to shoot, including at live targets, and I was ready for this. But until the very moment of landing from the BMP, I did not imagine what kind of hell awaited us. On the evening of December 27, we started to the Taj Beck. I was sitting at the very end of the car. Major Romanov, Captain II rank Evald Kozlov, G. Tolstikov, E. Mazaev and one of the leaders of the opposition A. Sarvari - a future member of the government of Afghanistan.
Thirty years have passed. This is now clear to everyone. And then ... I did not imagine what a flurry of fire would fall on us, and I was completely unprepared for the development of the situation. When landing, I noticed that Kozlov was landing without a bulletproof vest. Now I think that he knew more than us and assumed that we didn’t care f ... c. I was in armor, in a "tigovskaya" helmet, armed with a machine gun, pistol, RPG-7 and SVD, which I never got out of the BMP. As soon as we approached the palace, several thousand invisible little men armed with hammers surrounded our BMP and began to hammer loudly on the armor. It was a hail of bullets that hit us. For a few moments we sat in armor and listened to these "hammers". Then Romanov gave the command: “Get to the car!”, and, in obedience to the order, I pressed the button, opened the hatch and literally fell out onto the asphalt. As soon as I touched the ground, something painfully hit my legs and warm flowed down my left shin. I didn't attach any importance to this. The body mobilized to complete the task - it was necessary to extinguish the enemy's firing points, to cover their attackers. Zhenya Mazaev and I immediately opened fire from machine guns from behind the parapet at the windows of the palace. It was about 25 meters to the porch of the building, and I saw the results of my work. From two windows after I fired at them, a guardsman fell out. We worked for about fifteen minutes. Then Romanov again commanded: "To the car!" He decided to jump on the armor to the very porch of the palace. I took a step and suddenly my legs gave out. I settled on my right knee, tried to get up, but neither the right nor the left listened to me. I shouted to Mazaev: “Zhenya! I can't go!" Then they went to the BMP to the main entrance, and I was left alone in an open, shot-through place, all in the same 25 meters from the palace. I realized that I was seriously wounded by a grenade that exploded under my very feet. Out of anger, I fired all five RPG-7 rounds at the windows of the palace, after which I somehow began to hobble to its walls. I moved on my knees. All around it rumbled and crackled. Behind beaten "Shilki", in front - the defenders of the Taj-Bek. How I didn't get killed in this hell, I'll never know. I got to the side porch. Gena Kuznetsov was sitting on the steps, also wounded in the legs. He, apparently, was still seriously shell-shocked, because he spoke inadequately. I knew about the order not to provide assistance to the wounded until the main task was completed and wanted to leave him there and move to the main entrance, but he began to persuade me not to leave him and help. I started bandaging him. As it turned out later, out of excitement (for the first time I healed a real wound), I excellently bandaged both his wounded and absolutely healthy leg! (The doctors then laughed heartily at the first-aid post). Yes, in this hell I was also inadequate ...
Imagine: I gave part of my equipped ammunition to a soldier from the “musbat”, who was especially furiously eager to fight and “watered” around the palace, telling everyone that “they, these, from the palace, killed their brother” and that now he “will tear everyone ". I also gave something to Kuznetsov, and I myself climbed to recharge ... on the platform, brightly lit by the searchlight of the palace. An ideal target - and I did not realize the illogicality of my actions! Only after I was brought back to reality by Fedoseev's loud swearing, I returned to Gennady and already equipped stores there, behind the columns. There were still about ten meters to the main entrance, which we - two invalids, Kuznetsov and Repin - nevertheless overcame with sin in half. At the very entrance, we were met by colleagues from Zenit and said: “Let's row to Emyshev!” Kuznetsov remained with Petrovich, whose arm was torn off at the very beginning of the battle in the hall, and I hobbled to the front stairs, where I again ran into a delighted Mazaev. He smiled at me and shouted: “And Mikhalych (Romanov) told me that you already f ... c!” It made me laugh too. I thought, "I'll live longer."
It has already become known that the “Main” is the end. The guards began to surrender. Romanov ordered me to go to the hospital along with other wounded - Baev, Fedoseev and Kuznetsov. Together with us was the body of the Soviet doctor Kuznechenkov, who was killed during the assault. On the way, we, as expected, got lost and almost drove into the barracks of Amin's guards. But that is not all. At the entrance to the embassy, our own paratroopers fired at us. Rescued again vigorous Russian mat! In the Soviet embassy itself, disturbed like a beehive and turned into a temporary medical battalion, everyone stood on their ears. The wives of our diplomats sobbed, looking at the wounded commandos. We were operated on, and the next day we were sent to Tashkent on a special plane.
We celebrated the new, 1980th year in Uzbekistan. We had a good time then! Local comrades from the KGB department for Uzbekistan provided us with all possible assistance in this, creating all the conditions. And that's where we were released! There, in the hospital, my friends and I began to realize WHAT it was! Forgetting about the wounds, we danced with joy that we had survived the December hell near Kabul. Seryoga Kuvylin, not paying attention to his foot crippled by BMP tracks, "fried" the hopak! The next day, his leg hurt, but it was nothing ... It also turned out funny with Gena Kuznetsov: we rolled him out in a wheelchair into the corridor to set the table in the ward, and forgot about the hungry and sober Gennady! He yelled at us and knocked from the corridor - it's useless! They remembered him when everyone had already drunk!
Two days later, just before the operation, I passed out in the hallway. Went and fell. I woke up already on the operating table, where they had to remove the remaining small fragments from my legs. All, by the way, have not been removed. Seven pieces left.
* * *
Ending to be...
