I started this campaign as a company medical officer. My task was to ensure that my fighters did not get sick with "civilian" diseases, and if there were wounded who did not die immediately, then I tried to do everything so that they were taken to the right place and provided medical assistance. But more than once it happened to me that in the bag there was only a thermometer and scissors - that's all! The medicines are out. In general, in the war with medicines it is always difficult, they are constantly in short supply. But if there is a professional medical instructor in the company, then although it is difficult to be in time everywhere, but with experience you always have time. How many fights we had, but I always had time everywhere. This is not particularly difficult if you are a professional business owner. The most important thing is to have time to help. You go into battle with everyone, you look there - either they yell: "Doc, doc!", Or - a white rocket, if it's very far away. But, as far as I remember, a white rocket was never launched in this campaign at all, usually they called for help with a voice. Maybe it is not so good, because you do everything very quickly, because a company is a company, a hundred people. And when there is a general deadwood, then you just start to "sew up". You do everything automatically, and when they ask you later: “What did you inject him with?” It’s hard to say right away. I bandaged it, injected cordiamin, prednisolone there - when it was really bad, I put a dropper ... And for the rest - the most important thing is not to die before they are evacuated. A lot of people died there, because when medical assistance is provided in the field and you have something in your bag that you managed to snatch somewhere, it’s hard. In principle, I quickly coped with "civilian" diseases in the company, and all other diseases somehow come very quickly, i.e. if you are wounded, then wounded. In principle, when there were such serious offensives, another car and a medical instructor with a driver who performed the duties of orderlies were given to the company for reinforcement from the medical platoon. In addition, fighters will help their friend in any battle, however, at first they start to panic, but in extreme cases they will always prick promedol. And this is already halfway to the rest of the recovery for some.

When we stood in the mountains, it was much worse. There is a car on the plain - you immediately take it away, but there are no cars in the mountains, put them side by side and run around them until the orderlies come and remove them from the mountain. If the orderlies do not come for a long time, then at night we ourselves lower the wounded down on our own - at night the "Czechs" do not fight in the mountains, I can say this absolutely seriously, except in cities or somewhere else ... And they attack the infantry at night they don't attack, because they know that the infantry are such people - disturb their sleep at night and ... They can come quietly, slaughter someone and immediately leave. And if they disturb anyone more, the infantry begins to shoot in all directions, and so it will kill everyone, which is why the infantry is often called "turretless". The 138th brigade was very much feared here in Chechnya, it did a lot. The brigade was commanded by Major General Turchenyuk, and the medical service in the 697th battalion was first headed by Senior Lieutenant Kaushnyan, and then by Captain Medov.

Of course, I would like to improve a lot if there are more fighting. It is necessary that in the battalion, even if it is mobile, there should be at least some semblance of the same operating room, where there would be doctors: an anesthesiologist and surgeons (two at least), who could really provide such assistance to the wounded, so that he would later, during evacuation felt safe. Then (in battles) it was done like this: I provide first aid, they take him to the medical platoon - they provide first aid, then they take him to the medical clinic, where he is given second medical aid and sent to the hospital, and on the way he dies. It was quite a long time. For example, we had a case in the mountains (in the area of ​​Starye Atagi): a fighter was torn off both legs, and he died. With that injury, I think the person should have lived, but the thing is that he lay on the mountain for a day, then, while he was brought to the medical platoon (there was mud, well, there was no way for a car to pass), then they brought him in medrota, in medrota they ordered a turntable, while the turntable took off and flew in, so much time passed that it became the "200th". In fact, you can do all this very quickly and efficiently.

If we were initially prepared in the same way as the same Chechen fighters, we would have given them a long time ago in the brain. After all, everything is so practical done by them, and they are really well prepared. Chechens often do not even have normal mortars, they make them from the rear axle of KamAZ, I saw it myself. In the same way, they make such a "shaitan-pipe", it shoots with NURS. I don't know how they came up with it, but it's awesome! It turns out that even the "Grad" shoots rockets from the slate roof: they put it on the roof, close it to electricity and ... everything is gone ...

And they also have medicine, in principle. It was easy to understand. We were not far from here in the village - there the border guards had a fight, and the next day we went to the "cleansing". We found a bunch of dugouts, and in one of them I found the most up-to-date medicines, mountains of dressings and many other foreign things, where it is not even written in Russian how and why to use it. That is, you can compare their provision and ours.

We had one fighter captured when the fighting had just begun in the mountains. Then our turntables began to fire at this Chechen camp, he ran away, came out to us and said: he dragged the corpses of these Chechens all last night (he dragged so many of them all that night that then he had "glitches" and he was fired from the army ), and they were sitting in a very cool dry and warm dugout, drinking coffee, eating bananas and oranges, while we...

Look at the situation: they raise, for example, two platoons up the mountain, they say: "You are here for three days." 7 days pass, and no one has come to you at all, then our artillerymen shoot at you, and then someone comes and says: "Oh! Are you still alive? We will replace you." They let us down and say: "That's it, men, wash, rest!" At six in the evening we went down the mountain, and at six in the morning the battalion commander lined us up: "Of course, I understand everything, but, excuse me, you need to go to the Vedeno Gorge - there is some kind of problem." The company gets on the MTLB and goes to the Vedeno Gorge, there it scares the "Czechs" for two days and comes back (then they say that the paratroopers did everything there). The battalion commander arrives, says: "Rest," and an hour later he builds everyone again: "Guys, you have to climb the mountain - there's trouble!" And we again go to the mountain again for seven days.

I remember how on December 30, 1999, we climbed here, in the area of ​​Starye Atagi, to the mountain, 922, I think the height, I don’t remember exactly. We got up at 12 o'clock at night, quickly dug in, because we were looking: the Chechens were walking downstairs with flashlights in a straight line, there were so many flashlights! And we were shooting at these lanterns all night. And there, between the trees, it turns out, there was a roller, and lanterns hung on a rope. They pull the rope, we gouge at them, and they figure out our firing points, they are cunning - Chechens! Which was to be expected: in the morning there was fog - the cloud is very thick, I woke up at 5.15, and somewhere at 5.20 - here they are, about five meters! A grenade could be thrown into a trench. They approached us very harmoniously and simply “wetted” us, there is no other way to call it. They always competently attack the mountains. That is, there was something, just trouble! To be honest, I can't say how many "200s" and "300s" we had, because here he is still alive - and right there dead. Only somewhere around 12 noon it was all over. When we got up, there were 67 of us, after this battle there were 22 of us left.

And, you know, there were very, very many such battles... I can tell you that on average there were 5-6 "200s" and 15 "300s" per day. This, of course, does not correspond to official statistics at all.

Tuskhara-Moscow

I wanted to go to war. He asked how it is to serve in the army and not "fight".
Damn her.

And it seems that this war is fair and public. And well thought out and prepared. First, bomb attacks, then artillery, then, under the cover of artillery and aviation, eighteen-twenty-year-old mother's children under bullets, well-trained, well-to-do hardened predators.
By that time, our army had been purposefully falling apart and trampled into the mud for ten years.
Theirs - equipped, trained, financed.

Everyone's road to war is different.
But the road from the war is even more different ...

How do they go to war? Echelons. From anywhere in our vast country.
An echelon is such a train: cars and reserved seats for people, platforms for equipment and forward. At point N., equipment and people are unloaded further in a column. It's convenient, everything is together: people, equipment, property.
Personally, I drove back like this. There, to replace the doctor who had already arrived in this way - on his own.
Ordinary regular bus to Budenovsk.
From Budyonovsk by a random turntable to Mozdok. The huge Mozdok airfield at that time was one of the few routes to the warring Chechnya.
At first it seemed as if they had landed in an open field. Somewhere in the distance one of the control towers could be seen. Closer, there were three large tents - USB (UNIVERSAL Sanitary Barracks), and we headed towards them. Coming closer, I saw: the tents stood right on the concrete road, they were old and torn. Therefore, pushing back the canopy, I already assumed that I would see inside: on the floor in long rows they were waiting to be sent “home”; from thick, black, shiny bags, only tarpaulin boots were visible ...
In one of the tents, there was a stove, a table and beds. Two medical examiners were frying potatoes and drinking vodka. They explained where to turn, we warmed up and set off.
I have never seen so many planes even in the movies. Lots of cars and people. Everyone is busy. Stormtroopers sit down, equip themselves with ammunition and take off again in pairs. From the side of the access roads, everything is littered with ammunition and boxes from under them.
Not far from the "take-off" camp of the Ministry of Emergencies is deployed: cleanliness, sand, brand new tents lined up, the Russian flag, a fence.
After a couple of hundred meters, as if on the other side of the Earth, surrounded by trampled mud (you can’t come up in military shoes), several torn tents without underlays. Inside, with legs sunken in liquid soil, bunk beds with mattresses are a “transshipment base” for those sent to war and returning back.
Nothing but smoke from the stove. Noise, din, booze in different corners. And he would drink, but nothing.
Fortunately, it's not long here - one night. In the morning we were lucky, there was a passing board.
And now, on a warm winter day, loaded, above the windows, with twenty-six ammunition. We are on top, on boxes and rushing at low level, almost shaving off the tops of trees and telegraph poles, along the route Mozdok - the vicinity of Gudermes. With breakneck speed something flickers below us. “Hurry up slowly” is not appropriate here - they can shoot down.
In an open field, I manage to make out the broken lines of the trenches (why were they going to go to tanks with grenades?), some broken fortifications and natural landscapes. Settlements flew around fundamentally.
The helicopter brought us to war...
We landed at the CBU - the command and control center in our eastern direction.
The first impression (it turned out to be the most correct) is dirt. Not cold, damp. In anticipation of passing transport to the place of deployment of our unit (another forty kilometers), I walk along the asphalt road, but broken by explosions. Going around the funnels, the "five" clogged with women and children slowly rides. The driver, an old Chechen, without any signal from my side, stops the car, gets out and walks in my direction, taking out documents. Taken aback at first, he quickly oriented himself and importantly waved his hand to him, they say, drive through.

We go on top of the armored personnel carrier. Fog. Forest.
- ... here on this country road, the day before yesterday, an UAZ car drove into the open, into the open. Here he stopped, a spirit with a grenade launcher got out, no one had time to figure anything out; blew up the beter, two boys died ...
There are Chechen cars on the “block”, they are not allowed to pass. The owners of the cars are right there in a handful, among them are strong, tall. They look without fear, someone with a dashing smile, someone gloomily. Well, what are the horsemen watching? what are you thinking about? Yes, I would not like to meet you on a narrow path. But nearby, on the armored personnel carrier, the guys also do not miss. Looks like war is a passionate woman, since it attracts, from all over the world, real men ...
Shah boys! I'm going to war.
Everything around is broken and looted. Telegraph poles without wires. Empty window openings of dead buildings, broken roads, rare dirty cars and gray women moving in small groups along the roadsides from village to village. Cars are kept on blocks for hours; Walking is more reliable and safer.
We turned off the road, it turned out to be warm behind the landings, natural source, spilling a huge puddle in it, the fighters are washing. A little further on are the ruins of the gas compressor station, and here is our camp.
We went to introduce ourselves to the commander, in the headquarters tent. We go, not far from the tent two MI-24s land. Of these, two pilots are also to our commander. We go inside: then everything is like in a movie: in the middle is a table with a map, officers are around. The commander - wise, in years, Colonel En, sets the task for the pilots on the map, then gets acquainted with us ... The officers, again anxiously bend over the map. Swift, formidable MI-24s (in the common people "crocodiles") leave to destroy the "targets".
And we're going to the infirmary.

Immediately, with scouts, I went to the firing range. They, among other things, tested the "legendary" Chechen weapon, rattled on TV channels - an anti-tank rifle that breaks through brickwork and concrete slabs from a long distance. Maybe you remember?
In fact, it consists of a barrel from our Utyos heavy machine gun, a manual jamming bolt, an attached butt with two shock-absorbing springs, and a stuck magazine for five rounds of poor feeding and falling off after each shot. That's the whole legend.

On the very first day of my war, five wounded spirits were brought in, one of them is very young and very heavy, he is not a tenant. The next morning, a still wounded spirit...
But who are we here to treat!?
Of people.

By the way, among those five, there was a certain Chapaev old man, who spoke the most, was lightly slashed by shrapnel. They tried to slip through the “block” by car, it didn’t work out.
FeiSBeshniks and so on and so forth: who and what?
They are ghosts, reinforced concrete spirits, you can see by their clothes, and they’re not even local (the mufti doesn’t know the local area), but they didn’t find weapons with them. They received information from them, they shouldn’t be shot, in fact: they were taken to the hospital in Gudermes.
At night, Chapaev was kidnapped from there. They say he turned out to be Maskhadov's deputy for logistics.
* The clothes of the spirits are a sports suit, often in several layers (according to the season), sneakers on the feet (in cities - light slippers with a “heel”).

#

From under Gudermes under Shali - it's all a plain. The first march, nothing special, we drove a little, got up - they were shooting far ahead, they still stopped - sappers were working. We rode for a long time, distances increase in war; here is a passenger car flattened by a tank and its feet are on the road, in sneakers.
There was just a skirmish here: a column is walking along the road, towards the spirits. Where to them; in front of the column is a tank with a mine trawl, hung with active armor, you can’t take it with an ordinary grenade launcher. And so it happened.
Until night, they deployed the wings of the AP - auto-dressing. This is such a GAZ-66 with a kung on both sides to which, with the help of an iron frame, small tents are attached - wings, and in the kung itself there is a mini-operating room with the necessary equipment. So this APshka: a vehicle, workplace, the place of our residence, and even an infirmary for the wounded and sick. And they lived after all, and treated, and traveled!
Another of the equipment of our medical center was the "Ural" and the ambulance bus, but I did not get along with them so well.

“Today, for the second time (during my arrival), we were fired upon by the Dukhovskaya artillery. Either from mortars, roofing felts from some other small-caliber guns. The gaps are not far from 250-300 meters, they are slightly different from the shots of our artillery, therefore I did not immediately understand that this was shelling. Only later: according to the hustle and bustle, the shouts and the return fire of our artillery.
The spirits didn't go anywhere.
We, I think, too.
Everything is normal somehow."

*
About a boy wounded in the head, fog and night.
We settled down, camped, at some kind of poultry farm, or a barnyard. In general, by that time, only a building and mice remained from that agricultural enterprise.
The building is completely destroyed, but how many mice! I don’t know if it’s possible to compare the earth with a sieve, but, looking at the earth perforated with holes, another comparison simply did not come to mind. Mice were everywhere: in personal belongings, in food, in tools, in medicines, in cars. They were caught with their hands, kicked, stabbed with calypsol (they had fun, but do not judge strictly, from other entertainments there were only books and vodka). Less, of course, from this they did not become. They spoiled almost all the pills, syringes and droppers, they gnawed everything that gnawed.
Later, when we were leaving that place, after driving for eight hours, we were surprised to see how a mouse crawled out on the rear-view mirror from under the hood on the go!
But that was later...
And then it was night and continuous impenetrable fog.
- Doctors, they are carrying two wounded. One is very hard.
The guy is out of luck. A fragment of the projectile, on a tangent, demolished the parietal bone along with the membranes of the brain. Then for the first time I saw the convolutions of the brain of a living person ...
Only a miracle could save the boy. They did not believe in anything when they said:
- You need a turntable. Needed right now.
Aviator, clever:
- We'll try, doc... ... There will be a board!
Can not be. Night is a mixture of black carcass with fog and some kind of drizzle, which is born here, everywhere, in the heavy air. But what is this? Seems? (and this often happened, because you really look forward to it). No. Roar of screws.
Signal rocket. More. Bright fire of a torch on the ground. And right above their heads there is a bright flash of a searchlight and a clear boundary between blinding light and thick darkness.
- Be careful. Hold on. We put…
After a while, the car, which seemed huge in the dark, wearily got up and, at a low altitude, turning off the searchlight, was instantly swallowed up by darkness.
But the boy survived. It's hard, Lyokha. But wherever you are right now, hold on. A piece of our souls remained with you too.
And part of our souls live with all those who survived.
And they died with everyone who is not ...

The turntables were always waiting with excitement. And hope.
Seriously ill or wounded - call. We are working as best we can.
Aircraft controller, my friend, what will happen? When? Do not give good? Flying?
This is what people's lives depend on.
"Sanitary" flights increased the chances of surviving our victims by half.
We do our best. We leave the AP-shki, we stand with our heads up, we look, we listen. Aircraft controller: “Now, doctor, it will be ... I hear you ... More to the left ... Above us ... I don’t hear ... We are on the right ... A rocket ... More ... See?! Smoke!"
Here, at last, he is a smoky handsome man; noise, the wind of his wings, and to him with a stretcher, always running. Stretcher with the wounded. It is hard to run with such a burden, your feet get stuck in mud or snow, dust (or snow, or mud) with a wall of air in your face. Faster. Guys, take it.
It is still hard to breathe, but it is easier for the hands and the soul. In a second, such a "fertile" contrast.
Well, I can't put it into words!!!
"Succeeded"! You move a little to the side and look: the wheels have come off and, gaining height and speed, he leaves, a hard worker, in a hurry to save someone's life.

We stood, I remember, in the mountains the fog was a little higher than us. We have the wounded, the fog has a turntable, and we really need it; now.
- We hear you on the left, on the left ... You are leaving, you are leaving ... Above us! Above us!
And again in the fog a rocket, a lot of rockets.
We see, we see you!
Smoke bomb.
Ready to jump for joy: "Sat"! Rather, a stretcher on the floor and on the benches of those who can walk. Downloaded.
The fog immediately, as if waiting, melted like a dream in a couple of minutes. Seen far, far away.
And our handsome man, as if frolicking, got up a little and, falling on his side, tumbled down into the gorge, and then we looked down at him and even felt like birds. And he, under our feet, immediately turned around and, leaving behind him a barely noticeable, short trail in the air, carried the guys to live.
He has fifteen minutes in the air.
Five hours on the road, or the rest of your life. Who cares.

*

Our neighbors are Marines.
A Marine shot his finger off today.
In three days they had eighteen wounded (one of them had already died). And of these same eighteen, not a single wound received in battle. That is, they have not even seen spirits during these days.
One case is wild.
They lost a soldier. Let's go look, officer and six with him, through our sentry, into the reeds.
The sentry was already taken aback:
- Don't go there, it's mined.
- Soldier, are you still going to teach us?!
Thirty seconds later, the sentry reported, “Seven marines were blown up in the area ...” There is such a thing MON - 50 is called ...
And here is our cricket - legs and ass cut with splinters. "I got" some conscript and he threw him into the trench RGD-5, the one from the trench, but did not have time a little. Brought to us.
The soldier was picking a PKM cartridge - the brush was shattered.
This one with two bullet wounds with a machine gun wanted to be photographed.
But this one with a broken spine was shot through by a comrade.
This one with a crushed humerus was cleaning a loaded machine gun ...
A sentry on duty stepped on his own tripwire.
According to my observations, seven out of ten wounds are due to stupidity or negligence.
And then, in order not to conduct investigations and not start criminal cases (they would have tortured themselves; and the war, after all), an award was written: wounded in battle, etc. and wounded in the rear. And all is well: in fact, it is.

*
A boy came to visit. He is now a hero of Russia. How do I say it worked?
We cleared the Dzhalka forest. The battalion went on the attack. Explosions, shooting, this and that. He has two "Bumblebee" flamethrowers behind him - he is a "chemist". He hesitated, looking, but our retreated: there are only spirits around. Fir-trees, thinks: the end. Jumping into the trench, right on the head of the spirit, shot him. There's another spirit, now on his head, was faster again. He sits, trembles, there is still a spirit on the right along the trench, then on the left. Again screams, explosions, hi-gai. He takes off the flamethrower, cocks it, leans out of the trench, sees, about twenty meters away, a group of spirits, one of them is on his knees and he gives instructions to the others, “shmelling” them at a glance and back into the trench. At this time, our battalion went on the attack again, to drape the spirits.
Seven spiritual bodies remained on the battlefield, they were exchanged, then, for the scouts from Ulyanovsk who died under Vedeno.
In total, forty-two bandits were destroyed in this battle.
And this boy came to us to treat boils. Heroes are people too...

But the real feat of a soldier, nevertheless, is not only in a successful attack or a staunch defense. Hardships and hardships - here they are not bookish. Heroism - malnutrition, lack of sleep, hypothermia and overheating, sitting in dugouts and trenches, in every second of waiting and tension, in boring everyday life and monotony, isolation from everything expensive and uncertainty ...
Every day is given for a step towards the Truth. And a person will approach her if he wants to. Every second is given for something, every life ... Every day you should ask yourself: “what is it for?” And if every 20 - 30 - 40 - ... days the answer is found, then the rest will not be lived in vain. Let not every day, albeit a very small one, but a feat. Every day is a preparation for it. Feat, feat - move, advance, approach; one step or one moment. And the more significant this feat, the more difficult it is given.
Many prepare for their feat for more than one life.

It is very difficult to write about war in war. And so she is all around and everything is subordinate to her, and if she is still in her thoughts and on paper before her eyes ... It's hard. Left all records of the war in peacetime.
Give it to us God.
And in war you think about peace or about something big and bright. How is it there? I'll be back and everything will be fine. If only the letters would reach.

Speaking about various military conflicts, we have so far hardly touched on one issue that worries all participants: the provision of medical care to the wounded directly on the battlefield. Today, the basic principle of helping the wounded in the army has become: "Drag him from here to the hospital, they will sort it out." In Chechnya in 1995, I became convinced that the majority of those who died before being admitted to the hospital or in the first hours after being injured could have survived if they were immediately provided with full-fledged medical care within 30-40 minutes after being injured.

In our army it is believed (at least this is the impression) that it is possible to treat the wounded normally only away from the place of combat contact and only in a medical unit not lower than a separate medical battalion or detachment. It is really safer and calmer for medical personnel to work there, but, as shows the experience of local wars and peacekeeping operations, it is not always possible to quickly evacuate the wounded there.

For example, during the December battles in Gudermes, the wounded could not be taken out of the building of the railway station for a week. The evacuation of even one person from a checkpoint to a hospital can take 3-4 hours.

The wounded die or end up in the hospital in a state where medicine is already powerless. This is because with most combat wounds, a serious and fatal complication develops very quickly - in just 5-10 minutes - shock. It leads to respiratory and cardiac disorders.

In medicine, there is the concept of the "golden hour": if during the first hour the wounded person is provided with full medical care, then 90% survive. If help arrives after two hours, 10% will survive.

In order to help the victim, you must have at your disposal painkillers and hormonal drugs that help fight shock, blood-substituting fluids to replenish the volume of lost blood, antibiotics to prevent infection and means to stop bleeding (dressing bags, tourniquets, hemostatic clamps). As well as a number of medical devices, without which to establish effective treatment impossible.

It should be noted that the action of the drug is most effective when injected into a vein, and the introduction into the muscle, especially in the cold with the development of shock, does not give the desired result. Each soldier must have a dressing bag, a tourniquet and an individual first aid kit. The personal first-aid kit is designed to provide assistance in the first place when the enemy uses weapons of mass destruction. The so-called “painkiller” included in it, promedol, refers to narcotic substances and is often not included in the first-aid kit, as the command fears, and quite rightly, that the personnel use it even before being wounded. But this set is designed only for the very first aid.

The main assistance to the wounded before they enter the hospital should be provided by sanitary instructors and paramedics. These positions are assigned to military personnel who have received medical education, but they can also be those who have an incomplete medical education.

The state medical officer is provided with a “military medical bag”, which contains the contents of all the same individual first-aid kits, dressings and a small set of medical equipment (thermometer, garden knife, scissors, tweezers). In the troops, the guys complete these bags in accordance with their experience, but this is already individual creativity, and their choice is limited - basically, what they will beg for through an acquaintance.

There is clearly not enough medical equipment in the troops (in the military grouping in Chechnya there were battalions, where by May there were 6-8 bandages for all). So there is nothing to help. Here are our wounded, sometimes for several days waiting for help.

But medicine does not stand still. Medical kits have long been developed for doctors and paramedics of the landing and special forces, for rescuers. They are shown at exhibitions, the military medical authorities boast of them. Doctors and paramedics from the grass-roots structures are asking for "give me", they are looking for where to get it. But these developments do not get into the troops, and if they do, they lie in warehouses. They are afraid to give them away.

There is a good principle in medicine: "do no harm." He requires the physician to follow one rule: treatment must be as safe as possible, and, in any case, the risk of treatment should not be higher than the risk of the disease itself. However, in our country this principle quickly turned into the rule “no matter what happens”. Once intravenous injections were the lot of doctors, now they are done everywhere by nurses and paramedics. But sanitary instructors and paramedics in the troops are forbidden to do them. And since it is forbidden, neither tools nor medicines are taken into account when equipping.

Someone stubbornly lacks the courage to cancel the instruction that prevents them from surviving today. This is understood in the GVMU, understood in the troops. But the middle management does not want to hear anything about this: “We have instructions, we have a planned percentage of losses, everything is according to plan.”

Every year modern weapons are improved. Every year new young men get into various local conflicts and the number of wounded is growing. We are losing young guys, we are losing professionals who could survive and serve.

And further. A soldier is calmer in battle if he understands that he will be given normal assistance in case of injury. Those who serve know that it will be provided in the hospital if you get there. And if you don't get there?.. This problem requires reworking the entire system of care for the wounded at the pre-hospital stage. It is the processing, and not the restructuring, from which only ruins always remain.

I don't think we'll ever find out who killed the International Red Cross staff in Novye Atagi. Today in Chechnya the last islands of mercy are disappearing - doctors are leaving

Russian politics

...P it looks like someone large, invisible held a hand over this place. Almost in the center of Grozny, among the ruins so terrible that they no longer caused horror, by some miracle several buildings of the 4th city hospital were preserved. A damp wind fluttered the once white flag with a faded red cross. At the very terrible time here they helped everyone who came, crawled, who was brought. All the days and nights of January and February 1995, three doctors and two nurses remained here: the surgeon Vakho Khozheliev, his son Ruslan, Magomet Sulomov, Elena and Galina Kasyanov. They were the only civilian doctors in the warring city. They delivered babies, operated on appendicitis and gunshot wounds, tore sheets for bandages. They were not interested in the identity of those who were being treated. Doctors did not let militants or riot police into the hospital - no one with a weapon at all. Surprisingly, they all survived. In any case, they were alive at the beginning of March 1995. Then we were met on the threshold of the hospital by a small, middle-aged man with a stern face in a high sterile white (how did you manage?) doctor's cap - the chief and at that time the only surgeon Vakho Khozheliev: “Why didn’t you leave? Patients came...

I remembered the little surgeon and all five when I listened to the tragic reports from the village of Novye Atagi. I did not know the killed members of the International Red Cross mission. But, I think, in something important, these people from Switzerland, Norway, Spain were similar to those from the 4th hospital in Grozny, to all the doctors who died and survived in this war, and to those who have yet to die or survive 'cause it's not true that it's over Chechen War as much as we would like to...

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AT December 1994 in Moscow, the word "war" was not yet pronounced. And in Mozdok it was as commonplace as “water” or, for example, “weather”. The wounded were brought from the war to the military hospital. Refugees and civilians, also with gunshot wounds, to the Zashchita Disaster Medicine Hospital. His orange-and-blue tents stood on the territory military base, behind the thorn.

The district hospital in Znamenskaya was practically inactive, as, indeed, was all Chechen medicine in the "Dudaev" years. I will not abuse statistics, I will name only one figure: 120 infant deaths accounted for a thousand births. This is despite the fact that we consider our rate unacceptably high: 18 per thousand.

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AT rachi died already then. Even then, ambulance helicopters were shot down.

General Pogodin, who was in charge of all military medicine in Chechnya, gave the following figures in February 1995: 9 military doctors and 4 medical instructors died in a month and a half of the war. All - fulfilling their professional duty. Then the numbers were not published. It is also unknown how many doctors were among the civilians killed in Chechnya.

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AT The 4th city hospital of Grozny us, the film crew of the then Central Television, was brought by Gennady Grigoryevich Onishchenko. Of the first 280 days of the war, this man spent 140 days in Chechnya. Now he is the chief state sanitary doctor of the Russian Federation, then he was deputy chairman of the State Committee for Sanitary and Epidemiological Supervision. I think that the ferocious cholera epidemic of 1994 did not recur in Chechnya, and that poliomyelitis was stopped and many other dormant infections did not break out, is largely Onishchenko's personal merit.

Onishchenko and the small, but well-organized, strong in spirit and knowledge medical “army” he called up, followed the war one after another. They restored the sanitary and epidemiological stations (I don’t know how and where Onishchenko got the equipment and reagents, but he got it), reanimated the service, which was destroyed not only and not so much by the war. Already in Grozny, doctors learned about the consequences of the cholera epidemic of 1994, which, it turns out, raged in Chechnya even more strongly than in Dagestan (1,000 people were ill, the number of deaths is unknown, Chechnya refused the help of Russian doctors), about the threat anthrax(the shell destroyed the burial of dead cattle), about the activation of three natural foci of the plague. They fought hepatitis, dysentery, diphtheria. They took samples, examined water and soil, conducted vaccination campaigns ...

Onishchenko was kidnapped during the day, at the entrance to Grozny, on the way from Mozdok. Gazik was stopped by two young militants. They blocked the road with their car and pointed machine guns at the driver. They said: "You were specially tracked down." Onishchenko traveled unarmed, and perhaps this saved him and the driver. He himself believes that the “nationality” column in the passport helped out - it says “Ukrainian” there. I think it was Onishchenko's amazing self-control that saved him. Several times they started to shoot him, but each time they managed with threats and curses. Maybe the bandits were not too seasoned. In general, it ended with the fact that, having taken away the car, money and documents, they threw it on the road at night, punishing them not to appear in Chechnya again: “Next time we will definitely kill.”

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With Animal-epidemiological brigade in Grozny was based on the territory protected by special forces. The doctors lived in something like a hut, knocked down hastily from plywood. A laboratory was equipped in the old carriage - inside, as expected, it shone with sterility. It was strictly forbidden to leave the barracks after dark. Yes, and I didn’t want to go out - automatic bursts were heard in the night, they said, the nearest checkpoint was fired back, the thin walls shook from artillery cannonade.

Nearby, in their red-and-blue tents, the Zashchita hospital is located. From time to time it was fired upon from cars rushing past at breakneck speed.

Who? Why? What for? How many such questions were raised by the Chechen war! And how few answers to them ...

I don't think we'll ever know who killed the International Red Cross staff. Which week we are told that the names of the criminals Chechen special services known, but in the interests of the investigation are not disclosed. Excuse me, what is the consequence? Who needs the intricate political and criminal constructs that are now being built to explain this barbaric murder. Everything can be much simpler: maybe someone's relative died in the hospital. It doesn't matter that his illness or injury was incompatible with life. There must be guilty people who need to be avenged. This does not contradict Sharia law "in Chechen style" - just like the seizure of the hospital. “Modern Robin Hoods” (as defined by Sergei Kovalev), hiding behind hostages, including doctors, women in labor, tiny children, and infirm old people, use such methods to “turn the tide of the war” and earn points for the political future.

In the winter of 1995 and the summer of 1996, on the hottest days, there were tiny islands of mercy between the utterly bitter opponents, over which a flag with a red cross was raised, where they went for help, for kindness, even for justice. Troops have already been withdrawn from Chechnya, peaceful construction is going on, they say, free elections are on the way. And islands of mercy disappear - although the need for them has not completely disappeared, doctors know perfectly well how much the wounded republic needs them. But we have to curtail, because for today's Chechnya White flag with a red cross - first of all, an excellent target.

Natalia PROKOFIEVA

A photo N. Medvedeva, REUTER

Military doctors or, as they were also called, military doctors are military personnel with a higher medical education and having the appropriate rank. At one time, it was Russian military doctors who made a huge contribution to military medicine, so Nikolai Ivanovich Pirogov became the founder of military field surgery, the founder of anesthesia. During the years of the Great Patriotic War, as well as during local conflicts of our time: the war in Afghanistan and the Chechen campaigns, Russian military doctors saved hundreds of thousands of lives.

On June 13, 2013, the next, 13th award ceremony was held at the Central Academic Theater of the Russian Army the best doctors Russia under the name "Vocation". This ceremony was hosted by People's Artist of Russia Alexander Rosenbaum and well-known TV presenter Elena Malysheva. At the ceremony in the nomination “Military doctors. Special award to doctors who provide assistance to victims of wars, terrorist acts and natural Disasters» The award went to a group of military doctors of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, who during the counter-terrorist operation of 1994-1995 on the territory of Chechnya provided the necessary medical assistance to the injured and wounded.

The award to military doctors was personally presented by the Minister of Defense of Russia, General of the Army Sergei Shoigu. In his welcoming speech, Shoigu noted the importance of the work of military doctors, and also expressed gratitude and gratitude to them for their selfless work, not only during the conduct of hostilities, but also in peacetime, Everyday life. On the stage, the nominees were thanked by Russian officers Alexei Buzdygar and Sergei Muzyakov, who in 1995 themselves went through the caring hands of decorated military doctors.

A group of military doctors as part of the head of the hospital Oleg Popov, as well as surgeons Alexander Drakin, Mikhail Lysenko, therapist Alexander Kudryashov as part of the 696th medical detachment special purpose in December 1994, they had to deploy their own military field hospital near the city of Mozdok. In those days, military doctors worked 16-18 hours a day, operations went one after another without interruption. Every day, the personnel of the field hospital prepared for the evacuation and sending to " big land» hundreds of wounded Russian soldiers and officers. For the entire period of military operations in the Caucasus, military doctors have saved thousands of lives of Russian servicemen.

The fate of Dr. Oleg Popov and his colleagues is in many ways indicative and serves as an example of heroism and selflessness, devotion to duty. Oleg Alexandrovich Popov went through the entire first war in Chechnya, as they say, “from start to finish”, being appointed in 1993 as commander of the 696th special forces medical detachment. It was the doctors of this detachment who promptly deployed a hospital in Mozdok, where almost every third soldier wounded in Chechnya was able to receive timely treatment. For his excellent service in the North Caucasus, Oleg Aleksandrovich was awarded the Order of Military Merit. But these are not his only military awards, the military doctor received the previous 4 military orders by providing medical assistance to Soviet soldiers and officers during Afghan war.

In March 1996, Oleg Popov was dismissed from the ranks of the Armed Forces: a severe concussion, which he received during Afghan campaign worsened in Chechnya, and his state of health no longer allowed him to perform the duties of a military medic in the same rhythm. After being fired from Russian army Oleg Popov, the only medical officer in all the Armed Forces who was awarded 5 military orders, was a simple military pensioner for 11 years. However, in 2007 Popov was invited to his current position. Oleg Popov became CEO of the Interregional public organization Association of Veterans of the Russian Military Medical Service. Since then, veterans of the Russian medical service have been under his direct, personal care. He tries to do everything possible and impossible in order to provide his colleagues with the necessary social, medical, and sometimes material assistance.

If we talk about the Chechen campaigns, then there are many soldiers and officers who will remember Russian military doctors kind word. One of these is Captain Alexander Krasko, who was "killed" 3 times in the Caucasus. Twice it was a sniper in the first Chechen campaign. For the third time, already as a colonel, he was blown up by militants on the road to Urus-Martan. He still can't forget his very first wound. Then a sniper's bullet entered his neck and threw him over the curb. This curb saved his life, the sniper could not finish him off. Later, a medic from their battalion pulled him across the street. During the rescue of the wounded, he himself was seriously injured, but was able to drag Krasko to MTLB. In just 15 minutes, the officer was already operated on in Khankala.

After that, Alexander Krasno was treated in military hospitals for quite a long time. He returned to duty only a year later, and in August 1996 in Grozny he again received a bullet. This time, the officer was evacuated by helicopter under heavy fire from the militants. The medical pinwheel received 37 different holes. But the military pilots and the military doctors accompanying the wounded were able to deliver 5 seriously wounded servicemen to the military hospital in time. Since then, officer Alexander Krasko celebrates his birthday 4 times a year. And he always raises his glass and says a toast to the doctors in uniform. And there are dozens, if not hundreds, of such stories as with Colonel Alexander Krasko in Russian military medicine.

It was all the more offensive for many to look at what was happening with Russian military medicine in last years. Recently, the new Minister of Defense of Russia, Sergei Shoigu, noted that military hospitals are no longer going to be closed, according to him, the Russian Ministry of Defense has its own “road map” on this issue. “We don’t plan to close anything else,” said the general, who visited the State Flight Test Center. Chkalov, located in Akhtubinsk. At the same time, Shoigu later clarified that part of the military hospitals would be transferred to the jurisdiction of the Federal Medical and Biological Agency (FMBA). In particular, we are talking about those military camps and garrisons in which there are few military personnel and it makes no sense to keep them there big number medical workers.

“Still, in many places we have clinics that seem to be good, and the equipment is wonderful, but the specialists are worse. Therefore, we will train new medical personnel at the Military Medical Academy in St. Petersburg and send them, among other things, to Akhtubinsk,” Sergei Shoigu noted. Recall that the head of the Ministry of Defense decided to transfer military hospitals to the FMBA at the end of 2012. Then it was reported that all transferred medical institutions would receive the status of "civilian", and not only military personnel and members of their families, but also local residents would be able to seek medical help there.

The mass disbandment of military hospitals began at the initiative of the former Minister of Defense Anatoly Serdyukov back in 2008 as part of the reform Russian system military medicine. By 2009, 22 hospitals and several dozen polyclinics had been disbanded in the country, and the number of military doctors had decreased from 15,000 to 5,800 people.

The level of medical care and its effectiveness in military hospitals in Russia and the USSR have been high since these institutions only began to appear in our cities. The quality of the medical services provided here by military specialists was not questioned even during the existence of Russian Empire, nor in the days of the USSR. It would seem that if the industry has a glorious and brings obvious benefits to citizens, then it must be supported and developed by all means. But in reality, things are different. Specialists do not get tired of saying that today military medicine is not in its best condition. As a result of the reform that has been carried out in recent years, a clear continuity has been broken from the construction of scientific, clinical, rehabilitation complexes to obtaining a healthy citizen at the exit after passing through this entire medical chain. And this is only a small part of the problems that military doctors face almost every day.

One of the main problems is the poor state of the material base of hospitals and hospitals. Many of them were built in the last century, and their wear is from 80% to 100%. It is clear that significant funds are required to restore them. According to Sergei Shoigu, today 72% of the buildings have been in operation for more than 40 years, most of them need reconstruction and overhaul, in addition to this, there is an urgent need for new premises. Not only dilapidated buildings, but also the quality of services provided today leaves much to be desired, the Minister of Defense stressed. The poor equipment of medical units with specialized equipment is alarming. This is a rather serious issue, since the lack of the necessary equipment means the impossibility of providing high-quality medical care in the field.

There are also problems with the provision of medicines. The need for military medicine in drug supply last year amounted to 10 billion rubles. But only 40% of the required amount was allocated. The lack of sufficient funds in the budget for this item, of course, did nothing to improve the situation. A similar situation is observed in financing the construction of new medical institutions. At present, the percentage of provision in construction and overhaul is no more than 30-40%. Hence the long-term chronic unfinished construction, and the depreciation of the material base. Some medical facilities have not been put into operation for more than 10 years, which does not allow the provision of medical care in full.

As you know, about 17 regions of Russia have completely lost the medical facilities of the Ministry of Defense. This has resulted in approximately 400,000 military personnel, as well as military pensioners, now being forced to seek medical care in already overcrowded civilian medical facilities. If in a number of regions of Central Russia military pensioners, theoretically, without any special problems, can afford to seek medical care in civilian hospitals and clinics, then there are quite a few corners of Russia, where from their place of residence to locality with a suitable hospital one has to cover at least several hundred kilometers.

But the situation will still improve. Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu ordered to allocate 1.4 billion rubles for the purchase of new medical equipment, as well as the additional staffing of military hospitals with graduates medical universities. In addition, the issue of commissioning hospital ships should be resolved and a detailed analysis of the need and feasibility of reducing the number of military medical facilities in a number of Russian regions should be made. All this cannot but rejoice.

Information sources:
-http://www.redstar.ru/index.php/component/k2/item/9639-lechit-po-prizvaniyu
-http://medportal.ru/mednovosti/news/2013/05/07/047mil
- http://newsland.com/news/detail/id/587854
-http://blog.kp.ru/users/2763549/post261039031