The Afghan war is slandered, humiliated and undeservedly forgotten. It's time to restore justice and appreciate the sacrificial feat of the soldiers who fought heroically in other people's mountains to save their homeland.
And the false historians who declared this war "criminal" should be punished as counterfeiters. This is the opinion of the former GRU spetsnaz intelligence officer, holder of two Orders of the Red Star, now chairman of the All-Russian public organization for disabled veterans in Afghanistan and military trauma - "War Invalids", member of the Russian organizing committee "Victory", Doctor of Law Andrei Chepurnoy.
Andrei Gennadievich, what alarmed the veterans of the Afghan war so much, why did the old wounds suddenly heal again?
Andrei Chepurnoy: It would seem that in the anniversary year of the Great Victory one should be especially careful about history. But after the heroes-front-line soldiers, a wave of slander reached us, Afghan soldiers. It is bitter and insulting when people who did not smell gunpowder try to judge and condemn those who fought, carrying out the orders of the Motherland, outside their country. It is difficult for us to understand why the accusation “The criminal Soviet-Afghan war” sounds in other media, on the air, in mediocre crafts with claims to literature. Only a court, such as the Nuremberg Tribunal, has the right to declare "criminal". It is shameful not to know this and speculate on the injuries of people. Our generation is not ashamed of our affairs in Afghanistan, we were faithful to the oath of allegiance to the Fatherland, honestly fulfilled our soldier's duty.
You yourself had a chance to sip that trench porridge?
Andrey Chepurnoy: Yes, I fought in Afghanistan for two years. He commanded a reconnaissance company, was the chief of intelligence of the special forces battalion of the Main Intelligence Directorate. He was wounded twice. Survived. Greyhound hunters for some scandalous "truth" are all looking for how many of our soldiers fled or were captured and went over to the side of the enemy. I will not hide that there were cases of cowardice and cowardice, there were also renegades. But these are a few, in the family, they say, not without its black sheep. About a million soldiers and officers have served as part of the Limited contingent of Soviet troops in 10 years, and they covered themselves with glory, not shame. Once our 334th GRU special forces detachment survived the tragedy in the Maravarsky gorge, losing more than 20 people in battle at once. Lieutenant Nikolai Kuznetsov, left alone surrounded by the Mujahideen, blew himself up with them. Who will turn his tongue to say that this is an "episode of a criminal war"?
What happened to those who were captured?
Andrei Chepurnoy: Those who did not obey were immediately shot, those who hesitated, forced to learn the Koran and accept Islam, gave their names. But more often than not, they simply brutally mocked, attracting their women and even children to inhuman torture. Everyone who served on Afghan soil knows this. In 1985, captured Soviet soldiers revolted in the Badaber camp, all were killed, but took the lives of 120 Mujahideen and an ammunition depot. After that, the dushmans issued an order: "Do not take Shuravi prisoner."
To this day, there are disputes and even speculations about the number of dead and missing people, contradictory, sometimes incredible figures are called. Do you have verified data on combat losses?
Andrey Chepurnoy: The numbers did change, because more and more information about the dead and disappeared into obscurity was revealed. According to the military contingent, 13, 5 thousand people were initially considered dead, gradually this figure exceeded 14 thousand. But on Afghan soil there were not only military personnel, but also civilians. They laid roads, energy and pipelines, built bridges, schools, hospitals, enterprises, worked as advisers. And among them were the victims. Taking into account all the losses known to date, we believe that more than 15 thousand people died during the Afghan war.
You can understand the feelings of people who have gone through this hell. The front-line poet once wrote piercing lines: “The leg hurts, which does not exist” … So any offensive word about Afghanistan burns like an open wound. But now you are already the head of a large all-Russian organization, a member of the Victory Organizing Committee, a scientist, a doctor of sciences. From the height of the past years, how do you assess that "Afghan campaign" - is it just a tragic mistake of the highest Soviet authorities or something more?
Andrei Chepurnoy: I am convinced that the Afghan war was inevitable and even justified. Because otherwise we would have to fight on our own territory. Those shock troops of aggression that have now become known as Al-Qaeda, Taliban, radical Islamic Wahhabism, the United States began to create as soon as it lost the Vietnam War. They, not us, prepared a coup in Afghanistan, friendly to the USSR. The king was overthrown, but the "Americanization" of the country did not happen. Moreover, the leader of the victorious party, Taraki, turned to Brezhnev with a request to send Soviet troops into Afghanistan, he felt that a conspiracy was being woven behind his back. However, the reaction was negative, he was promised only economic assistance. But soon Taraki was killed, the openly pro-American Amin came to power. It became clear that US bases would be deployed near the southern Soviet borders, and a bloody Islamist expansion would sweep over our Central Asian republics, creating a real threat to the entire country. The introduction of the Limited Contingent was the only alternative to forestall this imminent danger.
As the saying goes, it is a no brainer that it is better to put out the fire away from your own doorstep than to wait for your walls to blaze. Where did this crafty and insulting stigma - "criminal war" come from?
Andrey Chepurnoy: Do you remember who imposed it. Greedy forces, already ready to tear the country apart, those who made a name and a career for themselves on the blood of soldiers. This was their ace up their sleeve in a big game that ended in the collapse of the USSR. The screaming aunts were dragging around Moscow a plywood coffin with a soldier's cap nailed on top, and then the organizers of the "anti-Afghan" took warm places and parliamentary seats. The Afghan campaign turned out to be slandered, humiliated and undeservedly forgotten. And what a shame, other "advanced" historians and fictional writers, instead of a truthful study of that far from the worst page in the country's biography, all exude only a boring groan on the same distressing note. Long ago, Miguel Cervantes, the author of Don Quixote, said that false historians should be punished as counterfeiters - they leave a false mark on history. I think the genius Spaniard was right.
Now a dangerous fire has flared up again near our borders, this time in Ukraine. What do you think about this?
Andrei Chepurnoy: There is no need to explain to those who passed the Afghani: the handwriting is familiar. Then, along the entire Afghan border on the Pakistani side, a dense network of militant training camps was created. In a poor country, recruiting adventurers is not a problem: bright advertising promises shoes, uniforms, well-fed food and money. A person signs a contract - and he is trapped, because otherwise he will not pay off the coffin of his life. These spooks carried death to the Afghan mountains.
What do we see now? Similar camps are being created along the Russian borders in the former Baltic republics, where the economy is crumbling, the population is impoverished, and people are fleeing to work. The next step is the creation of American bases in Poland, Bulgaria, Romania. What for? The hour will come, and this cannon fodder will be thrown against us, quite possibly - under the pretext of "voluntary" assistance to Ukraine.
The real trouble for us was the flow of narcotic potion from Afghanistan.
Andrey Chepurnoy: While we were standing there, we managed to curb drug trafficking far from Russia. There was also a natural barrier - the stormy Amu Darya, which is dangerous to cross, and there is only one bridge, in Hairaton. When we left, the Americans set up eight more pontoon bridge crossings in an army way - carry the heroin uncontrollably, without inspections, straight in the direction of Russia. According to the latest data from the State Drug Control Service, about 30 thousand people die from an overdose in a year. Without firing a shot! Just compare: in the ten years of the war in Afghanistan, half was lost.
True, there were also tens of thousands of wounded. What are the figures for calculating these losses?
Andrey Chepurnoy: By the end of hostilities, 32 thousand people were disabled. But then this figure also grew, then those who were injured in the first Chechen campaign were added to it. As a result, at the beginning of 2000, the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection established the number of disabled combatants at about 120 thousand people.
Has your organization incorporated all disabled people from local wars and military conflicts?
Andrey Chepurnoy: The legislator does not keep separate records for categories of disabled people, and we also stopped doing this. Today, according to the Pension Fund, about 200 thousand people receive pensions and benefits for compensation for harm to life and health due to military trauma.
What does your organization have to help disabled veterans, does help reach those who live not in the capital, but in the regions?
Andrey Chepurnoy: We cover the entire territory of the country, each region has our representative offices, rehabilitation centers have been established in 52 regions, rehabilitation selection commissions solve problems related to the provision of social, psychological, legal and medical assistance. If a disabled person needs specialized treatment, then he is either sent to Moscow, to a medical institution of the desired profile, or to our Center for Rehabilitation Therapy named after V. I. Likhodeya. It provides free rehabilitation from 5 to 6 thousand disabled people and members of their families per year.
And where there are no rehabilitation centers yet, can the disabled get help, first of all, medical?
Andrey Chepurnoy: On January 1, 2015, Federal Law No. 442 came into full force, which took military injuries under the protection of disabled people. Before there were difficulties. In places where there are no our centers, the burden falls on the local authorities. For them, this is an extra headache, therefore, you know, they say, if we are given an order from “above” … And now you won't get away. And the regions met halfway, they help to create such centers, determine non-profit organizations that will receive state subsidies and grants to provide services to people with disabilities.
Does the construction of housing take into account the problems of people with disabilities, especially those who are actually confined to a wheelchair?
Andrey Chepurnoy: We even built a special town for the disabled with spinal disabilities. Separate cottages with a layout so that you can call in a wheelchair to any floor. It turns out, of course, more expensive, but there are all conditions and infrastructure nearby. But what did you encounter? They gave a disabled person such a cottage, and he immediately sold it. I come to see and see how a plump, rosy-cheeked "new Russian" enters the house along the ramp right in the jeep, says: "That's great!"
At first, there were big problems with wheelchairs - they either did not fit the disabled, or the quality failed. Something has changed?
Andrey Chepurnoy: The social security authorities have made a decision, but, unfortunately, again half-hearted. It is now allowed that a disabled person can choose his own wheelchair. But the price is limited to 50 thousand rubles. And a normal, multifunctional stroller, not imported, but of our production, costs 100 thousand, you simply cannot do it cheaper. For 50 thousand they bring in Chinese, very bad ones, their wheels quickly break. And the new wheel costs about 30 thousand. Such is the dumping trick, it seems cheap, but in fact - like Pushkin's: "You, priest, would not be chasing after cheapness."
Needless to say, our officials are great masters of not how to make a person better, but how to save money on him, at least in trifles, but to snatch something …
Andrei Chepurnoy: I am very sorry for the mothers of the victims. Officials have caused such confusion that it is embarrassing to look these disadvantaged women in the eye at meetings. The law stipulates that in case of loss of the breadwinner, the family is paid a pension of 14 thousand rubles. Let's face it, poor "compensation". So little of this, an orphaned mother comes, and she is given only half - 7 thousand.
Why?
Andrey Chepurnoy: When the guys began to die in Afghanistan, they also established a pension for the loss of a breadwinner, meaning the family of the deceased. But in life everything turned out to be more complicated, both mother and father were dependent, and they dispersed and live in different places. Why is one given and the other not? The law was amended: the pension is based on each family member. So what did the officials do? They considered the deceased himself a member of the family. Complete nonsense, because if a person died, he is not, he that, from the other world, must perform bad orders? But mothers say so: seven thousand to you, and seven thousand for your son we take as state revenue. What idiot could have thought of such blasphemy? In the end, there is inheritance law, and if a person dies, his funds and property go to relatives, not bureaucrats. This is pure lawlessness. Nevertheless, it is flourishing.
We have the judiciary on such "smart people". Have you tried to defend the infringed rights of mothers in court?
Andrey Chepurnoy: We tried, but in each subject the courts make different decisions. In some - for the benefit of mothers, in others - for the benefit of the state. We got to the Constitutional Court, he said: we need a new law that will regulate the situation. We turned to the Ministry of Defense, and the answer came from there: you know, it happened, the practice has existed for many years … But this is a vicious practice. Put yourself in the place of the unfortunate mother, first they took her son away from her, and then also the money.
Miracles, and nothing more. Not such great sums and not such a number of still living fathers and mothers of dead soldiers in the country to be so stingy and take away the last pitiful pennies from the unfortunate, leaving them only the pain of loss.
Andrey Chepurnoy: They cripple people's souls. Mother read the law, she was told: go, you are entitled to 14 thousand rubles. And they give 7. Is it possible for the state to replenish its budget in such an obscene way? And no matter how hard we fight, there is no way to break through the bureaucratic indifference. We all hope, maybe they will make a present for the anniversary of the Great Victory?
How do you prepare to celebrate the anniversary, what is planned for this date?
Andrey Chepurnoy: According to the plan of the Victory Organizing Committee, we also have a lot of events. One of the main ones is that we are holding a patriotic marathon for wheelchair users in memorable places of military glory of the Great Patriotic War. Today it will take the route Rostov - Lugansk - Donetsk. Now there is an action to collect humanitarian aid for these besieged Ukrainian cities. On the eve of May 9, our creative team will go there, we will congratulate the veterans living there, present them with anniversary medals, commemorative signs, gifts. We will transport the humanitarian cargo to Rostov, where a convoy of about 15 heavy KAMAZ trucks will be formed. After May 9, the marathon will take place in the cities of military glory and hero cities Moscow - Kaluga - Tula - Voronezh - Belgorod - Kursk - Orel - Bryansk. During the marathon, about 30 of our wheelchair users are preparing by personal example of their attitude to life to cheer people in trouble and show that it is possible to overcome any hardships and obstacles.
