Three main rules of Sharovatov's life: reconnaissance, task, decision. How at the assembly point they select the Border Troops team 220 a for military units

IN Soviet time they were silent about them. In perestroika, it was not up to them. And then it became “unfashionable” to discuss on the pages of the press the blazing glow of burnt lives in Afghanistan. But gradually the society began to come "to memory", and the sprouts of holy memory gradually came to life.

Every year in February, everyone who remembers comes to the monument to the soldiers-internationalists in the city of Azov: comrades, wives, mothers, friends, neighbors. By tradition - all with red carnations. They are drops of blood. For everyone, this day is special in its own way. For combat veteran Alexander Sharovatov, this is a day of remembrance. A day of holy memory for the glorious fighting friends with whom his fate collided in his youth on the mountain paths.

He, like all those gathered here, remembers and mourns:

I ended up in Afghanistan in August 1988, not on conscription, I performed a special task - I took people from there. I saw a lot.

Alexander remembers not only friends who died in Afghanistan. On duty in landing troops he had to visit Chechnya:

There are friends who died in the Chechen campaigns. I must say that the second Chechen campaign taught us a lot. She passed already with fewer losses, with less betrayal.

But war is war, it makes every soldier a true patriot. The patriotism of Alexander Vitalievich was taught by the war, now, in Peaceful time, he teaches young people how to love, protect and protect the Motherland:

The war taught me independence. For the commander, the main thing is to conduct reconnaissance, understand the task, and then make a decision. Guided by these three rules, I try to live.

Last summer, Alexander Vitalyevich sent his son to the army. Grigory Sharovatov is serving in the military special purpose. The father is proud of his son. Already next year, Grisha will come to the traditional rally with his father. Until then, he's a soldier.

Now the son, Gregory, is being raised by the armed forces. He independently chose his path - he decided to give his military duty. I want my son to be first of all a Man with a capital letter, and then a military man.

A war veteran is not indifferent to the future of youth. He is for a healthy Russia. Strong and strong. In peacetime, Alexander is a mentor for several generations of Azov schoolchildren. Alexander Sharovatov often holds meetings with young people, holds talks with colleagues, shows patriotic films, including those about the campaign in Afghanistan:

I advise the youth of Azov to be conscious, go in for sports, and not sit at the computer, because gadgets are of little use, and, of course, prepare to defend our Fatherland. The example of neighboring countries shows that if the younger generation is brought up for decades on imported films, cartoons, computer games, patriots will not grow out of it, on the contrary, there will be a whole generation of dissatisfied.

Alexander Sharovatov also regrets that primary education was canceled in schools. military training, have been replaced by the basics of life safety, but these are completely different subjects. The children learn not to defend, but to provide first aid. Therefore it extra classes with the younger generation of Azov residents help fill the gap in education. Alexander Sharovatov knows how to raise a patriot. And he does it with pleasure.

Two wars of Melnikov

Not so long ago I visited a unique center created by internationalist soldiers in Rostov-on-Don. It's called the War Veterans Center. Schoolchildren and students come here almost every day, for two hours reserve officers tell about the numerous examples of courage and heroism shown in different years by our soldiers.

The center operates under the leadership of Sergei Igorevich Loginov, who also took part in the hostilities in Afghanistan. In just over a year, the center has gained great prestige. Young boys and girls come here in an endless stream to join the real, real people. It should be noted that lectures here are not easy.

Usually several people are invited to meetings, whose stories take only 10-12 minutes, then there is a demonstration of thematic stories. Combat accessories are also shown during the classes.

Retired Lieutenant Colonel Semenov Valery Alexandrovich found a unique path for himself here: he conducts almost all classes here. His voice is somewhat reminiscent of the timbre of the voice of the famous Levitan and gives the stories a special, penetrating depth.

Most of the center's participants have been to Afghanistan, and this topic never leaves the listeners' souls calm.

You can learn about the fate of the Afghans here.

I want to tell you about a man who, by the will of fate, became a participant in two wars and stood guard for many years public order. This is Artur Vladimirovich Melnikov.

Young Artur Melnikov was drafted into the Soviet Army in May 1987. At this time, on Afghan soil, for more than one year fighting, and hundreds of our countrymen visited this hot spot.

The recruit spent the first few months in a training unit in Ashgabat, and then, together with his colleagues, he was transferred to Kabul, from there to Gardes. Arthur served in the 56th separate air assault brigade. Then he had to take part in the operation "Highway", one of the largest for the whole afghan war. It took place from November 1987 to January 1988 on the broad front of the provinces of Paxia and Khost in the zone of the Afghan-Pakistani border with the involvement of significant forces and means. The purpose of the operation is to break through the long-term military and economic blockade of the Khost district and to frustrate the plans of the leadership to create an alternative Islamic state on the territory of the district.

Together with his colleagues, Melnikov more than once fell into the epicenter of military clashes, he had to meet danger and the enemy face to face. The fighting went on every week, often the unit was alerted because of the information received about the accumulation of the Mujahideen.

The part in which Arthur served was located near Pakistan, which meant that often the paratroopers had to block mountain paths in order to stop drug smuggling from that country.

News from home to a foreign Afghan land flew infrequently. Letters and postcards from relatives came once a month, and sometimes less often. In the return messages, the paratroopers did not write about how and where the fighting was going on, but tried to reassure their loved ones that they were alive and well, the situation was calm.

Artur Melnikov stayed in Afghanistan for more than a year, then the withdrawal of our troops began. The Soviet units handed over weapons, trenches and fortifications to the Afghan government, and our guys went home.

Artur Vladimirovich recalls that at first, upon returning home, he was tormented by nightmares, but he was able to cope with them. But not everyone was so lucky, among these young veterans there are enough of those whose psyche was forever broken in Afghanistan.

There was another war in the life of Arthur Melnikov. During the second Chechen war, he and his colleagues went to hot spot to keep order there. For four months he fought the militants. I had to search houses where terrorists could be hiding, clear roads and risk their lives again.

Today Artur Vladimirovich Melnikov is a veteran of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, is engaged in business, has a daughter. He served in law enforcement agencies for more than 20 years, retired with the rank of major. He says that there are several dates in the year that he definitely celebrates: the Day of the Airborne Forces and the Day of the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan. At this time, he always meets with colleagues, comes to the monument to the soldiers-internationalists to honor the memory of those who died in a foreign land.

"Team 220"

Sergei Ivanovich Tserkunik in his childhood, like all boys, played “war games” and dreamed of being an army commander, but he could not even imagine that he would really face the realities of a real war. Sergey was born in the village of Zhuravlyovka, but soon the family moved to Tselina. Studied in Tselinskaya high school No. 1. He loved to tinker with machinery, and together with his older brother Yura, he repaired bicycles, mopeds, and helped his father in the garage. After graduating from 8 classes, he entered the Proletarian vocational school, where he received the specialty of a refrigeration engineer, where he was also registered with the Proletarian military registration and enlistment office.

I was drafted into the ranks of the Soviet Army in May 1986, - Sergey recalls. - The military registration and enlistment office issued an order in which it was written - "Team 220", which meant - border troops.

Parents made a farewell, as expected, all friends wished for an easy service. But these were only words. And in fact...

When we were brought to Bataysk, “buyers” were already waiting there. Our team was called to the parade ground and sent to Azerbaijan (then it was still the USSR) in the autonomous republic of Nakhichevan. First there was the "training". I studied at the communications school for half a year, and upon graduation we were divided into four warring districts (by that time I already knew that I would serve in Afghanistan) and, according to distribution, were sent to the city of Termez, Uzbek SSR, MMG-2. Our squad was in the territory Soviet Union, and the base where I served is in the city of Tashkurgan (this is the north of Afghanistan). Each detachment had four motorized maneuver groups that were located on the territory of Afghanistan, I served in the second. And so we were dropped by helicopters to the base. Nature was amazing, and the terrain - you can’t imagine worse: impregnable mountain steeps, land scorched by the hot sun, heat, dust. On the one hand - hills and bald mountains, and on the other - cliffs, slopes and gorges.

We are border guards, and we were faced with the task of ensuring the security of the state border of the USSR from Afghanistan. Each of our units had its own area of ​​responsibility, and this is about a hundred kilometers. The task is to prevent dushmans from entering the territory of the Union for the purpose of terrorist actions. I did not become a signalman, I was a grenade launcher on the SPG-9 (Soviet mounted anti-tank grenade launcher). They used armored personnel carriers and infantry fighting vehicles for operations, blocking caravans with weapons and drugs. Often they themselves came under fire. The worst thing is when you have to lose your comrades. The success of operations in combat conditions was decided not even by minutes, but by seconds. They worked on orders. This is war, and it was impossible to relax here. We were brought up with restraint, strict discipline and the prevention of violations. There was no talk of any hazing. The civilian population treated us differently: they communicated normally with someone, and some of them hung magnetic mines. They tried to establish contacts with the Afghans, especially with the elders, they helped those in need: they distributed grain, food, bed linen. We have never seen such poverty as here. In order to grow even a handful of grain here, poor people had to cultivate every piece of barren land. Seeing a benevolent attitude, many local residents saw us not as invaders, but as people who came to protect them from bandits.

They lived in dugouts. The climate is harsh - hot during the day and cold at night. True, in the spring it is beautiful - the desert blooms, it lasts a week or two. They fed us like at home, but they gave us dry rations for trips and during sandstorms. Operations used to last up to a month, they had to spend the night in armored personnel carriers, ate biscuits and water. Every day, "sides" flew to us - they brought ammunition, water, dry rations.

It happened in every way. It was impossible to drink water from unknown sources in any case, only after disinfection. We were at the base for a week at most - and again for an operation.

We stood in front of the mountains, and in the mountains there was a “spiritual” base, and from there they fired at us, battles began. Our command has developed an operation to destroy it. Before us were bandit formations that were equipped modern weapons: heavy machine guns, mortars and grenade launchers. But we delivered a strong fire strike, helicopters supported us from the air, and as a result, the base was liquidated.

We were faced with different tasks: we carried out raids to destroy bandits and their bases in the border zone, carried out operations to eliminate caravans with weapons, ammunition, and drugs. They escorted transport and covered their routes of movement. I served 17 months in Afghanistan.

I don’t remember feeling fear - they were all young, hot. He completed his service with the rank of deputy commander of an anti-tank platoon.

He left the army when the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan had already begun. Our motorized maneuver groups were the last to leave: first all the troops were withdrawn, and then we were. They sent us back to Termez, gave us a new uniform, salary, and tickets home. I did not go home, but flew as if on wings. First, to Volgograd by train, and from there by bus to his native village of Tselina.

When I got to Afghanistan, I did not write to my mother where I serve, only my older brother knew about it. Yes, she would not have guessed - after all, all the letters came to Uzbekistan, and from there they were sent to us at the base. She found out only when I returned from the army.

For excellent military service, Sergei Ivanovich has many letters of appreciation and letters of thanks signed by the command and M.S. Gorbachev, and was awarded commemorative medals for military merits.

Of course, it was a terrible and difficult time. But we knew that the Motherland was behind us, and it was our sacred duty to ensure its security and protect the interests of the country and its citizens.

This Saturday, February 15, marks the 25th anniversary of the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan. Our countryman, Oleg Alexandrovich Lesnichiy, recalls how that time influenced his whole life

Actually, it was kind of childish. Afghan, war, defense of the Motherland. All these words both frightened us and inspired us. We, who have just become considered young men, are all just finishing educational establishments and boldly striding towards the victory of communism, building their life plans. Ahead of us, of course, was waiting for a whole life. A life full of adventure and romance. Girls fell in love with us and we had to show ourselves somehow. And we each tried to stand out. They dedicated songs to their loved ones, invented various machines and household items. Afghanistan was one such manifestation. It sounded menacing, but what did we then know about the war. Only by hearsay. We listened to our grandfathers about how they defended their homeland, about their exploits, and we involuntarily wanted to accomplish a feat as well. Our fathers and mothers were more afraid. I remember the summons to the army with the exact definition of my service. Team 20a.

No one then showed us their feelings, fearing that they would be upset themselves and seem ridiculous to us. After all, tomorrow we became the defenders of our borders. We were no longer like everyone else. And only my mother cried at night, and in the morning she pretended that everything was in order. Then I got into a fight with my girlfriend. Yes, I found an excuse to do this, because I did not want to be expected. No, I'm lying - in my heart, of course, I wanted to, but in my subconscious I understood that this was a war. I did not want, being at war, to know or even think that my girlfriend would not wait for me. It was easier to know that I was not bound by anything, and if anything, then no one would be upset ... ... Although this was not the main thing. I wanted to prove to everyone who knew me that I was no worse than others, and maybe even better. After all, I went not just to the army, I went to fight.

The farewell flew by and now a crowd of guys, still drunk on love, freedom and family parental ties, cut us off from civilian life in one word - service. And so the days of that special life of young boys, what is called “service in the army”, flew by, only who was taken where from the military registration and enlistment offices, and we, team 20a, went to war. Of course, not immediately, but first in training. I don’t know who and how thought about the service, about dushmans, but I still understood that sooner or later I would find myself face to face with an enemy that I would have to shoot at. And I, I can't do anything. No, when I was at school, I was engaged in boxing for about a year and sambo for about 2 years, but either a gym or a fight. And it made me think. Think fast and make decisions. And for me in serious matters, my parents always thought. And here?! What was to be done. And I thought and made decisions, cunning. I remember that when everyone stood in the ranks and was afraid that they would be plowed once again, I climbed where, in principle, flattery was not necessary. Result?! Someone from training was quickly taken to Afghanistan. As soon as they graduated. And I, due to the fact that I climbed into all the hardships, participated in the parade in Ashgabat. It was beautiful and unforgettable. And only after him to Afghanistan.

Even hotter than in Ashgabat, even more dry and monochromatic. And the most inexplicable feeling is that I am in a foreign land. How to deal with the enemy, who is this enemy? I remember how I looked around at that marvel called DRA, which a few months ago I could only talk about, when there were several of us who showed themselves during the “purchase” and already felt the hardness, dust of this earth, and the first beatings during in an exemplary fight between themselves, they put him in an on-board vehicle stretched with a tarpaulin and drove him, accompanied by an armored personnel carrier, on the armor of which several fighters were sitting. Where we were taken, I did not know what would happen, too. The body ached a little, the face was serious, and the eyes were full of anxiety.

On the streets of Kabul

Yes, I tried to stand out when the "buyers" selected their fighters. Who are these employees... I had already learned a lot in training, and during the selection of our brother, I understood that I was not in the infantry, they didn’t select me for the infantry, I left the training as a signalman, they knew this, but why we were forced to show fighting qualities, it was not clear. Many were simply named according to the list and simply loaded into cars and taken away. Everything was incomprehensible. I scolded myself that I approached the fighting soldiers and wished to feel that I had fallen for this selection, but I had already climbed somewhere and all that remained was to move on.

Amin's Palace

It doesn't matter where they brought us and how the service in Afghanistan was. It was hard, especially in the first couple of months. With acclimatization, with the second oven, when we were taught to fight and survive. Combat exits, shooting, blood, pieces of bodies. Still no movie, no modern games, much less I will not convey that pain, thirst, fear and despair, those screams and explosions, sleepless nights and hell during the day, when it was spitting that you couldn’t drink that water. When I didn’t give a damn about what would happen and it was understood that if I didn’t do what I did, then everyone could die. I'm not going to talk about what we did. We were given an order, a task was set, and then we spun as best we could. It was necessary to complete the task and stay alive. We did it.

Withdrawal of troops. We are heroes. Return to the USSR. The country meets heroes. Tashkent continues to scatter us around the country. I am not going to arrange a tour of the places of my military glory. But what do I see. Envy. How so - heroes. What the fuck are heroes. Shuravi?! The officers are trying to prove to everyone that we are ordinary soldiers and we just served abroad. In the first month, in one of the units, many Afghans, including myself, lose things that we bought with our own money in Afghan dukans, saving on ourselves, for our relatives. You will not believe. Even the awards are gone. Then, however, they threw it up when we raised the kipezh, but even then not everyone and not everyone, not everyone was lucky, having reached the term military service, put well-deserved medals on the demobilization tunic.

Who knew then that after returning home and seeing the gray heads of our parents, their exorbitantly happy tears, experiencing the respect of neighbors, feeling the love of waiting girls, in a few years we, "Afghans", will hear - "no one sent you there."

No, that's not what I want to say. I am not bitter from these words, I am not bitter from the fact that we are now considered moved. That we are people with a broken roof. I am bitter that we have protected what others have been able to retrain and plunder. But now I can say with confidence and a bitter smile: we are internationalist warriors, those kind of heroes of the 80s. And I, having completed the task assigned to me in the DRA, remained alive, honestly continued my service in the Ministry of Internal Affairs and now I work for the good of my Motherland. I help Russian people regardless of their status in society. I can say that if my roof has moved out, it is only in favor of my people, because they did not teach us there - in Afghanistan to betray our own. They did not teach us envy and self-interest. I also want to say that it's even great to be a small, but a hero. I want to say that every hero has envious people, that the fate of heroism is sidelong glances and even exile. The hero may not be noticed, he may not be loved.

No, don't be afraid to be heroes, don't be afraid to be cast out. The hero is a man with a broken roof, but it is this man that the whole country is talking about.

Oleg Lesnichiy (pictured left). Afghanistan, 1988

Forester Oleg Viktorovich,
Participant in the fighting in Afghanistan, 1988

Category "B" - good with minor restrictions - is too broad. It includes a large group of both mild and severe diseases, allowing the possibility of military service. Therefore, depending on the recruit's diagnosis, the draft board can assign him one of four modifications of this category: "B-1", "B-2", "B-3" or "B-4".

I am Tsuprekov Artem, head of the human rights department of the Assistance Service for Conscripts. In this article I will tell you what the B category is, what modifications it is divided into, and how to change the B category to C.

Army eligibility categories

All categories of fitness in the military registration and enlistment office are determined by a special document - It contains diseases, anthropometric data and other information that makes it clear which of the fitness groups corresponds to the state of health of the conscript.

• "A" - fit for military service. There are no restrictions on the type of troops in which it is recommended to serve.
• "B" - fit for military service with minor restrictions. They concern the choice of recommended troops, which are marked with a number after the letter of fitness.
• "B" - limited fit for service. The young man receives a military ID and goes to the reserve.
• "G" - temporarily unfit. For some diseases, a temporary delay is granted. When it ends, the recruit undergoes a second medical examination. If health improves, the conscript will be taken into the army. If not, the young man will receive a second deferral or.
• "D" - not fit for service. Completely removed from military records. It is not called up either in peacetime or in wartime.

What does category "B" mean?

Category "B" is the most common of all fitness categories. It is exhibited in diseases of various degrees and stages, in the presence of borderline diagnoses, as well as in insufficient preparation for draft events.

Most of the diseases in the Schedule of Diseases fall into this category. So that recruits with diagnoses of different severity do not end up in the same troops, a destination indicator was introduced for this category. He divides the category of suitability into four subgroups: "B-1", "B-2", "B-3", "B-4".

Expert opinion

Often, category "B" is assigned to a conscript if he provided an insufficient number of medical documents or if they were ignored. If you do not agree with the decision of the military registration and enlistment office, find out how to change the eligibility category and get an exemption from service on the "" page.

Ekaterina Mikheeva, head of the legal department of the Assistance Service for Conscripts

Expiration categories "B-1" and "B-2"

Categories "B-1" and "B-2" are given to young people with minor health problems: mild allergies and other chronic diseases that do not lead to serious disorders in the functioning of the organs.

• Marines,
• Special Forces,
• Airborne and DShB units,
• border troops.

• submarine and surface fleet,
• among drivers and crew members of tanks, self-propelled guns, engineering vehicles.

These troops include young people with excellent physical fitness and special anthropometric data. All additional indicators can be found in a special appendix to.

Expiration category "B-3"

What is the validity of "B-3"? The health category “B-3” causes the greatest interest among conscripts, since this group is the widest and includes almost all conscription diseases. This category is set for minor violations of the functions of any organs, cured diseases and residual effects of various diseases and fractures. A conscript with category "B-3" is fit for the army, but with restrictions on physical activity.

With a fitness category "B-3" they can be drafted into the army as a driver and crew member of an infantry fighting vehicle, armored personnel carrier and missile launchers, a specialist in fuel and lubricants units and other chemical units, as well as in the management and maintenance of anti-aircraft missile systems.

With the category of service "B-3" they are not taken to the elite troops and special forces. With it, you can’t be in the marines, airborne forces, DShB and border troops. Since the indicators of purpose for the degree "B-3" are lower than those of the holders of "A", "B-1" and "B-2", the level of physical activity during the service will also be lower.

Table 1. Main indicators of health for the category "B-3" in the military card.

Expiration category "B-4"

If "B-3" is a category of suitability, which assumes moderate physical activity, then with the modification "B-4" their degree is even lower. Upon receipt of the B-4 fitness category, the army cannot be avoided either, but the choice of the type of troops will be seriously limited. A young person can be sent to radio engineering units, security and defense of missile systems and other types of troops / units that do not impose serious requirements on the health of military personnel.

The main requirements for anthropometry and the health of a conscript when setting the fitness category "B-4" can be found in Table 2.

How to change the category "B" in a military ID?

During a medical examination, conscripts with a borderline diagnosis often receive a B-4 or B-3 category instead of a B-4 or B-3 category and go to serve in the army. This problem is especially relevant in the second half of the draft, when the military commissariats are puzzled by the implementation of the plan for staffing the army.

There are several ways to solve this problem in order to obtain a military ID with category "B". If you were not given a referral from the military registration and enlistment office, then you can ask for it yourself. In some cases, recruits are assigned an incomplete list of examinations. This may affect the setting of the fitness category, so you need to be well aware of the list of mandatory studies to confirm the diagnosis.

If, after an additional examination, the military registration and enlistment office intends to put a draft category, this is a decision in a higher draft commission. To do this, write an application with a request to send you for a face-to-face control medical examination. If the results of the CMO turn out to be disappointing, there is another possibility to change the category of fitness for military service - to apply to the court.

With respect to you, Tsuprekov Artem, head of the human rights department of the Service for Assistance to Conscripts.

Contractor Alexander, who himself has experience in selecting recruits, at the request of the editors, wrote about how the recruitment of young recruits to various military units takes place.

In connection with the beginning of the next conscription, the editors of the site asked me to write something for conscripts, so I will share my experience in selecting young recruits. I already, so this time I'll just briefly retell the list of things:

1) cheap phone with charger
2) wash accessories
3) food for the day
4) money
5) cigarettes (if you smoke)

After the medical examination at the military enlistment office, if you are deemed fit, you will be told when you need to come to the military registration and enlistment office and on that day you will be taken to the regional assembly point. Teams will be formed there to be sent to military units. The assembly point is a sensitive facility, there are military personnel on it who will keep order and will not let friends and parents go there. In the same place, you will undergo another medical examination and will wait for distribution to the team. After the medical examination, you will be taken to the waiting room (this is a room with benches and a table), where the officers will come and conduct an interview. I recommend discipline and silence, but I understand perfectly well that this will not achieve anything.

During the interview, officers will ask about your family, what you did before the call, about your desire to serve, about future plans, about expectations, about a criminal record, about education, they can ask smart questions. I don't think it's worth lying about something or not saying anything, because, firstly, the officer will have a personal file, and secondly, any deception will come out. If you do not want to serve, then it is better to say so right away.

After the interview, when you are assigned to the team, you will be put together, and it is better to stick together with your team. The next day you will be given a uniform - this will be your first day as a soldier. From the moment the uniform is issued, your team will have an officer or sergeant who will accompany you to the unit. They will answer questions, help with packing things in a duffel bag, explain how to wear a uniform. From now on, everything that your team escorts say is better to listen carefully and remember. You can also find out from them where you will be taken, call your parents and tell them about it.

After some time, you will be taken to the station, where you can chat with relatives and friends. If you see your parents and friends, then you don’t have to immediately run to them, wait for the officer’s instructions, then go up to him and say that they came to you, and try not to go far. I would also advise you not to be photographed in military uniform, because in a year you will look at your pictures like a university graduate at a first grader, but then whatever you want.

Then you will be put on a train, and you will go to the unit. On the train, it is worth observing discipline, not disturbing the peace of other passengers, and listening to the instructions of the officers. And do not spend all the money on the train, as they will come in handy in part.