Russian volunteers in Yugoslavia. "Royal Wolves" in Bosnia

Sergey Prigolovkin 21.07.2015

Sergey Prigolovkin 21.07.2015

During the collapse of Yugoslavia in the early 1990s, civil wars and ethnic conflicts broke out at various times on the territory of all six republics of the SFRY. The most brutal and large-scale war was in Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1992 to 1995.The escalation of the conflict followed the referendum on the independence of the republic, which was held on February 29, 1992 without the participation of the Serbs. Its results were rejected by the Bosnian Serb leaders, who created their own republic. After the declaration of independence, a civil war began in which the Serbs had to fight the Bosnians - Muslims and Croats. Muslim military formations began to attack the civilian Serbian population and targets of the Yugoslav People's Army. IN fighting detachments of Serbian militias, secretly supported by the JNA, were drawn in. The first Russian volunteers appeared on the side of the Serbs at the very beginning of the conflict; organized detachments began to appear in the fall of 1992.

Alexander Mukharev, call sign “As” (left) - commander of the second RDO, Igor Strelkov (center) andBoban Indzic, commander of the “intervention” shock company of the Visegrad Brigade (RDO was part of this company). Vysehrad

RDO

In September 1992, the First Russian Volunteer Detachment appeared in the Serbian Herzegovina in the city of Trebinje. The recruitment of volunteers was carried out mainly through Cossack structures in Moscow and St. Petersburg. These proposals aroused great interest among Cossack volunteers. In the fall of 1992, about 40 volunteers were sent to Republika Srpska. At the same time, there were 10 times more people willing.

The second Russian Volunteer Detachment was created in the city of Visegrad. The first volunteers in this beautiful city appeared on the banks of the Drina River in eastern Bosnia on October 30, 1992. At this time, the situation on this section of the front was very difficult. Before this, the Serbs lost the city of Gorazde, which they held for almost six months. In the Visegrad area, which is adjacent to the Gorazde area, the enemy was in close proximity to the city itself, shelling it with mortar and sniper fire. The threat of the fall of Visegrad in November 1992 was more than real. The enemy sought to unite the enclaves of Gorazde, Zepa and Srebrenica into a single space. The city of Visegrad was on the way to this goal. In such a situation, the appearance of the first Russian volunteers in the city led to extraordinary inspiration among both the Serbian troops and civilian population. On November 1-2, several more volunteers arrived. By November 4 total quantity There were 5 Russian volunteers in the Second RDO. The detachment was commanded by Alexander Mukharev - “Ace”; one of the first volunteers was Igor Strelkov, who became the commander of the resistance in Donbass a little more than 20 years later.

In the history of the Russian volunteer movement, the Second Russian Volunteer Detachment occupies a special place due to the fact that, being the Second, it was essentially the first well-organized Russian volunteer detachment with its own commanders, symbols, traditions, stable composition and structure. Subsequently created the Third RDO and the Second United RDO essentially copied the traditions of the Second RDO. An important role was also played by the fact that the detachment existed for almost a year, which is an important factor for such wars as the war in Bosnia of 1992-95. You can remember about a dozen Russian volunteer detachments, but the most successful of them were the Second RDO, the Third RDO and the White Wolves.

It is important to note the fighting spirit and spiritual and moral attitude of the volunteers of the Second RDO. From the very beginning of its existence, the Second RDO cultivated in its ranks the idea of ​​volunteerism and the Orthodox Russian army. Prayer was constantly present in the lives of volunteers, which the Serbian priests of the Visegrad Church drew attention to in their sermons to their parishioners. The general brotherly spirit of the Second RDO is still alive today. It is important that almost all volunteers felt involved in the Russian volunteer White movement and in Cossack traditions. Everyone who was part of this detachment recalls with pride their involvement in it.

RUSSIAN SHOOT VOLUNTEER

Igor Strelkov became one of the first volunteers of the second RDO. He arrived in Visegrad on November 1, 1992. This was his second war, behind him was Transnistria, where he was a volunteer of the 2nd platoon of the Black Sea Cossack army, and ahead of Chechnya, Slavyansk...

War! What do you, brother, know about her?
How terrible is the end of a soldier!
Your comrade died nearby,
In the distance, my father is dying.

How the marauders hurry together
To benefit from the good of strangers,
What an enormous shame
Sometimes there is a defeat.

Cows lie and old women
On earth gray with ash,
And flies, just flies
They live in this dead village.

How the bullets scream, how terrible
Guilt before a dead friend...
And it seems that everything is in vain,
And there is “before the war” and “war”...

Igor will write these lines in the fall of 1992 in the Visegrad area. He is 22 years old, a student at the Institute of History and Archives. His frank “Bosnian Diary” is dedicated to that war, which describes the life of the detachment, manifestations of courage and bravery, weakness and cowardice. In this article I would like to remember those fighters who fought without sparing themselves, many of whom laid down their lives for “their friends.”

Memories from the diary:

Our detachment climbed the mountain at night and reached a given position in the morning, after which it was fired upon and lay down along the ridge. On the radio we learned the “good” news - the general attack was postponed for three hours. We lasted just as long. The Muslims fired machine guns and machine guns along the ridge. Moreover, they themselves were not visible. The bullets hit the stones. Andrey M. got hit in the eyelid by a fragment of an explosive bullet, and Valera “Marked” was scratched by a bullet on the barrel of his machine gun. However, the enemy fire would not have been so destructive if their sniper had not come to our rear (at the place where the Serbs should have been long ago). By that time we had run out of belts for the machine gun. They held on, throwing hand grenades down the slope. Our machine gunner Andrei Nimenko was shot down by sniper fire (an explosive bullet hit him in the back - he lived for another 10 - 15 minutes), Igor Kazakovsky was seriously wounded in the thigh by an explosive bullet. A fragment of a tromblon lightly hit Yuri, a volunteer from Moscow.

Fleeing from the sniper's fire, everyone began to slide down the ridge. The connection in the circuit is interrupted. The ace, walking at full height under machine-gun fire, tried to establish cooperation, but at that moment the enemy launched an assault and reached the ridge. Hand grenades flew down. Our Russian "RG-42" fell next to a group of guys (Ace, wounded Igor, Sasha Kravchenko). But, by a lucky chance, the Muslim who threw her did not straighten his antennae and pulled out the ring without a pin - the grenade did not explode.

They commemorated the late Andrei Nimenko (9 days). We went to the cemetery. We examined the monuments with great interest, among which there were crosses of soldiers who died in the Balkan and 1st World Wars. According to the priest, at the place where the dead are now buried, there once was mass grave seventy Montenegrin volunteers who died in battles with the Austrians in 1914. Now there were 35 “fresh” crosses (now there are three times as many).

Reinforcements arrived - Andrei B. and Pyotr Malyshev arrived from Russia (he later died a heroic death - on October 3, 1994, in an attack on Mount Movshevichka-Brdo near the city of Olovo, as part of the 3rd RDO). Thus, there were ten fighters left in the detachment. On December 8 we celebrated the 30th anniversary of Valera “Marked”. The table was very modest and without alcohol.

Having returned from the action, we met two new guys who arrived in our absence. Both have been waiting for a long time. Dmitry Chekalin, mountain rescuer, fought in Transnistria. Desperately brave, prone to reckless risks, Dmitry died on March 10, 1993 in a battle near Tuzla, blowing himself up with a grenade while surrounded by enemies.

One of the most powerful impressions of Belgrade for us was a visit to the Russian church, built during the years of the White emigration. The priest Father Vasily, the son and grandson of white officers, gladly received us, showed us the small museum next to the church, and blessed us for military work. For many of us, this was, in fact, the first meeting with the history of the White Cause, with the memory of the Russian Imperial Army on Serbian soil. For me it was great joy see with your own eyes the memorial tombstone of P.N. Wrangel, various (well-known from books) military relics of the White Army.

Having reached the edge of the forest, our team lay down a few tens of meters from the enemy “bunker”. Ahead there was an almost bare field, rising up towards the trenches. Going forward seemed pure madness. But Ace with the words: “Now I will portray Alexander Matrosov” ( famous hero of the Great Patriotic War, who covered the embrasure of a German pillbox with his body) - rushed forward. A Serb named Milorad went with him. The rest covered them with fire, preventing the Muslims from emerging from the trenches. Having reached the foot of the hill on which there was a bunker, As and Milorad saw three hand grenades fly out one after another. One of them fell literally two meters from As, and he barely managed to roll away so as not to be hit by fragments.

Below, near the cars, Russians and Serbs crowded around the dead. We didn’t know Baranac, but the death of Peritso and Kojic was a great loss for us. Peritso Markovich was perhaps our most respected officer in the brigade. Peritso was the last in the family - his two brothers had already died on other fronts by that time.

Miroslav Kojic did not manage to graduate from the University of Sarajevo. Specialized in history Kievan Rus. He was not an outstanding commander, but he did not run from bullets and was a good and honest person. He understood Russian quite well and often came into our barracks.

The detachment celebrated New Year's Eve (new style) in a good mood. After washing up at the Vysehrad Bathhouse tourist complex, we returned to the city and suddenly noticed how Vysehrad had changed in the two months since we arrived here. Instead of deserted streets there are many civilian people, open shops and cafes. Instead of kerosene lamps - bright lighting, lights of private cars. The New Year was celebrated with a Christmas tree at a rather rich table with Montenegrin guests, with tracers firing into the night sky (the whole city was fired, even a howitzer battery sent 12 shells somewhere towards the Muslims). Still, it seemed to us that the year 1992 passed not in vain. We wanted to believe that the coming year would bring us victory here and, perhaps, in Russia. And we raised glasses of champagne to Our Victory, to Our Russia, to Our Squad.

In conclusion, I just want to say that we are proud of our belonging to the 2nd RDO, which made a small, but still real contribution to the defense of Serbian Bosnia, to the preservation of the traditions of the Russian-Serbian military brotherhood.

Igor’s colleagues remember Igor very fondly:

Dmitry, nicknamed "Romanian", participant in the war in Transnistria:

I met Strelkov for the first time in 1992. I saw him when the detachment was returning after the assault on Mount Zahlavak (this is the dominant height in the Visegrad region). He didn’t strike me as some kind of special person back then, just like all of us, by the way. There was an ordinary, normal guy.From time to time he offered to sing a song. One day he suggested singing " Prophetic Oleg"When we were traveling in a truck to the city of Rudo for a military operation. The road was long, and we sang with pleasure. When I looked at him, his eyes were burning, and I understood that for him it was living history, he did it with inspiration. We lived in the same room, our beds were practically next to each other. Igor prayed every day and set up a small camp iconostasis. He did this near his bed. He knelt down and prayed, including out loud. Usually he did it alone.

Alexander Kravchenko, with The youngest of the volunteers of the Second RDO. He was 20 years old when he arrived in November 1992. He was seriously wounded at the height of Zahlavak on April 12, 1993. Awarded the Gold Medal "For Bravery" of the Republika Srpska . ABOUT Dean is one of the founders and editor of the portal srpska.ru , leader of the Kosovo Front movement:

In the winter of 1993, we left after taking Mount Zahlavak in a large column. Suddenly they start shooting at us from the left side. Everything is scattered - panic begins. I run and notice that Igor is standing behind a tree and firing in the direction where the shots are coming from. This sobered me and many others, we took a position and also returned fire. As a result, the enemy quickly left. It seemed like nothing special, but it was Igor’s example that forced us to get together.

He was just very good soldier. He loved to master new types of weapons. A characteristic touch is that he often sang White Guard songs. Having fought for six months, he returned and was drafted into the army for conscript service- a simple private.

The most vivid impression: when I arrived at the detachment on the first day, I saw a man kneeling down and praying. Moreover, there was no showmanship in this. It was Strelkov.

The Russians called him by name, and the Serbs called him “royal officer”...

COSSACK ATAMAN

The first Cossack detachment was commanded by Gennady Petrovich Kotov. This was his third war; before Serbia he fought in South Ossetia and Transnistria. Gennady was from Volgodonsk, from a military family. Served in the Soviet army, in airborne troops. The military spirit was, as they say, in his blood. While still studying at the history department of Rostov State University, he actively participated in the revival of the Cossacks. During the war, he kept diaries and was planning to write a book about modern Cossacks.

The detachment included guys from Moscow, Saratov, Riga, Krasnodar, but more than half were from the Don, a little over 50 people in total. In the First major operation The detachment was storming the village of Tvyrtkovichi, the Cossacks were supposed to divert the main enemy forces to themselves, while the Serbian detachment would strike from the rear. Due to lack of coordination, the operation failed. The offensive began, and part of the village was occupied, but the Serbian detachment did not approach. The detachment came under mortar fire, Cossack Vasily Ganievsky and a Serbian guide were killed and two were wounded. Then, in difficult situation Kotov’s talent as a commander immediately emerged. He directed the organization of the battle, the evacuation of the dead and wounded. From then on, he became the commander of the detachment.

He knew how to say without shouting, without aplomb, that all the Cossacks obeyed unquestioningly.

On February 9, 1993, the Cossacks were ambushed south of Visegrad, their commander died heroically, covering his squad from fire.

Afterwards, the Cossacks saw that three bullets had entered the body, and one hit the heart.

He was 33 years old. He left behind a wife and three children in Volgodonsk. He was buried in the Vysehrad cemetery. After 40 days, his wife Elena took his body to rebury him in Volgodonsk. She also took away the large wooden cross that stood on the grave.

And the Serbs erected a monument on the empty grave of the Don Cossack Gennady Kotov, on which they wrote:

Don't believe it, brothers, there is no death,

blossoming is woven from souls,

and will be illuminated again

baby's immaculate dream...

Sleep well, son of Don.

Mirjana Bulatovich in her book “Beautiful Villages Burn Beautifully” cites eyewitness accounts of the details of the funeral and reburial of Gennady Kotov:

When the coffin was being prepared for the road to Volgodonsk, Boris looked through the glass at the face of his chieftain. He hasn't changed at all, he just grew a little beard. They expected a corpse smell and signs of decomposition, but when the coffin was opened, they saw Gennady exactly the same as on the day of the funeral! They wiped him with alcohol and examined him carefully: only his eyes were a little dry. Even on his forehead there were droplets of water with which he was buried. They appeared from warm breath during farewell kisses.

His wife Elena learned about her husband's death from the news. How so? After all, her husband teaches history and Russian in Belgrade.

The Cossacks did not tell their wives where they were going. They will tell them another time, when again, after a vacation in Russia, they go to the Republika Srpska. Meanwhile, the chieftain was unable to rest. He didn't know that there would be no rest, but something in him knew. Before leaving for Visegrad, for the first time in my life, when I separated from my wife, I gave her my house keys. When he went somewhere for a long time, he always took the keys with him, but this time he returned, kissed her again and put the keys on her palm.

Rajko Cvetkovic's father said at her husband's grave:

“Noble and simple, Colonel Gennady is our brother and even more than a brother, for many brothers are not with us now. I know that you are not offended by us for dying, because you always understood that you were taking a risk here, among Drina gorges, leave your young bones. But you will not only be offended, but you will never forgive us if even in your thoughts we dare, God forbid, to surrender Vysehrad and this holy cemetery to those who fired a burst into your heroic chest.”

And at the end the priest addressed brother Gennady in Russian:

"...Your grave will be a decoration and illumination over Vysehrad."

In the summer of 1993, Elena Semyonovna Kotova, in an interview with Visegrad Television, said: “My fate is the fate of many Serbian women who have lost their husbands or, even worse, sons...”

Their son Sasha keeps a black bandage from Gennady’s arm and a magazine with the last three cartridges from the colonel’s “scorpion”…

BATTLE FOR THE HEIGHT TITLE

Zahlavak was a strategically important, dominant height. Over the course of several months, our volunteers managed to capture the height twice until they firmly established themselves there in early March 1993, repelling periodic attacks by Muslims. The enemy mobilized all possible forces to eliminate the presence of Serbian-Russian forces in the area. And the largest and most dramatic battle for this height was the battle on April 12, 1993.

At night, under the cover of a strong snowstorm, the Muslims gathered significant forces to the base of the Zahlavak and Stolac heights. The enemy sent its best units, including mercenaries and “fighters for the faith,” to the assault; they had a significant advantage in numbers and artillery support. At 7 o'clock in the morning the shooting began, the enemy managed to take Stolac very quickly, there were losses among the Serbs, two Russian volunteers were killed - Vladimir Safonov and Dmitry Popov. At the same time, the enemy began shelling Heading, and the assault began.DA dozen Russian volunteers and several Serbs took the battle. By 8 o'clock the battle was in full swing. The Russian flag, placed here by the Cossacks 2 weeks before the start of the battle, fluttered over Heading.Wave after wave of Bosnians rushed into the assault, screaming.In between attacks on heightsheavy fire from howitzers and mortars fell. Hour after hour, the detachment fought, suffering losses, while waiting for reinforcements. They could have retreated, the height was semi-surrounded, but no one flinched or retreated.The battle continued for another four or five hours. Despite all efforts, the enemy was unable to advance and occupy any of the slopes of the height. And the help that arrived in the afternoon drove the Muslims back to their original positions.

Three Russian soldiers were killed, three were seriously injured. The youngest Russian volunteer, Konstantin Bogoslovsky, died.

The Muslims lost 80 (!) of their fighters, among whom was the brigade commander, and more than 100 wounded. For that war, such losses in shock units were considered very significant; the enemy was broken.

Do you remember, comrade, how we diedFor the height of Zaglavak?The Bosnians bombarded us with shells,The young man was killed by a bullet.But volunteers, for the Serb brothersWithout sparing your belly,Fought to the death against enemy gunsUnder the shadow of the Holy Cross...

From the song “Rusija - Serbia”, Yuri Kononov.

VOLUNTEER BONE

Bogoslovsky Konstantin Mikhailovich. Born on February 4, 1973 in the Pamirs. After serving in the army, he lived in Moscow with his mother. In response to the call of the Cossacks that it was necessary to go to fight for the Serb brothers, Kostya firmly decided:

I'll go!

Kostya's father knew that his son would not return; Having seen him off, he cried and said that he was no morewill see. A few days before the fight, Kostya called his mother at home, she couldn’t say anything, she just cried.

On the night before the battle, a spark jumped out of the lamp in front of the icon and began to burn in the part of the room where they lived. The guys came to Father Rajko, the priest of the city of Visegrad, and said that there would probably be a terrible battle and it was not known which of them will return.

He died on April 12, 1993 during the heroic defense of the Zaglavak heights. He was a machine gunner and during this battle he defended a position with the Russian flag. He was buried in the military-church cemetery of the city of Visegrad.

I am filled with a feeling of joy and at the same time a feeling of bitterness for those who have stayed here forever. But they stayed for a reason, each of us brought a piece of the Russian spirit, brought faith to the Serbian people, that the Russian people remember the Serbs and will always be together, no matter what kind of government there will be in Russia, we, the ordinary Russian people, will always come to the rescue , even if we are not invited. Because we are Orthodox. Because we are Russians.

These words will be said by Vladimir Sidorov in April 2013 at the site of the battle for the Zaglavak heights. On April 12, 1993, he was next to Kostya when he was killed; in that battle, Volodya heroically continued to fight for the heights; being shell-shocked, he was able to gather his strength and continue firing at the enemy with a machine gun.

For Kostya’s mother, Vysehrad has become home, she happily comes here:

Vysehrad, it’s my, beloved, native city, as if my second homeland.

DAYTON AGREEMENT

The conflict ended with the Dayton Agreement on November 21, 1995 at the US military base in Dayton, Ohio. The Serbs were forced to sit down at the negotiating table. In August - September 1995, NATO aircraft conducted Operation Deliberate Force, striking Bosnian Serb positions. This operation changed military situation In favor of the Muslim-Croat forces, the Serbian offensive was stopped.

The Dayton agreements provided for the creation of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Republika Srpska and the introduction of an international peacekeeping contingent under NATO command. The Serbs received 49% of the territory, the Bosniaks and Croats 51%.

According to rough estimates of various government agencies and veteran organizations of the Republika Srpska, total number Russian volunteers who went through the war of 1992 - 1995 did not exceed five to six hundred people. The names of about 50 dead Russian soldiers are known.

The Russians appeared at the most difficult moment for the Serbs, when their forces were significantly inferior to the enemy in numbers and their morale was weakening. With their courage and sacrifice, the volunteers provided the most powerful moral support, breathed new strength, raised the morale of the Serbs and helped them defend and protect their living space.

MEMORY OF RUSSIAN VOLUNTEERS

On November 5, 2011, in the city of Visegrad, a monument was erected to Russian volunteers who died in Patriotic wars Serbian people 1991 - 1999. It is significant that the monument was erected precisely in Visegrad - in the city in which three Russian volunteer detachments fought (Second RDO, Cossack detachment, Second ORDO). In a city where the memory of Russian volunteers is treated with great reverence, you can always see lit candles on the graves of Russian volunteers.
The entire city came out that day to honor the memory of its defenders, who had come several thousand kilometers from distant Russia to defend Orthodoxy on Serbian soil. Perhaps in the future this city will receive the name “city of Russian military glory”, which Russian volunteers showed in distant Serbia at that difficult time for Russia.

One of the streets in Vysehrad is called “Cossack” in honor of the Cossacks who fought here.

Don't wait for orders!
Don't sit pleading for peace!
Forward! Through the winds and rains
and blizzards wolf howl!

Leave comfort and comfort -
While you're young, go!
When they sing the funeral song,
you'll have time to rest!

Be honest, be brave, don't notice
ridicule and interference.
If you are the eldest, answer
not for yourself - for everyone!

The one who made no mistakes -
withered in idleness -
he didn’t dare the burden of life
try it on your shoulders!

Whatever your destiny -
good or bad
Remember: the measure of your deeds
Only God will appreciate it!

"Admonishment to Self"

poem by Igor Strelkov,

1991

12 APRIL

On April 12, 1877, the Russian Autocrat, Emperor Alexander II, declared war on Turkey and moved the Russian army to the Transdanubian borders to free the fraternal peoples from heavy oppression.

This majestic event was preceded by a powerful volunteer movement, expressed in the open participation of Russian volunteers in the Serbian army.

Many years later, on April 12, 1993, on the heights of Zahlavak and Stolac in the Republika Srpska, an unequal battle took place with Muslim rebels, whose forces were many times greater than those of the Orthodox army. Three Russian volunteers were killed while repelling the attack.

Worship cross. Monument to Russian volunteers in the monastery of St. Sava in the villageGorna Lieska Vvicinity of Vysehrad.

On the tenth anniversary of the battles on the Zahlavak and Stolac heights Patriotic Union Volunteers of the Republika Srpska (veteran organization of Russian volunteers) proclaimed April 12 as the Day of Remembrance of Russian volunteers who laid down their lives for the freedom of fraternal peoples.

On April 12, 2014, Igor Strelkov’s detachment enteredSlavyansk This date is considered the starting point of the heroic struggle for Novorossiya. Perhaps Igor Ivanovich again suggested singing “Prophetic Oleg” on the way to Slavyansk? Perhaps this is the next stage of one big war? Perhaps it was so, it seems so.

The Russian volunteer movement is once again inscribed on the pages of world history. Many again broke away from their homes and stood up to defend the faith and the fatherland, without waiting for an order, without sparing their stomachs. Now small groups of volunteers from Serbia are coming to fight in Donbass, and it’s their turn to help their Russian brothers.

The phenomenon of the volunteer movement is organically integrated into the Russian tradition. The history of Russia is replete with examples of Russian people coming to the aid of fraternal peoples in trouble. There is a huge difference between the concepts of "volunteer" and "mercenary". The latter should include military experts or “soldiers of fortune” who fight with anyone for the sake of money. The line between a volunteer and a mercenary passes where the struggle for the purity of an idea ends and the struggle for purity begins.

As for the volunteers themselves, opinions about them are very different. Here is the view of one Russian diplomat: "Volunteers can only be considered as private individuals. The state has no obligations towards them and is not responsible for their actions." As for mercenarism, Article 359 of the Russian Criminal Code provides for imprisonment for up to 7 years for persons fighting on the territory of a foreign country in order to receive material reward.
It is quite difficult to create a holistic description of one little-known page of history - the actions of Russian volunteers in the civil war in the former Yugoslavia.
It should be noted right away that the mercantile motive never figured among the volunteers. The salaries of Russian volunteers, as well as Serbian fighters, were not enough even for minimal food. Only at the beginning of 1993 did the Serbian communities of two cities (Visegrad and Gorazde) pay volunteers above the usual 10-20 German marks per month, having become convinced of their real combat effectiveness.
For those who decided to go to Bosnia, the process of leaving presented difficulties. There were several activists in Russia who, at the end of 1992, began to put together groups of volunteers and Cossacks to send them to Bosnia for a period of two months at the invitation of the Visegrad and City communities. The core of those who left at the end of 1992 - beginning of 1993. made up of veterans of Transnistria. It was this conflict that rallied the volunteers into detachments. Many people only picked up a machine gun for the first time in Transnistria.
In Belgrade there is the Church of the Holy Trinity, built by Russian emigrants in 1924. In a small room of the church hangs a stone plaque with the names of the fallen volunteers. Father Vasily, for whom Russian volunteers were nothing new, explained to the new arrivals how to get to the representative office of the Republika Srpska - on Moshe Piyada Street. There the volunteer was given accompanying documents and sent to the Republika Srpska.

A typical Russian detachment in Bosnia is a group of 7-15 people led by an experienced fighter, around whom the rest are grouped. The “average” Russian volunteer is a person with an incomplete higher education, who, as a rule, has a good understanding of the essence of current events, often with some kind of everyday or personal disorder in life. The share of criminals, contrary to frequent accusations in the press, was extremely small. There were a lot bright personalities, as a result of which detachments of larger numbers were unstable and therefore disintegrated. There were no “Rambos” among the volunteers - just ordinary guys, of average height and build. All volunteers were dressed in assorted camouflage. Who is in the well-worn Yugoslav five-color camouflage. However, mostly they tried to bring Russian with them from Russia.
The harsh life at the front left its mark on the volunteers, although they themselves sometimes did not realize it. Thus, the concepts of “mine”, “yours”, “someone else’s” were very conventional... They were respected only in relation to weapons and ammunition. The rest of the things were used collectively.
I would not like to idealize the Serbian side either. While hope for a quick victory loomed, volunteers were welcomed. Then, besides the Russians, many Bulgarians and Greeks came. President Radovan Karadzic said that the Republika Srpska is ready to accept Russians who are subject to discrimination and persecution in the Baltic states and other regions of the former USSR, and provide them with housing. When the defeat became a fact, when there was no place to settle their own people, the authorities correctly made it clear: merits are merits, rewards are rewards, but it’s time to know honor... The volunteers preparing to go home were wondering if there would be enough for the journey.
The first big debut of the Russians in Bosnia and Herzegovina was September 1992. Then, near the city of Trebinje in Herzegovina, the 1st Russian Volunteer Detachment (RDO) fought against the Croats in September-December 1992. The core of the RDO was a group of St. Petersburg residents. The detachment acted as part of a combined Serbian-Russian detachment. However, by the end of the year the detachment disbanded.

The time from the end of autumn 1992 to the end of spring 1993 became a kind of peak of Russian actions in southeastern Bosnia. In Visegrad, a town with a population of several thousand people, on November 1, 1992, the 2nd RDO, known as the “Royal Wolves,” was formed. The backbone of it was the veterans of the Transnistrian battles. And a couple of days later they left for their first combat operation. They justified their loud, slightly strange name with honor. Why "royal"? Yes, because there were monarchists in the RDO, and volunteers fought under the imperial black, yellow and white banner. The soldiers wore black berets. RDO-2 was headed by 27-year-old Alexander Muravyov, nicknamed As. From typical hero there was nothing in it. But it was he who was a legend for Russian volunteers.
Volunteers adopted a kind of code of honor in this war. They did not torture or shoot prisoners. And not a single one was said about a single one by the Serbs. On the contrary, “brother Russians” are “good warriors”. It was enough for the enemy to hear “Hurray!” for him to take flight.
On December 23, the Russians captured Zakorstnitsa, a village north of Visegrad. On the same day, reinforcements arrived and on December 26, 1992 the number of the detachment amounted to sixteen fighters.
On January 28, 1993, the main part of the “Royal Wolves” left for Priboi, taking with them the banner of the detachment. There, in Priboi, the detachment successfully fought for about two months. Having vigorously celebrated their last days in Priboj, on March 27, the “Royal Wolves”, led by Major Edik, left for the western outskirts of Sarajevo, to Ilidzha.
At the beginning of August 1993, the history of the “Royal Wolves” detachment comes to an end. There was a temporary calm in Bosnia. Then, in August, the last commander, Martyn, suspended the detachment’s activities and handed over the banner to the Church of the Holy Trinity in Belgrade. It is now kept next to the coffin of General Wrangel. There, in the church in July 1993, a plaque was installed with the names of ten dead Russians. In total, about thirty volunteers passed through the detachment, while its usual number was ten people. During nine months of fighting, RDO-2 lost four people killed. The "Tsar's Wolves" were an example of discipline and combat skill for the Russian volunteers who fought in Bosnia subsequently, in 1994-95. At that moment, the organized transfer of Russians to Bosnia ceased.
Subsequently, mostly singles went there. But a thin stream of them, either fading or reviving, flowed here constantly until the very end of the war... One of the attempts to send volunteers was made by Yuri Belyaev’s comrade-in-arms, Nikolai Lysenko. And he did this together with “New Byzantium,” the national-intellectual organization of the Serbian diaspora. In July 1993, in the eastern Bosnian city of Zvornik, located on the banks of the Drina, the Russian Zvornik hundred, also known as the 120th light infantry company, was created. It was located in the monastery of St. Sava. An emissary of the Russian National Legion (RNL) resolved issues of transporting people, and soon twenty-one fighters flew from St. Petersburg and Moscow to Sofia. The hundred took part in positional battles south of Zvornik - near Brloznik and Zepa Planina. However, by the 20th of August the Russian unit had disintegrated and the volunteers had dispersed.
In the fall of 1993, RDO-3 appeared, composed of veterans and newly arriving volunteers who were constantly drawn to Bosnia. A former midshipman becomes the head of the detachment in November Marine Corps 39-year-old Alexander Shkrabov. The third RDO was based on the south-eastern outskirts of Sarajevo, part of the Novosarajevo Chetnik detachment.
The detachment had to fight in different places - on Igman, near Olovo, Trnovo, near Prača. At the beginning of 1994, another Russian detachment of up to fifteen people also operated near Ozren (Northern Bosnia, southwest of the Posavina corridor). On June 4, 1994, Alexander Shkrabov died. A few days before, his wife came to see him.
In the fall of 1994, a significant part of Russian volunteers moved from Sarajevo to Jahorina. From September 1994 - until January 1996, a unit was based and operated near Sarajevo, which at that time had significant amount Russian volunteers. This is the White Wolves strike force. The White Wolves were commanded by Serbian officer Serzhan Knyazhevich. The detachment according to the lists reached 70-80 people.
In the fall, in Sarajevo and near Trnovo, where fighting took place, four Russians from the White Wolves detachment died. They are buried in the Doni Milevichi cemetery, where there are now seventeen Russian graves.
The Dayton Agreement “put an end” to the presence of volunteers in Bosnia. On January 12, 1996, the first group of Russians left for Russia. They returned light, without suitcases or bales. Literally only a few were able to “catch on.” There are Russian cemeteries in Visegrad and Sarajevo, graves in Skelani and Priboj.
How did the fates of the veterans of that war turn out? The tragic count continues. There remained wounds of grievances against the land that never became their mother. Misunderstanding of others. No, the volunteers who remained in my memory were not unprincipled condottieres; the overwhelming majority were courageous, decent guys, convinced of their rightness, and acutely sensitive to the misfortune of others. I believe that our peoples will still repay their debt.

Brother Serbs are tired of thanking the Russian volunteers who fought on their side
...It was a cry of despair into the void of the Internet. From former volunteer Sergei Sukharev, who fought in Yugoslavia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina in the distant 90s. After the war, he, like many of his comrades, remained to live in the Balkans, which became his new homeland. Sergei wrote that volunteers like him, his friends, were simply thrown into the trash today. They were deprived of the citizenship they had received for their exploits, their pensions were taken away, they were forced to leave the Balkans and wander the world. He himself is also a disabled beggar. He has nowhere to go. These people are no longer needed by those for whom they once shed their blood. But Russia doesn’t need them either. ...White wolves, royal wolves, as they were also called, “Russian brothers.”

Sometimes it seems to him that the person he was before—professionally ruthless, carrying out commands to defeat—has died a long time ago.

This happened at the moment when his children, Maria and Petar, were born. Then another Sergei Sukharev was born.

But when a lump of despair approaches his throat again, he wants to kill everyone and everything, to take revenge for his instability, Sergei remembers only one episode. Little Maria looks at her father from the window of their house, waves her hand to him - and he understands that for the sake of her daughter this world should no longer be split in two.

Like his own life - before and after a completely alien war.

Grave for the heart

In the town of Gornji Adrovac in southern Serbia, on a hill where the road winds, there is a grave.

The heart of Colonel Nikolai Raevsky is buried here. The grandson of the famous general who fought with Napoleon, Nikolai was the prototype of Count Vronsky from Anna Karenina. In August 1876, among three thousand volunteers, he arrived in Serbia to save his Serb brothers from Turkish yoke.

Here, on the shores of the South Morava, he was killed 13 days later.

At the site of his death, the Church of the Holy Trinity was built at the beginning of the 20th century. She stands under the canopy of linden trees, surrounded by a wrought-iron openwork fence.

As a memory of the Russians who remained forever in the Balkans.

We are a strange country, Russia. We are ready to throw everything to hell and fly halfway across the world to protect those who, as it seems to us, are close in spirit and blood. Mysterious Russian soul. This was the case in the 19th century. And in the First World War, after a Serbian terrorist was shot in Sarajevo, in a meat grinder that cost us the empire. And in the last Balkan massacre too.

Nobody knows how many Russians actually fought in Yugoslavia in the 90s of the twentieth century. Legends speak of almost thousands. Radio Liberty cited, for example, a figure of five thousand people.
Those who were there themselves are sure that it is unlikely to be more than a few hundred. It’s just that everyone fought for ten. Detachment of “White Wolves”, “Royal Wolves”.

Sometimes Russians were accepted into Yugoslav units. This was done to intimidate the enemy. Reckless, absolutely fearless, either adventurers or crazy idealists.

“In a battle where the Serbs themselves fled because they saw the advantage in the enemy’s camp, the Russians for some reason fought to the death,” residents of the former Yugoslavia told me with surprise.

...On October 15, 1994, during the assault on Moshevachko Brdo, Roman Malyshev, a tall, fair-haired guy, died the death of the brave. A few days earlier, his namesake Peter died.

...In April 1995, Krendel, aka Valery Gavrilin, died in Sarajevo. He fought in the “Royal Wolves”, in the Serbian artillery, participated in the assault on Igman, fought near Gorazde...

Many of us were killed. Not for Stalingrad, not for the Kursk Bulge. And not even for Grozny. For cities and villages with names that are foreign to the ear.

— Russian volunteerism — unexplained phenomenon“This is a phenomenon,” says Mikhail Polikarpov, author of the book “Russian Wolves,” who volunteered to go to Bosnia, where he fought as part of the Russian volunteer detachment. — Everything can be explained simply - the USSR collapsed then, and young people found themselves out of work. Life didn’t work out, there was no family. The war began in Transnistria - they rushed there, then to Yugoslavia... There were those who wanted to earn extra money, but quickly realized that this was impossible - there was only enough money for cigarettes. There were also those who did not reach the battlefield at all and lost their way halfway.

In the book by Mikhail Polikarpov I read good phrase. It seems like weak people are tempted by wealth. And the strong - the opportunity to do good without expecting rewards for it.
“The majority of the kids grew up reading romantic Soviet books,” continues Mikhail. - “Die yourself, but help your comrade.” They, one might say, suffered from universal patriotism. At that moment they didn’t need anything for it.” Sergei Sukharev, a saboteur who fought in a secret Serbian unit, is one of those, I think.

Half enemy

Sergei meets me at Belgrade airport. I recognize him immediately - black gloves instead of fingers right hand, no eye. Standing next to him is his daughter, Maria, who speaks almost no Russian, but understands everything.

We are pushed in different directions by those departing and arriving. Sergei, not noticing anyone around, takes my bag with his good hand.

- Why did I stay here after the war? There were quite a lot of people like me, those who believed that since we gave our years and health for someone else’s people, that means we have the right. We Russians were carried around in our arms back then... What would I do in Russia? I was still leaving the Soviet Union, which no longer existed. I didn’t understand anything about your new life.

Former saboteur Sergei Sukharev is now a citizen of Bosnia and Herzegovina. He was given citizenship for his military past. Now he lives in Belgrade, Serbia, because his wife is Serbian.
But until recently, he received a pension as a second group disabled person from Republika Srpska, which is an autonomous part of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

- What’s unclear here? Previously there was only Yugoslavia. After the civil war it disintegrated. Now there are seven republics: Serbia, Slovenia, Montenegro, Croatia, Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, which also includes the Republika Srpska, Kosovo,” Sergei lists impatiently, seeing that I am completely confused about this.

As well as who fought and for what then - Muslims against Orthodox, Catholics against Muslims, Bosnians, Croats, Serbs... Everyone is against everyone, and whose truth cannot be discerned today.

Sergey is originally from Northern Kazakhstan. An unhappy childhood, a drunken stepfather who beat mercilessly. When he hanged himself, little Seryozha went to look through the window at the morgue - he was happy.
But despite all this, Sergei grew up to be a kind boy. He was just a little unlucky from the very beginning...

WITH youth he was alone, grazing cattle, eating steppe marmots. I learned to be responsible for myself. Sergei's world was firmly divided into black and white, into friends and strangers. “Half friend is half enemy, you know?” - Sergei looks into my eyes. And I believe him.

For people like him, there is only one way - to become a soldier.

He was one, back in the USSR, but where and when he fought - Sergei prefers not to talk about this part of his past, only a stitch across his entire stomach and a vague story about how he flew after a terrible wound through a black tunnel towards a bright light.

“I decided to become a monk because I believed in God and believed that this world was not for me,” continues Sergei. — Went to Greece, where famous Orthodox churches are located. I reached the island of Kassos on foot. The local police mistook me for a spy, the war in Iraq had just begun, and I had neither money nor necessary documents. But I believed that everything was God’s will and I would not be lost...

Normal people, as they explained to him in the monastery, do not leave the world without the blessing of their spiritual fathers. Due to the lack of written permission, he never became a monk. Reconciled.

He had his own small business in Corfu, sold fur coats, worked in tourism, and was supposed to obtain Greek citizenship. But I heard on TV that war had started in Yugoslavia. “I decided to rush there immediately and, if necessary, give my life,” he says. “I was sincerely convinced that it was vile to see on TV how our people were being beaten and calmly continue to drink coffee. Moreover, politicians called for volunteers from all over the world to defend common Orthodox values. I believed that they were waiting for me.”

After the collapse socialist camp the world was blurry and uncertain for a while. Border posts were no longer an insurmountable barrier. To get to the warring Balkans, Russian guys crossed the border illegally, even swimming across the Danube.

They did not think that later they might need some kind of certificate, that they would have to officially sign up as volunteers somewhere. Sergei, taught by bitter experience with the monastery, decided to act according to the rules. He received Serbian papers. And since he was traveling from nearby Greece, he became one of the ten Russians who were the first to arrive at the war.

Mixed meat

“You know, in the national Serbian cuisine there is such a dish - “meat mixed”, this is when beef, pork, lamb are mixed on one plate,” Sergei grins. - First hand-to-hand combat- the same mixed meat. I ended up in a Serbian detachment. They showed the guys from our group: “Do you remember their faces?” - “Remember!” - “Try not to kill these.” - “What about the rest? What if we are also ours?” - “The rest are possible, and these are possible, if it doesn’t work out otherwise.”

The massacre continued for three days. When you can’t distinguish between your friends and strangers, the same European faces, same shape and weapons Yugoslav army, one language. Foam was coming out of the mouth so as not to sleep, they gave me energy drinks, my heart was failing. However, the heart was the last thing he felt then. Adrenaline Zombie. The meat is mixed.

By evening the air turned black from the explosions. They vomited blood. “In the place where the battle took place, there used to be vegetable gardens. They probably plant potatoes there now,” Sergei says in surprise, as if not understanding how this could be. “I came out of that ditch covered in someone else’s blood.” I slept for two weeks, clutching the machine gun to myself. Then I didn’t care.”

“You go on reconnaissance, carry separately one cartridge for self-destruction, a grenade attached to your neck, and on your back a black bag, your future coffin, which you yourself laid. Because you don’t know whether you’ll come back.”

He fought in Serbian “maroon berets”. Then he transferred to a secret sabotage unit. Sergei also got married during the war.

“Mara was a signalman. Such a tall, beautiful Serbian. I invited her for a walk once, she agreed, the second time... And then I pressed her in the corner, raised the machine gun to my stomach: “Listen, they can kill me tomorrow - either you marry me now, or don’t fool me.” She agreed,” barbaric, medieval morals. And Sergei replies that then everything looked different than in ordinary life, and in fact he would never have killed her, because there was love.

...They got married a few years later, in 1999, under the thunder of the NATO bombing.

In 1994, Sergei was blown up by a Croatian booby trap. Four fingers were torn off and the right eye was knocked out. “You hit someone, and someone hits you, everything is fair.”

...Meanwhile, the allied Yugoslavia lost the war and disintegrated. Volunteers were no longer needed.

“We were given medals, some, including me, received citizenship, benefits, free medical service. But most of us fought illegally. They left with nothing. I honestly thought I'd start with clean slate that I will have a real family here. I was happy that I had found a new home.”

A quiet house, a beloved woman, children Petar and Maria running around the table with a snow-white tablecloth. He himself makes something out of wood in the corner.

Does it matter what kind of power is in the yard?

Republika Srpska paid Sergei military pension on disability. One of the Serbs rented out an entire floor of his house on the outskirts of Belgrade for mere dinars, purely symbolically. “You know, sometimes I didn’t go outside for six months. In the morning I wake up - spring is outside, I fall asleep - it’s already autumn. I just wanted to live.”

The world was changing outside the windows of his house. The former socialist Yugoslavia set a course for the EU, new people came into politics who believed that it was better to be on the sidelines, but of Europe.

Sergei stubbornly did not notice this.

NATO offices have been activated in greater Serbia. Kosovo was declared independent. In Bosnian Sarajevo, from now on Wahhabis walked right through the streets - important guys and young boys with narrow beards, bald skulls and shortened pants. Croatia and Montenegro have become resorts.

Russians were still welcome in the Balkans. But not volunteers, but businessmen.

In the Republika Srpska, for example, the process of privatization of oil refineries by Gazprom continues. Gas pipeline “ South Stream” plan to lead through this part of Europe. 95 Russian gas stations are open here. And this year alone, goods worth 1 million 600 thousand euros were exported to Russia, and from Russia to the republic worth 350 million euros - primarily oil and gas, of course.

All this is correct and necessary. A new time has come, universal globalization.

And leave the naive belief that you need to run to save someone, cheap romance is no longer interesting to anyone...

In the Russian church in Belgrade, according to rumors, a board with the names of dead volunteers was removed, and an obelisk in memory of compatriots who fought against the Ottoman yoke, near the town of Aleksinets, was painted by Satanists. Only the temple with the grave of Colonel Raevsky remains; it is on the balance sheet of Gazprom. Yes, dead Russians in the cemetery in Sarajevo. They are looked after by the Greek community.

The Russians will leave

“My name is Yuri, my nickname in that war was Djuric. I am one of them who fought in the sabotage and reconnaissance detachment “Beli Vukovi”, they are better known as “White Wolves”, in the Republika Srpska. He was wounded twice. Awarded the “Gold Medal for Bravery.” Even during the war, I was recognized as disabled, 100% incapacitated. Received citizenship. Now they have deprived me of it without explaining anything and without the right to appeal. Pensions have not been paid for 5 years. For now I’m in Bulgaria, and on a bird’s license. I am not allowed to enter Serbia” is an excerpt from just one of several letters from volunteers that came to me when I took up this topic.

Veterans who went through the Balkan meat grinder complain: without explaining the reasons, they were deprived of citizenship received for military merits, financial benefits, and were forced to leave the country. This measure, however, also affected Muslims who fought on the side of the Bosnians. In general, all those who, according to a united Europe, fall under the category of unstable elements.

Some of our people are now, according to rumors, being sought by the Hague Tribunal, considering them war criminals.

...We are sitting with Sergei Sukharev in a cafe in Belgrade. Opposite a guy, a Russian tourist, terribly drunk and ridiculous, is telling the waitresses about how Prime Minister Primakov, protesting against the NATO bombing of Belgrade, ten years ago turned a plane over the ocean... The young waitresses laugh and talk among themselves.

-What are they talking about? - I ask.

“He’s a drunken fool,” Sergei replies angrily. New life forced him out of hibernation.

“I was called to a commission and my disability group was also cut off. From second to fourth. I am missing two phalanges on four fingers - it is clear that they will not grow. And the chairman of the commission showed me that they had grown a whole phalanx - and now, they say, I only have no nails. The missing eye doesn't bother them at all. They took away almost my entire pension and explained that no one owes me anything,” he stammers. “I gave my life for them, I was a loyal citizen of the Republika Srpska, and they repaid me with evil for good. They didn’t kick me out of the country just because I’m married to a Serbian.”

Sergei called out to the Internet. Out of despair that the wife’s earnings at a small garment factory are barely enough to keep the children from starving to death. Radical Serbian nationalists supported him and said that they were ready to take him into their ranks even now. Sergei refused. He no longer wants to perform under foreign banners. It is impossible to return to Russia - he still has soviet passport.
And in difficult times, they don’t hire an armless or eyeless disabled person to work in Belgrade, even a low-skilled one.

I called the representative office of the Republika Srpska. I asked how this could be? “What do you want, a crisis, our small country has a rather difficult financial situation, social programs are being cut,” they answered me, “we would be happy to help. Many volunteers come to us because they expect compensation. But, you know, how many people don’t have any documents proving that they fought for us? On what basis should they be paid? In any case, this issue depends not only on the Republika Srpska, but also on Bosnia and Herzegovina, of which we are part, and on the UN structures in our country.”

With Sergei Sukharev I drove through the whole former Yugoslavia, we were in the places where he fought, at Raevsky’s grave, we found guys from his detachment, Serbs, whom he had not seen for fifteen years. Those, as best they could, fit into new life, they take out worn-out “marquered berets” on holidays.

I, a person of a different time, sometimes did not understand Sergei’s position. His painful ardor, heightened sense of justice. Yes, someone like him, perhaps, could once swim across the Danube... But was it worth it? Out of despair that I was able to feel sorry for him, but was not able to understand, Sergei lost his temper.

He said that he would fight until the last bullet... Just like then.

And I cruelly answered for us, today, pragmatic and angry, that going to Yugoslavia was his personal choice, his free will. The temptation of the powerful is to do good without receiving rewards for it.

And life itself will then judge everyone fairly, probably.

...Sergei wants to leave this world, which has suddenly turned upside down. Into nature, to the mountains, to the region where volunteer Nikolai Raevsky died.

There, far from civilization, there is an abandoned monastery. He is three hundred years old. During the Serbian-Turkish war, wounded Russian soldiers were brought here.

There's no one here now.

The earthen floor smells of dampness, mice and decaying icons. In the evening, the candles that he himself will light will light, no beast capable of killing, no people capable of calculating betrayal.

Only him and the souls of his comrades.

Belgrade—Nis—Aleksinets—Banja Luka—Sarajevo—Moscow

Russian-Serbian relations have a long history. Even if we omit the events of centuries ago, back in Battle of Poltava Among the Russian regiments there was a special Serbian one, later formed as the Serbian Hussar Regiment. Empress Elizaveta Petrovna founded two regions on the territory of New Russia - New Serbia and Slavyanoserbia, where settlers from Serbia and other Balkan regions settled and subsequently completely assimilated. Until now, in the Balkans they love and remember Russian soldiers and the Tsar Liberator, who delivered the Slavs from the centuries-old Ottoman yoke in Russian-Turkish war, but even before its official start, about 3,000 Russian volunteers from Russia (including 700 officers) arrived in Serbia. The Serbian army was commanded by a Russian national hero- General Mikhail Grigorievich Chernyaev. The cooling of state relations during the reign of Stalin and Tito had virtually no effect on the attitude of the Serbs personally towards the Russians.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, processes similar to those occurring in the USSR took place in Yugoslavia - economic problems(however, not as serious as in other socialist countries), the increase in interethnic contradictions, the tendency for some republics to “leave” the country. The first signs were Slovenia and Croatia, which declared independence in 1991. The problem was that the internal borders of Yugoslavia, drawn by the communists, did not take into account the peculiarities of the settlement of peoples within the country. Thus, on the territory of Serbian Vojvodina there were a number of Croatian settlements, and in Croatia and Bosnia there was a significant number of Serbian populations who proclaimed autonomies - the Republic of Serbian Krajina in Croatia and the Republika Srpska in Bosnia. The war in Croatia began in 1991, in Bosnia in 1992. The first Russian volunteers appeared in the rapidly expanding Yugoslavia in 1992.

Russian volunteer detachment - RDO. This was the name of the military unit within the army of the Republika Srpska, formed in Herzegovina in September ninety-two. It was based on volunteers who came from St. Petersburg with the help of the Rubicon security company Yuri Belyaev. The detachment was led by former marine Valery Vlasenko. It so happened that by the end of the year, after a couple of months of fighting against the Croats, the detachment disbanded. In total there were about fifteen people in it.

In November of the same year, RDO-2 was formed near Visegrad (a city on the Drina in Eastern Bosnia). The core of the detachment was made up of volunteers who went through the war in Transnistria - the detachment was headed by 27-year-old Alexander Mukharev, better known as “Ace”, who fought near Kitskany and Bendery. His deputy was another veteran of Transnistria - Igor Ivanovich Strelkov, hero of Novorossiya. In the memoirs of Mikhail Polikarpov (“Russian Wolves”, 1997), he is repeatedly mentioned under the name “Igor the Monarchist.” (By the way, at the time when the author began collecting information for this text, he could not even imagine that in a month or two he would see Igor the Monarchist at the head of the New Russia militia.) Basically, the detachment acted against the Gorazhdinsky group of Muslims, and operations like As a rule, they were of a sabotage and reconnaissance nature. In the memories of volunteers, such operations have the Serbian name “actions”. The Serbs called Muslims “Turks,” although outwardly they may not have differed in any way from the Orthodox Serbs. In general, the division into Serbs-Croats-Bosnians is more of a religious nature than any clear ethnic framework. The difference between Serbs and Croats is slightly greater than, for example, between Great Russians and Belarusians.

In February-March, RDO-2, also known as the “Royal Wolves”, acted against the Tuzlin group in Priboy (Lopar, north-east BiH). At the end of March, the detachment moved to Ilidzha (a suburb of Sarajevo), but soon left from there, this time to Podgrab, where, as part of the garrison, Prachi carried out several successful actions against the Muslims. The detachment was commanded by the experienced Afghan major Eduard, formerly the head of the airborne artillery division. In May, he was replaced by another officer (also an Afghan, also a paratrooper), Captain Mikhail Trofimov. Mikhail died in June while trying to take the tongue. Entering the deceptively peaceful house, he found himself in a trap - the “Turk” rolled a grenade into a room in which, in addition to Mikhail, there were also two Muslim women. One of the squad’s fighters went missing during the battle. As it turned out later, he was captured and tortured to death by Muslims.

On April 12, 1993, volunteers took part in their most terrible battle - the battle for Mount Zaglavak. In this battle, about a hundred fighters withstood the attack two or three times superior forces Bosniaks The latter lost about eight dozen soldiers in this battle. The Russians lost three - Vladimir Safonov (a native of Semipalatinsk, captain of the 3rd rank), Dmitry Popov (a native of St. Petersburg) and Konstantin Bogoslovsky (a native of the Pamirs, a Muscovite, who defended a flag-bearing position during the battle). Three more were seriously wounded. In principle, in the history of Russian weapons, the battle for Heading may well rank alongside the defense of the Osovets fortress, Battle of Stalingrad, the battle at height 776 in Chechnya and the defense of Slavyansk. The defenders were saved by the approaching detachments of Cossacks, who unblocked the heights. The Cossacks, by the way, arrived at the war in large and organized groups, fought willingly, but relations between them and the volunteers were tense. Sometimes it came down to shooting in the air.

Around the same time, a group consisting of Cossacks and Russian volunteers operated in Skelani (a village below Visegrad along the Drina). It was commanded by senior lieutenant artilleryman Alexander Alexandrov, a veteran of Transnistria and Nagorno-Karabakh. His group acted against the “Turks” fortified in Srebrenica. In January 1993, he was wounded in the chest when, together with a Cossack, he recaptured the T-34-85 tank from the Muslims. During a sabotage raid on May 21, 1993, Alexander died when he was blown up by a tripwire mine.

The Royal Wolves suspended their activities in August 1993, during the next truce. In just eight months of existence, they destroyed several dozen enemy fighters, losing four people killed. The black, yellow and white “wolves” banner was deposited in the Russian Church of the Holy Trinity in Belgrade. In the same temple, by the way, on October 6, 1929, Baron Pyotr Nikolaevich Wrangel was reburied. Also in the temple was installed a marble plaque with the names of ten dead Russians. True, by that time there were already more of them.

After this, the massive participation of Russians in the war ended. Individual groups Volunteers fought continuously until the Dayton Agreements. The most famous was RDO-3, led by Alexander Shkrabov, a warrant officer in the Marine Corps and a veteran of Abkhazia. Shkrabov was an experienced fighter and a gifted commander. He never missed an opportunity to stage an “action,” sometimes even alone. He died on June 4, 1994, in the battle near Moshevichko Brdo (Mokhovaya Gora). It so happened that it was not customary for soldiers to wear body armor - it was much better to have greater mobility than to carry armor that poorly protected against a bullet. Shkrabov’s wife came to see him at that time. Because of this, he put on armor into battle - to play it safe. The bullet pierced the collar of the vest at the neckline. His death - exactly a year after the death of Mikhail Trofimov, commander of RDO-2 - was a heavy loss for both the Russians and the Serbs, who called him Sasha-Rus. Alexander is buried at the Doni-Milevici cemetery, along with other Russian volunteers. One of those who gave the farewell salute over his grave was his seven-year-old son.

Subsequently, Russian volunteers fought as part of the White Wolves detachment - Serbian special forces led by Srdjan Knezevic. Oleg Valetsky, mentioned above, was a fighter in this detachment. He spent six years in Yugoslavia, from 1993 to 1999, starting the war in Bosnia and ending in Kosovo.

What motivated the people who went to fight far from their own country, in someone else’s civil war? The obvious reason could be a feeling of closeness to the fraternal Slavic people, but this would be too hasty a conclusion. Yes, many people had such motives, but try to spend several months participating in actions and defending positions on the “sense of community” alone. Although there still had to be a strong moral incentive. A person needs a reason to become a warrior, he needs a core. There were also those who came by " political reasons" It is reliably known about at least one neo-Nazi who came to Bosnia for the sake of his ideas. The Serbs were indifferent to them, they fight - and that’s fine. There were also those who came with specific purpose to become a military man, because in Russia this career was for some reason closed to them. For example, Oleg Valetsky gained a lot of experience during the war and until 2008 he worked in various PMCs. His books and articles on Yugoslav war represent a storehouse of invaluable information both for those interested in history and for those interested in military affairs.

Perhaps the sense of justice inherent in Russians had an effect. Russia at that time was experiencing many problems. Broken up huge country, its ruins were overwhelmed by crime and ethnic conflicts. The Chechen abscess was brewing and swelling. Politicians did not make sufficient efforts to resolve the problems. And there, in the distant Balkans, there are fraternal Slavic people suffering from similar problems. And this people has enemies, but they are some kind of unreal, toy ones - from the point of view of the giant Russian people. You just need to wave your treasure sword - all the enemies get hit and run away in fear. And by the way, this is roughly how Russians were perceived, despite the exaggeration of the above. As a rule, when forming detachments for several Serbs, they tried to single out one or two Russians - as a banner. Enemy propaganda spoke of thousands of ferocious Russian mercenaries who knew no pity for their enemies. Although the Russians acted according to the rules of honor, they did not finish off or humiliate the prisoners.

What can be said about the war itself? The Serbs definitely had justified grievances against the other nations of the rapidly dispersing Yugoslavia. There were large Serbian enclaves on the territory of Croatia and Bosnia, which did not at all want to become part of another state. However, these interests were clearly not the main ones of those who made the decisions. Some used the war to profit, others - to career growth. It often happened that the advances of the Serbian troops were stopped when success should have been developed. The announced truces did not mean a complete ceasefire - in fact, they were used by the opponents of the Serbs to accumulate forces and prepare for new hostilities. However, the Serbs themselves turned out to be too frivolous. Often, many participants in the Serbian units were too lazy to go to the protests, preferring to consume rakia and the much-loved coffee among Serbs, “cafe” in Serbian. In addition, local specifics played a role. Many units were formed only because it was prestigious for the local community to have their own unit. Plus, conflicts often occurred between volunteers and the military police. To this we should add the rather large conceit of the Serbs. Example: one Russian volunteer, quite obese I must say, decided to move from the White Wolves to another detachment. However, he returned from there very quickly - the Serbs laughed at him. As a result, their squad did not receive an experienced fighter. And such examples of inadequate perception by the Serbs military situation there were plenty.

Yes, it was also affected by the fact that the opponents of the Serbs were clearly receiving assistance from the “peacekeeping contingent.” Both Serbs and Russians were incredibly infuriated that, under the guise of humanitarian aid, the Bosniaks received weapons and ammunition from Western troops. During the war on Kosmet (1999), NATO aircraft acted on a tip from the Kosovars Albanians. However, this does not negate the fact that during the war the Serbs did not act as one nation, but as many disparate enclaves. Milosevic's wife blamed Russia for Serbia's loss of the war. Indeed, the minimum support (if not direct intervention, then at least the organization of a corridor for volunteers - in Moscow alone in 1996, up to 50 thousand people wanted to go to the Balkans) provided by Moscow had a significant impact on the course of events. The Serbs, by the way, asked the Russians in all seriousness: “Is Yeltsin a Croat and a Catholic?” However, we must take into account that in Russia itself there were much more serious problems at that time.

And ordinary Russian people - former military men, graduates of history departments, doctors, even one monk - provided the friendly people with sufficient assistance for their strength, showing themselves with dignity. Of course, their contribution will still be appreciated when Russia returns to the Balkans seriously and for a long time.

The second Russian volunteer detachment ("Tsar's Wolves") in Bosnia.

Russian volunteers appeared in the Balkans back in 1991, when the bloody war between Serbs, Croats and Bosnian Muslims (Bosniaks). A once united people, divided by faith and mentality, unleashed a massacre on the fragments of Yugoslavia, each winning independence and living space for themselves. The West supported the Croats and Bosniaks in this conflict, while the Serbs were left without the support of Russia, which at that time was going through the most difficult period in its modern history.

Then volunteers from Russia and Ukraine rushed to help the Serbs. One of them was Alexander Kravchenko, who at the age of 20 flew to Belgrade in 1992 to go to the war in Bosnia on the side of the Republika Srpska Army. He fought side by side with the Serbs as part of the Second and Third Russian Volunteer Detachments.

In 1993, at the height of Zaglavk, Alexander was seriously wounded in the head and leg, and after the end of the war he remained to live in the Republika Srpska (a federation within Bosnia and Herzegovina), settling in the city of Pale, 10 kilometers from the Bosnian capital Sarajevo. When on March 24 In 1999, the bombing of Belgrade, Pristina, Podgorica, Kraugevac, Novi Sad, Pancevo and other Serbian cities began, Alexander again went to help the Serbs. These few months changed his life and, when the war was lost and Yugoslavia destroyed, he returned to Russia.

Alexander Kravchenko. Visible on the chest gold medal"For Bravery" with the image of Gavrilo Princip.

We met with Alexander at the Cathedral of Moscow Saints under construction in Bibirevo, where one of the branches of the Association of Military-Patriotic Clubs “Styag” is located. Our conversation took place in a room hidden in the semi-basement of the temple, where there are flagpoles with Russian banners, and portraits of heroes of the White Guard movement hang on the walls. As it turned out, all this is also a consequence of the events of fifteen years ago. But first things first.

In 1992, Alexander had just completed his military service in the ranks Soviet Army and returned to his native Kazakhstan, where he began to participate in the work of reviving the Siberian Cossack army. During a business trip to St. Petersburg, he met people who were authorized on behalf of the government of Republika Srpska to recruit volunteers, and two months later he was already in Belgrade.

“The decision came almost immediately. The leadership of Russia at that time, in fact, betrayed the Serbs, and I wanted to show by personal example that the Russian people, as I could formulate this for myself at the age of 20, were and remain brothers to the Serbs. Moreover, being a Cossack, I was inclined to military organization, and the first for the Cossack - military service", says Alexander.

Third Russian volunteer detachment with a battle banner.

At the first stage, volunteers were sought among Cossack and patriotic organizations, so their views were largely similar. These were soviet people, yesterday's Komsomol members who recently became acquainted with the ideas of monarchism, Orthodox patriotism and nationalism, and were on the same political wavelength.

Thus, the Second Russian Volunteer Detachment (RDO-2) used the “Royal Wolves” as a battle banner imperial flag. According to Alexander, this was not done “in defiance” of the white-blue-red flag, and both Russian flags were perceived equally positively by the majority of volunteers.

“The name “Royal Wolves” did not catch on among the volunteers and remained only in newspaper articles and books. We didn't call ourselves that. Somehow it was... pretentious or something. And it was funny in those conditions. The name must be hard-earned, such as the Kornilovites, the Drozdovites - this is a certain path, a certain leader. But the black beret worn by the RDO-2 participants took root,” says Alexander.

Members of the Second Russian Volunteer Detachment "Tsar's Wolves".

Also among the volunteers in Bosnia were many people from Ukraine, including radical nationalists, many of whom wore chevrons with a trident. But most of them, in their views, were Russian monarchists or Soviet patriots.

There were also interesting cases. One of the Ukrainian volunteers, whose name Alexander did not name, went to the Balkans to fight on the side of the Croats, since they seemed closer to him in spirit. But the Croats did not accept him, because he did not have a hundred marks to cross the border, and he went to the Serbs.

“On the opposite side, the Croats and Bosnian Muslims, as far as I know, did not have Russian and Ukrainian volunteer formations - only individual specialists. It simply did not occur to the Croats to seek support in Russia and Ukraine, and this is quite understandable to me. After all, we didn’t have a choice about who to go to fight for,” explains Alexander.

Volunteer detachments were part of the Republika Srpska Army and received allowances and weapons on a general basis. It was impossible to earn money fighting for the Serbs - in the best periods of 1994 they were paid 50 German marks (for comparison, a ticket from Moscow to Belgrade cost 100-150 marks). On the other side of the barricades, things were better, which attracted mercenaries from Europe.

In total, several hundred Russian volunteers took part in the Bosnian War on the side of the Serbs, more than forty of them laid down their lives in the Balkans. At the end of the war, Alexander Kravchenko was awarded the gold medal “For Bravery,” which he received from the hands of the President of the Republic of Srpska, Radovan Karadzic, and which he still wears on his military shirt.

Meanwhile, things were not calm in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, and since 1996, a guerrilla war had been going on in Kosovo and Metohija (this is the full name of the region from which the Albanians removed the second part). The escalation of the conflict, which, in essence, was a counter-terrorism operation, occurred in 1998. And the first Russian volunteers rushed to Kosovo. When NATO forces came out on the side of the Albanian terrorists on March 24, 1999, a stream of people poured into the region, including participants in the Bosnian War, wanting to support the Serbs. By the beginning of April, the border was closed, but during these few days, about 200 fighters managed to arrive in Kosovo and Mteochia, more than half of whom were from Ukraine.

Some of those who passed Bosnian war, made their way into the region even after the border was closed, but there were only a few of them. However, this time the Serbs did not accept volunteers or accept them as allowances. As a result, they were not organized into detachments and were dispersed throughout Kosovo - from the borders with Albania to the interior regions. Many also joined elite Serbian units, such as Arkan's Tigers. The Tigers trained intensively to repel aggression from the Americans and NATO, but this time they never entered into battle.

The map shows the points where Russian volunteers operated in Bosnia and Kosovo.

Alexander Kravchenko was in Bosnia on March 24 and saw how the North Atlantic Alliance aircraft marched towards Belgrade. He says that until recently he did not believe that they would bomb - he believed that the Americans would limit themselves to an act of intimidation. He learned that the Serbian capital had been bombed from his comrade in arms, who called him from Bulgaria. Four or five days later, Alexander and a group of other volunteers found themselves in Belgrade, from where they went through Kragujevac to Pristina to join the volunteer detachment, but this was not possible due to the position of the Serbian military.

Indelible impression He was struck by Belgrade at night under bombing: the roar of enemy planes in the night sky, the tracers of small-caliber anti-aircraft guns and bomb explosions.

Belgrade at night under enemy fire

“The events of 1999, despite the fact that I had fought before, became decisive for me in my life,” says Alexander. – I realized that a war is being waged against us, the only goal of which is our destruction - Serbs, Russians, Orthodox Christians - whatever. Until 1999, I was not exactly a liberal, but I considered America not such a bad country, and the West as a good example to follow in organizing society. But then I realized that someone hates us so fiercely that they are ready to achieve their goal by any means necessary. This is not just a conflict of worldviews, it is a war against life.”

NATO military operation " Allied force", carried out in spite of international law without a UN mandate, lasted almost three months. During this time, 1,700 civilians, including 400 children, became victims of the conflict, and about 10 thousand people were seriously injured. The infrastructure of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was almost completely destroyed, about a million people were left without water, 500 thousand lost their jobs, and thousands of families lost their homes. A wave of ethnic cleansing of Serbs, Montenegrins, Gypsies and Turks swept across the Serbian region of Kosovo and Metohija. Hundreds of thousands of people were forced to flee the region. Albanian terror in the region, with the tacit consent of NATO, continued after the end of the Kosovo War.

For the first time in history, chemical sites were bombed, which led to contamination large rivers, including the Danube, lakes and even the Adriatic Sea. Radiation affected areas where NATO troops fired depleted uranium shells. The most ancient Christian churches and monasteries, listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site, were destroyed. All this was called “humanitarian intervention” in the West.

By June 10, the war was over, and Kosovo came under the control of the international contingent of KFOR. At least three Russian volunteers died in this conflict.

Soon, the Albanians, with the support of Al-Qaeda, decided to carry out a similar option to Kosovo on the territory of Macedonia, and in 2001, interethnic clashes with Albanians began in this country. Russian volunteers also came here, mainly those who went through Bosnia and Kosovo, forming a combat detachment. The conflict ended with the Ohrid Agreement between the Macedonian government and the Albanian political forces, signed under pressure from the international community. But the peace in northern Macedonia was rather shaky.

Macedonia, 2001

Alexander Kravchenko returned to Russia in 2000, because after the defeat of Yugoslavia it was psychologically difficult to remain in the Balkans. But he did not break ties with the Serbs, but on the contrary created the “Kosovo Front” movement, which is engaged in providing assistance to the Kosovo Serbs, and the portal Serbska.ru, dedicated to the Balkans.

What about the Serbs? As soon as the situation in Crimea began to heat up and it was not yet clear whether a military conflict would begin or how Russia would behave, Serbian volunteers, including Chetniks, went to the peninsula to help the Russians and Ukrainians. Some of them turned to Alexander and other Russian volunteers, who in turn also moved to Taurida. And people came not only from Serbia, but also from Macedonia and Slovenia.

Alexander himself returned a few days ago from Crimea, where he met with the Serbs who joined the Crimean self-defense forces. They provided invaluable moral support local residents, and it’s good that neither they nor the Crimeans themselves had to take up arms.

“Like many Russian patriots, Cossacks who came to Crimea and formed the backbone of the local self-defense forces, Serbian volunteers made a decision immediately. For Serbs, Russia and Ukraine are about the same thing. Why did they not side with the Right Sector? Serbs have a worldview close to the Russian one, but their sense of untruth, their sense of friend or foe even surpasses ours. It was immediately obvious to them that Euromaidan was an anti-Russian and Russophobic phenomenon, and where it was Russophobic, it was also anti-Serbian. Therefore, it was even easier for them than for us to determine where everyone was. Moreover, they themselves have already gone through the “Euromaidans” in Serbia, and they know how this threatens Ukraine and the entire Russian people. They could not have had a choice, just as we could not have had one in Bosnia,” says Alexander.

However, according to Alexander, there was a whole group of Serbs at Euromaidan, including some leaders of Serbian pro-Western organizations. About 20 people took direct part in the clashes with Berkut as militants, but Alexander classifies them as mercenaries rather than volunteers. The line between these concepts is thin, but for the volunteers themselves it is obvious.

The NATO war against Yugoslavia ended fifteen years ago, but the fight was not over for Alexander.

“I decided for myself that for the rest of my life, as much as I have the strength, I will actively oppose the evil that I saw embodied 15 years ago. Everything I do today, including within the framework of patriotic clubs, comes from there, from 1999. My actions are aimed at strengthening the spiritual and physical health our people, and first of all, the youth,” summarizes Alexander.

The phenomenon of the volunteer movement in the Balkans organically fit into the tradition of the Russian military. These people didn't just come to the rescue brotherly people in difficult times, but also defended the honor of their country and their people, demonstrating to the whole world that Russians do not abandon their own in war.

Monument to Russian volunteers in Visegrad, Republika Srpska.