Afghan captivity. Zindan martyrs and traitors from large offices

Afghanistan. More than 25 years have passed since the last withdrawal, a lot of books, stories, memoirs have been written and published, but, all the same, there are still unopened pages and topics that are bypassed. The fate of Soviet prisoners of war in Afghanistan. Maybe because she was terrible.

The Afghan dushmans did not have the habit of immediately killing prisoners of war doomed to death. Among the “lucky ones” were those whom they wanted to convert to their faith, exchange for one of their own, transfer them to human rights organizations “free of charge”, so that the whole world would know about the generosity of the Mujahideen. Those who did not fall into this number were waiting for such sophisticated torture and bullying, from the simple description of which the hair rises.
What made the Afghans do this? Is it possible that of all the feelings inherent in a person, they only have cruelty left? The backwardness of the Afghan society, coupled with the traditions of radical Islamism, can serve as a weak excuse. Islam guarantees entry into a Muslim paradise if an Afghan tortures an infidel to death.
It is not necessary to reject the presence of residual pagan remnants in the form of human sacrifices with the obligatory accompanying fanaticism. Taken together, it was an excellent means of psychological warfare. The brutally mutilated bodies of Soviet prisoners of war and what was left of them were supposed to serve as a deterrent to the enemy.

The fact that the "spirits" did with the prisoners cannot be called intimidation. What he saw made his blood run cold. American journalist George Crile in his book gives an example of another intimidation. On the morning of the day following the invasion, five jute sacks were seen by Soviet sentries. They were standing on the edge of the runway at Bagram Air Base near Kabul. When the sentry jabbed at them with the barrel, blood came out on the sacks.
The bags contained young Soviet soldiers wrapped in... their own skin. She was cut on her stomach and pulled up, and then tied over her head. This kind of particularly painful death is called the "red tulip". Everyone who served on Afghan soil heard about this atrocity.
The victim is knocked unconscious with a huge dose of drugs and hung up by the arms. Next, an incision is made around the entire body and the skin is wrapped up. The sentenced first went crazy from pain shock when the narcotic effect ended, and then slowly and painfully died.
It is difficult to reliably say whether such a fate befell the Soviet soldiers and, if so, how many. There is a lot of talk among Afghan veterans, but they do not name specific names. But this is no reason to consider the execution a legend.

The evidence is the recorded fact that this execution was applied to the SA truck driver Viktor Gryaznov. He went missing on a January afternoon in 1981. After 28 years, Kazakh journalists received a certificate from Afghanistan - the answer to their official request.
Shuravi Gryaznov Viktor Ivanovich was captured during the battle. He was offered to convert to the Islamic faith and participate in the holy war. When Gryaznov refused, the Sharia court sentenced him to death with the poetic name "red tulip". The sentence was carried out.

It would be naive to believe that this is the only type of execution used to kill Soviet prisoners of war. Iona Andronov (Soviet international journalist) often visited Afghanistan and saw many mutilated corpses of captured soldiers. There was no limit to sophisticated fanaticism - cut off ears and noses, ripped open bellies and guts torn out, severed heads stuck inside the peritoneum. If many people were captivated, bullying took place in front of the rest of the condemned.
Employees of military counterintelligence, who collected the remains of people tortured to death on duty, are still silent about what they saw in Afghanistan. But some episodes still seep into print.
Once a whole convoy of trucks with drivers disappeared - 32 soldiers and an ensign. Only on the fifth day did the paratroopers find what was left of the captured column. Dismembered and mutilated fragments of human bodies lay everywhere, powdered with a thick layer of dust. Heat and time almost decomposed the remains, but empty eye sockets, cut off genitals, ripped open and gutted stomachs, even in impenetrable men, caused a state of stupor.
It turns out that these captive guys were taken bound around the villages for several days, so that they could be peaceful! residents could stab with knives distraught with horror young guys, completely defenseless. Residents... Men. Women! Old men. Young and even children!. Then these poor half-dead guys were stoned and thrown to the ground. Then armed dushmans took over them.

The civilian population of Afghanistan readily responded to proposals to mock and mock the Soviet military. Soldiers of a special forces company were ambushed in the Maravara gorge. The dead were shot in the head for control, and the wounded were dragged by the legs to a nearby village. From the village came nine ten-fifteen-year-old teenagers with dogs, who began to finish off the wounded with axes, daggers and knives. The dogs grabbed at the throats, and the boys cut off the arms and legs, ears, noses, ripped open the stomachs and gouged out the eyes. And adult "spirits" only cheered them up and smiled approvingly.
Just by a miracle, only one junior sergeant survived. He hid in the reeds and witnessed what was happening. Behind already so many years, and he still trembles and in his eyes all the horror of the experience was concentrated. And this horror does not go anywhere, despite all the efforts of doctors and medical scientific achievements.

How many of them have still not come to their senses and refuse to talk about Afghanistan?

Probably, writing about such terrible things on the eve of the upcoming New Year holidays is not quite the right thing to do. However, on the other hand, this date cannot be changed or changed in any way. After all, it was on the eve of the new 1980 that the entry of Soviet troops into Afghanistan began, which became the starting point of the long-term Afghan war that cost our country many thousands of lives...

Today, hundreds of books and memoirs, all kinds of other historical materials have been written about this war. But here's what catches your eye. The authors somehow diligently avoid the topic of the death of Soviet prisoners of war on Afghan soil. Yes, some episodes of this tragedy are mentioned in separate memoirs of participants in the war. But the author of these lines has never come across a systemic, generalizing work about the dead prisoners of war - although I follow the Afghan historical theme very carefully. Meanwhile, whole books (mainly by Western authors) have already been written about the same problem on the other side - the death of Afghans at the hands of Soviet troops. There are even websites (including those in Russia) that tirelessly expose "the crimes of the Soviet troops, who brutally destroyed civilians and Afghan resistance fighters." But almost nothing is said about the often terrible fate of Soviet captured soldiers.

I did not make a reservation - it was a terrible fate. The thing is that Afghan dushmans doomed to death of Soviet prisoners of war rarely killed immediately. Those whom the Afghans wanted to convert to Islam were lucky, exchanged for their own or donated as a "gesture of goodwill" to Western human rights organizations, so that they, in turn, glorified the "generous Mujahideen" all over the world. But those who were doomed to death ... Usually, the death of a prisoner was preceded by such terrible tortures and tortures, from the mere description of which one immediately becomes uncomfortable.

Why did the Afghans do it? Apparently, the whole point is in the backward Afghan society, where the traditions of the most radical Islam, which demanded the painful death of the infidel as a guarantor of getting into paradise, coexisted with the wild pagan remnants of individual tribes, where human sacrifices were practiced, accompanied by real fanaticism. Often all this served as a means of psychological warfare in order to frighten the Soviet enemy - the mutilated remains of captured dushmans were often thrown to our military garrisons ...

According to experts, our soldiers were captured in different ways - someone was in unauthorized absence from a military unit, someone deserted due to hazing, someone was captured by dushmans at a post or in a real battle. Yes, today we can condemn these prisoners for their rash acts that led to the tragedy (or vice versa, admire those who were captured in a combat situation). But those who among them accepted martyrdom have already atoned for all their obvious and imaginary sins by their death. And therefore, at least from a purely Christian point of view, they deserve no less blessed memory in our hearts than those soldiers of the Afghan war (living and dead) who performed heroic, recognized deeds.

Here are just some of the episodes of the tragedy of the Afghan captivity, which the author managed to collect from open sources.

The legend of the "red tulip"

From the book by American journalist George Crile "Charlie Wilson's War" (unknown details of the secret CIA war in Afghanistan):

“They say this is a true story, and although the details have changed over the years, in general it sounds something like this. On the morning of the second day after the invasion of Afghanistan, a Soviet sentry spotted five jute sacks on the edge of the airstrip at the Bagram Air Base near Kabul. At first, he did not attach much importance to this, but then he poked the barrel of his machine gun into the nearest bag and saw blood come out. Explosives experts were called in to check the bags for booby traps. But they discovered something much more terrible. Each bag contained a young Soviet soldier wrapped in his own skin. As far as medical examination was able to determine, these people died a particularly painful death: their skin was cut on the stomach, and then pulled up and tied over their heads.

This type of brutal execution is called the "red tulip", and almost all the soldiers who served on Afghan soil have heard of it - a doomed person, having entered unconsciousness with a large dose of the drug, was hung by the arms. The skin was then trimmed around the entire body and rolled up. When the action of the dope ended, the condemned, having experienced a strong pain shock, first went crazy, and then slowly died ...

Today it is difficult to say how many of our soldiers found their end in this way. Usually, there was and is a lot of talk among veterans of Afghanistan about the “red tulip” - one of the legends was just brought by the American Crile. But few of the veterans can name the specific name of this or that martyr. However, this does not mean at all that this execution is only an Afghan legend. Thus, the fact of the use of the “red tulip” on private Viktor Gryaznov, the driver of an army truck who went missing in January 1981, was reliably recorded.

Only 28 years later, Viktor's countrymen, journalists from Kazakhstan, were able to find out the details of his death.

In early January 1981, Viktor Gryaznov and ensign Valentin Yarosh were ordered to go to the city of Puli-Khumri to a military warehouse to receive cargo. A few days later they set off on their return journey. But on the way the column was attacked by dushmans. The truck driven by Gryaznov broke down, and then he and Valentin Yarosh took up arms. The battle lasted for half an hour ... The ensign's body was later found not far from the place of the battle, with a broken head and gouged out eyes. But the dushmans dragged Victor with them. What happened to him later is evidenced by a certificate sent to Kazakhstani journalists in response to their official request from Afghanistan:

“In early 1981, the Mujahideen of Abdul Razad Askhakzai’s detachment, during a battle with the infidels, was captured by Shuravi (Soviet), he called himself Gryaznov Viktor Ivanovich. He was asked to become a devout Muslim, a Mujahideen, a defender of Islam, to participate in ghazavat - a holy war - with infidels. Gryaznov refused to become a true believer and destroy the Shuravi. By the verdict of the Sharia court, Gryaznov was sentenced to death - a red tulip, the sentence was carried out.

Of course, everyone is free to think about this episode as he pleases, but personally it seems to me that ordinary Gryaznov accomplished a real feat, refusing to commit betrayal and accepting a cruel death for it. One can only guess how many more of our guys in Afghanistan have committed the same heroic deeds, which, unfortunately, remain unknown to this day.

Foreign witnesses speak

However, in the arsenal of dushmans, in addition to the “red tulip”, there were many more brutal ways to kill Soviet prisoners.

The Italian journalist Oriana Falacci, who repeatedly visited Afghanistan and Pakistan in the 80s, testifies. During these trips, she finally became disillusioned with the Afghan Mujahideen, whom Western propaganda then painted exclusively as noble fighters against communism. "Noble fighters" turned out to be real monsters in human form:

“In Europe, they didn’t believe me when I talked about what they usually did with Soviet prisoners. How Soviet hands and feet were sawn off... The victims did not die immediately. Only after some time the victim was finally decapitated and the severed head was played in buzkashi, an Afghan variety of polo. As for the arms and legs, they were sold as trophies in the market...”.

The English journalist John Fullerton describes something similar in his book The Soviet Occupation of Afghanistan:

“Death is the usual end of those Soviet prisoners who were communists ... The first years of the war, the fate of Soviet prisoners was often terrible. One group of flayed prisoners was hung on hooks in a butcher's shop. Another prisoner became the centerpiece of an attraction called buzkashi, the cruel and savage polo of Afghans riding horses, snatching a headless sheep from each other instead of a ball. Instead, they used a prisoner. Alive! And he was literally torn to pieces.”

And here is another shocking confession of a foreigner. This is an excerpt from Frederick Forsyth's novel The Afghan. Forsyth is known for his closeness to the British intelligence agencies who helped the Afghan spooks, and therefore, knowingly, he wrote the following:

“The war was brutal. Few prisoners were taken, and those who died quickly could consider themselves lucky. The highlanders especially fiercely hated Russian pilots. Those who were captured alive were left in the sun with a small incision in the abdomen, so that the entrails swelled, spilled out and fried until death brought relief. Sometimes the prisoners were given to women who ripped off the skin of the living with knives ... ".

Beyond the human mind

All this is confirmed by our sources. For example, in the memoir of the international journalist Iona Andronov, who has repeatedly been to Afghanistan:

“After the battles near Jalalabad, I was shown in the ruins of a suburban village the mutilated corpses of two Soviet soldiers captured by the Mujahideen. The bodies cut open by daggers looked like a sickeningly bloody mess. I heard about such fanaticism many times: the flayers cut off the ears and noses of the captives, dissected the bellies and pulled out the intestines, cut off the heads and stuffed the open peritoneum inside. And if they captured several captives, they tortured them one by one in front of the next martyrs.

Andronov in his book recalls his friend, military translator Viktor Losev, who had the misfortune of being wounded and captured:

"I learned that ... the army authorities in Kabul were able, through Afghan intermediaries, to buy Losev's corpse from the Mujahideen for a lot of money ... The body of a Soviet officer given to us was subjected to such abuse that I still do not dare to describe it. And I don’t know: whether he died from a combat wound or the wounded was tortured to death by monstrous torture.The hacked remains of Victor in tightly soldered zinc were taken home by the “black tulip”.

By the way, the fate of the captured Soviet military and civilian advisers was really terrible. For example, in 1982, military counterintelligence officer Viktor Kolesnikov, who served as an adviser in one of the units of the Afghan government army, was tortured by dushmans. These Afghan soldiers went over to the side of the dushmans, and as a “gift” they “presented” a Soviet officer and translator to the Mujahideen. Major of the KGB of the USSR Vladimir Garkavy recalls:

“Kolesnikov and the translator were tortured for a long time and subtly. In this case, the “spirits” were masters. Then they cut off their heads and, having packed the tormented bodies in bags, threw them into the roadside dust on the Kabul-Mazar-i-Sharif highway, not far from the Soviet checkpoint.

As we can see, both Andronov and Garkavy refrain from details of the death of their comrades, sparing the reader's psyche. But one can guess about these tortures - at least from the memoirs of the former KGB officer Alexander Nezdolya:

“And how many times, due to inexperience, and sometimes as a result of elementary neglect of security measures, not only internationalist soldiers died, but also Komsomol workers seconded by the Central Committee of the Komsomol to create youth organizations. I remember a case of blatantly brutal reprisal against one of these guys. He was to fly from Herat to Kabul. But in a hurry, I forgot the folder with documents and returned for it, and catching up with the group, I ran into dushmanov. Having captured him alive, the “spirits” cruelly mocked him, cut off his ears, cut open his stomach and stuffed him and his mouth with earth. Then the still living Komsomol member was put on a stake and, demonstrating their Asian cruelty, was carried in front of the population of the villages.

After this became known to everyone, each of the special forces of our Karpaty team made it a rule to wear an F-1 grenade in the left lapel of a jacket pocket. So that, in case of injury or a hopeless situation, not to fall into the hands of dushmans alive ... "

A terrible picture appeared before those who, on duty, had to collect the remains of tortured people - employees of military counterintelligence and medical workers. Many of these people are still silent about what they had to see in Afghanistan, and this is quite understandable. But some still dare to speak. Here is what a nurse at a Kabul military hospital once told Belarusian writer Svetlana Aleksievich:

“The whole of March, right there, near the tents, cut off arms and legs were dumped ...

Corpses ... They lay in a separate room ... Half-naked, with gouged out eyes,

once - with a carved star on his stomach ... Earlier in the movie about civil

I saw this in the war."

No less amazing things were told to the writer Larisa Kucherova (author of the book “The KGB in Afghanistan”) by the former head of the special department of the 103rd airborne division, Colonel Viktor Sheiko-Koshuba. Once he happened to investigate an incident with the disappearance of an entire convoy of our trucks along with drivers - thirty-two people, led by an ensign. This column left Kabul for the area of ​​the Karcha reservoir for sand for construction needs. The column left and ... disappeared. Only on the fifth day, the paratroopers of the 103rd division, alerted, found what was left of the drivers, who, as it turned out, were captured by dushmans:

“The mutilated, dismembered remains of human bodies, powdered with thick viscous dust, were scattered over the dry rocky ground. Heat and time have already done their job, but what people have created is beyond description! The empty eye sockets of gouged out eyes staring at the indifferent empty sky, ripped open and disemboweled bellies, cut off genitals... Even those who had seen a lot in this war and considered themselves impenetrable men lost their nerves... After some time, our scouts received information that that after the guys were captured, the dushmans led them bound around the villages for several days, and civilians with furious fury stabbed the helpless boys, distraught with horror, with knives. Men and women, old and young... Having quenched their bloody thirst, a crowd of people seized by a feeling of animal hatred threw stones at half-dead bodies. And when the stone rain knocked them down, spooks armed with daggers got down to business...

Such monstrous details became known from a direct participant in that massacre, captured during the next operation. Calmly looking into the eyes of the Soviet officers present, he spoke in detail, savoring every detail, about the abuse that unarmed boys were subjected to. With the naked eye, it was clear that at that moment the prisoner received special pleasure from the very memories of torture ... ".

Dushmans really attracted the peaceful Afghan population to their brutal actions, which, it seems, took part in mockery of our servicemen with great willingness. This happened to the wounded soldiers of our special forces company, which in April 1985 fell into a dushman ambush in the Marawara gorge, near the Pakistani border. A company without proper cover entered one of the Afghan villages, after which a real massacre began there. Here is how General Valentin Varennikov, head of the Operational Group of the Ministry of Defense of the Soviet Union in Afghanistan, described it in his memoirs.

“The company spread across the village. Suddenly, several large-caliber machine guns began to hit from the heights to the right and left at once. All the soldiers and officers jumped out of the yards and houses and scattered around the village, looking for shelter somewhere at the foot of the mountains, from where there was intense shooting. It was a fatal mistake. If the company took refuge in these adobe houses and behind thick duvals, which are not penetrated not only by heavy machine guns, but also by a grenade launcher, then the personnel could fight for a day and more, until help came up.

In the first minutes, the company commander was killed and the radio station was destroyed. This made things even more disorganized. The personnel rushed about at the foot of the mountains, where there were neither stones nor a bush that would have sheltered from a leaden downpour. Most of the people were killed, the rest were wounded.

And then the dushmans descended from the mountains. There were ten or twelve of them. They consulted. Then one climbed onto the roof and began to observe, two went along the road to a neighboring village (it was a kilometer away), and the rest began to bypass our soldiers. The wounded, having thrown a loop from a belt on their feet, were dragged closer to the village, and all the dead were given a control shot in the head.

Approximately an hour later, the two returned, but already accompanied by nine teenagers aged ten to fifteen years old and three large dogs - Afghan Shepherds. The leaders gave them certain instructions, and with squealing and shouting they rushed to finish off our wounded with knives, daggers and axes. Dogs gnawed our soldiers by the throat, the boys chopped off their arms and legs, cut off their noses, ears, and ripped open their stomachs., gouged out eyes. And adults cheered them up and laughed approvingly.

It was over in thirty or forty minutes. The dogs licked their lips. Two older teenagers chopped off two heads, strung them on a stake, raised them like a banner, and the whole team of frenzied executioners and sadists went back to the village, taking with them all the weapons of the dead.

Varenikov writes that only junior sergeant Vladimir Turchin survived then. The soldier hid in the river reeds and saw with his own eyes how his comrades were being tortured. Only the next day did he manage to get out to his own. After the tragedy, Varenikov himself wished to see him. But the conversation did not work out, because as the general writes:

“He was shaking all over. Not only did he tremble a little, no, everything was trembling in him - his face, arms, legs, torso. I took him by the shoulder, and this trembling was transmitted to my arm. It was as if he had a vibration disease. Even if he said something, he clattered his teeth, so he tried to answer questions with a nod of his head (he agreed or denied). The poor man did not know what to do with his hands, they were trembling very much.

I realized that a serious conversation with him would not work. He sat him down and, taking him by the shoulders and trying to calm him down, began to comfort him, saying kind words that everything was over, that he needed to get into shape. But he continued to tremble. His eyes expressed the full horror of the experience. He was mentally severely traumatized."

Probably, such a reaction on the part of a 19-year-old boy is not surprising - from the spectacle he saw, even quite adult men who had seen the views could move their minds. They say that Turchin, even today, after almost three decades, still has not come to his senses and categorically refuses to talk to anyone about the Afghan topic ...

God be his judge and comforter! Like all those who have seen with their own eyes all the wild inhumanity of the Afghan war.

Vadim Andryukhin, editor-in-chief

POVARNITSYN, Yuri Grigorievich (Yuri Grigorievich Povarnitsin) [ca. 1962], junior sergeant, was called up by the Alapaevsky GBK, served in the DRA for three months; captured in Charikar 40 miles from Kabul in July 1981 by Hezb-i Islami fighters. On September 24-26, 1981, an AP correspondent in the Mujahideen camp Allah Jirga (Zabol province), near the Pakistani border, took a large series of photographs of Povarnitsyn together with another prisoner of war (Mohammed Yazkuliev Kuli, 19), subsequently these pictures were repeatedly reproduced in the Western press. 28. 05. 1982, together with Valery Anatolyevich Didenko (tanker, 19 years old, from the village of Pologi in Ukraine) and (presumably) 19-year-old private Yurkevich or tank captain Sidelnikov, was transported to Switzerland. Soviet soldiers are the martyrs of Afghanistan. Today, hundreds of books and memoirs, all kinds of other historical materials have been written about this war. But here's what catches your eye. The authors somehow diligently avoid the topic of the death of Soviet prisoners of war on Afghan soil. Yes, some episodes of this tragedy are mentioned in separate memoirs of participants in the war. But the author of these lines has never come across a systemic, generalizing work about the dead prisoners - although I follow the Afghan historical theme very carefully. Meanwhile, whole books (mainly by Western authors) have already been written about the same problem from the other side - the death of Afghans at the hands of Soviet troops. There are even websites (including those in Russia) that tirelessly expose "the crimes of the Soviet troops, who brutally destroyed civilians and Afghan resistance fighters." But almost nothing is said about the often terrible fate of Soviet captured soldiers. I did not make a reservation - it was a terrible fate. The thing is that Afghan dushmans doomed to death of Soviet prisoners of war rarely killed immediately. Those whom the Afghans wanted to convert to Islam were lucky, exchanged for their own or donated as a "gesture of goodwill" to Western human rights organizations, so that they, in turn, glorified the "generous Mujahideen" all over the world. But those who were doomed to death ... Usually, the death of a prisoner was preceded by such terrible tortures and tortures, from the mere description of which one immediately becomes uncomfortable. Why did the Afghans do it? Apparently, the whole point is in the backward Afghan society, where the traditions of the most radical Islam, which demanded the painful death of the infidel as a guarantor of getting into paradise, coexisted with the wild pagan remnants of individual tribes, where human sacrifices were practiced, accompanied by real fanaticism. Often, all this served as a means of psychological warfare in order to frighten the Soviet enemy - the mutilated remains of captured dushmans were often thrown to our military garrisons ... As experts say, our soldiers were captured in different ways - someone was in unauthorized absence from a military unit, someone deserted due to hazing, someone was captured by dushmans at a post or in a real battle. Yes, today we can condemn these prisoners for their rash acts that led to the tragedy (or vice versa, admire those who were captured in a combat situation). But those who among them accepted martyrdom have already atoned for all their obvious and imaginary sins by their death. And therefore they - at least from a purely Christian point of view - in our hearts deserve no less blessed memory than those soldiers of the Afghan war (living and dead) who performed heroic, recognized deeds. Here are just some of the episodes of the tragedy of the Afghan captivity, which the author managed to collect from open sources. The legend of the "red tulip" From the book by American journalist George Crile "Charlie Wilson's War" (unknown details of the secret CIA war in Afghanistan): "They say this is a true story, and although the details have changed over the years, in general it sounds something like this. On the morning of the second day after the invasion of Afghanistan, a Soviet sentry spotted five jute sacks on the edge of the airstrip at the Bagram Air Base near Kabul. At first, he did not attach much importance to this, but then he poked the barrel of his machine gun into the nearest bag and saw blood come out. Explosives experts were called in to check the bags for booby traps. But they discovered something much more terrible. Each bag contained a young Soviet soldier wrapped in his own skin. As far as medical examination was able to determine, these people died a particularly painful death: their skin was cut on the stomach, and then pulled up and tied over their heads. This type of brutal execution is called the “red tulip”, and almost all the soldiers who served on Afghan soil have heard of it - a doomed person, having entered unconsciousness with a large dose of the drug, was hung by the arms. The skin was then trimmed around the entire body and rolled up. When the action of the dope ended, the condemned, having experienced a severe pain shock, first went crazy, and then slowly died ... Today it is difficult to say how many of our soldiers found their end in this way. Usually there was and is a lot of talk among veterans of Afghanistan about the “red tulip” - one of the legends was just brought by the American Crile. But few of the veterans can name the specific name of this or that martyr. However, this does not mean at all that this execution is only an Afghan legend. Thus, the fact of the use of the “red tulip” on private Viktor Gryaznov, the driver of an army truck who went missing in January 1981, was reliably recorded. Only 28 years later, Viktor's countrymen, journalists from Kazakhstan, were able to find out the details of his death. In early January 1981, Viktor Gryaznov and ensign Valentin Yarosh were ordered to go to the city of Puli-Khumri to a military warehouse to receive cargo. A few days later they set off on their return journey. But on the way the column was attacked by dushmans. The truck driven by Gryaznov broke down, and then he and Valentin Yarosh took up arms. The battle lasted for half an hour ... The ensign's body was later found not far from the place of the battle, with a broken head and gouged out eyes. But the dushmans dragged Victor with them. What happened to him later is evidenced by a certificate sent to Kazakhstani journalists at their official request from Afghanistan: “In early 1981, the Mujahideen of Abdul Razad Ashakzai’s detachment, during a battle with the infidels, was taken prisoner by Shuravi (Soviet), he called himself Gryaznov Viktor Ivanovich. He was offered to become a faithful Muslim, a Mujahideen, a defender of Islam, to participate in a gazavat - a holy war - with infidels. Gryaznov refused to become a true believer and destroy the Shuravi. By the verdict of the Sharia court, Gryaznov was sentenced to death - a red tulip, the sentence was carried out. "Of course, everyone is free to think about this episode as he pleases, but personally it seems to me that ordinary Gryaznov accomplished a real feat by refusing to commit betrayal and accepting a cruel death for this. One can only guess how many more of our guys in Afghanistan committed the same heroic deeds, which, unfortunately, remain unknown to this day. Foreign witnesses say However, in addition to the “red tulip”, there were many more Italian journalist Oriana Falacci, who repeatedly visited Afghanistan and Pakistan in the 1980s, testifies to the brutal methods of killing Soviet prisoners. The “noble fighters” turned out to be real monsters in human form: “In Europe, they didn’t believe me when I talked about what they usually did with Soviet prisoners. How Soviet hands and feet were sawn off... The victims did not die immediately. Only after some time the victim was finally decapitated and the severed head was played in buzkashi, an Afghan kind of polo. As for the arms and legs, they were sold as trophies in the bazaar ... "Something similar is described by the English journalist John Fullerton in his book" Soviet occupation of Afghanistan ":" Death is the usual end of those Soviet prisoners who were communists ... The first years of the war, the fate of Soviet prisoners was often terrible. One group of prisoners, who were skinned, were hung on hooks in a butcher's shop. Another prisoner became the central toy of the attraction called "buzkashi" - the cruel and savage polo of Afghans riding horses, snatching a headless sheep from each other instead of a ball. Instead, they used a prisoner. Alive! And he was literally torn to pieces.” And here is another shocking confession of a foreigner. This is an excerpt from Frederick Forsyth's novel The Afghan. Forsyth is known for his closeness to the British intelligence agencies who helped the Afghan dushmans, and therefore, knowingly, he wrote the following: “The war was cruel. Few prisoners were taken, and those who died quickly could consider themselves lucky. The highlanders especially fiercely hated Russian pilots. Those who were captured alive were left in the sun with a small incision in the abdomen, so that the entrails swelled, spilled out and fried until death brought relief. Sometimes the prisoners were given to women who ripped off the skin of the living with knives ... ". Beyond the limits of the human mind All this is confirmed in our sources. For example, in the memoir book of the international journalist Iona Andronov, who has repeatedly visited Afghanistan: “After the battles near Jalalabad, I was shown the mutilated corpses of two Soviet soldiers captured by the Mujahideen in the ruins of a suburban village. The bodies cut open by daggers looked like a sickeningly bloody mess. I heard about such fanaticism many times: the flayers cut off the ears and noses of the captives, dissected the bellies and pulled out the intestines, cut off the heads and stuffed the open peritoneum inside. And if they captured several captives, they tortured them one by one in front of the next martyrs. Andronov in his book recalls his friend, military translator Viktor Losev, who had the misfortune of being wounded and captured: “I found out that. .. the army authorities in Kabul were able, through Afghan intermediaries, to buy Losev's corpse from the Mujahideen for a lot of money ... The body of a Soviet officer given to us was subjected to such abuse that I still do not dare to describe it. And I don’t know whether he died from a combat wound or the wounded man was tortured to death by monstrous torture. Chopped remains of Victor in tightly soldered zinc took home the "black tulip". By the way, the fate of the captured Soviet military and civilian advisers was really terrible. For example, in 1982, military counterintelligence officer Viktor Kolesnikov, who served as an adviser in one of the units of the Afghan government army, was tortured by dushmans. These Afghan soldiers went over to the side of the dushmans, and as a “gift” they “presented” a Soviet officer and translator to the Mujahideen. Major of the KGB of the USSR Vladimir Garkavy recalls: “Kolesnikov and the translator were tortured for a long time and subtly. The “spirits” were masters in this matter. Then they cut off their heads and, packing the tormented bodies in bags, threw them into the roadside dust on the Kabul-Mazar-i-Sharif highway, not far from the Soviet checkpoint. ”As you can see, both Andronov and Garkavy refrain from the details of the death of his comrades, sparing the psyche of the reader.But one can guess about these tortures - at least from the memoirs of the former KGB officer Alexander Nezdoli: , as well as the Komsomol workers seconded by the Central Committee of the Komsomol to create youth organizations. I remember the case of blatantly brutal reprisal against one of these guys. He was supposed to fly by plane from Herat to Kabul. But in a hurry he forgot the folder with documents and returned for it, and catching up with the group, ran into dushmans. Capturing him alive, the "spirits" cruelly mocked him, cut off his ears, cut open his stomach and stuffed him and his mouth with earth. Then the still living Komsomol member was put on a stake and, demonstrating their Asian cruelty, was carried in front of the population of the villages. After it became known to everyone, each of the special forces of our Karpaty team made it a rule to wear an F-1 grenade in the left lapel of a jacket pocket. So that, in case of injury or a hopeless situation, not to fall into the hands of dushmans alive ... "A terrible picture appeared before those who, on duty, had to collect the remains of tortured people - employees of military counterintelligence and medical workers.Many of these people are still silent about what they had to see in Afghanistan, and this is quite understandable. But some still dare to speak. Here is what a nurse from a Kabul military hospital once told the Belarusian writer Svetlana Aleksievich: “All March, right there, near the tents, cut off arms and legs were dumped ... Corpses ... They lay in a separate ward ... Half-naked, with gouged out eyes, once - with a carved star on his stomach ... I used to see this in a movie about the civil war. No less amazing things were told to the writer Larisa Kucherova (author of the book “The KGB in Afghanistan”) by the former head of the special department of the 103rd airborne division, Colonel Viktor Sheiko-Koshuba. Once he happened to investigate an incident with the disappearance of a whole convoy of our trucks, along with drivers - thirty-two people, led by an ensign. This column left Kabul for the area of ​​the Karcha reservoir for sand for construction needs. The column left and ... disappeared. Only on the fifth day, the paratroopers of the 103rd division, alerted, found what was left of the drivers, who, as it turned out, were captured by dushmans: “The mutilated, dismembered remains of human bodies, powdered with thick viscous dust, were scattered over dry rocky ground. Heat and time have already done their job, but what people have created is beyond description! The empty eye sockets of gouged out eyes staring at the indifferent empty sky, ripped open and disemboweled bellies, cut off genitals... Even those who had seen a lot in this war and considered themselves impenetrable men lost their nerves... After some time, our scouts received information that that after the guys were captured, the dushmans led them bound around the villages for several days, and civilians with furious fury stabbed the helpless boys, distraught with horror, with knives. Men and women, old and young... Having quenched their bloody thirst, a crowd of people seized by a feeling of animal hatred threw stones at half-dead bodies. And when the stone rain knocked them down, spooks armed with daggers got down to business ... Such monstrous details became known from a direct participant in that massacre, captured during the next operation. Calmly looking into the eyes of the Soviet officers present, he spoke in detail, savoring every detail, about the abuse that unarmed boys were subjected to. With the naked eye, it was clear that at that moment the prisoner received special pleasure from the very memories of torture ... ". Dushmans really attracted the peaceful Afghan population to their brutal actions, which, it seems, took part in mockery of our servicemen with great willingness. This happened to the wounded soldiers of our special forces company, which in April 1985 fell into a dushman ambush in the Marawara gorge, near the Pakistani border. A company without proper cover entered one of the Afghan villages, after which a real massacre began there. Here is how General Valentin Varennikov, head of the Operational Group of the Ministry of Defense of the Soviet Union in Afghanistan, described it in his memoirs: “The company spread across the village. Suddenly, several large-caliber machine guns began to hit from the heights to the right and left at once. All the soldiers and officers jumped out of the yards and houses and scattered around the village, looking for shelter somewhere at the foot of the mountains, from where there was intense shooting. It was a fatal mistake. If the company took refuge in these adobe houses and behind thick duvals, which are not penetrated not only by heavy machine guns, but also by a grenade launcher, then the personnel could fight for a day and more, until help came up. In the first minutes, the company commander was killed and the radio station was destroyed. This made things even more disorganized. The personnel rushed about at the foot of the mountains, where there were neither stones nor a bush that would have sheltered from a leaden downpour. Most of the people were killed, the rest were wounded. And then the dushmans descended from the mountains. There were ten or twelve of them. They consulted. Then one climbed onto the roof and began to observe, two went along the road to a neighboring village (it was a kilometer away), and the rest began to bypass our soldiers. The wounded, having thrown a loop from a belt on their feet, were dragged closer to the village, and all the dead were given a control shot in the head. Approximately an hour later, the two returned, but already accompanied by nine teenagers aged ten to fifteen years old and three large dogs - Afghan Shepherds. The leaders gave them certain instructions, and with squealing and shouting they rushed to finish off our wounded with knives, daggers and axes. Dogs gnawed our soldiers by the throat, the boys chopped off their arms and legs, cut off their noses, ears, ripped open their stomachs, gouged out their eyes. And adults cheered them up and laughed approvingly. It was over in thirty or forty minutes. The dogs licked their lips. Two older teenagers chopped off two heads, strung them on a stake, raised them like a banner, and the whole team of frenzied executioners and sadists went back to the village, taking with them all the weapons of the dead. Varenikov writes that only junior sergeant Vladimir Turchin survived then. The soldier hid in the river reeds and saw with his own eyes how his comrades were being tortured. Only the next day did he manage to get out to his own. After the tragedy, Varenikov himself wished to see him. But the conversation did not work out, because as the general writes: “He was trembling all over. Not only did he tremble a little, no, everything was trembling in him - his face, arms, legs, torso. I took him by the shoulder, and this trembling was transmitted to my arm. It was as if he had a vibration disease. Even if he said something, he clattered his teeth, so he tried to answer questions with a nod of his head (he agreed or denied). The poor man did not know what to do with his hands, they were trembling very much. I realized that a serious conversation with him would not work. He sat him down and, taking him by the shoulders and trying to calm him down, began to comfort him, saying kind words that everything was over, that he needed to get into shape. But he continued to tremble. His eyes expressed the full horror of the experience. He was mentally severely traumatized." Probably, such a reaction on the part of a 19-year-old boy is not surprising - from the spectacle he saw, even quite adult men who had seen the views could move their minds. They say that Turchin even today, after almost three decades, still has not come to his senses and categorically refuses to talk to anyone on the Afghan topic ... God be his judge and comforter! Like all those who have seen with their own eyes all the wild inhumanity of the Afghan war. Vadim Andryukhin

1. Red tulip.

This torture is modern, it was used by dushmans against captured Russian soldiers in Afghanistan. First, the prisoner was drugged, then hung up by the arms. Then the torture began, the prisoner of war was cut off the skin in special places, while not touching the large vessels and pulled it from the body to the waist, as a result, the skin hung down in patches, exposing the flesh. Often people died during the procedure itself, but if suddenly the victim remained alive, then, as a rule, death came after the effect of the drug was removed: from pain shock or blood loss.

2. Torture by rats.

This torture was very common in ancient China, but it was first used in the 16th century by Didrik Sonoy, the leader of the Dutch Revolution. First, the prisoner was completely undressed and placed on the table, tightly tied, then a cage with hungry rats was placed on his stomach. Thanks to a special arrangement of the cage, the bottom was opened, and hot coals were placed on top of the cage itself, which slowed down the rats. As a result, the rats in a panic began to look for a way out, and the only way out was the human stomach.

3. Chinese bamboo torture.

Many have heard about this torture, it was even tested in the well-known program “Mythbusters”, where the myth turned out to be “confirmed”. It consists in the following: bamboo is one of the fastest growing plants on Earth, while some of its varieties can grow by a meter per day. The victim was tied up and placed belly over bamboo sprouts, as a result, bamboo sprouted through the body, delivering wild torment to the person.

4. Copper bull.

This instrument of torture was made by the coppersmith Perillus, who eventually sold it to the Sicilian tyrant Falaris. Falaris was famous for his love of torture, so the first thing he decided to check the work of this bull. The first victim was the creator of this bull, Perillus, for his greed. The bull was a hollow copper statue, where a person was placed through a special door. Further, a fire was made under the bull and the victim was boiled alive there, and the bull was made in such a way that all the cries of the victim came out through the mouth of the bull. By the way, Falaris himself was also fried in this bull.

5. Implantation of metal.

In the Middle Ages, the method of implanting metal under the skin of the victim was used. First, the flesh was cut, and then some piece of metal was put there and it was all sewn up. After some time, the metal began to oxidize and caused severe pain to the poor. From this pain, people themselves often tore their flesh and pulled out the ill-fated piece of iron, eventually dying from blood loss.

6. Pectoral.

The pectoral is a feminine adornment, which was a modern bra made of precious metals and decorated with precious stones and patterns. It is not difficult to guess that torture got this name for a reason. It was used during the Inquisition. The executioner took the pectoral with tongs, heated it to red and put it on the woman's chest. As soon as the pectoral cooled down from the body, he again heated it and applied it, and so on until the victim confessed to something. Often, after such torture, only charred holes remained from the woman’s chest.

This torture was used by the nomadic peoples of the Zhuanzhuang, who consecrated slaves in this way. What was the torture? First, the slave’s head was shaved, then they wrapped it with pieces of the skin of a freshly killed camel (which means the word “shiri”), then they shackled his neck in a wooden block, which did not allow the slave to touch his head, and also did not allow his head to touch the ground. As a result, the slave was taken away to the desert and left there in the very sun for five days, without food and water. From the scorching sun, the patches of camel skin began to tighten with great force, which caused hellish pain to a person. In addition, the sprouting hair on the head also did not find an outlet and grew right in breadth. After 5 days, as a rule, all the slaves died, but if someone remained alive, it was believed that the goal was achieved.

8. Inflate.

Slaves became the main objects of this torture, and according to one version, this was practiced by Peter 1 himself. First, a person was tightly tied, then his mouth, nose, and ears were covered with cotton. Then bellows were inserted into his ass and inflated, as a result, the person became like an inflated balloon. The final was an incision above the eyebrows, from where, as a result of high pressure, blood quickly came out, which killed the victim.

9. Death by an elephant.

This method was practiced in India. As expected, the victim was tied hand and foot and left to lie on the ground. Then a trained elephant was brought into the room. The trainer gave commands to the elephant and he crushed parts of the victim's body to the delight of the public, the final of this torture was a crushed head.

10. Skafism.

This torture was popular in ancient Persia. First, the victim was forcibly given milk and honey to drink, then they were placed in a shallow trough and tightly tied. Thus, the victim remained in the trough for several days, as a result of which, from the abundance of milk and honey in the stomach, the intestines were emptied. Further, this trough was placed in a swamp and it swam there, attracting the attention of hungry creatures. Naturally, the eaters were quickly and in the end they ate the prisoner alive.