Uprising in a Pakistani prison of Soviet paratroopers. Uprising in the Badaber camp: the last stand of the suicide bombers. Ours fought like lions

April 26, 1985 twelve exhausted, but not broken Soviet soldiers began a battle in Pakistan against a hundred times superior enemy forces - regular units of the Pakistani army, hundreds of Afghan dushmans and their American instructors, led by the future president of Afghanistan, Barhanuddin Rabbani ...

“... At 21.00, when the entire staff of the school was lined up on the parade ground to perform prayers, the former Soviet military personnel removed sentries from the artillery depots and on the tower, freed all the prisoners, armed themselves with small arms and artillery weapons captured in the depots and took up positions in order to destroy the cadets , teachers and security units ”(from the report of the agent“ 206 ”of the intelligence center“ Shir ”of the Ministry of State Security of Afghanistan).

This happened in the town of Badaber, 24 kilometers from Peshawar, the second largest city in Pakistan. Here, under the guise of a refugee camp, was the terrorist training center of the Islamic Society of Afghanistan (IAS). The general patronage of the center was carried out by the leader of the IOA B. Rabbani, the field commander Gulbuddin Hekmatyar was the head.

The center covered an area of 500 hectares. The training period for cadets was 6 months. The teaching staff was staffed by Egyptians and Pakistanis - a total of 65 instructors. The head of the center is Major Kudratullah of the Pakistani Armed Forces. He has 6 advisers from the USA. The eldest is a certain Varsan. After completing their studies, the cadets were sent to the territory of Afghanistan by the leaders of the IAO of the provincial, district and volost level of the provinces of Nangarhar, Paktia and Kandahar.

On the territory of the center there were 6 warehouses with ammunition and 3 underground prisons, where Soviet and Afghan prisoners of war were kept. The regime of detention is especially strict, isolated. “Incorrigible shuravi” fell into underground prisons - those captured in battle, who resisted, who did not convert to Islam. They began to be brought here in 1983-84, shortly before the events described. Prior to that, they were kept mainly in special pits-zindans, using them for the most difficult work - in quarries, loading and unloading ammunition. For the slightest fault, and often without it, they were severely beaten.

The prisoners of the underground prisons were nameless. Instead of surnames and names - Muslim nicknames. The obstinate and recalcitrant were stigmatized following the example of the fascist executioners. They were starved, giving a sip of water a day and meager salty food, into which “chars” and “nasvay” were poured - the cheapest drugs. They were kept in shackled shackles, from which not only the skin, but also the bones festered on the hands and feet.

"Masters of the other world," as their foreign advisers called the guards, came up with more sophisticated torture. They especially took care that a person “breathed the smell of death” from the first hour of captivity. The most obstinate were flayed, their ears and tongues cut off, they were chained to decaying corpses, they were whipped with iron rods every day ... During the captivity, Soviet soldiers turned into walking skeletons. And in spite of everything, they rebelled.

According to Rabbani's memoirs, the uprising was started by a tall guy who managed to disarm the guard who brought the evening stew. He opened the cells and released the other prisoners. Dushmans and their instructors came to their senses only when the entire weapons-prison zone was in the hands of the rebels. The alarm was raised by all the inhabitants of the camp. The blocking of the warehouse zone began urgently. Parts of the Pakistani army were called in to help.

The fierce fighting continued throughout the night. After a series of unsuccessful attacks, already late at night, Rabbani personally turned to the rebels with a proposal to surrender. They responded with a categorical refusal and demanded that representatives of the UN, the Red Cross and the Soviet or Afghan embassies be summoned from Islamabad.

Rabbani promised to think it over, knowing full well that to comply with the demand means to make public the fact of the secret detention of prisoners of war in Pakistan, which has declared itself neutral, which is a flagrant violation of the elementary norms of international law. The Mujahideen and Pakistani troops were ordered to do away with the adamant Shuravi by any means.

More assaults followed. And offers to surrender. The answer has always been the same. The assault followed the assault, the forces of the rebels were fading, however, the enemy also suffered significant losses. It is not known how long this fight of a handful of doomed people with forces superior in tens, hundreds of times would last. Surely to the last bullet, to the last man - they did not expect mercy from the executioners ...

Desperate to crush the uprising, the command of the armed forces of Pakistan decided: to shoot the rebels from multiple launch rocket launchers and heavy artillery mounted on direct fire. At 8 am on April 27, Rabbani personally took command of the operation. Simultaneously with the artillery attack, an air strike was launched.

“The area of the uprising was blocked by detachments of the Mujahideen, tank and artillery units of the 11th Army Corps of the Pakistani Armed Forces. The MLRS "Grad" and a link of helicopters of the Pakistani Air Force were used against the rebels. Radio intelligence of the 40th Army recorded a radio interception between their crews and the air base, as well as a report from one of the crews about a bombing attack on the camp. Only the joint efforts of the Mujahideen and Pakistani regular troops managed to suppress this uprising. Most of the rebels died the death of the brave in an unequal battle, and the seriously wounded were finished off on the spot.

According to one version, the rebels, realizing the hopelessness of their situation, blew themselves up. From the broadcast of Radio Liberty on May 4, 1985: “A representative of the headquarters of the US Space Command in the state of Colorado reported that aerial photographs obtained by satellite recorded an explosion of large destructive force in the northwestern province of Pakistan, which occurred on April 27 from .G.". (The resulting fire destroyed the office of the center, which contained lists of Soviet prisoners).

The dushmans reported that 97 guards and other "brothers" were killed. According to other sources, about 200 people, including about 100 Afghan dushmans, 9 representatives of the Pakistani authorities, 28 officers of the Pakistani Armed Forces. 3 rocket launchers "Grad" (BM-13), about 2000 thousand missiles were destroyed various types and shells, 40 guns, mortars and machine guns. Killed 6 military instructors from the United States.

From the beginning of May 1985, all information about the events in Badaber was tightly blocked by the Pakistani authorities. The place of events was visited by the governor of the North-West Frontier Province, Lieutenant General Fazl Haq and the President of Pakistan, General Zia Ul Haq, who had a difficult and unpleasant conversation with the leaders of the dushmans. After this conversation, field commander G. Hekmatyar, who was in charge of the destroyed terrorist training center, gave an order to his detachments, containing the clause: “Do not take Russians prisoner. When captured, destroy on the spot throughout the territory of Afghanistan "...

However, something still leaked out. And in the same May 1985, sensational news spread around the world news agencies - in one of the "Afghan refugee camps" Soviet soldiers, captured by the Mujahideen, raised an uprising. This information was transmitted on May 27 by the Novosti Press Agency.

The Soviet, and later the Russian side, repeatedly turned to the Pakistani authorities with a request to allow a visit to the camp, but was refused. From an official letter from a representative Russian authorities addressed to the Chairman of the Committee for the Affairs of Warriors-Internationalists under the Council of Heads of Government of the CIS countries:

“Information about the heroic uprising of Soviet prisoners of war in the Badaber camp is confirmed by the documents of the US State Department at our disposal, the materials of the Ministry of State Security of Afghanistan, the testimony of direct eyewitnesses and participants in these events from the side of the Mujahideen and Pakistanis, as well as statements by the leaders of the armed formations B. Rabbani (IOA), G .Hekmatyar (IPA) and others. In addition, back in early 1992, the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Pakistan, Shahriyar Khan, officially handed over the names of 6 participants in the uprising in Badaber ... "

Simple boys from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan won their main battle. After several years of captivity, these last days from April 26 to April 27, they lived free.

Known and alleged participants in the uprising in the Badaber camp:

1. Belekchi Ivan Evgenievich, private, presumably was in the Badaber camp. In captivity, he lost his mind.

3. Vasiliev P.P., sergeant, was born in 1960 in Chuvashia.

4. Vaskov Igor Nikolaevich, private, was born in 1963 in the Kostroma region. Died in Badaber.

5. Dudkin Nikolai Iosifovich, corporal, was born in 1961 in the Altai Territory. Died in Badaber.

6. Viktor Vasilyevich Dukhovchenko, minder, was born on March 21, 1954 in the Zaporozhye region in Ukraine. Died in Badaber.

7. Zverkovich Alexander Nikolaevich, private. Born in 1964 in the Vitebsk region of Belarus. Died in Badaber.

8. Kashlakov Gennady, junior lieutenant. Born in 1958 in the Rostov region.

9. German Kiryushkin, junior lieutenant, was born in 1964 in the Moscow region. In captivity, his leg was amputated. There is a version that shortly before the uprising, the Doctors Without Borders organization took Herman from Badaber to Switzerland. Alas, further traces of him are lost. Herman's family still believe that he survived. And they are waiting to go home.

10. Korshenko Sergey Vasilyevich, junior sergeant. Born June 26, 1964 in Bila Tserkva in Ukraine. Died in Badaber.

11. Levchishin Sergey Nikolaevich, private. Born in 1964 in the Samara region. Died in Badaber.

12. Matveev Alexander Alekseevich, corporal. Died in Badaber.

13. Pavlyutenkov, private, was born in 1962 in the Stavropol Territory.

14. Rakhimkulov R. R., private. Born in 1961 in Bashkiria.

15. Rustamov Nosirzhon Ummatkulovich, prisoner of the Badaber camp, witness of the uprising. As of March 2006 lives in Uzbekistan.

16. Ryazantsev S. E., junior sergeant. Born in 1963 in Gorlovka, Donetsk region, Ukrainian SSR.

17. Saburov S. I., junior sergeant. Born in 1960 in Khakassia.

18. Sayfutdinov Ravil Munavarovich, private. Died in Badaber.

19. Samin Nikolai Grigorievich, junior sergeant. Born in 1964 in the Akmola region of Kazakhstan. Died in Badaber.

20. Shevchenko Nikolai Ivanovich, truck driver (civilian). Born in 1956 in the village of Dmitrievka, Sumy Region, Ukraine. One of the alleged leaders of the uprising. Died in Badaber.

21. Shipeev Vladimir Ivanovich, private. Born September 11, 1963 in Cheboksary. Presumably died in Badaber.

In 1994, based on the events in Badaber, a feature film "Peshawar Waltz" was shot.

Documentary - 'Rebellion in the Underworld' (2009)

In 2005, the film by Fyodor Bondarchuk "9th Company" was released, and a scandal immediately broke out around him: the authors were reproached for the unreliability of the story. Now a similar story is happening with the series "Badaber Fortress".

The theme is the same: heroism Soviet officers and boy soldiers who were not lucky enough to get into the Afghan war. Only the place of action is different: a camp for training resistance forces against Soviet troops.

Where does the series take place

The militant training center was located on the territory of Pakistan, in the village of Badaber. In 1983-84, prisoners of war captured by disparate detachments of militants began to be brought there.

Before that, ours could still recapture their own, kept in zindans in Afghanistan. But on Pakistani territory, in a large military camp with six weapons depots, our prisoners of war were out of reach.

In addition to three hundred heavily armed Mujahideen and hundreds of Pakistani military, about fifty foreign military specialists were located on the territory of the camp. There were many times fewer prisoners of war: 40 Afghans and 14 Shuravi - Soviet soldiers.

All of them were exhausted by hard work, unbearable living conditions, hunger and bullying by the guards.

Nevertheless, these people decided on an open rebellion

Knowing that if they failed, they would face a cruel death, they tried anyway. According to some reports, they intended to break through with a fight to their own, according to others, they tried to capture the radio tower and send a radio signal to their own.

The prisoners seized one of the armories and demanded to contact the Afghan authorities. But the commander of the Mujahideen, Rabbani, never considered losses. At first, he threw the forces of the entire garrison against the prisoners barricaded in the warehouse, and when he realized that they were not going to surrender, he decided that it would be cheaper to destroy one of the warehouses than to allow an escape.

He razed the warehouse to the ground. Of course, everyone who was in the warehouse died. In preparing the uprising, not everyone could be trusted, so several of the prisoners remained in the dark - they managed to survive. It was they who later told what happened during the uprising on the territory of the Badaber fortress.

During the uprising, 54 people exhausted by captivity killed more than a hundred Mujahideen, 40-90 Pakistani military personnel (data vary) and 6 foreign instructors.

About the heroism of soldiers who came to despair and the series "Badaber Fortress" was filmed

Realizing that it is impossible to reliably recreate either that atmosphere or those events, we asked director of the Center for Military-Political Research, professor at MGIMO Alexei Podberezkin, whether he saw this series and what he thinks about how it was filmed.

“Of course, there is no question of absolute certainty - this is a feature film, but I liked it. For the viewer, this series is good, because someone wants to watch documentaries, someone is looking for historical references and it's a well-done feature film.

He noted that few films have been made on this topic:

“You know, now a lot of good films have been made. Both documentary and fiction. In art, they appeal to emotions. Only I think that few films have been made about the period of the Afghan war.

The Americans filmed all sorts of Rambos about their atrocities in Southeast Asia, and we almost didn’t film anything about Afghanistan, where the guys did miracles.

Actor Vasily Mishchenko, who played the Minister of Defense in the series, is proud to be able to contribute to the memory of these guys. He says that it was very exciting to touch history and become part of its reconstruction.

“I played a small part. My hero is Minister of Defense Sergeev. I know him a little in life - he is a dry, reserved person, very strong and strong-willed. I tried to reproduce the features of his character, but whether I succeeded or not, it remains for the viewer to judge. I tried very hard to get as close as possible to his image, ”the artist shared.

He also believes that the number of films about Afghanistan is not enough:

"Undoubtedly! This is a big layer of history, it needs to be talked about. Moreover, the “Afghans” themselves do not speak kindly about what has already been filmed. I think there should be more truth. Prohibit any slander and distortions.

Take Lungin's film, for example. Looting has always been fraught with danger: one could easily die. And nobody wanted to die. What I mean is that the editing is meticulous and the censorship is correct.

What happened must be shown. Yes, there were unpleasant things on the part of our contingent, but this was not the main thing, there is no need to stick it out. If everything was like that, then I don’t think that ours would be remembered with a kind word, as it was after the departure of our troops.

What do you think? It is necessary to make feature films about the war in Afghanistan, or it is better to limit ourselves to dry documentaries, but without the slightest deviation from real events?

In the mountains near Peshawar in Pakistan
Wanting to wash away the shame with blood
In the night, a group of prisoners raised an uprising,
To live at least a day free ...
(C) the song "Blue Berets"

26 April 1985 , Soviet prisoners of war revolted in the Pakistani camp of Badaber.
This battle is one of the most legendary in the Afghan war. The POW camp was located 35 km from Peshawar. This uprising of Soviet prisoners of war was spotted even from space. American and Soviet satellites recorded a series of powerful explosions in the region of the village of Badaber.

In the case of Soviet prisoners of war, captivity meant the embodiment of a real hell that could only exist. At first, Soviet soldiers and officers taken on the battlefield were simply savagely finished off, sometimes cutting off organs and pouring gasoline on people who were still alive. Somewhere since 1983, the Mujahideen began to exchange captured Soviet soldiers for their fellow countrymen. They also attracted prisoners to perform various household chores. The situation of Soviet prisoners of war was complicated by the fact that officially the USSR was not at war with Afghanistan.

The conditions of the “shuravi” did not correspond to any Geneva Conventions- the soldiers were used for hard work, sometimes kept in barns along with cattle, periodically beaten. Indoctrination was also carried out - the prisoners were persuaded to accept Islam, promising indulgence in maintenance. Sometimes the Americans also appeared, offering to travel to the West in exchange for exposing the “crimes of the Soviet army in Afghanistan”. Several captured Soviet soldiers took advantage of this opportunity.

The camp was located in the village of Badaber, 24 km from the border with Afghanistan, under the guise of a refugee camp, there was a training center for militants of St. Khalid ibn Walid, owned by the Islamic Society of Afghanistan party. Mujahideen were trained there under the guidance of instructors from the USA and Europe.
Every 6 months, the center released 600 fighters and sent them across the border.
Naturally, there were also weapons depots. Before the uprising, he was just brought there to the next batch of Mujahideen.

The plan of the Soviet prisoners of war, who were probably used to unload weapons, was simple. Try to seize the radio station and report their coordinates and demand that the Pakistani authorities meet with representatives of the Soviet embassy and UN representatives. Otherwise, they threatened to blow themselves up along with ammunition depots.

Friday was chosen as the day of the beginning of the uprising - a holy day for Muslims, when only the guards remained in the fortress, and all the militants went to the mosques.

In the evening, when food was brought, one of the guards was neutralized. Presumably, Viktor Vasilyevich Dukhovenko started the uprising. He managed to open the cells and release his comrades. Soon the prisoners already controlled the prison, were armed and blocked the gates.

Mohammed Shah, one of the few captured Afghans who managed to escape from the camp, recalls:

“Suddenly, a noise was heard in the prison corridor, the clatter of running people. In a moment we were on our feet - a light sleep in the cell. Under the blows, our door flew off its hinges. Two “shuravis” and an Afghan with burning eyes and a machine gun in his hands looked in at us. I will remember these sparkling, full of anger and determination views of the Russians:
“We killed the guards, took possession of the weapons,” a tall, swirling guy shouted to us.
“You are free, run,” added the Afghan. - Move quickly to the mountains.
Running out into the courtyard, we saw how Soviet and some Afghan prisoners were dragging heavy weapons, mortars, and Chinese machine guns onto the roofs of warehouses. I didn’t understand then why they were doing it, what they had in mind. Together with several Afghans, he rushed through the ajar prison gates. I don’t remember where, how long I ran. Only at dawn did he begin to come to his senses, he realized that he managed to hide in the mountains alive. I was shaking all over. From there, for a long time, I heard firing in the direction of the camp, muffled explosions. Only when he returned to Kabul did he learn from the stories of the military how the uprising of prisoners of war in Badaber ended. I don’t know the specific names of the Russians, but Allah is a witness - I will keep a bright memory of them as long as I live ... "

The Mujahideen surrounded the prison and warehouses in a triple ring, and attracted both artillery and armored vehicles. And then a fight broke out that lasted all night.

On April 28, 1985, the SSR Aerospace Service Center reported:
“According to the aerospace service, in the NWFP of Pakistan, a large explosion destroyed the Badaber Mujahideen training camp. The size of the funnel in the image received from the communications satellite reaches 80 meters.

From the transmission of the radio station of the Islamic Party of Afghanistan (IPA), April 28, 1985:
“10 Russians who were held captive in Badaber seized the regiment's weapons, including surface-to-surface missiles, and attacked the Mujahideen. Several people died. If you capture the Russians or representatives of the people's power, be extremely careful with them, do not weaken your guard.

From the messages of the American consulate in Peshawar to the US State Department on April 28 and 29, 1985:
"The territory of the camp with an area of a square mile was covered with a layer of fragments of shells, rockets and mines, and local residents found human remains at a distance of up to 4 miles from the explosion site ... 14-15 Soviet soldiers were kept in the Badaber camp, two of whom managed to stay in alive after the uprising was crushed..."

On May 27, the Novosti Press Agency issued a message:
"Kabul. Throughout the country, public protest rallies continue in connection with the death in an unequal battle with detachments of counter-revolutionaries and the regular Pakistani army of Soviet and Afghan soldiers captured by dushmans on the territory of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan and secretly transported to Pakistan. Peasants, workers, tribal representatives angrily condemn the barbaric action of Islamabad, which, seeking to evade responsibility, clumsily distorts the facts.

Approximate chronology of events

On April 26 at 21:00, when the entire personnel of the training center (Badaber - P.A.) was lined up on the parade ground to perform namaz, the former Soviet military personnel removed six sentries from the artillery depots (AB) on the watchtower and released all the prisoners. They failed to fully realize their plan, since from among the Soviet military personnel, nicknamed Muhammad Islam, at the time of the uprising, he defected to the rebels. The prisoners of war had DShK machine guns, small arms, and mortars at their disposal. Soviet soldiers occupied the key points of the fortress: several corner towers and the arsenal building.

At 23:00, on the orders of B. Rabbani (the future president in the photo), a regiment of Khaled ibn Walid rebels was raised, the positions of the prisoners were surrounded.

The leader of the IOA offered them to surrender, to which the rebels responded with a categorical refusal. They demanded the extradition of the escaped soldier, to call representatives of the Soviet or Afghan embassies to Badaber. Then they tried to destroy them, recapturing the building of warehouses, but in vain. Artillery units and combat helicopters of the Pakistani Armed Forces participated in the assault. In the battle, the Mujahideen lost 97 fighters.

In the morning, Rabbani and his advisers decided to blow up the warehouses of AB and thus destroy the rebels. At 8:00 am on April 27, Rabbani ordered to open fire.

After several artillery salvos, the AB warehouses exploded (this is according to Pakistan), most likely the Soviet prisoners of war blew themselves up. As a result of the explosion (according to Pakistan), the following were killed: 12 former Soviet servicemen (names, ranks not established); about 40 former servicemen of the Armed Forces of Afghanistan (names not established); more than 120 rebels and refugees; 6 foreign advisers; 13 representatives of the Pakistani authorities.

According to the General Staff and intelligence of the USSR, about 200 Mujahideen were killed, including 8 Pakistani army officers, 6 US military instructors, and three Grad installations. The explosion destroyed more than 2,000 rockets and ammunition for various purposes, 40 artillery pieces and mortars.

For a long time, neither the names nor the titles of those who participated in the rebellion were known. The government of Pakistan kept information about the events in Badaber as secret as possible, because it turned out that Pakistan had placed prisoner camps on its territory, and this threatened with a serious international scandal with the Soviet Union and aggravation of international relations.

In 1992, through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, it was possible to establish the names of 7 prisoners of the Badaber camp. However, there was no information on how they behaved in captivity. There was no information about the course of the uprising itself, since it was assumed that all its participants were killed, fragmentary testimony of witnesses to the uprising from the side of the Mujahideen contradicted one another.

In 1994, T. Bekmambetov's film "Peshevar Waltz" was released, which told about the uprising of Soviet soldiers in Afghan captivity with a clear reference to the events in Badaber. It seemed that this story would remain a legend ...

But in 2007, the researchers of the Badaber uprising were lucky. Carefully studying the lists of former servicemen released in 1992 Soviet army, they drew attention to the name of the person Naserzhon Rustamov, a native Uzbek, a former private in military unit 51932 - 181st motorized rifle regiment of the 108th motorized rifle division.

Nosirjon Rustamov is perhaps the only one who can tell the whole truth about the events of April 26-27, 1985 in a camp near the city of Peshevar.

N. Rustamov spoke in detail about the uprising, but there was one significant snag in his story. The fact is that Soviet soldiers and officers who were taken prisoner were given Muslim names by dushmans. Soldiers of Slavic origin were kept in separate barracks from Uzbeks, Tajiks and Caucasians.

In the Badaber camp they did various jobs. Some were also forcibly forced to convert to Islam and read the Koran. Periodically, the Mujahideen mocked prisoners of war.

The unofficial leader among the Slavic prisoners of war was Abdurakhmon. Rustamov assumed that he was Ukrainian by nationality. The electrician Abdullo also took part (in addition to the soldiers and officers, there were also Soviet employees of various specialties in Afghanistan) and the Armenian Islamutdin, who was in close contact with the camp administration.

There was also a Kazakh Kenet in the camp along with Rustamov, who went crazy from bullying and constantly howled at those around him, being in prostration.

Rustamov in 2006.

Abdurakhmon, according to Rustamov, was the main initiator of the uprising. The reason for the rebellion was the unsuccessful escape of Abdullah, who wanted to come to the Soviet embassy in Islamabad. However, he was stopped by Pakistani police to testify. The Pakistanis, having arrived at the place of the camp, took the money for the disturbance and returned Abdullo back. As punishment, the Mujahideen publicly abused him. This was the last straw that overflowed the patience of the prisoners. "Either death or freedom" - such was the slogan of the planned rebellion ...

You have already read about the course of the uprising above, and on April 29, 1985, the head of the Islamic Party of Afghanistan, G. Hekmatyar, issued an order in which he was instructed to “do not take Russians into captivity in the future”, do not send them to Pakistan, but “destroy them at the place of capture ".

Pakistani President Mohammed Zia-ul-Haq was furious. The President feared that the Soviet leadership, having caught Pakistan in the presence of Soviet prisoners of war on its territory, could use force against it.

However, the new Soviet leadership, headed by Mikhail Gorbachev, reacted to the incident with extreme restraint, confining itself to expressing an official protest. In the Soviet press, the “death of Soviet servicemen on the territory of Pakistan” was reported only in mid-May, and this message did not contain any heroic details of the events.

The notice received by the parents of Private Levchishikn, a participant in the uprising.

To date, the following names of the prisoners of Badaber who raised an uprising in the camp are known:

1. Belekchi Ivan Evgenievich, born in 1962, Moldova, private,
2. Vasiliev Vladimir Petrovich, born in 1960, Cheboksary, sergeant
3. Vaskov Igor Nikolaevich, born in 1963, Kostroma region, private;
4. Nikolai Iosifovich Dudkin, born in 1961, Altai Territory, corporal;
5. Viktor Vasilyevich Dukhovchenko, born in 1954, Zaporozhye region, minder-conscript;
6. Zverkovich Alexander Nikolaevich, born in 1964, Vitebsk region, private;
7. Kashlakov Gennady Anatolievich, born in 1958, Rostov region, junior lieutenant;
8. Korshenko Sergey Vasilyevich, born in 1964, Belaya Tserkov, junior sergeant;
9. Levchishin Sergey Nikolaevich, born in 1964, Samara region, private;
10. Matveev Alexander Alekseevich, born in 1963, Altai Territory, corporal;
11. Rakhinkulov Radik Raisovich, born in 1961, Bashkiria, private;
12. Saburov Sergey Vasilyevich, born in 1960, Khakassia, lieutenant;
13. Shevchenko Nikolai Ivanovich, born in 1956, Sumy region, civilian driver;
14. Shipeev Vladimir Ivanovich. Born in 1963, Cheboksary, private.

It is not known for certain to what extent each of them participated in the uprising. It is not known who, how and under what circumstances was captured. But it is clear that all these people died with weapons in their hands, preferring death to the existence of prisoners. They did not accept Islam, they did not take up arms against their own, otherwise they simply would not have been prisoners. They initially had no chance of a favorable outcome, but they made a daring attempt and destroyed about a hundred of the besiegers ...

Pictured: Order of Courage and Putin's Decree on the posthumous awarding of Sergei Levchishin. The school bears his name.

The repertoire of the Blue Berets ensemble of the Airborne Forces, created in 1985, includes the song “In the mountains near Peshawar”, dedicated to the uprising in Badaber.

This is one of the most poignant songs about the soldiers of the Afghan war:

We are fighting, but the forces are leaving,
Less and less alive, the chances are not equal,
Know, Motherland, you have not been betrayed
Your sons in trouble...

Eternal memory to the heroes - Afghans!

Info and photo (C) internet. My last photo is a monument to the Afghans in St. Petersburg

In 1985, near Pakistani Peshawar, a handful of Soviet soldiers launched an uprising that became perhaps the most insane feat. Two dozen desperate fighters opposed the regular Pakistani units, writes Life.

80s for Soviet Union became the time of Afghanistan. Every year, young people set off "beyond the river". Some of them returned in zinc coffins, others with severe physical and mental wounds. Some did not return at all.

Afghan dushmans directly waged war, but they were supported by a number of countries. Armed detachments in Afghanistan were critically dependent on the supply of weapons, ammunition, and instructors. However, in Afghanistan itself, all this infrastructure was too vulnerable to Soviet strikes. Therefore, many important facilities were located in neighboring Pakistan.

Among others, the training center of the paramilitary "Islamic Society of Afghanistan" was located abroad - in Badaber. The “cadets” were Afghans, but the Pakistani military commanded and trained the future Mujahideen, in addition, American advisers were in the camp.

Together with the trained dushmans, the population of the camp was a thousand people. On 500 hectares there are tents, clay buildings, warehouses, an arsenal. In addition to the training camp, refugees were accommodated in Badaber, and since 1984, prisoners have also appeared.

Mujahideen of the Islamic Society of Afghanistan.

The exact number of Soviet soldiers captured during the Afghan war is unknown. We are talking about hundreds of people for all the years of the war, but it was not always possible to say whether the missing fighter died or fell into captivity.

In 1984, enough prisoners accumulated for the leaders of the dushmans to think about some kind of common camp. There were the most different people. One was captured when he left the camp, unable to withstand hazing, the other was captured at a broken checkpoint. Badaber was no worse than the others, so the captured soldiers began to be brought there.

Soviet participants in the events died, but, according to the Afghan military, who were kept in the same camp, living conditions were bad. Poor feeding, stone floors and walls, wooden bunks without bedding.

There was no unambiguous decision about the future fate of the captives, but for now they were engaged in auxiliary and construction work in the camp. It was theoretically possible to escape from there, but one who went beyond the camp would not have gone far: all around were wild, insurmountable wastelands without special preparation.

Three members of the Afghan patrol - the Mujahideen pose, guarding the territory in the mountainous region of Kunar province near the Pakistani border.

Slavic names were unusual for dushmans, so the prisoners received new ones - in the Afghan manner. For example, the driver Nikolai Shevchenko was called Abdurakhmon in captivity. The prisoners were dressed in the same way as the locals - in ordinary Afghan long-sleeved shirts and trousers. Later, this made it very difficult to find any information about the missing soldiers - even their own guards had no idea what their real names were. In total, according to various sources, from ten to twenty Soviet soldiers and about forty Afghan prisoners, captured soldiers of the government army, were kept there.

However, gradually the attitude towards the prisoners changed. According to fragmentary information, this is due to the fact that one of the captives tried to escape. He got out of the camp, hiding in a water carrier, and managed to get quite far from the camp, but a man of European appearance in Pakistan can be seen from a mile away. The fighter was caught and, according to rumors, they also abused him. Apparently, it was this event that led to all subsequent ones.

Riot

The main problem of the people imprisoned in Badaber was the complete lack of information about them in their homeland. No one could take care of the prisoners.

Pakistan did not advertise its participation in the Afghan events, and the local government was well aware that if information about the prisoner camp on their territory came to light, the scandal would be grandiose. Therefore, some chances for the prisoners were given only by the widest possible publicity of their history.

According to one version, the leader of the uprising was the same "Abdurakhmon" - Nikolai Shevchenko, a driver called up from the Sumy region. Interestingly, he came to Afghanistan of his own free will as a civilian driver in the service of the 5th Guards Motorized Rifle Division. In a warring country, he thought to earn extra money, besides, he was attracted by the romance of a distant country. He was captured near Herat on September 10, 1982, when he was sitting in his car. In captivity, he was distinguished by an independent, even impudent character.

According to another version, the uprising was led by Sergeant Sergei Bokanov, who was kidnapped in 1981. Be that as it may, the rebels have developed a daring plan. The idea was to wait until the guards were distracted, seize weapons and demand a meeting with Soviet diplomats.

On the evening of April 26, 1986, the bulk of the guards and cadets of Badaber lined up on the parade ground for prayer. At this point, the prisoners decided it was time to act. There are few details about the first minutes of the uprising, but some things can be said for sure. Captured hands and improvised objects destroyed the guards of one of the warehouses with weapons and took possession of the barrels and ammunition. The rebels captured not only machine guns, but also heavy weapons, including heavy machine guns. All this was dragged into a stone building, one of the few in the camp.

The prisoners acted very quickly and in a coordinated manner: they laid down not only the guards of the arsenal, but also the guards near the building where the captured Afghan soldiers were kept. They were also released. In the basement, one prisoner remained, who had already been damaged by his mind from a nervous overstrain, a couple more people did not dare to make a breakthrough to freedom. The uprising began without a hitch: the guards were completely taken by surprise and were unable to put up any resistance.

The rebels, of course, could not cope with a huge camp of cadets armed to the teeth. Even with the Afghans there were only three or four dozen of them. However, the heavy DShKs were a strong enough argument for the dushmans and Pakistanis to take refuge and not immediately try to destroy the desperate prisoners. But around the camp there was now a cordon of several hundred militants and the Pakistani military. The rebels were even able to capture a radio station from the dushmans. If they had been able to get on the air, the whole uprising might have succeeded.

Alas, the radio was out of order. One of the prisoners at that moment was in another part of the camp. The rebels demanded to give it back, firing from the DShK for credibility.

The soldier was led to the building, and he joined his comrades. One of the first to enter into negotiations was the commander of a Pakistani training company.

He offered to go out and hand over their weapons. According to this officer, the prisoners replied: "We are ready to die, and we will either die or be freed."

Negotiation

What was happening in the Badaber camp was quickly reported to the very top. The next day, the leader of the Islamic Society of Afghanistan, Burhanuddin Rabbani, arrived at the camp. Rabbani, a well-known theologian and teacher, was also one of the biggest Mujahideen leaders in Afghanistan, on the same side of the border he was a big businessman.

Rabbani, of course, was extremely disturbed by what was happening. Break this story out, he could get all sorts of problems on his head. To begin with, Rabbani invited the rebels to surrender. To this, the former prisoners, of course, refused.

Then Rabbani asked what, in fact, the prisoners needed. They said that they demanded the Soviet ambassador and representatives of the International Red Cross for negotiations. Rabbani, of course, could not agree to this. He exhorted the prisoners, calling some by name to lay down their arms, but they stood their ground. The rebel leader announced to Rabbani that he would only surrender when he saw the Soviet diplomats. The only thing left for the Dushmans was an assault.

However, the attack failed. Soviet and Afghan soldiers had enough ammunition. The assault, it seems, began spontaneously and proceeded chaotically.

Rabbani's bodyguard, one of the cadets, died under fire. The rebels fired back, dragging a mortar onto the roof - they still had nowhere to retreat.

How long this last battle lasted, apparently, will never become clear. However, according to a former officer Afghan army, who took part in the uprising, and was subsequently liberated by the Russians, the shooting went on for several hours without interruption, at least one of the rebels was seriously wounded during the battle.

Dushmans tried to get closer to the building, but from there they generously poured water from a heavy machine gun, which inflicted terrible wounds on everyone who was in the line of fire. The infantry assault turned out to be a bad idea. And then something happened that was never given a single explanation.

The death of heroes

In this place, all eyewitnesses say absolutely different things. Some argue that someone very successfully fired a grenade launcher at the captured arsenal, others - that the dushmans dragged the Katyusha, others - that a cannon, the most exotic version generally says that Pakistani Air Force helicopters hit Badaber's arsenal. Finally, a captured Afghan officer who survived claims that the Russians told him to leave, intending to blow themselves up and the enemies with captured rockets.

The fact is that an explosion of monstrous force struck over Badaber. The ammunition that remained in the building exploded, including two thousand shells and rockets. The missiles began to spontaneously launch in all directions, bringing additional destruction. According to Rabbani, this explosion killed about twenty dushmans. Other figures bring the death toll to 160. Most of the camp's buildings were lightweight structures, and the explosion simply blew them away. As military base Badaber was now a very conditional value.

Most of the dead did not even have something left to bury. In place of the arsenal, there was a gaping funnel 80 meters wide. In addition, the prison office also disappeared in the flames of the largest explosion. Two captured Soviet citizens and several Afghans survived. This further complicated the search for information about the soldiers who rebelled in the camp.

In the USSR, they learned about the incident much later. However, until 1991, Pakistan did not make contact at all on this issue. The Pakistani authorities denied the very presence of Soviet soldiers in their country.

The veil of silence over what happened in the camp was lifted only by Rabbani in November 1991. Soon, the Pakistani authorities also acknowledged the fact of the uprising and the final explosion.

Information about the actual side of the case had to be collected literally bit by bit. To date, there are several name lists of participants in the uprising, the most extensive of them contains 21 surnames, however, it is not entirely complete. It is possible that among the more than two hundred Soviet soldiers still missing, there are other participants in the uprising in Badaber. There could be no happy ending to this story. But the soldiers, who decided to die with weapons in their hands, made their finale worthy and commanding respect even from their enemies.

Evgeny Norin

On the First Channel begins a four-episode action film "Badaber Fortress" about the uprising of Soviet prisoners of war in the Badaber camp during the Afghan war. tragic story about what happened on the border of Pakistan and Afghanistan in 1985, transferred to the screen.

Few people know, but among the Soviet soldiers, the heroes of the events of 33 years ago, whose names are officially confirmed, is our fellow countryman, a resident of the village of Zabegaevo in the Oktyabrsky district, later the village of Vokhma, Igor Vaskov.

For a long time, no one knew about this event. Journalistic investigations about the Badaber uprising began to appear after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Here is what he says in one of the publications about how part of the information about those events was declassified:
“... Since the beginning of May 1985, all information about the events in Badaber has been tightly blocked by the Pakistani authorities. The Soviet, and later the Russian side, repeatedly turned to the Pakistani authorities with a request to allow a visit to the camp, but was refused.

From an official letter from a representative of the Russian authorities addressed to the chairman of the Committee on the Affairs of Internationalist Warriors under the Council of Heads of Government of the CIS countries: “Information about the heroic uprising of Soviet prisoners of war in the Badaber camp is confirmed by documents from the US State Department, materials from the Ministry of State Security of Afghanistan, testimonies of direct eyewitnesses and participants of these events by the Mujahideen and Pakistanis, as well as by the statements of the leaders of the armed formations B. Rabbani (IOA), G. Hekmatyar (IPA) and others. participants in the uprising in Badaber ... ".
Here are the names fallen heroes: Private Vaskov Igor Nikolaevich, born in 1963, Kostroma Region; Corporal Dudkin Nikolai Iosifovich, born in 1961, Altai Territory; Private Zverkovich Alexander Nikolaevich, born in 1964, Vitebsk region (Belarus); ml. Sergeant Sergey Vasilievich Korshenko, born in 1964, Belaya Tserkov (Ukraine); private soldier Levchishin Sergey Nikolaevich, born in 1964, Samara region; private Samin Nikolai Grigorievich, born in 1964, Tselinograd region (Kazakhstan)".

Now, of course, this list is much longer. Let's hope that over time, all the names of those who died heroically in Badaber will become known.

The journalists of the Vokhomskaya Pravda editorial board managed to meet with Igor Vaskov's sister Larisa Skryabina.

Larisa Veniaminovna Scriabina:We rarely talk about it in our family. For us, these are hard memories. There was only one brother - and there is no brother. Mom, while she was alive, wrote wherever possible, but in response she heard only avaricious: “Wait. In case of a positive result, you will be informed. And then - silence. The mother's heart could not stand it, she could not survive this tragedy. Many people ask me, call me, they are interested in the fate of Igor, at the Zabegaev school, where he studied, they want to make a memory board, but I can’t tell much: I, like everyone else, know almost nothing. I remember his image as an older brother, an ordinary village boy who was always ready to stand up for his younger sister. In November of this year, he would have turned 55. Igor is a national hero, but it is important for me and other relatives to see official confirmation that the dead guys are heroes of their country. This is also necessary for history.

For 33 years now we have been waiting for this case to get off the ground. I hope that the feature series Badaber Fortress, which was released on the screens, will also help this and cause a resonance. Of course, my family and I will watch it. This topic needs to be raised, it has been hushed up for too long.”

By the way, fellow countrymen in memory of Igor Vaskov named one of the new streets in the village of Vokhma after him.

The tragedy in Badaber is dedicated to several works of art, feature films "Afghan" by Vladimir Mazur and "Peshavar Waltz" by Timur Bekmambetov and Gennady Kayumov, the song of the group "Blue Berets" "April 27" and the song by Alexander Rosenbaum "We'll be back".

And now the series "Badaber Fortress". Its creators woven into real story the personal tragedy of intelligence officer Yuri Nikitin, who accidentally learns about the existence of a prisoner of war camp in Badaber.

The film will certainly attract the attention of viewers. The history of movie heroes will surely cause a storm of feelings. And it is all the more important to know that the prototype of one of them is our fellow countryman, a simple rural guy Igor Vaskov.