1985, April. A limited contingent of Soviet troops (OCSV) in the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan (DRA) fought with rebel forces (Mujahideen). Period 1984-1985 - the most difficult time of the Afghan war. It was during these years that the peak of combat losses of the 40th Army (OKSV) in the DRA occurred, in particular: the death of the 1st battalion of the 682nd motorized rifle regiment in the Hazara gorge, Panjshir province (April 1984) and the death of the “Maravar company” - 1- 1st company of the 334th Special Forces in the Maravar Gorge, Kunar Province (April 21, 1985).
Local battles took place along the Herat-Shindand-Kandahar highway, as well as in the Jalalabad area (Nangarhar province - Kabul River - border with Pakistan). Explosions of convoys of Soviet equipment, sweeps in villages, helicopter attacks, the next “Panjshir operation” being prepared against the troops of Ahmad Shah Massoud. The usual rhythm of everyday life in the Afghan war...
Suddenly, the usual course of a protracted guerrilla war was disrupted by loud explosions on the territory of Pakistan, a neighboring state to Afghanistan, which sounded on April 27, 1985. American satellites from space recorded a series of powerful explosions near the city of Peshewar near the village of Badaber. From a report from the Aerospace Service Center, April 28, 1985:
« According to the aerospace service, in the NWFP of Pakistan, a large explosion destroyed the Mujahideen training camp of Badaber. The size of the crater in the image obtained from the communications satellite reaches 80 meters».
A series of explosions was also recorded by Soviet intelligence, intercepting and taking bearings of a number of reports on the territory of Pakistan. From a broadcast by the radio station of the Islamic Party of Afghanistan (IPA), April 28, 1985:
« 10 Russians held captive in Badaber seized the regiment's weapons, including surface-to-surface missiles, and attacked the Mujahideen. Several people died. If you capture Russians or representatives of the people's power, be extremely careful with them, do not let your guard down».
Are Soviet soldiers on Pakistani territory? Are they fighting the Mujahideen there too? Are they carrying out explosions? It’s not clear... However, the incoming information confused the situation even more and raised a large number of questions.
From the Voice of America radio broadcast on May 4, 1985:
« At one of the Afghan Mujahideen bases in the North-West Frontier Province of Pakistan, an explosion killed 12 Soviet and 12 Afghan prisoners of war».
From messages from the American Consulate in Peshawar to the US State Department dated April 28 and 29, 1985:
"The square mile area of the camp was covered with a layer of shell fragments, rockets and mines, and human remains were found by local residents at a distance of up to 4 miles from the site of the explosion... 14-15 Soviet soldiers were kept in the Badaber camp, two of whom managed to survive after the uprising was crushed..."
Revolt of Soviet prisoners of war in Pakistan? Mujahideen camp? What really happened there? World news agencies were already discussing with all their might the mysterious explosions in the Peshewar area involving Soviet prisoners of war; this topic was one of the main ones in leading Western publications. From a message to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the USSR by the Soviet military attache in Islamabad, Captain 1st Rank V. Smolyar:
« A press conference was held in Islamabad for local and foreign correspondents. The head of the IOA, B. Rabbani, spoke to journalists and explained the incident in the Badaber camp as “internecine strife among Mujahideen of different nationalities».
Even the Soviet press reacted to the events in Peshewar.
On May 27, the Novosti press agency released a message:
“Kabul. Public protest rallies continue throughout the country 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 DRA and secretly transported to Pakistan. Peasants, workers, tribal representatives angrily condemn the barbaric action of Islamabad, which, in an effort to evade responsibility, clumsily distorts the facts".
So what was there? Showdowns between Mujahideen clans? Or is it still a revolt of Soviet prisoners of war? The intelligence received spoke in favor of the second version. From a report to the chief military adviser in Afghanistan, Army General G.I. Salamanov: “... On April 26 at 21:00, when all the personnel of the training center (Badaber - P.A.) were lined up on the parade ground to perform prayers, former Soviet soldiers removed six sentries from the artillery depots (AV) on the watchtower and freed all the prisoners. They failed to fully realize their plan, since one of the Soviet military personnel, nicknamed Muhammad Islam, defected to the rebels at the time of the uprising. At 23:00, by order of B. Rabbani, the rebel regiment of Khaled ibn Walid was raised, the positions of the prisoners were surrounded. The IOA leader invited them to surrender, to which the rebels responded with a categorical refusal. They demanded the extradition of the escaped soldier, and to call representatives of the Soviet or Afghan embassies to Badabera. Rabbani and his advisers decided to blow up the AB warehouses and thus destroy the rebels. At 8:00 on April 27, Rabbani ordered fire. In addition to the rebels, artillery units and combat helicopters of the Pakistani Armed Forces took part in the assault. After several artillery salvoes, the AB warehouses exploded. As a result of the explosion, the following were killed: 12 former Soviet military personnel (names and ranks not established); about 40 former soldiers of the Afghan Armed Forces (names not established); more than 120 rebels and refugees; 6 foreign advisers; 13 representatives of Pakistani authorities. Colonel Yu. Tarasov". May 25, 1985.
This means, after all, an uprising of Soviet prisoners of war on the territory of Pakistan! However, neither the names nor ranks of those who participated in the rebellion were known. The Pakistani government 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 a serious international scandal with the Soviet Union and aggravation of international relations. The leadership of the 40th Army was also silent, because it was not clear why no one tried to free the prisoners and how military intelligence could have missed the fact that there were prisoner of war camps near the border with Afghanistan.
The story of the uprising was overgrown with legends and outright speculation; each side of the conflict offered its own interpretation of events and facts. 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 regarding how they behaved in captivity. There was no information about the course of the uprising itself, since it was assumed that all its participants had died; the fragmentary testimony of witnesses to the uprising on the part of the Mujahideen contradicted one another. In 1994, T. Bekmambetov’s film “The Peshevar Waltz” was released, which told about the uprising of Soviet soldiers in Afghan captivity with an obvious reference to the events in Badaber. It seemed that this story would remain a legend...
But in 2007, researchers of the Badaber uprising were lucky. Carefully studying the lists of former Soviet Army soldiers released in 1992, they drew attention to the name and personality of Naserzhon Rustamov, a native Uzbek, former private in military unit 51932 - 181st Motorized Rifle Regiment of the 108th Motorized Rifle Division.
The topic of captivity is always painful and unpleasant in any war. Prisoners of war themselves are reluctant to talk about captivity; this issue is of absolutely no interest to commanders. The circumstances of capture are always different: you can be captured wounded and unconscious, or you can simply become cowardly or even go over to the enemy’s side. In the case of Soviet prisoners of war, captivity meant the embodiment of the real hell that could only exist. At first, Soviet soldiers and officers captured on the battlefield were simply savagely finished off, sometimes cutting off organs and dousing people who were still alive with gasoline. Somewhere in 1983, the Mujahideen began exchanging captured Soviet soldiers for their fellow countrymen. They also attracted prisoners to perform various household tasks. The situation for Soviet prisoners of war was complicated by the fact that the USSR was not officially at war with Afghanistan. In fact, the Soviet Union provided fraternal international assistance to the regime of B. Karmal, and in fact fought with forces and rebels opposed to Karmal. So, while in captivity, Soviet soldiers were not considered prisoners of war under international law, which made their fate even worse. Little hope lay in foreign non-governmental organizations, the Red Cross community, and Western journalists who could sometimes visit prisoner-of-war camps, taking advantage of their status as sympathizers of Afghan opposition supporters.
The Mujahideen were captured in different ways. Someone got lost and fell behind the column, someone was wounded or shell-shocked and was taken to the battlefield. Some ran away to the dushmans, unable to withstand hazing in the Soviet Army. There were people who simply wanted to escape to the West through Western public organizations. The circumstances were different.
N. Rustamov spoke in detail about the uprising, but there was one significant snag in his story. The fact is that the dushmans gave Muslim names to Soviet soldiers and officers who were captured. Soldiers of Slavic origin were kept in separate barracks from Uzbeks, Tajiks and Caucasians. Communication between prisoners was unacceptable; the slightest offense was severely punished. The following followed from Rustamov’s story.
In the Badaber camp they performed various jobs. Some were also forcibly forced to convert to Islam and read the Koran. Periodically, the Mujahideen abused prisoners of war. The purpose of their stay in Badaber was not clear: on the one hand, they had not yet been exchanged for anyone, on the other hand, the Badaber camp was, first of all, a base for preparing dushmans for the war with the Soviet Army and the camp administration needed auxiliary workers to serve its needs .
The unofficial leader among the Slavic prisoners of war was Abdurahmon. Rustamov only knew that he was presumably Ukrainian by nationality. Rustamov also remembered the electrician Abdullo (in addition to 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 with Rustamov, who went crazy from bullying and constantly howled at those around him, being in prostration. Abdurakhmon, according to Rustamov, was the main initiator of the uprising. The reason for the rebellion was the unsuccessful escape of Abdullo, who wanted to come to the Soviet embassy in Islamabad. However, he was stopped by Pakistani police to give evidence. The Pakistanis, having arrived at the camp site, naturally did not find anything, since the Mujahideen had safely hidden the prisoners. Well, they had excellent relations with the Pakistanis themselves. The Mujahideen gave money to the Pakistanis for their troubles and took Abdullo back. As punishment, the Mujahideen publicly abused him. This was the last straw that broke the prisoners' patience. “Either death or freedom” - this was the slogan of the planned rebellion. Preparations for the escape began. Abdurakhmon, as Rustamov says, invited one of the security chiefs to play football between the prisoners and the guards themselves. Such games were sometimes played for fun. The head of security refused to play. Then Abdurahmon suggested making a bet: if he defeated the head of security in hand-to-hand combat, then the game would take place. The boss agreed and... lost. Abdurahmon turned out to be physically strong. And the match with the Mujahideen took place, Soviet prisoners of war won 7:2. Abdurakhmon himself was injured, the Afghans mercilessly hit his legs when they lost. Abdurahmon asked for a replacement and, limping, went towards the barracks where the prisoners were kept. Only later did Rustamov realize that the game itself and the replacement of Abdurakhmon was a planned action; the prisoners looked around carefully, memorized the camp security system and counted the sentries. All that remains is to choose the time for the rebellion. On Fridays, the Mujahideen traditionally performed evening prayer - namaz.
Taking advantage of the situation, Abdurakhmon knocked out a guard at a weapons warehouse. Opening the warehouse door, he informed the other prisoners that the path to the weapon was clear. Having killed the camp guards, the prisoners took up positions in a stone structure resembling a fortress. The prisoners of war had DShK machine guns, small arms, and mortars at their disposal. The main task was to go on air and report the battle to the Soviet side. The rebels freed the remaining prisoners in the camp. Muhammad Shah, one of the few captured Afghans who managed to escape from the camp, recalls:
"Suddenly, in the prison corridor there was a noise, the stomping of people running. A moment later we were on our feet - we were in a light sleep in the cell. Under the blows, our door flew off its hinges. Two "shuravis" and an Afghan man with burning eyes and a machine gun in his hands looked in on us. Century I will remember these sparkling glances of the Russians, full of anger and determination:
“We killed the guards and took possession of the weapons,” a tall, curly-haired guy shouted to us.
“You are free, run,” the Afghan added. - Quickly go 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 this, what they were planning. Together with several Afghans, he rushed through the slightly open prison gates. I don’t remember where or how long I ran. Only at dawn I began to come to my senses and realized that I had managed to hide in the mountains alive. I was shaking all over... From there, for a long time, I heard gunfire in the direction of the camp, dull explosions. Only after returning to Kabul did I 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 my witness - I will keep the bright memory of them as long as I live...»
I. Rabbani, the leader of the IOA (Islamic Society of Afghanistan), the future President of Afghanistan (1992-2001), went to the scene of the emergency.
I. Rabbani with Vladimir Putin (2000).
Rabbani tried to persuade the rebels to surrender, but was refused. The rebels demanded to call the Soviet ambassador to Pakistan or representatives of the Red Cross. Rabbani could not allow this, because this actually led to direct confrontation with the Soviet Union. Pakistan was formally neutral and did not want to openly conflict with the Soviets. Therefore, an attempt was made to storm Badaber with a besieging force consisting of several hundred Mujahideen and Pakistani army personnel. As N. Rustamov later recalled, the besiegers deployed an artillery piece, which hit the ammunition depot with the first shot. There was a series of explosions that destroyed the Badaber camp.
It was all over... The camp was virtually destroyed by a series of explosions. Almost all the participants in the uprising died, except for Rustamov himself and Islamutdin, who were located separately in another barracks from the Slavic prisoners of war. The Mujahideen liquidated the remains of the camp and carefully covered their tracks so that there was no evidence of Soviet prisoners of war being there. The total losses of the besiegers amounted to about a hundred Mujahideen, as well as a number of foreign specialists (including 6 American advisers), 28 officers of Pakistani regular troops, 13 representatives of the Pakistani authorities. The Badaber base was completely destroyed; as a result of the explosion of the arsenal, the rebels lost 3 Grad MLRS installations, over 2 million rounds of ammunition, about 40 guns, mortars and machine guns, about 2 thousand missiles and shells of various types. The prison office also perished, and with it the lists of prisoners.
But who was this legendary Abdurakhmon - the organizer of the uprising, whom both the Mujahideen and Rustamov himself remembered? Luck smiled on the researchers here too. It is common knowledge that Soviet prisoners of war were sometimes visited by Western journalists and human rights activists. Mainly for the purpose of a high-profile interview asking for political asylum and criticizing the Soviet system. And in one of the photographs taken by Western journalists, Rustamov exclaimed:
- This is Abdurahmon! I recognize it, thick cheekbones, stern gaze!
“Abdurakhmon,” according to Rustamov, turned out to be Ukrainian Nikolai Shevchenko, a civilian truck driver who went to Afghanistan to earn extra money. Rustamov also recognized Islamutdin. It turned out to be Mikhail Varvaryan (far right in the photo).
In total, the following names of Badaber prisoners who rebelled in the camp are known today:
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. Dudkin Nikolay Iosifovich, born in 1961, Altai Territory, corporal;
5. Dukhovchenko Viktor Vasilyevich, born in 1954, Zaporozhye region, long-term motor mechanic;
6. Zverkovich Alexander Nikolaevich, born in 1964, Vitebsk region, private;
7. Kashlakov Gennady Anatolyevich, born 1958, Rostov region, junior lieutenant;
8. Korshenko Sergey Vasilyevich, born 1964, Belaya Tserkov, junior sergeant;
9. Levchishin Sergey Nikolaevich, born in 1964, Samara region, private;
10. Matveev Alexander Alekseevich, born 1963. Altai Territory, corporal;
11. Rahinkulov Radik Raisovich, born in 1961, Bashkiria, private;
12. Saburov Sergey Vasilievich, born 1960, Khakassia, lieutenant;
13. Shevchenko Nikolay Ivanovich, born 1956, Sumy region, civilian driver;
14. Shipeev Vladimir Ivanovich. Born 1963, Cheboksary, private.
The list is far from exhaustive or final. It is not known for certain whether all of them and to what extent participated in the uprising. Only one thing is clear... It doesn’t matter who, how or under what circumstances was captured. All these people died with weapons in their hands, preferring death to the bestial existence of prisoners. They did not accept Islam, they did not take up arms against their own, otherwise they simply would not have been captured. They initially had no chance of a favorable outcome, but they made a daring attempt and destroyed about a hundred of the besiegers. They did not have their own names, given from birth, the enemy called them in Islamic, but it was these anonymous prisoners of Badaber who forced the leading world agencies to talk about themselves, becoming truly legends of the Afghan war. For some reason they were forgotten in their homeland, in the homeland to which they swore allegiance and were called upon to defend, but for some reason they are clearly remembered by the enemies they opposed. One of the most famous Mujahideen field commanders, G. Hekmatyar, after the incident in Badaber, issued an order, according to which it was prescribed “ henceforth Russians should not be captured or transported to Pakistan, but destroyed at the place of capture" And 25 years later, one of the participants in that battle from the Afghan side, Saleh Ahmed, in the documentary film “Mutiny in the Underworld” (2009) said the following words: “ The Shuravi (Russians) never gave up, they knew that there was no way out and they fought to the last. They did not spare themselves or us, they are real warriors.."It is a pity that sometimes the enemy recognizes the merits of soldiers with admiration, in contrast to the Motherland, which, in fact, sent these soldiers to war. And most importantly, by dying, the prisoners of Badabery saved hundreds of human lives. After all, it is not known how many funerals the Soviets would have received mother in 1985, if 2 million rounds of ammunition and 2 thousand rockets and shells from Badaber finally reached Afghanistan...
P.S. Some countries (Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine) awarded their soldiers with medals and orders posthumously in recognition of heroism and fortitude (Alexander Zverkovich, Nikolai Samin, Sergei Korshenko, respectively). Of the Russians, only Sergei Levchishin received the Order of Courage posthumously. There were no awards for other immigrants from Russia...
P.P.S. During the Afghan War of 1979-1989, the Soviet Union irrevocably lost 15,031 people, almost 54,000 were injured, and 264 people are still missing.
Today on First there is the premiere of the four-part action-packed film “Badaber Fortress”. This is a twisted story about one of the most tragic and at the same time heroic episodes of the Afghan war, the uprising of Soviet prisoners of war in the Badaber camp in Pakistan in 1985. What happened there and what story of one unknown feat did the creators of the film see?
In April 1985, a handful of prisoners of war—Ukrainians, Russians, Belarusians, and Tatars—revolted in a Pakistani Mujahideen camp. The uprising was only suppressed by artillery fire. There is still a huge crater in that place, like a monument.
The war in Afghanistan (1979-1989) was a classic confrontation between superpowers on the territory of a third country. The fighting took place between the Afghan government forces and a contingent of Soviet troops, on the one hand, and the armed forces of the Afghan Mujahideen, supported by NATO countries and the Islamic world, on the other.
Behind the walls
1985 The “war of caravans” is in full swing - the hunt of Soviet troops for supply columns going to Afghanistan from the territory of neighboring Pakistan. In order to disrupt the logistics of the rebels, Soviet special forces penetrate deeply into the territories they occupy. The territory is high mountainous, the border with Pakistan is nearby. This means that aviation operations are very limited by the terrain and the threat of air defense. All support for Soviet soldiers is a few volleys of artillery and what you can carry on your back. In such conditions it is easy to be captured.
The prisoners were kept in a network of underground prisons, zindans, near the Pakistani village of Badaber: 12 Soviet soldiers and 36 army employees of the pro-Soviet government of Afghanistan. There are 8-meter adobe walls around and towers in the corners, inside there is a system of fences and barracks. The mosque-fortress here was not only a place of imprisonment, but also a training center for the Islamic Society of Afghanistan party. In Badaber, the Mujahideen took a course for young fighters. They were taught shooting, guerrilla warfare, sapping, and handling radios and MANPADS.
Two prisoners, under the pretext of being unwell, go to a warehouse with weapons. A warehouse guard is killed.
NO STRENGTH TO BEAR
Some prisoners were kept in Badaber for more than three years, many for more than a year - they had seen enough of everything. For disobedience, soldiers were put in stocks, beaten with whips, sent to break stone or repair walls in the heat. They were fed dried meat for weeks, their water intake was reduced, and they were not allowed to sleep. One of the prisoners went crazy from torture.
On April 26, 1985, the patience of 50 prisoners ran out. During evening prayers, a guard distributing food was killed. Apart from him, only three people remained at the post during prayer.
The plan was invented by Ukrainians Nikolai Shevchenko and Viktor Dukhovchenko. They planned to seize the Mujahideen's arsenal of weapons, go live on the radio and, under the threat of an explosion, force them to allow the Soviet consul and representatives of the Red Cross to see them.
The fighters stabbed the guards to death with pieces of sharpened reinforcement, seized keys and weapons, and pulled out a DShK heavy machine gun, a mortar, and anti-tank grenade launchers from the warehouse. The betrayal of one of the Tajik prisoners, who ran over to the Mujahideen a few minutes before the attack on the radio communication center, prevented the guards from being taken by surprise.
31 years old, from Zaporozhye region. Served on extra duty at a logistics warehouse in Bagram, Afghanistan.
29 years old, from Sumy region. Civilian of the 5th Guards Motorized Rifle Division.
Parliamentarian Burhanuddin Rabbani Parliamentarian Burhanuddin Rabbani
Better a terrible ending
The fortress was blocked. The head of the Islamic Society of Afghanistan party, Burhanuddin Rabbani, arrived at the scene of the emergency. Hearing the demands of the rebels, he gave the order for the assault. A double anti-aircraft gun hit the attackers from one of the towers, and machine guns fired desperately from the walls. The firefight continued throughout the night. In one of the attacks, Rabbani received a concussion, his guard was torn by shrapnel. More than 20 people among the attackers were killed and dozens were wounded.
By 6:00, cannon artillery opened fire on the fortress at direct fire. The outcome of the battle was clear - aircraft were patrolling, eyewitnesses heard negotiations about air strikes. And then Badaber ripped open a monstrous explosion. Military historians are still arguing about whether the warehouses detonated from the hit or whether the captured soldiers decided not to surrender alive. Later, USSR satellite monitoring equipment recorded a crater up to 80 meters in diameter.
On 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 Barkhanuddin Rabbani...
“...At 21.00, when all the school personnel were lined up on the parade ground to perform namaz, former Soviet military personnel removed the sentries at the artillery warehouses and on the tower, freed all prisoners, armed themselves with small arms and artillery weapons captured in the warehouses and took up positions with the aim of destroying the cadets , teachers and security units” (from the report of agent “206” of the “Shir” intelligence center of the Afghan Ministry of State Security).
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, there was a terrorist training center of the Islamic Society of Afghanistan (ISA). The general patronage of the center was carried out by the leader of the IOA B. Rabbani, the leader was the field commander Gulbuddin Hekmatyar.
The center occupied 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 Qudratullah 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 heads of the IOA of the provincial, district and volost levels of the provinces of Nangarhar, Paktia and Kandahar.
On the territory of the center there were 6 ammunition warehouses and 3 underground prisons where Soviet and Afghan prisoners of war were kept. The regime of detention is especially strict, isolated. “Incorrigible shuravis”—those captured in battle, those who resisted, and those who did not convert to Islam—ended up in underground prisons. They began to be brought here in 1983-84, shortly before the events described. Before this, they were kept mainly in special pits-zindans, used for the most difficult work - in quarries, loading and unloading ammunition. For the slightest offense, 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 rebellious were branded following the example of the fascist executioners. They starved them, giving them a sip of water a day and meager salty food, into which they added “chars” and “nasvay” - the cheapest drugs. They were kept shackled in 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, also came up with more sophisticated tortures. Particular care was taken to ensure that the person “breathed the smell of death” from the first hour of captivity. Those who were particularly obstinate were skinned, their ears and tongues were cut off, they were chained to rotting corpses, they were whipped with iron rods every day... During their captivity, Soviet soldiers turned into walking skeletons. And, despite everything, they rebelled.
According to Rabbani's recollections, 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 other prisoners. The dushmans and their instructors came to their senses only when the entire weapons-prison zone was in the hands of the rebels. All the inhabitants of the camp were alerted. The blocking of the warehouse area began immediately. Parts of the Pakistani army were called in to help.
The brutal clash continued throughout the night. After a series of unsuccessful attacks, already late at night, Rabbani personally addressed 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 called from Islamabad.
Rabbani promised to think, fully aware that fulfilling the demand means making public the fact of secret detention of prisoners of war in Pakistan, which declared itself neutral, which is a gross violation of the elementary norms of international law. An order was given to the Mujahideen and Pakistani troops to put an end to the unyielding Shuravis by any means possible.
More assaults followed. And offers to give up. The answer was always the same. The assault followed the assault, the forces of the rebels were melting away, however, the enemy also suffered significant losses. It is unknown how long this battle between a handful of doomed people and tens, hundreds of times superior forces would last. Surely until the last bullet, until the last person - they did not expect mercy from the executioners...
Desperate to suppress the uprising, the command of the Pakistani armed forces decided to shoot the rebels from multiple launch rocket launchers and heavy artillery mounted for direct fire. At 8 a.m. on April 27, Rabbani personally took command of the operation. An airstrike was carried out simultaneously with the artillery.
“The area of the uprising was blocked by Mujahideen detachments, tank and artillery units of the 11th Army Corps of the Pakistani Armed Forces. The Grad MLRS and a flight of Pakistani Air Force helicopters were used against the rebels. Radio reconnaissance 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 bomb 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 a brave death 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 a Radio Liberty broadcast on May 4, 1985: “A spokesman for the US Space Command headquarters in Colorado reported that satellite aerial photographs showed a highly destructive explosion in the northwestern province of Pakistan on April 27 from .G.". (The resulting fire destroyed the center’s office, 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 Grad multiple rocket launchers (BM-13), about 2,000 thousand missiles of various types and shells, 40 guns, mortars and machine guns were destroyed. 6 US military instructors were killed.
Since the beginning of May 1985, all information about the events in Badaber was tightly blocked by the Pakistani authorities. The scene 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 troops, which contained the clause: “Do not take Russians prisoner. If captured, destroy on the spot throughout the entire territory of Afghanistan”...
However, something still leaked out. And in the same May 1985, sensational news spread across world news agencies - in one of the “Afghan refugee camps,” Soviet soldiers captured by the Mujahideen rebelled. This information was also reported by the Novosti Press Agency on May 27.
The Soviet and later the Russian side repeatedly appealed to the Pakistani authorities with a request to allow them to visit the camp, but were refused. From an official letter from a representative of the Russian authorities addressed to the chairman of the Committee on the Affairs of Internationalist Soldiers under the Council of Heads of Government of the CIS Countries:
“The 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, materials of the Ministry of State Security of Afghanistan, testimony of direct eyewitnesses and participants in these events from the Mujahideen and Pakistanis, as well as statements by the leaders of the armed formations B. Rabbani (IOA), G Hekmatyar (IPA), etc. In addition, at the beginning of 1992, the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Pakistan, Shahryar Khan, officially handed over the names of 6 participants in the uprising in Badaber...”
Ordinary boys from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan won their main battle. After several years of captivity, they lived these last days from April 26 to 27 free.
Known and alleged participants in the Badaber camp uprising:
1. Belekchi Ivan Evgenievich, private, allegedly was in the Badaber camp. In captivity he lost his mind.
3. Vasiliev P.P., sergeant, born in 1960 in Chuvashia.
4. Vaskov Igor Nikolaevich, private, born in 1963 in the Kostroma region. Died in Badaber.
5. Dudkin Nikolai Iosifovich, corporal, born in 1961 in the Altai Territory. Died in Badaber.
6. Viktor Vasilievich Dukhovchenko, motor mechanic, 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. Kiryushkin German, junior lieutenant, born in 1964 in the Moscow region. While in captivity, his leg was amputated. There is a version that shortly before the uprising, the organization Doctors Without Borders took Herman from Badaber to Switzerland. Alas, further traces of him are lost. Herman's family still believes that he survived. And they are waiting to go home.
10. Korshenko Sergey Vasilievich, junior sergeant. Born on 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, 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, he 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 in Ukraine. One of the alleged leaders of the uprising. Died in Badaber.
21. Shipeev Vladimir Ivanovich, private. Born on September 11, 1963 in Cheboksary. Presumably died in Badaber.
In 1994, based on the events in Badaber, the feature film “Peshawar Waltz” was shot.
Documentary - 'Mutiny in the Underworld' (2009)
Date: 2010-03-29
Roman SHKURLATOV
On April 26, 1985, a group of captured Soviet soldiers and members of the armed forces of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan rebelled in the Badaber prison. Having captured a weapons warehouse, they held the defense for more than a day. The rebels rejected the proposal of the militant leaders to voluntarily cease resistance. As a result of the storming of the prison, all prisoners died. The country learned the names of the heroes who chose death in an obviously unequal battle over shameful captivity only a few years later.
Today, on the site of the Badaber fortress, which is about two dozen kilometers south of Pakistani Peshawar, there is practically nothing. Fragments of a very dilapidated adobe wall, the ruins of several one-story brick buildings, gates that lead nowhere...
Meanwhile, this piece of sun-scorched land has a rich past. The fortress, built by the Americans back in the 60s of the last century, was initially a branch of the intelligence center of the US Pakistani station. It was from here, from a secret airfield, that the U-2 spy plane, piloted by the American pilot Powers, took off on its last flight over the USSR.
Zindan for infidels
With the beginning of the war in Afghanistan, a Mujahideen training center settled here. The militants were trained for partisan actions against units of the Soviet army. It is from this period that tragic events date, the full truth about which was carefully hushed up for a long time.
At first glance, the refugee camp in the Pashtun village of Badaber was no different from dozens of others scattered along the Afghan-Pakistan border: mud huts and battered army tents, in which several thousand people lived, overcrowding, unsanitary conditions. But the main purpose of the camp was not to accommodate people fleeing the horrors of the civil war. For several years, a rebel military training center operated under humanitarian cover in Badaber, which belonged to the counter-revolutionary Afghan party “Islamic Society of Afghanistan,” one of the most influential and largest opposition organizations. During the 10-year war, the IOA caused a lot of trouble to both Kabul and the Soviet command. It was its representatives that were Ahmad Shah Massoud in the north and Ismail Khan in the west, and the leader of the IOA, Burhanuddin Rabbani, after the victory of the Taliban in 1992, became the first head of the Islamic State of Afghanistan.
The Islamists took the fight seriously. Young mujahideen were specially taken to Pakistan and there they were thoroughly trained in guerrilla tactics, the art of shooting, the ability to set up ambushes, set booby traps, camouflage themselves, and work at various types of radio stations. In training centers (regiments) located in the vicinity of Peshawar, up to 5 thousand people could study simultaneously. These "universities" operated continuously throughout the war.
The training regiment of Saint Khaled ibn Walid was based closest to the refugee camp. Inside the guarded perimeter there were several one-story houses, a modest mosque, a football field, a volleyball court, and warehouses with weapons and ammunition. During the six-month training course, about 300 militants mastered the “science of winning.” The center was headed by a major of the Pakistani armed forces, and several American advisers provided him with methodological assistance. In addition, the staff consisted of more than fifty military instructors from the USA, China, Pakistan, and Egypt.
Three underground prison premises, the so-called zindans, were also considered a special zone of the fortress. According to various estimates, by April 1985, up to 40 Afghan and 12 Soviet military personnel were held here.
The first prisoners began to be brought to Badaber closer to the mid-80s. It is no secret that the counter-revolutionaries, fueled by the religious fanaticism of the mullahs, showed savage cruelty towards our soldiers; the prisoners were often in terrible, inhuman conditions. There are many documentary examples of this, and Badaber was no exception. The local commandant Abdurahman beat prisoners for the slightest offense with a lead-tipped whip, shackled them in chains and shackles, from which not only the skin, but also the bones festered on their hands and feet, and sent them to work in the quarry. According to other accounts, the prisoners were starved for a long time, given only very salty food and a sip of water per day.
Last fireworks
The picture of what happened in the Badaber fortress emerged gradually over several years. Information, sometimes very contradictory, came through the channels of various departments and public organizations - the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Foreign Intelligence Service of the Russian Federation, the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, as well as the Committee for the Affairs of Internationalist Soldiers under the Council of Heads of Government of the CIS Member States. As a result of the titanic work of hundreds of people, literally collecting scattered data bit by bit, the approximate chronology of events was restored.
It all started around 18:00 local time. A group of Soviet and Afghan prisoners of war, approximately 24 people, undertook an armed uprising in order to escape from Dushman captivity. The moment was not chosen by chance: the entire personnel of the training center lined up on the parade ground for evening prayer, and out of 70 guards only two remained at their posts. As IOA leader and former Afghan President B. Rabbani later recalled, the signal for the uprising was the actions of one of the Soviet soldiers. The strongly built guy managed to disarm the warden who brought the stew. Then the fighter opened the cells and released other prisoners, including Afghans.
Having taken possession of the weapons that the guards had left behind, the rebels began to fight their way to the prison gates. According to some reports, their main task was to get to the radio center of the fortress in order to go on the air and report their location. Such a high-profile action would have allowed the USSR Ambassador in Islamabad to issue a note of protest and attract the attention of the world community. Moreover, it was a powerful argument confirming Pakistan’s intervention in Afghan affairs.
It is unknown whether the participants in the uprising succeeded in carrying out their plans, but a few minutes later the warehouse with weapons and ammunition was under their control. Armed, the prisoners took up positions advantageous for the battle. Large-caliber machine guns and M-62 mortars were installed on the roof, and hand-held anti-tank grenade launchers were put on alert. But by this time, the territory of the training center had already been depopulated: among the prisoners there were several traitors, who, in the ensuing turmoil, ran over to the side of the dushmans and warned them about the intentions of the rebels. Having barricaded themselves in one of the adobe towers, Soviet and Afghan soldiers took up defensive positions.
Very quickly, the area adjacent to the camp was blocked by troops of the Afghan opposition, Pakistani Malish, as well as infantry, tank and artillery units of the 11th Army Corps of the Pakistani Armed Forces. Arriving at the scene of the events, Rabbani, using a loudspeaker and telephone communication, entered into negotiations with the rebels. The prisoners demanded that they organize a meeting with the Soviet ambassador, representatives of the UN or the Red Cross. The Islamists ignored their condition, in turn inviting the prisoners to surrender. Hearing a categorical refusal, Rabbani, in agreement with Pakistani military leaders, gave the order to storm the prison.
The defenders of the fortress repelled the first attack with dense targeted fire. The battle, now fading, now flaring up, continued all night. And although the forces were clearly unequal, the Mujahideen failed to break the defense of Soviet and Afghan prisoners of war.
By 8 am it became completely clear that the rebels were not going to surrender. Moreover, the resistance became increasingly fierce. One of the grenade launcher shots from the direction of the fortress almost killed Rabbani himself, and his bodyguard received serious shrapnel wounds. The leader of the IOA, who led the operation, decided to throw all available forces and means into battle. Artillery was used against the defenders, in particular Grad multiple launch rocket systems, tanks and even a flight of Pakistani Air Force helicopters. Radio intelligence of the 40th separate army recorded a radio interception of a conversation between their crews and the air base, as well as a report from one of the Pakistani military pilots about a bomb attack on the camp.
Stills from Radik Kudoyarov's film "The Secret of Camp Badaber"
As a result of a direct hit by a shell, the ammunition stored in warehouses detonated. The first explosion was so strong that fragments scattered over a radius of several kilometers. It was followed by several dozen more explosions. Hundreds of burning shells and mines shot up into the alien sky, like the last salute to the heroes of Badaber. It seemed that no one could survive in the fiery hell. But even after the walls were destroyed and the brutal Mujahideen burst into the fortress, the battle continued. Wounded and burned Soviet soldiers met their enemies with machine gun fire. The Mujahideen threw grenades at them and finished off the dying with bayonet knives.
“Don’t take Russians prisoner!”
After the suppression of the uprising, a secret agent of the Shir intelligence center of the Afghan Ministry of State Security was sent to Badaber. The details of his report, as well as the information provided by the GRU of the General Staff of the USSR Armed Forces, made a strong impression on the Soviet military leadership. As a result of the storming of the prison, all prisoners died. The enemy also suffered significant losses: about 100 Mujahideen, six foreign advisers, 13 representatives of the Pakistani authorities, 28 officers of the Pakistani Armed Forces. 3 Grad MLRS, approximately 2 million missiles and shells of various types, about 40 artillery pieces, mortars and machine guns were destroyed. The explosion and subsequent fire destroyed a number of buildings, including the prison office, in which, among other things, documents with lists of prisoners were kept.
The Badaber incident aroused concern of the Pakistani administration, as well as the leadership of the Afghan irreconcilable opposition. On April 29, the leader of the Islamic Party of Afghanistan, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, radioed an encrypted circular order to all gangs subordinate to him, in which he demanded to strengthen the security of Soviet prisoners of war due to the fact that in Badaber “there were killed and wounded among the brothers.” The order also instructed the commanders of the IPA fronts “from now on, not to take Russians prisoner, but to destroy them at the place of capture.”
On the same day, the Governor of the North-West Frontier Province, Lieutenant General Fazl Haq, visited the scene. Considering the seriousness of what happened near Peshawar, Pakistani President Zia-ul-Haq visited the area, who bluntly demanded that the commanders of the Afghan forces prevent the repetition of such incidents.
The Pakistanis were also concerned that what happened confirmed the presence of Soviet soldiers captured in the DRA on Pakistani territory. In order to prevent information leakage, official Islamabad took all necessary measures. In particular, Rabbani was asked to make an official statement that an armed clash had occurred in the Badaber area between two warring factions of his organization. Ordinary Mujahideen were ordered by their commanders to remain silent on pain of death. In addition, unauthorized persons were prohibited from entering the area, and the circulation of the Peshawar magazine Safir, which published an article about the uprising, was completely confiscated and put under the knife.
However, everything that happened in Badaber still received publicity. It's no joke, artillery cannonade was heard even in Peshawar! Already on May 2, many telegraph agencies, citing their correspondents in Islamabad, reported on the unequal battle waged by Soviet and Afghan soldiers in Pakistan. Even the Voice of America radio station reported on May 4 that “at one of the Afghan Mujahideen bases in Pakistan, an explosion killed 12 Soviet and 12 Afghan prisoners.” The fact of the armed uprising in Badaber was confirmed by David Delanrantz, a representative of the International Red Cross, who visited the Soviet embassy in Islamabad on May 9, 1985.
Two more days later, the Soviet ambassador in Islamabad expressed a strong protest to Zia-ul-Haq from the Soviet government. The statement from the Foreign Ministry stated: “The Soviet side places full responsibility for what happened on the government of Pakistan and expects it to draw appropriate conclusions about the consequences of its complicity in aggression against the DRA and thereby against the Soviet Union...”. The leadership of Afghanistan also protested. On May 16, the permanent representative of the DRA to the UN, M. Zarif, sent a letter to the Secretary General of this organization, which was distributed as an official document of the General Assembly of the Security Council.
Alas, the USSR government never took any other steps other than a declarative statement. Party bosses did not want to admit that Soviet prisoners of war were being held in Afghan opposition camps. Indeed, according to the official version, a limited contingent of Soviet troops did not participate in hostilities, but provided “international assistance to the fraternal people”: they built schools, hospitals, kindergartens and roads, planted trees and dug ditches. And if there is no war, then where will prisoners of war come from?..
Return the names of the heroes
Citizens of the Soviet Union learned about the tragedy near Peshawar only a month later. On May 27, 1985, the Novosti press agency launched a message with the following content: “Kabul. Public protest rallies continue throughout the country 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 DRA and secretly transported to Pakistan. Peasants, workers, tribal representatives angrily condemn the barbaric action of Islamabad, which, in an effort to evade responsibility, clumsily distorts the facts.”
Through the meager lines of the message, in which there was no room for condolences to the relatives or admiration for the feat of the prisoners, a political and ideological subtext clearly emerged. The Cold War was entering a decisive stage, and the warring parties did not miss any opportunity to prick the enemy. And the bargaining chip of these “interstate relations” were the lives of soldiers and officers.
The Minister of Defense of the USSR, Marshal S. L. Sokolov, ordered, without delay, to establish the names of the military personnel who took part in the uprising. However, due to the fact that all the prison documentation was burned, our military intelligence was unable to do this. In addition, the Pakistani authorities and the leadership of the Afghan opposition did everything possible and impossible to create even more fog: neither journalists nor embassy workers were allowed into the camp area, which had been declared a dead zone.
Public veteran organizations and the media never stopped trying to shed light on the Badaber events. Later, the Russian Foreign Ministry actively became involved in this process. Until December 1991, official Islamabad not only refused to recognize the very fact of the uprising, but also generally denied that there were ever Soviet prisoners of war on Pakistani territory. The Pakistani authorities have repeatedly raised the question of conducting an investigation and exhuming the bodies of the dead in order to establish the identities of the military personnel and clarify all the details of what happened.
But only after the fact of the participation of Soviet military personnel in the uprising in Badaber was confirmed at negotiations in Moscow by B. Rabbani, Deputy Foreign Minister of Pakistan Shahriyar Khan named the names of five of our soldiers. At the same time, it was stated that there could be no talk of any remains of the dead, since “every living thing was destroyed” by the explosion. The Russian side has repeatedly appealed to the Pakistani authorities with a request to allow them to visit the camp, but have invariably been refused. Since the time of the uprising, none of the domestic diplomats or military personnel have visited Badaber.
Footage from Radik Kudoyarov's investigative documentary "The Secret of the Badaber Camp", the film's authors managed to find witnesses to the uprising, according to their version - Shevchenko Nikolay was the initiator of the riot
The search for the dead intensified again in 2003 thanks to the Committee on the Affairs of Internationalist Soldiers under the Council of Heads of Government of the Commonwealth Member States, which is headed by Hero of the Soviet Union, Lieutenant General Ruslan Aushev. To date, the names of seven participants in the uprising in Badaber have been established: junior sergeant Samin Nikolai Grigorievich (b. 1964, Akmola region, Kazakhstan), corporal Dudkin Nikolai Iosifovich (b. 1961, Altai), privates Vaskov Igor Nikolaevich (1963 b., Kostroma region), Levchishin Sergey Nikolaevich (b. 1964, Samara region), Zverkovich Alexander Nikolaevich (b. 1964, Vitebsk region, Belarus), Korshenko Sergei Vasilyevich (b. 1964, g. . Bila Tserkva, Ukraine), SA employee Viktor Vasilievich Dukhovchenko (born 1954, Zaporozhye, Ukraine).
From the testimony of a few witnesses, it was possible to find out the name of the leader of the rebels. Presumably he was Viktor Dukhovchenko (the Muslim pseudonym given to him in captivity is Yunus). It was he who allegedly managed to remove the sentry and free his comrades.
The next step in perpetuating the memory of the soldiers killed in Badaber was their presentation for awards. At the request of the State Committee of Ukraine for Veterans Affairs, on February 8, 2003, the President of the Republic Leonid Kuchma, by his decree, awarded Sergei Korshenko the Order of Courage, III degree (posthumously). On December 12 of the same year, President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev awarded Nikolai Samin the Order of Aibyn (Valor), III degree (posthumously). Documents on awarding Belarusian Alexander Zverkovich, as well as three Russians, are currently under consideration by the administrations of the presidents of the two union states.
According to representatives of the Russian Ministry of Defense, the delay in restoring justice was caused primarily by the confusion that reigned in previous years with lists and names. But now that most of the issues have been resolved, the process should move forward. In any case, I really want to believe that the times of unknown soldiers and forgotten heroes in our country are gone forever.
In the mountains near Peshawar, Pakistan,
Having decided to wash away the shame of captivity with blood,
At night, a group of prisoners rebelled,
To live free for at least a day.
And even though there are few of us, no one flinched,
Even though the mouths of death are staring us in the eye.
Soviet soldiers - this means
That even the dead will not defeat us.
We were not broken by slave stocks,
And even the machine guns didn’t take us.
Enemies cowardly direct fire at everyone
They were shot from Pakistani cannons.
Our homeland shines for us like a distant star,
And this inviting light catches your eye.
We won't back down for anything in the world
And there are no faint-hearted people among us.
We are waging a battle, but our strength is fading,
There are fewer and fewer people alive, the chances are not equal...
Know, Motherland, they haven’t cheated on you
Your sons in trouble!
VIA song "Blue Berets"
Documentary
TV channel Russia 2009
Script writers: Mikhail Volkov, Radik Kudoyarov
Avi, 387 MB, 704x400, sound 107 kbps
http://sovserv.ru/vbb/archive/index.php/f-111.html
Comments on this article:
When my stepfather went to the front in 1941, my mother knew that he would not return. “After all, for him, as she said, either his chest is in the bushes or his head is in the bushes.” There was no talk of anything else, much less giving up.
how terribly unbearable the suffering the Soviet boys endured, I’m shocked
In the Republican newspaper "Chance" in issue No. 7 (February 17-23, 2011), Turchenko's article "Forgotten Heroes of Afghanistan" was published, which talked about this event. Among the rebels was our fellow countryman Lieutenant Saburov and how I work in the library and work with young people. I want to know more about this event and about our fellow countryman. My address: [email protected]
Documentary film Mutiny in the Underworld http://mmg-kgb.ucoz.ru/load/quot_mjatezh_v_preispodnej_quot/13-1-0-485 - Association of sites about units of the USSR KGB PV in Afghanistan 1979-1989
SOVIET CITIZENS MISSING IN AFGHANISTAN TERRITORY FROM 12/25/79 TO 02/15/89 Sergey Vasilievich SABUROV, lieutenant, 1960-12/17/82, Paktia -
http://afgan.ru/bezvesti.htm
http://sovserv.ru/vbb/archive/index.php/t-45563.html
List of resources about Afghanistan http://artofwar.ru/j/janr_1/
Finally, people came along and “pulled” most of this story into the light. Finally, at least a small part of those who died heroically in Badaber have regained their names... But believe me people, this is only part of the events!... there were much more prisoners, some were able to escape... and get to the Kandahar garrison... And then there was a small international scandal that was quickly hushed up (a scandal due to the reaction of the soldiers of the Kandahar garrison to the events in Badaber)... It’s because of this scandal that “no one was left alive” and “there were only 12 prisoners” and now we can’t find anyone can not. Citizen generals, if you don’t find anyone, don’t try. You have already betrayed us once!
Read Stanislav Oleinik’s book “Missing”, Eksmo publishing house, 2008, republished in 2009. There is more detail about this uprising.
In addition to the comment 2011-05-12. Especially for LILY. Unfortunately, your information is incorrect. I dare to assure you that there was not a single officer among the rebels. He led the uprising of Shevchenko, about which. For some reason, all those in power modestly keep silent.
Served in Primorye 1982-1984. In 1983, during the divorce, they announced an uprising of Russian prisoners of war near Peshawar, and it seemed to be in the press that year. I remember they talked about 3 days of fighting. 1983!!!
The whole world, except the population of the USSR, learned about the events of April 26-27, 1985, which occurred near Pakistani Peshwar. But Western media are confident that the KGB took revenge in the most cruel way for the deaths of Soviet prisoners of war who rebelled in the secret prison in Badaber.
Badaber - undercover militants
The fortified area of Badaber was built by the Americans at the beginning of the Cold War as the Peshewar branch of the Pakistani CIA station.
During the Afghan war, a humanitarian aid center was located in the village of Badaber, which was supposedly supposed to prevent starvation among refugees. But in reality, it served as a cover for the militant school of the counter-revolutionary Afghan party of the Islamic Society of Afghanistan, where Soviet prisoners of war who were considered missing in their homeland were secretly kept.
The escape
30 years ago, on April 26, 1985, when the entire Soviet Union was preparing for the upcoming 40th anniversary of Victory Day, at approximately 18:00 shots were heard in the Badaber fortress. Taking advantage of the fact that almost the entire camp guard had gone to perform evening prayers, a group of Soviet prisoners of war, having eliminated two sentries at the artillery depots, armed themselves, freed the prisoners and tried to escape.
As the IOA leader, ex-President of Afghanistan Burhanuddin Rabbani later recalled, the signal for the uprising was the actions of one of the Soviet soldiers. The guy was able to disarm the guard who brought the stew.
After that, he released the prisoners who took possession of the weapons left by the prison guards. Further versions diverge. According to some sources, they tried to break through to the gate to escape. According to others, their goal was a radio tower through which they wanted to contact the USSR Embassy. The fact of holding Soviet prisoners of war on Pakistani territory would be significant evidence of the latter's intervention in Afghan affairs.
Storming the prison
One way or another, the rebels managed to capture the arsenal and take positions advantageous for the destruction of the security units.
Soviet soldiers were armed with heavy machine guns, M-62 mortars, and hand-held anti-tank grenade launchers.
The entire personnel of the base was alerted - about 3,000 people, along with instructors from the USA, Pakistan and Egypt. But all their attempts to storm the rebel positions were defeated.
At 23.00, the leader of the Islamic Society of Afghanistan, Burhanuddin Rabbani, raised the Mujahideen regiment of Khalid ibn Walid, surrounded the fortress and offered the rebels to surrender in exchange for their lives. The rebels put forward a response demand - contact with representatives of the embassies of the USSR, DRA, the Red Cross and the UN. Hearing a refusal, Rabbani gave the order to storm the prison.
Fatal salvo
The fierce battle that lasted all night and the losses among the Mujahideen showed that the Russians were not going to give up. Moreover, the leader of the IOA, Burhanuddin Rabbani, himself almost lost his life under grenade fire. It was decided to throw all available forces at the rebels. Salvo attacks on Grad, tanks and even the Pakistani Air Force followed.
And what happened next, apparently, will forever remain a mystery. According to declassified radio intelligence data from the 40th Army, which intercepted a report from one of the Pakistani pilots, a bomb attack was carried out on the rebels, which hit a military warehouse with ammunition, modern missiles and shells stored there.
This is how one of the prisoners of Badaber, Rustamov Nosirzhon Ummatkulovich, later described it:
“Rabbani left somewhere, and some time later a gun appeared. He gave the order to shoot. When the gun fired, the shell hit the warehouse and caused a powerful explosion. Everything went up in the air. No people, no buildings - nothing remained. Everything was leveled to the ground and black smoke poured out.”
There were no survivors. Those who did not die during the explosion were finished off by the attackers. True, if you believe the intercepted message from the American consulate in Peshawar to the US State Department: “Three Soviet soldiers managed to survive after the uprising was suppressed.”
Mujahideen casualties were 100 Mujahideen, 90 Pakistani soldiers, including 28 officers, 13 members of the Pakistani authorities and 6 American instructors. The explosion also destroyed the prison archive, where information about the prisoners was kept.
To prevent a repetition of the incident, a few days after the uprising, an order was issued by the leader of the Islamic Party of Afghanistan, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar: “do not take Russians prisoner.”
Reaction
Despite the fact that Pakistan took all necessary measures to hide the incident - silence on pain of death, a ban on entry into the territory for unauthorized persons, information about Soviet prisoners of war and the brutal suppression of the uprising penetrated into the press. The Pershawar magazine Sapphire was the first to write about this, but the issue was confiscated and destroyed. Soon after this, the Pakistani Muslim Newspaper published this news, which was immediately picked up by the leading media.
The Old and New Worlds interpreted what happened differently. Europeans wrote about the unequal battle of Russian prisoners of war for their freedom, while the Voice of America reported on a powerful explosion that killed a dozen Russian prisoners and the same number of Afghan government soldiers. To dot all the points i, The US State Department on April 28, 1985 published the following “complete” information: “The area of the humanitarian camp, approximately one square mile in area, was buried in a dense layer of shell fragments, rockets and mines, as well as human remains. The explosion was so strong that local residents found shrapnel at a distance of four miles from the camp, where 14 Russian paratroopers were also kept, of whom two remained alive after the suppression of the uprising.”
But the fact of the uprising was confirmed by the representative of the International Red Cross, David Delanrantz, who visited the Soviet embassy in Islambad on May 9, 1985. However, the USSR limited itself to a note of protest from the foreign policy department, which placed full responsibility for what happened on the government of Pakistan and called for conclusions to be drawn about what the state’s participation in aggression against the DRA and the USSR could lead to. The matter did not go further than this statement. In the end, Soviet prisoners of war “could not be” on the territory of Afghanistan.
Revenge of the KGB
But there was also an unofficial reaction from the USSR. According to journalists Kaplan and Burki S, Soviet intelligence services carried out a number of retaliation operations. On May 11, 1985, the Ambassador of the Soviet Union to Pakistan, Vitaly Smirnov, stated that the USSR would not leave this matter unanswered.
“Islamabad bears full responsibility for what happened in Badaber,” Smirnov warned Pakistani President Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq.
In 1987, Soviet raids into Pakistan killed 234 Mujahideen and Pakistani soldiers. On April 10, 1988, a massive ammunition depot exploded in Ojhri Camp, located between Islamabad and Rawalpindi, killing between 1,000 and 1,300 people. Investigators came to the conclusion that sabotage had been committed. Some time later, on August 17, 1988, President Zia-ul-Haq's plane crashed. Pakistani intelligence services also directly linked this incident to the activities of the KGB as punishment for Badaber. Despite all this, these events did not receive public publicity in the USSR itself.
