The last landing

Afghanistan: 31 years ago began with a gamble and 22 years ago ended with a gamble

According to the Soviet politicians of the late 70s of the last century, we were dragged into Afghanistan by the local authorities. The People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA), which controlled 13-15% of the country's territory by December 1979, more than a dozen times ...

According to the Soviet politicians of the late 70s of the last century, we were dragged into Afghanistan by the local authorities. The People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA), which controlled by December 1979 13-15% of the country's territory, more than a dozen times turned to the leadership of the USSR with a request to send troops and help in the fight against the opposition.

With the introduction of Soviet troops, the territory controlled by the Kabul authorities increased to 20%. For this we paid with the lives of more than 13 thousand of our soldiers and officers and several tens of thousands of wounded and maimed. After 9 years, they were smart enough to begin the withdrawal of troops ...

These video frames have become famous: on February 15, 1989, the last column of Soviet armored vehicles leaves through the bridge connecting the Afghan city of Hairatan and the Soviet Termez, and the commander of the 40th Army, General Boris Gromov, is the last to leave.

It was only later that we learned that Boris Gromov was not the last of our military men leaving Afghanistan, and in addition to the eastern corridor through Hairatan to Termez, there was also a western one - through the Afghan Turugundi to our Kushka.

The main task is to withdraw troops from Afghanistan without loss. We do not shoot at the Mujahideen, they do not shoot at us. We don't provoke them, they let us out. It would seem that the task is clear ...

But three weeks before the complete withdrawal, the Soviet general sets the task for the commander of the reconnaissance battalion of the 5th division, stationed in the Afghan city of Shindand in the west of the country: with the help of an incomplete reconnaissance battalion (170 people) to parachute at the airport of the center of the Afghan opposition, the city of Kandahar, in order to provide ammunition and food to that part of the Afghan government army that is fighting in this direction with the Mujahideen.

Imagine a picture. January 20, 1989. Between Shindand and Kandahar - 500 kilometers. All Soviet troops in this territory were withdrawn in August 1988. Is it possible to risk a handful of fighters for the sake of ephemeral goals? But the adventurist general, speaking to the scouts, promises them the title of Hero of the Soviet Union ...

On January 20, 1989, 170 soldiers and officers led by battalion commander Lieutenant Colonel Nikolai Maurenko, special officer Major Vasily Shabalin, deputy commander of the reconnaissance and airborne company, senior lieutenant Andrey Malakhov, and several other officers, including platoon commander Lieutenant Igor, who arrived from the Union just four months ago Arikhin, three planes of military transport aviation were delivered to Kandahar airport.

For more than two weeks, the scouts of the 5th division provided all-round defense, combining combat duty with the unloading of ammunition, food and fuel destined for the Afghan army. Dozens of unloaded boards. And this - with the constant shelling of the airport by the Mujahideen! More than 700 rockets were fired at our soldiers. The rescue plane was shot down, the other side collapsed during landing.

Scouts learned that on February 6, 1989, the Mujahideen were planning to seize the airport and capture Soviet servicemen. But the commander of the reconnaissance battalion, Lieutenant Colonel Nikolai Maurenko, was ahead of the enemy - on February 5, the scouts left the Kandahar airport, and on February 15 they, among the last, were already leaving the Afghan city of Turugundi for the Soviet Kushka.

There were no promised rewards. Lieutenant Colonel Maurenko finished his service in Belarus, where he stayed to live. Lieutenant Igor Arikhin fought as part of the 14th Army in Transnistria, then was a battalion commander in Chechnya. Now a lieutenant colonel in the reserve, retired ...

He told me this one of the last episodes of the Afghan war.

PS A few months after the withdrawal of Soviet troops, Kandahar was completely under the Mujahideen. It was here that the Taliban movement was formed, which spread throughout Afghanistan. The PDPA was completely destroyed, Kabul fell, and the Soviet protege Najibullah was hanged.