Translated material
Supporting alleys
Wagner PMC fighters who died during his own should be honored with the same honors as the heroes of the Great Patriotic War, Prigozhin is sure
Orphan
The Wagner PMC fighter, the former Ryazan colony, 31-year-old Dmitry Menshikov died in the zone on October 17. Posthumously awarded the medal "For Courage".
Dmitry was born in a small village near the village of Bereznik in the Vinogradovsky district of the Arkhangelsk region. His father and mother were tragically killed when he was very small. The boy got into the orphanage. Already in adolescence, Dima was adopted.
As the "new" people who knew Menshikov closely told, the foster parents raised him well:
“He was an open kind guy, developed, well -read. He studied well at school. Then - in vocational school for a cook. After the school, Dima was drafted into the army, he served in the internal troops. "
Even before the army, Menshikov buried his adoptive father. The foster mother met another man, sold housing in the Arkhangelsk region and bought a house in the village of Pogorelovka, the Ryazan region, where she registered her son.
Dmitry was already finishing the service when the mother was diagnosed with cancer in the last stage. The demobilized Menshikov managed to come only to the funeral. The cohabitant of the mother put his son by the threshold, despite the right of ownership and registration. Dmitry left for Bereznik. I got a job as a cook in the Big Kush cafe with a salary of about 6 thousand rubles.
“Somehow he lived, and then a pandemic,” says Anatoly V. Menshikov, “The income in the catering fell, and Dima, like a little dog, was thrown out into the street.” He had nothing to live on.
Apparently, this is precisely this pushed Menshikov on a crime (before that he was brought to administrative or criminal liability).
On February 25, 2022, Dmitry was sentenced to 7.5 years in prison for the sale of drugs and transferred to the colony in the Ryazan region.
According to the girl Menshikov, during the last conversation in August, he told her: “I have already passed the polygraph and I am going to defend my homeland,” and then disappeared.
The girl Menshikova learned about his death only two months later.
First
The grave of Dmitry Menshikov stands out against the backdrop of several dozen graves buried by snow in the military plot of the Beloostrovsky cemetery in the resort area of St. Petersburg. On it and now the most flowers and mourning wreaths, compared to other, even fresh, burials. In addition, unlike other military burials, a person is not looking from a photograph in military uniforms, without shoulder straps and other insignia of the RF Armed Forces.
There are three more such graves here. Two was buried by Petersburgers-40-year-old Andrey Nikiforov and 43-year-old Vladimir Ukhpolov. Ukhpolov was called up for service on August 13, September 5 was sent to Ukraine, on October 7 he died, posthumously awarded the Order of Courage. Nikiforov was mobilized in the forefront, September 22, and on October 7, his wife was informed of his death. In the third, by all signs-not military, the grave lies 38-year-old Petersburger Dmitry Mikhin, who died on November 14. According to the vice-governor of St. Petersburg, Kirill Polyakov, Mikhin was a fighter of the Wagner PMC. According to the "new", he had a criminal record for theft. But Mikhin was not an orphan (this is important), he had a mother, stepfather and sister.
The grave of Dmitry Menshikov today is the last burial in the military plot of the Beloostrovsky cemetery, although there is still enough space here, and the first and so far the only thing is on the so -called Alley of Valor.
The creation of this alley at the end of last year, the founder of the Wagner PMC, an entrepreneur of a wide profile, Evgeny Prigozhin, with a loud scandal, sought the administration of St. Petersburg. He demanded to highlight a special place in order to bury with the honors of those who died during the special operation of the Wagner PMC, among which there are many former prisoners. Such a place was necessary, since in any other way a person who is not a military personnel of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, an employee of the Russian Guard, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the FSB and other power structures, cannot be buried in a military cemetery. Not to mention the fact that the former prisoner (unless he is not valid soldier) is not laid by law of military honors.
Over the past month, not a single new grave appeared on the alley of valor.
Alley is a dark business
A serious battle between Governor Alexander Beglov and Evgeny Prigozhin began on December 11 (after almost two months from the moment of the death of Dmitry Menshikov) after a provocative message in the Press Service of Prigogine:
“The city was denied the burial of the former prisoner, the Wagner PMC fighter on the alley of the Glory of the Beloostrovsky cemetery ... This is the fact of vandalism and mockery of the memory of our dead brothers ... We will achieve it to be buried on the Heroes Alley, and after that we will figure out who is right, who is to blame. And we will pull out by the ears of each bastard and attract him to the answer. ”
Twice in one message, Prigozhin’s employees called the alley differently, but this is half a badge. The trouble is that neither the alleys of glory, nor the alley of heroes, there were never in the Beloostrovsky cemetery. In addition, it is prohibited by law to bury not a soldier in a military plot.
As the Novoostrovsky cemetery told the “New” in the administration of the Beloostrovsky cemetery, representatives of Dmitry Menshikov asked for the burial of the hero who died in a special military operation on the Alley of Glory. By exception, they were offered to bury Menshikov simply on the military station, but they emphasized that even for this it is necessary to order the “specialized service of St. Petersburg on funeral issues”, a subordinate committee on the industrial policy of Smolny. Kodataev did not suit such an answer, and they went the other way.
On December 13, Prigozhin PRAR published a letter to Alexander Beglov from the head of the “League of Protection of the interests of veterans of local wars and military conflicts” by Andrei Troshev ( retreating Colonel, Afghan and Chechen Wars, Hero of Russia, “LPR” and “DNR”, in 2017 he was called the “closest comrade -in -arms” commander "Wagner" Dmitry Utkin ).
Troshev reproached the mayor for the “unprecedented, criminal and unacceptable oblivion of the death of the brave defenders of the Motherland, who died the death of the death,” he reminded Beglov that he “regularly violated the rights of participants in a special military operation,” and demanded “immediately eliminate bureaucratic barriers and make a decision to burial” Menshikov.
Smolny answered in silence that it is characteristic of all public conflicts Prigozhin and Beglov: the first always raises a lot of noise, rushes in high -profile accusations, the second - like a fish, and we are impenetrable, like concrete.
However, this time Beglov trembled and, trying to either shift responsibility, or find a way out of the situation, turned to the military enlistment office.
On December 14, the city government sent a letter to the chief military commissar of St. Petersburg Sergey Kachkovsky. Officials complained: “Appeals about burial in St. Petersburg of the dead participants in a special military operation, who are not military personnel of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation and employees of law enforcement agencies,” and asked the military commissar to inform the dead and how to bury them.
Kachkovsky, apparently, realizing that there is no law that allows you to bury the former prisoner in the military plot, which entered the ranks of the private military company, which was missing in the Russian legal field, did not answer Beglov and his team.
And Prigozhin provoked such a step of the governor to further actions. He stated that he sent out open letters to the chairman of the State Duma of the Russian Federation Vyacheslav Volodin, the speaker of the Soviet Valentina Matvienko, her deputy Andrei Turchak, as well as all the leaders of the Duma factions.
The businessman complained to the high leadership of the country (in all messages the text is identical): “The situation is egregious: they did not even find a place in St. Petersburg in St. Petersburg ... I ask you to send a special emergency commission to St. Petersburg so that it would understand the anti -state coaling in the city, led by the Governor”. In addition, according to Prigozhin, a closed letter from Andrei Troshev on the same topic went to President Putin.
None of the addressees publicly reacted to the appeal. Only the former deputy minister of defense, now - the head of the Duma defense commission Andrei Kartapolov, on December 16, spoke to Moscow journalists: "The deceased in a battle for the Motherland worthy of the highest military honors during the burial, regardless of the composition of which formation he fought."
It is not known what worked in a scandalous story, but on the same day, on December 16, the vice-governor of St. Petersburg Kirill Polyakov (oversees the ritual sphere) reported on his page on the VKontakte social network: “Alley of Valor is opened at the Beloostrovsky cemetery, where both military workers and the dead of other categories, participating in specialized specialization in Ukraine. We honor the heroes fighting for our homeland, and give the proper memory the fallen death of the brave, ”the official emphasized.
In the comments to this post, Petersburgers immediately wrote:
“The burial of the dead PMC fighters on the alleys of glory can be incorrectly understood by the personnel military. The guy was sitting in a colony for violation of the law, then made a choice to go to the front as part of PMCs, died. The alley of valor is a place worthy of the rest of the guys who managed to turn their lives and become real heroes. But with all due respect to the deceased guy who defended the interests of the country, you need to soberly evaluate reality. Stop mocking! "
“The name“ Alley of Valor ”has no legal significance,” Boris Vishnevsky, deputy of the St. Petersburg parliament, told the “new” deputy. -If officials called the alley of valor a street, lane or travel (any object of the road network), then this would require a decision of the toponymic commission, a resolution of the city government, etc. And in cemeteries all names are conditional. Maple alley, berry or some other serve just to navigate in the territory, so that a person can easily find the right burial. Legally, these names are not approved by no one, except for the administration of the cemetery. And with her, I think, Smolny quickly agreed.
"Do not throw our own"
The body of the unfortunate Menshikov by the time of the creation of the alley of valor has been waiting for the burial for two months. Bureaucratic barriers were eliminated and, it would seem, nothing was interfering with burial. Nevertheless, the organizers of the noisy process with the funeral were in no hurry.
As Andrei Moldovanov told the “New” Director of the Specialized Service of St. Petersburg on the funeral affairs, on December 17, representatives of Menshikov arrived at the Beloostrovskoye cemetery, examined the site in the Valor Avenue, did not make any complaints, said that they would go to draw up documents and disappeared.
The mysterious disappearance the next day, December 18, was clarified by Evgeny Prigozhin in his next public statement:
“In the city there is a mess in the city ... Today I have no solution: whether to bury Menshikov on the“ Valor Alley ”, which Smolny’s cunning -visible administration specially came up with to bury all evil spirits.”
“Stop mocking the body and bury a person,” unable to stand it, spoke out on December 20 in an interview with Fontanka, and then on his page in the “VK” vice-governor Kirill Polyakov. He clarified that from February to November, only according to the city administration (they admit that they know that they know about all cases of death in the zone, but only about those who are reported to the local authorities), 13 fighters of the Wagner PMC were buried in St. Petersburg. Quietly buried in civilian cemeteries in Pushkin, Krasnoye Selo, in Kolpino and St. Petersburg in the Smolensk cemetery.
“There were no problems with this,” Polyakov noted. - But all the buried relatives had. Apparently, they did not make it possible to use the situation in order to inflate a political scandal. After all, it is not customary to mock the corpses in our country ... But here is a guy ( Menshikov. - N.P. ) - an orphan. So they decided to use the fact that there are no relatives, they would not fit for him to be lagging behind and buried calmly.
This was the last attack in a two -week battle.
On December 24, Dmitry Menshikov was buried solemnly and pompous in a closed coffin in a closed coffin. His friends and relatives were not present at the funeral. But there were many other people who never knew the deceased.
The burial ceremony of the former prisoner Ryazan colony recruited in the Wagner PMC, close to Prigozhin, the media was announced as a public event. In order for everyone to visit it, from the nearest BROGENTA metro station to the cemetery (about 30 km) organized a free transfer. On four buses, schoolchildren, students, cadets, military personnel and pensioners were brought to the burial place. Not all of them could say who Menshikov is.
At the tomb of Dmitry, people who represented by public figures performed. The entrepreneur Alexander Kolos made a speech ( in 2021 he ran for deputies of the St. Petersburg Parliament from the Rodina party ):
“The seriously wounded Menshiks, bleeding, did not leave the battlefield, refused to abandon his guys, refused to evacuate and died of blood loss. Just like our grandfathers and great -grandfathers in 1941-1945, when they drove the Nazis ... How then could they abandon their? To bury anywhere. We are not throwing our own. ”
Wreaths were laid on the grave: from the Wagner PMC, from the administration of the resort district of St. Petersburg, from residents of the Gdovsky district of the Pskov region (although Dmitry had nothing to do with Pskov). Before the burial of Menshikov, a volley of small arms was given.
After the ceremony, Prigozhin said: “We have ensured that the Wagner PMC, Dmitry Menshikov, was buried on the alley of the heroes of the Beloostrovsky cemetery.” And he added that he intends to open such alleys in cemeteries and in other cities of Russia.
Vice-governor Kirill Polyakov supported these plans: “The city government, at the request of relatives or other representatives of the dead, is ready to consider the opening of such alleys and other cemeteries of St. Petersburg.”
Nothing personal ...
Since last summer, reports about the funeral in different regions of Russia of the Wagner PMC are regularly appeared in the press. However, until now, the founder of a private military company did not need any special honors or the allocation of special alleys for such ceremonies.
On September 24, in Volgograd, 41-year-old Alexei Nagin, a PMC fighter, posthumously represented by the star of Russia, the star of the Hero of the “LPR” and Platinova Star of PMC Wagner, was buried in Volgograd in the Dimitrievsky cemetery.
“Alexei served in Chechnya for many years, then worked in the FSB special forces in Volgograd,” V1.ru told the Volgograd news agency. About the son of the deceased Yuri Nagin. - In 2014, Lesha was sent to the Crimea, he was there for two years. He prepared scouts, was an instructor. He himself also took part in the hostilities, was a scout-sniper. After the special forces I went to Syria, already as part of a PMC. He spent three years there. Then - to Libya, then - to Ukraine. There his combat path stopped.
The Governor of the Volgograd Region, Andrei Bocharov, arrived at the funeral of Evgeny Prigozhin, and not one of them mentioned a word about the need for a special place for the burial of Nagin, despite his awards and a military path.
There were no conflicts for the founder of PMCs with officials (due to a bad site in the cemetery or unworthy organization of the funeral), in other regions of Russia. For example, on January 8 in the Yaroslavl region, 23-year-old Wagnerovtsa Evgenia Losev was buried. There was no trooper volley above the cemetery, there was no honorary guard. Even the employees of the military registration and enlistment office did not appear to say goodbye to the deceased, which offended Losev’s relatives.
With 25-year-old Viktor Ulyanenko, buried on January 21 in the village of Krasnoselkup in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, there were even tougher. The deceased fighter of the PMC "Wagner" was also not provided by military honors. Representatives of the local administration also did not participate in the organization of the funeral and did not come to the grave. But Victor’s mother brought not this to tears. It was possible to deliver the body to a hard -to -reach red -hotel only by helicopter or on a complex winter road. The villagers turned to officials for help, but they refused them. Victor's father had to carry his son’s body to the cemetery in his own trailer.
Without a pump, they continue to bury the fighters of the Wagner PMC at the cemetery in the village of Baku (Krasnodar Territory). In December, the local administration officially confirmed that there is an agreement with the Wagner PMC on the burial of fighters in Baku. As follows from media publications, whose correspondents visited the place
All the graves of mercenaries recruited from the Russian colonies look the same here: typical wooden crosses, bright wreaths from the Wagner PMC and no photos.
On December 24, Evgeny Prigozhin said: "We must honor and remember not only the heroes of the Great Patriotic War, but also those who die now." But why exactly in St. Petersburg the entrepreneur so urgently needed an alley of heroes to buried those who left the prison cell, stood under the flag of PMCs and died? Почему именно здесь он проявил неуступчивость?
Причина, скорее всего, в конфликте Пригожина и Беглова. Дороги бизнесмена и чиновника круто разошлись, когда Беглов не поддержал на выборах в городской парламент кандидатов от партии «Родина», за которых, по данным СМИ, радел Пригожин. С тех пор основатель ЧВК «Вагнер» в чем только не обвинял губернатора: от профнепригодности и коррупции до «государственной измены». Были между ними и серьезные бизнес-противоречия. История с Аллеей Героев, как ни печально, похоже, еще один камень Пригожина, пущенный в огород Беглова и достигший цели, не связанной ни с СВО, ни с погибшими.