Guards private Roman Khristolyubov, 6th company: biography, awards

Forever in the memory of the inhabitants of Pskov, and all the Russians who know their history, will remain the feat of the Pskov paratroopers in early March 2000. Near the height of 787, near the Chechen village of Ulus-Kert, in an unequal battle with the prevailing number of militants, almost completely occupied the 6th company of the 104th regiment Airborne forces from Pskov. This price was blocked by the way Chechen militants, who intended to break out of the Argun gorge.

A total of 84 paratroopers died. Only six soldiers remained alive. It was according to their stories that it became possible to restore the course of events of that bloody drama. Here are the names of the survivors: Alexander Suponinsky, Andrei Porshnev, Yevgeny Vladykin, Vadim Timoshenko, Roman Khristolyubov and Alexei Komarov.

How it was?

29.02.2000 was finally taken by Shatoi, which allowed the federal command to interpret this as a signal about the final defeat of the "Chechen resistance."

President Putin listened to the report that "the tasks of the third stage of the North Caucasian operation have been carried out." Gennady Troshev, then acting as the commander of the United Group of Forces, noted that a full-scale military operation had come to an end, there were only a few local measures to destroy the hiding "escaped militants".

By this time, the landing of the tactical landing was cut the Itum-Kali-Shatili road, as a result, several bandit formations in Chechnya got into a strategic sack. The troops of the central operational grouping bandits methodically pushed along the Argun gorge to the north of the Georgian-Russian border.

According to intelligence, Khattab's militants were moving northeastward to Vedeno, where they had prepared mountain bases, warehouses and shelters. Khattab planned to seize a number of villages in the Vedeno district to secure a foothold in order to make a breakthrough to Dagestan.

The total length of the Argun gorge exceeds 30 km, it was really impossible to block all trails from it.

One of the most dangerous directions, where a breakthrough from the gorge could be accomplished, 104 regiments of the 76th Pskov Airborne Division covered themselves with soldiers.

Attack of militants

Khattab was chosen a simple but effective tactic: by fighting, he probed the weakened places, discovering which, he piled in there with all his might to jump out of the gorge.

On February 28, 2000, the militants launched a large-scale attack east of Ulus-Kert on the heights, where the 3rd company commanders were stationed under the command of Lieutenant Vasilyev. The detachments of Khattab failed to pass, a properly organized fire system forced them to retreat, while they retreated with considerable losses.

The second battalion controlled the dominant heights in the Sharoargun gorge.

The place between the rivers Sharo-Argun and Abazulgol was quite vulnerable. To exclude the possibility of penetration of bandit fighters, Major Sergey Molodtsov, commanded by 6 companies, was ordered to occupy an additional height about five kilometers from the settlement of Ulus-Kert.

Given that the company was moved to the unit recently, Lieutenant Colonel MN Evtyukhin, commanding the second battalion, insured him.

The soldiers had to go in full arms about fifteen kilometers to organize a base camp in the given square.

Among the nominated paratroopers was the guard of Private Khristolyubov Roman.

The difficulty of the march-throw

On the eve of the company's soldiers made a rather difficult transition Dombai-Arza, they could not get a full rest. They were armed only with small arms and grenade launchers. The prefix to the radio station, through which the hidden radio exchange was to be provided, was left on the base.

With them, in addition to water and food, several tents and burdock stoves were taken, which were extremely necessary when in a mountainous area at this time.

Within an hour, the soldiers advanced a distance of less than a kilometer. The lack of suitable sites in this mountainous forest area did not allow the paratroopers to be transferred by helicopter.

As the survivors, including Roman Khristolyubov, say, the transition was made at the limit of human capabilities.

Some military analysts believe that the decision of the command to transfer the 6th company to Isti-Kord was somewhat belated, so the deadlines were certainly not achievable.

Before sunrise, the paratroopers of the 6th company under the command of battalion commander Mark Evtyukhin were in place - in the interfluve of the Argument tributaries in the south of Ulus-Kert.

Confrontation with militants

As it turned out, a company of paratroopers, in which the platoon and two reconnaissance groups (a total of 90 people) were reinforced, was on the way of the two-thousandth group of Khattab fighters on the 200-meter isthmus.

According to radio intercepts, the Huttabovs were the first to discover the enemy.
Two detachments of bandits moved parallel to the channels of Sharo-Argun and Abazulgol. They decided to bypass the paratroopers who rested after a difficult crossing at an altitude of 776.

In the lead were the scouts in two groups of 30 fighters, followed by two detachments of combat soldiers for 50 people.

The scouts of the senior lieutenant Aleksei Vorobiev discovered one of these reconnaissance groups, which prevented a sudden attack on the paratroopers.

Near the foot of the height of the height of the scouts, the scouts managed to quickly destroy the gangster avant-garde, but then dozens of militants rushed into the attack, our fighters had to withdraw to the main forces, taking with them the wounded.

Rota immediately entered into a counter battle. During the time when the scouts were able to keep the enemy, the battalion commander made the decision to secure at 776 height to prevent the militants from leaving the blocked gorge.

The commanders of bandit groups Idris and Abu-Walid on the radio station were asked to let the battalion commander pass them, and a decided refusal was received.

The nature of the battle

As evidenced by the survivors, including Kirov, Roman Khristolyubov, the gangsters to our positions was simply a barrage of mortar and grenade launcher fire.

The highest heat of battle was reached by midnight. The superiority of the attackers was very significant, but the paratroopers stood firm. In some places, the opponents engaged in hand-to-hand fighting.

Among the first sniper bullet in the neck was killed by the comrades S. Molodov.

From the command of assistance was only to support artillery. Aviation was dangerous to use, so as not to catch their own. By the morning of March 1, Isti-Kordu had produced more than a thousand shells.

From the flanks of bandits defended the riverbeds, which prevented them from making the necessary maneuvers to provide real assistance to the paratroopers.

The enemy was placed ambushes along the coast, not allowing to approach the Argun tributaries.

The failure ended with the first attempts to cross the river. Only by the morning of March 2 the paratroopers from the 1st company managed to penetrate to the height of 776.

The long-awaited help

Some "respite" in battle came at three o'clock in the morning and lasted a couple of hours. The Mujahideen did not attack, although the mortar and sniper fire did not stop.

The regimental commander, Sergei Melentyev, after listening to the report of the commander of the battalion Evtyukhin, gave the order to continue to restrain the enemy's attack and expect help.

When it became clear that the ammunition in the company was not enough to repel attacks by militants, the radio battalion commander requested assistance from Major A. Dostovalov, who was his deputy and was about a kilometer away. Under his command was a dozen fighters.

They managed, through a continuous flurry of fire, to break through to the perishing comrades, holding back the bandit attacks for two hours.

This served as a powerful emotional charge for the fighters of the 6th company, who believed that they would not be abandoned.

The platoon was able to hold out for about two hours of combat. By five o'clock, Khattab had been thrown into the attack by suicide bombers - "white angels". The whole height was surrounded by two battalions. Part of the platoon was cut off and shot in the back.

The soldiers of the company itself had to gather ammunition from wounded and killed comrades.

End of battle

The forces of the opponents were clearly unequal, on the part of the paratroopers, fighters and officers were constantly killed.

The machine-gunner Roman Khristolyubov, along with ordinary Aleksei Komarov, tried to carry away Alexei Vorobyev, commander of the platoon of the Starley intelligence, from the shelling. He received bullets in the stomach and chest, his legs were broken, but he continued to fire at the enemy. He managed to destroy the field commander Idris, who heads the Khattab intelligence. Vorobyov ordered both paratroopers to go for a breakthrough to their own, and he covered their withdrawal with fire from the machine gun.

As Roman Khristolyubov recalls, closer to the morning of March 1, the snow around was completely red with blood.

The battle by this time passed into focal melee fights.

In the last attack, militants met only a few machine guns. According to some reports, battalion commander Mark Evtyukhin, when he realized that the company had to live literally for several minutes, was given a command to the expiring blood captain Romanov, so he caused a "fire on himself."

The Romanovs transferred their coordinates to the battery. At six-ten, as indicated in the documents of the Ministry of Defense of Russia, the connection with Evtyukhin was interrupted. He shot militants until the ammunition ran out. A sniper bullet struck him in the head.

After battle

The soldiers of the first company, occupying a height of 705.6 on March 2, saw a terrible picture before them: the forest stood as if trimmed, shells and mines broke all trees, the ground around was strewn with the corpses of hundreds of militants, the remains of our guys, who were less than a hundred, Company point.

Soon, Udugov posted eight photos of Russian servicemen who died in that battle. The photographs show that many bodies were cut to pieces. With those who still showed signs of life, the bandits massacred, the survivors Alexander Souponinsky, Andrei Porshnev, Roman Khristolyubov and others told about it.

Art. Sergeant Suponinsky said that when the battalion commander Evtyukhin and his deputy Dostavalov were killed, only Kozhemyakin left the officers who had both legs broken. Superninsky and Porshnev fired cartridges for the shot. When the bandits got close to him, the wounded commander ordered the men to jump into a deep ravine. Together with ordinary Piszhnev, Suponinsky half an hour was under automatic assault by fifty bandits. Then the wounded soldiers managed to crawl away, where they could not find the militants.

The wounded soldier Eugene Vladykin ran out of ammunition, which his bandits found unsuccessfully trying to get information from him. Twice having smashed his head with a machine-gun butt, they threw him, counting him dead.

The wounded soldier Vadim Timoshenko hid in the dams of trees and managed to escape.

Honored awards

For participation in this battle Alexander Suponinsky received the Hero of Russia.

Heroes of Russia were awarded posthumously dead paratroopers in number of 21 people.

The survivors Andrei Porshnev, Alexei Komarov, Yevgeny Vladykin, Vadim Timoshenko and Roman Khristolyubov received awards too. All of them are Knights of the Order of Courage.

Peaceful life

After the demobilization, the survivors in this terrible meat grinder paratroopers gradually found themselves in a peaceful life.

Roman Khristolyubov, whose biography "on a citizen" is similar to many of his peers, relates himself to the middle class. He, like many, has his own apartment and car. He lives in the city of Kirov.

In his family, an eleven-year-old son named Yegor is growing up. There is an interesting work. Roman Khristolyubov is the executive director of one of the companies that performs construction and finishing works.