Massacre in New Aldy. On the anniversary of the genocide

On the eve of the decade of "cleansing" in the Chechen village of Novye Aldy, where 56 civilians were killed on February 5, 2000, a press conference was held in Moscow dedicated to the anniversary of those tragic events. During the meeting, a documentary film "Aldy. No statute of limitations" was shown, based on video evidence and video footage of a survey of witnesses to the tragedy.

10 years ago, a mass murder of civilians in the village of Novye Aldy in Chechnya was committed, 56 people were shot - old men, women and one child, and the perpetrators have not yet been punished. This was stated at the beginning of the press conference by Oleg Orlov, Chairman of the Board of the Human Rights Center "Memorial".

"A terrible crime was committed, and no one was punished. Now in Russia there is a statement that one can no longer tolerate that lawlessness, that wave of violence and lawlessness that representatives of law enforcement agencies are committing against us, the citizens of Russia," Orlov said. .

He suggested that the current development of events could be a "direct and logical consequence" of what happened 10 years ago in Chechnya and, in particular, in the village of Novye Aldy. "The cleansing was carried out mainly by the forces of the St. Petersburg riot police," the "Caucasian Knot" quotes Orlov. - The report that we published also speaks of the Ryazan riot police. - versions".

"Memorial" reconstructs the picture of events

According to "Memorial", on February 5, 2000, in the morning and afternoon in the village of Novye Aldy and the adjacent areas of Grozny, what is called the "zachistka" took place. It was carried out by different units belonging to different power departments. Witnesses report that both young soldiers, obviously called up for military service, and older armed men in camouflage uniforms took part in the operation. Most likely, they were either contract servicemen or employees of special detachments of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. According to the stories of witnesses and victims, it was they who committed violence against civilians. Young soldiers were mostly in the cordon.

It is important to note that different units behaved differently towards the population. The servicemen who came from the north and "cleansed" the northern part of the village of Novye Aldy committed murders of local residents. In the village, these units reached the quarters adjacent to Khoperskaya Street from the south. The units that carried out the "cleansing" of the southern part of the village behaved differently: they robbed houses, behaved extremely rudely with the local population, but did not commit murders.

In the adjacent neighborhoods of Grozny, servicemen also committed murders that day. For example, in the village of Chernorechye, at least five of its inhabitants were killed. In the district of Okruzhnaya, on the Podolskaya street closest to the village of Novye Aldy, five people were killed, four from the Estamirov family, among them a one-year-old child and a woman in her ninth month of pregnancy.

A resident of the village, Suleiman Magomadov, told the Memorial staff that Russian soldiers advancing along Matash Mazaev Street from the northern outskirts to the center of the village, moved from house to house, killing everyone who got in their way.

They committed their first murders in house No. 170, where Sultan Temirov and his neighbors, 35-year-old Isa Akhmadov and 70-year-old Rizvan Umkhaev, became their victims.

According to Magomed Dzhamoldaev, Sultan Temirov was with him and Ilyas Amaev on Tsimlyanskaya Street that morning. When the Sultan learned that the Russian servicemen who had entered the village were setting fire to houses in which no residents were found, he went to his place - he wanted to meet the soldiers there, and after inspecting the house, return back.

Rizvan Umkhaev was at home at that time. Zeyba, his wife, said that Musa Akhmadov came to them and asked the old man to go to him. As a young man, of fighting age, he was afraid that the "feds" would suspect him of a militant, and asked Rizvan to be a witness. Perhaps on the way they met Sultan Temirov.

Isa Akhmadov and Rizvan Umkhaev were shot by Russian servicemen. They showed particular cruelty towards Sultan Temirov: he was beheaded (apparently by a shot from an underbarrel grenade launcher) and actually dismembered by machine gun fire along the spine.

The bodies of Sultan Temirov, Isa Akhmadov and Rizvan Umkhaev were discovered by neighbors by the evening of February 6. At house number 162 on the same street, Gula Khaidaev, who was in his 73rd year, was found. He lay at the gate, holding his passport outstretched in front of him. The nature of the wounds - bullets hit him in the kneecap, in the heart and in the forehead - allows us to conclude that he was shot at close range.

Magomed Gaitayev, 72, was also shot dead on the pavement in front of the gates of house No. 140. The bullet hit him in the back of the head and at the exit turned his left cheek. A passport was found in his pocket. Eyewitnesses who visited the scene of the murder noted the following details: a large pool of blood spread around the dead old man, which the dog lapped. And his glasses were neatly, by the handle, hung on the fence.

“What happened there? The end of January 2000. The militants leave Grozny. From the beginning of February, sweeps begin, accompanied by a mass of offenses and crimes. The village of Novye Aldy is the southern outskirts of Grozny. At that moment there was not a single militant there, moreover, On February 4, units of the Russian troops repeatedly entered this village.They entered there without encountering any resistance, the servicemen did not commit any illegal actions in this village, and they immediately developed normal relations with the local population, "said Oleg Orlov.

However, the next day, February 5, other units entered the village, the basis of which, according to the HRC "Memorial", were fighters of the St. Petersburg OMON.

“They carried out a cleansing operation, which resulted, instantly, from the very beginning, into some kind of orgy of lawlessness. Massive robberies, extortion, violence, burning houses, murders. Two days after these crimes, residents were able to record on videotape the consequences of what was happening there "And the materials from this tape became indisputable evidence of the crimes committed. Then, in 2000, in the spring, the Human Rights Center "Memorial", having collected information, quickly managed to publish a book about this. Its name is "Zachistka"," he said at a meeting with journalists the chairman of the Board of the Human Rights Center "Memorial".

Events in Novye Aldy through the eyes of an eyewitness

Elvira Dombaeva, a witness of the February 2000 events, a resident of Novye Aldy, who had lost relatives at the time, who was present at the press conference, said that everything that was in the film shown at the Independent Press Center was true. "No matter how cruel it may be - the truth that you would not want to see and experience," said Elvira Dombaeva.

“We were waiting for February 5 - it was a long-awaited day. We were waiting for it under bombing, under shelling, we thought that the war would finally end. During that war, we were in the basement on Tsymlyanskaya Street. We were warned, they said that animals, not people, were walking along our street, not people, they offered to return to the basement," said Elvira Dombaeva.

“We thought everyone had left, but when we began to look out into the street, we saw the bodies of people there, we saw that houses were on fire. Everything was on fire. Before this day, the previous war turned out to be just nothing. people. It was not 1-2 shots - 26,27,28 shots to the body. They didn’t just shoot - they knocked out their brains. We then collected these brains and put them back. How can I forget it? But how to live? And today, not in the prosecutor's office, nowhere is this case moving forward,” says Elvira Dombaeva.

According to her, they killed the defenseless, helpless, brutally dismembered people, sometimes it was impossible to collect the body in order to wash it before burial according to Muslim customs.

“Today, all the residents of the areas that suffered from such actions are dead people. Walking corpses. They don’t live today, they don’t exist. And those who killed and shot, they went unpunished. They live and enjoy,” Dombaeva said.

As Tatyana Chernikova, a lawyer for Memorial Human Rights Center, noted at a press conference, the European Court of Human Rights, to which relatives of the victims applied, studied numerous testimonies of witnesses, reports of non-governmental organizations, including reports of the Memorial Human Rights Center and Human Rights Watch, and recognized that the investigation into the massacre in Russia is ineffective. "However, the Russian side ignored the decision of the European Court," Chernikova said.

"Aldy. No statute of limitations"

Yesterday, at a press conference in Moscow, a half-hour film "Aldy. No statute of limitations" was shown. At the same time the film was presented to the public of St. Petersburg.

The tape is based on documentary video footage made by residents of the Novye Aldy settlement on February 9, 2000, and interviews with eyewitnesses of the events recorded by Memorial staff at the request of the film's authors in January-February 2009. Human rights activist Natalya Estemirova, who was abducted in Chechnya and killed last summer, took part in the creation of the film.

In the winter of 1999-2000, the settlement of Novye Aldy, as well as other settlements in the suburbs of Grozny, was constantly subjected to rocket and bomb attacks and artillery fire from the federal military forces. The shelling continued even after the militants had already left Grozny. Then the inhabitants of the village of Novye Aldy decided to send a delegation to the military with a request to cease fire.

"On February 3, 2000, about 100 residents of the village, raising a white flag, went to the positions of the military, which were stationed in the vicinity of the village. However, they were fired upon without any warning. As a result, one of the local residents, a Russian nationality," one of the employees of the Human Rights Center "Memorial" in Grozny told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

On the morning of February 5, 2000, special police detachments entered Novye Aldy (according to the Memorial Human Rights Center, these were OMON of St. Petersburg and the Ryazan Region). Within a few hours, more than 50 people became victims of extrajudicial killings, including a one-year-old child, nine women and eleven elderly residents of the village.

To date, no one has been held accountable for what happened in Novye Aldy. In 2007, Russia lost several cases in the European Court of Human Rights. It was recognized that Russia as a state is to blame for the tragedy. The Strasbourg court ordered the Russian authorities to pay compensation to the injured party in the amount of about 150,000 euros.

February 5, 2016. Dear Aldins, on this terrible day for you on February 5, we want to express our condolences and sympathy to all the inhabitants of the Novye Aldy village, to bring our repentance for the crime committed not on our behalf. On this day, we will remember all those innocently killed and abducted.

On February 5, 2015, an evening in memory of the victims of the tragedy in the village of Novye Aldy was held in St. Petersburg

February 5, 2015 marks the 15th anniversary of the tragic events in Novye Aldy (Grozny) in the Chechen Republic.

On February 5, 2000, a large group of fighters from the St. Petersburg OMON entered the village of Novye Aldy, which carried out a “cleansing operation” for several hours - armed people robbed houses and shot residents: men and women, old people and children, Chechens and Russians. The Memorial Human Rights Center documented the killing of 56 civilians. The “cleansing” in Novye Aldy has become a symbol of the atrocities and brutality of the second war in Chechnya.
Despite the large number of evidence and testimonies, the crime has not been investigated, the criminals have not yet been found and punished. Thanks to the efforts of human rights activists, the criminal case has not been closed, but it is not actually being investigated.
In 2006-2007, the European Court of Human Rights issued several judgments, which recognized that the Russian side had violated the rights of the inhabitants of Novye Aldy, in particular, the right to life.
Since 2007, the initiative group “With kindness and peace from St. Petersburg” has been operating, whose members organize events related to the establishment of friendly relations between St. Petersburg residents and residents of Aldy.
At the evening, those present remembered the dead and signed a new appeal addressed to the Prosecutor General.
Activists of the group "With kindness and peace from St. Petersburg" read the memories of the victims of the tragedy and poems by Chechen poets.
We have no illusions that the case will be solved in the near future. But it is important for us that the perpetrators and victims remember that the case is not closed. And so that the relatives of the dead know that there are people in St. Petersburg who are not indifferent to their grief.

The evening began with a screening of the film “Aldy. No statute of limitations."

Specially for the evening, a film was prepared ""Cleansing. Fifteen years later. Interview with a child psychologist."

The evening is held jointly by the organization "House of Peace and Non-Violence", the party "Yabloko" and the initiative group "With kindness and peace from St. Petersburg."

May 16, 2014 From May 8 to May 15, 2014, one of the Alda schoolchildren, Akhmed Dudayev, the winner of the photo contest "Autumn in Grozny", completed an internship in photography in St. Petersburg. .

February 14, 2014. We have new Exhibitions .

February 5, 2014 Evening. An evening in memory of the tragedy of February 5, 2000 was held in St. Petersburg today. It was prepared by the public organization "House of Peace and Non-Violence" and the St. Petersburg branch of the Yabloko party. At the same time, video communication was organized with the residents of Aldi.

Residents of Aldin and St. Petersburg remembered the dead, read poems, letters, stories dedicated to the tragic events. They discussed the arrival of the Aldins in St. Petersburg last summer and the forthcoming trip of the St. Petersburgers to Aldy. Irina Anatolyevna Tishchenko performed "Chechen Rasody" by the famous St. Petersburg composer Sergei Mikhailovich Slonimsky. Despite the fact that Slonimsky's compositions are often included in the repertoire of the conservatory and leading concert halls, this work is almost impossible to hear on the big stage. Public performances are hampered by the "inconvenient" title of the rhapsody, which the composer flatly refused to change.

Dear residents of Aldin, today, on the anniversary of the tragic events of February 5, 2000 in the village of Novye Aldy, we want to express our sympathy and condolences to you. Together with you, we mourn for your loved ones,
dead and missing in this inhuman cleansing, which has become a terrible symbol of the second Chechen war.

The people who brought so much grief and suffering to your families did not represent us and our
city, killed and robbed not on our behalf.

Together with you, we keep the memory of the irreparable losses of that day and that war. We are doing everything in our power to ensure that such tragedies do not happen again.

December 26, 2013 Dear Aldins! We wish you a Happy New Year. You can see and hear our wishes here:

August 28, 2013. Completed work on "Petersburg - Aldy 3, or" We wish you happiness ..."

8 August. Dear friends! We congratulate you on the holiday of Uraza-Bayram, we wish you peace, kindness, joy!

We continue to work on a film about the events of those days when Aldin schoolchildren got to know St. Petersburg and St. Petersburg residents. The first thirty minutes have been edited, but that's not all.

July 16, 2013 In Aldy, in the school yard, an oak tree brought from St. Petersburg was planted. This is a fellow of those two seedlings that we planted on the alley leading to the Agrarian University in Pushkin, near St. Petersburg.

Another oak tree from St. Petersburg will have to appear in front of the Grozny city library. (But since the place is crowded, while the oak is gaining strength in another, more peaceful place.)

July 12, 2013 Dear friends! Sorry that the news was not updated for a long time: they were preparing for the arrival of schoolchildren from Aldi. And so the trip took place. . A film is being prepared along the way.

05.02.2013 – ON THE THIRTEENTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE TRAGEDY IN NOVIE ALDI in the Anna Akhmatova Museum in the Fountain House
documentaries will be screened:
"ALDA. NO LIMITATION DATE" (18+) AND "SEVEN DAYS THAT..." (6+)

January 21, 2013. All materials on the arrival of teachers from Aldy to St. Petersburg are posted on the website.
Dear friends! A folder of photo files for event participants has been prepared. Photos can be sent by e-mail (18 MB). The photos have already been sent to Aslanbek, so you can ask him at school.

January 9, 2013 ended the trip of teachers from Aldy to St. Petersburg. Materials posted on the site are not yet complete. They will be finalized after January 15th.

27th of December. Books were sent to the libraries of Chechnya. We didn't expect this...

Dear Aldins!

Members of the organization House of Peace and Non-Violence and St. Petersburg residents who are not indifferent to the history of Aldy, we all wish you a Happy New Year!

Elena Vilenskaya, Elena Smirnova, Larisa Varzanova, Irina Prokhorova, Natasha Neterenko, Ekaterina Sokiryanskaya, Nikolai Rybakov, Rip Griffith, Anna Griffith, Larisa Dmitrieva, Ilya Berdyshev, Alexei Devotchenko, Bekh-Ivanov Tamara and Dmitry, Marina and Mark Dodson, Alexei Nikanorov, Alena Nikanorova.

To date, all materials received for the site have been published. If someone has submitted materials and did not find them on the site, please contact me.

Looking forward to new arrivals!

Alexey Nikanorov

About the tragedy in Novye Aldy, as well as about the entire Chechen tragedy in general, you need to shout with a wild voice at all intersections! The film about Aldy and other films about the crimes of the Russian military in Chechnya need to be shown on a wide screen all over the world, including in the Hague and Strasbourg courts!
And when peace finally comes to Chechnya, it is necessary, at least during this century, to return to this topic again and again, just as we return to the Gulag and the Holocaust! For not only the number of victims determines the significance for humanity of this or that mass crime. The main thing here is the degree of moral decline of that part of humanity that is involved in this crime, and the degree of indifference to it (we are supposedly not affected!) of its other part, which is indirectly involved in this crime anyway.

Take a look at this photo, scanned from a magazine of Russian special services. Selected "army" of the FSB, more like a bandit group, which, in fact, these "fighters" are. The hirelings of the Kremlin fascist are bastards gathered across the expanses of Russia, who came to burn, steal and kill. You need to remember the faces of these marauders, twinklers and murderers, and like the apple of your eye, keep photographs and their names. Sooner or later, the time of Judgment will come. Such crimes have no statute of limitations.

GULAG. barbed wire

In blessed memory of Viktor Alekseevich Popkov
dedicated to...

Go away!
Animals are following us!
They are ordered to kill!
Unfortunately, few people in Russia remember February 5 (yes, probably, few people, unfortunately, even know) that this is an unusual day. Another anniversary of the terrible crime committed by federal troops in the Chechen village of Novye Aldy (a suburb of Grozny). On this day, a hundred Russian military men (according to the testimony of the villagers, contractors), without insignia and with persons smeared with soot for camouflage, entered the village and set about to the methodical destruction of the inhabitants, killing them in their homes and on the street, and leaving dozens of corpses behind.
No, these were not unmotivated murders. There was a formal motive, an external pretext for reprisals. Drunken, often barely on their feet, soldiers extorted money from the villagers without hesitation. If there was no money or there was little of it, rings, earrings, gold teeth were quite suitable ... If there was not even this, the person was killed. Neither exhortations nor pleas helped: “Guys, do not kill! I have small children!”

However, there was another, true motive for the cruelest reprisal against the inhabitants of Novye Aldy. During the assault on Grozny, the village ended up in the rear of the Chechen resistance forces, two kilometers from their positions, and, naturally, the militants passed through it more than once, and when, retreating, they had to leave their positions, some of them found a short-lived shelter in this village . Throughout December and January, the federals mercilessly shelled the village with heavy guns and bombed it. Residents with children and the elderly hid in basements, making rare forays to the spring for water. This wild situation brought old people to heart attacks and strokes; in damp basements people died of pneumonia; many of those who tried to deliver water to their families were left under Russian bombs. In two months, 75 fresh graves appeared in the village ...

But to the federal command, in particular to generals Vladimir Shamanov, Gennady Troshev, Valery Manilov and, of course, the commander of the United Group of Forces Viktor Kazantsev, who was responsible for everything that happened then in Chechnya, this seemed not enough. When on February 4, documents were being checked in the village, the soldiers, leafing through their passports, uttered some strange words for the villagers: “Go away! Animals are following us! They have orders to kill!”

The next day the massacre began.
Many of the dead, contrary to Islamic tradition, were not buried for a long time, some - until mid-March. Everyone was waiting for the police and the prosecutor’s office to arrive, to record everything, record it, and take the necessary investigative actions ... They waited in vain: the Russian authorities were not at all interested in the incident being investigated, much less publicized (“Novaya Gazeta” No. 4 (647 ), January 22-28, 2001, p. 17, "Murder or execution?")

But already on the 4th day, a strange-looking man appeared in the village - long-haired, in a cassock, with a huge gray beard. An Orthodox novice, who is also a well-known peacemaker and human rights activist, an employee of the Moscow "Memorial" Viktor Alekseevich Popkov brought a cameraman to Novye Aldy. This is how the film was born - a documentary evidence of one of the terrible crimes of the Russian military on Chechen soil. A year later, on April 18, 2001, Viktor Popkov was mortally wounded in Chechnya by an unknown man in a mask, and on June 2 he died in a Moscow hospital. He was also killed for this film.

Here are some fragments of this film document, very expressive in its realism (frame-by-frame recording)…

In a rural cemetery, a group of older Chechens are burying two people. They are put in the same grave, the bodies are wrapped in blankets... On the faces of those present there is an expression of sorrow, hopelessness, some kind of persecution...
An elderly Chechen turns to the camera and says:

- “When the militants came out of Aldy, the elders gathered and went to the Russians. There was such a colonel Lukashev ... We explained that there were no militants in the village, you can go in, but if you don’t believe, “we will remain hostages with you or we will go ahead of you ...”
On the 4th of February there was a passport check, a regular check, and on the 5th other feds came. What was there! Do not pass! Soldiers are drunk! Stoned! According to our data, 84 people were killed, among them - women, old people, children! Killed in houses, in cellars, on the street! Killed only because they did not have enough money to pay off!”
Another elderly Chechen. He wants to say something, but he can't: tears choke him. He lowers his head, rubs his face with his hand, tries to start talking... And he can't!

This is one of the brothers, these two, who are now buried. There's a second brother over there. In the basement they covered themselves with the corpses of their father and another brother, and the soldiers did not see them.
We see the speaker. This is an old man.

Then the Russians set fire to the house, and before that they took away all the things…
The elderly Chechen who spoke first:

According to the soldiers themselves, who came on February 5: this is the 245th regiment, the 6th company.
In the barn - an old man and an old Chechen woman. The woman is in a headscarf, her hands are mournfully folded in front. She says:

My two sons and husband are buried here. (Panorama over fresh graves). They are innocent of nothing. They went to their nephew to cover the roof, and when they returned ... (angrily) Who are the killers ?! Whose are they?! Bar-va-ry!” (Crying) “They killed my good sons! (with anguish). My pure sons and husband! They left me alone!
Panorama over fresh graves. Voice of the old woman behind the scenes:

- ... Another neighbor! They dragged my dead son and they killed him! Help-mo-gi-te!!! (Sobbing)
A 55-year-old Chechen takes her away. She sobs and continues to lament:

Never picked up a weapon in my life! My sons are not guilty of anything!!!
An elderly Chechen sat down at the fresh grave. Not far away is another middle-aged Chechen in a knitted cap. He squatted down next to a dead man lying on a stretcher, about 55 years old. On the chest of the deceased is his hat. A Chechen in a knitted hat holds a passport in his hands and, looking into it, says:

This is Khaperskaya street. Before you is a citizen of Chatura Viktor Platonovich. Ukrainian. He was also killed. I went to help a neighbor, returned home and now ...
He places the passport on the dead man's chest.

Passport pierced by a bullet!
An elderly Chechen in a sweater and a fur hat:

The feds came supposedly to check passports ...
Panorama of two male corpses. The voice of an elderly Chechen behind the scenes:

- ... And then two brothers were killed - Guna and Omar ... The men were 50 years old. One of them was shot in the eye. Terribly, a bloody mass, he flowed out.
The camera returns to this frame again and again.

... Kudozov Guna and Omar Kudozov ... The Russians left, and the brothers are still lying there ... "
Again, an elderly Chechen is in the frame.

It happened on February 5th. Tsimlyanskaya 88.
Panorama of these two murdered men. One of them, the one who was shot in the eye, has his hands in his pockets (he did not even have time to take them out).

Two other male corpses. Men aged 45-50. One has a head in a dried-up bloody puddle.
Voice behind the scene:

They came and shot at close range civilians who were not guilty of anything. This…
We see close one killed, then another.

... Sampash Sultanovich and Khazbulatov Musa. Both - shots in the head ...
Panorama of these two dead.

... All fellow villagers know that they are not involved in anything bad. These are peaceful people, good workers.
Against the background of the wall of the house - an elderly Chechen woman. Clasping her hands in front of her, looking intently in front of her, she tells (it is clear that it is very difficult for her to speak)

February 5, I don’t remember the day, they said that they were going, as the day before, to check passports. We had already left the basement and were in the house. Shooting started. This shooting was already close, but we still did not understand what was happening there. But people said: “There is horror! Horror! Fear!" And it was coming!..Suddenly we heard a noise nearby! And it became heard how someone persuaded the soldiers: “Don't kill, guys! I came to help a friend, to cover the roof! .. ”And the other was near the gate. They took him somewhere. And another was taken away. Where?!. Then it turned out that they were taken home - where they lived. They demanded money, gold, silver… Everything that they had had to be given away! One took the money from his father, how much he had, and they took him back. They didn’t finish it: they shot me on the way! We know exactly where he was shot.
The second lived further away. The wife pulled out everything that was - money, gold. I gave it all away, and he shot at their feet and said: “If you don’t give it yet, I’ll shoot!” Somehow they still survived. They seem to be lucky...

And there (she makes a gesture to the side) ... everyone was also shot. The only one left alive is Ahyad. And three of them - Sultan Dzhabrailov, Vakha, another Vakha - bespectacled (he always wore black glasses), I don’t remember their names ... They put these three on the spot. They knocked out their gold teeth... Then they came to us.

They put four of us - husband, son, me, granddaughter standing here next to me, and they say: “Three minutes for you! If you don’t give it!..”… Matyukami! What they wanted, they said! They didn't speak human language! They stank of vodka to impossibility! They were so drunk that they could hardly stand on their feet!

The soldier said to her husband: “Grandfather! Give me money, dollars, whatever you have - quickly!!” The husband pulled out more than a million - he had it prepared - and gave it away. And the soldier, when he counted them, says: “Grandfather! If you don't give it yet, I'll shoot you!" He spoke obscenely to an old man.

And so he counted, counted the money, and then at me: “And you are a grandmother, such and such! ..” I can’t say how he insulted us all. “I'll knock out your gold teeth now, and you - Khan!” - well, in Russian, again obscenely so. I told him: “Son! I have a prosthesis! - pulled it out, - These are simple teeth. Take it!" And he: “Hide, such and such!”, And I inserted it back.

And then he said to his son: “And you, so and so! I'll shoot you in the eye and kill you! You look like a fighter!"

My son has never been a militant! There were no militants on our street at all! Neither in the first war, nor in this war, not a single young man went to fight from our street. We are poor people. The rich have all left. And we are without anything: no food, no drink, no shelter, nothing left. The house has been smashed! Planes are bombs! Soldiers - guns, machine guns beat us! Killed! We sat in the cellars hungry, cold, there was nothing to eat. Barely got through it all. And now ... I pulled out the earrings, the granddaughter pulled out her earrings, and gave it to him. I say, "Son! Please take this! Leave us alive!"

And he again at his son: “I’ll shoot you in the eye now!” Then the father says: “Son! He has six children! Little ones! Do not kill him: I have only one!” And he kept threatening: “If you don’t give even one gram of gold, I will shoot everyone!” The son had teeth - crowns, he removed them. Granddaughter went home, brought these four crowns. Only then did he say (foul language): “Okay! All in the house! If you leave the house, I will shoot everyone!” Turned around and left! And he was drunk! Barely left our yard! Barely got out!

She cries:

"Ouch! It's hard to speak! How did we stay alive? I can't explain to you! Allah saved us! Allah has kept us alive! On February 5, Russian soldiers killed our guys and they wanted to kill us! And women and children!
Basement in one of the houses in Novye Aldy (filmed through a manhole). The lighting, however, is so dim that we can barely make out what an excited older female voice is saying off-screen:

There is a Russian woman lying dead! The soldier threw explosives! There she is on the bed! And there is the lemon that he threw. These were very good Russian people - our neighbors. We lived together. We took her with us to this basement and lived together for five months. She didn't do anything to anyone! What did she do wrong to them?! We are now afraid to pull her out of there: they mined her! She's already rotten! It stinks - lies there! We close the hatch with a lid so that cats and dogs do not gnaw it. She was a good woman!
The interior of another Chechen house in Novye Aldy. The bodies of three dead people lie on the floor. We see a thick man in a sweater in his 70s. He has a huge (matchbox-sized) hole in his head. Her brains spilled out onto the floor.

Abulkhanov Ahmed, born in 1921…
Another corpse. This is a woman in her 60s. Fingers twisted in death throes...

Abdulmejidova Zina, born in 1940…
The camera moves a little further - a dead man in his 50s. His head is large, his nose is prominent in his petrified face...

Hasan Abdulmejidov, 53 years old…”
Voice over from the host:

When were they killed?
Panorama of the bodies of the dead. Male voiceover:

February 5, 2000 at 14.30. Right in their house, in the living quarters where they were. They went in and shot at point-blank range.
We see the speaker. This is an old Chechen man, about 75 years old, in a padded jacket and a fur hat. At some distance stands a woman in her 50s. She is crying softly, wiping her eyes. The old man continues:

And here they are all lying here ... (he addresses the woman) The tenth today?
Female:

Ninth.
Old man:

They are all down! We brought it from the street to keep from dogs and cats. They put it in a cold room.
The old man says something to the woman in Chechen and she joins in the conversation. Her voice trembles like a crying baby. She really cries, pronouncing the words through her tears:

They were so looking forward to this day when the feds would come and say: "There is no more war! .." When they will not kill, and everything will be free! The Russians came in, ordered us all to leave, called dirty names... They (crying) - with machine guns, with grenades!.. They intimidated!.. They took gold, money - everything that was! And this old man... People saw. They promised to keep him alive. And when he gave the last penny, he was shot dead. "Old man! You are a fighter too! - they said. He asked them so, begged: “Well, what are you doing, guys!?”
... On February 5, almost a hundred people were killed in the village of Novye Aldy! .. (crying) ... There are no words! Here is the outcome of the war! We have seen with our own eyes what terrorism is! Tested for yourself! And on the 6th they announce that the war is over! How will it be over for us if we can never forget this day?! (Sobs).

The interior of another house in the village of Novye Aldy. Chechen 45 years old in a jacket and a fur hat. He tells:

Sultan Mukhaev, born 50… On February 5, at 2 pm, he came to me and asked for money. With him was a Russian soldier with a machine gun and a grenade in his hands. I say:
- How many do you need? Maybe I'll go and collect what I have? My father had only 75 rubles. I borrowed 150 rubles from a neighbor. I found 200 rubles. Gave! They still took him away, said: “Let us go!” And that night I found him dead! Killed!"

He looks at the camera in confusion and is silent for a long time. In the end, he says with some detached despair:

I can't find any more words!
The interior of another house in Novye Aldy. On the floor is a dead, elderly man in his 60s. Near him is an old Chechen man in a quilted jacket and a cap with earflaps. He says:

Ilyakhov Sultan Abaevich. He didn't do anything wrong to anyone. It was a harmless guy. Just lived for myself! And then on February 5, Russian soldiers came and killed him!
The interior of another house in Novye Aldy. A young guy in jeans and a leather jacket, bending down, straightens a fur coat on the floor, in which a dead old man is wrapped. We see the dead. Behind the scenes - the voice of this young Chechen:

This old man lived here. He went out to the shots to see who was killed. He went out and shot him. February 5, 2000. There was a purge.
Lead behind the scenes:

How old is he?"
Young Chechen behind the scenes:

76 years old, under eighty. A half-horn of bullets were fired at him. Removed gold teeth...
Another room. On the floor is a dead woman in her 45s. Next to her is the same young Chechen. Behind the scenes, his voice:

On the 5th of February there was a purge. The old people were killed. This woman, Koka Bisultanova, was the first to run out to look, and she was shot from a 5.45 machine gun right in the yard ...
On the floor is a dead woman, 38 years old. Same voice:

And this is Amani (name not legible). She ran after her. She saw how she fell and immediately rushed back into the house. And after her, a soldier ran into the house. He caught up with her and shot her!
We see one woman, then another. Same voice:

Gold teeth were pulled out of his mouth ... What was at home - money, everything ... In general, what they could have taken away, they took away! Looted!
These are the same two dead women, taken from a different angle. Near them is a Chechen woman in her 50s. Excitedly, she completes the young man's story:

This woman, I know, had ... Well, how women store (she points to her chest) - jewelry! (Excited) They got them out! They climbed everywhere and everywhere they climbed! Don't be shy! They scammed them far and wide! ..
She raises her voice:

The house has been turned upside down! And not only in this! In all houses! In all! How many corpses do we have?! How much did we count? I saw it all with my own eyes! I was the first to stumble upon these dead! ..
The woman's face is contorted from suffering. She's screaming:

Pulled out gold teeth! This woman had golden teeth. I don't have them! Pulled out! And not just anyone, but they! The old man was lying, my neighbor (name is illegible). Another old man! They were lined up like this! They also had their teeth pulled out!
Voice over from the host:

Who did this? Who are they"?"
A woman and a young man, standing at a distance, hasten to answer. They speak loudly, drowning out each other:

Soldiers! Russian soldiers! And internal troops!
The woman continues excitedly:

And they came to me and said: “Come on, stand against the wall!” I miraculously escaped! They directly said: “We have been ordered to shoot everyone! Destroy all living things! Kill everyone! And down there - You will go now - they will tell you ... The girl is 9 years old! Mother - 41 years old. And in front of the girl's eyes, her mother is being shot! ..
The woman continues angrily:

How much we are under bombardment!.. Everyone thought that soon all this would pass! The Russians will come and it will all be over!.. They will free us from this hell! Released! 84 people killed! It is unbearable! This issue must be raised at all costs!”
Young Chechen:

Two streets - 84 corpses!
Female:

It's impossible!
Lead behind the scenes:

In New Aldy!
The young man and woman speak at the same time, interrupting each other excitedly:

Yes! In Aldi! But we don't count all Aldy... These are just two streets in Novye Aldy village! Two - three quarters are small! And now - 84 corpses!
Female:

And down our street!
The young man, interrupting her:

The wounded were killed! "What are they suffering for? Better finish them off!" And they got it! The most terrible genocide was on that day! February 5th!
The interior of another house in the village. There is a dead man on the floor. His face is covered in blood, instead of the top of his head - a bloody mess. Behind the scenes, the voice of the same young Chechen sounds:

- ... (name and surname illegible). Year of birth - I don’t know exactly, but somewhere around 45. He was shot because he just went out into the street. They beat him hard, then shot him. There is no part of the head at all - they shot from the grenade launcher!
Another dead man. A deep bloody hole is visible at his temple. Same voiceover:

Dadaev Ibrgagim, he was with a friend. He also went out into the street, his - from the grenade launcher, too, and also - in the head. He is 50 years old. It’s just that he and his friend went out into the street, and they were shot! Both!
One of the courtyards in New Aldy. A dead man lies on the ground. There is gore on his face and neck, his hands are tied with wire. Behind the scenes, an excited female voice:

These are only those who did not have time to bury! Many buried their dead in the yards! Everyone needs to show this! Everyone! Let there be a forensic medical examination! Let it be! No old people, no women, no children - no one was spared! Not theirs! No Russian women, no Russian children, no Russian old people! Everyone in a row! They have no pity!
The interior of one of the houses in Novye Aldy. An elderly man points to a dead man lying on the floor:

It happened on February 5th. Podwiezhsky! Shot at point blank range!
A middle-aged man unrolls something wrapped in a blanket on the floor. It's a dead man in a fur hat. The male voice-over continues:

Dzhambekov Vakha. They bullied him terribly! They asked for money, they asked for gold! .. He is a beggar man! For the fact that he did not have money and gold, he was shot!
The interior of another house in Novye Aldy. Six male corpses lie in a row on the floor. Three are old men in their seventies, the other three are men in their forties or forties. Hands twisted in death throes... One has a bloodied face. Male voiceover:

These three are my cousins. This one is a second cousin. They went that day for water. They walked with flasks and right here on the corner they were all killed!
We see the dead from different sides. Protruding noses stand out above the frozen faces. Male voiceover:

This one is our neighbor, Shamil. He was found together with his cousin, with Musa. Here he is in front of you. Right at the gate they were killed! Completely innocent people were shot point-blank!
One of the courtyards in New Aldy. There are traces of a fire everywhere... The walls of a burnt house are visible. Male voiceover:

The owner of this house was taken away. That's what the neighbors said. You see - the house was set on fire, everything was ruined, broken, plundered!
Various broken burnt objects are scattered in the yard…

This order was introduced in Novye Aldy on February 5 by the federals! There is a sofa, windows, doors lying around! Where the owner was taken is unknown!
On the screen is a lemon. It hangs on the door of a small barn, fastened to a padlock with adhesive tape, from which some kind of ropes go in different directions. Behind the scenes - the same male voice:

It's all soldiers! They've taken over the shop! Everything that was there was taken away. Here is a lemon on the door! And inside hangs another lemon! And there are a lot of such lemons: on the doors, on the gates! They put up stretch marks and left. But there are no militants here, on whom are these lemons set?!
There are four people on the street - a Russian elderly woman of about 55 years old, a Chechen woman of about 45 years old (next to her is a Chechen boy of about ten years old) and a Russian old woman of about 75 years old in a blue headscarf.

Russian woman:

Did we come here on the 21st?
Chechen:

On January 21, when we were bombed and killed in Chernorechye (our relative was killed), we decided to move to Aldy. They moved to Aldy, brought with them everyone they could, neighbors ...
Russian woman, intruding into the conversation:

We gathered from several houses in one basement ...
Chechen:

With kids!
Russian woman (continues):

It was no longer possible! It was hell! We just heard bombs going off! Already there were no apartments, nothing! The only thing left to do was get the bomb in the basement! We were forced to leave from there. We came here, people sheltered us. We rested a little, and then began to bomb. There are no militants, but they are bombing! In a checkerboard pattern! Then, when it was all over, we were delighted: now this hell is over. The first Russians on February 4th were normal. And on February 5 they came - they began to kill! Peaceful inhabitants!
The Chechen woman (it is clear that she is filled with indignation and anger) picks up:

Rob! The robbery has begun! Set fire to houses! They took gold and jewelry from women. Everything they could! They demanded money! They took the women! They took me to Khankala or where, I don’t know. Raped! Some were killed. Five or ten, I don't know, were detained! We don’t know what happened to them, but the fact is that on the third day people went and said: “What a horror! What's going on!" This is beyond words! We waited, we thought the feds would come - they would stop bombing, there would be some kind of salvation from all this hell. And they got from under the bombing - from one hell to another hell!
The old Russian woman in the headscarf nods:

Exactly! In hell! And how we hoped!
Chechen continues:

It was a terrible sight! You should have seen how they shoot innocent people! ..
Addresses the Russian old woman:

Aunt Anya! Tell me how it was! How your husband was shot! This is a terrible thing! They did not spare the Russians! They did not spare the Chechens!
Aunt Anya nods.

Nobody! Nobody!
The Chechen woman continues (angrily):

They don't care about anyone! They directly said: “We were given the order: to shoot everyone! Kill everyone! On February 5, right in front of this kiosk ... (she points to a small one-story building). This kiosk was filmed in the film "Own among strangers, a stranger among his own." I don't remember the man's last name. (She is prompted from the back of the room) Rataev Khalazhu! Right here in front of me they killed him. Then on the road a little further lay the body of a woman. The soldiers who stood at the crossroads told me: “Sister! Run from here! The scariest animals are coming! They will spare no one! They will shoot everyone! We can't help you! There were good ones among the soldiers, but there were animals ...
OMON or MOMON I don't know. Mercenaries! With foxes on their heads on their helmets! It was a terrible sight! They took everything they could take from women, everything they could take!

And then a day after the murder, when the corpses were lying in the houses, the Ural arrived. I heard, I thought the armored personnel carrier, it turned out to be a car! Freight. It turns out that on that day they packed their things and hid them somewhere, and the next day they came to pick them up! They stepped over four corpses in this house and took everything they could! These are not people, but animals! They came to kill!

“Chechens,” they said, “do not leave alive! All Chechens are fighters! All - terrorists - women, children! Shoot everyone!" And the children... See this boy, you see?! (She takes off her hat from the child, gently strokes his head). They told him: “You are a future militant! You are a terrorist! You must be shot!" (The boy, embarrassed, snatches her hat from her and steps aside.) That's how they frightened a child!

Aunt Anya:

I'm Russian. We lived among Chechens: here is my neighbor, here is a neighbor… We all fled the bombs in the same basement.
The Chechen woman continues (very excitedly):

And grenades were thrown into the cellars! People were torn alive!
Aunt Anya:

They kicked us out of the apartment, kicked us out of the basement, and we came here...
Chechen woman screams:

The Nazis didn't do that! Look at the ruined houses! Can't people get hurt?! And a person should hide it, because if you have an injury, then you are a militant! This is scary! These are fascists! Fa-shi-sty!!!
Chechnya. Russian murders.

Russian justice on its own territory. Segregation and genocide are the most terrible crimes against a person, unleashed by two "arbiters" of the fate of their own people, Russian citizens Boris Yeltsin and Vladimir Putin.
Photo courtesy of Chechen human rights activists.
GULAG. barbed wire

Evidence compiled by Human Rights Watch.
NALGIEVA Aminat (not her real name), a resident of the village of Novye Aldy:

On February 5, at about 12 noon ... My father and brother and I went out and saw how the soldiers set fire to houses ... Seeing us, one of them shouted: “Mark them, Gray, with greenery on their foreheads, so that it would be more convenient to aim! ..” Elsaev Ruslan (40 years old) when two soldiers shot at him, was standing outside his house and smoking. One bullet passed two centimeters from the heart ... A doctor was needed. But how could we show it to the Russians?!
They finished off the sick and wounded civilians - the elderly and women!

Akhtaev (Lyoma, born in 1968) miraculously survived when a mortar shell hit their house. Three of their family were then killed, and he was seriously wounded. On February 5, he and Akhmadov Isa (born in 1950) were burned alive. We then found their bones, put them in a pot. Any examination will show that these are human bones, human DNA.

Baytiarov Shamkhan was also burned alive, he was taken from his house.

80-year-old Akhmatova Rakiyat was brutally killed - she was first wounded, and then she was finished off when she was lying down. She shouted: "Don't shoot!" There are other witnesses to this.

Elmurzav Ramzan (born in 1967), invalid, was wounded on February 5 and died of peritonitis at night.

The Idigov brothers were forced to go down to the basement and were pelted with grenades. One somehow survived, the other was torn to pieces.

Gaitaev Magomed was shot dead near his gates. Can you list them all?!”

UMAROVA Zoya (not her real name), a resident of the village of Novye Aldy:

Not a single militant was among those killed on February 5. All civilians… All died a terrible death. Akhmadov Isa and Ramzan, one of the sons of the Tsanaevs, were apparently burned alive.
First, they killed, and then burned in their house in the 4th Tsimlyansky Lane 4 Khazbulatovs: Abdul (born in 1940-42), his wife Samart and two sons - Magomed and Akhmad, 11 and 13 years old.

Of those whom I know, the old man Khaidaev Gupa also died. He was over 70. What a harmless person he was! Khaniev Tuta (born in 1954), also not a militant, also died.

I do not know when and how this war will end and how many more victims will be brought to the altar of Putin's presidency. I only know that after all these horrors, I will not be able to respect the Russians. It is unlikely that we will now get along with them in the same state.

The fate of an entire nation, once again, has become a bargaining chip for war criminals from the Kremlin. Photo courtesy of Chechen human rights activists.
GULAG. barbed wire

But the thing is that those who gave the order to massacre the Novoaldyns are not at all going to get along with the Chechens in one state. No, this is not about the fact that the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria will finally, after three hundred years of struggle for freedom, gain independence. It's just that those who gave the order are seriously counting on the fact that as a result of the "anti-terrorist" operation, the Chechens, as a people, will cease to exist. The main thing is to disrupt their gene pool: a small people will not recover soon! That's what filtration camps are for!

Chechen men (and all of them will get there, according to Moscow's plan, as a result of cleansing operations) will either be destroyed or maimed there, and besides, they will be made infertile.

Elderly people, unable to withstand the hellish tension created by the punitive occupation regime, will quickly depart to another world. The same is true for babies (stressful pregnancy and childbirth for mothers, lack of baby food, unsanitary conditions, lack of proper medical care).

Women? As you know, they cannot give birth without full-fledged men.

Children? When will they grow up? There will be time to decide what to do with them. (In the meantime, they have already missed two years of school, and very few of them will receive a full-fledged education, and it is well known that uneducated, semi-literate people are easier to manage!) Those who settled in the Ingush camps? .. So they slowly die there! And to return to Chechnya - we will deal with them too!

Those who are abroad will not return! And if they come back - let them blame themselves!

Those who are in Russia will become Russified and assimilated!

So what kind of Chechen people will have to get along in one state?!

What was done with the Chechens in Novye Aldy was not directed at the Novoaldyns - it was addressed to the entire Chechen people. The Chechens wanted to be psychologically broken, crushed, irreversibly traumatized, to show them with their own eyes that if they did not give up the idea of ​​independence, they would be brutally swept off the face of the earth, without rules and conditions. After all, what was done in Novye Aldy is unforgivable, it will forever remain in the memory of the people.

How can you not be afraid of this? And so: in order to remain in the people's memory, it is necessary at least for the people to continue to exist. They wanted to show the Chechens in Novye Aldy that they, as a people, no longer exist: they will either be destroyed or agree to live on their knees. And the slaves - what kind of people's memory?

Such attempts to break overnight among the Chechens the core of the national will, the spirit of the age-old desire for freedom, were repeated more than once after that: Gekhi-Chu, Sernovodsk, Assinovsaya, Achkhoi-Martan, Alkhan-Kala, Tsotsan-Yurt, Argun! Such an attempt, only in a minimized form, is carried in almost every purge, when innocent Chechen men are caught and taken away to nowhere; every shelling and bombing of peaceful villages, when Chechen old men, women, children fall under bombs and shells ...

When Stalin was exposed in 1955, one of the authors, still a boy, accidentally heard a conversation between two women crashing into his mind in a Moscow trolleybus. “Yes, it’s a shame, of course,” one said, “that millions of innocent people died in the camps. But what will you do now? Why do we now have to run through the streets and shout in a wild voice?
And the second (it was evident that this touched her to the quick) answered: “Of course! Exactly! Run through the streets and scream with a wild voice! To all of us - an itchy splinter for centuries! Not to be forgotten! So that they never forgive themselves for allowing this!

Vladimir Krylovsky, New York,
Victoria Pupko, Boston.

After the end of September 1999, the federal forces began to deliver air and artillery strikes on the residential areas of Grozny and its suburbs, the residents of the village of Novye Aldy began to leave the village. Nevertheless, until the beginning of February, a part of the permanent residents remained in the village. This was due to many reasons.
The living conditions of the forced migrants from Chechnya, who found refuge in the territory of Ingushetia, the only region where they were received, were extremely difficult. There were not enough places in the camps and towns of internally displaced persons. If it was not possible to live with relatives, they most often had to pay for living in the private sector. As a result, mostly elderly and poor people remained in Chechnya, who sometimes had nothing to rent a car to go to Ingushetia, not to mention renting a house. Often the whole family did not leave: a few people remained to guard the house and property from marauders ....

At the same time (until the beginning of December), only a few shells hit the territory of the village of Novye Aldy, and it seemed to the residents that it was safer to stay there. That is why many of them did not leave their homes.
In early December, Russian troops surrounded Grozny. Shelling and bombardment of residential areas, attempts to storm the city began. The entire territory adjacent to the village of Novye Aldy was subjected to intense artillery and bomb attacks. The inhabitants of the village were already physically unable to leave it. They did not know anything about the ultimatum to the residents of Grozny with a demand to leave the city, put forward by the military, or about the corridors allegedly open for the population to leave. However, such information could hardly help people: the organization of "humanitarian corridors" again came down to the creation of checkpoints at the exits from the city, which, moreover, had to be reached through streets and squares that were under fire.

Throughout December 1999 and January 2000, the settlement of Novye Aldy was periodically subjected to artillery and mortar attacks, and sometimes to aerial bombardment. And although most of the houses were not completely destroyed, practically not a single building remained with a whole roof. People all this time hid in basements and cellars. The water pipeline did not work, for drinking water it was necessary to go under fire - either far - to the spring at the dam of the Chernorechensky reservoir, or closer, to the well located behind the school building and providing technical water. During this period, 75 graves of civilians appeared at the village cemetery - people died under bombing and shelling, the wounded died without receiving timely medical care. Malnutrition and stress caused an exacerbation of chronic diseases - the elderly were dying ...

During all this time, the positions of the Chechen armed formations were not located on the territory of the village. Perhaps this was due to the fact that there are no administrative premises (with the exception of school No. 39), no multi-storey buildings, and residential buildings, as a rule, do not have strong basements. According to local residents, a detachment of field commander A. Zakayev entered the village, but the militants, having not found suitable places for accommodation, left. In addition, the residents of the village themselves persuaded the militants to take pity on the village and not to fight on its territory....

On February 3, about a hundred residents of the village, including many old people, went under a white cloth to the location of the federal troops. When people approached the Russian positions, they opened fire on them, a Russian named Nikolai was seriously wounded. No one could help him: the soldiers did not allow people who threw themselves on the ground to even raise their heads. Only half an hour later, having apparently received "go-ahead" from the authorities, the military allowed him to get up from the ground and even bandaged the wounded man. However, it was too late: Nikolai soon died from his wound.

Residents returned home, taking with them the body of Nikolai...

The next day: February 4, in the afternoon there was complete silence. The inhabitants of the village came out of the cellars, many repaired the roofs, put the yards in order, stocked up on water, and started gardening.

On this day, a small unit of Russian military personnel entered the village of Novye Aldy for the first time. They conducted the first, preliminary check of the passport regime in the village. These were not conscripts, but people aged 25 and older, apparently contract soldiers. Local residents describe their behavior in different ways: some speak of the rudeness of the servicemen, others claim that they behaved correctly and even benevolently. In any case, they did nothing illegal in relation to people. Moreover, these soldiers warned some residents of the village about the danger of the next, tomorrow's "cleansing". But people did not believe, they could not imagine what a nightmare awaits them the next day...

"I went further down the street. At 142 Mazaev Street, I saw the body of 72-year-old Magomed Gaitaev. His glasses hung on the fence, he himself lay in a pool of blood. The dog lapped it. He had wounds on his head and chest."
Inhabitant of Aldov

Many residents of Novye Aldy told about the death of a man named Victor. However, only one of them, Arsen Dzhabrailov, could explain more or less coherently who he was and how he got to Novye Aldy. The residents of Novye Aldy learned their surname and patronymic after the murder from a passport pierced by a bullet. Viktor Cheptura lived in the village of Michurina, on the eastern outskirts of Grozny. When Russian aircraft bombed his house, he moved to his sister, in Chernorechye. “In search of work, he came to me. I offered him to live with me,” says Arsen. “It was December 2 last year. He helped me, I helped him.”
On February 5, Viktor Cheptura left the courtyard of Arsen Dzhabrailov (Khoperskaya St., 17). Dzhabrailov heard how Victor was called to the servicemen who were standing at the crossroads of Voronezhskaya and Khoperskaya streets. Approaching them, he allegedly said: "Guys, I'm mine." But he was ordered to go forward and shot in the back. It happened in front of the house of Abdul Shaipov (Khoperskaya street, 22).
This scene was witnessed by a resident of the village of Shali, who lived nearby at that time (Khoperskaya St., 27). His story is close to Dzhabrailov's testimony. Victor was first interrogated by the commander of the unit operating in this part of the village. When asked who he was by nationality, he allegedly replied that he was Ukrainian. "Ah, a crest," the commander said and ordered: "Go, don't look back. Live." Victor walked several tens of meters towards the dam and was shot in the back.
Viktor's corpse was buried by local residents in a wasteland near Dzhabrailov's house. According to the information we have, a month later his body was dug up and taken away by people who introduced themselves as members of the investigation team.
Arsen Dzhabrailov handed over Viktor Cheptura's passport to employees of the Prosecutor's Office of the Zavodskoy District of Grozny.

Alvi Ganaev (about 60) and his two sons Aslanbek (about 34) and Salambek (about 29) were killed by Russian soldiers between 11 and 12 o'clock at the corner of Voronezhskaya and Khoperskaya streets. It appears that they were on their way home (near Bryanskaya Street 85) after the roof had been repaired. Two women from their family were injured: Malika (about 50) and Louise (about 39). 26-year-old L. (name not disclosed), hiding in the basement on the street. Bryanskaya, witnessed the murder and heard Malika Ganaeva calling for help:

15 contract soldiers came. There were 15 of them on each street: my house is tenth from the corner. When we came out with our passports, the soldiers opened fire. My neighbors at the beginning of the street - the father and two sons of the Ganaevs - were killed. Two women from their family were wounded. Malika hurt her ear.

I was on the street, I heard shooting, then I see how they fell, and I hear Maliki screaming: "Help!" We all rushed back to the cellars. The soldiers ordered the people to come out and threatened to throw grenades at them. They swore, shouted: "Come out, you sons of bitches, we will kill you all, we have an order!" Guarantors could be heard exploding in the cellars further down the street. This was between 11 and 12 o'clock.

Aina Mezhidova and Aset Chaadaeva alleged that the same soldiers who killed the Ganayevs later mortally wounded Ramzan Elmurzayev when he helped drag the Ganayevs' bodies from the street to a nearby courtyard. According to A. Chaadaeva, R. Elmurzaev was wounded in the stomach and died from internal bleeding early in the morning on February 6.

Yusup Musaev stated that he heard the shots with which R. Elmurzaev was wounded when he removed the bodies from the street in the afternoon: "I was in the yard at that time, I heard the shots, but I did not attach any importance to it - then the shots were a normal thing."

On the morning of February 5, 60-year-old Yusup Musaev was in a neighboring house on the street. Voronezhskaya, 122. There were also his nephews, 51-year-old Yakub and 35-year-old Suleiman, who left in the morning:

Aba Maasheva, who is about 80 years old and has two nephews, was frightened and came to our house with her 15-year-old great-grandson. She said there were two dead people outside 112.

A few minutes later, about seven Russian soldiers in camouflage came to us and forced me and three others, including a 15-year-old teenager, to lie face down in the snow for half an hour while they searched the house. The soldiers warned not to go after the dead, they said: "If you go, you will lie down next to me."

According to Yu. Musaev, the shooting did not stop for another 2-3 hours, so he did not dare to leave. However, around 2 or 3 pm, he nevertheless ventured to check on his relatives. He went through the back yards to the corner of Voronezhskaya and Khoperskaya streets. There he saw four corpses stacked in a pile, one more lay at the gate of house No. 112 on Voronezhskaya Street, and another one between them. Among the stacked corpses, he identified the bodies of Alvi, Aslambek and Salambek Ganayev, as well as his cousin Abdurakhman Musayev. Another cousin of Yu. Musaev, Umar Musaev, was lying at the gate, and the body of Vakha Khakimov was not far away. All of them were shot.

Toward evening, Yu. Musaev noticed that the house of his brother Ibragim Musaev was on fire (Voronezhskaya street, 116). As he said, they "tried to put out the fire, but it was all in vain - it was too late. By that time it was getting dark, and there were still no nephews, so we went home."

At about 8 pm, three neighbors came to Yu. Musaev, who said that they had just found the bodies of his nephews Suleiman and Yakub near house No. 22 on Khoperskaya Street. and dragged them to Voronezhskaya, 122.

31-year-old Zhanna Mezhidova:
"I saw a corpse on Voronezhskaya Street. His name is Vakha..., he is 43 years old. He repaired the roof. He got hit in the chest, he was covered in blood. The men did not let the women examine the body and took him into the house so that the cats and dogs would not eat. "

Khampash Yakhyaev, 42, his cousin Musa Yakhyaev, 48, and an 80-year-old Russian woman, believed to be Elena Kuznetsova, were killed by soldiers around one o'clock in the afternoon when they came out of a basement in 2nd Tsimlyansky Lane.
A witness to the murder, 53-year-old Aina Mezhidova, said that the soldiers were 35-40 years old, they wore bandages on their heads, some wore knitted hats. According to her, they were in gray or green camouflage.
At about one o'clock in the afternoon, A. Mezhidova was in the basement in 2nd Tsimlyansky Lane, along with the Yakhyaevs, E. Kuznetsova, and a Chechen woman named Koka, who had a daughter, Nurzhan:
Six soldiers entered the yard... Koka came out first. She greeted the soldiers: "Good morning." Koka thought that the soldiers would respect her age, so she went first, but the soldier cursed, hit her with the rifle butt, and kicked her back down into the basement. I saw her fall.
When Koka fell, [Kuznetsova] came out, Khampash and Musa. The soldiers checked their passports. Hampash asked why the soldiers cursed the old woman and why they hit her. I was just about to get up upstairs when she saw a soldier killing Hampasha. I rushed back and got out through another exit. Hampasha was shot in the head point-blank. First they killed him, then Musa, and then [Kuznetsova]. She lived in Aldy for 40 years.
The mother-in-law of Kh. Yahyaev, Zina Yahyaeva, saw the bodies of three who died on the same day:
On the fifth... I came to my son-in-law's house. I saw under the canopy the bodies of my son-in-law and his friend Musa. The son-in-law's hands were tied with wire, he was shot in the head, shot right in the face, in the eyes. The young man took a photo. Musa had similar wounds, his head was smashed.
There was a Russian woman... with them in the basement... The soldiers killed her and burned her body in the basement. It smelled bad in there. She was first shot and then burned. ... They all had their heads smashed - many shots in the head.
Musa's cousin Nurzhan and his aunt Koka gave me the men's passports. They found it in their mouths. The passports were clean; it looks like they were shot first, and then the soldiers stuffed their passports into their mouths.

Having got out of the basement, A. Mezhidova rushed to the street. Matash Mazaeva to tell others about what they saw. On the way to the house, she came across several corpses of other residents of Alda:
Then I ran to Matash Mazaev to tell people what happened. On the way, I came across the body of Koka [about 40 years old], a saleswoman from a pharmacy for Matash Mazaev. She was shot in the stomach, her intestines hung. Then I saw Akhmed Abulkhanov at his house on Mazaev.

Lema Akhtaev, 32, and Isa Akhmatov, 41, lived in the house of 37-year-old Ramzan Tsanaev, judging by the stories, in 4th Tsimlyansky Lane. Residents of Alda believe that the burnt remains of two men, found by them in a burned down neighboring house, belong to L. Akhtaev and I. Akhmatov.
A. Chaadaeva previously treated L. Akhtaev's shrapnel wound received during shelling, and I. Akhmatov's finger injured by an ax. When she found out that day what was happening in Aldy, she felt worried for both of them and asked her brother Timur to go and visit them:
Ramzan told Timur that Lema and Isa were taken away by the soldiers, they said that they themselves would treat them with "brilliant green". Timur doubted this, saying that the soldiers were not taking anyone away and that they should be looked for in burnt houses. We went to a neighboring house, burned it down, and began to clear away the rubble. Nothing was found that day, but there was a smell of burnt meat.
Timur went there on February 6 and found them. He found the keys to the safe that Lema had. He continued to dig and found part of the burnt corpse - a fragment of the spine with the remnants of soft tissues. It was from Lema. Nearby I found a skeleton and fragments of bones.

"The soldiers took the girl to an empty house, and after a while they returned with the words:" Hide this bitch somewhere ... More are coming after us, they will rape and kill her anyway. "She was seventeen or eighteen. This is not the only case , a married woman was also raped. But people keep it a secret, they say nothing happened, because it's such a shame. People just don't talk about it."

When in the house of S.F. soldiers came to Aldy, they are said to have demanded money and jewelry from the inhabitants. When leaving, they took S.F. by force. with you on the armored personnel carrier. One of the witnesses, who asked not to be named, said that she was among the women who went in search of S.F.:
They found her lying on the edge of Alda: her hair was disheveled, blood was flowing from the corner of her lip. They say she was raped, but she herself denies it. Her clothes were torn. I was amazed by what I saw. When we found her, we were afraid that the soldiers would return, and we went to the house on... the street. They put her in the basement with other women.

It is also known about the gang rape of four women, the subsequent murder of three of them and the attempted murder of the fourth. The women killed were 35, 32 and 29 years old. The last of them, on February 9, was found by her relative, who, in turn, told another relative about the incident.
According to her, when she went to Aldy on February 9 to visit relatives, she found one of them in a basement not far from their house in a completely depressed state. She was told that around noon on 5 February, the woman went with three other women to check on their homes in the upper Alda and were seized by Russian contractors, who allegedly raped them in turn; the soldiers were 40-50 years old, they had shaved heads and wore beards, two of them had bandages on their heads. There were 12 soldiers, and "many" raped. It was said that women were also forced to perform oral sex. One of them is said to have suffocated when one of the soldiers sat on her head. When two other women began to scream, the contractors strangled them. According to the survivor, she was also forced to perform oral sex and passed out. Then the contractors shouted: "She's dead! She's also dead!" - after which they left.
This is how the witness described the condition of the victim:
The hair was in different directions, all stripped, the neck was dirty, the genitals were in the blood. She vomited. My relative went to my father's house and brought some food. But she did not recognize her, she screamed: "Get out!" She fought in hysterics: "Don't touch me, get out!"
Eyes rolled up. A relative poured water into her mouth, she vomited. She lay down; when she saw me, she screamed again: "Don't touch me!" She then moved away, screaming and crying.
Then the said witness found the bodies of three murdered women in the yard. With one of the men, they buried them in a shallow grave.

"Zina"
Aina Mezhidova helped wash the bodies of some of the women who died during the February 5 massacres in Aldy and during the shelling of the village. She said that 19-year-old Zina (name withheld), who helped her wash one of the victims, told her that she had been raped "many times" and taken "from yard to yard." According to A. Mezhidova, the girl lived in Aldy with one of her male relatives, who was not at home when the soldiers arrived.

The small surviving part of the troops of Tsarevich Aldy-Girey, who did not have time to cross the Sunzha, went into the forest and settled seven miles south of the river crossing, near two Sarmatian barrows. These warriors called their settlement Aldy. Somewhere towards the end of the 17th century, the princely family of the Turlovs, immigrants from the Avar principality, took possession of the aul of Aldy. Being in the service of the tsarist administration on the Terek, the princes enjoyed many privileges. Initially, the Turlovs lived in an aul with their bridles and dependent people. But by the end of the 17th century, under an agreement with the Turlov princes, the first settlers appeared here - families from the mountains of Chechnya. Gradually their number grew: the princes allocated land to them, promised protection from raids by Kabardian, Kumyk, Kalmyk princes and khans, as well as from repression by the Russian royal administration. For their part, the Chechen settlers promised their support to the princes, undertook to pay them a certain tribute - yasak. The first settlers from the mountains in Aldy are considered to be representatives of the Chechen societies Dishniy, Guna and Benoy.

The population of Aldov grew, and soon the Chechens began to be weary of dependence on the princes. In the XVIII century, the political power of Chechnya sharply increases, in which social upheavals are constantly taking place. Restless in Aldy. The tension in the relationship between the Turlov princes and the Aldins is growing. The inhabitants of the village were personally free from the princes. Their dependence was expressed only in the tax paid to the prince - yasak for land, protection of residents and property from external enemies. If necessary, the inhabitants of Aldi provided armed support to the owner or, at the request of the prince, organized collective assistance with household chores (belkhi). The princes had no right to force the peasants to do anything without the consent of the elders, as well as against the consent of the assembly of the aul society. In their reign, the princes relied on the foremen - influential people of mature age, as well as on the bridles, which are the main armed force. The salaries of the bridles, and even the princes themselves, were paid by the tsarist administration.

In the 18th century, the plane Chechens were strengthened and consolidated. The political power and unity of the villages are especially tested during the threat of external invasion. In 1735, the Aldins, together with militias from other Chechen villages, participated in the defeat of the superior forces of the 80,000-strong army of the Crimean Khan. About 10 thousand enemies remained forever lying in the Khankala gorge. In the middle of the 18th century, Prince Turlov gradually lost his influence. His position became especially precarious after the uprising in Chechnya in 1757-1758. Authority in the aul at that time was enjoyed by such influential people as Assak and Lulla (from the Dishniy society), Ada, Bata and Biba (from the Benoev family) and others. In 1762, relations between Prince Chapan Turlov and the Aldins heated up to the limit. The prince asks the royal authorities to allow him to move closer to the Sunzha River. The Aldins, who considered these lands to be their own, within the boundaries of their territory, come into conflict with Turlov.

From 1785 to 1791 the village of Aldy - in the very center of the anti-feudal and anti-colonial movement in the North Caucasus, led by a resident of the village of Alda Ushurma (Sheikh Mansur).

On July 6, 1785, the Aldins defeated the two thousandth royal punitive detachment of Colonel de Pieri. He was taken prisoner by the wounded and given to the Russians without ransom for bravery, his 20-year-old adjutant Prince Pyotr Bagration - in the future the famous Russian commander, hero of the Patriotic War of 1812. (By the way, another hero of the Patriotic War of the 12th year, General Alexander Chechensky, was also taken prisoner by the tsarist troops as a five-year-old boy in one of the punitive expeditions to the village of Aldy and was subsequently raised by N.N. Raevsky). After the suppression of the uprising in Chechnya and a number of repressive measures against the village of Aldy by the tsarist authorities, in 1787, under pressure from the tsarist administration, the Aldins moved closer to the Sunzha River (near the village of Chernorechye), founding the village of Novye Aldy (BukhIan-Yurt).

In 1913, the inhabitants of the village of Novye Aldy leased for a period of 20 years a piece of land located in Novye Promysley of the city of Grozny. The contract was signed by the Aldins Bisultan Tagirov and his cousin Elamirza, having received a rather large amount of money as an advance. In the future, they were to receive a certain amount for each pood of pumped oil. The agreement was kept in the Republican Museum of Local Lore. Such an opportunity appeared, probably, after a proclamation to the Chechen people on behalf of Tsar Alexander II, who paid tribute to their desire for independence and love for freedom. The proclamation gave the highlanders a certain freedom, made it possible to live according to internal self-government. It was officially confirmed that "your lands are your inalienable possession." Perhaps for this reason, the Aldins did not participate in the revolutionary movement of 1917 and did not fight for Soviet power. For such stubbornness, the Grozny Military Revolutionary Council decided to burn Novye Aldy. Only the intervention of the Extraordinary Commissar of the South of Russia, Sergo Ordzhonikidze, forced this decision to be cancelled.

Mahmud Kuzaev