Samashki is the second Chechen soldier with a grenade. From Samashek to Bachi Yurt

The operation of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation in the village of Samashki is a military operation carried out on April 7-8, 1995 during the first Chechen war by the forces of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia to "clean up" the village of Samashki, Achkhoy-Martan district of the Chechen Republic.

... There were no more militants in the village. This did not help - after shelling with the Uragan and Grad installations, Russian punishers began cleaning up the village. As a result of the massacre, according to various sources, from 110 to 300 civilians died, another 150 were detained, and most of them disappeared. How it was.

On April 7-8, 1995, the forces of the Sofrino brigade of the Internal Troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, the OMON of the Moscow Region and the SOBR of the Orenburg Region surrounded the village. Samashki and a demand was made to issue 260 barrels of firearms (as in the times of the Great Caucasian War). There were no more militants in the village (they left the village before the beginning of these events at the request of the elders), and the villagers were able to collect only 11 machine guns. This did not help - after shelling with the Uragan and Grad installations, Russian punishers began cleaning up the village. As a result of the massacre, according to various sources, from 110 to 300 civilians died, another 150 were detained, and most of them have not been found so far.

CARRYING OUT THE "CLEARING" OF THE VILLAGE

In accordance with the practice applied by the federal forces in Chechnya, an operation was carried out in Samashki to "clean up" the village.

The "cleansing" of Samashki was accompanied by the killing of civilians, abuse of detainees, robberies and arson of houses. It was during the "cleansing" that most of the villagers died and most of the houses were destroyed.

In the northern part of the village, primarily in the area of the station, it was launched on the first day of the operation, on the evening of April 7, shortly after the troops entered there.

In other parts of the village, the servicemen also entered the houses in the evening and at night of April 7, checking the absence of militants there. However, according to witnesses, the main "cleansing operation" began in Samashki at 8-10 am on 8 April.

It should be noted that on April 7 and 8, internal troops and OMON passed only along the main streets of the village, stretching along the east-west line, without even entering many streets stretching from north to south.

For the most part, having entered the house at night and making sure that there were no militants there, the soldiers did not touch the civilians. However, already at that time there were cases of detention of people and killings of civilians.

So, according to the testimony of witnesses, people in uniform entered the house at 93 on the street on April 7 at night. Sharipov and checked the documents of the people who were there. Having discovered that the son of the owners of the house, AKHMETOV BALAVDI ABDUL-VAKHABOVICH, was registered not in Samashki, but in Prokopyevsk, Kemerovo region, they said that they would take him to the station to the headquarters. One of the witnesses (Kh. Rasuev) cited the words of these people: “We will check the documents. Whether you are on the list or not. Then we'll let go." Well, mothers say, "Don't worry. We'll check it out, let's go." The body of the executed B. Akhmetov was found the next day in the street. According to witnesses, the servicemen who entered the house were not conscripts, but older people.

CHINDIGAEV ABDURAKHMAN, born in 1952, living on the street. Sharipova, 46 and UMAKHANOV SALAVDI, an elderly man living on the street. Sharipova, 41, reported that on the evening of April 7, they, together with ISAEV MUSAIT, born in 1924, and BAZUEV NASRUDDIN, born in 1948, were in the house at 45 Sharipova Street. The choice of this house was due to the presence of strong concrete walls and ceilings of the first floor, capable of withstanding artillery shelling (see photo). When federal servicemen approached their area, all four of them huddled in a closet located on the ground floor. Having entered the yard, the servicemen threw a grenade into the room adjoining this pantry. Further, according to Umakhanov, events unfolded as follows:

“Here in a minute, even, maybe earlier, they open the door: “Who is alive?” Yes, we go out [Into the yard - ed. report]. There were four of them. "Bitch, get down! Bitches, get down!" - We went to bed. We've been ransacked. Then one shouts from behind, he says to me: “Who is left there?” I say "No". “Take hostages,” shouts from behind. They take me back there. Nobody here. We leave. "Bitch, in the hole! Bitches, pit! We are driven there [in a hole in the garage for car repairs - auth report]. The car is as it was then. Nasruddin climbed first. He stood there, against the wall. Yes, yes, to the far wall. The three of us are standing here. I say: "They put us here to kill." Well, I read a prayer there. We have these, soldiers. MUSA says, "Guys, don't shoot. You have to feed the cattle... Don't shoot." ISAEV stepped on the third step. Two soldiers... Pointed a machine gun at him. They pushed him there. Yes, he did not have time to go down. In a moment, he gave him an automatic burst from there. We just went down and just bent down - these second ones fired a burst.

House 45 on the street. Sharipova. Here, on April 7, in the evening, the military forced four men (two of them were elderly), who were hiding in a house from shelling, to climb into a pit to repair cars, and then opened fire on them from a machine gun. As a result, one person was killed and two were injured. There are no traces of bullets, grenade explosions or shells on the gates, fence and walls of the house. The exception is the walls of the pit, the tailgate of the car and the room adjoining the garage on the left, on the ceiling and walls of which there are traces of grenade fragments. The house itself had apparently been set on fire. Photo by M. Zamyatin, August 1995

After that, the servicemen left the yard. As a result, ISAEV was killed, BAZUEV and UMAKHANOV were wounded (BAZUEV died the next day). Umakhanov was bandaged in Samashki by Red Cross doctors.

The executions of civilians were also reported by residents of the northern part of Samashki, which, in general, suffered less than other areas of the village.

In the morning, according to all interviewed residents of the village, the servicemen moved through the streets, looting and setting fire to houses, detaining all the men. Numerous murders were committed.

There is no complete clarity as to who carried out the “cleansing” on April 8. Most residents reported that among those who carried out the “cleansing” the bulk were not conscripts (18-20 years old), who were the first to enter the village, but older servicemen (25-35 years old), apparently contract soldiers.

However, there are testimonies of the victims that their houses were set on fire on the morning of April 8 by the same soldiers who entered the village on the evening of April 7. For example, LABAZANOV MAGOMED, an elderly man living in the house 117 on the street. Kooperativnaya, said that the Russian military entered the courtyard of the house, in the basement of which he was hiding along with other old men, women and children, on the night of April 7.

They first threw a grenade into the yard, but after shouting from the basement, they did not throw the grenade there. The commander of this group, the captain, allowed everyone to stay in the basement; the military spent the night in the yard. In the morning, the same soldiers, by age - military service, began to set fire to the houses. In particular, the house where the narrator's son LABAZANOV ASLAMBEK (Cooperative 111) lived was burned down this way. However, when a soldier with a canister in his hands came to set fire to the house where the narrator was hiding in the basement, another soldier prevented him from doing so, saying: “There are old men and women in the basement. Back!".

Here are excerpts from the stories of several residents.

ANSAROVA AZMAN, living in Samashki on Vygonnaya Street:

“On Friday, I learned that at four o'clock troops would be brought in. I have two sons and a husband. We have no weapons and we have never been at war. They took their sons and went down to the bomb shelter on Rabochaya Street... Suddenly the soldiers came. »There is who? Come out!". I said: "There are women and our children." We went out. They: "Women aside" - right with machine guns. To our sons - "Quickly undress - barefoot and to the waist!" Those who hesitated were beaten with an automatic rifle butt.

One of the men was MURTAZALIEV USAM (he had two children, his wife and father lay dead in the yard). He showed the soldier his passport - he took it to shreds and tore the document. “I, he says, do not need your documents. You are Chechens – we will kill you.” We asked, begged them: “They did not take up arms! We took care of them. No one left with weapons in the village. Don't touch our sons!" They said: “If you say another word, we will shoot you!” They called us obscene words. Then our sons were taken away and taken away."

Living on st. Rabochaya, house 54 KARNUKAEV:

“Houses have been burned. I have nowhere to go now. I was hungry, cold and left on the street with 4 children. Children were beaten in front of me even. It was the day before yesterday, the 8th. When they heard the noise of cars, tanks, they ran to the neighbors and hid in their basement. They go into the neighbor’s yard, shout to their grandfather: “Where, who is here?” The grandfather, probably scared, thought that they would throw something into the basement, said: “I have women and children there.” “Come on, let them come out! » "It's standing right at us with a machine gun. As the boys come out, they kick them right away, they immediately put children on their knees against the wall. They are 12-13 years old. And us. The last one when he came out [soldier - author's report] says: "There is someone else ". We say - "no". And he threw a grenade. Then they beat the children. I cry, my 5-year-old girl also cries: "Give them back, give them back."

My husband, ALIK KARNUKAYEV, was taken away, my brother-in-law, KHUSSEIN KARNUKAYEV, an invalid without an arm, was taken away. They also took my two sons. An hour later they [sons - ed. report] returned home, and they took my husband away, stripped him right in the yard. Taken naked. They didn't even leave their shirts on...

They [the narrator's sons - ed. report] are put up against the wall, kicked in the ass, and he [the narrator's son - ed. report] says: “Uncle, won't you kill us? Won't you kill?" And the military man took his head and against its wall. The father is standing - he probably felt sorry for his son and says: "He does not understand Russian." And he hit his father right in the chin. And I say: "For God's sake, don't say a word to them - he will kill you"...

They say to the grandmother: “Is this your drinking water?” She says: "Yes, it's pure water." "Let's drink ourselves first." She took a mug, drank water, then they drink it themselves and spilled it, not a drop was left. All these barrels and flasks were turned over and the water poured out. In which case, if there is a fire, so that they do not extinguish it. They must have thought so. This morning, by eight o'clock, we left Samashki on foot. They let us through the post without hindrance - well, they didn’t say anything. They said, "Come on." True, they checked, not documents, but bags, like that, pockets. And they didn't say anything."

YUZBEK SHOVKHALOV, elder of the village of Samashki, who took part in negotiations with the Russian command, lives at st. Cooperative house 3, said:

“I come home, they tell me: tanks are coming, armored personnel carriers, everything they have. Behind the cars are coming, soldiers. I say: “Guys, families, get into the basement.” And I’m standing on the street. He’s walking. “Give me militants.” I say: “There are no militants here.” “You, come with me.” We go through the rooms in my house "The second time, others come. They don't tell me: go. He's coming."

Some kind of automatic queue. They go out, I go in - two TVs were shot through ... The first ones were young, the second time, they were dressed in black, I don’t know who they are, they are 25-30 years old. Aggressively set. The whole night we did not sleep, the whole night shooting, shooting. My wife is sick with blood pressure. The second day in the morning at nine o'clock I go out into the street, a column goes straight, right along our Kooperativnaya street. Armored personnel carriers... Shooting from heavy machine guns. Right in the village.

In the house where they live... Either the house is burned down, or the house dies, whatever... Hay, straw, they bring in and burn. They leave on their own ... I go out. Where are the fighters? I say: "There are no militants, and in general there are no militants in the village." "Get out of the basement!" There were about eight people gathered in the basement. Whoever rises, they hit them right on the head, on the muzzle, where it is impossible to hit there, they hit, they fall. "Undress!" They undress. Half. Shirt, pants. "Take off your shoes." They're filming. They check there whether they wore a machine gun or not. Look at the damage.

None of them carried a machine gun. All the guys are young, I know all of them, none of them has a gun. "Lie down." They take him away and put him on the asphalt at the crossroads. They drive me back to the basement, my wife, daughter, two more nieces, in general, there are six of us sitting ... Once, I see that smoke is coming, it is impossible even to sit. When I get up from there, I knock out the lid, I run out with these burns, I run, I think, even though there was a flask with water there. No, they took her out, they drink water. Everyone is sitting on the other side of the street, sitting, laughing, cracking seeds, cracking nuts, they found someone at home, eating compotes, I burn there with my family. Well, I think the cattle probably didn't get killed. I come, four cows were killed with machine guns and grenades, they shot sheep.

YUSUPOV SADULLA IDAYEVICH, an elderly man, the head of the family, who lives in house No. 75 on Vygonnaya Street, said that he sent his family from the village in early April, but he himself did not have time to leave Samashki by bus on April 7 before the shelling began. Here are excerpts from his story:

“The neighboring street was on fire, but our street was not yet on fire at night. Noise, uproar, back and forth, but it turns out that they reached the school in our village, strengthened there, the battle stopped. Illuminating rockets were like daylight. Rare soldiers ran along the roads. You could see it at the crossroads, but it just stopped like that. "Thank God, maybe this will end" - we thought. In the morning there is no war yet.

The sun rose a little. At ten o'clock in the morning, soldiers ran here ... They shouted obscenities in an inhuman voice, cursed, shouted: “Come out, bitches!”, And they approached every house, fired ... They ran towards us from the western side. And then it's my turn, I guess. He ran into a small cellar, then pressed himself. My basement was very small... How it fits, I can hear it on my feet. And I clung to the right wall, where I was sitting, I put a small bunker specially to rest, to sit when the situation was dangerous. Then he gave a turn ... And then he was about to leave, his friend arrived in time. When he left, he said to him: “Maybe someone else was still alive there.”

He returned, threw a grenade, and after it threw a round little ring. It turns out he has some kind of castle. “Well, that's all - I think - now I'm kaput. You have to die calmly." I wasn't even afraid back then. A grenade rumbled. The bunks, which were with double boards, broke in half, I was deafened. Exploded under the bunk. Something hit my shoulder, something hit my legs. I fell to my knees. Completely deaf.

Swallowed such a black poison. The whole day I thumped such a black infection. And then they left. I think they left. He checked his leg, moved it back and forth: the leg was intact, not broken, something horrible, to hell with it. A little blood comes out of my hand. I went out ... They pulled out this small safe, like this. They kept money and papers in it. Two open it with something, try to open it, and the third guards them and shoots chickens into the house. Damn it, if he turns around now, sees me, he will kill me again for the third time. I think - now I'll run into the bathhouse ... They opened the safe and they left for the road. And the house was on fire, and the kitchen was on fire, and the sauna was on fire, and the hay was on fire. I drowned out the flame in the bathhouse so that it would not go further - I found a little bucket of water and poured it, drowned it out. And there is nothing to think about the house. Nothing came out of there."

House on Vygonnaya street

Zavodskaya st., 52. K. Mamaeva (left) in front of the window through which a grenade was thrown into the room. There are no signs of battle on the walls of the building, which could justify the use of a grenade.

Further, S. YUSUPOV told how he saw the bodies of 6 killed people in the street, including two old men and one woman (see the section “The death of the inhabitants of the village of Samashki” and Appendix 3). When visiting the house of S. YUSUPOV, representatives of the mission of human rights organizations saw a house destroyed by fire (only brick walls remained), there were no signs of a battle on the walls, gates and fence of this and other nearby houses; in the earthen basement there were traces of the explosion of a "lemonka" grenade.

In general, judging by the stories of the residents of Samashki, during the “cleansing” of the village, the military did not hesitate to throw grenades into the living quarters. So, KEYPA MAMAEVA, living at the address: st. Zavodskaya, house 52 (near the intersection with Kooperativnaya St.) said that at 7:30 am on April 8, she and her family members (husband, son, husband’s brother) saw through the window how from a neighboring house (the owners left the village) servicemen took out carpets, a TV set and other things. The loot was loaded into a Kamaz stationed on the street and an armored personnel carrier.

Apparently, one of the servicemen saw faces in the window of MAMAYEVA's house, after which he ran up to the window and threw a "lemon" grenade into it (see photo). At the last moment, the narrator herself and her relatives managed to jump out of the room and none of them were hurt. The results of the examination of the scene of the incident allow the authors of the report to consider the story of K. Mamaeva reliable.

Many villagers believe that in some cases the servicemen committed crimes while under the influence of drugs. As evidence, they showed journalists, deputies and members of human rights organizations visiting Samashki the disposable syringes that were lying in large numbers on the streets of the village after the federal forces left it.

It should be said that according to the established practice, before the operation, each of the soldiers is given disposable syringes with the anti-shock drug Promedol in an individual first-aid kit. This drug belongs to the class of narcotic analgesics, it is supposed to be administered intramuscularly for wounds. According to the rules, after the end of the operation, unused doses should be given back. However, naturally, if during the operation there were wounded, then it is difficult to take into account where and how the dose was spent.

When assessing the possibility of using Promedol for other purposes, it should be taken into account that there is a lot of evidence of an extremely low level of discipline among many parts of the federal forces in Chechnya, of the spread of drunkenness among military personnel. Members of the mission of human rights organizations A. BLINUSHOV and A. GURYANOV personally heard in April how employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs at the 13th outpost said that after the end of their shift they would “inject themselves with promedolchik”.

The level of discipline and morality is also evidenced by the fact that among a part of the contingent of federal forces in Chechnya, a fashion has become widespread, contrary to the charter, to tie a head or neck with a scarf with a home-made inscription “Born to Kill” made on it. In particular, A. BLINUSHOV, a member of Memorial, saw such headscarves on April 12 on guards stationed at the 13th outpost near Samashki. The French journalists who were there also recorded this fact.

Timeline of Russian war crimes in Dagestan

Timeline of Russian war crimes in Nagorno-Karabakh

Timeline of Russian war crimes in Chechnya

This report is devoted to the study of events related to the operation of the units of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the village of Samashki on April 7-8. According to Lieutenant General ANATOLY ALEKSANDROVICH ANTONOV, Deputy Commander of the MIA Troops in Chechnya,1 this was “the first fully independent military operation of the MIA troops in history.”2 This operation and its consequences had a wide public response both in Russia and abroad .

Testimony of Mariet T. from s. Samashki:

“I live on Vygonnaya Street. We were in the next cellar. There were many of us: women, children, old people. There were a lot of guys, we hid them. And just in
the first day one soldier came with a grenade launcher, he wanted to shoot at us. But one of our elderly men shouted, “We have women, children. Don't shoot, for God's sake!" And he left without doing anything. And on the second day, these ... FSK came, I don’t know. So healthy, one was wearing a mask. They were drunk, their eyes sparkled. They started shooting. They set fire to the house next door. We began to shout out of fright: “Please don’t shoot, we have women and children!” One soldier began to drive us out of the basements. “These are not women, these are bitches, whores, they also kill ours, and we will feel sorry for them ?!” Then they took some of the women, drove them into such a small room, there were no glasses, the door was closed. Others were pushed into the basement, such a basement was under sheds. And they started shooting there, they were shooting directly at the women. Because of the fear, the children screamed terribly ... "

Testimony of Visaitova Alina from the village. Samashki:

“I live in Samashki on Vygonnaya Street... They threw a grenade into our basement. Two women were wounded. The kids were crying, they were afraid to go out though
the soldiers ordered when they heard that we were still alive. The children clung to the legs of their mothers, just like stone children became ... Then they threw a grenade at the car in the yard. “Okay, get out. Pray to God that there are many of you there - we don’t want to make a mass grave, the soldiers said. Their was a man
ten to twelve. Some were sitting, smoking, injecting themselves with something right in front of our eyes. There were five or six such people, they were healthy, seniors, probably. And the rest "worked" - shot, set fire to houses. They took iron wire and tied up our men. First undress them, they beat them very much. The men were all covered in blood. We asked the soldiers: "Please don't take them away, let them go!" The soldiers began to demand gold and dollars for this. They say: “We don’t need your clothes. Let's get gold and dollars." They checked women right on the neck, looking for gold. I don't know if anyone has it or not. There were many of us, there was such a noise, everyone was crying. They drove naked men like that ... "

Indications Kormakaeva from with. Samashki:

“... These were not young soldiers, in my opinion, some kind of mercenaries. Years so under thirty or even over thirty. They were dressed in such colorful clothes,
green with white. They broke into our house at 54 Rabochaya Street, grabbed the boys, put them facing the wall and started kicking them in the ass. The boy shouts: "Uncle, you won't kill us, won't you?" And the soldier took him by the hair and head against the wall ... And his father shouted: “Don’t beat him, he doesn’t understand Russian!” He felt sorry for his son. A soldier just like his father will give in the chin! And I ask in Chechen: “Don’t say a word to them, they will kill you!” They grabbed my father, and my girl screams: “Give me back my dad! Don't take it, don't take it!" They didn't listen to anything.

Testimony of Ruslan N. from the village. Samashki:

"... I told them:" Guys, there are peaceful people here, don't shoot! What are you doing?! We've lived together all our lives!" They come up and kick them in the head. "You nit, get out!" They pulled me out: “Undress to the waist, take off your shoes.” “I say: “Look at the documents, I am from Kazakhstan. “They took my passport and immediately, in front of me, tore it up. "What, do you want to run? You are a militant” I say: “You tore up the documents, how am I now?” “You will ride for a militant. You have a militant face." And they drove me ... All the men were driven in columns. My brother was 89th. And two more columns joined us. We walked naked to the Samashkin bakery. An armored personnel carrier was in front, it was impossible to lag behind it, they immediately drove it with butts. So the armored personnel carrier is on its way, we are barefoot, naked, running after it, 4-5 kilometers, to their camp in the mountains, where they used to have a shooting range. The laggards were severely beaten. We carried one wounded man on a stretcher. The brothers carried it. They started falling behind. Where the turn to the camp, the soldiers ordered to put the stretcher on the side of the road. The brothers set him up, but these... They shot him right there, shot the wounded man... When they fled, one was already lying on the road. Killed. Of those who ran ahead of us. They shot him right in the eye. The name of the wounded man they finished off was Samshaev. We don't even know how many people they killed along the way. When they drove to this shooting range in the mountains, they began to beat. Every five meters a soldier stood and beat with a rifle butt or kicked. Then everyone was ordered to lie face down on the ground. If someone tried to raise his head, they ran up and beat him. Then we went with the dogs. All the time they said to the shepherds:

"Alien, alien!" The dogs vomit, there are groans, screams ... They got up after a while and drove through the ranks to the cars. They beat again. If you walk fast, they kick you, if you walk slowly, the dogs grab you. I started to pull out my leg, when the dog grabbed, I immediately cut under the leg, in the stomach 2-3 blows and
dog bitten from behind. I lost consciousness there, I don’t remember how they threw me into the car. I already have my hands tied behind me. We were piled in four rows, on top of each other. Next to me lay a 14-year-old boy, the son of my neighbor Ugaziev. He had a broken collarbone. He shouts to me: “Uncle, uncle, (in our language -“ yours ”) I feel bad, let them let me out, let them shoot me, I can’t take it anymore ... I started shouting:“ The kid is bad here! A soldier climbed in and how he gave him a butt on the head! The hero was also found ... I could not say anything more ... "

The most common reason for the death of men is executions at the place of detention, as a rule, immediately after the servicemen enter the house or yard, sometimes after preliminary beatings. So 30 people died:

AZIEV VAHA (No. 3), ALIEV YUNUS (No. 6), AKHMETOV ADLOB-VAHAB (No. 14), BAYALIEV MUKHID (No. 21), BORSHIGOV ISA and KHAZHBEKAROV HIZIR (Nos. 25 and 82, taken out of the basement and shot around the corner) , BUNKHOEV ALI (No. 26), DADAEV SAZHID (No. 34, shot dead with a machine gun after bullying, during which his hair was pulled out of his head), 61-year-old ZAKIEV SALAVDI (No. 38, shot dead in the yard after he got out of basement into which the military threw a grenade), INDERBAYEV SULTAN (No. 42), ISAEV MUSAIT (No. 40), KABILOV ZAKHAR (No. 45) and MINAEV SUPYAN (No. 47 and 94, three of them were shot in the same barn where they tried to hide), LUMAKHANOV KHUMID (No. 49), MAGOMADOV VAKHID (No. 51), MAZUEV SAID-KHASAN (No. 52), NAZHAEV SAID-AKHMED (No. 64), 69-year-old SURKHASHEV SAID-KHASAN (no. 72, shot dead in the yard after he tried to carry his paralyzed brother out of the house set on fire), TAKHAEV SHIRVANI (no. 76), 60-year-old URUZOV ABDUL-AZIM (no. 80), KHAMZAEV SOLSBEK (no. 83) , KHUSHPAROV MOVLDI (No. 88), CAG UEV KHASAN (No. 89), TSATISHAEV KHOZA (No. 91), Russian residents ALEXEY, GENNADY and NIKOLAY (Nos. 89, 90 and 91).

The shooting of these three Russian men2 at 135 Proletarskaya Street was told by a fourth man (also Russian, born in 1959), who accidentally survived due to the fact that during the execution he was not killed, but only wounded in the arm and pretended to be dead. The narrator gave his last name, first name, patronymic, year of birth and address of residence in Samashki for the information of the observation mission, but asked not to publish these data.

Death as a result of grenade explosions thrown into basements, yards and rooms with people

According to many witnesses, Russian servicemen deliberately threw grenades into basements and rooms of houses, as well as into courtyards, knowing or believing that people were there. In most of these cases, according to reports, people were injured, and 5 people were killed or mortally wounded. As a result of the explosion of grenades thrown into the yards on April 7 and 8, 96-year-old OSPANOV MOVSAR (No. 66, died on the same day) and 66-year-old SHUIPOV DZHUNID (No. 96, died of blood loss after 1.5 hours) were mortally wounded ), and his wife SHUIPOV DAGMAN and son SHUIPOV RAMZAN were also wounded.

Junid Shuipov, 63, was mortally wounded by a grenade thrown on April 8 into the yard of his house (49 Vygonnaya Street). An hour and a half later, he died from blood loss.

Junid Shuipov, 63, was mortally wounded by a grenade thrown on April 8 into the yard of his house (49 Vygonnaya Street). An hour and a half later, he died from blood loss. Photo by L. Vakhnina; April 12, 1995

On April 8, YAVMIRZAYEVA ZALUBA (No. 99, died around April 15-20) was mortally wounded by grenade fragments in the basement. On April 8, grenades thrown into a room at 55 Vygonnaya Street wounded and then finished off father and daughter BAZUEV NASRUDDIN (No. 20, had already been wounded the night before) and MASAYEVA RAISA (No. 53).

Moreover, the servicemen preliminarily inspected the premises and made sure that there were 3 women and a wounded man in it. Reporting this fact
received from one of the two surviving women who were in the same room - the niece of the deceased GUNASHEVA AMINAT. Finishing off the wounded who were wounded the day before In our list of the dead, 3 such cases were recorded. Above, the death of BAZUEV NASRUDDIN in the house of his niece at Vygonnaya 55 was described.
The evening before, on April 7, the military forced him, along with three other men (two of whom were elderly), to leave the premises in the house at 45 Sharipova Street, where they were hiding from shelling, then they forced all of them to climb into a repair car pit and opened fire out
machine gun, as a result of which he received several bullet wounds. After the military left this house, the wife, daughter and niece carried the wounded man home, and then to the niece's house. The next day, the military, who came to this house, despite the requests of his daughter to spare the wounded, killed them both. On April 8, SHAMSAYEV ABDURAKHMAN (No. 93), wounded the day before during shelling, was detained at home along with his brother for “filtering”. During
escort, other detainees carried him on a stretcher. In the area of the station, by order of the guards, they put the stretcher on the ground, and the military shot the wounded man.

On the same day in the house on the street. Sharipov, 93 servicemen shot the wounded 62-year-old TSATISHAEV DOGA (No. 91, the circumstances of the injury are described above) from a machine gun at close range, then doused with gasoline and set on fire.

The skeleton of the bus, standing 100 m from the intersection of Sharipova and Greidernaya streets. On this bus, people did not have time to leave Samashki before the shelling began. Photo by M. Zamyatin; August 1995

Burning corpses

Numerous reports of witnesses have been recorded about the deliberate burning of the bodies of dead residents by Russian military personnel. For this purpose, the military threw the corpses into the houses that were set on fire, or doused them with gasoline and set them on fire. There are also reports of flamethrowers being used to set corpses on fire. The corpses of GUNASHEVA KHAVA (No. 33), BUNKHOEV ALI (No. 26, summoned to the street from his house, shot in the street and thrown into a burning house in the neighborhood), TSATISHAEV DOGA (No. 91), KABILOV ZAKHIRA and MINAEV SUPYAN (No. 45) were set on fire and 59, both were shot dead on April 8 in the street, and the corpses were set on fire together near the house), NADYROV EMIN (No. 63), SUGAIPOV ALI (No. 71), KHARKHAROEV AHMED AND KHAMZAT (Nos. 84 and 85), 64), TAHAEV SHIRVANI (No. 76), TOVSULTANOV ALI (No. 78), TOVSULTANOV IDEBAYA (No. 79). YUKI GAYTUKAEV (No. 30), MADU RASUEVA (No. 67) and KESIRT (No. 68) failed to get out of the set fire and, apparently, were burned alive.

From the same room, which caught fire as a result of dousing with gasoline and setting fire to the body of TSATISHAEV DOGA by the military, they came out with raised
hands of AKHMETOV ABI (No. 16) and BELOV VLADIMIR (No. 23) - and were immediately shot dead by the military. The Russian servicemen did not allow paralyzed 67-year-old SURKHASHEV SAIPI (No. 73) to be taken out of the house they had set on fire, who apparently also burned to death. We have at our disposal video footage of some of the burned corpses.

A destroyed tank in Samashki, standing on Kooperativnaya Street. It is important to note that there are few destroyed houses in this part of the street, most of the houses burned on this street are concentrated at its opposite end. Photo by V. Lozinsky; April 1995

Some residents of Samashki also reported other burnt people, but the narrators were unable to identify the person who, in their opinion, died in this way.

A number of members of the Parliamentary Commission to Investigate the Causes and Circumstances of the Crisis Situation in the Chechen Republic stated that the commission was unable to identify cases of burning the corpses of the murdered residents of Samashki, while the footage of the corresponding video film “raises serious doubts about the validity of such accusations.”

“So, in the mentioned video there is a story of farewell in the courtyard of the house with five dead, laid in coffins. It is stated that these bodies
civilians burned by punishers. But expert opinion says something else. Similar signs of burning bodies occur only in the event of a fire in
very limited space. For example, in the armored personnel carrier. Considering that it is impossible to burn a person with a modern flamethrower of the “Bumblebee” type, and in case of a fire in a house, the bodies are only partially burned and without twisting to the fetal position, these shots, taken a week after the battles, rather prove the propaganda nature of the film than an attempt at an objective trial. And one more shot: two small objects lie in the woman's palms and a voice-over says that this is all that is left of a person - the rest has burned down. And again, this is not an expert’s statement, but a layman’s, although any city dweller knows that even in a crematorium, after five hours of burning a body in a special high-temperature furnace, numerous bones are still ground by a ball mill.”

House at the crossroads of Chapaev and Cooperative streets. According to witnesses, there was a battle in this place, as a result of which there were losses on both sides.

The chairman of the aforementioned commission, S.GOVORUKHIN, went even further, arguing in Sovetskaya Rossiya of June 24, 1995: “many experts explained ... that the burnt bones that the residents of Samashki pass off as their relatives are most likely the bones of our soldiers -” to such a state a person can get burned only in a tank or an armored personnel carrier, where the ammunition explodes. Even if you do not take into account the monstrous nature
Such a staging, which, given the mentality of the Chechen people, the inhabitants of Samashki could never have done, it is absolutely impossible to imagine where the burnt bodies of Russian soldiers could have appeared in the village in April.

In fact, the above statements by some of the members of the parliamentary commission testify only to their deep incompetence and the dishonesty of the experts involved.

The "fetal position" that GOVORUKHIN speaks of is commonly referred to as the "boxer's position." Several decades ago, it was considered a sign of the lifetime effect of temperature, but now they do not think so. The specific mechanism for the formation of this pose is associated with the action of an ordinary flame on the tissues of the human body for a sufficiently long time - the explosion of ammunition in the closed space of an armored personnel carrier has nothing to do with it.

Severe burning of a corpse is a fairly common occurrence during fires in modern life. It is known from the practice of forensic experts that in
the flames of an ordinary city fire, if it has burned long enough, can char and erode the bones of the calvaria. It is characteristic that in this case a part of its base is often preserved. A video made by a Chechen journalist after the events is captured in the hands of one of the women
a bone found among the remains of a burnt relative, which approximately (with the accuracy possible for such a record) can be
identified as part of the occipital bone with the foramen magnum preserved.

At the disposal of the Observatory mission of human rights organizations is found in the house number 93 on the street. Sharipov, where, according to the testimony of witnesses, GAYTUKAEV YUKI (No. 30), RASUEVA MADU (No. 67) and KESIRT (No. 68), a melted porcelain saucer, burned down. This fact indicates a very high temperature that developed in the burning house, because. the melting point of porcelain is over 1000 degrees Celsius.

Melted porcelain saucer, found on April 25, 1995 in house 93 on Sharipova street. In this building, according to witnesses, several people burned to death. Several aluminum forks lay on the saucer, crumbling when touched. A lot of melted glassware lay around the saucer, while the porcelain only melted (the melting point of porcelain is above 1000 degrees Celsius).

Death of people in the forest

Many residents of Samashki reported the flight of several dozen (according to some reports - up to 150 people) teenagers and young people from Samashki on April 8.
men in the forest, located south and east of the village. And before the operation on April 7-8, and especially after it, this forest was subjected to intense artillery fire and rocket and bomb attacks from the air. In this regard, the reporters suggested that the forest might contain the corpses of many residents of Samashki who had fled there. However, during our cursory inspection of this forest, no corpses or signs of a mass grave were found.

At the same time, the names of the victims include two dead in this forest. ALISULTANOV ASLAMBEK (No. 8), according to an eyewitness with whom he fled into the forest on April 8, was shot dead by an ambush of Russian troops in the eastern part of the forest overlooking the neighboring village of Zakan-Yurt on the morning of April 9. His
the body was taken to Samashki by the uncle and then buried in the cemetery. In another part of the forest adjacent to Samashki from the south, on April 18, the body of DERBISHEV AINDI (No. 35) was found covered with earth in a shallow hole with a gunshot wound in the back of the head.

Already on April 8, the ITAR-TASS agency reported that in Samashki "more than 130 Dudayevites were killed during the battle." The same information was repeated the next day by the media with references to the Russian command. On April 11, a representative of the Ministry of Internal Affairs present at the meeting
government commission on Chechnya, told an NTV correspondent that there is official information - 120 militants were killed in the village, and the civilian population left before the assault. The next day, the Public Relations Center of the Ministry of Internal Affairs disseminated information that during the operation in Samashki, 130 Dudayevites were killed. Thus, the leadership of the Ministry of Internal Affairs recognized the death of more than a hundred people from the Chechen side, but attributed them all to militants In the list of names of those killed in Samashki as a result operations of the Ministry of Internal Affairs on April 7-8, 1995, there are 13 women and 90 men.

The distribution of the dead by age is as follows:

18 years and younger - 6 boys and 1 girl;
19-45 years old - 45 men and 6 women;
46-60 years old - 19 men and 4 women;
61 years and older - 20 men and 2 women.

The youngest among the dead - MAKHMUDOV RUSLAN - was 15 years old, the oldest - Ospanov Movsar - 96 years old.

According to the list, the largest number of victims was recorded among residents

Stepnoy streets - 10 people,
Sharipova street - 18 people,
Vygonnaya street - 19 people and
streets Cooperative - 12 people.

These are long streets passing through the whole village from east to west. Of these, Stepnaya, Sharipova and Vygonnaya are located to the north of the center of the village (about half of all the dead on the list were recorded here - 47 people), and Cooperative - to the south of the center of the village.

The dead are also on parallel streets in the middle part of the village:

Working street - 3 people;
Proletarian street - 3 people;
Lenin street - 3 people.

On the streets stretching from north to south, there were significantly fewer deaths:

Zavodskaya street - 1 person,
Grader street - 2 people,
Chapaeva street - 2 people,
Raskovoy street - 2 people,
Soviet street - 2 people,
Ambulatory street - 2 people.

In the northern part of the village, located near the station (Zagornaya, Gornaya, Vokzalnaya, Lineynaya, Ordzhonikidze streets, substation, SMU-5), 12 people died.

Among the residents of the southern part of the village on Kirov Street, 2 people died, on Kalinina Street - 1 person.

Among the inhabitants of the eastern and southeastern outskirts of the village (the village of Druzhba, Gagarin and Vostochnaya streets) - 9 dead.

It must be borne in mind that some of the victims died in a village other than where they lived.

So in the courtyards of the houses were buried in the beginning, many of the dead. Vygonnaya Street, 53. The bodies of the executed Isa Borshigov and Khizir Khazhbekarov. Photo by L. Vakhnina; April 12, 1995

The following are the findings of an independent investigation into the massacres in the Chechen village of Samashki by Russian troops on April 7-8, 1995. The full text of the “By All Available Means” report can be found on the website of the Memorial Society.

During the operation to occupy the village of Samashki, armed clashes took place in the village on the evening of April 7 and on the night of April 7 and 8 during the operation by a “combined detachment of servicemen of the internal troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation” and “employees of OMON and SOBR of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation”. Resistance to the units of the Ministry of Internal Affairs was provided by small groups of fighters of the self-defense detachment. Losses appear to have been suffered by both sides.
Armed resistance in Samashki, contrary to the assertion of a number of military sources, was not of an organized nature.

Already on April 7, and then on April 8, throughout the village, “servicemen of the Internal Troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs” and “police officers” began to carry out an operation to “clean up” the village, that is, a continuous check of the streets house by house in order to identify and neutralize or detention of hiding militants, as well as the seizure of hidden weapons.

Causes of death of civilians: artillery or mortar shelling of the village; shelling the streets from armored personnel carriers; shelling of streets and courtyards by snipers; executions in houses and yards; explosions of grenades thrown into basements, yards and rooms with people; burning houses; killings during the escort of detainees for "filtration".

As a result of the punitive operation on April 7-8 in the village of Samashki, there were wounded among the villagers. However, due to the blockade of the village, carried out by the units of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, they could not receive qualified medical assistance in time.

Until April 10, the wounded were not allowed to be taken out of the village, and doctors and representatives of the International Red Cross were not allowed into the village.

Many of the wounded died; there is reason to believe that with the provision of timely qualified medical care, some of them could be saved.

There are numerous destructions of residential and public buildings in the village. Part of this destruction was the result of artillery and mortar shelling of the village and air strikes, as well as armed clashes that took place in the village. However, most of the houses were destroyed as a result of deliberate arson carried out by military personnel of the Internal Troops and employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation.

Indiscriminate detention of the male population was carried out in the village. The detainees were taken to a filtration point in the city of Mozdok, or to a temporary detention center near the station. Assinovskaya. During the transfer and "sorting" of the detainees, they were subjected to beatings and abuse. There is evidence of executions during escort.

In the filtration point in Mozdok and the temporary detention center at the station. Assinovskaya, many detainees were tortured. There are serious reasons to believe that in Samashki, representatives of the Russian occupation forces committed numerous robberies of the property of the villagers.

Top officials of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Center for Public Relations of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and other high-ranking officials of the Russian Federation repeatedly maliciously disseminated false information about the events in the village of Samashki. Some of the deputies of the State Duma also joined this company.

Thus, there are gross violations of the norms of international law and the laws of the Russian Federation on the part of the military personnel of the Internal Troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and their leadership.

The actions of the federal forces are contrary to Art. 3 of all Geneva Conventions of August 12, 1949, art. 4 (para. 1 and 2), 5 (para. 1-3), 7 (para. 1), 8 and 13 (para. 1 and 2) II Additional Protocol to the Geneva Conventions of June 8, 1977, art. 6 (p. 1), 7, 9 (p. 1) and 10 (p. 1) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

According to the authors of the report, the actions committed by the federal forces against the residents of Samashki, who “did not take direct part or stopped taking part in hostilities”, should be considered as an open and massive encroachment “on the life, health, physical and mental state of persons”, as torture and mutilation prohibited "at any time and in any place" and as collective punishment.

It should be emphasized that Article 13 II of the Additional Protocol to the Geneva Conventions of June 8, 1977 also prohibits the use of acts of violence or threats of violence aimed at terrorizing the civilian population.

The acts committed in the village of Samashki, from the point of view of the authors of the report, should be qualified as crimes under Art. Russian Federation (deliberate destruction or damage to someone else's property that caused significant damage and committed by arson or in another generally dangerous way), Article 171 part 2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (abuse of power or official authority, if it was accompanied by violence, the use of weapons or painful and insulting personal dignity of the victim by actions), and also, possibly, Article 145, part 3 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (burglary with penetration into a dwelling).

Responsibility for what they did should be borne not only by the direct participants in the operation in the village of Samashki, but also by the persons who gave orders and the leaders (), through whose fault this became possible.

... The Anti-War Club and the editors of the Voine.Net website claim: No one has been held responsible for what he did in Samashki.

From the story of SALIEV SALAUDDIN, who lives in Samashki on Vygonnaya street, 96:

“On March 15, I was sitting with my neighbor MOVDAEV ABDULSELIMA in the house - this is house 6 on Vygonnaya. His father, mother, my wife, daughter and the two of us were there. There were six of us in this house. At three o'clock soldiers fly in, another or third ... "Who is here?" I say: "Here is the old man and the old woman, the wife and here is my daughter." - "Is there anyone else?" - "Nobody's here". - "The old men and women stay, but you two come out!"

We went out into the street. And there they already have armored personnel carriers or tanks, the equipment is standing, soldiers ... And they say: “You two climb onto this ... equipment.” And they put us up there. They put us upstairs, and here they are shooting all around from there, they are shooting from here, and the two of us are sitting like this on this technique ...

I tell the commander: “You are hiding behind the equipment, hiding behind the fence - we are up here together, it’s dangerous for us here! Bullets whistle, they fly past us, they can please. - "You are needed there, sit, - he says, - and be silent." And another military man began to insult and call obscenities. Okay, sit - so sit. We were sitting… Rarely did they shoot from somewhere, even in front of us one soldier was wounded… For about six or seven hours they drove us.”

During this time, the Russian unit advanced 300–400 meters down the street to the intersection with Ambulatornaya Street.

SALIEV SALAUDDIN:

“There are two soldiers sitting in their armored personnel carrier, leaning out of the hatch. I say to this one: “Are you a nationalist? I know that you are national. And what nation are you? And he says to me: "I am a Kazakh." I say: “How did you end up in the Russian troops? The Kazakhs are their own state, is it another? - “No,” he says, “we lived in Volgograd, they called me there.” I say: “Do you know Kazakh?” “I know,” he says. Well, I told him in Kazakh: “Tell the commander - we are freezing here, lightly dressed, it’s already night time - tell them to let us go”7. It was already 9 pm. He approached the commander: "These two old men - let go ..." - "No, let them sit, we need them up there!" And he didn't let go. After a while, the same guy reports to the commander: "I just received an order to take up my previous positions." I think: “Where are these former positions? Where will they take you?" It turns out that they came back here and stopped near my house ... After a while, I again turn to this commander, I say: “Let us go!” And he let us go."

This case was not isolated. On March 17, at about 6 am, Russian servicemen entered house # 2 on Rabochaya Street (this street is parallel to Vygonnaya). There, in a strong concrete semi-basement, residents of several houses hid from shelling - according to the owner of the house, ISMAILOV SHEPA, about 30 women, 8 or 10 children, 8-9 old people, several middle-aged men.

From the story of an elderly woman, MURTAZALIEVA SOVDAT, who lives in Samashki along Vostochnaya Street, 258:

“They say: “Come out, everyone.” They kicked us out of the basement. They shout: "Get in! Get in!” they cursed. They hid themselves, they shoot. Three were put on a tank that was parked here. And this child was sitting on the tank, TIMRAN9, he is in his sixth year. They put him on a tank. And two more guys, a little older10.

I fell unconscious here, at the gate ... I thought that they would shoot, they would kill everyone, so I thought when I lost consciousness. And here is how the owner of the house from where the people were taken for a "human shield", ISMAILOV SHEPA, described these events:

“On the 17th, in the morning, immediately there is a roar, tanks and all that. I look through the window - an armored personnel carrier is driving up. Armed people immediately run into the yard. I say to the old men and women: "Come on, so as not to be taken by surprise, calmly go out a little." We don't know their mood. Little by little I went ahead of the old man, I myself was near him, still I was afraid ... Four people stood with machine guns, four with machine guns, a man with a walkie-talkie was sitting near the gate. We went to the house, stood against the walls ...

Their chief was a major. They didn't have a shoulder strap. I asked a young Muscovite, when the commander went to the radio, about the rank. He said Major. And then I ask this Muscovite: “What happened? Why are they so set? What's the matter?" He says that yesterday some commander was killed there, they will now comb through.

They all sit and shoot everywhere. And then at one moment the commander says: “Women, get up. There you are, you and you." To three women, among them - LEILA and KOKA, my neighbors. “Let's get on the tank.”12 They are back and forth, no way, women ... And LEILA is completely weak. And then the children there - the three children of Koki. "Get in!"

Then we were allowed to bring SOVDAT back to the basement. When we returned, the commander ordered that they all get off the tank ... "

GAERBEKOVA LEYLA:

“I am still in shock. We were put under machine guns on a tank on Rabochaya Street. Three children, their mother is KOKA, me and my sister GAYERBEKOVA ANIA. I asked: "I'll go ahead (before the tank - ed.) - I have a weak heart." They didn't let me in. And after about twenty minutes, I fell unconscious. I fell and my sister jumped out of there. I heard one: “Bitch, I’ll shoot you now!” They never spoke to us like that again. My sister took me by the shoulder. After that they put us in front of the tank. They put us in front of the tank and said: "If there is one bullet from there, we will burn you." And there were no bullets from there, nothing.”

ISMAILOV SHEP:

“When women with children got down, they told us: “Go ahead, stand up.” We all stood in front of a tank or an armored personnel carrier. Next to KOKA and her boys. Shooting everywhere...

When we were walking, I saw that the house of SHAMSUTDIN was on fire, and he was walking with us.”

Almost everyone who was in the basement walked in front of the armored car. So, moving in front of the armored car, people from the "human shield" overcame about 300 meters in a few hours. When people got tired of standing, they were allowed to squat down.

Having reached the canal that crosses Samashki from north to south, the Russian military unit stopped; the armored car, which was covered by a "human shield", was placed in a shelter behind the house. Between 12:00 and 14:00, the commander gave the civilians the command: "Disperse!" People began to carefully make their way back. ELISANOV TIMIRBAY, also walking in a "human shield", was killed by a sniper's shot when he returned to his house on Rabochaya Street.

KHACHUKAEV KhIZIR, the commander of the unit of the Galancesh Regiment of the Special Forces of the CRI Armed Forces, and the soldiers of his detachment who defended Samashki also told the representatives of the HRC Memorial14 that in Samashki the military personnel of the federal troops “put peaceful people on armor and led them in front of them.” According to them, the fighters of the Chechen detachments in this case did not open fire on armored vehicles, they tried to surround the Russian military personnel, but were forced to retreat or remain in small groups in the rear of the attackers. They put up the main resistance in the center of the village - when the federal troops released the residents who constituted the "human shield".

In the future, the use of the “human shield” in Samashki was not repeated, because the next morning, residents from the western part of the village, which had become the scene of hostilities, gathered at the positions of Russian troops in the area of the cannery on the southern outskirts of the village. Despite the shelling of this area from helicopters, which led to casualties among those gathered, people demanded for more than a day to let them out of the village. On March 19, after 12 noon, they were let through by Russian posts.

Memorial Human Rights Center has no information whether the use of the "human shield" in Samashki was authorized by the command that led the operation to capture Samashki, or whether it was the initiative of the officers of the units operating in the village. Parts of the North Caucasian District of the Internal Troops16 and the 58th Army of the RF Ministry of Defense17 took part in the operation to capture Samashki.

The documentary material about the use by the Russian occupiers of civilians in the village of Samashki as a human shield was compiled by the staff of the Memorial Human Rights Center.

Samashki can be put in the same mournful row with Lidice, Katyn and Songmy ...

From the very beginning of the war in Chechnya, Samashki were like a bone in the throat of the Russian command. The village is located 10 km from the Chechen-Ingush border, the Rostov-Baku highway and the railway pass through it.

The victorious march of the Russian troops was interrupted, barely having time to begin: the inhabitants of Samashki categorically refused to let the tank columns through. Then the troops circled the village from the north, and it turned out to be in a semi-blockade - only the road to the south, towards the regional center Achkhoy-Martan, remained free.

Throughout the winter, the Russian command was not up to Samashki: there were heavy battles for Grozny. By April 6, 1995, the situation around the village escalated to the limit: Chechen units were operating in the area of the settlement.

The Russian occupation command deployed additional OMON formations, internal troops, about 100 pieces of artillery and presented an ultimatum, according to which all “militants” had to leave the village, the inhabitants had to hand over 264 machine guns, 3 machine guns and 2 armored personnel carriers.

After consultation among themselves, the villagers decided to start fulfilling the conditions of the ultimatum, although the required weapons were not in the village. People hoped for negotiations.

About 70 militiamen left the village at the request of the people in the direction of the Sunzha Range. On that day, only 4 armed men remained in Samashki. The term of the ultimatum expired by 9 am on April 7, 1995, but already on the night of April 6-7, artillery fire was opened on the defenseless village, and at 5 am aviation struck.
***

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On the morning of April 7, about 300 residents of Samashki left the village. At 10 o'clock the negotiations were continued, but they did not lead to anything, because the inhabitants could not hand over the required amount of weapons, which they did not have.

At 2 p.m., the commander of the Zapad group, General Mityakov, repeated the ultimatum, and by evening the Russian units broke into the village.

The punitive action lasted 4 days, during which neither the press nor representatives of the Red Cross were allowed into the village. The direct perpetrator of the bloody murder was General Romanov (aka General Antonov). It was he who commanded parts of the internal troops that entered the village.

What was going on in Samashki these days has one definition - genocide. In Samashki, hundreds of women, children, and the elderly were killed in one day on April 8.

The atrocities began immediately after the entry into the village of Russian punishers. The massacre of innocent people was fast and terrible.

"Suspicious" houses were first thrown with grenades, and then "processed" with "bumblebee" flamethrowers.

In front of the eyes of a local resident Yanist Bisultanova, an old man was shot dead when he begged for mercy and pointed to his order bars. Ruslan V.'s 90-year-old father-in-law, who at one time participated in the liberation of Bucharest and Sofia, was killed ...

During the "cleansing" about 40 villagers fled into the forest and tried to sit there. However, artillery hit the forest. Under artillery fire, almost all of them died ...
***
As of April 16 alone, 211 fresh graves were dug in the village cemetery, and their number increased every day. Many Samashkin residents were buried in other places ...

Samashki resident Aminat Gunasheva said the following:

“On May 17 (1995), when we were picketing near the State Duma, Stanislav Govorukhin came out of the entrance, recognized us and ran away. When he was in Samashki, he saw our mass graves and burned houses. People then approached him, brought the remains of their loved ones - some ashes, some bones ... Russian troops have been standing near Samashki since January of this year. And all these months, every day we expected the assault ...

On the morning of April 7, the Russian commanders said that if we did not hand over 264 automatic weapons to them by 4 p.m., then the assault would begin. There was nowhere to take weapons, because on that very day all the soldiers left Samashki. They were persuaded by the old people. The commanders firmly promised that if all the armed defenders left the village, the troops would not enter it ...

At the meeting, the people decided to slaughter cattle, sell meat, and use the proceeds to buy machine guns from the Russian military. Do you know where weapons come from to the Chechens under a complete blockade from the ground and air? We buy it from Russian commissaries and exchange it for food from the ever-hungry conscripts. Often a combat grenade is given for a loaf of bread.

But that day the situation was hopeless. There was no way we could get what we needed so soon. They asked for a week. But, obviously, the ultimatum was only a pretext, because no one even waited for the promised 16 hours. It all started 2 hours earlier...

… We sat, waiting for our fate. They couldn’t run away - they were afraid that the previously wounded uncle would bleed to death. We hear how the gates open, how an armored personnel carrier drives in, how a grenade is thrown into an empty basement. We entered the room. There were 18-20 of them. They look sober, only their eyes are glassy.

They saw my uncle: “When did it hurt? Where is the machine? Where are the "spirits"?

Raisa rushed to those who came: “Do not kill, there is no one in the house, there are no machine guns, dad is seriously wounded. Do you also have a father?” “We have an order to kill everyone from 14 to 65 years old,” the newcomers shouted and began to knock over buckets of water with their feet. And we already knew what it meant: now they would certainly burn it, and poured out the water so that there was nothing to extinguish. The riot police left the room. They threw a grenade at the door. Raisa was hurt. She moaned.

I heard someone say, "What?" Nearby they answered: “Baba is still alive.” It's about Raisa. After these words - two shots from a flamethrower. For some reason, I couldn't bring myself to close my eyes. I knew that they would kill me now, and I wanted only one thing - to die immediately, without pain. But they are gone. I looked around - Raisa was dead, my uncle too, but Asya was alive. We lay with her, afraid to move. The trellis, curtain, linoleum, plastic buckets were on fire. We were left to live by mistake, mistaking for the dead ...

I approached the school. There, the women were taking several hanged boys out of the noose. Looks like grade 1-3. The children ran out of the building in terror. They were caught and strangled on a wire. The eyes popped out of their sockets, the faces were swollen and unrecognizable. Nearby was a pile of burnt bones, the remains of about 30 more schoolchildren. According to eyewitnesses, they were also hanged and then burned with a flamethrower. On the wall something brown was written: "Museum exhibit - the future of Chechnya." And one more thing: "The Russian bear woke up."

I couldn't go anywhere else. Returned home. Only the walls remained of the house. The rest burned down. Asya and I collected the ashes and bones of Uncle Nasreddin and Raisa in oilcloth and newsprint. Uncle lived for 47 years, and Raisa was supposed to turn 23 in July ...

We came to Moscow not only to convey to you the pain of our people. We wanted to talk about your dead soldiers. It is wild for us to watch how their bodies are taken out by helicopters to the mountains and dumped there to be torn to pieces by wild animals, how the corpses decompose in the lake of poisonous waste from the chemical plant (between Grozny and the 1st dairy plant), dumped into silo pits.

... During a picket near the Duma building, an elderly, decently dressed lady jumped out. She laughed at us, showed her tongue, made faces. She was supported by some men. They spat gum at us...

I want everyone to know: yes, we feel unbearably sorry for our dead, but we also feel sorry for Russia. What will happen when the murderers, rapists and drug addicts who are outrageous in our land today return to their homeland? And I still don’t understand how you can live, knowing that now your military is burning our children alive with flamethrowers? In front of the parents, they crush the child with an armored personnel carrier and shout to the mother: “Look, fuck, don’t turn away!” How do you then look into the eyes of your mothers, your wives, your children?”

The material uses materials from human rights organizations, stories of victims of the punitive action in Samashki and fragments of Igor Bunich's book "Six Days in Budyonnovsk"