Ahmad Shah Massoud's bodyguard Nikolai Bystrov. Lost in Afghanistan: stories of Soviet army soldiers who remained in captivity for life

Photographer Alexei Nikolaev found former Afghan soldiers who were captured, converted to Islam and did not want to return to the USSR

They say that the war does not end until the last soldier is buried. The Afghan conflict ended a quarter of a century ago, but we do not even know about the fate of those Soviet soldiers who, after the withdrawal of troops, remained in captivity of the Mujahideen. The data is different. Of the 417 missing, 130 were released before the collapse of the USSR, more than a hundred died, eight people were recruited by the enemy, 21 became “defectors”. The fate of dozens of soldiers is unknown, which means that Afghanistan is still our hot spot.

Those who somehow managed to win back their freedom remained in their inner captivity and could not forget the horrors of that war. Photographer Alexei Nikolaev found six former Soviet soldiers who lived in Afghanistan for a long time, converted to Islam, started families, speak and think in Dari. Some of them managed to fight on the side of the Mujahideen, someone made the Hajj. Three returned to their homeland, but still miss the country that gave them a second life.

These photographs will be included in the book by Alexei Nikolaev "Forever in captivity." Fundraising for its publication is on the Planet website.

Sergey Krasnoperov. Afghanistan. Chaghcharan

A native of Kurgan, Krasnoperov served in Afghanistan for almost two years, but at the end of his term - in 1985 - he left part due to hazing, was captured by the Mujahideen, stayed with them, married a local girl and, after the withdrawal of Soviet troops, remained to live in nameless village, 20 kilometers from Chagcharan, the capital of Ghor province. By local standards, Krasnoperov is a prosperous wealthy man: he has two motorcycles, a car and two jobs: an electrician and a foreman in road construction.

Bahretdin Khakimov, Herat

Khakimov was drafted into the army in 1979. In 1980, he went missing during a battle in the province of Herat, was officially named dead. In fact, he was seriously wounded in the head. locals picked it up and left. Most likely, it was the injury that led to the fact that Khakimov practically forgot the Russian language, confusing dates and names. Sometimes calls himself an intelligence officer. Psychologists explain that with such injuries, there is a high probability of forming a false memory, rearranging dates and names. Now Khakimov lives in Herat on the territory of the Jihad Museum in a small room.

Nikolai Bystrov takes the train home after a day's work. Ust-Labinskaya. Krasnodar region

Nikolai Bystrov with his family

Nikolai Bystrov was taken prisoner in 1982: the old-timers sent him AWOL for marijuana. Wounded and captured, Bystrov was taken to Panjshir, to the base of the Mujahideen, where he met with Amad Shah Massoud. Later, Nicholas converted to Islam and became the personal bodyguard of Ahmad Shah. He returned to Russia in 1999 with his Afghan wife and daughter. Lives in the Krasnodar Territory, the village of Ust-Labinskaya.

Yuri Stepanov at work in the shop. Priyutovo. Bashkiria

Yuri Stepanov with his family

Private Stepanov was captured in 1988 and was presumed dead. In fact, he converted to Islam and stayed in Afghanistan. He returned to Russia in 2006 with his wife and son. Lives in Bashkiria, the village of Priyutovo.

Alexander (Akhmad) Levents and Gennady (Negmamad) Tsevma are 49 years old. Both are natives of southeastern Ukraine (one from Lugansk, the other from Donetsk region), both ended up in Afghanistan during military service. In the fall of 1983, they were captured, converted to Islam, got married, and after the withdrawal of Soviet troops settled in the city of Kunduz in the north-east of the country. Gennady is disabled and can hardly move. Alexander works as a taxi driver.

A story about the fate of the Kuban Nikolai Bystrov, a former Soviet prisoner of war in Afghanistan and a former bodyguard of Shah Massoud, the leader of the Mujahideen.

Nikolai Bystrov spent his childhood and youth in the Kuban, his youth in the mountains of Afghanistan. For 18 years now, he has been back in his homeland - if you consider the place where you were born as your homeland. And if the homeland is where you become yourself, then Islamuddin Bystrov lost it irretrievably - just like millions of Russians lost their Russia in 1917. There is no longer Afghanistan, in which the soldier Nikolai Bystrov became Mujahideen Islamuddin, where he found faith and comrades, where he married a beautiful woman, where he had a powerful patron who trusted him with his life, and where his own life had meaning - in loyalty and service.

“You probably want to look at your wife? Bystrov asks on the phone. “She is Afghan.” The Afghan wife, whom people usually come to "look at", appears as a quiet and shy woman in bloomers and a headscarf, serving tea to guests and quickly disappearing into the kitchen. But Odyl is least of all like the women we are used to seeing in reports from Afghanistan. In an apartment on Rabochaya Street in Ust-Labinsk, I am met by a cheerful and self-confident beauty in a red satin blouse and tight trousers, with make-up and jewelry. Two sons are playing a computer shooter - I see the outlines of wounded soldiers in camouflage flashing on the screen. The daughter goes into the kitchen to make tea, and we sit on a sofa covered in white leopard plush.

“We also managed to put two of them down,” Bystrov begins a story about his Afghan captivity: the army “grandfathers” sent him AWOL to the nearest village for food, and the Mujahideen set up an ambush. “But I was lucky that I ended up with Ahmad Shah Massoud, in the Jamet-Islami party. Another party, Hezb-Islami, wanted to take me away, there was a shootout, seven people died between them.” Odylya crosses her legs, discovering a shiny pendant on her ankle, and with polite indifference prepares to listen combat stories husband. “I didn’t know who Shah Massoud was at all,” says Bystrov. - I come, and they are sitting there in their Afghan trousers, in turbans, eating pilaf on the floor. I come in wounded, dirty, frightened. I chose him, I cross the crowd right across the table (and this is a sin!), I say hello, and they immediately grab my hand. "How do you know him?" they ask. I say, I don’t know him, I just saw a person who stands out from the others. Ahmad Shah Massoud, nicknamed the "Panjshir Lion" - the leader of the most influential group of the Mujahideen and the de facto ruler of the northern territories of Afghanistan - differed from other Mujahideen in some oddities. For example, he liked to read books and preferred not to kill once again. Gathering prisoners from different districts, he suggested that they return to their homeland or move to the West through Pakistan. Almost everyone decided to go to Pakistan, where they soon died. Bystrov said he wanted to stay with Masud, converted to Islam and soon became his personal bodyguard.

The boys have been chased out of the room—only the youngest occasionally raids for candy. Daughter Katya returned from the kitchen with a cup of green tea, Odylya throws dry ginger into the tea and gives it to me. I wonder if she reads what they write about her husband. “Politics doesn’t interest me,” Odylya says in good Russian, but with a noticeable accent. - I have children! I’m interested in how to cook delicious food, raise children and make repairs.” Bystrov continues: “Masud is not an ordinary person: he was a leader. I am Russian, and he trusted me. He was with him all the time, slept in the same room, ate from the same plate. I was asked: maybe you received his trust for some merit? What nonsense. I noticed that Massoud didn't like those who were naughty. And he never killed a prisoner." Hearing a judgment about the noble Masud, Odyl ceases to be bored and enters into a conversation: “Masud had reasons not to kill. I worked as an officer, exchanged prisoners.

Odylya is a Tajik woman from Kabul. At the age of 18, she went to work - she was, as she says, "both a paratrooper and a machinist", entered the service of the Ministry of Security. “This is what Massoud did wrong: we gave him four people, and he gave us only one,” she says. - Other opposition leaders also changed, because the prisoners were not killed in order to save their own. And if, for example, some general, big man If he was taken prisoner, then we gave ten prisoners for him. Nikolai confirms her words: “They asked for an exchange with the Mujahideen and gave four of ours for one of their own.” I’m starting to get confused about how many “ours” were, one or four, and Odyl explains: “I’m an Afghan, I was on the side of the government, and he, a Russian, was on the side of the Mujahideen. We are communists and they are Muslims.”

When Odyl organized the exchange of prisoners, and Nikolai, who became Islamuddin, walked with Shah Massoud through the Panjshir Gorge, the Bystrovs did not yet know each other. In 1992, the Mujahideen captured Kabul, Burhanuddin Rabbani became president, and Shah Massoud became defense minister. Odylya tells how a certain Mujahideen, having burst into the ministry with others, demanded that she immediately change clothes: “I lived freely. I didn't have a burqa or a scarf. Short skirt, sleeveless clothing. The Mujahideen came and said: "Put on your pants." I say: “Where are my pants from?!” And he takes off his own and gives it away - he had others from below, such as leggings. And a scarf, he says, put it on quickly. But I didn't have a scarf, so they gave me a scarf that they themselves wear around their necks. Then I walk around the city, and bullets are pouring from all sides, falling right at my feet ... "

After the power changed, Odylya continued to work in the ministry, but one day a man stuck to her, and she stabbed him with a knife. “The chief said that he would send me to Russia so that I would not hurt anyone else. Like, there's a good law, you can't kill anyone. I say no, I love Afghanistan and my people. He grabbed my hand, I had to go with him ?! “I always carried a knife with me,” Bystrov proudly comments, but, seeing my bewilderment, he explains: he took it by the hand, which means he wanted to take it away. Odylya continues: “The boss says to me: “Let's get married then.” I say go out if I find good man. He asks: "What kind of person do you want?" “Someone who will never hit me and will do whatever I want.” Odylya is interrupted by Nikolai: “Never mind! You didn’t set such conditions for me!” Odylya calmly retorts: “I just told what my dream was. And the chief said that he had such a person. “He watches you every day, so act normal. Close your legs and neck, because he believes very strongly, he goes to pray five times a day.” For a moment I break away from the older Bystrovs. Next to her father sits, not moving, daughter Katya: for the first time she hears the story of the acquaintance of her parents.

Too pious, by the standards of the Kabulites, Mujahid Islamuddin at the first meeting frightened Odyl so much that they could not agree: "He looked at me like a lion, it killed me." Bystrov recalls: “I haven’t seen women for so many years, in villages they walk around in veils and hide all the time. And she is so tall, in high heels, beautiful ... She came, I was sitting opposite her, and her legs were shaking. And then I started to bring her gifts! I just showered her with gifts." Odylya is almost indignant: “When a person wants to get married, he is obliged to shower him with gifts!” Nikolay quickly agrees, and Odylya continues: “Here I have a day off, I go out onto the roof, I look, and in our yard there is a cool car, and its windows are black. I go to work and there she is. I was told it was Ahmad Shah Massoud's car. My God, who is Shah Massoud and who am I? I was very afraid." “It was a Department of Defense vehicle. Armored, - explains Nikolai. “I sat in it while it climbed the roofs.” “It is fate that connects like this,” Odyl concludes.

The bride for his Islamuddin was found by Masud himself. Odylya turned out to be his distant relative on the side of his father. their details family ties we will never know, it is enough that Odyli's father was from the Pandshirsky region, which means that he was from the same tribe as Masud, and, therefore, his relative. Odylya did not immediately realize that Mujahid Islamuddin, who was chasing her in an armored car of the Ministry of Defense, had once been Russian Nikolai. He learned well not only Farsi, which he now and then switches to in a conversation with his wife, but also the habits of the Mujahideen. I only had to dye my hair so that the locals would not see through his origin and kill him. “The eyes remained blue,” says Odylya. “Yes, I am blond. And there he was among strangers, - Bystrov agrees. “Do you know who did my teeth?” Arabs! If they knew that I was Russian, they would have killed me right away.”

The communist married a Mujahideen, and the civil war in a single family ended. Massoud forgot about the communists and began to fight the Taliban. He became a national hero of Afghanistan and a real TV star, a favorite of foreign politicians and journalists. The more people sought to communicate with Masud, the more work Islamuddin had: he was responsible for personal security, inspected all guests regardless of rank, took away weapons and often caused their dissatisfaction with his meticulousness. Masood chuckled, but he did not allow anyone to break the order established by the faithful Islamuddin.

The rumor that Masuda is guarding the Russian has also reached Russian diplomats and journalists. They kept asking Bystrov if he wanted to return home. Massoud was ready to let him go, but Islamuddin, who had just received a beautiful wife and the status of the personal bodyguard of the Minister of Defense, was not going to return. “If I hadn’t married, I wouldn’t have returned,” says Odylya. “Exactly,” Bystrov nods. As I sip on my third cup of ginger green tea, they talk about how they moved to Russia. Odylya became pregnant, but one day she was next to a five-story building at the moment when it was blown up. She fell on her back, the unborn child died from the fall, and Odylya was taken to the hospital with severe injuries and blood loss. “Do you know how I looked for her blood? Her blood is rare. Kabul is being bombed, no one is there, but I need blood. I’m just walking from work to the hospital with a machine gun, she’s lying there, and I say: “Hey you, if she dies, I’ll shoot you all!” I had a machine gun on my shoulder." Odylya is again unhappy: “Well, you had to do it, I’m your wife!” Nicholas again agrees. After the injury, doctors forbade his wife to become pregnant in the next five years. This news was most difficult for her mother, who was only fourteen years older than Odyla. Her mother told her that there was no need to listen to the doctors, saying that everything would be fine anyway. And Odylya became pregnant again. Given the military situation and lack of conditions, the doctors did not guarantee a good outcome and issued a referral to India, where the patient had a chance to bear and give birth to a child - their eldest daughter Katya. She is still there and listens to our conversation without saying a word. Odylya points to Bystrov: “It was 1995, at that time his mother had just died, but we didn’t know about it then. I came home with this direction, and we began to think where to go.” Nikolai was ready to move to India, but Odylya decided that it was time for him to see his relatives and offered to return to Russia. “He swore at the wedding that he would not take me away. This is the law, says Odylya. "But that's fate." She thought that she would give birth to a child in Russia and come back. Shortly after their departure, the Taliban seized power, and Odyla's relatives who remained in Kabul asked her not to return.

“Afghanistan is the heart of the world. Capture the heart, and you will capture the whole world, - Odylya turns into a real speaker as soon as it comes to the Taliban. “But anyone who comes to our land will wet his pants and leave. Well, did they win when the Russians were expelled? Did the Russians win when they came to Afghanistan? And the Americans? Listening to Odyla's list, Nikolai trips over the Russians and starts arguing: “Tell me honestly, the Soviet Union would have won if it had stayed. Mujahideen who fought against the government and Soviet Union, now they regret it, because no one else helps them.” Odylya brushes it off and continues her fiery course in the history of Afghanistan: “Then the Taliban came, but they did not win either. And they will never win. Because they are fighting against the people, and they have an unclean soul. They painted windows black, went door to door and broke children's toys like it was a sin. If a child could not pray, they shot him in the head right in front of his parents. I look on the Internet, what they are cruel people. I understand faith. I am also a believer. But why show it? You prove that you are a Muslim!” Odylya distorts some Russian words, and her Muslim becomes a “Muslim”, and Krasnodar becomes “Krasnodor”.

Odylya knew nothing about Russia when the Bystrovs decided to leave Afghanistan. “Once I saw a letter to my husband from Russia and was surprised how this can be read. It was as if the ants had been dipped in ink and made to run across the paper,” she says. Having suddenly changed Kabul to Kuban, the pregnant Odyl ended up in the village of Nekrasovskaya near Ust-Labinsk. She talks about a passport officer who was annoyed by a foreigner who did not speak Russian. According to the Russian passport, Odyla's age is five years older than her biological one: she agreed to any figure, if only to leave the passport office as soon as possible. And about how difficult it was to adapt to the climate, nature or food. “We used to have a zoo in Kabul where one pig lived,” she says, pronouncing “zoo” like “zoo”. - It was the only pig in all of Afghanistan, and I considered it a wild animal, exotic, like a tiger or a lion. And so we moved to Nekrasovskaya, I was pregnant, I got up at night to go to the toilet, and in the yard a pig grunts. I run home, frightened, the Russians ask Islam: "What did she see there?" And I grunt in response! It was very scary."

When the domestic shock passed, it was the turn of the cultural shock. “Everything annoyed me,” says Odylya. - At home you wake up under "Allah Akbar", you don't even need an alarm clock. Everyone lives together, and you do not feel that there are strangers nearby. No one ever locks the door, and if a person falls on the street, everyone runs to save him - this is a completely different relationship. And how do Russians sit at the table? They pour, pour, pour, then get drunk and start singing songs. We sing songs, but only at weddings and other holidays - not at the table! Well, I understand, a different culture. Until you learn all this, it's not easy."

“I am from the capital, and you are from the village!” - Odylya says to Nikolai every now and then. He smiles. For Bystrov, adaptation also turned out to be a difficult task: for 13 years of absence, he has grown so firmly into Afghanistan, and his homeland has changed so much that instead of returning, he received, on the contrary, emigration. Of the relatives in the Kuban, only a sister remained. The Bystrovs could not immediately find a job or money. Ruslan Aushev and the Committee for the Affairs of Internationalist Warriors helped: they were given an apartment, then they were offered a part-time job. For six months, Nikolai again turned into Islamuddin, so that, by order of the Committee, he would search for the remains of the missing former "Afghans", as well as the living, those who, like himself, turned into real Afghans over the years. Today, seven such people are known. They have an established life, wives, children and a household, none of them is going to return to their homeland, and “they have nothing to do in Russia,” says Bystrov. However, he immediately catches himself and sets out the mission of the Committee: “But, of course, our task is to return everyone.”

Six months in Afghanistan ended, and months came without money and work. It is impossible to get a new job every six months, then to quit again and go on business trips, so Bystrov has not traveled to Afghanistan for the last four years. He works for one of the most prominent Afghan communities in Russia, Krasnodar. Unloads trucks with toys that they sell. The work is hard and “out of age”, but he is not going to look for another one yet. He dreams that work for the Committee will become permanent, but the Committee does not yet have such an opportunity - there was a time when he did not have money at all for expeditions to Afghanistan. And, while no one has made him a worthy offer, Bystrov, who speaks Farsi and Pashto, is familiar with all the field commanders of the Northern Alliance and has followed Masud all of Afghanistan on foot, prefers to load toys. It seems that, in addition to the salary, the Krasnodar Afghans give him a sense of connection with a second, more significant homeland. “I am connected with Afghanistan,” he says simply.

While Nikolai went on business trips on the instructions of the Committee, Odyl sat at home with three children, sold jewelry in the market, worked as a hairdresser and manicurist. During this time, she made friends with all the neighbors, but she never became part of the community. “I don't go to Russia. I go to the hospital, to school and home,” she says. - One of my countrymen asks me: “How are you in Russia, did you learn the language, do you travel everywhere?” What are you saying, I don’t go anywhere at all and didn’t see anything. ”

Last year, a computer with the Internet appeared in their house, and Odyl restored constant contact with her family and with Afghanistan. She constantly communicates via Skype and social networks, goes to forums, where she publishes her thoughts with the help of "Google translator". Odylya friends me on Facebook, and my feed is immediately covered with poetic quotes in Farsi, photo collages with roses and hearts, and images of Afghan dishes. Sometimes there are photo reports about poor Afghan children or portraits of Massoud. But that "golden age" Afghanistan that the Bystrovs would like to return to no longer exists. The one in which a woman can understand politics, but prefer household, be a Muslim, but wear short skirts, make repairs in the apartment and post poetry in Farsi on the networks. They put together such an Afghanistan from pieces of memories, homemade Afghan cuisine, pictures with quotes from the Koran, hung on the walls of their Ust-Labinsk apartment.

Living in closed world between school, clinic and market and in the virtual world social networks, Odylya does not know the Russian word "migrant" and does not feel any threats against his Muslim family. “On the contrary, everyone should love Muslims. We don't offend anyone, she says. If someone said a bad word, we can't repeat it. Well, if a hand is raised against you, you, of course, must defend yourself. From the very beginning, children were brought up in such a way that, without losing their parental religion, they fit into the local culture and speak without an accent. Their youngest son Ahmad dances in a children's Cossack ensemble, the middle son Akbar has just graduated from music school, and Katya is studying at a medical college. Odylya is going to give them Afghan citizenship, but does not want to teach them his language ahead of time. But recently, children began to learn Arabic via Skype with a teacher from Pakistan. “Because if you don’t know how to read the Quran, then in vain you learn it at all,” says Odylya. “One must understand what the phrase “La lahi ila allahi wa-Muhammadu rasuulu allahi” means” (“There is no god but Allah, and Muhammad is his prophet”).

Eighteen years have passed since they moved to Russia. Two years ago, Odyla's mother died. Shortly thereafter, her own health began to worsen: she was haunted by headaches, frequent fainting. There are no good doctors, for the sake of whom they once left their homeland, in Ust-Labinsk, and the Bystrovs cannot afford paid appointments in Krasnodar. Last year, with the help of the Committee, Odylya went to Moscow for an examination. Doctors, among other ailments, diagnosed depression and recommended to go home, but Bystrov still does not dare to let her go. This year, the whole family is going to get to the sea for the first time - about 160 kilometers.

On September 9, 2001, two days before the terrorist attack in New York, more people with TV cameras came to Massoud. Islamuddin had already lived in Russia for six years. The journalists turned out to be suicide bombers, and Massoud exploded. For Bystrov, his death turned out to be the main tragedy in his life. He often tells reporters that if he had not left, he could have prevented Massoud's death. However, if it were not for Masud, then Nikolai would not have married Odyl and would not have left. He would probably have been killed shortly after his capture. It turns out that the national hero of Afghanistan, with his humanism uncharacteristic of the Mujahideen, personally deprived the story of a happy ending. Not only their own, but also the history of a country that is now almost entirely under the control of the Taliban.

The day after our first meeting, Krasnodar employers urgently called Bystrov to unload a truck, and he lost his only day off in the week. It was time for me to leave, so we spent the rest of the conversation on Skype. I ask who killed Massoud. He shakes his head and makes signs with his hands: they say, I know, but I won’t tell. Finally, I ask Odylya to take a picture of her husband and send photos. “She understands computers better than I do,” Bystrov again looks into Skype of his wife. “I only know how to kill.”

Original taken from alex_serdyuk the Russian guard Masuda

Photo: PublicPost
Text:
Natalya Konradova

“You probably want to look at your wife?” Bystrov asks on the phone. “She’s an Afghan with me.” The Afghan wife, whom people usually come to "look at", appears as a quiet and shy woman in trousers and a scarf, serving tea to guests and quickly disappearing into the kitchen. But Odyl is least of all like the women we are used to seeing in reports from Afghanistan. In an apartment on Rabochaya Street in Ust-Labinsk, I am met by a cheerful and self-confident beauty in a red satin blouse and tight trousers, with make-up and jewelry. Two sons are playing a computer shooter - I see the outlines of wounded soldiers in camouflage flashing on the screen. The daughter goes into the kitchen to make tea, and we sit on a sofa covered in white leopard plush.

“We also managed to put two of them down,” Bystrov begins a story about his Afghan captivity: the army “grandfathers” sent him AWOL to the nearest village for food, and the Mujahideen set up an ambush. “But I was lucky that I ended up with Ahmad Shah Massoud, in the party "Jamet-Islami. Another party, Hezb-Islami, wanted to take me away, there was a shootout, seven people died between them." Odylya crosses her legs, revealing a shiny pendant on her ankle, and with polite indifference prepares to listen to her husband's battle stories. “I didn’t know at all who Shah Masud was,” Bystrov says. “I come, and they are sitting there in their Afghan trousers, in turbans, eating pilaf on the floor. I go in wounded, dirty, frightened. table (and this is a sin!), I say hello, and they immediately grab my hand. “How do you know him?” they ask. I say, I don’t know him, I just saw a person who stands out from the others. Ahmad Shah Massoud, nicknamed the "Panjshir Lion" - the leader of the most influential group of Mujahideen and the de facto ruler of the northern territories of Afghanistan - differed from other Mujahideen in some oddities. For example, he liked to read books and preferred not to kill once again. Gathering prisoners from different regions, he invited them to return to their homeland or move to the West through Pakistan. Almost everyone decided to go to Pakistan, where they soon died. Bystrov said he wanted to stay with Masud, converted to Islam and soon became his personal bodyguard.

The boys have been chased out of the room—only the youngest occasionally raids for candy. Katya returned from the kitchen with a cup of green tea, Odylya throws dry ginger into the tea and gives it to me. I wonder if she reads what they write about her husband. “Politics doesn’t interest me,” Odylya says in good Russian, but with a noticeable accent. “I have children! I’m interested in how to cook delicious food, raise children and make repairs.” Bystrov continues: “Masud is not an ordinary person: he was a leader. I am Russian, and he trusted me. He was with him all the time, slept in the same room, ate from the same plate. his trust? How stupid. I noticed that Massoud didn't like those who wiggle. And he never killed prisoners." Hearing a judgment about the noble Masud, Odyl ceases to be bored and enters into a conversation: "Masud had reasons not to kill. I worked as an officer, exchanged prisoners."

Odylya is a Tajik woman from Kabul. At the age of 18, she went to work - she was, as she says, "both a paratrooper and a machinist", entered the service of the Ministry of Security. “Masud did what was wrong: we gave him four people, and he gave us only one,” she says. “Other opposition leaders also changed, because they didn’t kill the prisoners in order to save their own. , a big man was taken prisoner, then we gave ten prisoners for him. Nikolai confirms her words: "They asked for an exchange with the Mujahideen and gave four of ours for one of their own." I’m starting to get confused about how many “ours” were, one or four, and Odyl explains: “I’m an Afghan, I was on the side of the government, and he, a Russian, was on the side of the Mujahideen. We are communists, and they are Muslims.”

When Odyl organized the exchange of prisoners, and Nikolai, who became Islamuddin, walked with Shah Massoud through the Panjshir Gorge, the Bystrovs did not yet know each other. In 1992, the Mujahideen captured Kabul, Burhanuddin Rabbani became president, and Shah Massoud became defense minister. Odylya tells how a certain mujahideen, bursting into the ministry together with others, demanded that she immediately change clothes: “I lived freely. I didn’t have a veil or a headscarf. pants." I say: "Where did my pants come from?!" And he takes off his pants and gives them away - he had others underneath, like leggings. which they themselves wear around their necks. Then I walk around the city, and bullets are pouring in from all sides, falling right near my feet ... "

After the power changed, Odylya continued to work in the ministry, but one day a man stuck to her, and she stabbed him with a knife. “The chief said that he would send me to Russia so that I wouldn’t hurt anyone else. Like, there’s a good law there, you won’t be able to kill anyone. I say, don’t, I love Afghanistan and my people. He grabbed my hand, I Should I have gone with him? “I always carried a knife with me,” Bystrov proudly comments, but, seeing my bewilderment, he explains: he took it by the hand, which means he wanted to take it away. Odylya continues: “The boss says to me:“ Let’s get married then. ”I say, I’ll get out if I find a good person. He asks:“ What kind of person do you want? what I want". Nikolay interrupts Odyl: "Never mind! You didn’t set such conditions for me!” Odylya calmly retorts: “I just told what my dream was. And the chief said that he had such a person. "He watches you every day, so act normal. Cover your legs and neck, because he believes very strongly, he goes to pray five times a day." For a moment I break away from the older Bystrovs. Next to her father sits, not moving, daughter Katya: for the first time she hears the story of the acquaintance of her parents.

Too pious by the standards of Kabulians, Mujahid Islamuddin at the first meeting frightened Odyl so much that they could not agree: "He looked at me like a lion, it killed me." Bystrov recalls: “I haven’t seen women for so many years, they walk in villages in veils and hide all the time. And she’s so tall, in high heels, beautiful ... She came, I’m sitting opposite her, and her legs are shaking. And then I started bringing her gifts! I just bombarded her with gifts. Odylya is almost indignant: "When a person wants to get married, he is obliged to shower him with gifts!" Nikolai quickly agrees, and Odylya continues: “Here I have a day off, I go out on the roof, I look, and in our yard there is a cool car, and its windows are black. I go to work - and there it is. They told me that this is a car Ahmad Shah Massoud. My God, who is Shah Massoud and who am I? I was very afraid." “It was a car of the Ministry of Defense. Armored,” explains Nikolai. “I sat in it while it climbed the roofs.” “This is how fate connects,” Odyl concludes.

The bride for his Islamuddin was found by Masud himself. Odylya turned out to be his distant relative on the side of his father. We will never know the details of their family ties, it is enough that Odyli's father was from the Pandshirsky district, which means that he was from the same tribe as Masud, and, therefore, his relative. Odylya did not immediately realize that Mujahid Islamuddin, who was pursuing her in an armored car of the Ministry of Defense, had once been Russian Nikolai. He learned well not only Farsi, which he now and then switches to in a conversation with his wife, but also the habits of the Mujahideen. I only had to dye my hair so that the locals would not see through his origin and kill him. "The eyes remained blue," says Odylya. “Yes, I am blond. And there I was among strangers,” agrees Bystrov. “Do you know who did my teeth? Arabs! If they knew that I was Russian, they would have killed me right away.”

The communist married a Mujahideen, and the civil war in a single family ended. Massoud forgot about the communists and began to fight the Taliban. He became a national hero of Afghanistan and a real TV star, a favorite of foreign politicians and journalists. The more people sought to communicate with Masoud, the more work Islamuddin had: he was responsible for personal security, inspected all guests regardless of rank, took away weapons and often caused their dissatisfaction with his meticulousness. Masood chuckled, but he did not allow anyone to break the order established by the faithful Islamuddin.

The rumor that Masuda is guarding the Russian has also reached Russian diplomats and journalists. They kept asking Bystrov if he wanted to return home. Massoud was ready to let him go, but Islamuddin, who had just received a beautiful wife and the status of the personal bodyguard of the Minister of Defense, was not going to return. “If I hadn’t married, I wouldn’t have returned,” says Odylya. "Exactly," Bystrov nods. As I sip on my third cup of ginger green tea, they talk about how they moved to Russia. Odylya became pregnant, but one day she was next to a five-story building at the moment when it was blown up. She fell on her back, the unborn child died from the fall, and Odylya was taken to the hospital with severe injuries and blood loss. "Do you know how I was looking for her blood? Her blood is of a rare group. Kabul is being bombed, there is no one, but I need blood. I'm just going from work to the hospital with a machine gun, she's lying there, and I say:" Hey you, if she dies, I'll shoot you all!" I had a machine gun on my shoulder." Odylya is again unhappy: "Well, you had to do it, I'm your wife!" Nicholas again agrees. After the injury, doctors forbade his wife to become pregnant in the next five years. This news was most difficult for her mother, who was only fourteen years older than Odyla. Her mother told her that there was no need to listen to the doctors, saying that everything would be fine anyway. And Odylya became pregnant again. Given the military situation and lack of conditions, the doctors did not guarantee a good outcome and issued a referral to India, where the patient had a chance to bear and give birth to a child - their eldest daughter Katya. She is still there and listens to our conversation without saying a word. Odylya points to Bystrov: “It was 1995, at that time his mother had just died, but we didn’t know about it then. I came home with this direction, and we began to think where to go.” Nikolai was ready to move to India, but Odylya decided that it was time for him to see his relatives and offered to return to Russia. “He swore at the wedding that he would not take me away. That’s how it is supposed to be by law,” says Odylya. “But this is fate.” She thought that she would give birth to a child in Russia and come back. Shortly after their departure, the Taliban seized power, and Odyla's relatives who remained in Kabul asked her not to return.

"Afghanistan is the heart of the world. Capture the heart, and you will capture the whole world." Odylya turns into a real speaker as soon as it comes to the Taliban. "But anyone who comes to our land will wet his pants and leave. Well, we won, when were the Russians expelled? Did the Russians win when they came to Afghanistan? And the Americans?" Listening to Odyla's list, Nikolai trips over the Russians and starts arguing: "Tell me honestly, the Soviet Union would have won if it had stayed. The Mujahideen who fought against the government and the Soviet Union are now sorry because no one else is helping them." Odylya brushes aside and continues her fiery course in the history of Afghanistan: “Then the Taliban came, but they didn’t win either. And they never will. Because they are fighting against the people, and they have an unclean soul. children's toys - as if it were a sin. If a child could not pray, they shot him in the head right in front of his parents. I look on the Internet, what cruel people they are. I understand - faith. I am also a believer. But why show it? You Prove that you are a Muslim!" Odylya distorts some Russian words, and her Muslim becomes a "Muslim", and Krasnodar - "Krasnodor".

Odylya knew nothing about Russia when the Bystrovs decided to leave Afghanistan. “Once I saw a letter to my husband from Russia and I was surprised how this could be read. It was as if ants had been dipped in ink and forced to run across the paper,” she says. Having suddenly changed Kabul to Kuban, the pregnant Odyl ended up in the village of Nekrasovskoye near Ust-Labinsk. She talks about a passport officer who was annoyed by a foreigner who did not speak Russian. According to the Russian passport, Odyla's age is five years older than her biological one - she agreed to any figure, if only to leave the passport office as soon as possible. And about how difficult it was to adapt to the climate, nature or food. “We had a zoo in Kabul where there was one pig,” she says, pronouncing “zoo” like “zoo”. “It was the only pig in all of Afghanistan, and I considered it a wild animal, exotic, like a tiger or a lion. And so we moved to Nekrasovskoye, I was pregnant, got up at night to go to the toilet, and in the yard the pig grunts. I run home frightened, the Russians ask Islam: "What did she see there?" And I grunt in response! It was very scary. "

When the domestic shock passed, it was the turn of the cultural shock. “Everything annoyed me,” says Odylya. “At home you wake up to Allah Akbar, you don’t even need an alarm clock. Everyone lives together, and you don’t feel that strangers are nearby. Nobody ever locks the door, and if any "a person falls in the street, everyone runs to save him - this is a completely different relationship. But how do Russians sit at the table? They pour, pour, pour, then get drunk and start singing songs. We sing songs, but only at weddings and other holidays - not at the table! Well, I understand, a different culture. Until you learn all this, it's not easy. "

"I am from the capital, and you are from the village!" - Odylya says to Nikolai every now and then. He smiles. For Bystrov, adaptation also turned out to be a difficult task: for 13 years of absence, he has grown so firmly into Afghanistan, and his homeland has changed so much that instead of returning, he received, on the contrary, emigration. Of the relatives in the Kuban, only a sister remained. The Bystrovs could not immediately find a job or money. Ruslan Aushev and the Committee for the Affairs of Soldiers-Internationalists helped - they were given an apartment, then they were offered a part-time job. For six months, Nikolai again turned into Islamuddin, so that, by order of the Committee, he would search for the remains of the missing former "Afghans", as well as the living ones, those who, like himself, turned into real Afghans over the years. Today, seven such people are known. They have an established life, wives, children and households, none of them is going to return to their homeland, and "they have nothing to do in Russia," says Bystrov. However, he immediately catches himself and sets out the mission of the Committee: "Well, of course, our task is to return everyone."

Six months in Afghanistan ended, and months came without money and work. It is impossible to get a new job every six months, then to quit again and go on business trips, so Bystrov has not traveled to Afghanistan for the last four years. He works for one of the most visible Afghan communities in Russia, Krasnodar. Unloads trucks with toys that they sell. The work is hard and "out of age", but he is not going to look for another one yet. He dreams that work for the Committee will become permanent, but the Committee does not yet have such an opportunity - there was a time when he did not have money at all for expeditions to Afghanistan. And while no one has made him a worthy offer, Bystrov, who speaks Farsi and Pashto, is familiar with all the field commanders of the Northern Alliance and has followed Masud all over Afghanistan on foot, prefers to load toys. It seems that, in addition to the salary, the Krasnodar Afghans give him a sense of connection with a second, more significant homeland. "I'm connected with Afghanistan," he says simply.

While Nikolai went on business trips on the instructions of the Committee, Odyl sat at home with three children, sold jewelry in the market, worked as a hairdresser and manicurist. During this time, she made friends with all the neighbors, but she never became part of the community. "I don't go to Russia. I go to the hospital, to school and home," she says. I don’t go anywhere and I didn’t see anything.”

Last year, a computer with the Internet appeared in their house, and Odyl restored constant contact with her family and with Afghanistan. She constantly communicates via Skype and social networks, goes to forums where she publishes her thoughts using Google Translate. Odylya friends me on Facebook, and my feed is immediately covered with poetic quotes in Farsi, photo collages with roses and hearts, and images of Afghan dishes. Sometimes there are photo reports about poor Afghan children or portraits of Massoud. But the "golden age" Afghanistan that the Bystrovs would like to return to no longer exists. The one in which a woman can understand politics but prefer housework, be a Muslim but wear short skirts, renovate her apartment, and post poetry in Farsi online. They put together such an Afghanistan from pieces of memories, homemade Afghan cuisine, pictures with quotes from the Koran, hung on the walls of their Ust-Labinsk apartment.

Living in a closed world between school, clinic and market and in the virtual world of social networks, Odylya does not know the Russian word for "migrant" and does not feel any threats against his Muslim family. “On the contrary, everyone should love Muslims. We don’t offend anyone,” she says. “If someone said a bad word, we can’t repeat it. Well, if a hand is raised against you, you, of course, must defend yourself.” From the very beginning, children were brought up in such a way that, without losing their parental religion, they fit into the local culture and speak without an accent. Their youngest son Ahmad dances in a children's Cossack ensemble, the middle son Akbar has just graduated from music school, and Katya is studying at a medical college. Odylya is going to give them Afghan citizenship, but does not want to teach them his language ahead of time. But recently, children began to learn Arabic via Skype with a teacher from Pakistan. “Because if you don’t know how to read the Quran, then you’re learning it in vain,” says Odylya. prophet" - ed.)".

Eighteen years have passed since the move to Russia. Two years ago, Odyla's mother died. Soon after that, her own health began to deteriorate - she was haunted by headaches, frequent fainting. There are no good doctors, for the sake of whom they once left their homeland, in Ust-Labinsk, and the Bystrovs cannot afford paid appointments in Krasnodar. Last year, with the help of the Committee, Odylya went to Moscow for an examination. Doctors, among other ailments, diagnosed depression and recommended to go home, but Bystrov still does not dare to let her go. This year, the whole family is going to get to the sea for the first time - about 160 kilometers.

The day after our first meeting, Krasnodar employers urgently called Bystrov to unload a truck, and he lost his only day off in the week. It was time for me to leave, so we spent the rest of the conversation on Skype. I ask who killed Massoud. Nikolai shakes his head and makes signs with his hands - they say, I know, but I won’t tell. Finally, I ask Odylya to take a picture of her husband and send photos. “She understands computers better than I do,” Bystrov’s wife looks into Skype again. “I only know how to kill.”

MOSCOW, May 15 - RIA Novosti, Anastasia Gnedinskaya. Thirty years ago, on May 15, 1988, the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan began. Exactly nine months later, the last Soviet soldier, Lieutenant General Boris Gromov, crossed the border of the two countries along the Friendship Bridge. But our soldiers remained on the territory of Afghanistan - those who were captured, were able to survive there, converted to Islam and started a family. These are called defectors. Now they, once Serezha and Sasha, wear unpronounceable Afghan names, long beards and spacious trousers. Some, decades later, nevertheless decided to return to Russia, others still live in the country of which they became prisoners.

"He dyed his hair to pass for an Afghan..."

Nikolai Bystrov works as a loader at a warehouse in Ust-Labinsk, Krasnodar Territory. Few of his colleagues know that twenty years ago he had a different name - Islamuddin - and a different life. “I want to forget this Afghan story,” Nikolai takes a long pause, you can hear in the speaker of the phone how he inhales on a cigarette. “But they won’t let me…”

He was drafted into the army in 1984, sent to guard Bagram Airport. Six months later, he was captured by dushmans. He says it was stupid. “Me and two other boys, Ukrainians, “old men” were sent for tea and cigarettes to a local shop. On the way we were ambushed. They shot me in the leg - I couldn’t run anywhere. detachment of Ahmad Shah Massoud.

Bystrov was put in a barn, where he spent six months. Nikolay assures that during this time he tried to escape twice. But you won’t go far with a holey leg: “They caught me when I didn’t manage to get a hundred meters from the base, they brought me back.”

Why he was not shot, Nikolai still does not understand. Most likely, the militants planned to exchange him for one of the captured Afghans. Six months later, they began to let him out of the barn without an escort. After some time, they offered to return to their own people or go to the West through Pakistan. "But I said that I want to stay with Masoud. Why? It's hard to explain. Anyone who has not been in such a situation will still not understand. I was afraid to return to my people, I did not want to be considered a traitor, I was afraid of the tribunal. I By that time he had already lived with the Afghans for a year, converted to Islam," he recalls.

Nikolai stayed with the dushmans and after a while became one of personal guards Ahmad Shah Massoud - the field commander who was the first to agree to a truce with the Soviet troops.

How Bystrov, a foreigner, was allowed so close to the most famous commander, one can only guess. He himself talks about it very evasively. He says that the "Panjshir lion" (as Masud was called) liked his dexterity and ability to notice the little things that in the mountains can cost a person life. “I remember the first time he gave me a machine gun with a full load of ammunition. We then went up the pass. he saved my life," the former prisoner admits.

From those constant trips through the mountains, Nikolai retained a love for green tea - during rest stops, Masud always drank several cups, and without sugar. “I kept wondering why they drink unsweetened tea. Masud answered that after long transitions sugar hits the knees. But I still furtively added it to the cup. Well, I couldn’t drink this bitterness,” says Bystrov.

Expert: not the USSR "stuck" in Afghanistan, but the WestOn December 25, 1979, the entry into Afghanistan of a limited contingent of Soviet troops began, which had been in this country for almost 10 years. Expert Natalia Khanova gave her assessment of this event on the air of Sputnik radio.

Islamuddin did not forget Russian food either - lying at night in the Afghan mountains, he recalled the taste of herring and black bread with lard. “When the war ended, my sister came to Mazar-i-Sharif. She brought all sorts of pickles, including bacon. So I hid it from the Afghans so that no one would see that I was eating haram,” he shares.

Nikolai learned the Dari language in six months, although at school, he admits, he was a loser. After a few years of living in Afghanistan, he was almost indistinguishable from the locals. He spoke without an accent, the sun dried his skin. To merge even more with the Afghan population, he dyed his hair black: "The fact that I, a foreigner, was so close to Masud, many locals did not like. They even tried to poison him once, but I prevented the assassination attempt."

"Mother didn't wait for me, she died..."

Married Nikolai, too, Masud. Somehow, the former prisoner says, the field commander asked him if he wanted to continue walking with him in the mountains or dreamed of starting a family. Islamuddin honestly admitted that he wants to get married. “Then he gave me his distant relative, an Afghan woman who fought on the side of the government,” recalls Nikolai. “My wife is beautiful. When I first saw her, I didn’t even believe that she would be mine soon. I couldn’t see with my head, but her hair was long, she herself was wearing epaulettes. After all, she then held the position of a state security officer.

Almost immediately after the wedding, Odyl became pregnant. But the child was not destined to be born. In the sixth month, Nikolai's wife came under bombing, she had a miscarriage. “After that, she became very ill, and there was no normal medicine in Afghanistan. Then for the first time I thought about moving to Russia,” Bystrov confesses.

It was 1995, when Nikolai-Islamuddin returned to his native Krasnodar Territory. His mother did not live to this day, although she was the only one of her relatives who believed that her Kolya did not die in a foreign land. “She even took my photo to some fortune-teller. She confirmed that her son was not killed. Since then, everyone looked at her mother like she was crazy, and she kept waiting for a letter from me. I was able to send her the first one only a year later,” says he.

Odylya came to Russia pregnant. Soon they had a daughter, who was named Katya. “It was my wife who wanted to name the girl that way in memory of my late mother. Because of this, all her Afghan friends turned away from her. They could not understand why she was a girl Russian name gave. The wife answered: “I live on this earth and must observe local traditions,” Bystrov is proud.

In addition to their daughter, Nikolai and Odylya are raising two sons. The eldest is called Akbar, the youngest is Ahmad. "The wife named the boys in honor of her communist brothers, who died at the hands of dushmans," the source clarifies.

This year, the eldest son of the Bystrovs should be drafted into the army. Nikolai really hopes that the guy will serve in the special forces: "He leads a strong, healthy lifestyle."

Over the years, Odyl was in her homeland only once - not so long ago she went to bury her mother. When she returned, she said that she would not go there again. But Bystrov himself traveled to Afghanistan quite often. On the instructions of the Committee for the Affairs of Internationalist Warriors, he was looking for the remains of missing Soviet soldiers. He managed to take home several former prisoners. But they never became their own in the country that once sent them to war.

Did Bystrov fight against Soviet soldiers? This question is up in the air. Nikolai smokes again. "No, I have never been in battle. I was with Masuda all the time, but he himself did not go into battle. I know that not many will understand me. But those who judge, were they captured? They could, after two unsuccessful attempts to escape to make a third? I want to forget Afghanistan. I want, but they don’t give me ... "- the former captive repeats again.

"Twenty days later my shackles were removed"

In addition to Bystrov, today we know about six more Soviet soldiers who were captured and were able to assimilate in Afghanistan. Two of them later returned to Russia, for four, Afghanistan became a second home.

In 2013, photojournalist Alexei Nikolaev visited all the defectors. From a business trip to Afghanistan, he brought hundreds of photographs that should form the basis of the book "Forever in captivity."

The photographer admits that of all the four Soviet soldiers left to live in Afghanistan, he was most touched by the story of Sergei Krasnoperov. “It seemed to me that he was not disingenuous, talking about the past. And, unlike the other two prisoners, he did not try to make money on our interview,” explains Nikolaev.

Krasnoperov lives in a small village fifty kilometers from the city of Chagcharan. He comes from Kurgan. He assures that he left the unit, fleeing the bullying of the commanders. It seems like he expected to return in two days - after his offenders were put in a guardhouse - to return. But along the way he was taken prisoner by dushmans. By the way, there is another version of Krasnoperov's flight. There was information in the media that he allegedly ran away to the militants after he was caught selling army property.

From an interview with Sergei Krasnoperov for the book "Forever in captivity":

“For about twenty days I was locked in some small room, but it was not a prison. At night they put shackles on me, during the day they took them off. The dushmans were not afraid that I would run away. "Then the commander of the militants came and said that since I came to them myself, I could leave on my own. The shackles were removed from me. Although I would hardly have returned to the unit anyway - I think they would have shot me right away. Most likely, their commander tested me so…”

After a year of captivity, Krasnoperov was offered to marry a local girl. And he didn't refuse.

“After that, supervision was finally removed from me. But I still didn’t work. It was very difficult, I had to survive. I suffered several deadly diseases, I don’t even know their names…”

Photojournalist Alexei Nikolaev says that in 2013 Krasnoperov had six children. “All fair, blue-eyed, it was very unusual to see them in an Afghan village,” recalls the photographer. “By local standards, Nurmamad (this is the name Sergei bears in Afghanistan) is a wealthy man. an electrician at a local hydroelectric power station. Krasnoperov received, in his words, $ 1,200 a month. True, it is strange that at the same time he lived in a mud hut. "

Krasnoperov, like all captured soldiers, assures that he did not fight against the Soviet troops, but only helped the dushmans to repair weapons. However, a number of indirect signs indicate the opposite. “He enjoys authority among the locals, which, it seems to me, may indicate that Sergei did participate in the hostilities,” the photojournalist shares his thoughts.

Krasnoperov, although he speaks Russian well, does not want to return to Russia. “As he explained to me, he didn’t have any relatives in Kurgan, everyone died. Yes, and in Chagcharan he is a respected person, he has a job. And what awaits him in Russia is not clear,” Nikolaev conveys the words of the former captive.

Although Afghanistan is definitely not the place where you can lead a carefree life. Alexey Nikolaev says that during the month of his business trip he got into very delicate situations three times. In one of the cases, it was Krasnoperov who saved him. “Due to our stupidity, we decided to record an interview with him not in the city, where it is relatively safe, but in his village. We arrived there without warning. The next morning, Sergey called us and said that we should not leave the city anymore. Like, there are rumors that we might be kidnapped," the photographer describes.

From an interview with Alexander Levents for the book "Forever in captivity":

“We were going to go to the airport, but almost immediately we got to the dushmans. By morning they brought us to some big commander, I stayed with him. I immediately converted to Islam, received the name Ahmad, because he used to be Sasha. I was not put in jail: I was under arrest for only one night.At first I drank heavily, then I became a driver for the militants.I did not fight with our people, and no one demanded this from me.<…>After the Taliban left, I was able to call home in Ukraine. I took the phone cousin, said my brother and mother died. I didn't call back."

From an interview with Gennady Tsevma for the book "Forever in captivity":

"When the Taliban came again, I followed all their orders - I wore a turban, let my beard grow long. When the Taliban left, we became free - there was light, TV, electricity. Apart from the round-the-clock prayer, there was nothing good from them. Only I read the prayer, I left from the mosque, they send you back to pray.<…>Last year I went to Ukraine, my father and mother had already died, went to their cemetery, and saw other relatives. Of course, I didn’t even think of staying - I have a family here. And no one else needs me in my homeland."

In fact, when saying this, Cevma is most likely disingenuous. Nikolai Bystrov, the first hero of our material, tried to take him out of Afghanistan. “I got a call from the Ukrainian government, they asked me to pull their fellow countryman out of Afghanistan. I went. It seems that Gena said that he wanted to go home. Kabul. Before the flight, we came to pick him up from the hotel, but he ran away," Nikolai Bystrov recalls the story of his "return".

The story of the soldier Yuri Stepanov stands out from this series. He was able to settle in Russia only on the second attempt. In 1994, Stepanov tried to return home to the Bashkir village of Priyutovo for the first time. But he could not get comfortable here, he went back to Afghanistan. And in 2006 he came to Russia again. Says it's forever. Now he works on a rotational basis in the north. Just the other day he left for a shift, so we were unable to contact him.

Fifteen years ago, on September 9, 2001, the legendary Afghan commander, leader, politician and strategist Ahmad Shah Massoud died of wounds received as a result of an assassination attempt. Western military analysts considered him the most outstanding guerrilla commander of the 20th century. Opponents respected him, comrades-in-arms idolized him. Today "AP" remembers him.

Fatal September

LEADER of the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance, "Panjshir Lion" Ahmadshohi Masoud (namely, his name is spelled correctly, but then we indicate as it is already generally accepted - Ahmad Shah Masud. - Ed.) was mortally wounded on September 9, 2001 in the village of Khoja Bakhoutdin northern Afghan province of Tahor, on the Independence Day of the Republic of Tajikistan and two days before the events of September 11 in the United States, after which an international coalition of countries declared a global war on terrorism. But during his lifetime, the leader of the Northern Alliance so often asked for help in this struggle.

The attack that claimed the life of Massoud was carried out by two Arab suicide bombers posing as journalists. During the conversation, the bomb hidden in the video camera exploded. The seriously wounded Masud was transported by helicopter to a Russian hospital located in Farkhor, Tajikistan, but doctors were unable to save his life. The fact of his death was hidden for several days: against the backdrop of incessant attacks by the Taliban, the fighters of the Northern Alliance should not have known that their leader was dead. Only on September 15, President Rabbani announced the death of Ahmad Shah Massoud, blaming Pakistan, the Taliban and Osama bin Laden for the assassination attempt. This is the official version of what happened.

Who really was behind this assassination is not exactly known, even in Afghanistan itself there are different versions. But one thing is clear: the death of Ahmad Shah Massoud changed the course of events not only in his country.

Symbol of the era

“I THINK, in terms of history, Masood for Afghanistan, Central Asia and the Middle East is a symbol of an entire era. An iconic person who is on a par with Yasser Arafat - for the Middle East, Ernesto Che Guevara or Fidel Castro - for Latin America ... For Afghanistan itself - one of the leading commanders of the Mujahideen movement of the 1980s throughout the country and the unequivocal leader in the fight against the Taliban in the 1990s,” said Alexander Knyazev, an expert on Central Asia who was personally acquainted with Ahmad Shah.

According to him, Massoud was the leader who opposed any kind of federalization, not to mention the division of the country and changing the borders in the region.

According to another expert, Russian journalist Arkady Dubnov, who spoke several times with Massoud, “Ahmad Shah stood out among other Afghan field commanders with his obvious charisma and originality. He felt the power of a warrior."

Partizan

AHMAD Shah was born on September 1, 1953 in the village of Jangalak (Bazarak parish, Panjshir district) in the family of Colonel Dust Muhammad. Tajik by nationality; he said that his ancestors came from the village of Dahbed of Samarkand, they moved to Panjshir about 500-600 years ago.

In his memoirs, Ahmad Shah wrote that he did not understand the lessons because he did not have a good teacher. He also admitted to being lazy. But in the 12th grade, he was able to overcome his vice and finished school well. After graduating from the Lyceum, Masud entered the Kabul Polytechnic Institute, the Faculty of Engineering. But he could not take up a peaceful profession. He read a lot and was fluent in several languages, including French. It is even said that he taught tutoring courses in mathematics in the Parwan quarter, where he lived in Kabul.

After King Dawood Shah came to power in 1973, Massoud left Kabul for Peshawar because of his political convictions, joined the Islamist opposition led by Burhanuddin Rabbani, and took up arms against the pro-communist regime in Afghanistan. At 22, he, along with other rebels, was able to capture Panjshir within two hours and disarm government forces. Then, in the late 70s, he opposed the Soviet troops, and in the late 90s, against the Taliban, using partisan tactics. Back in the years of study at the Lyceum, Ahmad Shah showed great interest in the personality of Che Guevara, read his books, studied the tactics of guerrilla warfare.

Massoud and the USSR

A LIMITED contingent of Soviet troops in Afghanistan conducted several military operations against Massoud, but the result of each such operation was only temporary and partial control in Panjshir. After some time, Massoud again formed detachments and strengthened defensive positions. He developed his own tactics of guerrilla warfare, which proved to be very effective. In 1984, when the Shuravi (Soviets. - Approx. ed.) planned to capture Panjshir, the call of this man was enough for 130 thousand people - the entire civilian population of the valley - to leave their lands within two weeks, leaving acquired more than one generation.

Despite the fact that Massoud's detachments suffered heavy casualties, the number of his armed formations grew from year to year - from less than a thousand militants in 1980 to 60 thousand in 1996.

The process of the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan was bloodless, largely due to the agreement of the generals with Massoud, who provided a corridor for the exit of the military and equipment in the territories under his control.

After the departure of the Soviet troops, Masud headed the 2.5 million northeastern region of Afghanistan populated by Tajiks - the provinces of Parvan, Takhar, Baghlan, Badakhshan - with the capital in Talukan, popularly nicknamed "Masudistan", which was practically independent. By the way, long years Masoud's bodyguard was his former prisoner, the Soviet soldier Nikolai Bystrov, who served him for more than 10 years, converting to Islam and calling himself Islamuddin. Here he was married to an Afghan girl. When in 1995 Nikolay-Islamuddin asked Ahmad Shah to let him go to his homeland, he agreed.

Minister from Panjshir

AFTER the fall of the Najibullah regime, with the establishment of the Islamic State of Afghanistan in 1992, Massoud became the country's defense minister, a position he held until the arrival of the Taliban. It was Ahmad Shah Massoud who developed the new defensive doctrine of Afghanistan, equally successful against any military aggression: "Resistance from within, pressure from without." By the way, this doctrine is currently being successfully used by both the Afghan armed forces and the Taliban themselves against foreign military forces.

Under the communist regime, he was recognized as a traitor to his homeland and sentenced to death, the parental home of Ahmad Shah Massoud in Kabul was converted into a school. When he returned to Kabul a few years later as Minister of Defense, he decided to leave it as it was. That is, as a school. He was very fond of literature and art, was a fan of the poetry of J. Rumi and the philosophy of M. Ghazali, so the first thing he founded was the Cultural Foundation. Ghazali, who served to promote Afghan culture. The fund also financed the work of doctors who provided free services to poor residents of Kabul several days a week. The Foundation's Women's Commission enabled Afghan needlewomen, mostly widows, to earn a living. After the publishing house "Matbuoti davlati" was destroyed, the printing of all newspapers and magazines was taken over by this foundation. Massoud wanted freedom of the press to be guaranteed even under such difficult conditions.

In general, the establishment of this foundation is a significant contribution of Massoud to the development of the culture of Afghanistan. He wanted works of art, far from politics and ideology, to create a basis for mutual understanding and harmony.

The coming to power of the Taliban in 1996 forced Ahmad Shah to return to his native places, and he again became the leader of the Northern Alliance. Although by the beginning of 1999 almost the entire territory of Afghanistan was under the control of the Taliban, they were unable to take the Panjshir Gorge, from which no one could force Massoud out. Until the death of Massoud, the Taliban failed to establish their control over the northern provinces. There, in Panjshir, attracting the help of international organizations, he began the construction of schools, including several educational institutions for girls.

For his many years of participation in upholding the rights of women, President of the European Parliament Nicole Fontaine, who invited Massoud to France, called him the "Pole of Freedom". Deputies of the Senate and Parliament of France gave him a standing ovation when Ahmad Shah Massoud appeared.

According to Ahmad Shah Massoud himself, he always waged a war of liberation. Former opponents, who later became allies of the leader of the Northern Alliance in his fight against the Taliban, provided him with military-technical assistance, but not in the volumes that were needed. In one of his last interviews, he noted with regret that the war in Afghanistan could have been stopped if global community helped with this.

Those who knew Masoud closely note that he never aspired to power, honor and privileges. He only wanted the Afghans to decide the fate of their country, to stop foreign interference, to adopt a constitution whereby men and women would have the right to choose or be elected. This is what he considered his main mission.

Massoud in the inter-Tajik conflict

IN THE YEARS of the civil war in Tajikistan, when the United Tajik Opposition was in Afghanistan, Massoud’s structures took a fairly neutral position and sought to fulfill the agreements, according to which they prevented Tajik militants from crossing the border, so there were conflicts between them and the UTO… Although there were cases when individual commanders gave corridors and even crossed into the territory of Tajikistan themselves and participated in military operations, in general, Massoud did not support such a policy. He was one of the important mediators in the inter-Tajik negotiations, having organized negotiations between E. Rahmon and S.A. Nuri...

spiritual and political figure Tajikistan's Khoji Akbar Turajonzoda once told how Massoud forced the opposition forces to agree to a truce, having previously disarmed more than 600 Tajik militants in Afghanistan. Because the Afghan commander, who spent more than 30 years in the war, understood the senselessness of civil strife, from which ordinary people suffer. He decided to put an end to the war - if not on his own land, then at least to help the Tajik brothers in this. It was Ahmad Shah who dedicated his poem "Mas'udnoma" folk poet Tajikistan Mumin Kanoat.

Massoud often came to Tajikistan, in Dushanbe on Karamov Street he was given a house, where he moved his family for security purposes.

Massoud was friends with the former head of the KGB of the republic, Colonel-General Saidamir Zukhurov and his family.

“We got to know Masoud closely in 1993, but worked together in absentia for a long time when we were solving the issues of the release of Soviet prisoners of war,” the general shared his memories in an interview with Ozodi radio. - Massoud played an important role in restoring peace and harmony in Tajikistan, when he helped us to sit down at the negotiating table together with the opposition. The leadership of the country and I remember with what efforts he succeeded. These merits of his will never be forgotten by the people of Tajikistan.”

In turn, few people know that when in 1997 the brother of the disgraced commander Rizvon Sodirov, Bakhrom, took Zukhurov himself hostage, it was Ahmad Shah Massoud who came to Obigarm and persuaded the bandit to release the general.

Masuda family

AHMAD Shah Massoud married late, at the age of 34. He fell in love with his future wife Siddiku in absentia: by chance he heard the conversation of his subordinates, who praised the beauty of the daughter of his faithful assistant - Khoja Tojiddin. She was 17 years younger than him, but this did not prevent their wonderful union, as a result of which they had 6 children - five daughters and an only son, Ahmad. After Masood's death, the family moved to Mashhad, where Ahmad graduated from high school. In 2007, Masood's widow published the book "About the Love of Ahmad Shah Masood", where she talks about their life together. He affectionately called her Pari, which means "peri, fabulous beauty," and loved her so much that, out of jealousy, he forbade her to show her face at all, even to close relatives. Despite this, he was a very caring husband and father. He especially loved his youngest daughter Nasrin.

"He won his war"

In YOUTH, Ahmad Shah took the pseudonym Masud, which means "fortunate, happy." In his own words, "Allah, counterintelligence, luck and security" often saved him from imminent death.

On April 25, 2002, Ahmad Shah Massoud was officially proclaimed a national hero of Afghanistan.

Massoud equally loved four things: his religion, homeland, people and freedom. Someone from his contemporaries correctly noted: "Even if Massoud could not see the defeat of the Taliban, he won his war."

He was only 47 years old, but, as he himself once said, “the main thing is not how long he lived, but how!”. And most likely, he was happy, because all his life he fought for his native land.