Aleksandr Antonovich Lyakhovskiy Working Paper pp

just shone a flashlight since there was no more resistance. We ran through the entire floor and then returned. The 

carpet was wet. I don’t know whether this was from water or blood. 

 

 

Much has been wiped from my memory. When now veterans of the Great Patriotic War talk I am surprised at 

their good memory. I have switched off several episodes. Some of it remained there in my memory; for example, for a 

long time I felt the smell of flesh and blood for a month or two”. 

 

 

The gunpowder smoke gradually cleared and the attackers saw Amin lying around the bar counter in his 

“Adidas” shorts and sport shirt. He was dead…It’s possible a bullet from one of the special forces or a grenade 

fragment hit him. Some express a version that Amin was killed by the Afghans. What the cause of his death really was 

is quite hard to ascertain right now. 

 

 According 

to 

Golov: 

“Romanov gave me, as a former medical student [medik], an order to help our men. 

And I, as a commander at one time, actually disengaged from the battle and began to help the wounded: Gennadiy 

Kuznetsov had a wound in his thigh, Sergey Kolomiyets had a bullet go through his bulletproof vest into his thorax, 

Aleksey Bayev had a bullet right through his neck, and Vladimir Fedoseyev had a grenade explode under his legs and 

break his foot. We found a first aid kit and bandages. Everyone was given first aid.” 

 

 

After they seized the second floor it began to be somewhat easier since practically no one was left in the 

entire Palace; everyone had been shot down. And those who managed to be spared began to be taken prisoner. 

 

 

The battle in the Palace was not long (43 minutes). “Suddenly the shooting stopped”, remembered “Zenit” 

group commander Major Ya. Semenov. “I reported to General Yu. I. Drozdov by radio that the Palace had been taken, 

that there were many dead and wounded, and the main thing was ended”. Company commander Sr. Lt. V. Sharipov 

climbed up to the second floor in order to be personally convinced of the death of Amin. He then started to call Col. 

Kolesnik on the radio to report completion of the mission. He managed to get in touch with battalion chief of staff 

Ashurov and allegorically reported that Amin had been killed. Ashurov understood him and reported completion of the 

mission to Col. Kolesnik. 

 

 

…A group headed by Captain Sakhatov arrived at the Palace building in two of the tanks which had been 

seized from the Afghans. He reported to Kolesnik about completion of the combat mission and informed him: when 

they passed the third battalion of the security brigade they saw that an alert had been declared. The Afghan soldiers 

had received ammunition.  Next to the road along which the special forces passed the battalion commander and two 

more officers were standing. A decision came quickly. Jumping out of the vehicle they seized the Afghan battalion 

commander and both officers and threw them in the vehicle and continued. Several soldiers who had managed to 

receive shells opened fire on them.  Then the entire battalion also hurried to the pursuit, to free their commander. 

 

 

Then the special forces hurried and started to shoot at the pursuing infantry with machine guns. The soldiers 

of K. Amangel’dyyev’s company also opened fire, supporting the operations of Sakhatov’s group. They “put down” a 

great many – about 250 men; the rest scattered. At this time “Zenit” member Vladimir Tsvetkov “removed” the 

sentries guarding the tanks with a silencer-equipped automatic weapon and the soldiers seized them. The Afghans 

opened return fire. Sakhatov’s group had to lie down. During the crossfire Dmitriy Volkov was killed, Pavel Klimov 

from “Grom” was wounded, and Vladimir Tsvetkov from “Zenit” was wounded in the head. 

 

 

As Pavel Klimov recalls: “When we drove up to the place designated for us the vehicle stopped on a slope 

not far from the barracks and we quickly jumped out of it through the back. There turned out to be four, not two, 

sentries around the tanks. Dima Volkov and one more guy from “Zenit” went to “remove” them. We laid in readiness 

to cover them with fire. Shots were heard. Soldiers dashed out of the barracks. A battle started. 

 

We had sniper rifles and one of the “Zenit” troops had a “Mukha”. We deployed and began to shoot on the Palace. I 

managed to shoot four magazines. I remember there being a guy from “Zenit” not far away. Then a grenade flew in, 

probably an RGD-5, and exploded next to me. A red lightning blazed in my eyes and a sharp pain seized my entire 

body. I lost consciousness for some time. Then I periodically regained consciousness and then lost it again. The last 

time I came to I saw that our “Shilka”’s were firing on the Palace. Their shells did not penetrate the stone walls of the 

Palace but simply bounced off them, carving out chips. There was a hurricane of fire coming from the Palace side but 

our guys went on the attack. 

 

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Then I lost consciousness and when I came to I saw a soldier from the “Muslim” battalion who leaned over 

me and asked: “You’re not wounded?” I said: “It’s nothing, comrade; probably I’m wounded. I’m simply deafened or 

shell-shocked.” But my head was so heavy and there was a whistling in my ears, and my entire body was weak. I still 

don’t remember the details. I was in shock, in a semi-conscious state. I only recall that I showed them the 6P9 

silencer-equipped pistol but they had never seen such a weapon. One of them took the pistol, turned it over in his 

hands for a long time, and even pointed it in my direction. He could not understand how the pistol fired. Then I told 

him to return the weapon to me since I was still alive. He handed me the pistol. 

 

 

The soldiers bandaged me and left. The battle continued. They began to fire from automatic weapons in the 

direction of the Palace. I lay in the snow and bled. Then when I started to feel a little better I tried to get up – and 

managed to do it. Purely intuitively I wandered to my comrades. This saved my life; otherwise I would have shared the 

fate of other dead comrades. The doctors then were saying that I was mortally wounded, like Bagration. 

 

 

About 100 meters from us were three BTRs in which soldiers from the “Muslim” battalion were sitting. I 

don’t know what their mission was. Probably it was second-echelon defense in order to restrain an Afghan attack and 

not let them go toward the Palace if our group was all killed. I even went over to them and asked that they help me get 

into the APC. One of the soldiers helped me, pulled me inside the APC, and put me in the back seat. My arms and legs 

were all cold. I laid there and put my legs in a warm exhaust pipe, and a soldier warmed my hands with his breath. I 

shivered and felt sick. I laid in the dark APC, my body burned and felt somewhat weightless. As before, the soldier 

gave me some help. But all this time I had “disappeared” somewhere but, exerting my will, tried not to finally lose 

consciousness.  However the wound turned out to be quite serious. Then it became clear that I had lost three liters of 

blood and I had been given first aid in the process. Then I lost consciousness and regained it only for a moment back 

in the Embassy. As of yet I do not know how I ended up there. Evidently soldiers from the “Muslim” battalion brought 

me there on an APC.” 

 

 

Company commander Sr. Lt. Vladimir Sharipov also reported that the mission had been accomplished. Col. 

Kolesnik gave the order to cease fire and moved his command post immediately into the Palace. When he and 

Drozdov drove up to Taj-Bek the commanders of the assault groups began to approach them with reports in front and 

around the Palace. Karpukhin pointed out the bullet which had stuck in the safety glass of his helmet, saying: “Look 

how lucky I was”. The special forces and the assault group members walked around the Palace checking whether it 

was harboring any of “Amin’s people.” 

 

 

After  Sarwari and Gulyabzoy arrived at the Palace and were convinced and confirmed that Amin was really 

dead the body of the head of the DRA government and leader of the PDPA was wrapped in a carpet…The main 

mission was accomplished. Success in this operation was secured not so much by force as by surprise and swiftness of 

pressure. 

 

 

According to Vladimir Grishin: “When I saw General Drozdov I calmed down right away and understood 

that everything would be OK. He had a German ‘Schmeisser’ and a radio in his hands and was without his helmet. I 

didn’t know that it was Drozdov but simply saw a gray-haired man, obviously one of the senior leaders, who went 

through the Palace quite boldly although the shooting had still not stopped everywhere. It inspired confidence that we 

had done the main part of our work and had carried out the mission.” 

 

 

During the entire assault on the Palace Drozdov maintained radio contact with Ivanov, who was at the 

communications center. Communications were very unstable. All the time they had to change the batteries, which 

quickly “quit” for some reason. It was good that Kolesnik had selected a soldier who was always next to him and 

supplied him with batteries. Karpukin recalls that “The command with us was – Yuriy Ivanovich Drozdov...He was our 

senior commander, he inspired optimism…This was a man of the highest courage, a legend. He had been an army 

officer in the [World] War and then an illegal [agent] - in Germany. He knew three languages well. A very literate, 

erudite man. I have already talked about Boyarinov...But we had a common fate…” 

 

 

Right after the seizure of Taj-Bek Drozdov reported to Ivanov about completion of the mission and then 

handed the radio to Ehval’d Kozlov and ordered him to report the results of the battle to the leadership. When Kozlov, 

who had not yet left the battle, began to report to General Ivanov the latter interrupted him with a question “What 

about ‘Dub’?”  Ehval’d started to select a word in order to tell him about the death of Amin in a veiled way, but 

 

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