Anxious morning on April 22, 1996 … The phone is not appeased. Calls not only from Ukraine. “You heard? They say the Rashists killed Dzhokhar…” With difficulty I got through to Grozny. They said that they also have such rumors. “But we don’t believe!” And I did not believe – together with the Chechens. The next day, Vice-President of the CRI Zelemkhan Yandarbiyev called. We were preparing for publication in Ukraine his book “Chechenia – the battle for freedom”. Zelemkhan asked not to send it to the printing house yet and explained: “I am preparing a forced afterword.”
So it’s not a rumor. Dzhokhar was killed… That’s how I found out the truth. They spotted during a telephone conversation on the night of April 21-22, this time the attack was a success. “On the third attempt,” Yandarbiev specified. – Twice the Russians bombed the village of Shalazhi while Dzhokhar was talking on the phone on the outskirts of the village. The second time, a fragment caught his hand.
On the third attempt, tragedy was created. The injury was fatal.” I asked if he could speak, if so, what were his last words. “Those who survived,” Zelimkhan said, “say that he asked to finish the work he started.” On this day, the State Defense Committee of the CRI assigned the duties of the President of Ichkeria to Yandarbiev. And some time later I received an addition to his book called “The Forced Afterword.”
We experienced the pain of losing a great Man hard: my relatives and friends, my city (then I lived in Lvov) do not forgive the atrocities of the Kremlin, because they always considered him a tyrant, a fanatic. After some time, the Lviv City Council adopted a resolution on naming one of the streets in the city center after Dzhokhar Dudayev. For me, Ichkeria has become a part of my life, a memory of the Great, the selfless, the real. Dzhokhar was the first Chechen who struck me.
When Ichkeria proclaimed Independence and also elected its President, I, having previously obtained consent to an interview with him, arrived in Grozny in January 1992, settled in the Kavkaz Hotel, received accreditation and at 18.00 found myself in Dudayev’s office. “Hello, Mr. President!” And in response: “I take you! How do you manage in Ukraine?” Stunned by his beautiful, unaccented (!) Ukrainian speech, I learned that he once served in Ukraine, where he learned the Ukrainian language.
And some, who have been living in Ukraine all their lives, have not managed to learn our language! We talked about Ichkeria and Ukraine, about Georgia, whose President I soon met Zviad Gamsakhurdia thanks to Dzhokhar, about the fate of our peoples. Of course, about Freedom! The interview was titled “It’s good to be independent! “in the newspaper “For Vilnu Ukraine”, in the publication “Thorny Path to Freedom” and others.
Thus began the Chechen “epoch” in my life, during which my journalistic business trips amounted to nine or ten trips to Ichkeria, the last of which took place in 1997. All these years were the hardest for the people of Ichkeria. The evil empire did not leave the Chechens even a day without their “guardianship”: provocations, terrorist attacks, lies. But I have never met Dudayev’s team who lost faith in their victory. “The right cause always wins! A myriad of Russian troops, Dzhokhar said, will be able to occupy our country. But each of them will envy the dead, for his life on our earth in the status of an enemy will be worse than hell. And so it happened.
After Russia used weapons of mass destruction, “cluster” bombs, the Chechens decided to leave the capital. The Russians entered Grozny and many villages. But they were not afraid of every Chechen, they were afraid to appear on the street if they saw three women there. They trembled because of Moscow’s brutal attitude towards them, their soldiers, as it was on New Year’s Eve 1995, when hundreds of untrained recruits from the Maykop division were burned in tanks, the whole of Grozny was lined with their corpses, but Grachev refused to take his own dead. “They interfere with you on your streets, you clean it up,” was the answer.
Then the remains of the dead Russian boys, called in November to the “invincible and legendary” and two months later abandoned to “take Grozny” in order to “take the Crimea” later, were fed by hungry dogs. What have I witnessed. As well as the “testimony” of an officer who, having surrendered, spoke about his agitprop, who “correctly” agitated the soldiers to fight to the last bullet in Grozny, so that they would finally decide to go to the Crimea. When I asked about Crimea, the captive lieutenant colonel was surprised at my question: “Well, what about it? It’s our hallmark.” “Chip” was put into action almost twenty years later …
The fearlessness, readiness to die for the freedom of Ichkeria of her sons delighted me. Many of them, with grenades in their hands, threw themselves under Russian tanks, that is, they went to certain death. Dzhokhar banned such “excesses” by his decree, explaining to the young “tribe” that there are more tanks in Russia than there are inhabitants in Ichkeria. But he brought up the honor and dignity of the defender of the Fatherland. More than once I quoted his words: “Every Chechen is a warrior. Turned six years old – join the ranks of the defenders of the Motherland. Naturally, they were not sent to the line of fire, but they were taught the art of protecting their native land, its honor and dignity.
During our next interview, we talked about the national liberation movement of Ukraine during the times of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, and President Dudayev surprised me with a deep knowledge of its history, which I said about. “Now you can read about a lot, but I learned the secrets of the Ukrainian underground long before the collapse of the Union,” Dzhokhar said. “From my colleagues from Ukraine.” “How? I was surprised. “You, Soviet officers, risking a lot, talked about the merits of the Bandera movement to the nation, Ukrainians could among themselves …” “So I’m a Chechen, Maria ..” And I felt ashamed of myself.
In 2014, the Russian occupation troops seized our Crimea and invaded the Donbass. Our freedom, together with the Ukrainian volunteers, was defended (and is defending) by the battalion named after Dzhokhar Dudayev. I’m proud of them. In addition to gratitude, I am proud, as they represent the people, in which I feel my involvement with my heart and soul.
I was lucky, because in my life I met people who were high with the vocation of their native land and honor. Such as Dzhokhar Dudayev. Aristocrat of the Spirit. Litsar (Knight) of Honor.
I cannot deny myself the desire to quote the words of Abdurakhman Avtorkhanov, an outstanding son of Ichkeria, who in December 1994, living in Munich, expressed admiration for his people and their leader. In his address, he wrote: “My dear Dzhokhar! At this fateful hour, when we are talking about whether or not to fight the Chechen people on this sinful earth, I want, dear Dzhokhar, to address you personally with my, maybe, last parting word.
You immortalized the name of the Chechen people by raising before the whole world the banner of freedom and independence of your great predecessors – Sheikh Mansur, Imam of Chechnya and Dagestan Shamil. At a time when the notorious “fathers” of the great Western democracy tremble before the executioners from the Kremlin, considering the genocide in the Caucasus to be Moscow’s internal affair, you have proved in practice that the West trembles before a colossus with feet of clay. May Allah help the body to bring the great banner of Caucasian independence to a victorious end.”
Come free!
Maria BAZELUK, Honored Journalist of Ukraine.
Chechenews.com
