Serious middle-aged men recalled the glorious deeds of times past. And we talked about the present times.
Photo: Igor EMELYANOV. Go to Photobank KP
The famous Alpha group celebrates its 50th anniversary on Monday, July 29. And on the eve of the 50th anniversary, several iconic figures of the Alpha group came to the center of Moscow, to Zubovsky Boulevard. Serious middle-aged men recalled the glorious deeds of bygone times. And we are talking about the present times.
Four people have become the focus of attention on the website of the international media group Russia Today. These are the president of the International Association of Veterans of the Anti-Terrorist Unit Alfa, Colonel General Alexander Miroshnichenko, and the head of its council, Vladimir Berezovets. As well as the vice-president of the Association, Colonel Vladimir Zaitsev, and a veteran of the First Group “A” of the KGB of the USSR, who participated in the assault on the Taj Beg Palace in Kabul, Lieutenant Colonel Pavel Klimov.
“If we conduct a survey among our six recruits with the only question: ‘name the best moment in your life’, everyone will say the time of service in Alfa,” General Miroshnichenko is convinced, recalling how in 1998 Vladimir Putin, who then headed the Federal Security Service and helped maintain a unique unit within the Directorate “A” of the FSB TsSN.
“We have no analogues,” Miroshnichenko is sure, and confirmed his confidence with an example: “After the successful liberation of a bus with Korean tourists on Vasilievsky Spusk, officers of the South Korean special forces came to us for training. We showed them everything we could. A month later, they hijacked a bus. We watch the broadcast of their work and grab our heads: what did we teach you?!”
He stressed that no special forces in the world today have the experience of Alpha.
Legendary Colonel Viktor Zaitsev admitted that when the anti-terrorist unit was created in the USSR, there was no one who had learned the specific methods of this struggle.
– We went through everything from scratch, we experienced everything ourselves. We fought with our combat instructors who trained our saboteurs, and when they said “that’s it, we are powerless against you!” “We understood that we were achieving something…”, Viktor Nikolaevich recalled, adding: “Then the Vympel special forces worked with us and the result was such a powerful fist that all terrorists were afraid of.”
Pavel Klimov, a candidate for master of sports in rugby, joined the first Alpha team in 1974, when he was 22 years old.
“We had already gone through several operations, but people started talking about us at the top after the successful storming of the Taj Beg presidential palace in Kabul in December 1979,” said Pavel Yuryevich, “We took it in 43 minutes, it was serious. Wounded, I was first saved by my comrades in Kabul,” and then by one of the leading surgeons of the USSR, who flew to Tashkent, where I was evacuated.
Vladimir Berezovets worked as a sniper in the world’s best special forces and during his years of service he had to invent covert myths for his family.
– A legend has developed for each employee. I think that even now something should remain behind the scenes, you can’t throw everything out into the open… – Vladimir Vasilyevich believes.
Alpha officers told how the Veterans Association yesterday and today helped and is helping the families of fallen and wounded comrades in battle. And how it passes on experience to those who are now in service and participating in new and difficult battles…
