'KRASNAYA ZVEZDA' COVERAGE OF TROOPS IN AFGHANISTAN

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP96R01136R002605130025-6
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 29, 2010
• Sequence Number: 25
• Publication Date: January 12, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Approved For Release 2010/10/29: CIA-RDP96R01136R002605130025-6
'KRASNAYA ZVEZDA' COVERAGE OF TROOPS IN AFGHANISTAN.
Private Profiled
PM201629 Moscow KRASNAYA ZVEZDA in Russian 12 Jan 83 Second Edition p 1
[Report by Lt Col V. Skrizhalin: "In the Spurs of the Hindu Kush"--first three
paragraphs are reader's letter]
[Text] Dear editorial office:
My son Igor is fulfilling his international duty in the DRA. We are not short
of letters from him: they arrive frequently, But they are very brief: he
says he is alive and well. But what mother does not want to know more, and
in more detail, about how her son is living and service? If you can describe
this I will be very grateful and thankful.
[signed] A. I. Kolyada, Dubinka Village, Sumy Oblast.
Limited contingent of Soviet troops in Afghanistan [no date given]--On arriving
in Afghanistan I joined a motorized regiment where the final assessment was --
coming to an end at the time. Walking between the rows of tents, I met a group
of officers discussing something loudly. A thickset lieutenant colonel of medium
height (I learned later it was Nikolay Petrovich Leonov) was saying heatedly:
"I could see the boy was shooting well. I decided to make the exercise conditions
more complicated to check the soldier thoroughly: I ordered him to fire not at
an area but at a pinpoint target, And what happened? He did well, he straddled
the target...!"
My desire as a journalist to let slip nothing which came within my field of
vision made me ask the lieutenant colonel:
"Do you remember that boy's surname?"
"Just a minute...," he leafed through his wel~worn notebook. "Here we are:
Pvt Kolyada Igor Nikolayevich."
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an zed and generalized in this fundamental work indicates convincingly
that cialism--an advanced social system corresponding to the innermost
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CSO: 1801/136
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T-~i3t was a surprise! I had brought your letter with me from Moscow, AnnaIvanovna,
anticipating how hard it would be to fulfill your request. And on my first
trip to the unit I had met with instant success.
Of course, it was by chance that "the officers had started to .talk about
Private Kolyada at precisely the moment I was passing by. But something else
was natural. Had Private Kolyada not been a real master of martial matters,
had he trot shown his mettle in such a way that he was mentioned even some time
after he had performed the fire exercise, then of course the officers would have
been talking about other men at that time.
Of course, Anna Ivanovna, your son Igor`s service is hard. His gun alone (and
it is a very formidable gun) weighs several kilograms. When the servicemen
go into the mountains on exercise then at least two water bottles, dry rations
.for several days, ammunition., a change of underwear and warm clothing are added.
In the evening we were sitting in the officer`s tent and the battalion commander,
Maj V. Usmanov, glancing at a guitar, remarked:
"Each of us should also have his own six tightly strung,. tunned strings."
And he began to list them: combat skill, coolness, .the ability to react instantly
to a change in the situation, willpower, daring and readiness to render comradely
mutual aid. I counted them mentally: exactly right--six.
Private Kolyada has these qualities. His family, school, the Komsomol and
technical college gave him a great deal. The formation of his character has
continued here, in the army.
His former platoon commander (he now commands a company), Snr Lt V. Godyna, who
has been awarded two orders of the Red Star, described the following episode to me.
On a march the situation became complicated, so that the officer had no opportunity
to lead his subordinates directly. And only the initiative displayed by
Private Kolyada, his self-possession and military skill helped to fulfill their
set task successfully. So, Anna Ivanovna, you can be proud of your .son.
And another characteristic episode. Of course, you know that Igor, who graduated
from construction workers' technical college, has a fine technical drawing
ability. And visual agitation material had to be drawn in the Lenin room. True,
the subunit was preparing for a mountain march but the commander decided that
this time the exercise could do without Kolyada, he could remain in camp and
-.draw the agitation material.
.What need did Igor seem~.ngly have to worry over his choice? The inaccessible,
scorching cliffs, exhausting thirst, heavy equipment on his shoulders, kilometers
of not simply difficult but also dangerous road. Or peaceful work at his desk,
drawing paper, ink, ruler and paints....
And do you know what Igor said? "I cannot stay here, Comrade Major. I will be
ashamed in front of my comrades. Better that I do the drawing when I return."
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?~
What are the conditions in which your son is living? In a tent, like everyone--
from soldier to regiment commander. You ask: But is it not cold in winter?
No, it is not cold. First, winter here is milk. Second, a modern tent,,
although light, provides good-quality housing. A rubberized roof, abase of
thick white cloth, a floor of planks, a stove. Neatly made beds. Clean bedlinen
How many songs have been sung about the field mail and how people wait for it.
It would be superfluous to urge mothers to write to their sons more often.
But I hope that these lines will be read not only by mothers and fathers but also
by those from whom soldiers wait for letters .particularly impatiently andabout
whom they try not to speak even at-times when confidences are exchanged: a
real feeling which is profoundly personal and intimate. Young women, write to
the soldiers more often. Particularly here in Afghanistan.
These lines of mine should not be considered as a reply to you alone, esteemed
Anna Ivanovna. In describing Private Kolyada I nonetheless had in mind not
him alone. May every mother, every father whose son is serving in Afghanistan,
imagine, in reading about Igor, that it is also the story of their own son.
The only differences will be in the details.
The army is inconceivable without collectivism. And here the concepts of
collectivism and the friendship of the peoples acquire a particularly vivid nature
Your son, Anna Ivanovna, is a Ukrainian. He has friends: the Belorussian
Fedor Oseyuk, the Russian Andrey Studnev, the Tajik Tursunmakhmat Tursunov, the
Uzbek Kamilzhon Khuzhakulov.... They, representatives of the great Soviet
people, have a brother with whom they are linked by strong ties and the common
cause of the defense of the gains of the-April Revolution--the Afghan people..
Military Exercise
PM241051 Moscow KRASNAYA ZVEZDA in Russian 18 Jan 83 Second Edition p 1
[Dispatch by Sr Lt N. Ustyakin: "Drew Fire Onto Himself"]
[Text] Limited contingent of Soviet troops in Afghanistan--Tactical exercises
were taking their normal course when a new situation arose: the ''Bezymyannaya"
height had been taken by the "enemy." The platoon commanded by
Sr Lt I. Belotelov was ordered to storm it.
The platoon went to ground under heavy, aimed "enemy" fire and could not advance.
Taking with him a machinegun and a serviceman, the commander moved forward and
drew fire onto himself. He ordered the others to go round the height. The
motorized riflemen carried out a quick movement to surround the "enemy" positions
from the rear and took the height.
CSO: 1801/137
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