battlesandbeersA Russian Officer and a Chechen Leader have a brief conversation on the radio. The Chechen pleads with him to retreat and save himself and his men.
The Chechen leader called out to a commander (Lieutenant Colonel Ivan Savin, AKA “Alik”), urging him to spare his men from destruction by the well-emplaced Chechens, who were fighting on their home turf.
The mechanized Russian units -staffed mostly by conscripts – were overwhelmed by the rebel fighters, surrounded and begging for reinforcements over the radio. In a last ditch attempt to survive, they were instructed to take civilian hostages in order to try and negotiate with the Chechens.
When soldiers told commanders that the Chechens didn’t care, the command suggested that the troops sneak over to friendly units under cover of darkness.
Within sixty hours, the 1,000 man-strong Maikop Brigade -including Lieutenant Colonel Savin- would be wiped out of existence by the rebels, with only a handful of survivors left to tell the tale.
It is rumored that the two men on the radio were friends during the Soviet-Afghan War.
