in addition to the one placed (based on materials - [DLMURL] https://www.agentura.ru [/ DLMURL] others)
Management “A” of the Central Security Service of the Federal Security Service of Russia (Alpha Group)
Head - Major General Vladimir Vinokurov, assistant - participant in the liquidation of the terrorist attack on Dubrovka, captain 1st rank - O. Pilshchikov (source)
It was created on July 29, 1974 at the initiative of the chairman of the KGB of the USSR, Yu. Andropov, and the head of the Seventh Directorate of the KGB of the USSR, General Alexei Beschastny. Until 1985, the top-secret Alpha unit was personally subordinate to the Secretary General and the KGB leadership. The full name of the unit until August 1991 is Group “A” of the ODP service of the 7th Directorate of the KGB of the USSR. Initially, the number of employees did not exceed 40 people. It was mainly staffed by employees of the KGB of the USSR who had undergone special training and who were fit for health service in the Airborne Forces. The purpose of the group "A" is the fight against terrorism and other "extremist" actions associated with the seizure of hostages, vehicles, government facilities in the USSR and abroad. By the time of the collapse of the USSR, there were about 500 officers. (Departments in Kiev, Minsk, Krasnodar, Yekaterinburg, Alma-Ata). At present, in Moscow, not counting the three regional divisions (Krasnodar, Yekaterinburg, Khabarovsk), about 250 people serve. After the collapse of the USSR, group "A" was part of the Main Directorate of Security (GUO) of the Russian Federation. Among other tasks, "A" until 1993 provided protection for the President of the Russian Federation. In 1993, Alpha refused to storm the White House. In August 1995, after M. Barsukov headed the FSB of the Russian Federation, the Alpha group was transferred from the jurisdiction of the RF GUO to the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation. In 1998, Putin, when he was director of the FSB, recalled Alpha. He issued an order to “reorganize Departments A” and “B.” According to him, “in order to reduce duplicate structures”, headquarters and management were disbanded in Alpha and Vympel, and at the same time support units — snipers, explosives, and communications. alone, the combat groups were reduced to the “counterterrorism center” brainchild of Savostyanov, renamed the counter-terrorism department. At the same time, there were reports that as a result of the reorganization, about a third of the officers of the special forces “Alpha” and “Vympel” were forced to leave the service, because the state has no funds for the maintenance of highly qualified counter-terrorism specialists.
Leaders:
From 1974 to 1978, the group leader was Hero of the Soviet Union (for Father Damansky) Colonel Vitaly Bubenin. (From frontier guards. In 1978 he returned to PV)
From 1978 to 1988, the commander of Group A was a major general, Hero of the Soviet Union Gennady Nikolayevich Zaitsev.
From 1988 to August 1991 - Major General, Hero of the Soviet Union Viktor Fedorovich Karpukhin
From 1991 to 1992 - Colonel Mikhail Golovatov.
From 1992 to March 1995 - again Gennady Zaitsev.
From March 1995 to 1999, the group was headed by Major General Alexander Gusev
From 1999 to 2000 - Major General Alexander Miroshnichenko
Currently - Vladimir Vinokurov
Promotions:
December 1979 - A employees take part in the storming of the Presidential Palace of the President of Afghanistan, Hafizullah Amin. With three columns, on the armored personnel carriers, the attackers broke through the shelled road to the palace. Then the attackers burst into the palace under heavy fire. Result - Afghan President H. Amin was killed. Four attackers were killed, of which two Alpha employees: Dmitry Zudin and Gennady Volkov.
12/18/1981-Sarapul-hostage-taking in the school. Two armed criminals captured twenty-five students.
02.031982- neutralization of gr. Ushakov at the US Embassy, armed with a makeshift explosive device
Ноября November 18-19, 1983 - capture of the Tu-134 aircraft in Tbilisi.
09/20/1988 - release of passengers of the Tu-134 aircraft captured by military personnel of the internal troops
1988 - a group of Yakshiyants captures a bus with schoolchildren in the city of Mineralnye Vody. Group A carries out Operation Thunder: at the invitation of the Israeli government, A met the terrorists in Tel Aviv and returned them to Moscow.
08/13/1990 - operation to free hostages captured in the detention center in Sukhumi
January 1991 - Group A participates in the capture of the Vilnius Telecentre. During the capture, officer "A" Viktor Shatskikh was killed. According to the former deputy head of "A" Sergei Goncharov, Shatskikh was killed by a shot in the back "from the crowd."
August 1991 - during the coup, an unofficial meeting of the Alpha fighters took place, at which they decided not to participate in the storming of the RSFSR parliament. Major General Viktor Karpukhin, the commander of Group A, denied the version of his subordinates participating in events in Moscow and Foros. He stated that "he personally did not receive any orders from Kryuchkov and, accordingly, did not comply. The group worked as usual."
October 4, 1993 - the Alpha group receives an order to storm the House of Soviets of the Russian Federation (the White House). Alpha arrived at the White House and entered into negotiations with the leadership of the RF Armed Forces and the DB defenders. The “senior lieutenant Seryozha”, who arrived at the meeting with the deputies, promised to withdraw all the people sitting in the database and ensure their safety. He also said that “it’s not their business to understand the political aspects of what is happening.” “A” employee Gennady Sergeyev, who carried the wounded out of the building, was killed during the assault. According to the Alpha fighters, the bullet that hit the Alfovets between the helmet and body armor was fired from the building opposite the White House.
Июня June 17, 1995 - Group "A" takes part in the assault on the city hospital in Budenovsk, in which terrorists under the leadership of Sh. Basayev detained more than 1 thousand people. During the assault on the hospital building, officers "A" officers Dmitry Burdyayev, Dmitry Ryabinkin and Vladimir Solovov were killed, fifteen Alpha soldiers were injured. Commander “A” A. Gusev regards the actions of his unit as a victory over terrorists, because after the unit’s actions, Basayev “released 300 hostages without any negotiations, in fact, a turning point occurred, peace negotiations became possible” (MN, N44, June 25 – July 2, 1995). According to Gusev, the enemy lost approx. 20 people killed.
September 20, 1995 - the operation to free the hostages captured on the bus. Terrorists demanded a helicopter to the city of Makhachkala.
October 1995 - Group A fighters neutralized a terrorist who seized a bus with passengers on Vasilyevsky Spusk in Moscow. During the assault, the terrorist was killed.
The association of veterans of the group is headed by former deputy commander of the group Sergey Goncharov. Association spokesman is Dmitry Lysenkov.
Alpha Traditions:
Goncharov: “Every year on December 27, we all come to the graves of all our dead children and celebrate Memorial Day. The unit suffered the largest losses in Budennovsk and Kizlyar. Five officers died there. ”
Office "B" (formerly Pennant)
The most famous power unit of foreign intelligence of the KGB of the USSR was the Vympel group. Created on August 19, 1981 for special operations, the Vympel group was part of the "C" (illegal intelligence) department of the First Main Directorate (PSU) of the KGB of the USSR. Organizationally, Vympel was divided into branches (in combat conditions - groups) of 10 to 20 people. The predecessors of Vympel were the Zenit and Cascade detachments. The official name is “Separate Training Center of the KGB of the USSR). For 20 years (marks this year) of the unit’s history, Vympel fighters conducted special operations outside the USSR (Afghanistan) and gained unique experience in intelligence and sabotage work, fought terrorists and freed hostages.
By order of the chairman of the KGB of the USSR, the group was created by the head of the “C” department, Major General Yuri Ivanovich Drozdov. He was her mentor. The first commander of Vympel was the Hero of the Soviet Union (behind the palace of Amin) Kozlov Evald Grigorievich. The structure of "Pennant" included about a thousand people. The fighter knew at least one foreign language, especially the country where he had to work. Vympel fighters mastered diving training in the 17th Special Forces brigade in the city of Ochakov, were trained in shooting with Nicaraguan instructors, and were trained in Cuba. They comprehended mountain training, trained in flights on the CFA (ultralight aircraft), and much more that they could. According to Yu.I. Drozdov, earlier training of one Vympel soldier cost 100,000 rubles a year. It took up to five years to prepare. "Pennant" a small area on the twenty-fifth kilometer of the Gorky Highway, on the territory of the 101st intelligence school of the KGB of the USSR near Balashikha near Moscow, was given in 1981. Now this is the territory of the FSO. Preparation of the first groups was completed by the beginning of 1982. Vimpel received baptism of fire in Afghanistan. According to the deputy head of the Counter-Terrorism Department, Lieutenant General Vladimir Kozlov (former pennant), the unit’s work was carried out in three areas: operational (obtaining intelligence information), operational and combat ( implementation of the obtained intelligence information and training of special forces from the Afghan army for joint participation in military operations) and the conduct of “operational games” with the aim of clashing the leaders of the armed forces of the enemy. In peacetime, the unit was used to search for weaknesses in the protection of strategic objects. Saboteurs were sent to nuclear power plants and military factories with the goal of "seizing facilities and carrying out sabotage." At the same time, the protection of the facilities was notified in advance of "the possible penetration of saboteurs with the aim of carrying out terrorist attacks." Some of the fighters were specially “spotlighted” so that the rest would perform the task in the absence of group members or some links of the operation. But nevertheless, without exception, the Vympel residents performed tasks at "5". They managed to get into the Arzamas-16 nuclear facility, where nuclear weapons were produced and stored. They were able to determine the timetable and transit time of the railway missile complex with nuclear warheads near one of the largest Russian cities. When performing all these operations, the pennants simulated the laying of subversive charges in the most vulnerable places of the “attacked” objects. With the beginning of the collapse of the USSR, Vympel began to be used on its territory. The fighters visited all the hot spots of the former Union: Baku, Yerevan, Nakhichevan, Karabakh, Abkhazia, Transnistria, Chechnya, Moscow.
In 1991, after the coup, Vympel became subordinate to the Ministry of Security of the Russian Federation. Since May 1991, the group was headed by Boris Petrovich Beskov (in the KGB system from 12 years old - from the moment of enrollment in the Suvorov School at the Ministry of State Security of the USSR in 1952, he served in the 9th Directorate of the KGB, in the First Main Directorate, worked abroad. Afghanistan, in the Cascade group, has military awards). In 1993, the group ended up in the Presidential Security Service. Vympel reoriented itself to new tasks: the release of nuclear facilities from terrorists, the fight against drug trafficking, armed criminal groups or illegal armed groups. Vympelovtsy had to work out the options for various operations to liberate Russian nuclear power plants, ships with nuclear power plants and nuclear weapons production centers from terrorists. In July 1993, the atomic icebreaker Sibir, conditionally captured by terrorists, the pennants from a team of 25 people attacked from three directions simultaneously: from land, from under water and from the air. Seven minutes after the start of the operation, the command was informed of its successful completion. The destruction of terrorists was practiced at the Beloyarsk, Kalinin and Kursk NPPs, the Novopolotsk Petrochemical Plant and Arzamas 16. During the October events, Vympel and Alpha refused to storm the parliament. At this time, the unit was headed by Lieutenant General Dmitry Gerasimov. As a result, the unit was transferred to the Ministry of Internal Affairs. There, "Pennant" was called "Vega." Of the several hundred people, fifty agreed to put on police uniforms. Having learned about the collapse of Vympel, representatives of the largest US security agency arrived in Moscow and offered a job. The commandos refused, they decided that they could find a use here too. Some went to the foreign intelligence service, helped to transport our people from Africa's hot spots. Five work in the Ministry of Emergency Situations. Twenty returned to the FSK, the newly created Special Operations Directorate (now the FSB FSB). Only in August 1995, by a presidential decree, Vympel was returned to the Department for Combating Terrorism under the FSB of Russia. Today, the successor to Vympela is the B department of the FSB Counter-Terrorism Department. During the existence of Vympel, several dozen people died: mainly in Afghanistan, and then in operations within the USSR. During the events at the White House in 1993, a sniper killed Gennady Sergeyev, an Alpha fighter who had previously served in Vympel. The last dead - Andrei Chirikhin died in Chechnya in 2000. Meanwhile, Vladimir Kozlov at a press conference dedicated to the 20th anniversary of Vympel said “in the entire history of its existence, the unit lost only four employees. One died in Afghanistan in Kandahar, one in August 1996 during the defense of the UFSB dormitory in Chechnya, and two more were lost in this Chechen campaign. ” Currently, the bulk of the Vympel group, according to its former boss Anatoly Isaykin, is made up of people from counterintelligence, who previously also engaged in intelligence. All of them are perfectly prepared, but each has a specialization. On average, training a fighter of an anti-terrorist group takes five years. Vladimir Kozlov also noted that the salary of employees of a special unit is higher than that of ordinary FSB officers - six thousand rubles plus bonuses for special operations.
FSB Special Purpose Center (Source: Moskovsky Komsomolets 01/27/2001).
The Counter-Terrorism Department includes the Special Purpose Center, which consists of the Alpha and Vympel units (former foreign intelligence special forces). The daily work of Alpha Detachment personnel is to neutralize terrorists who take over aircraft and watercraft, land vehicles, and also hold hostages in buildings. Vympel’s employees have an “atomic” specialization: in peacetime - the neutralization of terrorists at nuclear facilities, in the prewar and wartime times, their task is reversed - they must destroy nuclear power plants, missile launchers with nuclear warheads and other special facilities on the territory of the enemy. However, this specificity is not taken into account in the current conditions, the Vympel fighters are able to act in Chechnya as well. ” The base of the Special Purpose Center is located in Balashikha-2, military unit No. 35690. Contact numbers: 523-63-43, 523-90-60. The Alpha group training center has been called Surf for twenty-five years.
From an interview with S. I. Shavrin, “Moscow News”:
- “At present, there are four departments in the Office“ B ”, and five in the Office“ A ”. One department from "A" and "B" are constantly in the Chechen Republic (business trips of 45 days, at least two or three times a year.). A department is a full-time unit, a group is at the time of the operation. There are approximately thirty people in each assault group. All posts in the operational and combat departments of the Special Purpose Center are officer, but the guys who come after military service without education are enlisted by order, and they are assigned the rank of ensign. In the future, if they graduate, or take some courses, they will receive the first officer ranks. The position of the detective is up to the captain, the senior detective is the major, the head of the group, the departments are the lieutenant colonel, the head of the department and his deputies are colonel posts. In 2004, the CSN lost 16 employees: three during the events in Ingushetia (one became the hero of Russia ), in Chechnya, two during the arrest of the leader of the militants, who had to be taken alive, one during the attempt on the acting President of Chechnya, and 10 in Beslan. "
From a letter that came to the Shchekochikhin’s department in Novaya Gazeta from the fighters of group “A” (March 2004):
- “At the end of last year, the chief of staff of the TsSN, Lieutenant-General A. M., was forced to leave the center for reserve. He is a legendary person, a man who went from Group Ensign to General, past Afghanistan and Chechnya. One of the last operations he led was the capture of Salman Raduyev. By the way, after the capture of Raduyev, the Colonel of Staff, the first to report by telephone to Moscow about the successful completion of the operation, received the star of the Hero of Russia, and M., the person who personally carried out the capture, was awarded a medal. <...> Many of our combat officers, whose contract expires this year, leave for civilian life, not wanting to serve under the supervision of the "parquet" generals. With the arrival of Colonel V. (the current commander of Group A - Ed.), His former colleagues, their children, and relatives followed us.
And due to the fact that professionals began to leave CSN, they began to take us according to the limit <...>. For this, a third dormitory is already being built on the basis of the center in B. After signing the contract, the soldiers are awarded the rank of ensign and first they make temporary and then permanent registration in Moscow. For the guys from the province, this is the ultimate dream. “Such people are very convenient for our leadership, they look into the mouths of superiors and follow the most ridiculous, illiterate orders.”
From a letter that came to Yu. Shchekochikhin in the Novaya Gazeta from the fighters of the “A” group (TSS) (July 2003):
- “At the headquarters of the TsSN FSB, led by General Tikhonov, there is a legendary person in the center — Colonel S. By profession, this gentleman is the center’s main sniper. For a modest officer salary, while still a captain, he managed to build a three-story cottage outside the city with an entire fleet of luxury foreign cars, in his garage - about five cars and several motorcycles of the best Japanese companies. Calculate how much only one bike can cost. Together with members of one of the criminal gangs, he owns his own car service and restaurant in the center of Moscow. At some point, the prosecutor's office had questions for him, but thanks to the patronage of higher forces in the leadership of the FSB, all problems were resolved. Now - about one of the sponsors of the FSB FSB. Once a modest officer Bendery Eduard served in the center. He quit as a senior lieutenant. In civilian life, he created the private security company Vympel-A under the "roof" of our center. Our general Tikhonov personally supervises it. Bendersky rides on a Gelendvagen jeep, has both a special standard and a cover certificate. Almost all banquets, concerts, competitions are paid by his private security company. Mr. Bendersky himself regularly comes to the sauna to take a steam bath, despite the fact that this sauna is located on the territory of the special-purpose facility of the Central Scientific Center. He prefers to take steam in the center’s leadership in society. Taking advantage of the fact that we are a secret agency, all appointments to senior positions in our company are made secretly from everyone, including us. Recently, Colonel V. “Alpha” was appointed commander it’s a combat unit, one hundred percent of our personnel went through Chechnya, many - Afghanistan, participated in military operations, and our commander was a man who spent his whole life in various positions in the personnel department - a professional clerk. His last position was the head of the HR department at the Center for Social Development. This is a man who does not have the experience of military operations — not even a simple operational experience.
And this is the second commander imposed on us from the side. His predecessor was also a personnel officer. He came to us as a colonel, received a general - and pulled higher. A similar situation - in the group "Pennant". Group commander U. spent his entire service in the personnel department. All these appointments only lead to an even greater outflow of truly competent combat officers from the organs. Remain basically fittens, looking at the authorities in the mouth. "
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