In Afghanistan, until the last day of the war, not a single border guard could wear a green cap - the presence of border troops on the land of the southern neighbor was the strictest state secret. Apparently, this is why the green edging is barely noticeable in the sea of songs of Russian "Afghans". In the Central Museum of the FPS, evidence of the participation of border guards in the fighting "there across the river"is also very stingy.

Our interlocutor is retired Lieutenant General Gennady ZGERSKY, who served as commander of the Central Asian Border District from December 1980 to June 1984. He planned, trained and commanded the main combat operations of border guards in Afghanistan during this period. And from March 1988 to 1991, as the head of the Operational Group in Moscow, Gennady Anatolyevich again had to deal with the problems of Afghanistan. Of the five Orders of the General, two (the Order of the Red Banner and the Order of the Red Banner of the DRA) were awarded for Afghanistan.

Now there is a lot of talk about whether it was necessary to enter Afghanistan. How did all this happen?

A revolution is taking place in Afghanistan. The desire of Americans to get their hands on this country is quite natural. In order to reach the green (land) border with the Soviet Union.

Our country could not do nothing in such conditions. We must also take into account the fact that our troops were requested by the leadership of Afghanistan, which was afraid of not being able to cope independently with interference in the Afghan internal affairs of Pakistan and the United States acting through Pakistan. So - I am convinced of this even now-it was necessary to introduce Soviet troops. Another thing is that we absolutely did not need to stay too long in Afghanistan and even more so fight for the Afghans themselves, generating dependent sentiments.

This concerns the general political situation of that time. Now let's talk about border troops. In the first year of the war, the Central Asian Border District was commanded by Lieutenant General Ivan Grigoryevich Karpov. The situation on the Soviet-Afghan border was very difficult. Especially in the area of the Khorog border detachment, where Tajikistan bordered the Badakhshan province of DRA.

Our border guards served on the bank of the Panj. The border ran along the floodplain of the river. And no fencing systems. Depending on the width of the floodplain, our border guards and Afghans were separated by a kilometer, and sometimes five hundred meters, or two hundred. They could easily watch each other. Taking advantage of this, the gangs repeatedly provoked our outposts. Suffice it to say that they defiantly savagely dealt with their prisoners. The bandits threw their victims into the Panj.

Mass bandit massacres could not but outrage the border guards and the local population living on the Soviet side, spreading terror on the Afghan coast. It was unbearable. Therefore, at the beginning of 1980, it was decided to introduce border units at some key points that would ensure border security on the Afghan side. These were separate consolidated combat detachments (SBOs). Such detachments appeared on the border side of the sections of the Moscow and Khorog border guards.

The consequences were not slow to affect. The situation in these areas has improved markedly.

This situation continued until about the beginning of 1981. In my opinion, at this very time, the 40th army actually entered the civil war between the Afghan opposing forces, and the activity of the bandits noticeably intensified. Dushmans again began to appear at the border, more brazenly acted in other places.

The border guards were given the task not only to continue the actions of the combined combat detachments in Badakhshan, but also to carry out raids in order to calm down the gangs and prevent them from turning around. This continued until January 1982.

Obviously, the military command of the country and the State Security Committee raised before the leadership of the USSR the question that at the border, on the Afghan side, border guards need to have some kind of zone of responsibility, where they would ensure the protection of the state border. The depth of the zone averaged 100 kilometers. Looking ahead, I will say that later the border guards had to solve problems outside this zone as well.

We entered the adjacent territory as units of the Soviet Army. On the woolen army uniforms - combined - arms emblems, the gunners-artillery... I was the only one who wore a general's cap, all the others had panamas, and in winter I wore hats. But my cap wasn't green either - it was a field cap.

At first, we introduced seven motorized maneuver groups almost simultaneously: by January 8, 1982, 6 maneuver groups had entered, and one mangroup intended for entry into the Takhar province was temporarily detained. The situation in the province was very difficult, it was necessary to overcome more than 100 kilometers of dangerous green zone. We just didn't have enough strength in all directions.

The introduction of this motorized maneuverable group was personally led by the head of the border troops of the KGB of the USSR, Army General Vadim Matrosov. With the arrival of Vadim Alexandrovich in Tajikistan, an operational group was created, and he took over the leadership. It should be noted that this is the only MMG that entered Afghanistan with a military operation. 156 kilometers on the "green". Through the Rashid Dostum zone. We were helped by the special forces brigade of the 40th army, which at that time was stationed in Meimen. Especially when crossing the pass: they conducted reconnaissance, set up roadblocks.

Only in the three centers of the northern provinces were our motorized maneuver groups absent (Herat, Kunduz, Fai-Zabad), and then only for the reason that the 40th army units were stationed in the centers of these provinces.

Planned activities to clear the area of responsibility from bandit formations have begun. One of the first operations was Kalaizal (Kunduz province). Well, if it was the first, planned one, then I was in charge of it - the chief of the district troops. It was conducted jointly with units of the local garrison of the Afghan army for 10-12 days.

Almost every day, mangroup commanders had to solve local combat tasks that arose suddenly.

During the first half of the year, the main bandit bases were destroyed by us.

In the border area, the situation was also kept under control by the fact that our operational positions were strong: we knew literally everything that was being done in our area of responsibility. A vivid example of this was the Marmol operation.

There was a large bandit base in Marmola. Before us, an attempt was already made to master Marmol. The leader of the gang, a protege and great friend of Ahmad Shah Zabibullo asked his influential patron for help. The Marmol base, which supplied the entire northern part of the bandit formations of Afghanistan, was well reinforced by the Mujahideen in engineering terms.

In January 1984, the border troops were ordered to liquidate the Marmol base. This was the only operation during the entire Afghan war, conducted under the directive of the Minister of Defense, Marshal Dmitry Ustinov. We were assigned three army sortie regiments to carry it out, and a battery of 108-millimeter mortars to support it. Through methodical shelling, step by step, we liberated the territory. Bomb attacks destroyed the enemy's control system. Suffice it to say that the mining system, on which the Mujahideen had placed so much hope, was completely disabled.

During the entire Afghan war, the losses of the border troops amounted to 494 people killed. Wounded - a little more than 12 thousand people. Of these, 93 percent returned to service without limiting the expiration category.

After the withdrawal of troops, the interstate agreement on the supply of material values from the Soviet Union to Afghanistan continued to operate. And how can this agreement be implemented when the border is closed? Despite the fact that there is a civil war on Afghan soil? Therefore, it was decided to entrust this matter to the border troops. To provide six points of transfer of material values, we have formed six special delivery companies. They were the ones who delivered the necessary cargo across the border to certain points in Afghanistan. And at first, they went through places where fighting could break out at any moment, without weapons. Then the columns began to be assigned small support units. The border guards performed this task until 1991...

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