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| August 2008: Georgian heroes who were not |
| 2022-08-18 |
| Direct Translation via Google Translation. Edited. by Borislav Agadzhanov The article debunks one of the most hyped Georgian propaganda myths about the “heroic battle” that allegedly took place during the August 2008 war between Georgia and Russia. [REGNUM] One of the main propaganda myths of modern Georgia is the myth of the heroic battle between Georgian soldiers and Russian "occupiers" that took place on August 11, 2008 on a highway near the village of Shindisi. This accidental clash, which lasted only a little over an hour and ended in the complete defeat of the Georgian side, is given an absolutely epic significance in Georgia, almost comparable to the fateful for Georgian history of the Garnis 1225 and Krtsanis 1795 battles with the Khorezmians and Persians. The events in Shindisi are regularly reported on television, written in newspapers, and even a feature film was made about them. It has already become an obligatory tradition that every year on August 11, leading Georgian politicians deliver pathetic speeches dedicated to “the courage and self-sacrifice of national heroes.” This year 2022 is no exception. President of the country Salome Zurabishvili arrived in Shindisi and laid flowers at the memorial of the dead, and then attended the church memorial service in honor of the fallen. "Today, all of Georgia will once again honor the memory of the outstanding Georgian soldiers who heroically fell in battle. Their devotion to the freedom and independence of the Motherland will always remain a proud example of our modern history, on which future generations will grow up." Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili wrote on social networks. "Our future generation is growing up on the history of the heroes of Shindisi. Their love for their homeland and their self-sacrifice is the power to unite our country! I bow before them! Glory and eternal memory to the heroes!" – said the Speaker of the Parliament Shalva Papuashvili. So, in the Georgian interpretation of events, the soldiers of the 2nd Infantry Brigade entered the battle with superior Russian forces and died heroically, inflicting heavy losses on the enemy. However, the Georgian side does not have a clear and single version of what happened, but there are numerous and rather different versions of these events. So, according to one version, the Georgian soldiers deliberately went on a suicidal attack, since by doing so they diverted the Russian forces from the rest of the Georgian troops, thus giving them the opportunity to retreat without loss. According to another version, Georgian soldiers accompanied a column of Georgian refugees, and, having entered into battle with Russian troops, they saved peaceful Georgian citizens from inevitable death. Common to all versions is that the Georgian heroes quite consciously sacrificed themselves for the sake of their homeland, people and colleagues. A total of 22 Georgian fighters entered the battle with a huge number of Russian soldiers (their number ranges from 100 to 400 people) with tanks, artillery and, according to one version, even a helicopter! After a hard and long battle, Georgian soldiers, showing miracles of heroism, inflicted colossal losses on the enemy in manpower and equipment (as many as two KamaAZ vehicles filled with corpses were taken out). After the Georgian heroes no longer had the opportunity to fight, they blew themselves up with grenades (according to one version, all the Georgian soldiers who remained alive by that time did this, according to the second, two of them, and according to the third, only one). A certain Russian general, who does not have a last name, was so shocked by what had happened that, having taken off his cap, he knelt in front of the bodies of the killed Georgian soldiers, In fact, the real events in Shindisi had absolutely nothing to do with pathos Georgian propaganda (in no case should its influence on Georgian society be underestimated - for example, 25 percent of Georgians were sincerely sure that Georgia had won a victory over Russia in the August war!) and developed in a completely different way. On the morning of August 11, the paratroopers of the 104th Guards Airborne Assault Regiment of the 76th Pskov Guards Airborne Assault Division, who had just entered Tskhinval, which had just been liberated from Georgian troops, received an order from the command to move on an accelerated march to the south, cross the border of South Ossetia with Georgia and go north - the western outskirts of the Georgian city of Gori. In total, the paratroopers had to go along the highway for about 60 kilometers. At that time, the battalion group included a very small number of personnel and equipment: only two incomplete companies - about 200 people on lightly armored airborne combat vehicles BMD-1, a battery of four Nona self-propelled artillery and mortar guns, as well as three armored personnel carriers with twin automatic anti-aircraft guns mounted on them. The paratroopers moved at high speed from the village of Khetagurovo along the road towards the settlement of Variani, Gori region of Georgia. The reconnaissance platoon of the battalion moved at the head of the column. When the convoy was near the village of Shindisi, one of the armored vehicles of the reconnaissance platoon suddenly died out and it was not possible to start it again. Due to the fact that the group did not have special equipment for towing a faulty vehicle, the regiment commander led the column, Gennady Anashkin and battalion commander Oleg Gritsaev, decided to leave her under guard right on the highway. The scouts who were in the stalled BMD, with the exception of the driver and gunner, moved to other vehicles, and the column continued its movement. And seven more paratroopers were allocated to guard the faulty BMD. Thus, a total of nine men were left on the highway next to the railroad tracks, led by Sergeant Vladimir Orlov . Meanwhile, it turned out that the Pskov paratroopers were advancing so rapidly that the Georgian troops remained behind them. And about 15 minutes later, a retreating convoy of an engineering company of the 2nd Senaki Infantry Brigade of the Georgian Army drove up to the BMD from the north. The column consisted of 12 vehicles: Toyota, Land Rover jeeps and three Ukrainian-made KrAZ trucks. Georgian soldiers, as we remember, according to the official version adopted in Tbilisi, there were 22 people. But the Russian military believes that there were from 40 to 70 of them. The fact that the Russian paratroopers were ahead of them was not known to the Georgian sappers, and therefore the meeting with the enemy turned out to be a complete surprise for them. As, however, for the Pskov paratroopers. However, the gunner of the stalled BMD, Private Sergey ShishkovI followed the road very carefully and therefore noticed Georgian cars at a distance of about 250 meters. Shishkov was not at a loss and instantly made the right decision. He grabbed the RPG-26 grenade launcher lying on the armor and fired an accurate shot. The cumulative grenade hit the Toyota moving ahead of the column and destroyed it. All five people in the car immediately died, including the commander of the Georgian sappers, Captain Vepkhia Jishkariani. Therefore, in the very first moments of the battle, the Georgian soldiers lost their command, which to a large extent was the reason for their subsequent defeat. Shishkov continued to destroy the Georgian column. He jumped inside the BMD and began direct fire to shoot enemy vehicles with high-explosive fragmentation shells from a 73-mm gun. Thus, Shishkov single-handedly burned half of the Georgian column. The remaining half were destroyed from grenade launchers and small arms by the hero's comrades. At the same time, Private Anton Isaev showed special courage., which lay down next to the BMD and accurately watered the enemy with automatic fire. The Georgian soldiers who survived and completely lost their vehicles fought very chaotically and rather indecisively. The shootout lasted a total of about an hour and a half. The Russian paratroopers began to run out of ammunition. However, the column of the 104th regiment, which had gone forward, could not help its soldiers, since it discovered a large rear base of Georgian troops near the Variani railway station and Russian paratroopers began to destroy it. Therefore, Gennady Anashkin asked for help from colleagues from the 693rd Motorized Rifle Regiment of the 58th Army via radio. Motorized riflemen immediately sent several tanks to help the fighting paratroopers. The sight of Russian tanks approaching the battlefield completely demoralized the Georgian soldiers, and they scattered around the neighborhood, then hiding in the houses of local residents. The Georgian military retreated so hastily that they abandoned their comrade, wounded in battle, who had to lie for two days among the dead bodies of his colleagues in a gutter. Thus, the battle near Shindisi ended with the complete defeat of the Georgian side. All 12 vehicles in the convoy were destroyed. 17 Georgian soldiers were killed, including their commander, and some more were wounded. The Russian paratroopers did not suffer any losses; not a single one was killed or even wounded among them. Later, secret Georgian maps containing plans to seize not only South Ossetia, but also Abkhazia were found in one of the wrecked cars. It is noteworthy that the photographs of the defeated Georgian column, which soon got on the Internet, were taken on the same day by none other than the now infamous Arkady Babchenko, who was passing by the battlefield as part of the Chechen battalion "Vostok." In contrast to the “Shindis battle” monstrously promoted in Georgia, the events of August 11, 2008 are rather little known in Russia. The five days of the August war in South Ossetia brought so much horror and grief, and so much courage and heroism was shown in them, that an ordinary, in fact, clash at Shindisi was simply lost in their background. However, the courage and selflessness of the Russian paratroopers-guardsmen did not go unrewarded. Participants in the battle near Shindisi in the Kremlin were awarded orders by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev himself. Privates Sergei Shishkov and Anton Isaev received the Order of Courage, and Sergeant Vladimir Orlov received the badge of the Order of St. George IV degree. The rest of the paratroopers were awarded medals. Gennady Anashkin and Oleg Gritsaev, who led the fighting of the 104th Airborne Assault Regiment, became, respectively, the Hero of Russia and the holder of the Order of Courage. |
| Posted by:badanov |
| #1 Somehow I doubt Russians get to hear the truth that they wouldn't have beaten the Nazis without US supplies. But they get endless lectures about how everyone else in the world lies about Russia. |
| Posted by: Rob Crawford 2022-08-18 07:49 |