Author: World War II Pretty Lady (Without permission, it is forbidden to copy the full text and carry it privately!) ）
In 1994, then Russian Defense Minister Pavel Sergeyevich Grachev said contemptuously: "To take Grozny, the capital of the Chechen Republic, we only need an airborne battalion and a few days." ”
But what surprised everyone was that after the outbreak of the First Chechen War, the Russian army did not take advantage of the Chechen armed forces in the confrontation!
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="144" > the Russian military top brass attempted to take advantage of the huge superiority of Russian troops and weapons to fight a Russian version of the Gulf War. </h1>
Looking back now at the first Chechen war, it may be a "sad" memory that all Russians do not want to mention. As for grachev's "joke" at that time, history proves that it is really just a "joke"!
However, in the view of the Russian military at the top level at that time, it was entirely possible to take advantage of the huge superiority of the Russian army in numbers and weapons to fight a "rapid victory" like the Gulf War and take down the Chechen armed forces in one fell swoop.
Before this war, only a few years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia's military strength was indeed relatively weak. But, after all, "even the thinnest camel is bigger than a horse"! And in order to defeat the Chechen armed forces, the Russian army dispatched a total of 38,000 elite troops.
However, the famous city grozny pointed to by the Russian army this time is a "bloodthirsty city" established in 1918. Historically, it was designed according to a "combat fortress", so the fortresses in the city were as dense as cobwebs, easy to defend and difficult to attack.
At that time, the siege plan formulated by the Russian army was also "imposing": the Russian soldiers surrounded Grozny in three ways, and launched an attack on the "bloodthirsty city" from three sides, and deliberately left a gap in one direction.
The Russians' battle plan was actually to force and lure the Chechen armed forces to flee from that gap, so that they could more easily occupy Grozny.
<h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track = "81" > the battle began without encountering strong resistance, the 131st Brigade and the 81st Motor Infantry Regiment "went deep alone". </h1>
After the russian air raids officially began, the Russian ground troops advanced from the east, northwest and west directions to Grozny in 5 ways.
Along the way, the Russian army was not strongly blocked by Chechen armed forces. The Chechen armed forces only used roadblocks and guerrilla attacks to slow down the advance of the Russian army.
On 26 December, Russian forces in the west, north, and east had approached the city of Grozny, completing a three-sided encirclement of the city. In the early morning of December 31, the Russian army officially began to capture the city from the north, northeast and east directions. This time, it was an elite mechanized unit of the Russian army: the 131 motorized infantry brigade.
At that time, it seemed right to use such a mechanized force as a vanguard to "penetrate deep into the enemy position"! Because considering that the mechanized troops themselves have good defensive capabilities, even if they encounter the encirclement and suppression of the superior enemy on the way, as long as they do not make huge mistakes, they can still "retreat with their whole body".
So on December 31, more than 1,000 people of the 131 Motorized Infantry Brigade, led by the brigade commander, Colonel Savin, took 120 infantry fighting vehicles and covered by 26 tanks, and "mightily" entered the city of Grozny. However, the 131st Motorized Infantry Brigade was supposed to enter the city centre from the Katayama district.
However, they went in the wrong direction at an intersection and reached the train station where the 81st Motorized Infantry Regiment had assembled. In this way, the 131st Brigade and the 81st Motorized Infantry Regiment were like a sharp knife, tearing the enemy's outer defenses all the way into the city.
However, the other Russian forces failed to break through the Chechen armed defenses, so except for the 131st Brigade and the 81st Motorized Infantry Regiment, the other Russian troops did not penetrate the city deeply. As a result, these units were later able to receive timely support from the Air Force and artillery, and in times of greater crisis, they could successfully withdraw to their defensive areas.
The 131st Brigade and the 81st Motorized Infantry Regiment, however, were "alone and deep", and their subsequent enemies were the Chechen armed Abkhaz battalion and the Muslim battalion. But the combat effectiveness of these two battalions far exceeded the expectations of the Russian army, and in a way, these two battalions were more like bait used to "lure the enemy deeper".
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="146" > Chechen armed forces "reduced to zero", and the 131st Motor Rifle Brigade and the 81st Motor Infantry Regiment suffered heavy damage in the encirclement! </h1>
Due to the 131st Motorized Infantry Brigade in the previous raids, they did not encounter much strong resistance. So after defeating more than 200 Chechen militants stationed at the train station, Brigade Commander Ivan Štěpánek. Savin began to have some "light enemies". He looked at the already "peaceful" train station and arbitrarily believed that there were no Chechen militants near the station.
Therefore, he did not let the 131st Motor Rifle Brigade lay out some necessary defensive positions so that he could quickly retract the "bridgehead" to gain respite when the attack was unfavorable. Moreover, he did not send a reconnaissance team to carry out card set and reconnaissance on the route of his upcoming march.
On the other hand, in order to avoid the "sharp edge" of the regular troops of the Russian army, the Chechen armed forces have already "reduced the limited number of armed personnel to pieces" and are hiding in the streets and hidden corners of buildings. These militants are cats in the depths of alleys, rooftops or sewers, and wherever they can hide, there are actually Chechen armed personnel.
What is even more frightening is that after the Russian army entered the city, their communication equipment was strongly interfered with by their opponents. As a result, Savin, then commander of the 131st Motor Rifle Brigade, mistakenly believed that chechen forces had withdrawn from the city. So he made a fatal mistake: he ordered his troops to advance towards the "Presidential Palace" in the city center.
Without knowing anything about the state of friendly and neighboring troops, the 131st Motorized Infantry Brigade's "adventurous advance" this time is undoubtedly "going and going back." In this way, the 131st Motor rifle brigade drilled into the encirclement circle that the Chechen armed forces had already laid out. Soon, the vehicles and soldiers of the 131st Motor Rifle Brigade were shot by bullets and bazookas from all directions.
Countless Chechen militants hid in the shadows, using weapons such as rocket launchers, anti-tank guns and sniper rifles, and launched constant attacks on the 131st Motor Rifle Brigade. Although the 131st Motorized Infantry Brigade had powerful armored units in its hands, tanks and combat vehicles could not be deployed at all in such an unfamiliar combat environment, and they became "living targets" in the streets.
Finally, after a day and night of fierce fighting in the chaos, the 81st Motorized Infantry Regiment was defeated on the same day, and more than half of the officers and men were killed or captured. The 131st Brigade persisted until January 3, when it was also defeated: after two days and two nights of brutal fighting, the casualties of this motorized brigade were as high as 80%!
The brigade's 26 tanks lost 20, 120 armored fighting vehicles lost 102, and the fate of more than 1,000 officers and men was even more tragic, including brigade commander Savin, about 800 people were killed and 74 captured. This street battle was tragic, the losses of the Russian army were also heavy, and the impact was far-reaching!
After the 131st Brigade was completely crippled, almost all of their tanks and tanks were abandoned in Grozny. What makes all Russians even more "unbearable" is that after the battle, the other side even built the corpses of Russian soldiers into a "low wall".
After the war, Russia held a "memorial service" for more than 1,000 Russian martyrs who died in battle, and also erected a monument to the fallen officers and soldiers, and each martyr was also given the honor and medal he deserved. However, this bleak grozny street battle is forever recorded in the "painful memory" of Russians.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="72" > talk about the reasons for the failure of the Russian army, and the intelligence is seriously wrong! Chechen militants are all battle-hardened "veterans." </h1>
Logically, the predecessor of the Russian army, the Soviet Army, should have a wealth of experience in street fighting: from Stalingrad to Berlin during World War II, the Soviet army experienced countless fierce street battles and defeated the strong Nazi German army. Moreover, in Grozny, the Russian army was only facing a group of terrorists without heavy weapons.
But why did the Russian army lose so badly in the first street battle? In fact, if we analyze in detail the examples of the first Chechen street battle, we will find that the encounter of the 131 motorized infantry brigade at that time was not an isolated case, but they were the most tragic.
At that time, all the units of the Russian army that entered Grozny actually encountered an unfavorable situation! However, in fact, this is not all the fault of the Russian army! Russian intelligence is heavily responsible for this. Because many of the Russian troops entering Grozny at that time did not even have a map for the commanders below the company commander.
Even if you have a map in your hand, it may be an old map from before 1980, and many of the new buildings that exist in Grozny in reality are not marked on the map at all. Therefore, many units of the Russian army almost rushed into Grozny with their eyes closed, and it is not surprising that they got lost in the city.
Second: the combat effectiveness of the Chechen armed forces cannot be underestimated! The Russian army initially judged that there were only a few thousand illegal armed forces in Chechnya, but in fact, there were actually 15,000 Chechen armed forces at that time, and the reserve force was as high as 40,000 people. Moreover, the main force of the Chechen armed forces is composed of many veterans of the former Soviet Army, who have rich combat experience and are very familiar with the Russian military tactics.
In addition, there are many retired mercenaries from other countries in the Chechen armed forces. For example, there are members from the American Navy SEALs, members of the Ninth Brigade of the German Border Guard, and even members of the French Gendarmerie, Polish Special Forces and so on.
There is no doubt that these veterans of the Chechen armed forces are all battle-hardened. They are facing Russian soldiers who have not participated in actual combat for a long time, and their combat ability can be called the "master" of Russian soldiers.
Especially those snipers in the Chechen armed forces, they can almost be "deadly"! Even in the second street battle, the Russian front commander-in-chief, Major General Malofev, was tragically killed by their "poisonous hands".
Although the Russian army had relatively advanced heavy equipment to assist in the battle, in the street battle, the Russian tanks had little room to play. Moreover, the Chechen armed forces had long been detecting the Russian military's combat attempts through the radio, and they deliberately did not have heavy troops on the offensive route of the 131st Brigade at that time, in order to lure the troops into the "encirclement" they had set up.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="148" > conclusion</h1>
After the war, according to official figures, the Russian army lost a total of 3,826 casualties, wounded 17,892, and 1,906 missing in the First Chechen War. Due to the "unfavorable division", Russia finally had to sign a ceasefire agreement with Chechnya, and the first Chechen war was declared over.
No one expected that the War, which the Russian Defense Minister thought would soon be over, ended up fighting for 1 year and 9 months. After paying the price of more than 20,000 casualties, the Russian army could only bid farewell to Grozny with tears. In the First Chechen War, Russia could be described as "losing its wife and folding its troops", and Chechnya was already almost in a state of independence at that time.
However, in 1999, the Russian army launched the second Chechen war in preparation for "a snow before shame". In view of the bitter lessons of the first Chechen war, the tactics of the Russian army this time were completely changed: the special forces took the lead in invading the enemy camp to capture the Chechen leader, and when attacking, they no longer took a strong attack as in the past, but first blockaded, and then organized special assault groups to use new tactics such as targeted clearance and fire coverage strikes, and after successfully occupying Grozny, the special forces of the Internal Guard Force eliminated the remaining Chechen armed forces one by one.
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