More and more often I heard that word here. That, and even sharper ones... Those that a sheet of paper would not endure...

"They were like zombies," another of my interlocutors said about the boys who hadn't even properly learned to shoot. "Mortar shelling, and they slowly, as if in a movie, laid their rifles on the ground and just as slowly walked away in different directions, as if they didn't hear the whistling of the mines. We could only do one thing — knock them to the ground under some cover..."

Everything here reminds one of that disastrous offensive, but most of all—the eyes of the surviving commanders who lost their men. Even now, it's hard for me to forget that frozen anguish.

My soul went numb
And froze.
That distant winter
In December-January
It's even scary to imagine
What happened.

I managed to meet several participants in that shameful campaign against Grozny.

"The offensive began on December 30th (not the 31st, as reported in newspapers). We advanced in three columns along three roads. First, before even reaching Grozny, on the night of December 30th-31st, we were caught under bombs from our own aircraft. I called General R.: 'You've lost your mind! What are you doing?!' He told me: 'Find and shoot that spotter...' We found the spotter: 'But I'm an army aviation spotter, and you're being bombed by front-line aviation,' we heard in reply..." — this is the testimony of Lieutenant Colonel D.

But those were not the only casualties during the columns' advance on Grozny: due to lack of coordination between the army and internal troops, shooting between their own units constantly erupted.

Tanks entered Grozny as if on parade, with their barrels raised. They moved confidently and calmly, no one fired at them — until they found themselves in the narrow streets of central Grozny. Then a green flare shot up... A grenade launcher operator jumped out in front of the first tank... The first, the last, and the tank in the middle of the column were hit... Then, everything was over, especially since the infantry, which was supposed to accompany the tanks, was three hours late...

But it was precisely during these hours that police General Vorobyov performed a feat remembered by his subordinates: when his first three APCs were hit, he stopped his column, understanding that he was leading it to a senseless death. Cries were heard on the radio: "Forward! This is the first one's order!... This is the paramount one's order!..." He did not go, and it is unknown how his own fate would have turned out had he not died a few days later.

I don't want to evaluate the strategy and tactics of our military leaders who sent thousands of soldiers and officers to their deaths. Although I don't understand why only on February 7th (according to a communications officer) did federal troops receive equipment capable of jamming militant communications. Even less do I understand why not before, but after the capture of Dudayev's palace (the architect who designed the regional party committee building probably never imagined he was building such an aristocratic structure) did it become known about the existence of a twenty-kilometer tunnel under the city center, connecting to the regional committee, through which a column of tanks could easily have passed: Dudayev didn't build it! And I don't know why only now, in January, did it become known that back in 1992, a large-scale exercise was conducted in Grozny, where the potential enemy was Russia—what a worthless performance all our numerous special services put on then.

I repeat, checking and analyzing these facts, known incidentally to too many people, is a matter for specialists.

But one thing is certain: totally unprepared soldiers were thrown into the war, many of whom had participated in live fire exercises only once or twice. The same SOBR officers gave me numerous examples of the complete bewilderment of soldiers and commanders. And, meeting a high-ranking official from the Military Prosecutor's Office in Mozdok, I heard from him how soldiers are now being intimidated so they won't tell how many times they actually "played at war" before being thrown into a real, not toy, war...

But this is only a prelude, cruel, bloody, but at least explicable by the pathological incompetence of our generals. And then the most interesting part begins: then money begins. Huge money for those who have already won this war.