USSR 1991

Could it be that these guys want a war of independence?Yanayev's eyes suddenly brightened. If Georgia fires the first shot in the War of Independence, it means that there will be a series of rebellions in the joining countries.

But also if Yanayev succeeds in suppressing the rebellion in Georgia, it means that the Soviet Union has a fair and just reason to deprive all member countries of their special rights.

"I understand, Comrade Yazov. Then let the receiving work be delayed for a while, and we wait for those happy fish to be picked out of the lake, and then catch them all in one go." Yanayev decided to set a trap for Georgia, Waiting for him to get closer inside.

The Soviet side temporarily restrained its actions, waiting for those self-righteous political clowns to show their feet, and then annihilated them in one fell swoop.Cheer for a little while longer, gray beasts, for after a few days you won't be able to laugh anymore.

Under Yazov's puzzled eyes, Yanayev crossed his hands and said coldly, "When the Soviet Union returns to the Northland, it will be the time when all the traitors will die."

Chapter 62 Welcome Home (3)

In a desolate valley in Parwan Province, Afghanistan, yellow sand swept across the originally desolate canyon, withered yellow weeds rolled in the wind, rolling over the rough weathered rocks, pierced by bullets There are broken walls and ruins, as well as the shells of steel behemoths buried by the wind and sand, leaving only a solitary turret.

On the top of the turret, there was even a half-burned corpse of the Soviet army, and its hands were desperately stretched out to the blue sky. The black bones of soldiers who died many years ago had already dried up and turned into shriveled remains.A figure in a white robe appeared in the desolate canyon, and he held a Kalashnikov rifle in his hand. When he passed by the scrapped T72 tank, he paused and climbed onto the rusty track. He was using a bayonet to pick off the pieces of clothes stuck to the dead bones, trying to find identification documents that could prove the corpse of the Soviet army, but unfortunately he still found nothing.

In the end, the unshaven man jumped out of the tank, saluted the corpse at the top with a military salute that he hadn’t done for a long time, and resolutely walked to the end of the canyon, where he would meet the handover person for the long hike.

The man was Islamuddin, whose real name was Nikolai Bystrov. In 1982, at the age of 18, he was drafted into the army and sent to the battlefield in Afghanistan full of passion.Tired of war, in 1983, Bestrov and two comrades-in-arms became deserters. When they fled to a valley, they were discovered by Afghan guerrillas. During the battle, two comrades died, and Bestrov was injured and killed captured.

After being captured, Bestrov tried to escape, but was captured and beaten severely. All his teeth were knocked out, and he had to be fitted with false teeth later.Later, he was escorted to the Panjshir Valley, the base camp of the "Mujahideen" in Afghanistan, where he met the legendary leader of the "Mujahideen", Masood. Perhaps because of the pity of the supreme leader, Bystrov survived.A few months later, when he tried to escape again, he was captured and beaten half to death, so Bystrov had no choice but to accept his fate and began to learn the Afghan national language and adapt to the local customs.Soon Bystrov was asked to convert to Islam, which he accepted and took on a new name, Islamuddin.

At the beginning of 1984, Masood learned from the spies stationed in Kabul that the Soviet army and the Afghan government forces were about to launch a new round of clean-up operations in the Panjshir Valley.The captured Soviet officers and soldiers had two choices, one was to exchange with the Soviet army as prisoners of war, and the other was to escape to other countries through Pakistan.Fearing that they would be punished by law enforcement agencies after returning home, all the prisoners chose to go to Pakistan, but Bestrov asked to stay.Arrange him as a bodyguard.

In the following years, he and Supreme Leader Masood experienced countless life and death tests.Because of Bestrov's serious work attitude, he was deeply appreciated by Masood.And Masood always said that he only slept soundly when Bystrov was on duty.

Sbetrov, who has changed his name and surname over the years, helped many Soviet prisoners leave this sad place that exhausted their youth and years, but they were afraid of returning to the country for trial. In the end, without exception, those people chose to return to the place they abandoned. Instead of their homeland, they were tossed and scattered in various countries in Western Europe, where they ended up living for the rest of their lives.

At the end of the canyon, a middle-aged man also wearing a white robe was leading a camel, standing in front of him, with a gentle expression that was completely different from the horrific scenes around him.

"Islamuddin, my friend, you are still here as promised." Seeing Islamuddin's appearance, the man leading the camel smiled slightly and opened his arms to give him a hug.But the latter's performance was not correspondingly friendly. Instead, he raised the Kalashnikov rifle in his hand and aimed the gun at the man leading the camel.

"I'm sorry, Major Vasily, I'm not your friend." Islamuddin's tone was a little cold, "In fact, nine years ago, when the motherland abandoned those poor people, I was no longer a Soviet soldier. "

If his closest comrade-in-arms hadn't introduced him to Major Vasily from the Kazakh Soviet Republic in private, Islamuddin would have definitely believed that this was a conspiracy against the supreme leader of the jihadists.

"The motherland did make mistakes, but he didn't keep making mistakes, did he? The mistakes he made need to be corrected. Isn't Islamuddin even willing to give the Soviet a chance to correct it?" Vasily sighed, He continued, "Gorbachev really shouldn't have treated you that way back then, but you should have seen the video I gave you before. Our new government leaders are actively rescuing the lost Soviet soldiers. I heard that You have been helping those people for free, so I want to find information from you, after all, after 1989, we are no longer enemies."

Islamuddin kicked the yellow sand under his feet, and drew a circle carelessly with his toes. After Major Vasili finished speaking, he said disdainfully, "But the crimes you committed against those poor soldiers, I Unable to forget. For example, the [-] Soviet prisoners of war who died in the Bod Epo concentration camp, I want to ask, will those high-level people feel guilty?"

"President Yanayev apologized to the people of the whole country on TV." Major Vasily took out a newspaper from his arms and placed it in front of Islamuddin, "We should not forget these people, the motherland still has Their mothers are waiting for these children to come home."

"Go home?" Islamuddin smiled a little sadly when he heard this word. He waved his hands and laughed at himself, "Do I still have a home? My mother already thought I was dead. Forget it, I happen to have five Soviet POWs in my hands, they've been in POW camps for almost seven years and they've just been released, going to Western Europe. I'll bring them to you, here in five days, I People will be brought here, and you will leave here with those five prisoners of war."

"Okay." Major Vasili breathed a sigh of relief seeing that things had finally progressed, and he asked again, "What about you? Don't you plan to go back and have a look?"

"No, I'm not going back."

Islamuddin rejected Major Vasily's request. His eyes, which had already been clouded by the wind and sand, looked at the blue sky outside the canyon, like a falcon in a cage longing for freedom, but it quickly dimmed again. Going down, it finally turned into a mirror-like cool appearance.

"My heart is rooted in this yellow land. The original Bystrov is dead."

Islamuddin turned alone, back into the canyon, into the dark depths filled with yellow sand.

Chapter 63 Welcome Home (4)

Five days later, Major Vasili met those middle-aged men with withered looks and ragged clothes at the meeting place as promised. The longing for life is only the first time the flames of longing for survival were ignited in the hopeless eyes when seeing Major Vasily in the uniform of a Soviet officer.

These people are people in the prisoner-of-war camp who are unwilling to convert to Islam or join the jihadist armed forces. They can only do the hardest labor in the concentration camp. Give up.Become a silent slave, silently counting how many days he has left to survive.

To survive or die despicably, prisoners of war make different choices almost every day.

Major Vasily, who greeted them, looked at the sacks on their backs with some curiosity, and wanted to touch them, but the other party stepped back at the same time, staring at him vigilantly, and asked in a somewhat unfamiliar Russian, "Don't Come here, what do you want to do?"

Vasily raised his hands to show that he had no malice. He asked innocently, "I am Major Vasily sent by the Soviet government to welcome you home. I have no malice. I am just curious about what is in this backpack. what exactly is it?"

"It's nothing, the skeletons of my comrades who died on the battlefield." The voice of the prisoner of war was a little sad.

The eyes of the tall prisoner of war walking in the front suddenly brightened. He shouted and stood at attention. Everyone straightened their chests and looked at Major Vasily with firm eyes.Then he raised his hands in unison and gave a neat military salute to Major Vasily.

"I am Lieutenant Card of the Ninth Company. Report to the officer. We tried our best to defend the 98 Highland. There were [-] people in total, [-] people died, and [-] people were captured. No one evacuated."

Lieutenant Card's voice was hoarse and muddy, but still as firm as ever.Accompanied by the humming of the wind and sand, it looked extraordinarily desolate in the dusk.They are soldiers who have long been forgotten on the battlefield, desperately eager for the response of the motherland, and dream of returning to the embrace of the Soviet one day.

Major Vasily was filled with emotions. He hugged Lieutenant Card tightly, holding back tears, and said in a heavy tone, "The war is over, children, let me take you home."

Hearing the word "go home", Lieutenant Card finally couldn't hold on anymore, knelt on the yellow ground, covered his face with his hands and cried loudly. The idea that supported him to survive in the brutal concentration camp for five or six years was to go home .

Islamuddin turned his head away, unwilling to watch the scene of parting from life and death. Maybe the dead Bystrov deep in his heart thought of the summer with bright flowers blooming at this moment, the girl in a white dress playing the harmonica Miss Sasha was waving to him.

At that time he was still very young, with dreams and people to love.Instead of suddenly waking up in sleep like now, only the cold receiver of the Kalashnikov rifle and the same cold and silent moonlight accompany me.A war changed his fate, and countless young soldiers like him.It’s just that I occasionally dream of the comrades who sang together in the past. In the dream, they are still young and handsome like ice sculptures holding steel guns.

"Are you really not leaving with us? Islamuddin, after all, your mother and the motherland are still waiting for you to come back." Major Vasili hesitated for a while, still wanting to ask for the other party's opinion.

Unexpectedly, Islamuddin just shook his head, glanced at the distant horizon, picked up the rifle on the ground, and walked forward step by step. After walking five or six steps, he stopped his progress and turned around and said, "No, if I go back, it will be even more difficult to find these lost soldiers. At least in the north of Afghanistan, I can still use General Sumad's relationship to release some Soviet prisoners of war from the prisoner-of-war camp. With me, Those soldiers can go home."

Islamuddin called out a piece of weed, and said flatly, "From here to the border of Tajikistan is the northern territory of the Mujahideen Alliance. You follow me, and when you reach the border, use military helicopters to meet you. It’s much safer than being shot down by those guerrilla Javelin missiles here. After all, the image of the Hind helicopter has been engraved deep in their hearts, and it has become a lingering nightmare.”

"Okay." Major Vasili agreed to Islamuddin's request. In fact, he also knew the difficulty of leading five Soviet prisoners of war through the north. Each province has a long-running relationship network, and it is impossible to go deep into the unknown hinterland of the war.

In the next few days, a group of seven people began to trek across mountains and rivers. Major Vasili was different from the desolate area led by the previous informant. Islamuddin almost followed the sentries set up by the jihadists. , after he talked with them in the proficient Afghan language, the sentry at the checkpoint let these people pass unconditionally.

In this way, the original tortuous journey became a straight line, and the walking distance was shortened a lot.Major Vasily can even rest in towns and villages to replenish water sources.In the evening, he used his spare time to conduct psychological counseling and counseling for prisoners of war, so that these people who had returned to the motherland could adapt to the modern life of Moscow more quickly after they got rid of the nomadic way of life that rested at sunset.

Unlike before coming here, Major Vasily arrived at the handover point between northern Afghanistan and the Tajik Republic in only half the time.After seeing the sentry tower on the border, Major Vasili finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Islamuddin stopped, turned on the kettle and took a sip of water, then he pointed to the snow-white mountains in the distance and said, "I will send you here, and you can reach Gorno after crossing those mountains. -Badakhshan State Southwest Frontier Air Force Base, you are more familiar with these than I am, Major Vasily."

"Yes." Major Vasily nodded. He raised his watch to look at the time and said, "I have sent a message through the radio, and a helicopter will come to pick us up later."

"Sending you here, my mission has been completed." Islamuddin pressed his hat and said to Lieutenant Card, "Congratulations, you can finally return to the embrace of the motherland."

"Are you really not going with us? Islamuddin. It would be much better for you to go back than to stay in this place where there is only loess and wind and sand." Kade asked again. As the "Soviet traitor" who has taken care of them the most in China, Card has a complex emotion of reluctance to leave.

"No, I still have a benefactor who is waiting for me." Islamuddin said as he walked, his figure gradually faded away, and finally he just raised his hand and waved his arm, and he was stingy without even turning his head Come over, leaving them with a lonely back.

A tearful Islamuddin whispered take care in a voice only he could hear.

Then there was a sudden wind on the calm cliff, and the weeds on the ground were bent by the strong wind.

Lieutenant Card squinted his eyes and saw a Mi-24 Hind helicopter he had dreamed of soaring above the rocky cliff. The long-lost red star pattern on the fuselage made his eyes dim for a moment.Everyone raised their arms and cheered, and those captives who seemed to have lost their enthusiasm six years ago rejoiced at this moment.

The Hind helicopter with six rocket launch pods parked smoothly on the open space in front of them. The pilot in the cab waved to the prisoners of war and said through a loudspeaker, "Soldiers, I'm here to welcome you. Welcome back!" To the embrace of the motherland."

Lieutenant Card hugged the sack in his arms tightly. In addition to the bones of the soldiers sleeping under the loess, there were also their souls that had already died. Lieutenant Card inadvertently turned his head. The other 98 comrades who died in the Ninth Company were walking side by side, walking towards Lieutenant Card, talking and laughing.

He even saw the company commander who was blasted in two by enemy mortars a long time ago, waving at him, and shouting Lieutenant Card's name, even though he knew it was an illusion, Lieutenant Card still waved to them with a smile, tears Passed across the cheek, muttering to himself.

"Comrades, welcome home."