How Soviet prisoners managed to escape from the secret Afghan prison Badaber in 1985

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

This, of course, a heroic page of history for a long time was undeservedly consigned to complete oblivion. Near Peshawar, on April 26, 1985, a handful of captured Soviet soldiers rioted in the secret Afghan prison of Badaber. The daredevils have seized a warehouse with weapons. They managed to hold the defense of the fortress for more than a day. The rebels rejected all offers of surrender by the insurgents without hesitation. They preferred certain death in an unequal battle to the hell of Afghan captivity. The names of the heroes became known only after many years. The history of the heroes of Afghan Sobibor, further in the review.

Today, there is almost nothing at this place. The former fortress is located just south of the Pakistani city of Peshawar. There were only ruins and a gate leading to the void … More than thirty years ago here, in the spring of 1985, several captured Soviet soldiers, together with captured Afghans, raised an armed uprising. This was the last battle of desperate heroes. They all laid down their heads there. Witnesses say there were twelve of them. Instead of a monument at their mass grave, there is a funnel.

Secret prison

When the war broke out in Afghanistan, a training center for training militants was organized in the Badaber fortress. Mujahideen were carefully trained by local and foreign military instructors. By an incredibly sad coincidence, it was here that tragic events took place. Only the truth has not been fully established to this day. For many years, practically no one did this officially.

At first glance, Badaber was an ordinary refugee camp. There were many of them on the Afghan-Pakistani border. Shabby army tents and clay huts, in which a huge number of people lived at the same time. Everything is like everywhere else - dirt, overcrowding, disease. But the camp hid a terrible secret. A center for military training of militants functioned here under humanitarian cover. Young Mujahideen were very thoroughly trained for partisan actions, taught in combat tactics, the art of shooting, camouflage, the ability to set up ambushes and set traps, and work with various radio beacons.

Inside the fortress there were several buildings, a very modest mosque, a stadium, warehouses with ammunition and weapons. At that time, the training regiment of Saint Khaled-ibn-Walid was located there. The head of the militant training center was a major of the Pakistani Armed Forces. He was assisted by several American military instructors. In addition to them, there were about fifty military instructors from China, Pakistan, Egypt on the staff.

There was a special secret zone in Badaber, where a prison was located in three underground rooms. According to the testimony of various people, at that time there were four dozen Afghan and a dozen Soviet prisoners of war. For the first time, the local zindan began to be used for prisoners around the beginning of the 80s. They were here simply in inhuman conditions. The prisoners were shown simply savage cruelty. The commandant of the fortress, Abdurakhman, severely punished the prisoners for the slightest offense. He personally beat them with a lead-tipped whip. The prisoners were chained and shackled, from which the skin on the arms and legs festered, peeling off in layers. The prisoners worked hard in the local quarry, they were starved and thirsty.

The last fireworks

The chronology of the events that took place in Badaber was gradually added up. For several years, intelligence has been gathering information literally bit by bit. She was often controversial. Having collected together all the disparate versions, experts have reconstructed an approximate picture of what happened.

At six o'clock in the evening local time on April 26, 1985, when almost all the Mujahideen gathered on the parade ground to perform namaz, Soviet soldiers went into their last battle. A little earlier, the camp received a large batch of weapons: twenty-eight trucks with rockets for rocket launchers, grenades for grenade launchers, as well as Kalashnikov assault rifles, machine guns, pistols. According to the artillery instructor, Gulyam Rasul Karluk, the Russians helped unload the weapons. Most of it was to be redirected to the units of the Mujahideen.

Rabbani, a former leader of the Islamic Society of Afghanistan, said a tall guy started the riot. He managed to disarm the guard who brought the evening stew. Then he opened the cells with the rest of the prisoners. Armed, the rebels began to fight their way to the gate with a fierce battle. According to some reports, the prisoners of war sought to seize the radio center in order to try to contact the Soviet command. If they had succeeded then, it would have become the concrete argument that would have confirmed Pakistan's interference in Afghan affairs.

The participants in the uprising seized a warehouse with ammunition and weapons and barricaded themselves on the roof. Initially, there were twenty-four rebels, but half defected to the side of the enemies. The dozen remaining daredevils took up a perimeter defense. The camp was quickly surrounded by Pakistani military and Afghan rebels. Arrived at the scene, Rabbani entered into negotiations. The rebels demanded a meeting with the USSR ambassador, representatives of the UN or the Red Cross. The Islamists were not going to make concessions, offering to simply surrender and promising to keep the prisoners alive. The heroes were not going to give up just like that. They preferred to die in battle, but not return to that hell. Rabbani ordered the assault. As various sources say, the instruction was: "Do not take the Russians prisoner."

The prisoners of war skillfully repelled all attacks. The forces were so unequal that it seemed they had no chance of holding out even an hour. The battle, then dying out, then flaring up, continued all night. The defense of the rebellious mujahideen did not manage to break through. The enemies paid a dear price for this: according to Soviet intelligence, more than 120 Afghan mujahideen, 28 Pakistani officers, 13 representatives of the Pakistani authorities and 6 foreign advisers, including from the United States, were killed.

An excellent result of a two-day battle for ordinary soldiers exhausted by captivity, not at all special forces. Moreover, according to some information, the lists of prisoners in the Badaber camp included fighters who were not fired at all. Of the officers, there were only two lieutenants. The camp was the center of military training for the militants. At that time, about two thousand Mujahideen were trained there under the guidance of foreign instructors. The camp territory occupied a huge area, there were about a dozen warehouses with ammunition and weapons. The prisoners, of course, knew this very well. So what was it? Madness of the brave?

By morning it became completely clear that the prisoners of Badaber were not going to surrender. Moreover, their resistance became more and more fierce. After Rabbani himself was almost killed with a well-aimed shot from a grenade launcher, it was decided to throw all available forces and means into battle. The Grad multiple launch rocket systems, tanks and even the Pakistani Air Force were used against the rebels. Radio intelligence recorded radio interception of the pilots' conversations with the base, where they discussed the bombing of the fortress. Rabbani asked the Russians to cease fire through a megaphone. Threatened with an explosion of ammunition depots. This had no effect on the rebels. The shooting continued. According to Rabbani, one of the shells hit the warehouse. There was a powerful explosion, a fire started. All Russians were killed. The IOA leader subsequently complained that the story had ruined his relationship with the Pakistanis.

Who was the leader of the uprising

According to one version, the organizer of the riot was the Ukrainian Viktor Vasilyevich Dukhovchenko. Rabbani described this as follows: “There were prisoners from different provinces of Afghanistan. Among all, one Ukrainian stood out in particular. He was in charge of the captives. If they had problems, he would contact us and solve them. This guy always seemed suspicious to the guards. In the end, he staged this rebellion."

According to the documents of the Afghan authorities, 12 Soviet and 40 Afghan prisoners of war were secretly kept in the camp. They were taken prisoner in different parts of Afghanistan. The existence of a prison for prisoners of war was carefully concealed from the Pakistani authorities. The Soviet prisoners were given Muslim pseudonyms.

The version that Dukhovchenko was the leader of the uprising is questioned by experts. Victor was undoubtedly involved in the riot and was one of the activists, but most likely not the one Rabbani describes. Dukhovchenko, according to his relatives and colleagues, is an adamant character, brave, physically hardy. The only thing that does not correspond to history is that he could not have time to learn the language and gain authority in the eyes of the camp administration.

Later, it was suggested that this mysterious leader was Nikolai Ivanovich Shevchenko, a native of the Sumy region. According to testimony and reports from Afghan agents - "Abdul Rahman". Shevchenko was captured in the fall of 1982. Among the prisoners of war, he was not only the most adult, but also stood out for his behavior. He was also sharply distinguished from others by a heightened sense of self-esteem. Even the guards tried to be careful with him. Shevchenko had a stern appearance: wide cheekbones, a beard, a hard look from under his eyebrows. He gave the impression of a harsh and cruel person. Nikolai also had the habits of an experienced and dangerous person. Similar behavior occurs among old prisoners, experienced hunters, or well-trained saboteurs. But didn't Rabbani talk about the "young guy"?..

Here's the catch. After all, both Dukhovchenko and Shevchenko were over thirty. In addition, in such conditions, the young will look like a deep old man. Here we must take into account the fact that when Rabbani gave this interview, he was already very old. This could have left its mark on events. So it was quite logical to call the leader of the uprising a "young guy" in this case.

Spy version

One publication published an interview with a former foreign intelligence officer. He did not disclose his name. He said the following: “We needed to get one person out of the camp. The operation was scheduled. It was attended by a reconnaissance and sabotage group of three or four people. They organized the riot. One of them was introduced into the camp in advance under the guise of a prisoner. Everything had to be done cleanly and quietly. The desired prisoner was to be transported along a secret route to a safe place. As a result, something went wrong. I think that a traitor intervened in the matter."

This version is supported by the fact that the personality of Nikolai Shevchenko, whom several witnesses call the leader of the uprising, raises doubts. He is supposedly a simple civilian driver who accidentally disappeared into captivity. This "chauffeur" possessed the knowledge and skills inherent, rather, of a high-ranking officer. Nikolai was an excellent master of oriental martial arts, showed excellent abilities for psychology. With his appearance in the camp, all Soviet prisoners of war noticeably cheered up.

According to the official version, the prisoners themselves removed the guards, then seized weapons and warehouses. The question remains, how could they get out of the prison? If someone helped, then who? Who was so masterful in leading the defense? After all, the Mujahideen were warned by a traitor. Another confirmation of the veracity of the version: in the spring of 1985, the presence of the Soviet military was increased in the area of the Afghan-Pakistani border. In particular, the 345th Airborne Regiment and other units that could conduct a military operation on Pakistani territory were transferred here. But the help of the paratroopers was not required …

Not everything is clear with the version of the traitor either. He could not help but participate in the uprising from the very beginning. After all, if he really warned the militants, then the uprising simply did not happen. The man who is considered a traitor, under the pseudonym "Muhammad Islam", defected, most likely, when the participants in the riot had already taken up defensive positions on the roof. So his flight could not have much influence on the course of the uprising.

Another witness and two versions

The only evidence from the Soviet side belongs to the Uzbek Nosirzhon Rustamov. He served in Afghanistan, was captured by the mujahideen and ended up in Badaber. He himself did not participate in the riot of prisoners. Only in 1992 was he released and handed over to the Uzbek authorities from Pakistan. Nosirjon identified the leader of the uprising from photographs in the person of Nikolai Shevchenko. His versions of what happened not only differ from the official, but also contradict each other.

In general, everyone who has ever dealt with the topic of the Badabersk revolt will confirm the discordance of the versions obtained from various sources. For example, the same Rustamov told different stories to different correspondents. The uprising began during a football match between prisoners and guards, or during namaz. Rustamov, according to him, was stolen by "spirits" and thrown into a pit. From there he watched what was happening, so to speak. It is possible that the discrepancies and inconsistencies in his stories are explained by the fact that he is trying to somehow justify or hide the fact of his non-participation in the uprising. Then, you need to take into account the fact that he could not see everything anyway.

Funnel instead of a monument

According to many versions, a shell hit the warehouse, it exploded. The explosion was so strong that the fragments were scattered within a radius of several kilometers. After that there were several dozen more breaks. The last salute to the heroes of Badaber shot up into the sky. In this flame, it seemed that no one could survive. But after the militants, who were brutalized from losses, burst into the fortress, the heated battle continued. The surviving prisoners were exhausted, burned, but they did not surrender. Severely wounded, they fought fiercely. The Mujahideen threw grenades at them, the dying were finished off with bayonets.

After the big explosion, when the fortress was simply razed to the ground, all the remaining prisoners were expelled from the basement. Rustamov said that they were forced to collect the remains. They tearfully collected them piece by piece and threw them into the pit. The former prisoner of war showed where what was left of the fallen heroes was buried. But it is impossible to find and identify them. After all, they were buried in a food waste dump, and there everything was eaten up by jackals.

The country never recognized its heroes

The USSR government did not take any steps to recognize the fact that Soviet prisoners of war were in Afghanistan. The Soviet Union provided fraternal assistance, and did not take part in the war. In the USSR, the Badabersky tragedy became known only a month later. A sparse article appeared in the press that outraged citizens across the country were protesting. They were caused by the death of Soviet prisoners of war in an unequal battle with dushmans and the Pakistani army. The article did not contain condolences to relatives or admiration for the feat of the captured soldiers. There was only a desire to prick the enemy in the Cold War. No one was allowed to the camp under various pretexts, it was not possible to find out at least something.

It took many years not only to clarify the personalities of the heroes, but also to recognize the very fact of the participation of Soviet servicemen in the Badabersk uprising. With difficulty, years later, it was possible to find out the names of only seven heroes. The governments of the former republics have awarded many of them posthumously. I would like to believe that someday all the names will be revealed. The deceased no longer care about orders and medals, but they have loved ones and it is important for them to recognize the feat of their relatives and loved ones.

If you are interested in Soviet history, read our article about who led the Soviet missions in Cuba and Afghanistan: the best people of the Ossetian intelligence.