In Afghanistan, until the last day of the war, not a single border guard could wear a green cap - the presence of border troops on the land of the southern neighbor was the strictest state secret. Apparently, this is why the green edging is barely noticeable in the sea of songs of Russian "Afghans". In the Central Museum of the FPS, evidence of the participation of border guards in the fighting "there across the river"is also very stingy. Our interlocutor is retired Lieutenant General Gennady ZGERSKY, who served as commander of the Central Asian Border District from December 1980 to June 1984. He planned, trained and commanded the main combat operations of border guards in Afghanistan during this period. And from March 1988 to 1991, as the head of the Operational Group in Moscow, Gennady Anatolyevich again had to deal with the problems of Afghanistan. Of the five Orders of the General, two (the Order of the Red Banner and the Order of the Red Banner of the DRA) were awarded for Afghanistan. Now there is a lot of talk about whether it was necessary to enter Afghanistan. How did all this happen? A revolution is taking place in Afghanistan. The desire of Americans to get their hands on this country is quite natural. In order to reach the green (land) border with the Soviet Union. Our country could not do nothing in such conditions. We must also take into account the fact that our troops were requested by the leadership of Afghanistan, which was afraid of not being able to cope independently with interference in the Afghan internal affairs of Pakistan and the United States acting through Pakistan. So - I am convinced of this even now-it was necessary to introduce Soviet troops. Another thing is that we absolutely did not need to stay too long in Afghanistan and even more so fight for the Afghans themselves, generating dependent sentiments. This concerns the general political situation of that time. Now let's talk about border troops. In the first year of the war, t ... Read more