War in Chechnya: Diary of a Killer (spetnaz point of view)

Jelly_Belly

Active member
So iv been reading these past few days about the cold war and what happened in Russia after the fall of the Soviet Union. And as I was researching about the second Chechnya war I came across something... interesting.

A Spetnaz officer who served 20 tours in Chechnya documented the events in the form of a Diary. The story is pretty chilling and offers in interesting view into how Russia conducted (and probably still conducts) counter terrorism operations.

Heres a link validating that the Diary is "legit"

http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/Magazine/Features/article425814.ece

And here is a link to the Diary. Or at least the parts that I could find.
https://thevelvetrocket.com/2010/11/17/the-war-in-chechnya-diary-of-a-killer/

Kossak, if your reading this. Do you think you could find the entire Diary for me? I need your internet wizardry.

For those too lazy to read heres are my favorite parts of the text.

"Counterintelligence got wind of a group of female suicide bombers. We stormed their safe house and nabbed three women. One was in her forties, the others were young — one barely 15. They were drugged and kept smiling at us. The three were interrogated back at the base. At first, the elder, a recruiter of shahidkas [female suicide bombers], wouldn’t talk. That changed when she was roughed up and given electric shocks.

They were then executed and their bodies blown up to get rid of the evidence. So in the end they got what they’d craved."



After reading I would like your inputs on Russian's stance of terrorism. Are their methods better than our western tactics?
 
After reading I would like your inputs on Russian's stance of terrorism. Are their methods better than our western tactics?

I doubt anyone on MR has any clue about counter terrorism operations the west, israel, the soviets, the chinese or any other nation conduct on a daily basis.

We could only judge these "tactics" based on public information and most often romanticized versions with an inevitable small sample bias.
 
I doubt anyone on MR has any clue about counter terrorism operations the west, israel, the soviets, the chinese or any other nation conduct on a daily basis.

We could only judge these "tactics" based on public information and most often romanticized versions with an inevitable small sample bias.

True. but by studying history, we can make assumptions on how these parts of the world handle terrorism.

Russia has a history of prioritizing national security over civil rights. China I assume does so also but to an ever greater extent. But in the west we have a history of "detaining" terrorist where as Russia when you look at Chechnya had a preference to Torture and kill terrorist.

Watch starting at the 4:00 mark.

The US has a history of prioritizing Civil rights when it comes to domestic terrorist. Where as Russia how no problem making domestic terrorist "disappear" as was mentioned in the diary.
 
I certainly don't disagree with brutal russian tactics against the terrorists themselves, but during the Chetchnyan wars, tens of thousands of innocent people were also tortured and disposed of...

If you weren't with them, you were against them, and they'd make you pay for it with every ounce of your being. That's the shitty part.

Besides, a lot of fucked up people join the forces to fuel their own personal lust for gore and destruction.
 
I certainly don't disagree with brutal russian tactics against the terrorists themselves, but during the Chetchnyan wars, tens of thousands of innocent people were also tortured and disposed of..
Besides, a lot of fucked up people join the forces to fuel their own personal lust for gore and destruction.

Psychopaths makes the best special forces soldiers. You cant get PTSD from doing something you love.

My question is not about civilian casualties. Killing innocent civilians is something no nation should ever do. But what about the grey zone which is how they located and delt with terrorist? The use of torture in order to extract information, the extra-judicial killings. Do terrorist deserve a fair trail or should we imitate the Russians by torturing suspected terrorist then making them disappear?
 
I kinda wish there were dates of the things he wrote.
I really want to know what happened to the corrupted commander
 
Maybe a time frame, its hard to read when its jumping around like that
But i liked it, its a good read
 
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Maybe a time frame, its hard to read when its jumping around like that
But i liked it, its a good read

whole things takes place during the 2nd Chechnyan war, 1999- 2009. Thats as good as your going to get. But based of what I read, a lot of the operations took place during the "cease fire" Hence why they needed to make the bodies disappear.
 
whole things takes place during the 2nd Chechnyan war, 1999- 2009. Thats as good as your going to get. But based of what I read, a lot of the operations took place during the "cease fire" Hence why they needed to make the bodies disappear.

i was talking more like between deployments when he was talking about his second child being born
 
i was talking more like between deployments when he was talking about his second child being born

Oh yea, we will never know these things. Hopefully i can find the full Diary and post it here. The link posted only has about 4-5 pages of the 120 pages and I have a feeling its not linear, like its pages taken from various parts.
 
Oh yea, we will never know these things. Hopefully i can find the full Diary and post it here. The link posted only has about 4-5 pages of the 120 pages and I have a feeling its not linear, like its pages taken from various parts.

Ya there is a lot of in-between stuff you'd think would have gotten mentioned
 
Back than it was more about a full on war.

east of the black sea you have the defence of Georgia from the Islamist.
The attack of Russian into the land of Chechnya.

in the west of the black sea you have the war between Serbia help from Russia and Bulgaria help by Iran.
It was more a traditional war. country vs country.

Now today the enemy are in the street of Paris London and Montreal.
Culture vs Culture.

It is all I know.

Thank you OP for this thread it is interesting.
 
This reads like a nice pro-war piece.

Not everyone finds war terrible and evil. Some people enjoy it and the violence that comes from it. Im assuming the Author was one of these people. Not everyone can be Spetnaz.. and even less can do the things he did.

Now today the enemy are in the street of Paris London and Montreal.
Culture vs Culture.

Chechnya is a province of Russian. Technically they were fighting terrorist also. The point is the Russians did not care about international law and civil rights. They used torture on Russian citizens and executed terrorist without an official trial.

Should the US adopt a similar stance on fighting domestic terrorist such as ISIS sympathizers and operatives within its borders?
 
again how I can be on side with Serbian Fighting Bulgaria against Islamist.
Chechnya defending against Soviet is the same.

From the eyes of a Soviet Chechen are Terrorist but at the root the war start because of the soviet expansion.

If I said this culture have the right to be
Serbia

this culture have the right to be
Chechnya.

That my 2 cent about those Wars.


For the thread subject. Yes spetnaz are a beautiful example of well trained Terrorist Stumping.
today we need more than ever those special force.
 
Not everyone finds war terrible and evil. Some people enjoy it and the violence that comes from it. Im assuming the Author was one of these people. Not everyone can be Spetnaz.. and even less can do the things he did.



Chechnya is a province of Russian. Technically they were fighting terrorist also. The point is the Russians did not care about international law and civil rights. They used torture on Russian citizens and executed terrorist without an official trial.

Should the US adopt a similar stance on fighting domestic terrorist such as ISIS sympathizers and operatives within its borders?

The americans are already being terrorists in all these other countries and countless army bases scattered around the world.
I think america has already been doing this already
 
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Not everyone finds war terrible and evil. Some people enjoy it and the violence that comes from it. Im assuming the Author was one of these people. Not everyone can be Spetnaz.. and even less can do the things he did.

I deleted my post since I had not read through the whole thing when I posted...
 
The americans are already being terrorists in all these other and countless army bases scattered around the world.
I think america has already been doing this already


lol, I dont think the US blows up bodies in order to hide the evidence. The US does not use cluster ammunition, white phosphorus and blatantly disregard international law to nearly the same extent as the Russians. Theres a diffidence between having military based is dozens of countries with support of the local government and murdering thousands of civilians in illegal occupations.

Russia has a history of purposely targeting civilian targets.
I deleted my post since I had not read through the whole thing when I posted...

Yea I posted that seconds after you made your post lol. No worries.
 
Not everyone finds war terrible and evil. Some people enjoy it and the violence that comes from it. Im assuming the Author was one of these people. Not everyone can be Spetnaz.. and even less can do the things he did.



Chechnya is a province of Russian. Technically they were fighting terrorist also. The point is the Russians did not care about international law and civil rights. They used torture on Russian citizens and executed terrorist without an official trial.

Should the US adopt a similar stance on fighting domestic terrorist such as ISIS sympathizers and operatives within its borders?

Province of the map. but Chechen are no Russian.

remember I talk about Georgia. Georgia was a allies of the russian empire vs the persian and ottoman empire. ( the Islamist.)
when the Russian empire succeed to secure the North Caucasus territory. The Chechen start to get piss and attack the russian presence.

It the end of the 18e century and the bigining of the 19e.

Chechen do did some outbreak. but the real good one was during the second world war. they see the Nazi as an opportunity to revolt against the Soviet regime.
but unfortunately the soviet win and the Chechen get deported in masse.

aafterthe 50s. chechen get back into their land and the shit continue to hit the fan specially in 1990.
It is a culture issue. Chechen are no russian. They will never be.

now yes The Chechen are terrorist. because they simply bomb Russian civilian in random.
but back than it was a real war between Soldiers (some time collateral damage happen).
 
I can see similarities between Chechnya and Quebec. But is it really that bad to accept defeat and conform? Quebec has a unique culture, and many Quebecois do not consider themselves Canadian.

Yet they do not rebel, do not conduct terrorist attacks. (except for that one time)

But at the end of the day, Quebecers ARE Canadian. Just as how Chechnyans are Russian. They might not identify as Russian, but their passports disagree.
 
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