home crafts Volodya Yakut, truth or fiction? Sniper Volodya Yakut: did the hero of the First Chechen War really exist & nbsp Who killed Volodya Yakut.

Volodya Yakut, truth or fiction? Sniper Volodya Yakut: did the hero of the First Chechen War really exist & nbsp Who killed Volodya Yakut.

Russia is a country of vast expanses. This is especially true of the boundless northern tundra. Deer camps are scattered for many kilometers from each other. There lived young Volodya, a musher, eighteen years old ....

Once in the regional center, the guy suddenly saw a terrifying picture on TV. Dead soldiers on the streets of Grozny. They were just lying around, dead, shot through with automatic bursts. They talked about snipers on TV.

Volodya is a thorough guy. Returning to the camp, he took all the accumulated money, grabbed his grandfather's rifle, and left for the war.

How did you drive around the country with a rifle? And he didn't want to remember it. I got to Grozny and found General Rokhlin, who was talked about on TV. Volodya considered him alone a worthy general.

With a passport in hand and a handwritten certificate from the military registration and enlistment office, he entered Rokhlin's headquarters. The military commissar wrote that the hunter-fisherman Vladimir Kolotov was going to war in Chechnya. The certificate was printed. By the way, more than once saved him from the police. With a rifle in Russia, they don’t walk the streets of cities.

Rokhlin was very surprised when they reported that the volunteer had come to Chechnya to fight. Invited him over.

Are you Rohla? the Yakut asked politely.

The tired general spread his hands. What's there to argue? In front of him stood a short young guy, in a quilted jacket worn to holes. A backpack on his back and a pre-revolutionary Mosin rifle of the 1891 model.

- I watched on TV how our militants brought down. I'm ashamed, Rokhlya. I will bring them down. I don't need money, I have my own. I will need ammo, food and water. I'll find a place and pick it up myself. I'll be back in a week. I'm used to hunting at night. I sleep during the day.

Attempts to give him a new SVDeshku ended in failure. The hunter took nothing. He asked only for cartridges for his rifle.

This is how the legend began

After sleeping on the bench, he left. Intelligence brought him parcels with food, water and ammunition. They disappeared, but no one saw Volodya. Suddenly, signalmen heard on the air that the militants were panicking.

The Russians have a "black sniper". Moves around the Minutka square boldly at night, and brings down the militants right in the eye. Why in the eye? And the devil knows. But Volodya was immediately remembered. Someone said that this is how the Yakuts shoot squirrels so as not to spoil the skin.

Rokhlin asked: Where is he? - No one answered. But the scouts said that he regularly takes cartridges from the cache. The hunter-hunter frightened Basayev's militants to death. With a shot in the eye, he laid down up to thirty fighters a day.

A detachment of volunteers from the militants went out in search of Volodya-Yakut. Basayev has already lost two-thirds of his personnel. He promised a rich reward for the corpse of the "black sniper". The search was unsuccessful.

And the results of Volodya's night work were buried by militants in the morning. Basayev called in the Arab sniper Abubakar. Volodya met with the Arab two weeks later. The Arab knew his business.

The bullet pierced the padded jacket, slightly touching the hunter's hand. Volodya stopped hunting for militants. Let them think they killed me. But he began to look for a sniper himself. A few days later he discovered an Arab. Togo was given the habit of smoking marijuana.

Volodya was a hunter. He knew how to wait. And waited for the enemy to get up in the toilet. It's hard to lie down all the time. The sniper gave himself away, although he tried very hard. But he did not know that the “black sniper” grew up in the tundra, where everything is visible for many kilometers.

And the hunters are accustomed not to move for days. Volodya changed his location so as not to give himself away. For two more days I looked out for the Arab, but he lay quietly. The “black sniper” had already decided that the Arab had left the position, but suddenly he saw that he had “opened up”.

Three seconds later, the Arab was shot in the right eye. Apparently the Arab was highly respected among the bandits. Three militants tried to carry him away. They lay down on the corpse of an Arab with a shot in the eye. Four more crawled out. And they are killed by the hunter.

On that successful morning for himself, he destroyed sixteen militants. A mountain of corpses lay near the Arab mercenary. Basayev wanted to drag the venerable Mujahideen out and bury him before sunset, as required by Muslim custom.

For several days nothing was heard of Volodya. But he returned. He was already expected. Stories about the duel of snipers spread throughout the troops. He warmed his hands by the stove, and Rokhlin asked about the house, about life, and in general ...

- I, Rokhlya, will go home. I've done the work. And spring has come to the tundra. I was released for two months. Little ones work there for me. And the illustrious general nodded his head in agreement.

- How many militants did you kill, Volodya?

Volodya-Yakut received the Order of Courage six months later. Everyone celebrated, and the military commissar too. Volodya went to the city and bought himself new boots. The old ones have lost weight. Looks like in Chechnya he stepped on abandoned pieces of iron.

P.S.

Is it a legend? Volodya-Yakut miraculously repeated the story of the great sniper Zaitsev, who in Stalingrad “put down” the head of the Berlin school of snipers.

But then the memoirs of fighters who were personally acquainted with Yakut turned out to be in the media. This guy really was. Perhaps there was a duel with an Arab. The militants had enough serious mercenaries.

And Volodya-Yakut was. He worked at night, alone. And he hit the enemy right in the eye, so as not to spoil the skin. And the rifle was Mosin. Pre-revolutionary still, three-line.

His name is Vladimir Maksimovich Kolotov. Evenk. The first Chechen campaign ended in defeat. He was treated and he went home. Volodya-Yakut had no official status. Nobody cared about his papers.

And the combat score ... The sniper himself did not keep records. How many unknown Heroes in Russia! He died in the courtyard of his house. Someone "leaked" information about him. The 9 mm bullet hit the heart. The murder has not been solved.

Many significant events in the life of the state are often covered in legends. There are mythical characters in the First Chechen War. Among them is the sniper Volodya Yakut, who did not know a miss.

There is a version that he was a real Russian shooter Vladimir Maksimovich Kolotov. By nationality, he was allegedly Evenk or Yakut, and representatives of these nationalities are excellent hunters and shooters. Because of his origin, the sniper received the call sign "Yakut".

Legend details

According to the legend spread among the personnel of the Russian army, Volodya Yakut was very young, only 18 years old. They say that he went to fight in Chechnya as a volunteer, and before that he allegedly asked for this "permission" from General Lev Rokhlin. In the military unit, Volodya Yakut chose the Mosin carbine as a personal weapon, choosing for him an optical sight dating back to the Second World War - from the German Mauser 98k.

In general, Vladimir was remarkable for his amazing unpretentiousness and selflessness. He literally plunged into the thick of things. The only request with which Volodya Yakut turned to the soldiers of his unit was to leave him food, water and ammunition in the agreed place. The sniper was famous for some fantastic elusiveness. The Russian military learned about the place of his deployment only from radio intercepts.

The first such place was the square in the city of Grozny called "Minutka". There, the sniper shot at the separatists with amazing efficiency - up to 30 people a day. At the same time, he left something like a “brand name” on the dead. Volodya Yakut hit the victim right in the eye, leaving her no chance of survival. Aslan Maskhadov promised a considerable reward for the murder of Kolotov, and Shamil Basayev - the Order of the CRI.

There are also references to the fact that the elusive Volodya Yakut was shot down by Basayev's mercenary Abubakar. The latter managed to wound a Russian sniper in the arm. Yakut stopped shooting at the Chechens, misleading them about his death. A week later, Kolotov took revenge on the Basayev mercenary for his wound. Togo was found dead in Grozny near the Presidential Palace. The Russian sniper did not calm down after destroying Abubakar. He continued to systematically shoot the Chechens, preventing them from burying the mercenary according to the Muslim tradition until sunset.

After this operation, Yakut reported to the command that he had killed 362 Chechen separatists, and then returned to the location of his unit. Six months later, the sniper left for his homeland. Was awarded an order. According to the main version of the legend, after the assassination of General Rokhlin, Volodya went into a binge and lost his mind. Alternative versions contain the story of a meeting between a sniper and President Medvedev, as well as details of the murder of Yakut by an unknown Chechen fighter.

Real facts

There is no documentary evidence that could confirm the existence of a real person with the name and surname Vladimir Kolotov. There is also no evidence that the person in question was ever awarded an order for courage. On the Internet, you can find photographs of the meeting between Volodya Yakut and Medvedev, but in fact it captures the Siberian Vladimir Maksimov.

In view of all these facts, we have to admit that the story of Volodya Yakut is a completely fictional legend. At the same time, it cannot be denied that in the Russian army there were - and are - both snipers and the same courageous people. Volodya Yakut embodies the collective image of all these fighters. Vasily Zaitsev, Fedor Okhlopkov and many other brave soldiers who fought in Chechnya are considered its prototypes.

Some details of the legend also raise doubts: why on earth an 18-year-old boy abandoned modern weapons in favor of an old rifle; how he was able to get to a meeting with General Rokhlin, etc. All these points point to the fact of the mythologization of the image of the Russian sniper. As an epic hero, supernatural abilities, unparalleled modesty and some kind of fantastic luck are attributed to him. Such heroes inspired Russian soldiers and instilled fear in the enemy.

Later, the legendary sniper became the hero of a number of works of art. One of them is the story "I am a Russian warrior", published in the collection of Alexei Voronin in 1995. The legend is also spreading on the Internet in the form of all kinds of army fables told by "eyewitnesses".

"Black sniper" of the Chechen war Volodya-Yakut

18-year-old Yakut Volodya from a distant deer camp was a hunter-salter. It had to happen that he came to Yakutsk for salt and cartridges, accidentally saw in the dining room on TV piles of corpses of Russian soldiers on the streets of Grozny, smoking tanks and some words about “Dudaev’s snipers”.

This hit Volodya in the head, so much so that the hunter returned to the camp, took his earned money, and sold the washed gold. He took his grandfather's rifle and all the cartridges, stuffed the icon of Saint Nicholas into his bosom and went to fight.

It’s better not to remember how he was driving, how he was in the bullpen, how many times they took away a rifle. But, nevertheless, a month later the Yakut Volodya arrived in Grozny.
Volodya heard only about one general who was regularly fighting in Chechnya, and he began to look for him in the February thaw. Finally, the Yakut was lucky, and he got to the headquarters of General Rokhlin.

The only document besides his passport was a handwritten certificate from the military commissar stating that Vladimir Kolotov, a hunter-trader by profession, was going to war, signed by the military commissar. The paper, which got worn out on the way, had already saved his life more than once.

Rokhlin, surprised that someone came to the war of his own free will, ordered the Yakut to let him in.

– Excuse me, please, are you that General Rokhlya? Volodya asked respectfully.

“Yes, I am Rokhlin,” the tired general replied, peering inquisitively at a small man dressed in a worn padded jacket, with a backpack and a rifle on his back.

“I was told that you came to the war on your own. For what purpose, Kolotov?

- I saw on TV how our Chechens were from sniper teams. I can't stand it, Comrade General. It's embarrassing, though. So I came to bring them down. You don't need money, you don't need anything. I, Comrade General Rokhlya, will myself go hunting at night. Let them show me the place where they will put the cartridges and food, and I will do the rest myself. If I get tired, I’ll come back in a week, sleep in a warm day and go again. You don't need a walkie-talkie and all that ... it's hard.

Surprised, Rokhlin nodded his head.

- Take, Volodya, at least a new SVDashka. Give him a rifle!

- No need, Comrade General, I'm going out into the field with my scythe. Just give me some ammo, I only have 30 left now...

So Volodya began his war, a sniper one.

https://youtu.be/G_XcoPdu4WY?t=6

Watch the video

He slept for a day in headquarters kungs, despite the mine attacks and the terrible firing of artillery. I took cartridges, food, water and went on the first “hunt”. They forgot about him at headquarters. Only reconnaissance regularly brought cartridges, food and, most importantly, water to the agreed place every three days. Each time I was convinced that the parcel had disappeared.

The first to remember Volodya at a meeting of the headquarters was the radio operator-“interceptor”.

- Lev Yakovlevich, the “Czechs” are in a panic on the radio. They say that the Russians, that is, we, have a certain black sniper who works at night, boldly walks through their territory and shamelessly brings down their personnel. Maskhadov even appointed 30 thousand dollars for his head. His handwriting is like this - this fellow of the Chechens hits exactly in the eye. Why only in the eye - the dog knows him ...

And then the staff remembered the Yakut Volodya.

“He regularly takes food and ammunition from the cache,” the head of intelligence reported.
- And so we didn’t exchange a word with him, we didn’t even see him even once. Well, how did he leave you then to the other side ...

One way or another, they noted in the summary that our snipers also give their snipers a light. Because Volodin's work gave such results - from 16 to 30 people laid the fisherman with a shot in the eye.

The Chechens figured out that the federals had a hunter-hunter on Minutka Square. And since the main events of those terrible days took place on this square, a whole detachment of Chechen volunteers came out to catch the sniper.

Then, in February 1995, at Minutka, thanks to the cunning plan of Rokhlin, our troops had already ground almost three-quarters of the personnel of the so-called “Abkhazian” battalion of Shamil Basayev. The carbine of the Yakut Volodya also played a significant role here. Basayev promised a gold Chechen star to anyone who would bring the corpse of a Russian sniper.

But the nights passed in an unsuccessful search. Five volunteers walked along the front line in search of Volodya's "beds", set up banners wherever he could appear in direct line of sight of his positions. However, it was a time when groups, on both sides, broke through the enemy’s defenses and deeply wedged into its territory. Sometimes so deep that there was no longer any chance to break out to their own. But Volodya slept during the day under the roofs and in the cellars of houses. The bodies of the Chechens - the night "work" of the sniper - were buried the next day.

Then, tired of losing 20 men a night, Basayev summoned a master of his craft, a teacher from a camp for training young shooters, an Arab sniper Abubakar, from the reserves in the mountains. Volodya and Abubakar could not but meet in a night battle, such are the laws of sniper warfare.

And they met two weeks later. More precisely, Abubakar hooked Volodya with a drill rifle. A powerful bullet that once in Afghanistan killed Soviet paratroopers right through at a distance of one and a half kilometers, pierced the padded jacket and slightly hooked the arm, just below the shoulder. Volodya, feeling the rush of a hot wave of oozing blood, realized that the hunt for him had finally begun.

The buildings on the opposite side of the square, or rather their ruins, merged into a single line in Volodya's optics. “What flashed, optics?” thought the hunter, and he knew cases when a sable saw a sight sparkling in the sun and went home. The place he chose was located under the roof of a five-story residential building. Snipers always like to be at the top to see everything. And he lay under the roof - under a sheet of old tin, a wet snowy rain did not wet, which then went on, then stopped.

Abubakar tracked down Volodya only on the fifth night - tracked down his pants. The fact is that the Yakut pants were ordinary, wadded. This is American camouflage, which was often worn by Chechens, impregnated with a special composition, in which the uniform was indistinctly visible in night vision devices, and the domestic uniform shone with a bright light green light. So Abubakar “figured out” the Yakut in the powerful night optics of his “Bur”, made to order by English gunsmiths back in the 70s.

One bullet was enough, Volodya rolled out from under the roof and painfully fell back onto the steps of the stairs. “The main thing is that he didn’t break the rifle,” the sniper thought.

- Well, that means a duel, yes, Mr. Chechen sniper! - Said to himself mentally without emotion Yakut.

Volodya deliberately stopped shredding the “Chechen order”. The neat row of 200s with his sniper "autograph" on his eye stopped. “Let them believe that I have been killed,” Volodya decided.

He himself only did what he looked out for, where did the enemy sniper get to him from.

Two days later, already in the afternoon, he found Abubakar's "couch". He also lay under the roof, under the half-bent roofing sheet on the other side of the square. Volodya would not have noticed him if the Arab sniper had not given out a bad habit - he smoked marijuana. Once every two hours, Volodya caught in the optics a light bluish haze that rose above the roofing sheet and was immediately blown away by the wind.

“So I found you, abrek! You can't live without drugs! Well ... ”, the Yakut hunter thought triumphantly, he did not know that he was dealing with an Arab sniper who had passed both Abkhazia and Karabakh. But Volodya did not want to kill him just like that, shooting through the roofing sheet. Snipers did not do this, and fur hunters did not.

“Well, you smoke lying down, but you will have to get up to go to the toilet,” Volodya decided coolly and began to wait.

Only three days later, he figured out that Abubakar crawled out from under the sheet to the right side, and not to the left, quickly did the job and returned to the “couch”. In order to “get” the enemy, Volodya had to change his position at night. He could not do anything again, because any new roofing sheet would immediately give away his new location. But Volodya found two fallen logs from the rafters with a piece of tin a little to the right, about fifty meters from his point. The place was excellent for shooting, but very uncomfortable for a “couch”.

For two more days, Volodya looked out for the sniper, but he did not show up. Volodya had already decided that the enemy had left for good, when the next morning he suddenly saw that he had “opened up”. Three seconds to aim with a slight exhalation, and the bullet went to the target. Abubakar was struck on the spot in the right eye. For some reason, against the impact of a bullet, he fell flat from the roof into the street. A large, greasy stain of blood spread through the mud on the square of the Dudayev Palace, where an Arab sniper was struck down by a single hunter's bullet.

“Well, I got you,” Volodya thought without any enthusiasm or joy. He realized that he must continue his fight, showing a characteristic handwriting. To prove thereby that he is alive, and that the enemy did not kill him a few days ago.

Volodya peered into the optics at the motionless body of the slain enemy. Nearby, he also saw the “Bur”, which, he did not recognize, since he had not seen such rifles before. In a word, a hunter from the remote taiga!

And here he was surprised: the Chechens began to crawl out into the open to pick up the sniper's body. Volodya took aim. Three men came out and bent over the body.

“Let them pick it up and carry it, then I’ll start shooting!” - Volodya triumphed.

The Chechens really raised the body together. Three shots were fired. Three bodies fell on the dead Abubakar.

Four more Chechen volunteers jumped out of the ruins and, throwing away the bodies of their comrades, tried to pull the sniper out. From the outside, a Russian machine gun fired, but the queues lay a little higher, without harming the hunched over Chechens.

Four more shots rang out, almost merging into one. Four more corpses had already formed a heap.

Volodya killed 16 militants that morning. He did not know that Basayev had given the order to get the Arab's body at all costs before it began to get dark. He had to be sent to the mountains to be buried there before sunrise, as an important and respectable Mujahideen.

A day later, Volodya returned to Rokhlin's headquarters. The general immediately received him as an honored guest. The news of the duel of two snipers has already spread around the army.

- Well, how are you, Volodya, tired? Do you want to go home?

Volodya warmed his hands at the "potbelly stove".

- That's it, Comrade General, you've done your job, it's time to go home. Spring work begins at the camp. The military commissar let me go only for two months. My two younger brothers worked for me all this time. It's time and honor to know...

Rokhlin nodded his head in understanding.

- Take a good rifle, my chief of staff will draw up the documents ...

- Why, I have a grandfather's. - Volodya lovingly hugged the old carbine.

The general did not dare to ask the question for a long time. But curiosity took over.

How many enemies did you kill, did you count? They say more than a hundred… the Chechens were talking.

Volodya lowered his eyes.

- 362 militants, comrade general.

- Well, go home, we can handle it ourselves now ...

- Comrade General, if anything, call me again, I'll deal with the work and come a second time!

On the face of Volodya, frank concern for the entire Russian Army was read.

- By God, I'll come!

The Order of Courage found Volodya Kolotov six months later. On this occasion, the whole collective farm celebrated, and the military commissar allowed the sniper to go to Yakutsk to buy new boots - the old ones had worn out in Chechnya. A hunter stepped on some pieces of iron.

On the day when the whole country learned about the death of General Lev Rokhlin, Volodya also heard about what had happened on the radio. He drank alcohol for three days at the zaimka. He was found drunk in a makeshift hut by other hunters who returned from fishing. Volodya kept repeating drunk:

- Nothing, Comrade General Rokhlya, if necessary, we will come, just tell me ...

After the departure of Vladimir Kolotov to his homeland, scum in officer uniforms sold his data to Chechen terrorists, who he is, where he came from, where he went, etc. The Yakut Sniper inflicted too many losses on the evil spirits.

Vladimir was killed by a 9mm round. pistol in his yard, while chopping wood. The criminal case was never opened.

*** * ***

For the first time, I heard the legend of Volodya the sniper, or as he was also called, Yakut (and the nickname is so textured that it even migrated to the famous television series about those days) I heard in 1995. They told it in different ways, along with the legends of the Eternal Tank, the girl-Death and other army folklore. Moreover, the most surprising thing is that in the story about Volodya the sniper, in an amazing way, there was an almost letter-like similarity with the story of the great Zaitsev, who put Hans, a major, head of the Berlin school of snipers in Stalingrad. To be honest, I then perceived it as ... well, let's say, as folklore - on a halt - and I believed it, and I did not believe it. Then there was a lot of things, as, indeed, in any war, which you won’t believe, but turns out to be TRUE. Life is generally more complex and unexpected than any fiction.

Later, in the year 2003-2004, one of my friends and comrades-in-arms told me that he personally knew this guy, and that he really WAS. Whether there was that same duel with Abubakar, and whether the Czechs really had such a super sniper, to be honest, I don’t know, they had enough serious snipers, and especially in the Air Campania. And the weapons were serious, including the South African SWR, and cereals (including the B-94 prototypes, which were just going into the pre-series, the spirits already had them, and with the numbers of the first hundreds - Pakhomych would not let you lie.
How they got them is a separate story, but nevertheless, the Czechs had such trunks. Yes, and they themselves made semi-handicraft SWR near Grozny.)

Volodya-Yakut really worked alone, worked exactly as described - in the eye. And his rifle was exactly the one that was described - the old Mosin three-ruler of pre-revolutionary production, still with a faceted breech and a long barrel - an infantry model of 1891.

The real name of Volodya-Yakut - Vladimir Maksimovich Kolotov, originally from the village of Iengra in Yakutia. However, he himself is not a Yakut, but an Evenk.

At the end of the First Campaign, he was patched up in the hospital, and since he was officially a nobody and there was no way to call him, he simply went home.

By the way, his combat score is most likely not exaggerated, but underestimated ... Moreover, no one kept accurate records, and the sniper himself did not particularly brag about them.

Dmitry Travin

2019-01-16T19:35:29+05:00 AutopublisherDefense of the Fatherlandwar, armed forces, Chechnya"Black sniper" of the Chechen war Volodya-Yakut 18-year-old Yakut Volodya from a distant deer camp, was a hunter-salter. It had to happen that he came to Yakutsk for salt and cartridges, accidentally saw in the dining room on TV piles of corpses of Russian soldiers on the streets of Grozny, smoking tanks and some words about "Dudaev's snipers." Volodya crashed into ...Auto Publisher Auto Publisher [email protected] Administrator In the middle of Russia

Volodya-Yakut is a fictional Russian military hero who was a sniper during the First Chechen War. He is an Evenk by nationality. The guy was only eighteen years old when he enrolled in the volunteers of the Russian army. The real possible name of the legendary character is Kolotov Vladimir Maksimovich. He is remembered as a great sniper, showing high results.

About whether this is a myth, a legend or a real real story, no one can say with certainty. Many say that such a hero really was, but after the war he went into seclusion (according to one of the versions). Others provide evidence that this story is nothing more than a fictional legend to raise the morale of the Russian military. If you think rationally, and also study the whole story connected with the sniper Vladimir Kolotov and the events taking place at that time in Chechnya, then many facts point to the far-fetched history. The legend says that Yakut was a professional hunter (hunter).

Sniper Kolotov Vladimir Maksimovich: biography

Volodya Kolotov lived near the city of Yakutsk, in the village of Iengra. From childhood, the boy joined the hunting business, he knew how to shoot very accurately, as his father taught him. In the Kolotov family, everyone was a hunter, mainly hunting deer and sable. This is the only occupation of the inhabitants of the tundra, in addition to the extraction of gold and other precious metals.

Once Volodya arrived in Yakutsk to buy the necessary food products. Entering the local canteen, Vladimir Kolotov saw on TV a report about how Russian soldiers were fighting in Grozny. Tons of spilled blood and piles of dead soldiers were shown from the scene of military events on television. It was this picture that struck the heart of a young hunter, who later decided that he should help the domestic troops and volunteer for war.

Returning home, Vladimir Kolotov gathered all the necessary things, took with him the old grandfather's Mosin carbine, part of the accumulated savings and several nuggets of unwashed gold. The last thing that the desperate volunteer put into his bag was the icon of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker. Kolotov decided to go to his compatriots in the city of Grozny in order to suppress the dominant military force of the enemy.

You can write a whole story about how Yakut got to Grozny: the guy was repeatedly detained by law enforcement officers and tormented with his questions, he was in temporary detention centers, his hunting rifle was often taken away from him, because there were no documents authorizing it to be carried . Nevertheless, the guy knew that he had no right to step back from his ultimate goal and endured all the difficulties that stood in his way. As a result, he arrived in Grozny and went to the local military registration and enlistment office.

Meeting with General Rokhlin

Vladimir Kolotov heard stories about the honest and brave General Lev Yakovlevich Rokhlin, who at that time led the 8th Guards Army Corps in Chechnya. It was to him that he wanted to get in order to tell his life story and sign up to volunteer for the war.

Arriving at the military enlistment office, Volodya presented a passport and a document from the military commissar, where it was written that the guy was sent to Grozny as a volunteer. It was this paper that repeatedly saved the life of Yakut when he reached his destination. When Kolotov announced that he wanted to see Lieutenant General Rokhlin himself, many did not take his words seriously and in every possible way ignored the request of the young soldier. However, his perseverance and perseverance could not be broken. In addition, Lev Yakovlevich Rokhlin himself soon found out about the arrival of the volunteer Vladimir Kolotov and expressed a desire to see him personally, giving appropriate instructions to the executive officers.

As a result, Kolotov was informed that the general was waiting for him at his temporary headquarters. Squinting from the flashing light generators in his eyes, Volodya went along the corridor to the specified door. Entering the office, Yakut looked around a little and asked in broken Russian if this man was really the same Lieutenant General Rokhlya. To which the exhausted general nodded his head. He inquisitively peered at a short Evenk in a frayed padded jacket with a duffel bag on his shoulder, behind whose back hung an old rifle with an optical sight from the time of the Great Patriotic War.

Lev Yakovlevich Rokhlin immediately guessed that this was exactly the guy about whom he was reported to the authorities. After thinking a little about where to start the conversation, the general offered the fighter hot tea, which he could not refuse, because for the third day he had not drunk hot tea and had not eaten normal food. Volodya took out a metal mug from his bag and handed it to the general. Rokhlin poured him delicious fragrant tea to the brim and began to ask questions. He wondered why the guy came here. Kolotov replied that he saw dead soldiers on TV, he could not stand that Chechens were killing people, he felt ashamed that he did not take part in the extermination of militants, so he wanted to go to the front. He does not need money, he will do everything himself: fight during the day, and go hunting in the forest in the evening. All he needs is ammo and drinking water. Volodya also refused a walkie-talkie and grenades, because, according to him, they are hard to carry. And when he gets tired, he will return to headquarters to sleep and gain strength, and then he will again go into battle.

Rokhlin shook his head, marveling at the bravery and boldness of a young soldier who is asking for war. The general suggested that he change his rifle, but Yakut refused the new weapon and again reminded him of the cartridges, because he had no more of his own. Volodya said that he shoots well from his rifle, and it will take a long time to get used to a new weapon. Rokhlin, meanwhile, read in a shabby expensive order from the military commissar of Yakutia that Vladimir Kolotov was a hunter-trader by profession. If a guy voluntarily wanted to go to war, then no one could stop him from doing so. Rokhlin gave appropriate instructions on the deployment of a new fighter.

The beginning of the military hunt

After a conversation with the general, Kolotov began his own war - a sniper war. The guy was given a bunk in the headquarters kung, and he instantly fell asleep, despite the noise of artillery fire and mine attacks. The next morning he packed his things, took food and drink for the first time, and also grabbed the promised cartridges for his old carbine and set off on his way to war, as if on another hunt. Time passed, and the staff officers completely forgot about the desperate boy who had recently asked to fight. Intelligence alone regularly supplied the necessary ammunition and food to the specified hiding place every third day. It is worth noting that all the parcels disappeared, thereby making it clear that Yakut was still in business.

Forgotten Black Sniper

The first person who remembered the sniper Volodya-Yakut was an interceptor radio operator, who was invited to report on the military situation at a meeting at the headquarters. He said that the Chechens were in complete turmoil on the radio. On all radio lines they transmit that the Russian troops have a master sniper who walks around enemy territory at night and lays down all the Chechen soldiers in piles. Rumor has it that Aslan Alievich Maskhadov (the military sovereign of the unrecognized Chechen Republic of Ichkeria) put a reward on the head of a Russian soldier in the amount of 30 thousand dollars. Russian sniper works clearly and smoothly. He kills the enemy accurately in the eye from any distance.

After this news, the headquarters command remembered the sniper Volodya with the call sign Yakut, who a few weeks ago asked for war, taking with him a couple of hundred rounds of ammunition.

As a result, the headquarters learned that Vladimir Yakut Kolotov was working within Minutka Square in Grozny. An 18-year-old sniper killed between 18 and 30 Chechens a day. Each time, Kolotov left his handwriting, because a fatal hit was always aimed at the enemy's eye. In addition, it became known that the Chechen terrorist Basaev Shamil Salmanovich ordered to assign the Order of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria ("Golden Chechen Star") to whoever kills a Russian black sniper (black, because he acted at night). Many volunteers appeared among the military of Chechnya, who went to hunt Yakut for the promised reward from Basayev and a cash bonus from Maskhadov, but their attempts ended only in a fatal defeat from well-aimed shots of a frail Evenk.

It should be noted that ordinary Russian snipers worked much more efficiently than Chechen ones. In the winter of 1995, on Minutka Square, thanks to the sophisticated military plan of General Rokhlin, federal troops killed more than 75 percent of Sh. S. Basayev's Abkhazian military battalion. An important role here, of course, was played by the forgotten sniper Volodya-Yakut, who had several detachments of Chechen troops on his account.

Duel between Kolotov and Abubakar

After a series of continuous fiascos, the activist of the terrorist group Shamil Salmanovich Basayev turned to the training camp of the Arab mercenary Osama Abubakar (participant in the Karabakh military conflict) for help to teach his fighters how to shoot from a sniper rifle in order to challenge the Russians. After several camp trainings, Abubakar went hunting with his wards. He was armed with a British Lee-Enfield sniper rifle.

Once, during a night skirmish, Abubakar spotted Yakut with a night vision device (they say that the Russian combat camouflage could be tracked through night vision devices, but the Chechen one could not, because they used some kind of secret substance to impregnate their uniforms). It so happened that Abubakar wounded Volodya in the hand, and he decided to deceive. Yakut stopped firing, and the Chechens thought that the black sniper had finally been defeated. Volodya set himself the goal of finding Abubakar and personally shooting him. After a week of quiet searching, the wounded Kolotov nevertheless reached his target and finished off the terrorist. Vladimir fired accurately into the enemy's eye near the presidential town hall in Grozny. Here he laid about 16 more Chechens, who quickly tried to hide the body of Abubakar and have time to bury him before sunset, as it should be according to the Koran.

Yakut's work was excellent. The next morning, the 18-year-old sniper returned to headquarters and informed General Rokhlin that it was time for him to return home, as originally agreed. Lev Yakovlevich, of course, let the fighter go home, but only for a couple of months. Yakut also reported to the commander-in-chief that he had laid down 362 enemy fighters. After that, the story of the sniper Yakut scattered throughout all divisions. The young boy became a real hero and an example for Russian soldiers. Upon returning to the tundra, in Yakutia, Kolotov was awarded the honorary Order of Courage.

Several versions of the end of the legend of the black sniper

There are several official versions about the end of the legend of the black sniper. One of them mentions the murder of Lieutenant General Rokhlin, in connection with which Volodya Kolotov went into an alcoholic binge for several weeks, from where he was hardly pulled out. After that, the talented sniper abandoned his Order of Courage.

The official version says that on the night of June 2-3, 1998, Lev Yakovlevich Rokhlin was found dead at his own dacha in the village of Klokovo, Naro-Fominsk district, Moscow region. The document states that instant death overtook the general after his wife Tamara Rokhlina shot her sleeping husband. The reason for such a sharp action was a family quarrel. The general was buried at the Troekurovsky cemetery in Moscow on July 7, 1998. In 2000 Tamara Rokhlina was found guilty of a crime by the court. In 2005, the case was reviewed, the woman was sentenced to 4 years probation with a probationary period of 2.5 years.

The second version says that Yakut was shot dead in his yard in 2000 by a former Chechen terrorist fighter who bought his personal information from unknown people.

The third version says that the guy returned to his homeland and continued to work as a sober hunter. There is also an opinion that Kolotov was honored with a meeting with the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev in 2009. No one can answer the question of whether the sniper Volodya-Yakut is currently alive, because there is no one hundred percent confirmation of whether this is a myth or a real story.

The popularity of the legend

A fictional narrative called "Volodya the Sniper" was published in the collection of short stories "I am a Russian Warrior!" author Alexei Voronin in the spring of 1995. In 2011, the story appeared in a magazine called Orthodox Cross. This legend was popular during the 1990s. The story was especially famous among Russian military personnel, in which it occupied the first step of the podium among the list of horror stories and other works of soldier's folklore. Since 2011, the legend of Volodya-Yakut has been popularized on the Internet. This story is still published by various online publications, it often pops up in major social networks, and some users enthusiastically believe in this sweet heroic legend.

Evidence for fiction

It is difficult to believe in the existence of such a sniper as Vladimir Kolotov, just as in the military mercenary Abubakar. There is no documentary evidence of the existence of these heroes. The legend says that the sniper Volodya-Yakut was honored to receive the Order of Courage, but there is no such surname in the official archives. Stories about a brave black sniper are often published on the Internet, backing up everything with supposedly real photographs. But in fact, the photo shows completely different people, just the appearance is chosen appropriate.

Answering the question whether Vladimir Kolotov was, some will begin to argue that this person was honored with a meeting with Russian President Medvedev in 2009, but this is not true either. The Russian guarantor presented honorary awards to Vladimir Maksimov, a resident of Yakutia (the Order of Parental Glory) and a Siberian military man under the name Batokha (Order of Courage), who served in the 21st Sofrino Special Purpose Brigade.

The urban legend has been refuted more than once by bloggers and journalists. In this story, it was not specifically indicated who Vladimir was: a fisherman, a hunter or a prospector. In addition to these, there are many more questions, for example:

How did Kolotov, with only an order from the Yakut military registration and enlistment office, get to the headquarters of General Rokhlin?
How did an eighteen-year-old guy achieve such shooting skills (362 dead enemies with an accurate hit in the eye)?
Why did a hunter from Yakutia refuse newer weapons? As a rule, any hunter, including the northern peoples of Russia, never neglects modern weapons.
The confrontation between Abubakar and Kolotov recalls the story of the duel of the Soviet sniper Vasily Zaitsev against Heinz Thorwald, who is known as Major Koenig.
How can an eighteen-year-old guy roam enemy territory with a Mosin carbine (an old and loud weapon) and go unnoticed, provided that he is also a sniper?
What is the secret composition with which the Chechens impregnated their military uniforms so as not to glow through night vision devices? This simply does not exist in real life.

Prototypes of the Yakut sniper

The story of the black sniper is indeed fictional, but the hero Kolotov himself is the personification of honor, courage and courage. That is, this legend about a glorious fighter serves as a collective image of a valiant and brave Russian soldier who took part in the Chechen military conflict. Such legends are born in every war. The most famous prototypes of Kolotov are such snipers of the Great Patriotic War as Fedor Okhlopkov, Ivan Kulbetritnov, Semyon Nomokonov and Vasily Zaitsev.

Film about sniper Volodya-Yakut in Chechnya

There are many experimental films about the legendary sniper from the First Chechen War on the Internet. All of them, as a rule, are documentaries, where various eyewitnesses talk about the hero. The legend is so ingrained in the hearts of people that no one thinks about whether it is a lie or the truth. The sniper Volodya-Yakut is the image of the Russian soldier that others want him to be. There is no feature film about Vladimir Kolotov, who fought in Chechnya, but there is a very similar film called "Sniper Yakut" (2016 release), the events of which unfold during the Great Patriotic War.

The main character, as you might guess, has the nickname Yakut and himself comes from Evenks. In 1945, a sniper caught sight of a German boy - a student of the Hitler Youth (a youth organization under 16). Yakut, realizing that the enemy was standing in front of him, did not kill the boy and let him go.

Throughout his life, the German boy grew up and remembered the gift of life from the Russian soldier. Already an old man, he decides to go to Yakutia to find a Russian merciful sniper and ask why he let him go alive.

At the height of the First Chechen War, during fierce battles for the city of Grozny, the commander of the 8th Guards Corps, General Lev Rokhlin, was informed that some strange guy was asking for his headquarters, and even with an old rifle. The Evenk Vladimir Maksimovich Kolotov from the distant Yakut Iengra turned out to be a strange guy. He was wearing a hunting sheepskin coat, and he was carrying a Mosin carbine of the 1891 model, a German sniper scope from the Second World War, a passport and a certificate from the military registration and enlistment office.

Vladimir said that he got to Grozny himself. Once he saw footage from Chechnya on TV: a destroyed city, dead Russian soldiers. Then he took the Mosin carbine, with which his father, and before that, his grandfather went to the taiga to hunt fur-bearing animals, and went to the 8th Corps to the “good general”. Evenk said that on the road he encountered considerable difficulties: they tried to detain him, return him home, but everywhere he was rescued by a certificate from the military commissar that Vladimir was going to war as a volunteer.

General Rokhlin was very surprised by Kolotov's story: in 1995 it was not easy to find a person who of his own free will would go to the hell of Grozny. The shooter received a position as a sniper and a regular Dragunov rifle, but the Evenk refused, saying that it would be more convenient for him with his own "mosquito".

Minutka Square

It is known that snipers in modern warfare do not act alone: usually a whole group “works”, assisted by spotters-observers. This format did not suit Kolotov, he went specifically to hunt for militants. Evenk asked only that the military scouts once a day in the agreed hiding place leave food, water and rifle cartridges for him, and he himself began to prepare ambushes "for the beast."

Russian radio operators had the opportunity to regularly listen to the radio communications of the militants. From them, the command learned what a terrible force the eighteen-year-old hunter from Yakutia had turned into: on Minutka Square he “filmed” fifteen, twenty, or even thirty militants every day. The sniper had a characteristic "handwriting" - all the victims were killed with an exact hit in the eye, as if the hunter wanted to keep the valuable animal fur intact. The successes of Volodya Yakut, as he was called in the federal troops, deprived the Chechen commanders of sleep, because the shooter hit his targets even at night.

They say that valuable rewards were put on Volodya's head: Aslan Maskhadov promised thirty thousand dollars to the murderer of an Evenk, and Shamil Basayev - the star of the Hero of Chechnya. A whole detachment of militants chased the shooter, who looked for the hunter's "rookeries" and set up banners. Despite the promised generous prizes, Volodya Yakut invariably won the game, leaving all the hunters behind his head with a neat bullet hole in his eye.

Duel

In order to destroy the lucky Russian, the Arab master Abubakar was summoned from the rebels' shooting camp. He became famous as a good sniper back in Afghanistan, where he got on the instructions of Pakistani intelligence. Now Abubakar had to hunt for Volodya Yakut in the ruins of Grozny with a powerful rifle, custom-made back in the 1970s. Soon the Arab managed to track down the Russian shooter. Volodya was wounded, but not mortally: a bullet hit his arm. Evenk decided to temporarily stop his hunt for militants so that the rebel commanders would believe that he had been killed.

While Volodya's "mosinka" was silent, he diligently tracked down Abubakar. The master of disguise and street fighting was let down by a small weakness: back in the 1980s, the Arab shooter became addicted to light smoking drugs, and now, even in cold Grozny, he could not deny himself this pleasure. It was by the light haze of a hand-rolled cigarette that Vladimir Kolotov determined where the "rookery" of Abubakr was located. When he had to leave his shelter for a while, Kolotov, with the same accuracy, laid the enemy with a hit in the eye.

To save the body of the mercenary, the rebel commanders sent several battle groups, but all sixteen militants were killed on the spot from the famous Kolotov carbine. Thus ended the duel, in its intensity and entourage reminiscent of the confrontation between Vasily Zaitsev and SS Standartenführer Heinz Thorwald in Stalingrad at the end of 1942.

Path of legend

The day after the duel with Abubakar, Volodya Yakut was with General Rokhlin. There he said that the two-month period for which he was released by the military commissar had expired, and now he needed to return home. The general, who had already heard about Volodya's victories, asked how many "animals" the hunter had destroyed. Evenk replied that in less than two months he managed to kill 362 militants.

This figure ends the main part of the legend about Volodya Yakut. The urban legend, as they are called, was supposed to appear at this difficult time, when it was difficult to figure out who was right and who was wrong. There is no evidence that the Evenk sniper Vladimir Maksimovich Kolotov actually existed: other people are depicted in the photographs, and the sniper does not appear in reports and reports either under his real name or under a "code" name. The legend is also continued on the fact that Volodya Kolotov, who returned to his homeland, continued to engage in fur trade and was very upset by the death of General Rokhlin, who was killed in July 1998, refused to wear the Order of Courage.

The story about Volodya Yakut usually ends in the early 2000s, when he was killed in his field by unknown people who allegedly bought information about his whereabouts from Russian special services. Others argue that Vladimir Kolotov did not become a victim of hired killers, but received a reception from President Dmitry Medvedev in 2009, presenting gifts from his people to the head of state. In support of this version, they even cite footage of the delegation from Yakutia, however, this can hardly be considered reliable evidence.

Much in the legend of Volodya Yakut may raise doubts: for example, how did a man armed with a combat rifle get from Yakutia to Grozny, and then take time off from the army and calmly return home? And the details of his confrontation with Abubakar are very much reminiscent of the struggle between Zaitsev and Torvald in Stalingrad.

Was Volodya Yakut really, or not, where he disappeared, it is difficult to say for sure. One thing is indisputable: in 1994-1995 there were people who were ready to courageously defend the peace of their country. The legend of Volodya Yakut tells about all of them.