Autobiographical Notes Davlatali Fayzamievich Bobiev

Davlatali Fayzamievich Bobiev

[served in Afghanistan from 1981 to 1983, joined CPSU in 1983.]

“I was a senior gunner in an armored personnel carrier… we were carrying out an operation in the northern part of the republic of Afghanistan, in Balkh, Kunduz, and Mazar-i Sharif, among other places. We were guarding the Khayraton-Kabul highway, which was used by vehicle columns from the USSR bringing food, construction materials, new technology, and medicines. The other task was guarding the pipeline along the road which was used to transport kerosene and diesel fuel. The dushmany [rebels] carried out diversionary attacks day and night along the roads and the pipeline. Among other things they mined the roads, punctured the pipeline, attacked the vehicles carrying food, as well as columns of Afghan vehicles. They burned down villages, mosques, blew up schools, savagely killed children, old men, and activists, including teachers. But our boys courageously defended the April revolution and defended the young nation and our motherland. These young boys aged 18-19 exemplified true courage and heroism and many gave their lives in this battle and gave their lives to carry out their international duty.

In 1983 we took part in one of the large operations in Balkh province, in the village of Vazhmak [sic; perhaps Vakhshak].

Eighteen of our Soviet specialists had been taken prisoner by the dushmany. Our company was given the task of freeing them. Our company of 40 people spent 1.5 months looking for these specialists in mountain villages. And only on February 1, 1983 was intelligence able to determine that they were located in the village of V… We were brought by helicopter into this mountain village at 11 am, and we hadn’t even had time to land before the shooting started. There was a difficult and long battle. Our comrades courageously fought for 6 hours and pushed back the enemy, as a result of which we were able to liberate our specialists.

The dushmany behaved savagely towards our specialists. They killed 4 and wounded 5 of them. In this operation we were commanded by our countryman Мajor Zafar Ikramov, currеntly the head of the Department of Internal Affairs and a Lieutenant Colonel."