While some of the young people are trying to use every opportunity not to serve, Burnaev Sergey Alexandrovich dreamed about the army. He sought to get into the Airborne Forces, but was drafted into the special forces, the elite group Vityaz. And never then did I regret it. He had a goal - to earn a maroon beret. The council of the detachment unanimously decided to hand it to twenty-year-old Sergey, who, on March 28, 2002, stepped into immortality by his feat.
Life path of the future hero
Two sons grew up in the family of Alexander and Valentina Burnaev. The younger Sergey, born on January 15, 1982 in Mordovia, went to school already in the village of Zaoksky (Tula region), where the family had by that time moved to permanent residence. He grew up as a boy with mobile, exemplary behavior, did not differ, but he respected the elders and stood for the weak. Cheerful, noisy, cocky, he seemed to be in a hurry to live, becoming a real leader in a boyish company. Possessing a heightened sense of justice, he stood up for his older brother, refused to retake the session at the technical school, where he entered after graduation. Just because the teacher was counting on monetary "gratitude."
Burnaev Sergey Alexandrovich, whose photo in his childhood can be seen in the article, never smoked and was not addicted to alcohol. Having worked for some time at the rubber shoe factory, he readily went to the army in 2000, having fallen into the Vityaz group, located in the town of Reutov (Moscow Region), in the ODON VV of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation. Parents who came to the oath found their son thin, but happy. Despite the enormous physical exertion and the severity of the service, the guy became the best shooter of the unit and was prematurely transferred to the reconnaissance group.
War Travel
Burnayev Sergey Aleksandrovich, whose biography was closely intertwined with the special unit “Vityaz”, visited Chechnya twice. From December 2000 to May 2001, as a conscript soldier, and from November 2001 as a contract soldier. After spending 250 days in the combat zone, Sergey became a sergeant and unit commander in eighteen operations. The most serious among them are in Shali, Mesker-Yurt, Bachi-Yurt, Germenchuk, Chechen-aul, as well as in the villages of Novye and Stariye Atagi. In these battles, he proved himself to be a skilled warrior who earned the recognition of comrades who gave him the nickname "Brown."
In December 2001, he wrote a letter to his mother, where he apologized that he was again at war. He knew how much she was worried for the first time, and therefore reported that there were no military operations in Chechnya, and the detachment was only monitoring compliance with the passport regime. Sergei dreamed of giving his family a gift - building a house, so he easily endured the hardships and deprivations of a military mission. In his native village, a bride named Maria was waiting for him, he loved life and made plans, the implementation of which was simply delayed until the completion of the contract.
Argun: special operation "Knights"
March 27 in the internal troops a professional holiday. On that day, Vityaz received an award, and on the 28th it had already set off on a combat mission. The FSB reported on an ammunition depot in the basements of school number 4 in Argun, where special forces sent 7 armored personnel carriers and 70 personnel. Nobody studied at school for a long time. Standing in a vacant lot, it was ideally suited for a meeting place for militants, from where they got out with weapons, fighting with the feds. And then again they turned into civilians, hiding for a while.
As part of the special forces group was also Burnaev Sergey Alexandrovich, together with his unit. In the impenetrable crown of the basements, they found an ammunition depot and two militants destroyed during the operation. But the scout Burnaev did not believe that the nest of militants was limited to this, and again rushed with his guys to the basement, having discovered a whole network of underground passages.
Rescue Comrades
Making his way through the narrow tunnels, Sergeyev Burnayev walked ahead, again stumbling upon stoned suicide bandits. Entering the battle, he was cut off from his comrades, focusing in complete darkness only on flashes from shots. During the shootout, Sergei was wounded, but the special forces managed to break through to him and continue to destroy a group of militants. In that battle, a platoon and two conscript soldiers also suffered. Suddenly, a grenade rolled from the bandits through a hole in the tube. During the next outbreak of the shot, Sergeant Burnaev saw a mortal danger. He had exactly four seconds to make a decision.
He accepted the only true thing for himself, covering the grenade with his body and protecting his fighters. The battle lasted another two hours, during which 8 bandits were killed, including two field commanders. Later it will become known that a group of militants broke through to their aid, unable to get through the cordon. The twenty-year-old hero remained lying facing the defeated bandits, clutching a distorted machine gun tightly in his hands. And one of those to whom he saved his life lost his voice for a whole year, shocked by the events of the terrible battle.
Honoring Hero
The special forces said goodbye to their comrade in Reutov, where today in the Alley of Heroes there is a bust of a heroic sergeant. The officers took the zinc coffin to Zaoksky, where a solemn funeral was held at the cemetery. One of the servicemen put on the coffin lid a maroon beret, now rightfully owned by the parents of the special forces. In November 2002, in the Kremlin, Alexander and Valentina Burnaev from the hands of the president received a well-deserved award for their son - the Hero Star. And they were given an apartment, fulfilling a dream that Sergey Alexandrovich Burnaev once wanted to fulfill.
In Dubenki, where the sergeant was born, a monument was erected to him, and in Zaoksky - a memorial plaque. The school is named after him, where every year the best class is awarded the title of "Burnaevites", and he himself is forever enrolled in the military unit of the explosives. Burnaev Sergey Aleksandrovich - Hero of Russia, whose feat will always be an example for the younger generation. To give life for the sake of comrades in arms is the highest manifestation of fortitude and the meaning of human destiny.