Prapor
Active member
There was a thread here about 'Women in the Military'. Something to add to that:
http://newwoman.ru/letter.php?id=4453
Her other passion, horses:
http://newwoman.ru/letter.php?id=4453
Alla and Anatoly:Russian Amazon
Alla Bakhtinova
"Alla is really kind of unique. The American fictional soldier, GI Jane, in comparison with her fails miserably. There is something similar though. In any case, she received the exam of her life in Specnaz. Was shaved, like Kotovsky, lived in a tent with men for five months. [Moscow newspaper 'Arguments and Facts']
Captain of the Russian army Alla Bakhtinova is the only female Specnaz commando who have served in a war zone for more than five years. When, in 1999, her husband, Anatoly - a Specnaz officer, was missing in action in Chechnya, she left her little son and first took up arms in order to find him. The true story of a Russian "GI Jane".
We sat at a table in my house, and Alla with Anatoly spoke about their life. They came to me with a proposal to participate in a public organization created by Alla in memory of Gennady Troshev, with whom I was fortunate to work for some time. A little over a month ago, the Hero of Russia Gennady Troshev was killed in a plane crash in Yekaterinburg.
I, naturally, already knew Alla's story, and she had heard of me, but we met face to face for the first time.
Alla about yourself
"I was first in Moscow as a little girl, came to see my grandmother's sister - she is of the famous circus dynasty of Alexandrov-Serg. All the time she slapped me on the back: " Alka, straightened up!" So I have not military, but circus bearing. How I longed to get to ride a horse! In my dreams I saw myself in a beautiful dress and on horseback. Love the horses since childhood. But apparently, my fate decided otherwise."
After high school, Alla moved to the capital, she studied at the Academy of Physical Education.
About her husband
"Tolia" is in Alla's almost every sentence. Husband, Colonel, officer on special assignments. But the most interesting, perhaps, back as a fiance.
"Oh, and how I met him, I tell you, you won't believe it!" - Alla tries hard to keep a serious look, but in her eyes devils are dancing. - I could always think of only the wind and the horses. I am a Cossack woman, after all. Tolia says it's in my blood. Well, I saw him and immediately something attracted me . But he's out of the Kremlin Military School, with their funny uniforms and caps. He gave me his address, and I thought - maybe I'll write to the boy, would be a pity to miss him. I wrote, and he goes and he invites me to his school. Just along the way, it was March 8th (Women's Day). So, here I come to them, this girl, all in horse-rding sport, just then going to take the master jumping exam. And he is already drunk,starts, well, groping me, I cry: "Help!" And then I grabbed a bottle of champagne and nailed him, squarely in the forehead. Well, he even if a future officer, goes and wacks me back, I do not remember, fist or palm. And shouts, as i am leaving: "Go! You'll come back and marry me anyway!" That was our 'first kiss', so to speak."
Alla did not want to see nor hear from Anatoly after the incident. On vacation, she home to Ust-labinsk, well away from him. A week later, Anatoly showed up there. To woo her... "To live without her I can not!" - He insisted on his knees before the future mother-in-law, who had, before, seen such passionate declarations of love only in movies.
For six months, Alla stood it out as good Kuban moonshine.
"He, of course, was stubborn, a fighter, master of sport in Greco-Roman wrestling, but I am not soft either!"
The wedding Dress from "Versace" Anatoly ordered for his love in Paris.
Off to War
The young family first came to Germany, the elite troops. "We lived in paradise, in Bonn, we even went on a tour". they had a child. But then the Union collapsed, his unit was broken up and Anatoli was sent to the North Caucasus. Alla and her son moved to her parents in Kuban. "Closer to husband" - she thought.
Since the beginning of the second Chechen campaign, a strange anxiety gripped Alia. Where Anatoly? Is he alive? Month no news of him, second, third.
Finally came the news - Major Anatoly Bakhtin, was M.I.A.
Leaving the son with her mother, Alia went to the district military headquarters.
In the study the commander of the North-Caucasus Military District, Colonel-General Gennady Troshev showed up this pretty woman in a stylish hat and a fashionable coat.
- Take me into the Specnaz! I must find my husband!
The Hero of Russia, wanted to refuse, but then he saw Alla's burning eyes and silently signed the order.
As the actress Demi Moore, Alia had to shave off her hair. Sometimes, in moments of calm, she wore a wig to remember who she was a few weeks ago. Immediately there were suitors, drulling over her. Alla silently pulled off the fake hair and clutched her fists. "I am the same as you, I am just a soldier!". The men retreated, hiding their eyes.
A month later came great news. Her husband came out of the enemy trap in which he spent three months, and soon they would see each other.
Family and War
"You and I are divorcing!" Anatoly pushed her away, when Alla rushed in joy to hug her husband's neck.
"What?"
"A woman has no place in the army. As if you do not know what kind of women serve here ..." her husband hesitated.
Alla could not breathe. The man for whom she was willing to sacrifice their lives, and to renounce it. That's as simple as if there were oaths and confessions, there was no son, his blood and flesh. Alla turned and slowly, as if wounded, and then walked to his closet. There were no tears. Specnaz fighters do not cry, no matter what, this truth was driven in her head.
"The world turned upside down in one second. I did not want to go home. I could not let down Troshev, who believed in me. I decided to prove to her husband that I was not worse than him, that I, too, a strong man. And if I have to die for my country, then let it be, my son would not be ashamed of his mother."
Only hundreds of meters divided her from Anatoly, but they have not seen each other, although Alla knew that her every move watched by friends of her husband. She knew that he was purposely spreading rumors that he has another woman. Knew that Anatoly even offered a bribe to her commander so that he sent her home civilian life.
"When we went to the job, I specifically asked for the most risky areas. Once in the intelligence, we have ran out of water. I took the cans and, warning no one, went into the town. On the edge I was met by an old man: "Go away, my daughter,there are boeviki (terrorists) here!" So I got both water, and information. The Chechens, they are, as a whole, not bad people. Ramzan Kadyrov kissed my hand at the world wrestling championship, we were there with Anatoly."
"You still reconciled?"
"And where would he go? - Alla laughs. - Tested me for a long time, and then he came back, first. But there was one case that rejoined us together."
Anatoly finally got the army superiors to give his wife a less dangerous position. Now Alla dealing with legal matters and served as a translator. Once she and her husband went to check a distant village.
"We drove, laughed, listened to "Rammstein" with the volume cranked up. Suddenly a tire blew up. Anatoly got out of the "Niva", sat down at the wheel, and then a bullet over his head." When he raised his head, he saw his wife standing over him with a gun at the ready, shielding him from danger.
"That is when he burst into tears and said: "You are not just my wife, you're my best friend!" He finally realized that I could protect him too. And in war, that is the main quality."
Her other passion, horses:
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Besides horses, as she mentioned, their passion; they are also great warriors, like Gurkhas in Nepal. So, its in her genes.
