THE SOVIET–ISRAELI WAR, 1967–1973Smirnov’s new command, the 18th Air Defense Division, was formally created on
13 January 1970, ten days before Nasser allegedly requested it.^56
Even before its official incorporation, by the end of 1969, 10,000 officers and men
had been assigned to the 18th Division, out of a total of 32,000 who had been
selected for service in Eg ypt. The division’s manpower would be rotated to keep it at
a constant level of over 10,000.^57 A staff officer of the Kavkaz “operational group”
states that the Soviet–Eg yptian agreement set a figure of 15,000.^58
“No one was forced to go to Eg ypt,” writes Col. Boris Zhayvoronok, who would
command an air defense brigade on the canal front:
It was possible to refuse. You won’t believe this, but the only one who was afraid to go was
a colonel. ... He took me aside to ask that I say something to disqualify him—muttered
something about pains in his legs that prevented him from running fast. I didn’t blame
him, but it’s better not to go into battle with such people.^59