The Soviet-Israeli War, 1967–1973. The USSR’s Military Intervention in the Egyptian-Israeli Conflict

THE SOVIET–ISRAELI WAR, 1967–1973

Vinogradov explains that one of his motives was to reduce the chronic problem of
Soviet dependents’ obtrusive presence in Cairo:

The advisers’ wives, the oboz [baggage train and camp followers] as we called them, filled

the Eg yptian bazaars. ... The presence of a big Russian oboz in the streets [was one of the

reasons that] led the embassy to consider how essential the continued stationing of so

many military men, with their wives, in Eg ypt really was.^48

The exposure of several black-marketeering and smuggling attempts exacerbated
this issue, and it was not limited only to noncombatants. The Soviet servicemen
themselves, especially the regulars and junior advisers who were not allowed to bring
their wives, were increasingly and sometimes embarrassingly visible too.
As described by an interpreter who was happily reposted to headquarters in Cairo
after a year in “bombed-out” Suez City, anyone “on furlough from the desert with 10
Eg yptian pounds in his pocket” could hardly resist “the hordes of pimps” in Cairo’s
main squares “who all but imposed” their merchandise. As the Soviets’ liaison, “the
tall dandy” Lt-Col. Bardisi, confided to interpreter Igor’ Vakhtin, the regulars gave
him an even harder time than the advisers had done. Bardisi could not understand
why their superiors had rejected an offer to arrange a brothel staffed with carefully
selected and monitored women, which besides the obvious intelligence advantage for
the Eg yptians might also “prevent venereal problems.” In Upper Eg ypt, naval aviation
engineer Lashenko recalls,

we were very well treated—so well that prior to the Soviet friends’ arrival, the Eg yptians

set up ... a bordello. But the moral fiber of Soviet officers proved itself as superior. The

Arabs were surprised: “What’s there to think about? When we studied in the USSR, we

had your girls.” But we didn’t touch the Eg yptian women.

Bardisi blamed this display of prudery for the series of scandals he had to handle,
when Soviet officers tried to smuggle “love priestesses” into their quarters.^49
According to Col. Logachev, the deputy chief political officer of the air defense
division, even before the ceasefire, it was said that a returning officer’s wife should
welcome him with a glass of Russian vodka in one hand, black bread and herring in
the other—all of which were not provided in Eg ypt—“and the hem of her skirt
between her teeth.”

The military tribunal and Party committees stood guard over the Soviet warrior’s morality,

while the “special department” was more concerned lest he blab something unopportune

during such encounters. ... For visiting nightclubs, four officers got Party and military

reprimands. Nevertheless, curiosity sometimes trumps even the strictest prohibitions. After

the battles ended, three of us [political officers] decided to visit such a nightclub, to see

what it was and to witness belly dancing.

On this investigative mission, they went to a club near the pyramids. In 1998,
Logachev described in graphic detail that would have been unthinkable under either