THE SOVIET–ISRAELI WAR, 1967–1973Soviet officers sat at the command tables of the Syrian air defense array, which was
reinforced immediately after the Israeli attacks on the Syrian capital. “I can attest
that after serious losses were inflicted on the IAF there were no more attacks on
Damascus.” Before their return, the zenitchiki handed over most of the hardware
but kept the secret systems.^56
Vasiliev “has no information that any advisers took part in battles at the front.”
However, Dudchenko (in one of his documentary publications) hedges this somewhat:
there were “no authorized figures of Soviet military personnel in combat, [but this]
almost certainly occurred.” Mikhail Razinkov, the interpreter for air defense advisers
who were posted in April, reports that his group of advisers was instructed that “upon
the start of combat activity, all Soviet military specialists are to stay at their workplace,
always with their posdovetny (advisee).”^57 This is further confirmed by Soviet casualties:
Razinkov recalls three “compatriots” killed, one missing, and many injured. The MIA
can perhaps be added to unconfirmed reports of Soviet prisoners taken by the IDF;
Dudchenko cites a 1974 Knesset statement by Shim’on Peres, by then the defense min-
ister, whereby during the war several high-ranking Soviet officers were killed on the
Golan Heights.^58 The veterans’ memorial list includes two officers killed “in combat
operations” in Syria: Lt-Col. Aleksandr Sipakov, adviser to the headquarters of a mecha-
nized brigade, as early as 6 October, and two days later the adviser to the commander
of such a brigade, Lt-Col. Vyacheslav Golovkin.^59
The influx of Soviet personnel increased “when one Eg yptian army [corps] was
already surrounded and another, defending Cairo, was demoralized.” KGB Col. (then
Capt.) Stanislav Leshchuk was sent to Syria in October 1973, decorated for combat
service and reposted to Cairo in a civilian airliner. He was one of a group of officers,
“every one of whom was a first-class specialist in his field—artillerymen, intelligence
operatives, tankists, engineers and signalmen. They worked around the clock, some-
times risking their lives.” Suddenly, in a marked change, “besides their combat mis-
sions” the officers were ordered—for the first time—to don Soviet dress uniforms and
parade through the most teeming areas of Cairo in groups of four to six. “The ratio-
nale was simple: at the Peace Congress that was then convened in Moscow, the USSR
declared that it had fulfilled its commitment to an ally to extend all support, includ-
ing military.”^60