WITHDRAWN REGULARS CONCEAL “BANISHED” ADVISERSwith local personnel. Only on the fourth day, after appropriate instruction was conducted
by officers of the special department, a start was made at sending the internationalist sol-
diers to their permanent stations.^27This is echoed, often bitterly, by the veterans themselves:
For 40 days we were kept in quarantine, after which all kinds of bizarre occurrences began.
We were given our military papers ... but nothing was written in them. Where had we been
all that time? Unknown. When we said in the recruiting office [at our discharge] that we
had been in Alexandria, we were laughed at: “Is that near Kiev?” ... We also signed a pledge
not to talk [about our service in Eg ypt] for 25 years. I kept my word.^28Radio specialist Pechenkin was told that the details of his foreign service need not
be listed in his papers “for all to see,” but he could rest assured that they were entered
in his military dossier—a promise that often turned out to be unfounded.^29
Even in the late 1980s, with their oath of silence about to expire and their cam-
paign for recognition as combat veterans already rewarded with some material ben-
efits, the Kavkaz old-timers had difficulty in obtaining official confirmation of their
war record in Eg ypt. Lt Bebishev, the diver who did two tours of duty in Alexandria,
applied several times to the Navy and the Defense Ministry for certification of his
“internationalist soldier” status, but was told as late as 1999 that between the dates
he provided “your outfit was in Sevastopol.”^30 A Shilka radar operator who had been
promoted to staff sergeant while on duty in Eg ypt was busted back to private, “since
no one had ordered him to Eg ypt,” and his papers were inscribed “departed in June
1971, reported [back] in September 1972”—with nothing about the interim.^31
The Kavkaz officers’ career progress was, if anything, held up by their combat
experience. The SAM brigade commander Zhayvoronok met his fellow colonel,
who had evaded going to Eg ypt. “He was already a general, having served within
the USSR, while all the recommendations for medals that were submitted for my
boys can’t be found to this day.”^32 Gen. Smirnov complained in 2001 that many
more of his men were recommended for Soviet medals than the 166 who actually
received them.
Many of my comrades ask me how to get justice restored, and I haven’t found an answer
yet. Those who are still in the armed forces received a certificate from the Supreme Soviet
of the USSR and an “internationalist soldier” pin. It’s much harder to solve the problem of
conferring this decoration on those who have retired or left the service. The local military
authorities are in no hurry, in fact they refuse to handle this on various pretexts. All our
comrades-in-arms ought to receive the Motherland’s recognition as soon as possible.^33By mid-August 1972, the CIA had taken note of the Soviet regulars’ withdrawal,
even assuming it was already complete, but began to interpret it in the way that would
remain prevalent till October 1973: