100 days and the whole life

100 days. Exactly so much a major, and now a retired colonel, Mikhail Katkov served in Afghanistan in 1982. But the events, emotions, and impressions of these three months have more than other years of peaceful life.

He was born to become a military man, because he was born in the family of a defender of the Fatherland.

After three years of military service, he worked at the Moldavskaya State District Power Plant as an electrician, was elected the secretary of the Komsomol committee. The patronage relations of the Komsomol station with the 59th Kramatorsk division stationed in Tiraspol brought Mikhail to serve in this legendary military unit. As a result, 26 years of life were given to the service. It contains studies at the Donetsk Military-Political School, and at the Chisinau University.

People in uniform do not choose a place of service - an order and ahead. So it was with Mikhail Katkov, who at that time served in the Bendery missile brigade. October 16, 1982 - the date of the beginning of the fulfillment by Major Katkov of international debt in the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan. The place of service is the famous 201^st Division (now deployed in Tajikistan), the county town of Kunduz, 80 km from the Soviet-Afghan border. The third division of the 998 ^th  artillery regiment stood in the military guard of the Kunduz airfield. The main task is to ensure the safe passage along the road of various kinds of columns with equipment, supplies for our troops stationed in the depths of the country. Every shelling of the enemy, and "get ready for battle!".

The war left an indelible mark not only in the soul ... Another escort of a column of ammunition and food from five KamAZ trucks and two MTLBs, when one of them on the bridge thrown over a mountain stream, ended in a serious injury to Major Katkov. This tragedy took place 7 km from the end goal. From the explosion of three kilograms of trotyl the armored vehicles ammunition was exploded. The main blow fell on the right leg and face. The was 12 bullets with cartridges in it, Katkov himself threw seven meters, he lost a lot of blood.

Unconscious, he was taken to the medical battalion. Valery Ganin, a military surgeon from Leningrad, saved his life. Leg was amputated. Three days in a coma, but Katkov won the fight against death. Life was saved by donated blood. Then treatment in the division medical battalion and district hospital in Tashkent. At the suggestion of command, he wrote a report addressed to the Minister of Defense with a request to leave to serve in the Armed Forces. There were few hopes with such a wound, in fact he would be commissioned. But fate was supportive of Mikhail Yuzefovich, he continued to serve in his native division in Bendery. Despite the serious injury, he was not a burden, military service shared with colleagues on an equal footing.

Always indifferent position of the internationalist warrior to the processes taking place in the country was the main reason that people trusted Mikhail Katkov. In 1990, he was elected to the Supreme Council of the MSSR. However, in June 1992, he resigned deputy powers ahead of schedule due to disagreement with the nationalism policy pursued by the Moldovan leadership. After the end of military service from 1991 to 1995, Mikhail Katkov – deputy chief of staff of civil defense car repair plant in Bendery, then the chief specialist of the city headquarters of civil defense.

From December 1995 - deputy of the Chamber of Legislators of the Supreme Council of the PMR. From 1998 to 2014, the fighting brothers “Afghans” entrusted Katkov to head the Pridnestrovian Association of Afghanistan War Veterans, now he is an honorary member of the presidium of this public association.

... Both feelings and characters are exposed in war as nowhere else.

Exactly 30 years passed since the day of the withdrawal of our troops from Afghanistan, but even today the debate on the topic “have we been there?” is not reduced. Colonel Mikhail Katkov is convinced: we are needed!

... And the memory of those 15 thousand young fighting brothers who did not return from the war, harrows and harrows the soul ...