8/8/2019 40 Years on, RPG-7 Still Deals Certain Death

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8 FOCUSFOCUSTHE RUSSIA JOURNAL

SEPTEMBER 7 - 13, 2001

40 years on, RPG-7 still deals certain deathThe Soviet grenade launcher has evolved to beat new tank technology

People dont always think ofweapons as having birth-days, but this June, the

RPG-7 grenade launcher cele-brated 40 years at the service offirst the Soviet and then Russianand C.I.S. armies.

In fact, as well as conqueringthe Soviet armed forces andbecoming one of its main anti-tank weapons, the RPG-7 con-quered half the world. Former

Warsaw Pact countries also pro-duced it, as did Egypt, China andothers. The armies of more than50 countries use it today.

I first became acquainted withthe RPG-7 as a cadet officer atthe Tashkent Higher MilitaryInstitute, where I went to studystraight after leaving school in1975. First, we received uniforms,and then we were each assigned aweapon. My weapon the RPG-7 looked to me like a strangetube with an optical sight. I spentsome time using the sight to spyon the girls on the other side ofthe fence around the institute,and only a few weeks later gotthe chance to find out what the

weapon was really for.Our company commander

aimed the grenade launcher at adecommisioned T-55 tank stand-

ing 200 meters away. The tuberested on his shoulder and had agrenade that looked like a fatcucumber sticking out the front.

Before firing at the tank, wefilled it with several sacks ofearth. We were made to moveaway from the commander andplug our ears with cotton wool.The commander fired, a deafen-ing explosion followed (our earsrang for days) and the grenadeploughed into the tanks turret.

A while later, we removed re-mains of the earth from inside thetank and saw it had been turned intobrick-like hot clumps, even thoughthe grenade had penetrated only afew millimeters into the turret.

As we were told later, this sur-prising amount of damage wascaused by the way the grenadewas designed to concentrate the

energy of the explosive substanceand direct it in an immenselyhigh-pressure stream thatcrushed the armor and destroyedeverything inside the tank. Nomodern tank anywhere in theworld can protect itself from agrenade like this. Our command-ing officer told us back then thatthe tanks crew would have facedan absolutely certain death.

But all of this was just words tome until I went to Chechnya dur-ing the first war there and sawhow our tank crews were dying.When Chechen separatists seizedarms stockpiles belonging to aformer Soviet Army trainingcenter in 1991, Chechen

President Gen. Djokhar Dud-ayevs army got hold of the RPG-7 and a supply of grenades. Ac-cording to official data,

Dudayevs forces destroyedmore than 100 Russian tanks and250 armored vehicles during thestorming of Grozny fromJanuary to February 1995.

Later, I saw our grenadelaunchers in Angola and inKosovo. I also saw the results oftheir use burned-out tanksand armored vehicles and guttedhouses.

This grenade launcher wasoriginally designed just as ananti-tank weapon and used onlyone grenade the PG-7B,said Vladimir Korenkov, gener-al director of the Basalt statecompany, which designed thefirst hand-held grenade

launchers from 1958-61. TheSoviet Union was preparing fortank attacks, and we assumed

the potential enemy wouldanswer in kind. This was whywe designed anti-tankweapons.

Korenkov said that after theexperience of war in Afghanistanand local conflicts in the formerSoviet Union, a new grenadedesigned for use against troopswas added to the grenade launch-ers arsenal. Korenkov said thatover its 40-year history, theRPG-7 had been modernized sev-eral times.

Specialists at Basalt designed,for example, a new grenade the PG-7BR for use againsttanks fitted with defense sys-tems that disperse the concen-trated explosive force of ordi-nary grenades and save the

tanks crew. The new grenadecontains two charges, one toeliminate the defense systemand the second to penetrate thetanks armor.

Basalt has also designed awhole series of reactive anti-tank grenades and grenades forstorming operations that areused with one-off grenadelaunchers. The RPG-26 andRPG-27, for example, candestroy tanks, armored vehiclesor troops in buildings at a dis-tance of 200-250 meters.

The RShG-1 and the RShG-2can kill troops in enclosed areasover a range of 200 cubicmeters.

S

oviet leader Leonid

Brezhnev may have beenthe most famous man in theU.S.S.R., but his daughter Galinaalso attracted more than hershare of attention. Ill set downthe truth behind the rumors thisweek. Meanwhile, Russia hasalways been a country of inven-tors, and Ill take a look at theman who beat Marconi to the postin inventing the radio as well asremembering the events thatforged a nation 10 years ago.

Q: Was Brezhnev's daughterGalina all that the rumors sayshe was?

John Miller,San Francisco, U.S.A.

A: When Galina was 64 herhusband-to-be was 24 and aprovincial businessman. But, she

did not marry him. She wasundergoing treatment for alco-

holism at the Central KremlinHospital, where she was a regularclient. She was begging to beallowed to go home, saying shewas in love and through withvodka for good.

Galina was married threetimes. Her first husband was acircus performer who was twiceher age. In her youth, she wantedto be a circus performer, butended up in charge of costumes.Her second husband was KIO, acircus magician. He was 18 when

she was 33. This time she, wasalmost twice as old as her spouse.In 1971, she married a minor

official of the Ministry for HomeAffairs Yury Churbanov. Avery handsome man. After awhirlwind career, Churbanovwas arrested for corruption. Hishighest post was deputy ministerfor Home Affairs. I supposefather-in-law Brezhnev helped.

She also had an affair with agypsy actor aged 29, who wassentenced to seven years in prisonfor speculation. I remember herappearance on British TV: adrunken, toothless face, and Icould hear four-letter words inRussian behind the English text.She said dad never refused heranything. The papers wroteGalina engaged in illegal trade in

diamonds. She made constanttrips abroad, had many lovers

and participated in drunkenorgies. That is the sad story ofGalina, daughter of LeonidBrezhnev.

Q: Do many people know thatthe Russian Nobel Prize winnerAlexander Prokhorov was bornin Atherton, Queensland,Australia, in 19l6? Also, howmany inventions and discoveriesdid the Soviet Union claim?

Colin Stewart,Broken Hill, Australia.

A: Practically all the papers I'veseen mention his place of birth,though I dare say not everybodyknows who Prokhorov was. Hewas twice Hero of Socialist Laborand headed our "Star Wars" pro-gram. He refused to be exemptfrom army service and went toserve in a reconnaissance unit. Hewas badly wounded and wasawarded several medals.Prokhorov turned down work inthe United States. That'sAlexander Prokhorov, NobelPrize winner.

When it comes to discoveries, inSoviet times they claimed thatRussia invented everythingexcept perhaps the wheel. Thelocomotive? That wasStephenson. The airplane? TheWright Brothers came up with

that one. The electric bulb?Edison. The list is a long one. But

Popov, a Russian, invented theradio.

The description and designwere published in a magazine andhe was the first to receive andsend radio signals. This wasadmitted by the World Electro-Technical Congress in Paris,which awarded Popov a goldmedal and Diploma of Honor forinventing the radio. It was he whogot the award, not Marconi.

Q: It would be interesting to

hear your reminiscences of thetumultuous days of 10 years agoin August 1991.

William Kerr,Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.

A: A few small events connect-ed with the putsch, the attempteduprising, remain in my memory.How Vice President GennadyYanayev's hands shook theykept showing it close up on TV.How, after it was all over, DefenseMinister Dmitry Yazov, like a lit-tle boy, asked to be forgiven.

Outside the Moscow WhiteHouse, people in those days stoodround the clock holding hands, asa symbol of unity. I cannot forgethow Yeltsin freed Gorbachevfrom house arrest in the Crimea,and flew him to Moscow. Andhow, at the first press conference,

Gorbachev said: "I am for theCommunist choice." But what

scared many were the crawlingcolumns of tanks and armoredtroop carriers.

The putsch organizers wantedto return us to the historicaldead-end that was the Sovietsystem. The putsch was badlyorganized, unplanned and theydid not have the support of thetanks that were all over the city.Young men climbed onto thetanks and urged the men inside to

join them. You should hear theshrieks of approval when the

tanks hoisted the white, blue andred flag. They did not open fire.Finally, Yazov ordered the

tanks to leave Moscow. Yeltsindid not for a moment leave theWhite House and will be remem-bered addressing the peoplestanding atop a tank. Those whostarted it all should have knownthat a revolution, an uprising,cannot succeed without the sup-port of the army. The army didnot support them. And finally,you can't bring back the old total-itarian system, any more thanyou can bring back slavery to theUnited States.

Some of those who took part inthe putsch 10 years ago are againholding official positions in theDuma and various executiveposts.

(E-mail questions to Joe Adamovat editor@russiajournal.com.)

Sad life for Brezhnevs drunken daughter, Galina

By JOE

ADAMOV

The writer ishost of theVoice of RussiasMoscow Mailbagprogram.

MOSCOWMOSCOW MAILBAGMAILBAG

By

VLADIMIRMUKHIN

The writer is amilitarycorrespondentfor NezavisimayaGazeta

Plus, Russias Australian Nobel Prize winner and the 1991 coup attempt

THE AUTHOR gets to grips with the RPG-7 in 1975. THE RPG-7 has proved a highly effective weapon.

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