[Berserk]

Found this old Footage with Subtitles.

Also some Russian movies are made about this horrific battle, I will list them underneath.


Video subject:

Chechnya Interview with survivors of the infamous assault by fighters of the Maikop brigade .Grozny 1995. Extreme segment of the video,
says Sergey Bochkarev, 276 MSP

Background:

Underestimated
Early in December, the Russian Defense Minister, General Pavel Grachev boasted he could seize Grozny in two hours with just one airborne regiment.


Battle of Grozny (1994–95)
The First Battle of Grozny was the Russian Army's invasion and subsequent conquest of the Chechen capital, Grozny, during the early months of the First Chechen War.

The initial assault resulted in very high Russian Army casualties and an almost complete breakdown of morale in the Russian forces. It took them another two months of heavy fighting, and a change in their tactics, before they were able to capture Grozny. The battle caused enormous destruction and casualties amongst the civilian population and saw the heaviest bombing campaign in Europe since the end of World War II

The Chechen fighters had the advantage -- they were motivated, they were familiar with the terrain. As former Soviet citizens, they spoke and were educated in Russian; many served in the Soviet armed forces. Many (like their Russian adversaries) had Soviet uniforms. Chechen units were divided into combat groups consisting of about twenty personnel, sub-divided into three or four-person fire teams. Each fire team consisted of an anti-tank gunner, usually armed with Russian-made RPG-7s or RPG-18s, a machine gunner, and a rifleman. To destroy Russian armored vehicles in Grozny, multiple hunter-killer fire teams coordinated at ground level, in second and third stories, and in basements. The snipers and machine gunners pinned the supporting infantry while the antitank gunners engaged any armored vehicle.

Initially, the Russians were surprised, and their armored columns –- intended to take the city without difficulty -- were devastated in fighting reminiscent of the Battle of Budapest in late 1944. As a short-term measure, the Russians deployed self-propelled anti-aircraft guns (ZSU-23-4 and 9K22 Tunguska) to engage the Chechen combat groups because the main gun of the tanks could not elevate or decline enough to engage the fire teams, and the armored vehicle's machine gun could not suppress the fire of several fire teams simultaneously.

Summary New years Eve battle

The New Year's Eve battle was devastating for the Russians; the first Russian armored column lost 105 of their 120 tanks and armored personnel carriers. And an estimated 1500 to 4000 Russian troops killed.

The entire first battalion of the Maikop Brigade, more than half of the 81st Regiment plus hundreds of men from the remaining units, were dead.

A high-ranking Russian General Staff officer said "On January 2nd, we lost contact with our forward units." According to Maskhadov, some 400 Russian tanks and APCs were destroyed.

Russian General A. Galkin reported 225 armored vehicles lost during the first month and a half of the invasion, including 62 tanks.

Most Russian Spetsnaz 'Special Forces' troopers surrendered to the Chechens "after wandering about hopelessly for three days without food, let alone any clear idea of what they were supposed to do."

After returning home from captivity, a Russian lieutenant colonel said "the only order was to go forward, without explanations as to what they should do, where they should go, and whom they should capture." Meanwhile, the mobility of Chechen fighters allowed them to attack at-will throughout the Russian second-echelon forces outside the city, and foraging an artillery battalion.

Russian prisoners did not know where and why they were there; some were ordered to "protect roads," while others asked the reporters "who is fighting whom".

After more captured Russian troopers were shown on television programming, the mothers of some went to Grozny to negotiate the release of their sons. Those negotiations took place in the center of the city without involving Russian government agents and while under Russian artillery bombardment; some of the prisoners were released on the promise they would never fight the Chechens again.

Unknown to the Russians and prior to the New Year invasion, Chechen President Dzhokhar Dudayev moved his headquarters to Shali, 25 kilometres south of Grozny. The Russian forces pulled back, abandoning many troopers.

Morale dropped so low, units of the Interior Ministry and OMON forces outside town departed without orders. Several Russian commanders were sacked for their reluctance to assault their neighboring citizens.



Russian War Movies based on the first Chechen war

Purgatory
Purgatory (1997)
The incredibly naturalistic Purgatory is based on the Battle of Grozny during the First Chechen War from 1994 to 1995. The film contains explicit and terrifying scenes that many viewers struggle to watch.

The Storm Gate
(2006)

This four-part TV movie follows the company of the Lieutenant Doronin that is sent to the North Caucasus to defend a strategically important checkpoint. The mission is expected to be a walk in the park, but suddenly the company is surrounded by thousands of Chechen militants. As you can imagine, things get nasty very quickly.