Hero of the Soviet Union Islamov Yuri Verikovich
Islamov Yuri Verikovich – commander of a platoon of the 22nd separate special forces brigade of the GRU of the General Staff of the 40th Army of the Red Banner Turkestan Military District (Limited contingent of Soviet troops in the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan), junior sergeant.
He was born on April 5, 1968, in the village of Arslanbob, Bazar-Korgon district, Osh region of the Kyrgyz SSR, in a family of a forester. Uzbek.
After finishing elementary school, he moved with his family to the city of Talitsa in Sverdlovsk region, where he graduated from 10th grade in 1985. In school, he engaged in skiing (1st adult category, champion of Sverdlovsk region). In 1986, he completed the first year at the Sverdlovsk Forest Technical Institute and underwent training in a parachute section. He was also interested in boxing at the institute.
He joined the Soviet Army in November 1986. He completed his training unit in the city of Chirchik (Uzbekistan). After the training unit, he served in the limited contingent of Soviet troops in Afghanistan starting in May 1987. He was the commander of a platoon of the 2nd company of the 7th separate special forces battalion (military unit p/p 54783, Shahjoy). He participated in 16 combat operations.
From the memories of comrades-in-arms:
“...Yuri was a good athlete and an excellent commander. He was supposed to stay in the training unit and prepare the young recruits. But learning that his comrade, the only son of a single mother, was being sent to Afghanistan, Yuri submitted a report to the unit commander saying: “If something happens to me, I have a father, but what will happen to his mother?” He was sent to Afghanistan instead of his comrade...”
From May to October 1987, he participated in 11 combat sorties. Showing courage and heroism, Komsomol member Yuri Islamov, who was part of the reconnaissance group, fell heroically in battle on October 31, 1987, near the village of Duri in Zabul province, close to the border with Pakistan.
This was a legendary battle of the group commanded by Senior Lieutenant O.P. Onishchuk, who was also posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. In this battle, Islamov was wounded twice but continued to fire. Surrounded by the enemy, he engaged in hand-to-hand combat and detonated his last grenade, killing himself and several mujahideen.
For the courage and heroism displayed in the performance of his military duty, by decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet dated March 3, 1988, junior sergeant Islamov Yuri Verikovich was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
He was awarded the Order of Lenin (March 3, 1988; posthumously) and the Medal for Courage.
The name of the Hero has been given to one of the schools in his homeland, where he was enrolled in the lists of the youth brigade of one of the local industry enterprises.
The Sverdlovsk regional organization of veterans of Afghanistan is named after him.
In the city of Talitsa, one of the streets and a sports school are also named after him.
Annual skiing competitions for the prize of Yuri Islamov are held in Talitsa and Yekaterinburg.
ETERNALLY ALIVE!
At first, there was an unusually long break after the seventy-fourth letter. The seventy-fifth was a death notification.
Then letters from officers, sergeants, and privates began to pour in to the parents, without grand words and oaths, making them believe: their son, junior sergeant Yuri Islamov, continues to live. Because his feat allowed many of the authors of these letters to live. Because true heroism is immortal. “I, Dad, will leave the institute...” - the concluding lines of the letter from his son, a student of the forest technical institute Verik Ergashovich Islamov, greatly upset them. They even sent a written prohibition. They did not know that for Yuri this was a settled issue. That the first-year student visited the military enlistment office almost more often than the university, that he had already passed a medical examination with an unconditional diagnosis: “Fit. Either for aviation or for airborne.” That, in addition to the parachute section, he was engaged in athletics and skiing. That he cured his flat feet by marching on lying bottles... Children grow up unnoticed. Especially far from their home.
The last battle of Yuri Islamov has been described many times. The desperate battle of the group commanded by Senior Lieutenant Onishchuk, who was also awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union posthumously, against overwhelmingly superior enemy forces became not only an “epic” in Afghanistan but also a teaching aid. With no possibility of retreat and little chance of reinforcements, a handful of soldiers repelled fierce attacks as if they had a handful of lives in reserve, as if they were drawing ammunition from a bottomless well. In reality, none of them performed miracles. Each simply performed the functions assigned to him by the specific battle and his specific place in that battle clearly and skillfully. Islamov's place was one of the most “fire hazardous.” The commander left several soldiers in the rear with the task of preventing the enemy from encircling the main group. This was the only way he could encourage those he had special trust in. However, such words were, of course, not spoken. The battle left no time even for a detailed briefing on the task. And it was not needed: after all, it was not the first time.
Yuri fought almost mechanically, trying not to make mistakes. He barely heard the machine gun of the nearby private Georgy Moskalenko. He only heard when it fell silent. And he continued to fire at the “moving target.” He did not stop firing even when he saw that the helicopters had finally managed to land. His task at that moment did not change much: earlier he had to cover a hopeless defense, now – the path for his comrades to the salvation that had fallen from the sky. “...When the ‘spirits’ saw that the ammunition of our paratrooper had run out, - his combat friends wrote to Yuri's parents, - they, the bandits, shouted with joy.” He gave them a chance to rejoice. The brief time it took the bandits to gather around the dead Soviet soldier, as they thought. But he was alive. And the explosion that took out the inattentive mujahideen confirmed that. The explosion that elevated junior sergeant Yuri Islamov from the living to the Eternally Alive.