Militia of Novorossiya shooters in contact. Igor Strelkov became a victim of Ukrainian propaganda! Life after fear
Five years ago, on April 12, Igor Strelkov’s detachment entered Slavyansk, and with its capture, the conflict in eastern Ukraine turned from a civil confrontation in regional centers into a real, bloody war with firearms, the use of the army, special forces and heavy equipment. The next day, the Ukrainian authorities announced the start of an anti-terrorist operation in Slavyansk. In three months, at least five hundred people died in the battles for the city, and Strelkov became a symbol of the pro-Russian militias.
Today I suggest you look at photos from Slavyansk in 2019 and compare it with Slavyansk five years ago.
“Today is April 12, 2019, a warm spring morning, and I am in Slavyansk, a small town in the north of the Donetsk region of Ukraine. It is quiet, people are busy with their own affairs, provincial life goes on as usual, and you need to try hard to find traces of the events that began in this city five years ago, when at dawn it was captured by a group of armed people. Then no one knew who these people were, where they came from and who commands them. Today they are known as the "Strelkov Detachment" after the pseudonym of their leader Igor Strelkov (Girkin). Later, it was he who took responsibility for the beginning of the ongoing bloody conflict, bluntly saying in an interview with the Russian newspaper Zavtra:
I still pulled the trigger of the war. If our detachment had not crossed the border, in the end everything would have ended, as in Kharkov, as in Odessa. There would have been several dozen killed, burned, arrested. And that would be the end of it. And practically the flywheel of the war, which is still going on, launched our detachment.Remarque: I happened to work in Slavyansk then, in April-May 2014. I have my own clear opinion about those events, but now I will deliberately avoid subjective assessments and expressions so that you can draw your own conclusions. I'll just show you today's city and tell you what happened here five years ago.
Contrary to popular belief, the Donetsk region and Donbass are not synonyms at all. So, for example, Slavyansk is a Ukrainian historical area Slobozhanshchina. There is no coal and waste heaps here, but there is salt lakes with medicinal water and ceramic production.
Until 2014, there were no military units or large bases of security forces here - except perhaps the Internal Affairs Directorate and a small unit of the SBU. It was they who, on the morning of April 12, 2014, became the first targets of the Strelkov detachment. In a peaceful, calm city, no one expected an attack, and the assault turned out to be quick. The detachment itself, consisting of fifty armed fighters, Russians and Crimeans, had illegally crossed the Russian-Ukrainian border a few hours earlier. He was assisted by local pro-Russian activists. After the buildings were seized, the weapons found in them were handed out to them.
Recently, a well-known supporter of the unrecognized republics, Alexander Zhuchkovsky, published the book "85 Days of Slavyansk". In particular, there are the following words:
At the border, Strelkov, in the presence of a driver shaking with fear, without ceremony, asked those who met: “Did you drive your own or use it?” They replied that they did not need their own and did not need it.
Do you know how the Strelkovtsy differed from the locals? They smelled of war and some kind of inevitable determination. They came in and, in principle, understood that they would have to fight and shed blood. Strelkov's fighters entered, psychologically ready for anything. They came to fight.And this is what the building of the Internal Affairs Directorate looked like that day and today:
Photo: Ilya Pitalev / Kommersant
The building of the city administration was also captured:
Photo: Ilya Pitalev / Kommersant
Photo: Ilya Pitalev / Kommersant
Photo: Ilya Pitalev / Kommersant
The building of the SBU, an old one-story mansion of the merchant Rabinovich, housed the headquarters of Strelkov, and in its basement - a makeshift prison. However, now the expression "get to the basement" in the so-called people's republics is difficult to surprise anyone. But five years ago in Slavyansk it was unusual, and now few people remember it.
The building of the local administration of the SBU today:
And this is how the way there looked for some in the spring of 2014:
Photo: Ilya Pitalev / Kommersant
Now a memorial plaque to the deputy of the city council of Gorlovka Vladimir Rybak hangs on the building. When the local city council seized and hung out the DPR flag on it, it removed it and returned the state one. Armed people took him to Slavyansk, to the headquarters of the militia. Later, the mutilated bodies of Deputy Rybak and Kyiv student Yuriy Amendment were found in the Kazyonny Torets River near Slavyansk.
Barricades were erected near the captured buildings:
Photo: Ilya Pitalev / Kommersant
Photo: Ilya Pitalev / Kommersant
There were checkpoints at the entrances to the city. This one, for example, was called “Mixed Feed” after a nearby plant with a high elevator:
Photo: Ilya Pitalev / Kommersant
On May 2, he was repulsed by Ukrainian troops, after which he was repeatedly fired upon from the city. On the elevator and now you can see traces of mines. There he is on the horizon, seen across the lake:
The buildings were decorated with pro-Russian graffiti:
Photo: Ilya Pitalev / Kommersant
Now it's hard to even remember, but I came across one in the courtyard, where the city committee of local communists used to be. With custom commentary.
There was a barricade at this intersection, on the other side of the street too - it was all blocked for ordinary people, since Strelkov's headquarters was right in the middle of it (he can be seen on the right in the depths):
The cathedral on the main city square has not changed much, only the surroundings have changed.
Photo: Ilya Pitalev / Kommersant
By the way, this is the same “Lenin Square” from the old ballad about a boy in panties crucified by evil Binderites. Only now, it has never been Lenin Square in its history, and the boys were not crucified on it either.
There were playgrounds near the city administration building then and now. Children played there then and play now:
Photo: Ilya Pitalev / Kommersant
Cafe "White Night", near which I parked military equipment, suddenly turned into a "Fed hedgehog":
Photo: Ilya Pitalev / Kommersant
Many establishments of the spring of 2014 are still in their places ...
But there are also new ones:
The tile is either laid or shifted:
The hotel, where almost all journalists lived at that time, was slightly updated - skylights appeared, and a poker club was opened instead of a restaurant:
The city has old nice mansions and incomprehensible squatters, flowering fruit trees and political advertising. What is missing is war.
But, unlike the city center, the ruins of the regional psychiatric hospital in the suburban village of Semyonovka more than vividly remind of the heavy fighting of 2014. In its buildings on a hillock above a strategic crossroads, the rebels entrenched themselves, and during the fighting the hospital was almost completely destroyed. Per last years a couple of buildings were nevertheless restored, the central one is being built anew, but the spectacle still cannot be called cheerful.
There are also monuments to the fallen soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine ...
And the first victim of the conflict, the captain of the Alpha special squad of the SBU, Gennady Bilichenko. He died the day after the capture of the city, April 13, 2014 - his car was fired upon even before entering Slovyansk.
But in general, in Slavyansk they talk about the war exclusively in the past tense, and here nothing else rumbles except thunder during a thunderstorm. No one can even remember that five years ago they could be detained here for looking too hipster, as a “non-local”. And I'm not exaggerating, I myself then observed this.
And yet the war is not over yet, but it began right here. Five years ago. And to the front line from here 57 kilometers in a straight line.
And now, outside of your knowledge, sympathies and political preferences, try to abstract and imagine that you wake up one morning and your city is captured by incomprehensible masked armed men. Represented? Or with difficulty? If with difficulty, then you may be lucky.
I. Girkin: Maxim, every day we read that Russia did not come to the war, that our people are not there, that we do not participate, we do not consider ourselves participants in the war. It has already become a mantra that is constantly talked about. Even the words of Putin personally about people who decide military issues, about volunteers, about vacationers, have already been forgotten. All this is safely forgotten. Now someone will say about vacationers, they will say - a traitor. And if you refer to Putin, they will say - a scoundrel. And if you bring something else, they will say - a moron.
M. Kalashnikov: Well, I think it's an "open secret" that the security forces are, of course, sitting there.
I. Girkin: Of course, this is all an open secret. Naturally, our dear esteemed partners (or rather, not ours, but Vladimir Vladimirovich's) know this better than we do. Naturally, EVERYONE who needs to know about it. Including in the sacred West. This, here, does not know only our population.
M. Kalashnikov: I mean that in 1914 there was an opinion that, well, such a mess would be in Ukraine, and these regions, Crimea, would be, so to speak, a showcase. And Ukraine will look at them with envy. Yes, figs ... The result was a disgrace. Hell was brought to the Donbass. Which continues for the sixth year.
I. Girkin: They didn’t even bring hell to the Donbass. Hell is going on there only in a narrow frontline zone. Directly, there, in the trenches.
M. Kalashnikov: They consider it hopeless.
I. Girkin: Not hopelessness. It's just a cloaca. You see, there is no hell. In hell there - a fire is burning, devils are running around, something is going on there. And here is the cloaca. Hopeless, dull, dirty, smelly sewer. That's what they turned into, Donbass. Nearly. But there are, of course, bright ones... Individual volunteers continue to fight there, sincere ones. Both from Russia and locals. Something continues to be done there, some enthusiasts run around. There is something else alive. But in general, everything is being done to turn it into a complete cesspool. Smelly ditch. And in order to say in the end, to sum up and say: look, this is the Russian world. And Vladimir Vladimirovich's esteemed partners, they are already shouting about it, speaking in full voice. And when we start talking about it - "You are traitors! Yes, how dare you talk like that about the Donbass."
When they put a finished, patented swindler in charge of the republic ... Whose accomplices were imprisoned in Russia. His boss was in prison in Russia. [I mean Sergei Mavrodi. -DrAlexandra]
M. Kalashnikov: It...
I. Girkin: Well, Pushilin. He puts exactly the same. There is a full Internet of stories about his associates, whom Pushilin appointed. There is nowhere to put a stamp. Up to and including criminal prosecutions for cheating.
==================================
Too lazy to "stenograph" the rest. If interested, you can listen.
Upon his return, Girkin plunges into the pseudo-monarchist movement. Starting to promote to the throne of Russia the fascist underlays who overthrew Nicholas 2 and then served (Maria Hohenzollern, heiress of the Third Reich) to the fascists - the Hohenzolerns and their creature Nicholas 3 Leiningen) He already enjoys a certain authority of a veteran (among purely civil monarchists ).
However, in the spring of 1993 he was drafted into the army. It is already restless in Chechnya, and he asks to serve there, even brings a box of vodka to the military registration and enlistment office, but the military commissar, given his state of health, sends him to the air defense unit in the Moscow region. Where Girkin endures all the hardships of hazing throughout the year, in fact, in the position of "lowered" (adjusted for the absence of homosexual contacts, at least there is no information about them).
Thus, the official military system deals a heavy blow to Girkin's psyche. After all, he asked to be at the forefront, has combat experience - and he was humiliated in every way. So, in addition to the old complexes, a new one is formed - hostility and distrust towards regular military personnel, a hidden understanding that it cannot equal them, jealousy, neglect - an explosive cocktail, which is expressed in a tendency to insubordination, which will fully manifest itself in the Donbass.
Nevertheless, with all his disgust for the military system, he still does not see himself outside the war (because to whom war is Girkin’s mother), and in 1995 he goes to serve under a contract in Chechnya, in self-propelled artillery (Acacia). Fights loader, then gunner - again fighting in the absence of contact with the enemy.
Then - again PSEUDO-monarchist party in the capital, other patriotic pseudo-patriotic circles. During this period, he met Alexander Borodai, the future prime minister of the DPR.
He starts writing on the Antiques forum under the nickname Kotych, which he still does
Girkin, under the nickname Kotych, confirms (dismissing his screenshots)
(Girkin rode mayDOWN while studying the mechanism of the revolution)
Girkin is not satisfied with conversations, he strives to do at least some applied things, to form battle groups, in the hope that when power collapses, he will hang the enemies of the Motherland and take power. As a result, according to rumors, he turns out to be a recruited agent of one of the intelligence services, and is engaged in denunciation of his comrades.
Almost simultaneously, he marries hastily, "on the fly", as often happens with men who have long remained virgins. A child is born with genetic abnormalities, even then there are suspicions that this is Igor's heredity, but he does not want to hear about it, he categorically refuses to undergo an examination, and blames his wife for everything. As a result, there is a divorce with a scandal, Girkin prefers to forget about the "unsuccessful" child.
For the first three years of his service, he actively destroys his own comrades by conviction, transferring previously secret activities to a professional basis. This uncomfortable fact escapes his consciousness: he is partly blinded by the fact that he is now a real officer, with a uniform (that is, finally equal to those who bullied him), in part - he is contemptuous of many of his former comrades, believing that only he himself is the standard of a Russian patriot, and all means are good to increase his influence.
He - in fact, builds a career not on the model of the White Guard officers, but on the model of Yevno Azef, double agent, a provocateur working for both the special services and the conspirators. Obviously he can't admit it to himself.
The fate of a sadist
The complexes multiply and overlap each other: on the one hand, Girkin has finally officially entered the coveted caste, on the other hand, he feels himself behind enemy lines, not abandoning his plans to defeat the hated regime.
In 1999, he asked for an appointment to serve in the CTO zone in the North Caucasus. And spends the next five years there.
His professional skills as a counterintelligence officer, according to a number of reviews, are extremely doubtful, but he is characterized by pathological cruelty and sadistic methods of interrogation, as a result of which he receives "operational information".
There is a story that in the course of the implementation of unverified information, Girkin organized the shooting of a cafe with visitors who were not involved in terrorists. The military prosecutor's office conducted an audit, during which Girkin was removed from the staff.
Then it appears, while in the operational and military circles in the CTO zone, the call sign "Strelok" (previously Girkin, under the pseudonym "Igor Strelkov", signed his military prose in the form of notes about Bosnia).
In Chechnya, there is a story with the second marriage of Igor. He falls in love with a Chechen translator, 23-year-old Vera, who is married to a local policeman. Girkin organizes the arrest and subsequent imprisonment of Vera's husband, and takes the woman away to his place, an act in the style of a cruel parody of the Caucasian traditions of bride kidnapping, the "Prisoner of the Caucasus". Vera's first marriage is never dissolved.
funny wound
A trend begins to be traced - unpreparedness for equal relations with women, the need to sublimate an inferiority complex, dominate relationships, hence the choice of a obviously younger and intellectually undeveloped, but attractive girl.
In this marriage, two children will be born, boys, both with genetic diseases. It will become obvious to everyone who knows that the reason is Igor, for him the topic will be a taboo, he will divorce Vera, he will not actually provide assistance to children.
The divorce occurred a few years after returning from Chechnya to Moscow. The realities of existence in the central apparatus of the DBT FSB - the inability to cost a career, and at least even relations with colleagues, lack of money, disappointment in his wife and children - all this leads Girkin to an extremely depressed state, he begins to drink decently and systematically (although up to 30 years old, in general didn't drink).
In the service, he again oversees the patriotic movement. At times, he tries to use official opportunities to work for outsiders, however, when he finds himself in a difficult situation that threatens publicity and punishment, he panics and refuses everyone.
There are only two outlets left: military-historical reconstruction and " literary creativity". Writes a book of romantic fairy tales for children.
He goes into reconstruction with his head, spending all the money on this not the cheapest hobby. Except period uniform Patriotic War 1812 and the Civil one, which he had earlier, wears the uniform of the period of the Second World War, creates a machine gun club, buys several mock-ups of Maxim machine guns. Also acquires Roman legionary armor.
In the summer of 2007, under tragicomic circumstances, he received a "wound" - damage to the lower leg by a fragment of a shell that exploded directly under the fire in the camp of Girkin and his comrades, who had come to excavate battlefields in the Novgorod region (the so-called "Myasnoy Bor"). An old friend who took him out of the forest has since refused to communicate with him, motivating the refusal by Girkin's "womanly behavior".
Girkin is delivered to Moscow by a specially sent driver Borodai, by this time Girkin and Borodai are already old friends, but Girkin is brewing another mania - rivalry with Borodai. The moneyless Girkin receives regular assistance from Borodai, but behind his back calls him a slippery businessman and a man who exchanged an idea for money. Borodai moves in political circles, but Girkin considers himself much more worthy for political activity.
In early 2013, Girkin actually comes to a crisis. He is fired "without the right to wear a uniform." The reason is that he did not pass a test with a psychologist (according to close people, he attacked a specialist with his fists, not wanting to answer questions about sexual life). Naturally, Girkin argues that the testing was rigged by Russia's enemies and Western intelligence agencies.
Soon, Girkin's old acquaintances call Borodai and ask him to put Girkin somewhere, otherwise he will get drunk. As a result, Borodai arranges Konstantin Malofeev as the head of the security service (from the second time, at first Malofeev really does not like Girkin).
Then the story begins with the tour of the Gifts of the Magi, Girkin ensures the safety of shrines in Kyiv and the Crimea, and preparations for the Crimean spring begin.
Russian spring
As soon as the adrenaline subsided after the forced march to Slavyansk and the occupation of the city, Girkin begins to experience ever-increasing stress. It is made up of several factors:
Intoxication with oneself, a feeling of being a leader and commander, which is intensively fueled by the curtsies of the locals, who see him as the commander of the lead detachment of the Russian army
The need to communicate with a large number of people, manage them, make decisions, at least adequately respond to curtsies
A terrible fear of physical pain and death (in fact, for the first time he is on the front line, with the prospect of being surrounded and deploying large-scale hostilities (which will really begin soon)
As a result, Girkin locks himself in the premises of the Security Service of Ukraine and the adjacent laundry building, and builds communication with others according to the principle of "Goodwin the Great and Terrible": a minimum of direct contacts, monosyllabic meaningful answers, relatively normal communication only with a narrow circle of people who adequately express their admiration for the First. Behind this practice, he hides his failure as a leader, which is confirmed by the personalities of those close to him (for example, Igor Druz, Vika-Vika, Igor Ivanov and others are either freaks or soft-spoken scammers and thieves).
For the first time having received wide popularity and feeling the beginning popularity, Girkin is actively entering the public space.
Flight from the front
Girkin's tendency to disobey and rejection of the system (since the system rejected him at one time) leads to a perverted form of access to the public space: Girkin does not want to enter the information space as the head of the DPR Ministry of Defense; units, but as private publications by Girkin under the pseudonym "Kotych" on an Internet forum of lovers of reconstruction and military antiques.
That is, Girkin does not work in a team, does not associate himself with the republic, he has his own private opinion about everything. Understanding that in such a situation a member of the government cannot have a private opinion - Girkin does not. He sees himself as the arbiter and measure of everything.
Girkin regularly makes video messages on the Internet, stating that "we are few, we are fighting for the entire Donbass, there are no weapons." This did not correspond to the real state of affairs. There were two reasons for these tragic statements:
Formation of one's own heroic portrait of the "Knight of the Sad Image", the only Hope of the Russian People
Preparing the ground for flight under the pretext that he was abandoned by everyone (Girkin is already very scared, active hostilities are underway; he is also full of consciousness of the value of his person for history and sees his main task in preserving himself for Russia)
Strelkov's management style in Slavyansk is characterized, on the one hand, by extremely inept command and passivity in the conduct of hostilities; on the other hand, extreme and unnecessary cruelty towards "suspicious persons" (mainly from among the local population, officials of the old administration). He also takes revenge on his associates, who are not loyal enough to him, as he himself thinks.
At the same time, Strelka, who is widely known in the media and the Internet, but an insolvent figure (does not own the situation), cannot be called a real commander. A number of independent groups operating in the Slavyansko-Kramatorsk agglomeration are simply guided by and interacting with his people, Mozgovoi formally comes under the command of Strelok, but this is done largely for ideological reasons and has no real implementation. He controls the military forces, he is criminally mediocre, given the losses.
By the time he left Slavyansk, Girkin's psychological crisis had reached its peak. He spontaneously, contrary to orders, decides to flee, leaves quickly and secretly, abandons some of his people and journalists.
The currently popular legend that Girkin came to restore order in Donetsk, which was about to be surrendered, is absolutely untrue. This version was born only in the fall of 2014, when Strelok had already been in Russia for a couple of months and was busy maintaining his reputation. In fact, Girkin is afraid to go to Donetsk, realizing that there will be many claims against him.
Then Strelka has no choice but to go to Donetsk. A million-strong city with a difficult balance of power frightens Strelka, he still does not know how to build relationships with normal men, and therefore he is only formally considered the head of the DPR Defense Ministry and does not try to exercise his powers in relation to really strong commanders.
Panic and humiliation
Girkin commands only a part of those who left Slavyansk. On the bayonets of the Slavs who remained loyal, Girkin turns his energy into the usual channel: he deals with the obviously weak, that is, with civilians.
In Donetsk, Girkin meets his current, third wife. The type is the same again: 21 years old, poorly educated, outwardly attractive native of the Ivanovo region of the Russian Federation, Miroslava Reginskaya, who came to Donetsk to study, but really entered only to work in night club. She works in the Prime Minister's Office. Girkin is impressed by the girl, walks around her in circles, she also focuses on more brutal men. Miroslava accepts Girkin's courtship only after leaving for the Russian Federation, when no one needs her, according to the principle - "for lack of a better", but pretty soon she tries on the role of a fighting girlfriend of the savior of the Russian World. Girkin flees to Russia.
Life after fear
Psychological complexes and the nature of a person explain a lot in human destiny. But a person is one who is theoretically able to rise above himself. At that moment, when the militia heroically fought against the nationalist battalions and the Ukrainian regular army, and the glory of the "300 Strelkovtsy" thundered in the Donbass, Girkin could make the most important choice in his life - to remain in history as a hero, and not as a petty provocateur. But it turned out that he had enough cruelty to arrest people, provocation of senseless victims, intransigence in torture and violence against those who were already in his power, "in the basement." But his own determination and courage were not enough for him. A hero is one who sacrifices himself for a lofty goal, yes, often at the risk of others, but above all, facing the challenges of fate personally. But the provocateur - he risks only others. And when he realized that the "brilliant plan" had failed, he panicked, and nearly killed the entire militia. Girkin is unlikely to have another chance to overcome the train of humiliation and complexes, and PR and political attempts will make him more and more ridiculous. Such is the fate of an imitator, a reenactor, a provocateur who had a chance to become a hero of history, but who will remain a character in dirty and cruel jokes.
Vyacheslav Ponomarev, P the first mayor of the rebellious Slavyansk,Mikhail Verin, to commander of the Russian Orthodox Army,Tamerlan Enaldiev, tocommander of a separate Cossack regimentRepublican Guard of the DPR, pmarching ataman of the Terek Cossack army
The military main feature the commander considers the will, and then already underway prudence, moderation and self-control. When the military-political conflict in Donbass (Ukraine) was just beginning to flare up in 2014, Igor Strelkov showed all these qualities. The role of Strelkov is complex and ambiguous, but his contribution to the formation of Donbass as a separate republic is extremely great.
Childhood and youth
Girkin Igor Vsevolodovich (better known as Strelkov Igor Ivanovich) was born in Moscow on December 17, 1970. Given the military career of Igor Vsevolodovich, the facts of his biography are not advertised. According to unofficial information, Igor Vsevolodovich's father is also a military man by profession. From early childhood, Girkin was fond of history. The boy studied diligently, read with pleasure, for which he received the offensive nickname "nerd" among his peers.
Having received a basic education at Moscow school No. 249, the young man at the age of 18 became a student at the State Historical and Archival Institute in Moscow. And a year later, young man a rare hobby for that time appeared - military-historical reconstruction.
Military service
Having received a diploma of higher education, Igor did not work a day in his specialty - the young man preferred to follow in his father's footsteps. Igor's military career began in 1992 as a Cossack army shooter and mortar gunner. At the same time, Girkin first visited the war: first in Transnistria, then in Bosnia. Upon his return, the young man published a "Bosnian Diary" with records of the events of that period and personal experience.
The young man served in the Air Defense Forces as a gunner in a security company. Having started serving as a private, by June 1994, Girkin received the rank of junior sergeant. After serving military service, the young man remained in the ranks of the army, but already under a contract as a deputy platoon and commander of the Arcadia self-propelled artillery mount. After 5 months, Igor received the rank of guard sergeant.
In 1995, Igor Girkin gained serious experience in real combat operations, going to Chechen Republic. Returning from the war, in 1996, Igor joined the Federal Security Service as a detective (at the same time he received the rank of lieutenant). Simultaneously with work, Igor took courses at the FSB, after which he received a promotion, taking the position of deputy head of the department (with the rank of senior lieutenant).
Igor Strelkov in the army
From 1999 to 2005, Girkin traveled to the Chechen and Dagestan republics in order to fight the gangster underground and terrorism. By December 2005, Igor Vsevolodovich received the rank of colonel. For his contribution to the fight against terrorism, Girkin was awarded the Order of Courage and a medal.
In 2005, Igor Vsevolodovich was transferred to Moscow, where he worked in the Federal Security Service until 2013. In 2013, Igor Vsevolodovich was fired due to his seniority. General experience Girkin on military service was 18.5 years.
Igor Strelkov in Chechnya
Returning to Moscow, Igor Vsevolodovich remembered his youthful hobby and became the head of the Consolidated Machine Gun Team, created on the basis of the military-historical club "Moscow Dragoon Regiment". The main goal of the organization was the reconstruction of historical battles, in which Igor took part with pleasure, most often in the lower military ranks.
Donbass period
In February 2014 (a month before the referendum on the status of the peninsula), Igor Vsevolodovich was appointed to the position of non-staff adviser to the Chairman of the Supreme Council of the Republic of Crimea. At the same time, Igor Vsevolodovich headed a separate volunteer battalion of special forces, ensuring the establishment of Russian power on the peninsula after a referendum.
The intensification of hostilities in the Donbas forced Girkin on April 12, 2014 to take the post of commander of the DPR militia. On April 12, Girkin (under the pseudonym Strelkov) with a team of armed people and activists occupied the administration building of the city of Slovyansk (Donetsk region), announcing the city's annexation to the Donetsk People's Republic. For three months there were battles for the city, and on July 5, Strelkov, at the head of his group, was forced to leave the city, handing it over to the Ukrainian authorities.
After the referendum on May 11, 2014, which resulted in the proclaiming of the Donetsk People's Republic, Igor Ivanovich Strelkov was appointed Minister of Defense of the DPR. But two months later, on May 15, 2014, Strelkov left the territory of the DPR, leaving for the Russian Federation.
The reason for his departure, Igor Ivanovich, in his speech, announced a political decision on the part of the authorities. According to the ex-leader of the militia, the Russian government betrayed the people of Donbass. At the same time, the former Minister of Defense of the DPR stressed that he continues to closely monitor the fate of the Republic, especially war crimes committed by Ukraine.
The pseudonym Strelkov was chosen by Girkin not out of fear of political persecution and a desire to remain incognito, but on the basis that this surname is more easily remembered and reflects the owner's connection with military affairs. Although fortunes are often made in war, Igor Ivanovich Strelkov always emphasizes that he does not even have a personal car, and donates most of his finances to charity and an old hobby - military historical reconstructions.
Public movement "Novorossiya"
After leaving the territory of the Donetsk People's Republic in May 2014, Strelkov took up organizational activities in the Novorossiya social movement. The movement’s official website contains information about its activities: the leader’s analytical notes on the military-political situation in the world, fundraising and organizing events to provide assistance to victims on the territory of the DPR, the population and the army of the republic. Assistance is provided in the form of food, clothing, medicines.
Igor Strelkov organized the Novorossiya movement
The main and only goal of the movement and Strelkov as a leader is to help the people of Donbass. Novorossiya has nothing to do with politics. Igor Strelkov expressed his opinion in an interview posted on the official website of Novorossiya that the fate of Russia, not Kyiv and Donetsk, is being decided in the armed conflict in Donbas.
Personal life
Almost nothing is known about the personal life of the ex-minister of the Donetsk People's Republic. Igor Vsevolodovich Girkin is married to Miroslava Reginskaya. Miroslava helps her husband in all endeavors, has an active political position and is a member of the social movement Novorossiya, headed by Girkin. The couple has a daughter, Ulyana Igorevna Girkina. The baby was born in August 2016.
The family devotes all their free time to socio-political problems and work in Novorossia, and Igor and Miroslava spent a short vacation on the Crimean peninsula.
Igor Strelkov now
As Igor Ivanovich Strelkov emphasizes, now the main objective its activity is the organization of humanitarian aid to the people of Donbass. In addition, Girkin, within the framework of the Novorossiya OD project, also deals with socio-political problems in Russia.
So, on October 28, 2017, members social movement took part in the congress of the national-patriotic forces of Russia, where they discussed the creation of the Team of People's Leaders. The purpose of the creation of the Team is the planned reform of the economic and social policy of the Russian Federation through the fight against corruption, the nationalization of strategically important resources and the election of local Councils.
According to Strelkov, OD "Novorossiya" is the third force along with the official government and the opposition. As for the comrades-in-arms in the fight for Donetsk People's Republic, then here Igor Ivanovich is opposed to other parties to the conflict.
So, in October 2017, there was a skirmish on the Internet between Strelkov and the former Prime Minister of the DPR, now the head of the Union of Donbass Volunteers Alexander Boroday. Alexander Yuryevich in an interview called the appointment of Strelkov to the post of Minister of Defense of the DPR in 2014 as a personnel "mistake".
In addition to political issues, the OD "Novorossiya" is also involved in solving social problems in the Donbass. Strelkov and his team publish reports on monthly humanitarian aid to the people of the DPR on the official website of the movement, as well as on the page in