THE RUSSIA JOURNAL
8 FOCUS
40 years on, RPG-7 still deals certain death
The Soviet grenade launcher has evolved to beat new tank technology
By
VLADIMIR
MUKHIN
The writer is a
military
correspondent
for Nezavisimaya
Gazeta
P
eople don’t always think of
weapons as having birth-
days, but this June, the
RPG-7 grenade launcher cele-
brated 40 years at the service of
first the Soviet and then Russian
and C.I.S. armies.
In fact, as well as conquering
the Soviet armed forces and
becoming 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 and
others. The armies of more than
50 countries use it today.
I first became acquainted with
the RPG-7 as a cadet officer at
the Tashkent Higher Military
Institute, where I went to study
straight after leaving school in
1975. First, we received uniforms,
and then we were each assigned a
weapon. My weapon — the RPG-
7 — looked to me like a strange
tube with an optical sight. I spent
some time using the sight to spy
on the girls on the other side of
the fence around the institute,
and only a few weeks later got
the chance to find out what the
Sad life for Brezhnev’s drunken daughter, Galina
Plus, Russia’s Australian Nobel Prize winner and the 1991 coup attempt
MOSCOW MAILBAG
By JOE
ADAMOV
The writer is
host of the
Voice of Russia’s
Moscow Mailbag
program.
S
oviet leader Leonid
Brezhnev may have been
the most famous man in the
U.S.S.R., but his daughter Galina
also attracted more than her
share of attention. I’ll set down
the truth behind the rumors this
week. Meanwhile, Russia has
always been a country of inven-
tors, and I’ll take a look at the
man who beat Marconi to the post
in inventing the radio as well as
remembering the events that
forged a nation 10 years ago.
Q: Was Brezhnev's daughter
Galina all that the rumors say
she was?
— John Miller,
San Francisco, U.S.A.
A: When Galina was 64 her
husband-to-be was 24 and a
provincial businessman. But, she
did not marry him. She was
undergoing treatment for alco-
THE AUTHOR gets to grips with the RPG-7 in 1975.
weapon was really for.
Our company commander
aimed the grenade launcher at a
decommisioned T-55 tank stand-
ing 200 meters away. The tube
rested on his shoulder and had a
grenade that looked like a fat
cucumber sticking out the front.
Before firing at the tank, we
filled it with several sacks of
earth. We were made to move
away from the commander and
plug our ears with cotton wool.
The commander fired, a deafen-
ing explosion followed (our ears
rang for days) and the grenade
ploughed into the tank’s turret.
A while later, we removed re-
mains of the earth from inside the
tank and saw it had been turned into
brick-like hot clumps, even though
the grenade had penetrated only a
few millimeters into the turret.
holism at the Central Kremlin
Hospital, where she was a regular
client. She was begging to be
allowed to go home, saying she
was in love and through with
vodka for good.
Galina was married three
times. Her first husband was a
circus performer who was twice
her age. In her youth, she wanted
to be a circus performer, but
ended up in charge of costumes.
Her second husband was KIO, a
circus magician. He was 18 when
she was 33. This time she, was
almost twice as old as her spouse.
In 1971, she married a minor
official of the Ministry for Home
Affairs — Yury Churbanov. A
very handsome man. After a
whirlwind career, Churbanov
was arrested for corruption. His
highest post was deputy minister
for Home Affairs. I suppose
father-in-law Brezhnev helped.
She also had an affair with a
gypsy actor aged 29, who was
sentenced to seven years in prison
for speculation. I remember her
appearance on British TV: a
drunken, toothless face, and I
could hear four-letter words in
Russian behind the English text.
She said dad never refused her
anything. The papers wrote
Galina engaged in illegal trade in
diamonds. She made constant
trips abroad, had many lovers
SEPTEMBER 7 - 13, 2001
launchers from 1958-61. “The
Soviet Union was preparing for
tank attacks, and we assumed
the potential enemy would
answer in kind. This was why
we designed anti-tank
weapons.”
Korenkov said that after the
experience of war in Afghanistan
and local conflicts in the former
Soviet Union, a new grenade
Special to The Russia Journal
Special to The Russia Journal
designed for use against troops
was added to the grenade launch-
er’s arsenal. Korenkov said that
over its 40-year history, the
RPG-7 had been modernized sev-
eral times.
Specialists at Basalt designed,
THE RPG-7 has proved a highly effective weapon. for example, a new grenade —
the PG-7BR — for use against
As we were told later, this sur- President Gen. Djokhar Dud- tanks fitted with defense sys-
prising amount of damage was ayev’s army got hold of the RPG- tems that disperse the concen-
caused by the way the grenade 7 and a supply of grenades. Ac- trated explosive force of ordi-
was designed to concentrate the cording to official data, nary grenades and save the
energy of the explosive substance Dudayev’s forces destroyed tank’s crew. The new grenade
and direct it in an immensely more than 100 Russian tanks and contains two charges, one to
high-pressure stream that 250 armored vehicles during the eliminate the defense system
crushed the armor and destroyed storming of Grozny from and the second to penetrate the
everything inside the tank. No January to February 1995. tank’s armor.
modern tank anywhere in the Later, I saw our grenade Basalt has also designed a
world can protect itself from a launchers in Angola and in whole series of reactive anti-
grenade like this. Our command- Kosovo. I also saw the results of tank grenades and grenades for
ing officer told us back then that their use — burned-out tanks storming operations that are
the tank’s crew would have faced and armored vehicles and gutted used with one-off grenade
an absolutely certain death. houses. launchers. The RPG-26 and
But all of this was just words to “This grenade launcher was RPG-27, for example, can
me until I went to Chechnya dur- originally designed just as an destroy tanks, armored vehicles
ing the first war there and saw anti-tank weapon and used only or troops in buildings at a dis-
how our tank crews were dying. one grenade — the PG-7B,” tance of 200-250 meters.
When Chechen separatists seized said Vladimir Korenkov, gener- The RShG-1 and the RShG-2
arms stockpiles belonging to a al director of the Basalt state can kill troops in enclosed areas
former Soviet Army training company, which designed the over a range of 200 cubic
center in 1991, Chechen first hand-held grenade meters.
and participated in drunken Popov, a Russian, invented the scared many were the crawling
orgies. That is the sad story of radio. columns of tanks and armored
Galina, daughter of Leonid The description and design troop carriers.
Brezhnev. were published in a magazine and The putsch organizers wanted
he was the first to receive and to return us to the historical
Q: Do many people know that send radio signals. This was dead-end that was the Soviet
the Russian Nobel Prize winner admitted by the World Electro- system. The putsch was badly
Alexander Prokhorov was born Technical Congress in Paris, organized, unplanned and they
in Atherton, Queensland, which awarded Popov a gold did not have the support of the
Australia, in 19l6? Also, how medal and Diploma of Honor for tanks that were all over the city.
many inventions and discoveries inventing the radio. It was he who Young men climbed onto the
did the Soviet Union claim? got the award, not Marconi. tanks and urged the men inside to
— Colin Stewart, join them. You should hear the
Broken Hill, Australia. Q: It would be interesting to shrieks of approval when the
A: Practically all the papers I've hear your reminiscences of the tanks hoisted the white, blue and
seen mention his place of birth, tumultuous days of 10 years ago red flag. They did not open fire.
though I dare say not everybody in August 1991. Finally, Yazov ordered the
knows who Prokhorov was. He — William Kerr, tanks to leave Moscow. Yeltsin
was twice Hero of Socialist Labor Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. did not for a moment leave the
and headed our "Star Wars" pro- A: A few small events connect- White House and will be remem-
gram. He refused to be exempt ed with the putsch, the attempted bered addressing the people
from army service and went to uprising, remain in my memory. standing atop a tank. Those who
serve in a reconnaissance unit. He How Vice President Gennady started it all should have known
was badly wounded and was Yanayev's hands shook — they that a revolution, an uprising,
awarded several medals. kept showing it close up on TV. cannot succeed without the sup-
Prokhorov turned down work in How, after it was all over, Defense port of the army. The army did
the United States. That's Minister Dmitry Yazov, like a lit- not support them. And finally,
Alexander Prokhorov, Nobel tle boy, asked to be forgiven. you can't bring back the old total-
Prize winner. Outside the Moscow White itarian system, any more than
When it comes to discoveries, in House, people in those days stood you can bring back slavery to the
Soviet times they claimed that round the clock holding hands, as United States.
Russia invented everything a symbol of unity. I cannot forget Some of those who took part in
except perhaps the wheel. The how Yeltsin freed Gorbachev the putsch 10 years ago are again
locomotive? That was from house arrest in the Crimea, holding official positions in the
Stephenson. The airplane? The and flew him to Moscow. And Duma and various executive
Wright Brothers came up with how, at the first press conference, posts.
that one. The electric bulb? Gorbachev said: "I am for the (E-mail questions to Joe Adamov
Edison. The list is a long one. But Communist choice." But what at editor@russiajournal.com.)