On January 1, 1999, the central press organ of the Ministry of Defense, the newspaper (Krasnaya Zvezda), turned 75 years old It was hard to believe what had happened. I heard the voice of the newsroom attendant and couldn't comprehend what had happened. Vladimir Zhitarenko, our special correspondent who passed through all the hot spots, was killed. It happened in Chechnya. Impressions were reinforced by the fact that the message was received during the New Year's days of 1995, when the country was on vacation. We all knew that heavy fighting with separatists was taking place on the territory of the Chechen Republic, and we knew that Cargo 200s were coming from there. Still, I couldn't believe that our comrade had died... It was ridiculous somehow. The editor of the essay and journalism department, a member of the editorial board, Colonel Vladimir Zhitarenko, served his time and retired to the reserve. The submission has already been sent to the Main Personnel Department of the Ministry of Defense. But the officer decided to stay in the editorial office and continue working as a special correspondent, which in fact he was about thirty years old. On New Year's Eve, Vladimir wished to go to Chechnya and work in the war zone. They say that I will come and start working in a new position, having prepared a series of reports and essays. "I feel that trouble is brewing in Grozny," he assured the editor-in-chief. I remember that on December 31, the executive secretary of the editorial office, Vyacheslav Lukashevich, a peer of Vladimir, was instructed to contact Chechnya, talk to Zhitarenko and congratulate his wife. There was no communication, Vladimir's wife was congratulated on behalf of the editorial board. As it turned out later - at the fateful moment when a bullet from an enemy sniper killed a journalist not far from the combat position of an infantry fighting vehicle of a motorized rifle company. Then there were publications of suicide reports, funerals. And everyone ... Читать далее