09.05.2009 20:41 | “The Russian Army Came!”

It’s a story of Irina Grigorievna Kudzieva, the teacher of Ossetian language and literature.

That terrible day, on August, 8 I was at home in

Of course, my husband wasn’t at home. Taking cover from the bombardment the neighbors got together at my place. When we were together we could feel our feet. Suddenly we heard the roar and somebody’s shrieks coming from outside in the street. We exchanged glances anxiously, we wanted to run out to the balcony, but it was too late - the Georgian soldiers invaded our home.

I tried to calm down and came to the anteroom, where they immediately aimed nearly ten sub-machine guns at me. One of the invaders asked me in Georgian:

- Are there the men in the house?

- No! – I gave a short answer in Russian (I understand Georgian language, but don’t speak in it).

- Have you got a red lipstick?

- No. I can give you the brown one, - I said and began to think strenuously what the soldiers they were if they needed a red lipstick.

- Well, give it.

- What do you use it for? – I couldn’t keep from that question. - - It’s none of your business! - One of them said.

I gave them the lipstick and hasty came to the corner. Suddenly one of them stared at me and said:

- I know you. You graduated from the sixth school.

- No, I learnt in the sixth school for several years, but I finished the twelfth school.

- And I graduated from the sixth school. And you, bastards, extruded me during the first war! And now I’ll let you know how to oust the people and burn the houses! I’ll show you what I’m made of! Do you know that we came from the direction of Nikozi? The tanks will come soon too. Do you see this body armour? – he roared and tapped his chest, - it has eight kilograms of weight. This is arming of NATO. The sub-machine gun can’thole it, so they could kill us only in case they hit our heads.

Maybe, there were a lot of words he wanted to say, but the phone ring interrupted him.

And I sat in the corner and could not breathe, I only listened their talk: “We already occupied the city, destroyed so much tanks, inspected that area...”

They were here till the evening. It was nearly six o’clock in the evening when they were going to leave. The man, who recognized me, asked:

- Are we in the centre?

- If you are the local, why don’t you know where the centre is? – I grew quite indignant.

- I asked you if we were in the center? - he repeated. - We should go to the direction of Tamarashen. If nothing wrong happens with us, we shall take you in hostages, in other case we’ll kill everybody here!

And I told them a lie, having said that they were above the center. Having heard it, they jumped out of the house and drove off. In a few minutes a great explosion occurred. The pieces of broken glass fell up on the ground, we fell down. The first minutes we could not even move, so we were shocked. But after a time we realized that it were Georgians, who having driven off did not neglect an opportunity to shoot from the tank at the destroyed building one more time.

For a long time we were sitting silently. I guess, everybody was shocked by the events and tried to realize in the silence what had happened. When it became calmer, my neigbour went out. Having returned she brought an iron sheet, where were written by brown lipstick: “Cobra. There are 3 wounded and killed in this house”. In this way Georgians let their people, who were in-coming, know. At last, in the late evening I decided to go out. Without any plan, I just wanted to know if there were any alive people in the city, except us. I went along

and saw running soldier.

- Are you Ossetian? - I called him.

- Yes! Are you still here?!? - The soldier reacted suddenly.

- Women and children are only here.

- Run away! And how did you stay here?! The tanks are in the city! They are already at

! For heaven's sake flee!

- Where will I run? In the direction of the Parliament?

- No, not a bit of it! The Parliament is already in fire! Flee somewhere! - He shouted for the last time and disappeared round the corner.

I went back to the house. I was absolutely confused. There was that scared soldier before my eyes. I told to my neighbours about everything I saw. Without thinking twice, we decided to take cover somewhere. The building ofCity department of internal affairs seemed to us most available and safe place. We came there, but nobody was in that place. Fortunately, they heard us from the bunker, where a lot of militiamen and townspeople unfamiliar to me were. When I went down, they ordered to me at once to switch off the phone. They said that Georgians had American tanks, which locate the people and shoot them. 

It was impossible to stay there any more. In case they don’t kill us we would remain under ruins.

Step-by-step we moved to the next house and then – to the cellar of Deputy Chairman of  ​South Ossetian Parliament Tarzan Kokoiti.

I spent the night there. At 4.30 a.m. Eleonora Bedoeva, the Minister on ​Youth Affairs informed that the evacuation of the children, women and elderly would begin soon near the hotel “Alan”. I took the documents and ran through the park. And the park was already burning, I could see nothing, there were a lot of branches and broken trees on the ground. I don’t know how I managed to cross the park. I hurt my legs but it didn’t matter. At

the sniper found us and began to shoot. Old man Nikolay Tibilov, the veteran of Great Domestic war, was killed before my eyes.

So I reached “Alan”. There were already a lot of people here, but I didn’t see any transport. When the people saw us they began to whip Eleonora:

- Why did you take them here? It wouldn’t be the evacuation! Where are your cars?

And there were no space left in the basement of hotel “Alan”, it was closely and very stuffy there. I had no forces and desire to rescue my life any longer, I sat on a parapet and thought of nothing. Then the neigbours managed toget round me to move to the school basement.

In the morning of August, 10 one guy came to us and hardly keeping from joyful impulse announced:

- The Russian army came!

On a photo: I.G. Kudzieva

Lolita Kochieva, the newspaper "Suadon"

Translated by Tatiana Inozemtseva