40 days have passed since the death, perhaps, of one of the main commanders of the “Russian Spring” - the Hero of the DPR, Alexander Zakharchenko. His friends and media people, who are not indifferent to the fate of Donbass, launched a flash mob on social networks so that as many people as possible remembered the head of the self-proclaimed republic on this day. I believe that it is very important for Russia not to forget and learn to remember the heroes of its recent history, therefore we will also remember.

We were friends with Alexander Vladimirovich. He was a man of sparkling and colorful, and in this color there was no any dude pretentiousness. His permanent, sorry for the expression, the creative was expressed in almost philosophical impromptu, the results of which he sometimes made absolutely ingenious management decisions. I will tell a couple of stories, little known to the general public. They are important for understanding how exactly Alexander Zakharchenko in 2014 managed to unite around him in a militia of scattered Donbass field commanders.

It is no secret that in the late summer of 2014, Donetsk was a semi-anarchic formation. In moments of a rare front-line lull, the warlikeness of the fighters, who received, say, the leave, sometimes poured out onto the city streets and the cafes that did not have time to close themselves.

Breaking out for several hours from the front line, the hot guys continually tried in different ways to compete with each other over who fought better. Sometimes these heroic clashes turned into fights, and sometimes - into emotional skirmishes. We even joked comparing some of the Donetsk establishments (they were soon, banned soon) with the cowboy saloons of the last century, where, standing behind the bar, anyone, in general, could run into a stray bullet.

These "swings" looked ridiculously primitive. The Cossacks could mate with the guys from “Somalia”, and the guys from “Sparta” - or “motorolovtsy”, as they were then initially called, - went into conflict with the guys from “Oplot”, who, by the way, was headed by Zakharchenko at that time . One day, even the Motorola fighters in earnest joined up with the rest of the guards of the head — let me remind you that the times were radical. As a result of the conflict were wounded.

With the culprits, almost a military incident (from both sides) was then not yet fully inaugurated as the head of the DPR, Alexander Zakharchenko, entered under martial law.

I sent it to the hottest section of the front, and the instigators of the quarrel were forced to fight together, literally in one detachment. In the midst of then there were fighting at the Donetsk airport. So here. Alexander Vladimirovich sent his personal security guards from the “Oplot” famously quarreling with the “motorolovtsy” exactly to the positions of those same “motorolovtsev”, namely to the hotel building, which was located directly on the territory of the air harbor.

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Actually, at that time only one name remained from the hotel, and that soon collapsed: the Ukrainian military threw colossal artillery and tank resources in order to regain lost buildings and dislodge Donbass militias from the Donetsk airport. During the day, more shells flew into the hotel than walls and floors could withstand. In short, it was a real hell.

At the same time, the head of the DPR did not shy away from trips to such kind of hot spots. Together with him, I could wade past broken mines and Grad rockets across the air harbor a few days after the sensational story of a gunfight between “fighters” and “motorolovtsy”. In the hotel, the appearance of the commander, to put it mildly, was surprised. The risk of catching a bullet, grabbing a bunch of mortar debris, or getting under tank shelling was beyond. However, along the way, it turned out that Zakharchenko had come not only to inspect positions and find out the real fighting situation, but also to see yesterday’s hooligans sent to the front line as a punishment.

To the universal Homeric laughter, it turned out that quite recent and irreconcilable rivals in the pursuit of steepness are now almost best friends: they sit at one loophole, peacefully helping each other to fill shops with ammunition, and sip branded front-line tea. I remember that this purely military idyll not only amused the head and our military association, but also confirmed in general the genius of the verdict of Zakharchenko. The decision to cure a quarrel with the front, which could easily turn into an internal confrontation between two well-known Donbass units, was both simple and wise. And most importantly, no one was offended, and “Oplot” and “Sparta” got an unforgettable experience of combat coordination, which was useful to them later.

A similar managerial creative happened to the head of the DPR regularly: a network of millions of views collected videos, where in the Donetsk market he checks the accuracy of the scales with a TT pistol. Having identified the violations, Zakharchenko and the director of the market sent to be treated for thirst for profit on the front. They say that he quickly got accustomed there, established himself as a brave fighter, and as a result, when the sentence had expired, he remained to serve in the army.

War - a terrible thing, of course. But in someone she highlights the meanness and cruelty, and in someone - the nobility and the concept of honor. Coolly, my friend rapper Rich said: “I am happy that I had the opportunity to live at the same time as Alexander Zakharchenko. The times of heroes are not somewhere in the Middle Ages, they are now. And I will remember all my life the front recipes of the head of the DPR. ”

The point of view of the author may not coincide with the position of the editorial board.