My parents, after my father's dismissal from the army, remained to live in Ukraine. I made an attempt to transfer to the Ukrainian army. Luckily for me, it was unsuccessful. To be honest, I didn't really want to serve there, I just wanted to leave Armenia against the background of the general departure.

I was appointed head of the team of soldiers from Ukraine, who were to be transported by a military transport board from Vaziani (I do not remember which city), I think, to Chernivtsi. For several days our team lived in the Vazian training camp near the airfield. There I had to take part in one fight, which ended with a reprimand, but radically changed my fate for the better.

The training course trained conscripts for the Armenian army, it was not sympathetic to the Armenians, in another period they also trained for the Azerbaijani army. Before leaving, my "Ukrainians" decided to teach the wisdom of the Armenian brothers and in the evening a fight broke out. Belts, boots, fists flashed. Honestly, I didn't want to get involved in this hooliganism. But unexpectedly, one lieutenant colonel and one colonel were at the center of the scuffle. They tried to stop the scuffle, but once they got into it, they fell under the cuffs of the Armenian youth. I had to intervene.

The technique was simple, a distracting blow – a sweep. I quickly reached the officers and led them out of the circle of grappling bodies. Then he gave the command to the "Ukrainian gang" to stop the fight, which she reluctantly did. The training commanders came running, lined up their Armenian cadets and took them to the barracks.

An hour later, I was summoned to the commander of the local unit, who accused me of being poorly in command and a fight broke out because of my connivance. He said that he would certainly report to my command about the incident. At the exit from the office I was met by a colonel who was at the scene of the fight. It turned out to be the head of intelligence of the 5th Army, Colonel Kazansky.

He asked me:

– Where are you from so smart, Lieutenant?

– From the Leninakan motorized rifle regiment!

– I answered.

– Do you want to serve in the special forces?

– What is it and where?

– This is a separate company of special intelligence in Yerevan.

I did not understand what special intelligence was and why I needed it. And although Yerevan is the capital, but again Armenia, in which I did not want to stay. So I said No.

 – It's a pity, said the colonel, but if you decide, here are my coordinates! – he wrote me his title, surname and telephone number on a piece of paper. On this we parted.

I was not transferred to the Ukrainian army, having written on the report “inappropriate”. And I continued my service in Leninakan. Maybe I would not remember about the special forces, but once a lieutenant from the special forces was transferred to our dorm room. He was removed from the company for brawliness, which consisted of firing a machine gun on the square in front of the government building. He was wearing a strange sand-colored uniform, not like an Afghan woman, but very comfortable. He explained that this is the "sand" – the uniform worn by the army special forces. He also said that only Slavs served in the company, and that the company was intended for deep reconnaissance. The training program includes skydiving, hand-to-hand fighting, shooting, mine explosives, tactical and special training and many more interesting things. I remembered the colonel's proposal and wanted to serve in the special forces.

Having chosen the time, I left for Yerevan to talk with the company commander. The company was located in the Charbakh region, near the Erebuni airport. A helicopter squadron was based nearby. The separate base of the company, the disciplined fighters and the special spirit of the unit amazed me. I wanted to serve there even more. However, my desire to serve in the special forces did not seem enough to the company commander, and he did not want to take an infantry officer to his unit. I was upset, but I remembered the chief of intelligence, who offered me personally to serve in the special forces, and decided to contact him directly.

Having reached the headquarters of the army, I got to see him. The colonel remembered me and even seemed to be delighted. I told him that I realized everything and wanted to serve in the special forces. He also told me what I know about the vacant in the company. Kazansky made two calls. One to the personnel department, the other to the company commander, and my further fate was decided. I was given three days to get ready, after which I had to arrive at a new duty station. In a separate spetsnaz company, I plunged into my studies. I liked everything. And shooting, and marches, and tactical and special training. In many disciplines I had gaps in knowledge, combined arms education affected, but I eliminated them as much as possible. We were also engaged in hand-to-hand combat. Here my skills came in handy, but only as an addition to general studies. In general, there was no coherent system for teaching hand-to-hand combat. They were engaged, in every way, to the best of their understanding of this discipline. In the planned classes, they studied the removal of the sentry and the receptions from the NFP-87, and in their free time they studied boxing, wrestling and karate. The classes, which were held according to the combat training plan, were not always interesting and dynamic, but the mass sports work was filled with interesting exercises and fights. I was not ashamed to participate in fights with fighters, in general I was better prepared, but a couple of people were clearly more technical and stronger. Gradually, the respect of the commanding staff and soldiers came to me.

The war that began in Nagorno-Karabakh dragged the company into a series of tragic events. Some of the officers and fighters left for Nagorno-Karabakh and unofficially took part in hostilities on the side of the Republic of Armenia. Soon, Semyon's group was captured. The press then wrote about this a lot. Officially, the fighters were involved in the personal protection of the command staff of the army headquarters. Against the background of general confusion and collapse, a separate spetsnaz company looked like an island of stability. For everyone, this illusion ended unexpectedly.

One morning in the morning, a commission of the Russian and Armenian army arrived, the chief of intelligence read out an order to disband the company, transfer equipment and premises to the Armenian side. The personnel of the company were to go to serve in the reconnaissance company of the Kanaker regiment. Nobody wanted to serve there, the fighters were fired, who were transferred to the Lagodekhi brigade. The officers were also transferred to various brigades, and I hung up.

This happened because the order for my transfer to the company had not yet been signed at the headquarters of the district, the order to disband the company had been signed earlier. Waiting for the decision of my fate, I lived in a company and watched the formation of the Armenian special forces. They recruited strong and generally decent guys for the service. The commander of their detachment was appointed a major, krapovik, who had previously served in the internal troops. Taking into account the Armenian mentality and views on the organization of the life of the unit of their leadership, they all did not look the same as in the Soviet army and our special forces.

All employees of the unit were officers or warrant officers, naturally lived at home, and their working day was from 9 to 18. Moreover, the first half of the day was devoted to training sessions. Since their commander was a paratrooper, a lot from the internal troops of that period was present in the training, but there was a failure in reconnaissance exercises, I also observed hand-to-hand combat lessons.

They consisted of a warm-up and practicing hand-to-hand combat techniques, but the single part was absent. Still, I took part in one duel. When I was warming up on the sports camp, an officer of the Armenian special forces came up to me and offered to spar, while he introduced himself as the champion of “everything in the world”. All those who were nearby gathered and watched our fight with interest.

The fight was not long, my technique and delivered strikes quickly did their job. Several sweeps forced the enemy to lie in the sand, and a kick from under the arm to the left hypochondrium knocked him out of breath. I had already chosen the moment for a knockout blow from my right hand to the jaw, in principle, the enemy was already quite open and torn, as their commander preferred to stop this action. In principle, the SENE technique worked well in single combats. I even received an offer from their commander to stay in the service in the Armenian army, which I refused. And soon the question of my transfer was resolved, and I left to serve in the Rostov special forces brigade.