The First Chechen Campaign of 1994-1996 in the memoirs of employees of the state security agencies of Russia

The paper presents the assessments given by the leaders and ordinary employees of the Russian counterintelligence in Chechnya in 1994-1996. Using the memoirs by S.V. Stepashin and E.V. Savostyanov as well as some FSB Special Forces officers, the article analyses the activities of the Russian special services in the fight against separatism in the Chechen Republic at that time, from helping opposition forces in the summer of 1994 to participating in the defence of Grozny from militants in August 1996. The conclusion is made about the predominance of the heroic narrative in these sources.