Not long after the beginning of the Russian
invasion of Ukraine, a short video appeared on the Russian segment of the internet and
quickly went viral. The video itself doesn't have much going on, just a few
people sitting in front of large wooden crates and a dropped phrase: "the plane is packed with cargo 200."
To a Western audience, this video likely means absolutely nothing, whereas for the Russians,
everything in the video is clear and straightforward, even including the military code cargo 200.
Moreover, despite seeing only the interior of the plane, every Russian, even those with
no connection to the military whatsoever, can easily name the aircraft in the video.
It is the "Black Tulip" the most terrible and feared aircraft in Russia. One common trait among military aircraft is
that they always receive various nicknames. I'm not talking about the "bombastic" nicknames
coined by those with little connection to aviation but rather the ones created by the
pilots themselves. Most of the time, these nicknames aren't particularly flashy and are
seldom used in materials meant for a wider audience. For example, you're more likely
to find an article titled "The Soviet 'Flying Tank'" than "The Soviet 'Hunchback'", which
is what the Soviet pilots called the Ilyushin IL-2. Although this applies to pretty much
any Soviet combat aircraft, whether it s a "Flying Suitcase", "Grocery Store", or "Hairbrush",
these nicknames most often remained confined to the, let's say, tight-knit community of
military aviators. Which is why the story of the Soviet transport aircraft, the Antonov
An-12, is so unique in that one of its military nicknames, given to the aircraft during the
war in Afghanistan, gained widespread fame across Russia and continues to be well-known
to this day. The Antonov An-12 is a Soviet four-engine
transport aircraft designed in the mid-1950s by the renowned Antonov design bureau. Today,
the bureau is mostly recognized for its gigantic aircraft, such as the An-22 "Antey", An-124
"Ruslan", and the world's largest aircraft, the An-225 "Mriya", which unfortunately was
destroyed by the Russians a year ago. However, it was the An-12 that first brought the Antonov
name success in the field of transport aviation. Reliable, versatile, and easy to pilot, the
An-12 served as the main medium-range cargo and paratroop transport aircraft in Soviet
aviation for over three decades. More than 1,200 aircraft in various configurations were
built before production ceased in 1972, and over 100 An-12s still serve in civilian and
military capacities in numerous countries. And this number doesn t include the Chinese
version of the An-12, which continues to be produced to this day. From the mid-1960s, the An-12 took part in
almost every significant Soviet operation, whether in the far North, South, West, or
East, within or outside of the USSR, in peaceful missions or combat operations. One of the
most significant chapters in the An-12's history was the war in Afghanistan, where transport
aviation became critically important for Soviet military logistics. Typically, railroads play
a central role in military supply lines. However, in Afghanistan, a country larger than France,
the entire railway system spanned a mere 5 km And those 5 km were located on the border,
connecting the Soviet town of Koushka with the Afghani town of Turaghundi. The lack of
developed roads and the overall threat of ground attacks made air transportation essential
for sustaining Soviet troop operations in Afghanistan. As a result, nearly every participant
in the Afghan war had to interact with military transport aviation in some way. Since the
An-12 made up two-thirds of the Soviet transport aviation fleet, the Antonov's "Cub", or rather
the "Flying Shed", as Soviet crews called the An-12, quickly became one of the main
symbols of the Soviet war in Afghanistan. In fact, the very opening of the war was made
possible largely by the An-12s, which shouldered the heaviest load during the first stage of
the Soviet invasion. This phase commenced with an extraordinary operation to deliver
Soviet troops to Afghanistan. The operation began on December 25 at 4:25 pm with the first
transport aircraft landing at Kabul airport, and it concluded on December 27 at 2:30 pm.
In under 48 hours, 343 flights were made from the USSR to Kabul and Bagram airports. Roughly
60% of these flights were conducted by An-12 aircraft. On average, transport aircraft landed
every 8 minutes, swiftly unloaded troops and cargo, and then returned to the USSR for the
next load. Soviet transport planes ultimately delivered 7700 military personnel, 894 combat
vehicles, and over 1,000 tons of various cargo. Without any exaggeration it was an exceptional
operation of rapid troop deployment which was perfectly planned and executed. The final
stage of this airlift was Operation "Storm-333", a special operation to assassinate Afghan
leader Hafizullah Amin and install instead Babrak Karmal, whom the Soviets trusted more.
Though suffering some losses, the overall operation was a success and marked the beginning
of the Soviet-Afghan War. However, the Soviet Spetsnaz soldiers killed during Operation
"Storm-333" became not only the first casualties of the Soviet-Afghan War but also the very
first load of cargo of the aircraft which later became known as the "Black Tulip". There are no wars without casualties, and
as the Soviet Union became more involved in combat operations on Afghan soil, the number
of fatalities only increased. This quickly raised the problem of transporting fallen
soldiers back to their homeland. Right from day one, the military command issued an order
that no killed or wounded Soviet soldier should be left on the battlefield. The issue of burying
those who fell in Afghanistan was quite important and had been discussed at the highest possible
level at the so-called Politburo. Initially, it was proposed to create a military cemetery
somewhere near the city of Tashkent for those who fell in the Afghan war, similar to the
American Arlington. However, it was later decided that building such a prominent memorial
would be inappropriate, especially considering that officially there was no war whatsoever,
and Soviet soldiers in Afghanistan were simply building schools and factories. However, the decision not to create such a
cemetery close to the Afghan border meant that there was a need to organize transportation
of the bodies of the deceased for burial at their places of residence. The problem was
that these locations were spread across the vast territory of the USSR, thousands of kilometers
away from Afghanistan. Once again, this heavy burden was placed on the shoulders of Soviet
transport aviation. The first such flight carrying the deceased
back to the USSR took place on December 29, 1979. These were the 20 soldiers and officers
killed during the operation Storm-333 . The An-12, piloted by Major Boris Karimov from
the 194th Military Transport Aviation Regiment, delivered the bodies to the Soviet city of
Tashkent, from where the first casualties of the Soviet-Afghan War were sent to their
final resting places. This route was chosen because the Central Hospital of Tashkent was
the closest to Afghanistan, and the only nearby hospital capable of preparing the bodies for
long-distance transport. As the Soviet army was drawn further into
the war, the death count began to grow rapidly. In some truly dark days, the army had to allocate
not one but several planes to transport all the bodies. But in a relatively short time,
even that was not enough, since by 1980 the number of those killed each month reached
roughly 100 people, with those numbers doubling and tripling during large combat operations.
The Soviet General Staff's order required the delivery and burial of the fallen in their
homeland no later than seven days after their death, and so to meet these deadlines, the
overall transportation system was adjusted. Starting then, four locations in Afghanistan
served as hubs for the transportation of dead bodies to the USSR. Soviet military hospitals
in those cities received special welding and
evacuation units. The unusual name of the units literally described their purpose and
responsibilities. The dead bodies, upon arrival at one of these locations, underwent necessary
cleaning and medical preparation and were then sealed in zinc coffins that were welded
shut so that the bodies could sustain a long journey home. "Zinc" is, by the way, another
word that has deeply embedded into the Russian national consciousness since then, and even
today the phrase "returned in zinc" is widely used in Russia to describe the fallen in war. Zinc coffins were then packed in wooden crates,
marked with a destination town, put on board transport aircraft, and delivered to the Soviet
Union. The routes were laid out to cover the entire Soviet Union, with landings at local
airports, from where the coffins were picked up and delivered to the relatives of the fallen.
Among Soviet military personnel, the aircraft carrying the dead bodies received the nickname
"The Black Tulip". There are several different stories regarding the origin of the nickname,
with the most probable one seeming to be its connection to the Afghan army tradition to
print obituaries in newspapers with photos of the fallen framed by an ornament of black
desert flowers. The choice of the Antonov An-12 as the transport
aircraft for such a grim task was not accidental and had a practical reason: using a huge Ilyushin
IL-76 with a 40-ton cargo capacity for this task was not always the most practical option.
Moreover, the IL-76 required a long runway and could only collect such cargo from a limited
number of airfields in Afghanistan. On the other hand, the smaller Antonov An-26 had
limited cargo space for handling the rather bulky zinc coffins. It was the An-12, then,
that appeared to be the most suitable aircraft for this task, capable of flying to virtually
all locations across Afghanistan and providing cargo space for 18 "zincs." This is why the
name "Black Tulip," which technically could refer to any aircraft carrying dead bodies,
became strongly associated with the Antonov An-12 Interestingly enough, though initially the
nickname "Black Tulip" was used only by the Soviet military, surprisingly quickly it became
widely known across the whole USSR. This was mostly due to Soviet singer Alexander Rozenbaum,
who performed in Afghanistan to boost Soviet soldiers' morale. On one occasion, he was
involved in loading the Black Tulip and was deeply shocked after learning WHAT was inside
those heavy wooden crates that he helped carry onto the aircraft. That same evening, he wrote
the song "Black Tulip," also known as "The Monologue of the Black Tulip Pilot." The song
quickly gained wide popularity in the USSR, especially after the release of the movie
"Afghan Breakdown," which featured his song and arguably for the first time demonstrated
to the Soviet public the gruesome process of returning deceased soldiers from Afghanistan.
However, it was not only the nickname "Black Tulip" that became well-known after the war,
but also the military code for its load Cargo 200. The term "cargo 200" was introduced in 1984,
the year of the highest losses for the Soviets throughout the war. Watching the increasing
number of casualties, the Soviet Ministry of Defense decided to regulate and standardize
the transportation process of the deceased. In October 1984, the Ministry issued order
#200, introducing instructions for military transportation and financial arrangements.
Among other things, the order stated that: "For the transportation of a coffin with the
body of the deceased by means of military transport aircraft or civil aviation aircraft,
the accompanying serviceman is issued a baggage coupon for 200 kg of cargo." In this case,
200 kg represented the average weight of one zinc coffin with the body of the deceased
inside. It was then that the Soviet military started to call all the deceased transported
from Afghanistan simply as "cargo 200." The code "200" was then also adopted by Soviet
army units and was widely used in Afghanistan both in reports and radio communication to
confuse the enemy. For instance, when reporting about casualties, the commander might say
over the radio that the unit had three 200s, which meant they had three killed. The Soviet
military also introduced the code "300" for "wounded", which also became widely used afterwards;
however, the common claim that this code also originated from the famous 1984 order is incorrect. Interestingly enough, the military codes,
especially the code "200," later became widespread and commonly used in Russian society, even
among people who had nothing to do with the military. Initially, this was due to multiple
articles and documentaries uncovering the truth about the Soviet war in Afghanistan.
However, later Russian propaganda flooded television with hundreds of various low-quality
patriotic military movies and shows that widely used the code "200", causing it to lose its
sense of sorrow and pain, and ultimately making it a sort of common slang, which arguably
affected Russian society in a hugely negative way You see, it is quite often that people of
dangerous professions, such as military personnel for instance, who must regularly deal with
human death, develop their own specific attitude towards the deceased. To put it simply for
the sake of this video, such an attitude may seem to lack any compassion towards the dead.
But the thing is that while such an attitude is crucial to have for the military, since
there s no place for unnecessary emotions when in the middle of the fight, it s totally
different when such an attitude takes root among the civilians, gradually eradicating
the value of human life. For instance, the news of 100 dead Russian soldiers being brought
home for burial would evoke a completely different emotion compared to the news that a train
delivered yet another batch of "cargo 200." One might think that these are just words
which don't mean much but consider the fact that the Ukrainian Army officially refuses
to use the code "200" for its fallen soldiers. As stated by the Ukrainian Armed Forces General
Staff, they view their fallen soldiers as humans, the highest pride of the country,
and not just faceless cargo. This might be why the loss of any Ukrainian soldier is treated
in Ukraine as a tragedy not only for their families but for the whole country, whereas
Russians, after getting their "cargo 200" delivered home, happily accept the government
gifts, they are sent afterwards, even if it's just a basic pressure cooker, pile of firewood,
or pack of ravioli. Unfortunately, this means that this war will not stop just because of
the shockingly high number of Russian casualties, as some may expect it to and thus as the lyrics
of Alexander Rozenbaum's song say: In regard to the "Black Tulip," though, considering the Antonov An-12's decades-long service in various valuable roles, it's somewhat unfair for it to be primarily remembered for the grim task of carrying coffins. While the aircraft has indeed been involved in many, so to say, dishonorable and dark roles, it was also involved in numerous positive and fascinating stories. One such tale is the "Ghost Plane" incident, where a Soviet An-12 circled over a city for several hours with an entirely unconscious crew. What makes this story one of my favorites is that, unlike other stories from the USSR, this one has a happy ending Maybe not entirely, but rather mostly a “happy ending,” but I don’t want to spoil it for you. I’ve made a video about this incredible incident, which you can now watch on my streaming service, Nebula. By the way, that’s where you can find my other exclusive videos like the one about the mock fights of the captured F-5 fighter against the MiG-21 and 23 which shocked and surprised the Soviet Command; or the episode on the Soviets’ crazy attempts to mount huge cannons on small fighters, which became known as the “Recoilless madness of the 30s”; or the episode on the Russian Art of Military Cheating. And more episodes are coming soon. And more episodes are coming. But Nebula is not just home to my content, but also dozens of other unique exclusive bonus projects from 200 other independent, thoughtful creators you probably already know, like Real Life Lore and his “Modern Conflicts” series, “Under Exposed” by Neo or “Battle of Britain” by Real Engineering. The reason for this constantly increasing number of exclusive top-quality videos is that Nebula is a totally different platform without a YouTube-like algorithm and without any ads so creators on Nebula make their videos not in accordance with advertiser-friendly guidelines but according to their most ambitious and crazy ideas. Which altogether results in amazing videos whose number is growing every day. Along with access to educational content, you also get free access to Nebula Classes, where you can take classes from your favorite creators and learn how to become a successful creator yourself. And best of all, if you sign up by clicking the link down below in the description, you’ll receive an insane 40% discount for an annual subscription, which means it’ll only cost you $2.50 a month for all of this awesome exclusive content from Paper Skies and hundreds of other in dependent creators. This is the absolute best way to support Paper Skies and enjoy premium content! Thank you so much for watching!
