To Win, We Must Start in Dadivank – Leonid Azgaldyan

At the first stage of the Artaskh liberation movement, Leonid Azgaldyan was engaged in the preparation of Artsakh boys for sabotage work.

The Artsakh war is a separate issue. It must probably mature, and a generation of its true chroniclers is yet to come. With these chroniclers, the role of the people who’ve prepared for war their entire conscious life – even when there was not a single symptom of the impending and inevitable Armenian war in the sky – will be particularly noted.

And it doesn’t matter where they lived and in what society they rose to their feet – whether in a rotting Soviet environment saturated with communist ideology or in the hypocritical “society of general well-being”.

They did not have the usual and explainable fanaticism of sectarians or the religious fanaticism of spiritually narrow and limited personalities. Quite the contrary – they were individuals who were able to think broadly, absorb all the achievements of the human spirit, rely on all available experience.

These were the Warriors. Walking along the path of the warrior, they prepared their body and spirit for the inevitable armed struggle for the future of their people. Azgaldyan, of course, was in their ranks…

According to veterans, the school of Azgaldyan was tough and was built on an alloy of the teacher-student relations of the East and the military professionalism inherent in special forces of the West.

Starting the training of future scouts and saboteurs of the future victorious army, Azgaldyan set a strange condition – the training camp should be deployed near Dadivank.

The “authorities” of the Artsakh underground were informed that Azgaldyan seemed to be a little crazy and said strange things, among them: “We must start in Dadivank to win…”

“He teaches something like that? How are the trainings themselves, are they normal?”

“They’re brilliant!”

“Well, then Lord be with him. If he wants to train in Dadivank, let him train. As for you… Try not to pay attention to what he says.”