Vaslav Omelinski

## Vaslav Omenlinski

Vaslav in a military camp.

Vaslav Omenlinski was a former MVD soldier, who wandered the zone by himself for most of his time in Ramynsk.

## Early life

Vaslav was born to a working family during the height of the cold war in St. Petersburg. His years of schooling were relatively well as he was said to be an average kid. As military service was mandatory for all people from 18-27, he was forced to enter the military. He really did not have any problem with this. At the age of 22, he was enlisted into the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs (or MVD). He was first sent to a training facility in Labinsk by plane. He completed his training on April 30th, 1979, aged 23.

## Military service

During his military service, his first out-of-state operation was being station in Sangar, Afghanistan during the infamous Soviet-Afghan war. He never really saw the front lines of this war, as he was drafted back into being an internal troop in about 3 years. The main thing he could recall from his time was the depressing sight of the country itself.

His second operation was being sent into the dense jungles of Angola during 1984 to search for and destroy a small South African base along with a group of 5 other soldiers. In around 44 hours after first deployment, the operation was completed with only one soldier dying, who died in Vaslav's arms after being critically injured by a landmine. He was send home after 1 year in Angola.

## Ramynsk and death

After the initial gas experiments on Ramynsk in 1986, he was deployed to "protect equipment from the enemy" as they debriefed the mission. However, once they landed they realized there was no enemy. His group of 4 soldiers eventually split off, wandering around this strange place.

Vaslav had been "stationed" for 6 months now, almost without food and wondering if anyone was coming back. He began to live off the land in a way, making a makeshift fishing rod and catching fish in the lakeside cabin from the Dyartlov river. The only times he went out were when he needed something other than food, which were mainly just expeditions for more equipment and tools.

During 1995 he began to see people other than the MVD travelling the land. He wondered if they were rescue workers. He decided not to make himself obvious, as this place was still as strange to him as it was 5 years ago. They never tried to engage him, which made him confirm that they were not rescue workers. However, he still wonders who or what he saw walking around.

In October of 2000, he met a soldier after rummaging around a crashed helicopter. The soldier was not critically injured but was stuck inside of the helicopter. After saving the soldier, they wandered into a nearby cabin to have a conversation. During the walk, Vaslav coughed quite a bit from what he considered "asbestos." At the end of the conversation the unknown soldier confirmed he was part of the Spetsnaz Alpha Group, who have been deploying to supposedly help the soldiers who were already there. They were supposed to report to base when they found an MVD soldier, but he decided not to.

After becoming friends with the soldier, Yakov Veselovsky. Even though Yakov was almost 10 years younger than Vaslav, they became good friends and travelled Ramynsk together. On December 3rd of 2000, the both of them found a trader who kept himself unnamed within the Juno watchtower. They all became relatively good friends. They had a drink together within the tower, and then Vaslav and Yakov wandered outside once again.

On December 16th, Vaslav and Yakov left the watchtower to enter the seeker camp. On their way, Vaslav coughed a lot during the travel. Yakov questioned this and upon that Vaslav answered once again that it was just the asbestos in his lungs after wearing a GP-5 for quite a while. Upon entering one of the barracks in the NNP camp, Vaslav began rapidly choking and quickly collapsed on the floor, dead. Yakov found him dead within only 30 seconds of the event, and was horrified to see his body was affected by the Novichok-2 gas.

Vaslav lived a fulfilling yet tragic life in the cold northern areas of Siberia. The only think most people recall from him is his somewhat excited yet frustrated personality. Yakov keeps his ushanka dear after his unfortunate death on December 16th, 2000.