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Summary: Afghanistan A Russian Soldier's Story - A personal tale!
Review: This is the extremely poignant story of a young Russian from Leningrad by the name of Vladislav Tamarov who at the age of nineteen was conscripted into the Soviet Army knowing full well his destination upon completing his basic and airborne training, Afghanistan. Rarely if ever have I read a story such as this, told with the full depth of emotions over what someone has seen and been forced to participate in.After his conscription, Vladislav went to basic and airborne training, where by his description the training was wholeheartedly inadequate to the task at hand. But then, armies can train basic trainees in the very basics of soldiering but they can never fully prepare them for the realities that lay ahead when facing actual combat. Of note is the fact that he and his fellow trainees spent a lot of time on the airborne training only to never use it in Afghanistan. Armed with this most minimal of training, Vladislav and his fellow basic training graduates headed off for Afghanistan. Landing in Kabul he saw the first of many dichotomies where the people of Afghanistan attempted to continue to live their lives the best they could despite rocket attacks and a constant shifting between the Afghanistan government's forces and the Mujahadeen. To add to his already cumbersome load of trying to learn how to survive in combat, he was also immediately picked out to be a minesweeper, the job that few soldiers of any army wants to have. Vladislav goes on to tell us of the many strife's and hardships that both he and his fellow soldiers endured and some which who did not survive. I found the style in which he told his story to be quite compelling as he tells it with a great depth of emotion to include areas where he seems to almost be in a dream/nightmare state where in one paragraph he's home, he's made it and in the next paragraph he's still in Afghanistan running for his life or attempting to save a friends life. Of interest is how for quite some time at the beginning of this war the Soviet people were not told what was happening and why young soldiers were coming home in zinc coffins. To us, as Americans, it would seem unthinkable for our government to commit so many assets to a combat action without telling the general populace. To think that the USSR attempted to do is almost inconceivable. Overall this is a story in pictures and words that is very telling of the experiences young men go through in war and the author deserves high praise for bringing it to print and those of us fortunate to have read it! I myself am in the Army and I found that I learned a great deal from this person that today I call a friend but back in my early days in the Army I was told he and his fellow soldiers were my enemy, thank God that's a war that never happened. I hope for him today that the demons of this war do not still haunt him for he and his fellow Afghansti have seen enough demons! I highly recommend this book to any and all for it will certainly enrich your knowledge of the Soviet Afghan war and bring you in touch with the author who a truly honorable man who when he was but a mere teenager was forced to grow old before his time. {ssintrepid}
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Summary: The Real Thing
Review: This is the most amazing book I have read all year! It's not just a story, in his own words, from a young Russian soldier in that terrible place, but it is a photo book full of the most beautiful but tragic black and white photos. You see the haunted faces of Vladimir Tamarov (the author and photographer) and his brother soldiers, many of which did not make it back. And as you read his haunted words, how he came back and could not ever be the same, how his friends who died there visit him in his dreams. They were eighteen and nineteen but they look sixteen. The title "Soviet Vietnam" is quite haunting. I believe if I met the author now I would be reminded of our own boys who were damaged by Vietnam. They also were just draftees (conscripts) in a place where they did not want to be. As for our soldiers who are now in Afghanistan, it's true they are fighting the same vicious enemy as Vladimir did! But, don't our men look ever so much better fed, and organized, and equipped, and trained, then those poor Soviet conscripts? I reccommend this book so highly, I would personally buy a copy for all my friends.
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Summary: Unforgettable, Haunting, Painful
Review: Vladislav Tamarov is barely nineteen when he is drafted into the Soviet army and sent to Afghanistan. His immersion in Soviet propaganda does not prepare him for what he will find there. His training has little to do with his assignment as a mine-sweeper. He serves his two years, somehow survives, and returns home to Leningrad. His life becomes chaotic. Somehow his Afghan experiences seem more real than the life he is living. Later he emigrates to the United States where he lives now, thirty-eight years old. But really, he never comes home from Afghanistan. In his spirit, he is still trapped in that war. As luck would have it, Vlad (as he likes to be called) is a talented photographer and writer. Somehow he manages to keep a journal and take pictures during his entire tour of duty. Now he shares the pictures with us. Plain pictures of grim, haunted young men. Men who will never go home. Men who will die within hours of being photographed. Men resting briefly before the next battle or ambush. The book is built around these photographs, with accompanying text that is simple and spare. Vlad serves his time, but really, he never comes home. In his spare, simple writing, his consciousness wanders back and forth between "home" and Afghanistan, never at peace. For him, only the war experience is real. The only people he can really feel at home with are Afghan veterans, and--interestingly--veterans of Viet Nam. Afghanistan is not a sentimental book. It is a simple, plain-spoken account of a very bad time. It is a powerful statement about war, all war, yet it does not lecture the reader. It is not a book you enjoy, but it will make a deep impression on you. It is exquisite photo-journalism. I recommend it highly. Reviewed by Louis N. Gruber
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Summary: Memories of the Future
Review: Vladislav Tamarov was 19 years old when he learned, firsthand, the meaning of this Article of the Constitution of the Soviet Union: "To serve in the Soviet Army is the honorable duty of Soviet citizens." Tamarov was drafted and sent to Afghanistan. When he arrived there, a finger pointed to him and said "Aha! I see a minesweeper!" His boot camp was inadequate and useless training as a parachute jumper in the Soviet Airborne Forces. Parachute jumping is useless in the mountainous terrain of Afghanistan. He had no training as a minesweeper--this was on the job training of the most frightening kind. Tamarov took pictures (sometimes setting up the camera for friends to photograph himself) and kept a kind of journal of his tour of duty in Aghanistan. When he returned, he was, as he puts it, an old young man. His black and white photographs won contests, but he dropped out of college, determined to write a book based on his personal journal. The book, first published in 1992 was recently republished by Ten Speed Press. There are two good reasons to read this book. First, the photographs are amazing, not only for their journalistic value, but their artistry as well. They remind me of the Walker Evans photos in "Let Us Now Praise Famous Men" or Dorothea Lange's work of the Dust Bowl years. Second, Tamarov writes from the gut, about his fears, the friends who died, the waste of life, the failed mission in Afghanistan, where, the reason for going was "at the request of the Afghan people." Trouble was, nobody could figure out why they were there before plenty of young men who couldn't get into university, bribe an official or break a leg were sent there only to return home again in a zinc box. The writing is good, but the organization of the book, being a sort of journal, is sometimes choppy. Tamarov only follows a sketchy chronology, sometimes jumping forwards and backwards in time. This can be hard to follow. The translation captures the Russian feel, the Russian wry sense of humor well. You hear the author talking directly to you. Afghanistan was Russia's Viet Nam. Tamarov quotes Alexander the Great "One can occupy Afghanistan, but no one can vanquish her." Alexander's troops left behind a memorial column when they marched out of Afghanistan. It stands today, and Tamarov's picture of the ancient monument and Alexander's prophetic statement are a chilling reminder of mistakes of the past, and perhaps the future. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
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