Afghanistan: A Russian Soldier's Story

We in America often forget that most people in this world are just trying to survive from one day to the next. Vladislav Tamarov is thrown into the Soviet Union's ill-fated military adventure in Afghanistan, and there he tries to survive from one minute to the next. He also tries, courageously and often in vain, to help his comrades survive, having been assigned the most dangerous job: minesweeper. He bravely shares every aspect of his horrifying story. He effectively conveys the harsh (un)reality of war. The photos that affected me the most were of the young soldiers, who look far too young to be where they are. A must read for anyone who wants to understand what war is really like.

Afghanistan A Russian Soldier's story by Vladislav Tamarov is an intensely personal book. The reader learns only a little about the strategy and tactics used by the Soviet forces to fight the war in neighboring Afghanistan. Rather, this is a document that reflects the process of maturation of its author. He starts as a 19-year-old man being drafted into the Russian army. His naiveté in volunteering for the commandos (which will take him in short order into the task of defusing enemy mines) mirrors the bravado and sense of indestructibility that is the main reason that men of his age have been used as soldiers for as long as there have been armies.The story is told in episodes - not as plot for it's own sake, but rather to communicate the range of emotions and intensity of fear unique to the battlefield soldier. Some of my favorite writing comes from letters sent home by Confederate and Union soldiers from America's civil war. These documents are important not because of the credentials or social standing of the writers, but instead because of the intensity of the experiences these writers were living. Vladislav Tamarov continues this venerable tradition and extends the genre to new depths of insight. Probably the most obvious lesson learned was that after such a prolonged ordeal, one cannot "go home again". The effects of fighting the fghan war changed Mr. Tamarov's values so much that he was unable to fit back into the life that he idolized and longed to survive long enough to resume. We all know many stories of disaffected soldiers who live out their lives on the bitter fringes of society. Mr. Tamarov provides hope not only through his own strength and resiliency, but, later in the book, by his activism and involvement with international veterans groups to improve the lives of men often forgotten by all of us.A parallel story of maturation is told by the wonderful series of photographs that illustrate the book. These pictures chronicle not only the events in his story, but more importantly, give the reader a glimpse into the development of author's remarkable photographic artistic maturation. The photos give the book a visceral link to that timeless reality captured best by a photographer of Mr. Tamarov's skill. It certainly left me wanting to follow-up more of his later work.I highly recommend Afghanistan A Russian Soldier's story. Because it is so personal, it resonates deeply with the universal things that unite us as humans. It is set against the backdrop of a futile war in a foreign land, and then home transformed into the unfamiliar. The development of his personal strength to transform his savage experience into something that makes him a stronger man is inspiring. I especially recommend this book to those who appreciate war memoirs, those who like books about personal transformation, and to all who love great photographs.Jeffrey Lyon

I was in the Afghanistan war in 1984-85, the same time as Vladislav Tamarov - the author of this book. I have been looking around for books about the Afghanistan war and I finally found it - "A Russian Soldier's Story". Tamarov's book took me back to those years in Afghanistan, years I will never forget and that changed my life forever. If you want to see the Afghanistan war through soldiers eyes (literally), then you must read this book. By now I have seen more books about Russian-Afghanistan war, but only Tamarov's book really gave me the real feeling of those years over there. You guys who served in Afganistan or Vietnam know what I mean by "the feeling of those years". A must read book for everyone after 9/11, but especially for those who know the real meaning of WAR.

"Old soldiers never die; they just fade away," said General Douglas MacArthur in his maudlin farewell address to Congress. But what about young soldiers who are thrown into a war at 19 and are lucky enough to be discharged as veterans at 20? As Vladislav Tamarov says in this remarkable memorial - more than a memoir - to the boys he served with in Afghanistan, "War made me grow up fast, but it made me old for my years. It made me an old young man." People sometimes resent referring to "our boys" over there in a war but Vlad reminds us that they were boys, not yet men, fighting a Soviet war that old men had decreed. But the old men never shed their blood and their bodies were not sent home in zinc coffins - sealed, no doubt, so that no parents back in Russia would see the pieces of flesh that had once been their sons.What makes this story so gut-wrenching is its photographs, mostly taken by Vlad himself and a few by his comrades. One picture shows a group of five of them. He gives their names and tells how three of them soon died and two were seriously injured. When we see TV pictures of American servicemen in Afghanistan today, we cannot help but notice that they all have helmets and often body armor. But none of the Afghantsis, the young Russians who served in Afghanistan, even had protective helmets, only light field hats.Should not this young Russian's story and those of his American counterparts, the "Vietnamtsis," some of whom exchanged visits with and became friends of veterans like Vlad, serve to dampen the sounds of saber rattling coming out of Washington today? But it won't, will it? Wars are still started by old men and their younger clones. Who remembers that 40,000 body bags were sent to the Near East in preparation for Desert Storm? "Fortunately," only a little over 300 had to be used. That war had a purpose, albeit a somewhat ambiguous one, but the wars that cost 15,000 young Russian lives in Afghanistan and the one that cost 50,000 American lives in Vietnam were wars that had no purpose that the fighters could understand. The fighters had only one purpose: kill before you get killed.Luckily, in America, reporters broadcast their stories of what was happening in Vietnam and an unprecedented swell of popular protest arose at home. In the Soviet Union there was no protest because no one back home was ever told their boys were dying by the thousands. They were told they were in Afghanistan to build hospitals and help the Afghani people.In one of his most chilling stories Vlad tells how he had disarmed and knocked down a young Mujahadeen. He aimed at his head but something stopped him: "I saw how his hands were trembling: I noticed the horror in his eyes. `He is only a boy!' I thought and pressed the trigger."This is a book to be bought, read and taken deep into the heart.

This is the one book you need to read if you want to know what it was like to be a Russian soldier in Afghanistan. The pictures and prose are gripping. I would love to know how Tamarov got the pictures out. The book is not long. I sat down to start it and was up late finishing it. I myself am a veteran and was amazed at how I could relate, as a soldier and a man, to the descriptions of frustration, boredom and fear. And the descriptions of the various groups of the Mujahadeen offered insights that I have seen nowhere else. Also, Tamarov was Spetz Natz, and the view into that elite unit is priceless. If you want to know what Afghanistan was like for the Russian soldier, or simply what modern warfare is like in the Third World, and its effects on young men, this is the one book you need. At least to start with. The pictures alone are worth the price of the book.I sent this to a friend of mine, also a Russian, also a veteran of Afghanistan, and all he could say when I asked what he thought was, "My God."