Books: One Soldier’s War in Chechnya
Babchenko went to Chechnya twice, his book one soldiers war in Chechnya is a memoir of his time there. Written in a style that is unflinchingly direct and desperately cathartic, Babchenko’s memoir is distant as if he has no feeling about his own experiences except the urge to lay them bare for the world to digest. The book deals with his perspective as cannon fodder on the front line and rarely mentions or address's the historical and political context of the conflict, but rather focuses on his day to day personal experiences from seeing captured comrades beheaded to the barrack room bullying(dedovshchina) that is apparently standard in day to day life of a Russian soldier.
“At the edge of the square they’ve dug an improvised torture rack into the ground, a thick water pipe that has been bent into the shape of a gibbet. At the kombat’s orders, the platoon made it during the night by placing the pipe against two concrete piles and using an armored car to bend it in the middle. Two ropes now dangle from it. The anti-tank gunners are led out, hands bound behind their backs with telephone cable and dressed in ragged greatcoats and long johns. Their faces are already swollen and purple from the beating and there are huge black bruises where their eyes should be, oozing pus and tears from the corners. Their split lips can no longer close and pink foam bubbles from their mouths, dripping onto their dirty, bare feet. It’s a depressing sight, After all, these are not tramps but soldiers, ordinary soldiers; half of the army is like these two.”
Compelling reading, brutal and in your face, ultimately very hard to put down.
One soldiers war in Chechnya by Arkady Babchenko
“At the edge of the square they’ve dug an improvised torture rack into the ground, a thick water pipe that has been bent into the shape of a gibbet. At the kombat’s orders, the platoon made it during the night by placing the pipe against two concrete piles and using an armored car to bend it in the middle. Two ropes now dangle from it. The anti-tank gunners are led out, hands bound behind their backs with telephone cable and dressed in ragged greatcoats and long johns. Their faces are already swollen and purple from the beating and there are huge black bruises where their eyes should be, oozing pus and tears from the corners. Their split lips can no longer close and pink foam bubbles from their mouths, dripping onto their dirty, bare feet. It’s a depressing sight, After all, these are not tramps but soldiers, ordinary soldiers; half of the army is like these two.”
Compelling reading, brutal and in your face, ultimately very hard to put down.
One soldiers war in Chechnya by Arkady Babchenko
Comments
Post a Comment