Afghanistan: A Russian Soldier's Story

From Publishers Weekly
In 1984 Tamarov, then 19, was drafted into the Soviet Army and posted to Afghanistan where he spent 20 months in a minesweeper outfit. Despite heavy operational responsibilities and danger, he managed to take artful photographs which capture the stark landscape, friendly and unfriendly Afghans and the men of his platoon in action and in repose. Minesweeping, according to Tamarov, was a highly respected assignment. Reason: "There were mines everywhere." The most haunting pictures are of the author's comrades, several of whom were killed by the mines they were disarming. In extended captions accompanying the photos, Tamarov expresses familiar but universally touching battlefield thoughts about fear, leadership, homesickness and comraderie. Returning home uninjured in 1986, the author subsequently traveled to the United States, met with Vietnam vets and paid his respects at the Wall on the Mall in Washington, D.C., sharing with his new acquaintances "something which others cannot understand." Tamarov is a freelance photographer in Saint Petersburgok? Saint Petersburg?/yikes, but a slip.gs . Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
The faces are hauntingly familiar--GIs at Khe Sanh or Chosin? Iraqi dead near Safwan? No. Soviet Army Afghantsi, airborn desantniki sent to Kabul to fight the "just" socialist fight. Tamarov, a veteran minesweeper at 19, chronicles his 621 days of war in this stunning personal account. More than a photographic essay, this evokes the microcosm of combat: the last image of a young soldier who dies hours later, the dust, the unshaven, the deadly simplicity of a directional shrapnel mine cradled like some votive offering. Victims, officers, killers, Mujahadeen prisoners: something in all of their eyes that is a frozen visual tragedy. Everyone should read this book. For all collections.- John Yurechko, Georgetown Univ., Washington, D.C.Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.


Los Angeles Times
"A searing memoir."


Armed Forces Journal
"With these exclusive photographs, Tamarov joins the ranks of the truly great wartime journalists."


Philadelphia Inquirer
"Word and photos that thave the clarity of a scorpion sticking its tail into your leg."


Book Description
Drafted into the Soviet Army in April, 1984 and sent at the age of nineteen to serve in Afghanistan as a minesweeper, Vladislav Tamarov turned in secret to the pen and the camera to chronicle his 621 days of war. Photographs depicting the haunted faces of both soldiers and civilians, the country's rugged yet beautiful mountain terrain, and the banality of daily life between missions are interspersed with Tamarov's unsentimental but passionate prose, in which he reveals his growing disorientation and takes to task his government for a campaign that has been widely dubbed "the Soviet Vietnam".


Language Notes
Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Russian


About the Author
Vladislav Tamarov was a member of the Soviet Union's Airborne Assault Force and served on the front lines in Afghanistan as part of a minesweeping team. He is now a freelance photographer and writer and makes his home in Las Vegas, Nevada.


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A powerful example of the photo essay, Afghanistan: A Russian Soldier's Story presents a powerful portrait of a traumatic war. With images and words bursting with insight, anger, and beauty, Tamarov proves himself a poet of both the word and the image in this moving account.


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