Afghanistan: Soviet Vietnam - Softcover

Tamarov, Vladislav

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1562790218 ISBN 13: 9781562790219

Publisher: Mercury House, 1992

Synopsis

A photo essay by a veteran of the Soviet army who spent twenty months in Afghanistan reveals the fear and violence of a senseless war

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Reviews

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.

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.

Edition details

• Publisher: Mercury House
• Publication date: 1992
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1562790218
• ISBN 13: 9781562790219
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 192