Arkady Babchenko

A truly extraordinary memoir of the author's experience during two tours of duty in Chechnya. In the clear, simple and completely unsentimental language of a soldier he talks about the fear, brutality, privation, hatred, looting, incomprehension, lies, comradeship, incompetence, bravery, cowardice, drunkenness and many other aspects which characterised this appalling conflict, constantly returning to the ever-present fear of death, the notorious, almost unbelievable level of bullying, and show more the political cynicism and indifference which sent thousands of 18-year olds to their deaths and kept doing so. Surely one of the most disturbing yet moving books ever written about war and its effects on human beings, and at the same time an absolutely damning indictment of the Russian military. show less

This is an incredible view inside the Russian military in the 1990's. The senior ranks used physical violence in training establishments. Babchenko had few teeth left by the time he was assigned to a unit because any soldier who out ranked him used him and his fellow recruits as punching bags usually just to satisfy their anger at being poor and in hopeless situations. The violence is difficult to read about and to believe.

The lack of care the officers and the politicians had for the front show more line soldier was appalling. While fighting the enemy, they had to scrounge for water and food as neither was supplied by the Russian Government on a regular basis. The corruption was rampant with everyone selling weapons, ammunition and even military vehicles to the enemy or friends.

The Chechen War was an extremely dirty war with both sides resorting to extreme violence when they captured enemy combatants. Russian soldiers could expect torture and death and even if they changed sides they could not even trust Chechen leaders to not turn them over to the Russians in exchange for weapons or a prisoner exchange. show less

Arkady Babchenko went to war in Chechnya twice - once as a conscript and once as a volunteer. Perhaps one of the best ways to describe his experiences would be to say, "oh, the horror." Because there are some vividly horrific descriptions of combat in the war torn city of Grozny and other environs. There is also much here about the lack of effective leadership in the Russian army, as well as the eternal hazing, torture and general mistreatment of new recruits by the old-timers. While show more Babchenko writes well enough, the narrative is perhaps too long, long enough that all the "awfulness" simply becomes tedious.

But another theme which continually rises to the surface here is the anger that veterans of the Chechen war felt, an anger, bitterness and frustration at how the people back home just go on with their lives, pretty much oblivious to the sacrifices being made every day by soldiers just a couple hours plane ride away. As a crippled veteran in a Moscow subway tells the author -

"I don't understand this world. These people. Why are they alive? What for? ... They want to rip everyone off, stash away as much money as they can, and that's it. So many boys died, real kids, these people here fritter their lives away ... Pointless people. A whole world full of pointless people ..."

Babchenko also talks about the "addictiveness" of war and combat, the rush it can bring. Much of these same sentiments were voiced by British officer, Patrick Hennessey, who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, in his book, The Junior Officers' Reading Club. Because these feelings are universal. War is indeed hell, whether it's in Chechnya, Afghanistan, or Iraq, and regardless of when it happens. Babchenko's "One Soldier's War" is perhaps in truth every soldier's war. This book is one soldier's attempt to expiate the demons he carried back home with him. show less

This would have been a solid 5/5 if it were accurate, but the author has an axe to grind (hates Russia), and wrote this book using the template of other war memoirs, filled out with stories from many individual people (which may or may not be accurate) rolled into one highly implausible tale. There is absolutely a high level of violent hazing of conscript and contract soldiers in the Russian military, and the Chechen wars were a low point, but no one takes near-lethal beatings daily for show more months, combined with lack of food, without suffering enough to no longer be combat effective. There were other cases where he was unable to do something one day but then revealed to be able to trivially do it on other days with no real change of status.

There is probably enough true material here (misattributed) to still be a good overview of the Chechen conflict from a soldier's perspective, but it's to be taken with a massive dose of skepticism. show less