Afghanistan 1980

The soft, red-hot glow of the campfire begun to fade out. More wood was added, not a lot, but just enough to rekindle the flame before it died out. My comrade blew into it, delivering a puff of smoke and an explosion of heat over us. Resources, such as blankets or jackets, were in short demand, so our fire was the only source of warmth from the brutal desert night. All of us hated it here- it was miserable. Why in 79 Leonid had led us here was puzzling to me. Why would anyone want to claim this harsh place or help anyone here at the cost of lives of their own country men? It seemed though the Soviets had carried a long tradition of unnecessary bloodshed for only a pittance. But that is how we got along for years and decades, as long as the USSR was intact there would be meaningless death. Our jobs, me and my squad, were miserable and dangerous, to say the least. Everyday in the heat of the desert sun and the frigid desert night, traipsing around, cooped in our small compound (a small patch of desert below a mountain range with a chain link fence around it and a couple of buildings) armed with my Kalash , staring across the blank dunes of sand or the occasional sandstorm caused by helicopters, looking for signs of troubles. That was my new found life; Guard duty. How I hated it so! I hated the Soviets; it seemed everyone at my compound did. I just hope it is better for my son, Artyom. I sent him to the U.S where he and my family could live away from this tyranny at peace. With knowledge that they are free, where the old ways and communism weren’t holding them back, where they could escape prejudice and evil.

“Where are you going?” a senior snarled at me.

“Just to class. What do you want from me?” I solemnly yelled back.


“Your head, you communist!”

They rushed right at me, one threw his fist right into my stomach, and I quickly took my fist and caught one right in the cheek. His cheek changed color to a bright red. I knew if I could aggravate them enough they would quit. They retaliated badly, one kneed me in the stomach when I was hunched over, and the other one came and hit me right in the back of the head. I did not fall over, but I was dizzy, I began throwing punches in all directions not caring if I hit them. They backed off looking to see if any teachers were near. I regained conscious again. They deliberately came at me again. I threw a kick at one it missed. I threw punch, but was lucky this time and nailed one of them in the abdomen. He let out a scream. A crowd began to draw near as the tiny high school courtyard turned into a gladiator arena. As more and more people crowded, I could tell I was in deep trouble. They grabbed me by the shirt collar, my new red polo was ruined as the collar become torn apart by their hands. I swung back but to no avail. It was two against one, and I knew that this crowd of American- loving patriots would not be on the side of a Russian immigrant. I dropped and just turtled up and let them punch me.

The principal came and parted the crowd. He grabbed the two students punching me by their shirt collars and yanked the off me choking them in the process. But he took no notice of me; leaving me there, not even asking if I was okay. The crowd dispersed and I was left alone as usual. It seemed here, in what was called the “land off the free” wasn’t so, prejudice was at all levels.

My mind was blank except filled with thoughts of why people hated me. Walking through the crowded main street. Couple of people dancing wildly in front of a club it was blasting the music from a TV of this guy “Michael Jackson” I hadn’t listened to it before but everyone said he was “cool” whatever that meant. What people did here still puzzles me to an extent. I continued walking down the street it was winter and in upstate New York that meant snow and lots of it which was good for me since I had been so used to it back in Russia. The thoughts of home and the new things I had learned about here took my mind of that incident, I had had begun dreaming about my opportunities in the future in the field of science.

My teacher told me I had a gift in science. I had been getting straight A’s since I arrived. He said I should go and do more research at the library, build up my knowledge and whatnot. Earlier after class, he showed me this video on his old projector of what looked like this giant tower just rising out of the sky with a tail of fire. The film was a bit blurry but at least it had color. He then told me it was called a Saturn V, a rocket with enough power to get a man all the way to the Moon. “Amazing” I thought to myself. He told me if I could keep this up he could help me get some interviews for colleges that specialize with NASA such as Stanford. I dreamt to myself “maybe just maybe someday I could get a job at NASA and leave this worlds behind. Be like Buzz . But that was the future. I continued towards the library, but stopped to check my Mickey Mouse watch I had gotten from trip to Disney Land. 7: 34 I should probably get home. Changing ways from downtown I started my Trek through the knee-deep snow to my house at the outskirts of town.

My house was ugly. I couldn’t help but sigh every time I walked up to it. It was an old style Victorian that was painted a light yellow and vomit green. The fence out front was defiled, it was broken at most ends and the once pristine white was chipping. Also some of the kids around the block would give rumor that it was haunted. The ghost of the previous owner was still lurking through the halls at night. I just think it’s the Rats. The other thing dislike about my house is that it is so far away from my school. It is about a mile walk, through downtown mostly in the snow since it was late December. Another thing was this cheesy sign out front; it was a little rabbit with I sign that said, “Hop on in!” I hated it and beside, who else would want to come to my house anyway. We couldn’t afford much due to it just being my brother mother and I here. My dad is in Afghanistan against his will, so he wasn’t able to come support us, leaving the only source of income my brother and mom. But it made me wonder without my dad here if he were dead or not. But it wouldn’t matter. I probably wouldn’t see him again.

Afghanistan

My tormentor has arrived Vlad, a cold-hearted grizzly man with scars all over his face. He was part GRU so he spent most of his time in the Afghan cities keeping things under control, but he had come to take over my compound and my men. With the offensives launched against the guerillas forces begun, there is starting to be less need to occupy their cities as it is necessity to hold on to the frontline. So they are moving some of their best to there. We had learned in the past few days that the Chinese were backing the insurgents. That meant for us we were going to see a bit more action and they were going to be better armed. The group we were fighting was the Mujahedeen. Insurgents from all over the Middle East. They had come to stop us from taking over and were hell-bent on slaughtering every single Russian in their country. I did not understand that as well, because we were working with the Afghan government. So why they wanted to fight us while we were helping their government seemed like a good question, right? While it wasn’t my new commander Vlad snarled at me they were driven by their religion to stop us. Upon hearing that it seemed to me that they had a better reason to fight instead of us, they would stop at nothing to kill us. And they would savor it well because to them, they had god on their side. And what we had was angry politicians sending us to our deaths.

January went by really fast, it just flew by and all the new hype in our school was the winter Olympics. All the kids in school were talking about it. Some people had made their own custom jackets just like the ones the athletes wore. That were red white and blue. My high school was adorned with red, white and blue everywhere, and pictures of the athletes were in almost every hall. Everyone was making plans for which they were going to watch the games with. I had been invited by my friend Chris, his family was friendly with my so we were all invited to his apartment. The entire craze was the new Hockey team led by Herb Brooks. They were looking for the upset against the Soviet Union but from what I had seen that was highly unlikely. School went by normally, I went to classes and started making new friends since everyone had finally realized that I had no association to communism whatsoever and I completely hated it. I was feeling more accepted by the school and became quite the storyteller recounting how life was in Russia and everyone asked that question. Except for a few people. Those people, they flat out hated Russia, I could tell their parents were in the Army some of their parents just got back from Nam. They had this ideaology that implanted in their head that commies were evil and that America was the best place on the earth. But it was people like that that gave me another perspective on that thought. They would tantalize and torment me, but I learned to put it past me. Everyone said that they hated me because of the fact that I came from the Soviet Union (which at the time was at war with the United States). I tried to tell them that I was not affiliated with them but they mostly just sweared and spit at me. I felt an undeniable hate for all of them. But with the games coming up I put them out of my mind and continued onward.

Afghanistan

We awoke to the sounds of violence in the distance. Soon an alarm went off as the noises of war lurked closer and closer. We began girding. Grabbing our arms, gas mask and all the rounds that we could. We rushed outside our barracks to see a horror, a crashed Hind (an attack gunship) in the plain of sand where a group of insurgents were descending upon. That begun to agitate my men who began cursing at them. They started to fire blindly at them. “??? ??? ?” Abram screeched over the sound of gunfire. But the AK was halting. It could sustain the harsh desert conditions but its range was too far and we were literally firing away bullets. We could tell this as the insurgents began gesticulating at us as the hurled insults back at us while brandishing their weapons at us. Amongst all of this commotion as they fired back at us. I felt an ethereal calm come over me. Everything went into slow motion men collapsed and explosions went off around. I looked around at the bloodshed the racket of Kalashes going off accompanied with the screams of the insurgents to the thud of their bodies hitting the ground. Suddenly I felt a sharp sting in my leg. It became wet and wet. Looking down I saw that I had been shot right in the. My khaki uniform pants started turning a dark red. I collapsed. My men saw me on the ground and rushed over in a hail of gunfire. They grabbed my arms and dragged me over to the decrepit mountainside and into the cave system.

“Do you believe in Miracles? YES! And with most the improbable win in sport history, the united States have defeated the Soviet Union 4-3 to go on to the finals. Can you believe it? Coach Herb Brooks has lead this team that was put together only a few months ago, and has defeated the best hockey team in the world!”

“Can you see them going crazy, all the American players are storming onto the ice, this was certainly the greatest moment in the history of the Olympics and sports!”

“And just a few days from now they will go to play Finland and if they win they will receive the Gold medal for the first time in a long, long time.”

The place was going crazy, the small apartment was packed. Everyone jumping screaming and hugging over what had just happened, the torn up couch was almost knocked over. Chips and bottles were littered all over the place, food and snacks flew all over the place and into the air, and no one in the room could believe it. My neighbors were bawling at the sight of the victory. We all tired of the crammed space ran out of our house and into our street with others who had just witnessed the same event. It was a magical feeling. Seeing how a team of people who had never met before could quickly come together and defeat the best team in the world blew my mind. I was estatic and I think everyone in the country was also.

A few days later I got my new copy of Sports Illustrated, and on the cover was just a picture of the American athletes going crazy. They didn’t need any captions on it because everyone in the country knew what had happened. The U.S did go on to beat Finland and won the gold. The Miracle was complete. And with that the pride I felt in my new home grew even greater than before. After years of failures and hard times the U.S was on top. “This is only going to get better I thought to myself.”

Afghanistan

The lights began to dim. A perennial darkness fell throughout the cave. The mutter of the worried replaced the light. Vlad always prepared light a fire. The soft glow seemed to comfort all of us, as we were so accustomed to it. My friend who we called “The Wolf” began to berate the Soviet Union to himself. His soft mutters so turned to a yell of anger “I will not martyr myself for theses Demons!” The cave echoed. A silence fell soon after words. The motif of why we were here and what were doing was brought up again. We huddled together, close all around the fire. My bleeding had stopped but there was a hole in my thigh that was almost the size of a fist. ??????? , I couldn’t walk without the help of my comrades. We all didn’t fell like moving, we would rather wait around for death or capture. Sitting in the dark by the soft glow of fire, the smoke suffocating us. But no one cared. No one was focused. Our commanders had said that nothing would happen to our compound. The were always there. Maybe if we didn’t let our guard down we wouldn’t be paying homage to them.

“Now class, this is actual footage from the 1969 moon landings of Apollo 11. The first manned flight to successfully land on the moon. As you can see now we have Neil Armstrong leaving the lander.”

The footage was very blurry. It hurt to watch. But it was incredible. To see men over 200,000 miles away from its home world was an amazing thought for me. I looked away from the footage and flipped through my Astronomy book. The pictures of Jupiter that Voyager had picked up were amazing to me. The class continued and at the end of the class the teacher pulled me aside. He told me that he had good news.

“Artyom, I have some good news for you, I was talking to a representative from Stanford University, they want you to come down and maybe spend a semester there” He whispered.

My heart had dropped, my stomach filled up with butterflies and my face turned red. I was about to cry about that news. Everything I was working for here was paying off. I ran out of the classroom with delight. A giant smile overtook my face that stretched ear to ear. Success. I was repeating in my head the whole time. I guess I should have watched my step because I ran right into those people. They stopped me and surrounded me. It felt like I was a bull in the ring, all their eyes on me. One of them pushed me from behind. They pushed me around back and forth. Spitting out an insult every time one of them touched me. But this time was not like the last. This time I actually had friends who came to my aid when I needed it. They drove them off and helped me unlike any other time I was here.

Afghanistan 1980

A thick lair of silence overtook the swelling heat and misery. The deep lament of the previous day was impaled and stitched into our minds. An image of unbelievable hardships and brutality shown to us was astounding. How could a man do something to his own, just because of different ideologies? But we progressed. Sweat dripping down our khaki uniforms; sweat puddles and blood mixed to create a putrid smell that agitated all of us. The heat was rising minute by minute. Heat exhaustion was with us since the start. Death, blood and sand was all that was to be found here. But now you needed to throw iron into the mix. A company of at least 10 tanks was streaking across the sand creating a dust cloud that could be seen for miles. The stench of gas and smoke filled into my nostrils and into my lungs. “????????e , Why do we have to be here?” The treads stopped abruptly. We all jerked forward and back. Too much sand got into the treads and jammed them. If we didn’t get moving we would be as good as dead. Our pittance of ammo was all most diminished well as our spirits. Abram had a patrimony of being down. At this point it seemed he rather be dead than here. But it wasn’t just him, we were all in contrition our vehemence was gone. The attempts to invigorate us were hopeless and as pointless as trying to find rain in a desert. But life was about to come. A monolithic metal monster was revealed to us.


A tank, a T-90A came out from over the dunes in a god-like matter. A wave of sand and heat came from it like a dragon breathing fire. Flabbergasted, we quickly followed it down a dune and across a short plain to get to cover behind some rocks. With the emergence of tanks had really brought out the insurgents. They were firing at us with a hate and anguish that was unrivaled. When I saw that I had enough. I got out from behind the rocks and ran, ran as fast and as far as I could. Away from all the bloodshed and death. Away to a place where I could be free from this evil.