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There are some books that one would love to read just because of the author is more interesting than the book. In this case, it would be Nicolai Lilin who is also the author of the book Siberian education. This book is about a region called Transnistria, which by the way is a territory between Ukraine & Moldova which claims it is free but has not got its independence fully. It is way too complicated than that for starters. Out here there are honest crime families and their codes of honor etc. A fairly interesting read, but surprisingly i didn't pick it up. Instead i picked up “Free fall”.
This book is about the authors journey from being a civilian one minute to a Russian special forces unit within a special forces unit. The call to arms, the travel to the base, the brutal Russian NCO's and officers, the training, the past which helped him and the actual operations in Chechenya.
Oh Chechenya, the place has been jinxed from the past 2 centuries. Harassed by the Czars to this date and their descent from sufism to wahabi version of Islam. Chechens are brutal and expect no less from their enemies and the article by the war-nerd is really interesting to read. Now why would anyone be interested to read about a Russian man from a country that is not really part of anywhere who has fought in the 2nd Chechen war? The only reason is to savour reality and hardship, about brutality at its best and the the PoV of a soldier and interesting characters. I was in army and hence can related to a couple of things.
The first time we entered the academy for training, we were shitting bricks. Ramrod straight people, clean roads, discipline all around, the physical hardships and last but the most important of all… loneliness and the anxiety of a new place. Now thrown in Russian winter and ragging during their training which has a special name “Dedovshchina” A small example being, a new recruit tied to a chair and beaten continuously with breaks only during their drinking binges!!!
Then comes the team which one works with.. The saboteurs who are notorious even among the Russian army. That is something to talk about actually. A small team with interesting characters with an old tough Captain throw in. Hard to imagine that, there are some real life examples like these. Forget about country, a soldier lives and dies for his unit izzat and his friends. period. The overall book is about the operations, the fact of corruption among the Russian senior staff etc and the Chechens.. Sometimes hard to say where does fiction begins and reality kicks in, but hey so is war. Highly confusing as hell and awesomely scary to live through but makes an interesting read.
I would recommend this book to people who have a romantic view of Snipers and their tactics. It talks reality written by a man who knows what he is talking about.
