Lost soldiers of unnecessary war. - Why am I talking about this? What am I trying to prove? The world has long narrowed to the size of small-sized happiness and its boundaries are unshakable. We were citizens of the country. Bad or good, but countries. We became citizens of the apartment. (c)
Such films can be called personal, suffering, important milestones in the lives of their authors. And the path to them was difficult, long and painful. Today, this is not shown on TV, and they can only be found in the recording or on the Internet. Watching them is hard and painful, but you can not watch them. These films are made for us, those who were not touched by the war, who lived happier lives. Don't forget what happened. It is also for those who want to engage, or are already engaged in state policy, so that they do everything possible, so that the war does not happen again. For, as a rule, armed conflicts are unleashed by some, and others participate in them, and the whole people have to defuse them altogether. It is enough to remember Chechnya, about which this documentary was actually made. Although he himself is not about war, he is about those who are unlucky to live in such a turbulent time, whose fate has developed so that they were destined to go through this nightmare that will not end for them after demobilization, but will haunt them for the rest of their lives. You can scold the authorities, you can hate militants, you can blame short-sighted politicians for all the troubles. But the real vein is that everything in the camp is like this, on ourselves. This film is somewhat manipulative, but very strong montage (and I’m sure that’s not manipulation for the sake of it). The life of people there is shown - in the combat zone, where both servicemen and civilians are killed daily, where devastation, blood, dirt and impossible to live, unsanitary conditions and gunfire and corpses on the streets. Terrified local, plague-ridden children, and mentally and mentally crippled boys are “conscripts” performing their “constitutional duty” to the Motherland. Shown and life here, in the peaceful, “rear” zone. The capital in all its splendor with expensive shopping centers made of glass, beautiful foreign cars on the roads, in which representatives of the bohemians (simply put – “new Russians”) travel, nightclubs in which idle youth “hang out” ... These people do not care about the lives of those who fight and die there against their own will.
The things that haunted the filmmaker in the 90s are still there today. Suffice it to recall the events in Ukraine – the residents of Donbass faced a disaster that, alas, can not be solved without weapons, and the whole camp lives as if nothing is happening there. Thank God, our president was smart enough not to send troops there, limiting himself to humanitarian aid to the victims. Today we live in a time when our own is in captivity. Even without knowing the names of our neighbors, with whom we live side by side in the same yard or on the same street. Relatives sometimes do not want to know each other, and this is in Russia, where since ancient times the family had a “full cup” and bread-salting friendship. If it used to be that the brother went against the brother, now the brother is indifferent to the brother. Citizens are not citizens, but each of their quarts, it is a vein. Where did it come from when it got into the souls of Russian people? How did it all start? How did the character of Nikita Mikhalkov’s latest film ask – when did it happen? I'm afraid there's no answer. Or does he say, “This is not the way we live?” But why, then, after Stalin’s dekulakizations and repressions, could our people unite during the difficult years of the Great Patriotic War? And then from the ruins raised the country, revived the economy and conquered the virgin land? By the way, in his film, the author chronicles the times of the war, and also uses the legendary composition “Farewell to the Slav”, under which our veterans, as boys, went to the front – to protect our Motherland. Formally, the Motherland was sent to protect those boys - conscripts. But someone did not attack us, the lives of citizens of the country did not threaten. There was no reason for that war. In any case, everything could be resolved peacefully, or do with little blood. Let’s say liquidate Dudayev when he came to the Kremlin for talks in ‘92. After all, even then, he directly stated to Boris that he intends to wage war to the last Chechen. But even after they could not prevent this very war (and they did not really try – they decided that they would be able to take Grozny by two regiments, and they would solve all the problems within an hour), after that they tried in every possible way to drag it out, carrying out some machinations, while innocent Russians, eighteen-year-old boys, died and became crippled for nothing. After, in order to retain the presidency for another term, Boris withdrew the army that began to defeat the enemy, thereby allowing the militants to maintain their regime there. Inconsistency, stupidity, hypocrisy and the sheer venality of power – all this cannot be defeated even with arms in hand. How right is journalist Nevzorov when he talks about our patriotism, citing the example of the same American soldier in Iraq. He knows that having a disability, or falling in a “hot spot” will not be forgotten by his state – his children will go to any institution for free, and the family will be provided for the rest of his life with a “veteran allowance”. While our fighter becomes a cripple will freeze stumps in the crossings, and his family will get out, so as not to die of hunger. Well, at least now veterans and participants of hot spots began to receive a regular pension, but then, in the 90s, someone did not think about it - the authorities in the face of the military enlistment office paid off from the soldiers who fulfilled their "constitutional duty" - the medal "For Courage".
The public did not react to the war in Chechnya, although it, like Afghanistan, was no longer concealed by a rotten government. It was written about in the newspapers, the chronicle filmed there was constantly shown on television. There were no rallies or crowds demanding its termination. It was all the same – the people were finally angry, the army began to decay and the president was drunk. Who's to blame? How did people living on 1/6 of the land allow this? Probably indifference was born then, that would later, somehow experiencing the lawlessness and permissiveness of the 90s, today’s relatively full time to become a natural, and even the only possible model of human existence in this cynical and cold world. When even the marches of shaved-headed youths shouting “Sig Heil!”, who paid dearly for the victory over fascism, no one is surprised.
P.S.
- I do not grieve for the departed, I am astonished at what has come.