The Professional (a few trivial things from Caucasus)
Elbrus lies in the central part of Caucasian belt slightly protuberant to the north - in fact out of main Caucasian crest, then in Russian (Kabardino-Balkarska autonomous area). This crest creates the border with Georgia. Nearness of both Osetia, Abchazia, and Chechnya causes nervousness, which becomes evident on the roads-there are many police and military controls in the mountains there are military camps with observation posts and they control carefully entrance permission.
First I must say some facts for less informed people. Elbrus lies in the central part of Caucasian belt slightly protuberant to the north - in fact out of main Caucasian crest, then in Russia (Kabardino-Balkarska autonomous area). This crest creates the border with Georgia. Osetia, Abchazia, and Chechnya lying nearby causes tension which becomes evident on the roads-there are many police and military controls in the mountains. There are military camps with observation posts and they control carefully entrance permission. I guess that the distance of Chechnya from the area of Elbrus is about 150-170 km. It seems to me that local people are not on good terms with Chechen people (bandits, thieves, extremists, and many other nicknames).
Russian soldier
After about 105 hours and 4,000 km we reached our destination-base camp in the village Elbrus. I cannot recommand this journey to tourists who are used to standart conditions. After the arrival about 3 or 4 o'clock in the morning, we put up tents, had a nap and took a look round the vicinity. In the evening almost all members of the expedition met in a local pub. Their performance reminded me time of visit from NDR and my attitude to them was the same. Local people watched it with a detached point of view and so service lost customers. The only guests who came about 22 o'clock and stayed, was a group of four soldiers from near garrison (later it turned out that it was just the place where we were given permission to the closed areas).
Soldiers did not form a homogeneous group - the two of them were noncommissioned officers and they were at the same age as most members of our excursion (the average age of our group was about 24 years) and they danced and enjoyed the party for a while, although the language barrier was evident. I did not know what to think of the other two soldiers. I did not have a good time with my friends, so I sat down next to them. They just started to talk with a friend of my group with language difficulties. I brushed up my Russian from secondary school (thank you, my dear teacher, for succesfull hassling) and started to interpret, if my performance could be called interpretetion. I think I was not very succesfull.
After a while I also started to communicate with them, because the theme was very interesting for me. It turned out that the bodybuilder, who was more than 2 metres high, with a kind-hearted expression, typically slavic plump face and guileless eyes, was the bodyguard of the second soldier. But he was absolutely different. Although I think that I do not let myself influence by appearance, in this case I could not help respect that he commanded. He had to be very attractive for women. He was tanned, had fair short hair, blue eyes, and sharp features-just a charmer from American or Soviet films. He told me about himself, that he is a colonel, a commander of the whole area and Vana is his bodyguard.
The professional
The whole conversation that lasted about 3 hours was a new experience for me. He told me little and general information. I had to urge him to talk about it. "I'm from the north. My family isn't here, they're in the north. I'm 44, I studied at Military Academy, my first place of work was in former NDR. I lived through the whole Afghanistan with Vana and he stayed with me. Samil Basajev was my personal enemy, but unfortunately, he was killed by people from OMON. But Maschadov isn't bad. Gorbacov spoiled everything, not to mention Jelcin, he was a disgrace for us. If there were no politicians, the whole problem of Chechna would be solved during several weeks!!!"
I had the impression that he would be in service with a czar, Lenin, Stalin, Breznev…..In 1968 he was ten, but he would go to rescue us whenever again-but what he thought really, I cannot estimate. He was very intelligent, knew a lot about history, was well-read (from our country he knew Hašek, Hrabal, Seifert…), he saw many Czech films (Kolja, Obecná škola and so on-I just stared). After experience with the French or English… Prague is somewhere in Yugoslavia- a shock!!! When I asked him about actual politics, he almost always said "Nu shto, davajme o chokeju!" And I stared again, because he knew about Czech hockey more than me.
"It was a big dissapointment for us when we lost with the Slovak and not with you. We are used to you." Why Russia wants to take control of Chechnya, although there are many injured people and financial losses, his attitude was: "Vot politika" and " We have good singers-you have Gott and we have Vysockij". But Vysockij protested against our occupation in 1968- "You know, artists, they are often confused".
As I read in books or in captions: "Freely according to true story."
So, finally again: I do not know what he really thought, I can only guess. As if they were two different people. He did not give me his e-mail. There is no photographic documentation. From the moment they came, no one could take photos. Although I gained a feeling of cultural contant and relation, I am sure that if there was a situation and I was on the other side, he would kill me calmly and in cold blood. The charmer. The professional.
As I read in books or captions:"Freely according to a true story."
Wrote by: Michal Glykner
Translated by: Jana Uhlirova
Photos: Martin Uhlir
