Blockbuster History in the New Russia: Movies, Memory, and Patriotism

7. Playing with History

Playing with the past: The special edition of Ninth Company: The Video Game. 143 Dmitrii Puchkov left Fedor Bondarchuk’s 2005 blockbuster Ninth Company [9 rota]inafoulmood.Thearmyvetandformer MVD agentdidnot like the film; in his words, “while it was billed as ‘based on real events,’ it had no relation to reality.”1 Bondarchuk’s history of the events of 1988 on Hill 3234, promoted under the slogan “they wanted only to be loved” was for Puchkov “filth” and “slander.” In his words, Ninth Company was not the “truth” and therefore not “history.” Many veterans of the Afghan War felt similarly. Yet Puchkov became the most vocal critic of the film’s use of history because he is not a run-of-the mill, grumpy ultra-nationalist. He is more widely known as “Goblin,” the voice behind a series of pirated film dubbings and video game commentaries. To fight back, Goblin combined his interests in new media and released a video game, a website, and a documentary film—all of which were titled The Truth about Ninth Company. The film and its video game ignited a memory war, one in which Bondarchuk, a man who calls himself Goblin, filmgoers, gamers, and veterans engaged in verbal combat over the meanings of Russia’s Vietnam. Together, all the participants played with the past, using the Afghan War to score patriotic points and to fire cyber attacks at their enemies. Playing with History S E V E N 144 The Price of War Afghanistan in Russian Memory: The First Ninth Company The story of the Ninth Company in many ways is the story of the entire Afghan War from the Soviet perspective. One of the first detachments to enter Afghanistan in 1979, the Ninth Company of the 345th Guards Airborne Regiment stayed in the country until the war’s end. The company was asked to defend the highest point within Soviet-controlled territory in 1987 during the last major front of the conflict. Brainchild The Truth About Ninth Company: Special edition of the game. Playing with History 145 of the new Soviet commander, Lieutenant General Boris Gromov, the attack involved ten thousand Soviet troops and eight thousand Afghan troops against the mujahideen rebels. Operation Magistral attempted to openuptheroadbetweenGardezandKhost,whichhadbeenblockedby mujahideen troops. Gromov’s plan proved to be a success. Launched on November 19, 1987, the offensive succeeded in capturing the treacherous Satukandav Pass, the main passage between the two cities. Soviet forces entered Khost on December 30. One of the key areas that protected the mountainous pass between the Afghan cities was a mountain held by Soviet soldiers. Known as “Height 3234 [10,500 feet],” the remote location meant that its Soviet defenders lacked reliable communication with headquarters. The mujahideen attacked the position eleven times January 7–8, 1988. Radio communication often failed and reserve forces were initially unable to relieve the company. Once the attacks had been repelled, reserves arrived , although the Ninth Company suffered serious casualties: six dead and ten wounded out of thirty-nine soldiers. When Franz Klintsevich, a reconnaissance chief attached to the Soviet forces, arrived to relieve the Ninth Company at Height 3234, he first saw a soldier bleeding heavily from shrapnel wounds to his chest and trachea. With scant medical supplies available, Klintsevich stuffed some wax paper into the wounds and attempted to get the soldier to breathe throughhismouth.Klintsevichthengotthroughtothecompany’scommander ,ColonelValeriiVostrotin,andbeggedforrelief.InitiallyVostrotin refused, but some pilots managed to bring ammunition and carry away the dead and wounded. The wounded private, Anatolii Kuznetsov, died before relief arrived. Klintsevich stayed on at Height 3234 for two weeks after January 8, only to learn that the Soviet command had decided not to hold Khost because it stretched Soviet forces too thin. By the end of January 1988, the city had returned to mujahideen hands and the Soviet government had decided to withdraw. Operation Magistral was a success, but the war had been lost. As Gregory Feifer has recently written, many veterans and participants in the final offensive saw it “as no more than a completely unnecessary demonstration of toughness to the rebels.”2 The offensive, made as the Soviet leadership had begun the process of withdrawal, “came to 146 The Price of War be a symbol of the futility of the entire war, not merely its last years.”3 Just a few weeks after the events on Height 3234, Mikhail Gorbachev announced that the hundred thousand Soviet...