The Sky Wept Fire: My Life as a Chechen Freedom Fighter

by Mikail Eldin

On the eve of the first Chechen war in the 1990s, Mikail Eldin was a young and naïve arts journalist. By the end of the second war, he had become a battle-hardened war reporter and mountain partisan who had endured torture and imprisonment in a concentration camp. His compelling memoir traces the unfolding of the conflict from day one, with vivid scenes right from the heart of the war. The Sky Wept Fire presents a unique glimpse into the lives of the Chechen resistance, providing testimony of great historical value. Yet it is not merely the story of the battle for this is the story of the battle within the heart, the struggle to conquer fear, hold on to faith and preserve one's humanity. Eldin was fated to witness key events in Chechnya's from the first day of the attack on Grozny, and the full-scale Russian invasion that followed it, to the siege of Grozny five years later that razed the city to the ground and has been compared to the destruction of Dresden. Resurrecting these memories with extraordinary lyricism, Eldin observes the sights, the sounds and smells of war. Having fled Grozny alongside the droves of refugees, he joins the defending army - yet he always considers his role as that of journalist and witness. Shortly after joining the Chechen resistance, Eldin is captured in the mountains. He undergoes barbaric torture as his captors attempt to break his will. They fail to make him talk, and he is eventually transferred to a concentration camp. There a new struggle awaits the battle to overcome his own suicidal thoughts and ensuing insanity.

Genres: Nonfiction, Russia, Memoir, War, History, Biography, Journalism

304 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2013

Reviews

[Abdullah Mushtaq · Rating 5 out of 5]

utterly beautiful.

[William Jukes-Bennett · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outstanding.

An astounding account of the unfathomable brutality of war, torture, and the human experience. I cried numerous times. The Chechen culture is renowned for its poetic prose and this book does not disappoint. This isn’t necessarily a book about war, it’s about surviving in the face of the worst horrors mankind has to offer. Of course, this book still provides a detailed look at the dynamics and history of the Chechen wars, but it is far more than that. A must read for anyone going through a difficult time, you will find solace in knowing survival is always possible. I know I did.

My favourite excerpt:
“What can you do with this pain devouring you from within, like a sudden horrific affliction? You can oppose it with a weapon that is even stronger: love. You can love this pain. Understand that this is cathartic. Become a masochist for a while. This is your purgatory, but afterwards there will come eternal rest. You have no life left to fight for, but you still have your death. So fight for that! The right to die also needs to be fought for. All this pain .... The pain from all this torture you've endured here, it will last just a little longer. The day's not over yet. But it will be followed by eternal rest. Whether you cry or laugh, curse your enemies or beg them for mercy, they'll kill you all the same. So why not die without tears? No, not with a smile on your lips'. Just without tears. The only way to get revenge on your executioners is to frustrate them. They're expecting you to weep and beg for mercy; they're hoping to see your moral death before you die physically. For them you will only be defeated once you've died spiritually. But your spirit is not yet broken. Even if you once had the luxury of a choice, you don't any longer. You must die as their mortal foe. Even in death you must haunt their dreams and blight their lives.”

[sophie · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Seeing this naive faith of ordinary Chechens in the Chechen
sense of national consciousness and comradeship made me well
up with a feeling of pride and pity for them. All too soon, though,
events would shatter their illusions with terrifying speed. Just
as they had in the Caucasian War more than a century earlier,
Chechens would take up arms to serve their enemies. Chechens
would serve their enemies as mountain guides; Chechens would
serve in law enforcement; they would even create a state, complete
with all its institutions, and hold mock elections, although there
would also be cases of opposition soldiers, sometimes entire
units, switching sides and joining the resistance. But in the early
days naive convictions held enormous sway, and people treated
the activity of the occasional pro-Moscow armed group as an ex-
ception. For a long time we stubbornly refused to believe that
the Chechen spiritual world had imploded at the moment when,
for the first time in modern history, ordinary Chechens took up
weapons against their fellow Chechens. And when we finally
accepted the blunt truth, we ended up losing countless lives, and
many of the living would lose what was most precious of all: their
Chechen spirit.“

Reading this exceptionally poetic and beautiful memoir, whether its based on facts or subjective perception, has ultimately left me with so much sadness.
The kind of sadness that comes over someone who knows how much cruelty their homeland has had to endure and how little hope there is for change currently. How stubbornly their people fought and how many of them turned against each other to side with the enemy. And to know that even now, years later, after so many sacrifices by our brave-hearted, even now, while we clearly see how far we have fallen, many of your people are still spending more time fighting each other instead of uniting against the enemy that has oppressed us for over 200 years.
No wonder God hasn’t granted us the independence and sovereignty we so desperately wish for, for more than a few years, when all we do, whenever we are close to achieving it, is to start fighting with each other.

[Malika · Rating 5 out of 5]

this is one of the best books I’ve read about Chechnya. even though it was extremely painful to read, it is such an important book to see the Chechen perspective. and as a bonus the writing is so beautiful! will buy a paper book to have it in my library.

[Nina · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have been wanting to read this book for so long and at last I have. Thank you for making it available in English as well!

The way the author speaks out is so strikingly humble and relatable. The vivid imagery - you get completely immersed and it is impossible not to hear, smell, see and endure the pain of it all. From the very first page one cannot but feel the tragedy of Chechen people across centuries suffering by the usurping, inhuman, all-destructive hand of the Russian empire, then Soviet Union and Russian Federation... it is gut wrenching, it incites anger and makes one marvel at the human core of Chechen people and the values they have kept, preserved and nurtured, despite all.
For those who may not have known many details, reading this work is a necessary step towards learning the truth.

What struck me most is not the vivid and graphic imagery and brilliantly clear recollections but the humble voice of the author, who paints so masterfully the many aspects of all of the feelings and emotions, both conflicting and ever changing.
This is particularly noticeable, when there is a shift to second person, placing the reader into another dimension, on the same plain and timeline with the author. Although it is paradoxical, as very few people would ever go through such horrific trials, it still feels like you merge with the writer's person and his recollections.

There are so many wonderful thoughts and ruminations on fatalism and on the harsh transition from idealistic, hopeful demeanour to hardened, stoic, cynical, dignified stance.
You will get goosebumps when you get to the pivotal excerpt where the sky wept fire.

Today, we all must stand with Ichkeria that is free and untamed in spirit forever!

I would like to express my utmost respect to the author.

Nina

[Snoakes · Rating 5 out of 5]

What do you know about the two Chechen wars? No, me neither - not until I read this that is. It's a truly compelling account as life in the resistance as a reporter and a combatant. I cannot imagine what it is like for your home to be turned into a war zone. I cannot imagine what it is like to march across mountains with no food, unable to light fires for fear of detection, to know that accepting help from a villager could be to sentence them to death. And more than that, I cannot imagine what makes a man torture another man. I watch Hollywood films and tv series like 24 - we're all used to torture scenes in this type of thriller, and I don't suppose most of us even really think about them any more. But this is a real man - this really happened, and that made this section a very hard read.
First hand accounts like this are really important, but also it's thoroughly absorbing and it makes you question how you might react in a similar situation. Not with the strength and humanity of Mikail Eldin I reckon.

[Speedstar25 · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book tells of the encounters between the Chechen and Russia during the conflict periods. Some part of the story is exciting and allow an insider view of the real story behind the curtain. A good book to read indeed.

[Howard Holloway · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent inside view of the Chechen Wars of the 90s/00s.
Obviously rather a depressing subject matter, but important and fascinating.
A great mix of journalistic insight and personal storytelling.

[Maja · Rating 5 out of 5]

The author's description of the fateful events that took place in chechnya are outstanding. He does a great job portraying the bravery and stubbornness of the chechen people and their want, no, need, for independence.

[central Jersey forever · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant read, Incredible story! Mikail is an excellent author and I hope more of his writings are translated into English soon!

[E.P. · Rating 4 out of 5]

What do you do when you're an idealistic young journalist whose hometown suddenly turns into a war zone? Obviously, you grab your camera and your notepad and you start gathering stories. Only it turns out that a brutal civil war in your own country is more than just another story.

There have been many appalling conflicts in recent years: Afghanistan, Rwanda, Yugoslavia, and now Syria all spring to mind. The two Chechen wars (1994-96 and 1999-2009) may not leap to the mind of the Western reader as readily, but they should, both because of their brutality and because of their outsized influence on other events. The Chechen conflicts dragged Russia, or rather, Russia dragged itself, into a prolonged internal war, marked with large-scale military operations, guerrilla warfare, and terrorist attacks--in fact, Russia holds the title for European country that has suffered the most terrorist attacks in recent years. Large numbers of Russian veterans of the wars now suffer severe PTSD, as written about by Russian writers and veterans such as Babchenko and Prilepin, and have also been transformed into a corrupt and violent force that, as Politkovskaya described in her articles, spreads its corruption and violence to the heartland of Russia upon its return from the Caucasus. The effect of these conflicts upon the Chechens themselves has been demonstrably even worse, but their stories have received even less attention, especially in the West, than those of the Russians. So Eldin's first-hand accounts of his own experiences as a Chechen journalist and an ally/member of the Chechen resistance forces is important merely by the fact of its existence.

"The Sky Wept Fire" is a series of short vignettes, arranged in more or less chronological order, about Eldin's experiences, beginning with the first storming of Grozny in winter 1994 and ending with his escape to Norway following his participation in the second war. Some of the chapters, such as the opening one about Eldin and everyone else's astonishment and confusion on the first day of the storming operation, are told in the first person; that particular section documents with painful realism the hopeless naïveté and complete cluelessness of Eldin and the other civilians, as they face enemy bombardment for the first time. Running around chasing his "story," Eldin witnesses death in combat for the first time, and realizes that "all those Soviet war films had been nothing but lies." Eldin, just like the Russians on the other side (as he openly acknowledges), had a shared Soviet past and had been raised on films of Soviet heroism in WWII; just like the Russian soldiers he found the reality of war to be nothing like the movies he had grown up watching, as it is both much more horrifying, and much more natural, than anything on film.

Where Eldin's account differs, and most enlighteningly, from most Russian ones, is in his open avowal of religious faith as a source of strength. While atheism was the official theology of the Soviet Union, it apparently made less headway against Islam in Chechnya than it did against Orthodoxy in European Russia, and the religious faith of Eldin and many of the other Chechens that appear in his stories is a striking difference from the portrayal of the same conflict from the Russian perspective. It is his faith that Eldin credits with saving him from suicide and carrying him through the interrogation and torture at a "filtration camp" in the second section of the book, which is marked both by its brutality (that word again!) and the fragmentation of the narrative voice: Eldin switches from a first-person account to a second-person narrative, something that sounds a little more natural in Russian but is still a marked development. From that point on, whenever the storylines touches upon something particularly politically or emotionally sensitive, the narrative goes into the second person, making it more immediate to the reader, and yet also more distanced from Eldin himself, suggesting psychological breakdown and distancing under the immense strain of the events overtaking him.

Eldin is acutely aware that he is telling a story that has been largely silenced or twisted, and it is clear that he is on a mission to set the record straight and give a voice to the Chechen rebels, who have garnered little more love for themselves in the West, with their association with Islamist radicalism and organizations such as Al Qaeda and ISIS, than in Russia. He is at pains to paint a sympathetic picture of them, as well as of the common Russian soldier, for whom he repeatedly expresses sympathy and respect. This is an essential perspective to understand if you are to understand the Chechen conflicts, and "The Sky Wept Fire" gives a powerful depiction of the religious fervor and particularly of the patriotic nationalism of the Chechen fighters, as well as their oppression and mistreatment at the hands of the Russians that helped push them over the edge into war. At the same time, someone has to be to blame for starting and continuing the war, and Eldin argues that it was a cynical conspiracy on the part of the Russian high command. Although I have no doubt of their cynicism, this level of conspiracy suggests a level of competence and coordination entirely at odds with much of their observed behavior. Which brings us back to some much more depressing conclusions: perhaps the whole thing was just a big stupid mess, combining cynical power grabs on both sides with general human villainy and bloodlust. I can't respect or idealize the Chechen side as much as Eldin does, but I can understand them, and "The Sky Wept Fire" is a must-read for anyone wanting to read about this critical and often ignored conflict.