Chechen Blues

by Alexander Prokhanov, Александр Проханов, Anna Ivanova (Translator)

The fall of the Soviet Union was a defining event in world history. A swollen, decrepit empire burst apart and rained down despair, nihilism, and deep uncertainty on the Russian people. Overnight Russians were immediately exposed to the trials of secession, lawlessness, and economic depression. The resulting moment of weakness in their country caused multiple nations within the Russian Federation to attempt to break away. Many independence movements sprang up in Russia without any significant opposition. All of that came to an end when, in 1995, Russia regained her footing in the Caucasus to thwart a violent Chechen rebellion. Alexander Prokhanov lays bare the history and events surrounding New Year's Eve in 1995, when Russian troops attacked the Presidential Palace in the rebellious capital city of Grozny.
In this one of a kind account, Prokhanov depicts the cruelty of unfeeling careerist bureaucrats who sent recruits to certain death, the cynicism of foreign bankers who made their dirty money from human tragedies, and through it all the honor and duty of Russian soldiers who gave their lives for a new Russia. Between the fiery muzzle flashes of their Kalashnikovs and the cold, hard sky of the Caucasus, these pages show the beginnings of a new chapter for Russia, and in many ways, the European world.
Available for the first time to the English reader, Antelope Hill Publishing is proud to present Alexander Prokhanov's Chechen Blues. It is crucial to immortalize this unique first hand account in the printed word, to tell the tale of recent Russian history and the story of men who fought to preserve the integrity of their nation.

Genres: Russia, Russian Literature, War

238 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

Reviews

[Nick John · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an interesting historical period to write a fiction book about. One excellent thing about AH Publishing is they really allow you to get a feel for the cultural writing styles of different White cultures. I would say this style of Russian war fiction writing is very unique and unlike anything I have ever read before. The author is extremely descriptive of the most minute details almost to an excessive degree. But it really aids in placing you at the scene and seeing the world through the eyes of the characters.

The chaos that enveloped this era in Russias history is something that you almost never get a 1st hand account of and this book delivers that to you. You are never bored, the characters are very fleshed out and the struggle faced by these soldiers is overwhelming. Highly recommend this book to just about anyone looking for a good read from the fiction side or the historic side.

[Snigir · Rating 4 out of 5]

Сюжет очень простой, как школьная задача по планиметрии. Две параллельные линии: еврейский махинатор Бренер (Березовский?) встречает Новый 1995 год в Москве -- в ресторане, баньке и в загородном доме. А русский капитан Кудрявцев встречает Новый год в Грозном в копоти сожжённой чеченцами бригады. Вот и всё.

Ну, как обычно у Проханова: режут головы телёнку и комбригу, банкир зачинает от неведомой силы и потом выблёвывает в лес "неведому зверушку", банкир сильничает репортёршу ("эту силу, эту раскалённую магму и тяжесть он вталкивал в неё").

Банкир, кстати, не самый плохой -- с почвенным уклоном, только уж очень сластолюбивый. Я представлял такие губы, как бы вечно поевшие блинов, как у Швыдкого.

Вот фирменное прохановское проклятие и краткая аннотация одновременно:

Он хотел, чтобы возникла сила — прянула с неба карающая молния или красный испепеляющий огонь — и разрушила в городе все дома, все мосты, все постройки, все изделия людского труда. А вместе с ними и всех людей, молодых и старых, умных и глупцов, благородных и подлых, весь проклятый, населяющий этот город народ. Его язык, черты лица, его могилы, утварь, звуки его песен, его книги, молитвы и заповеди. Чтобы умерли и никогда не воскресли его вожди. Запечатались и сгорели родящие лона его женщин. Испеклось и высохло семя его мужчин.

Он проклинал этот город и требовал ему казни. Вкладывал в свои проклятья весь оставшийся запас жизни и был готов его потерять, лишь бы проклятья его были услышаны и на город пало возмездие. В его страстном отрицании этого города было нечто древнее, неотвратимое, разрушительное для него самого.

[Aaron Arnold · Rating 4 out of 5]

A harrowing fictionalized account of the beginning of the First Chechen War, which is not a war I'd known much about but has a grim reputation in Russia as a prime example of the brutality, dishonesty, and ineptitude characteristic of the new regime after the collapse of communism. There are two main narratives: one follows the everyman Captain Kudryavtsev in an armored brigade that's part of the first wave of Russian forces on an ill-fated mission to secure the rebellious Chechen capital of Grozny; the other follows Yakov Berner, a Boris Berezovksy-ish oligarch, back in Moscow, and his efforts to extend his corporate empire and his political influence via shady business deals. While Kudryavtsev and the other survivors of a Chechen ambush attempt to remain alive in the ruins of the city after the destruction of their brigade, their misfortune is just another opportunity for Berner to profit as he betrays his business partners (and the Russian people overall) for the opportunity to make a buck on an oil pipeline deal. Written in 1998 but not translated into English until 2022, this is a lyrical, angry, only barely allegorical representation of the Saturnalia of corruption that was endemic in the Yeltsin era.

Years ago I read a good deal of Matt Taibbi and Mark Ames's late 90s/early 00s writing on this era in their publication The eXile, so I was vaguely familiar with the uniquely chaotic Russian reaction to the fall of communism, which rapidly became much more violent and disorderly than the equivalent processes in the other former Eastern Bloc countries. Prokhanov is quite old these days and has evidently become some kind of right-wing crank of a variety that I'm not going to dig too far into (I can only guess his opinions on the 2022 Ukraine war), but he's not too much of a nostalgic nationalist or Soviet apologist here, instead for the most part his authorial perspective here focuses mainly on sympathy for the average Russian chump, disgust for the wealthy political and economic elite, with a touch of religious mysticism at the very end. His writing is quite beautiful even in Anna Ivanova's translation; he vividly portrays the surreal chaos of the Chechen battle scenes and the nightmarish tableaus of ostentatious wealth with equally imaginative prose. A funny detail: the photo on the cover is taken directly from the Wikipedia article on the First Chechen War.

A foreword that is not in my paperback edition:
https://slavlandchronicles.substack.c...

[oswald · Rating 3 out of 5]

A book about misbegotten hopes. It never really goes anywhere. Prokhanov has various talents. The translation is god-awful.

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredible book about a little know war in history. Eye opening to see the corruption that existed when the Russian Federation reformed in 1991 and the greed that ensued.

[Hagar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Re-read passages from this harrowing novel. The pedantic details of a world ridden in chaos. I can't believe I read this in 2023. It still lives freshly in my mind. A great modern war narrative. Wanted to write a late review just to reiterate how much this book affected me.