Reply With QuoteOriginally Posted by hogdriver
Most of those MIA's converted to Islam (some of them were Muslim though) and had to kill Soviet soldiers.
Let him stay in Afgan.
Russian soldier 'missing in action' for 30 years found in Afghanistan
Russian soldier 'missing in action' for 30 years found in Afghanistan
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/wo...n-8521673.htmlTuesday 05 March 2013
A former Soviet soldier who went missing more than three decades ago during Moscow’s ill-fated invasion of Afghanistan has been found alive and well near the city of Herat.
Bakhretdin Khakimov was a Soviet soldier from the city of Samarkand, now part of independent Uzbekistan, and was found living under the name of Sheikh Abdullah.
The ethnic Uzbek understood Russian, but was unable to speak much, according to Russian news sources. He served in the Soviet war in a motorised rifle unit, but was seriously wounded in September 1980, less than a year after the Soviet invasion of the country.
He was taken in by an Afghan traditional healer who gave him herbal remedies for his wounds, and Mr Khakimov now performs the same role.
The former soldier was found by a committee of veterans from Russia and other former-Soviet countries that performs periodic missions to Afghanistan with the aim of hunting down missing soldiers. Usually this means burying their remains, but occasionally the expeditions come across soldiers who remained and adapted to Afghan life.
During the two decades that the committee has searched, it has found 29 former soldiers alive, of which 22 have returned to Russia.
Most of those MIA's converted to Islam (some of them were Muslim though) and had to kill Soviet soldiers.
Let him stay in Afgan.
Who's to say he did? All we can gather from the article is that he became a traditional healer.
Fact that his head is attached to his body, and his scalp isn't missing either would justify a fair degree of suspicion.
Supposition is not proof of any wrongdoing, unless you were there at the time he went missing?
Did you miss thepart of the article as well?"but was seriously wounded in September 1980,"
Doubt it.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-21668541The committee's deputy chairman, Alexander Lavrentyev, said Sheikh Abdullah bore the scars of his war wounds - a shaking hand and shoulder and nervous tic. The ex-soldier, from the city of Samarkand, was able to name his former place of residence in Uzbekistan and the names of his relatives, Mr Lavrentyev said.
The fact that he could barely speak Russian should say alot about the Russian army at the time.
How much English did German, Greek, Turkish or Italian conscripts speak at the end of the 70s and the beginning of the 80s?
Russian was official language in Soviet Union, English was not official language in Germany, Greece, Turkey or Italy.
A couple of our local Basque refugees had to have interpretators when they were reunited with their families after Franco died, when your removed from people speaking your native or 2nd language for 30 years the odds are your going to struggle.
I think that happens when you get cut off from your mother language and totally immerse in language related to your mother tongue. He was Uzbek and the uzbek language is influenced by the persian and arabic languages wich in turn is spoken in Herat (Persian-Dari).
I noticed several times that Germans living in English speaking countries for many decades (and mostly married to a native) at a point may understand everything but are only able to speak terrible broken German.
I see the stalinistic view on POW's is still alive and well. How nice...
Both are right and if you knew the story behind the Afghan POW's ,you'd think the same .
Homeland Season 2 ?
What u will think when they will find this us soldier still MIA ?
Story is enough nice to give respect.
BTW most Uzbeck are muslim and speak a very different language and use Latin letters, even if they were supposed to learn Russian. I think Uzbek young men in the early 80, and especially in remote place like Samarkand, were more busy with cotton collect than school.
When I was a young cadet, I remember instructors to tell us : Red army will lose because no one speak same language inside tank crew members.
If my country was part of the Soviet Union, and my countrymen fought and died for the Soviet Union, I would be kind of pissed if people referred to them as "russian soldiers". I guess it's the same feeling Scotsmen get when people refer to the UK as "England" and its inhabitants as "English".
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