Texac’s Chronicle No. 8: THE SERPENT AND THE CROWN—My First Combat Position, “Troishka”
//
= War Diary by Russell “Texac” Bentley =
Russell Bentley (Texac) in the troishka area, daily facing eternity. Like many soldiers before him, defending what seems like an unimportant patch of earth. The image was taken several months after the events in this article; the New Terminal is on the right; Troishka on the left. Two CB soldiers were killed in almost the exact spot where Texac is standing, the day after this photo was taken. (Click on image.)
[box type=”bio”] This is the Fourth Part of Texac’ diary. The First Part, BIRTH OF A NATION, covering his departure from the U.S., arrival in Moscow, visit to Volgograd (Stalingrad), travel to Rostov, crossing the border into Donbass and arrival in Donetsk can be found here. The Second Part, THE RED CAT, THE DRAGON AND THE SBU is found here. In the Third Part, THERE IS NO WATER IN YASYNUVATA, Texac (pronounced “Tay-HASS” by Mexicans and Russians) joins the Novorossiyan Armed Forces (NAF) and undergoes basic training in the Vostok Battalion boot camp in Yasynuvata, along with Orion and Toro. Texac channels the Lincoln Brigade, Jack London and Ernest Hemingway — journalism as compelling literature in a hurry… —Daniel Wirt[/box]
Texac Chronicle No. 8: THE SERPENT AND THE CROWN —My First Combat Position, “Troishka”
Софи”, “Sophie”, after my youngest niece.
bad, but I’ve never missed a day of work because of being sick, or even hungover, and I wasn’t going to start now. I did not come to Donbass to check into the hospital. Finally, the van came to a stop and the side door slid open. It was dawn on the morning of December 31st, 2014. Still dark, and very, very cold. The driver motioned for me to get out, and I did. I thought we all would, but it was only me and the driver. I looked around…
I was standing next to a blown up church in the middle of a grave yard, going to war in a strange foreign country that I had been in for less than a month. I realized I could get killed today, any second, starting right now. It felt like I was standing outside of time, but I knew I didn’t really have time to stand outside of time right then. I was “all in” as we say in Texas Hold ‘Em, and now I had to play the hand I had dealt myself.
BELOW: Texac offers a view of the bombed church and explains the events in which the site played a pivotal role.
We unloaded our share of the supplies in front of the church, and as we did, four soldiers approached from the monastery, where the combat position “Troishka” was located. (“Troishka” because the monastery had three stories — or used to have three stories.) They were regular looking guys, except for the fact they all carried machine guns and wore helmets and bulletproof vests, with ammo clips and grenades festooned all over their torsos, and they were very serious. Very serious. Fortunately, our first conversation was easy. The word for “sniper” in Russian is pronounced almost the same as in English, kind of like “shnaypair”. When they pointed towards the New Terminal and control tower and said that word, I knew exactly what they were talking about. I understood.
The Essence of Time movement red flag, proudly flying atop the troishka fortifications.
What is the Essence of Time movement (CB)? Click the bar below for an insight into its principles.
[learn_more] ESSENCE OF TIME (Russian: Суть времени) is a Russian communist movement,[1] founded and led by political scientist, philosopher and theater director Sergei Kurginyan.[2][3]
PRINCIPLES: The movement’s ideology is a mixture of Russian patriotic ideas with communist elements, giving Russia a messianist role on a global scale. Its principles are explained in the manifesto of the movement “Essence of Time”.[1] The manifesto declares that the Dissolution of the Soviet Union was a great tragedy. The objective of the movement is to restitute the USSR in a better and more capable form. The ascertainment of what and who was responsible for the USSR’s fall is considered a key step in this process. According to Kurginyan, capitalism is inherently incompatible with Russian historical and cultural heritage. Since the fall of the USSR in 1991 “capitalism in Russia has not built anything, and destroyed everything”, but, fortunately, after 20 years, Russia is slowly starting to “wake up”. The Fall of the USSR was just a part of a game, played by postmodern entities against “history and humanity”. Kurginyan considers his manifesto to be a new Communist manifesto, [citation needed] analysis of new bourgeoisie, whose nature has evolved since Marx’s time.
S.E. Kurgunyan
[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he movement is grounded in modern philosophy and incorporates the ideas of Karl Marx, Max Weber, Erich Fromm, Antonio Gramsci, Alexander Bogdanov, Viktor Frankl, and others. One of the main principles of the movement’s ideology is the ascription of great importance to the human spirit as a philosophical category, which is considered to be linked directly to the question of the ascent of humanity. The project subscribes to conception of uber-modernity (in Russian сверхмодерн, tr. sverkhmodern), not to be confused with post-modernity, and on this principle hopes to build a new historical project for Russia. The project conceives of a great historical role for Russia in moving the world out of the global crisis of capitalism, based on the country’s experience of alternatives to capitalist modernity and so-called post-modernity. The movement seeks to unite people with socialist and communist political views as well as those with patriotic views and Orthodox Christian values, hoping on this basis to create a spiritual synthesis. One of the main aims of the movement is a revival of the Soviet Union on new principles, taking into account the mistakes of the past (the project is thus dubbed USSR 2.0). EoT envisions a new red union state – a union of equal nations where the Russian nation plays the role of the state’s core. The ultimate goal of the movement is the bringing to life the best of communism’s ideas -namely a state of being in society which provides for the awakening and development of the higher creative abilities of every human being under justice. SOURCE (edited): WIKIPEDIA [/learn_more]
We ran across the hundred yards between the front of the church and the door of the monastery. Every move we made outside was under Ukrop observation and therefore, potentially fatal. So we moved quickly. Once inside the door of the three story monastery, we turned right and went up the stairs, passing a switchback landing with a guard post and an AGS automatic grenade launcher. The door to the second floor was sealed by a sheet of plastic and a heavy rug. Almost completely airtight and light tight. I stepped inside, into almost total darkness, and a thick haze of smoke from the wood burning stoves that were the only source of heat for our quarters and for cooking. Even though the sun had begun to rise outside, the darkness inside was pervasive, due to the fact that all the windows had been sealed with sandbags against the frequent artillery. Only small firing ports were open to the outside. You literally needed a flashlight, even during the day, just to move around. Good thing I had brought three. I was going to need them.
“Every time I stood at the window on guard duty, I wondered if my thermal signature was in the crosshairs of a Nazi sniper’s thermal scope, made in the good ol’ USA…”
, in a red cardboard pack. Filterless and strong, along the lines of French Gauloises or Mexican Delicados, both of which I had smoked before. But the interesting thing I noticed about these Primas was written on the top of each pack – “CCCP”. I wasn’t too good at reading Russian then, but I knew what “CCCP” meant. It meant that those cigarettes had been waiting for at least 25 years to be smoked. And now, we smoked them.
[dropcap]L[/dropcap]unch was pig liver paté (“pashtet”) on hard dry crackers. It was served cold, but at least not frozen, and the tea was boiling hot, strong and sweet. Protein, carbs, caffeine and sugar. A soldier’s diet. Dinner was soup and fresh bread. For Novorossiyan soldiers, bread is a delicacy, add mayonnaise or ketchup to just plain bread, and it is a gourmet delicacy. They were right. It went well with the soup, which was twice as good (or half as horrible) as the soup in Yasynuvata. Front line soldiers are either always first, or always last, in line when it comes to supplies. It depends on the Commander. We had a good one, “Volga”, but there wasn’t a lot to go around, and everybody had to get something, so we didn’t get much, even at the front of the line. The food was sometimes quite meager, and always very basic, but there was almost always tea, and sometimes instant coffee. But there were plenty of bullets, and they brought plenty more every day. And we certainly used them.
At this point in our narrative, a pause to pay homage to departed comrades.
// |
Tribute to fallen at the Donetsk Airport/Памяти наших товарищей, павших в бою за донецкий аэропорт https://youtu.be/gxvxt6cXN2M
|
If you have a heart, and some knowledge of the conflict in Ukraine, while watching this homage it will be difficult to hold back the tears. These young men died because the enormous forces of US imperialism, cloaked in ignorance and selfishness, are still free to roam the world plotting, funding, organizing, committing, and triggering appalling crimes with almost total impunity. Let us all honor these real heroes for a better world. They stood for a most honorable cause. They will not be forgotten!
As night fell, what had been the deep blinding darkness of the day became the absolute total darkness of the night, where not a single photon touches the optic nerve. Darkness within darkness. Outside it was a Winter night with low, dark clouds reflecting the almost complete absence of light from the ground. There was no electricity, and to show any light from flashlight or fire was to invite bullets, many and big ones, and that right quickly. So, darkness was the name of the game. Walking down the hallway, you could not see the soldier walking a single meter ahead of you. Not an outline, not any visual indication he was there at all. Only what you could hear and smell, and sense and feel. It was like walking down the hall with my eyes closed, and sometimes I did, and sometimes I could see better that way.
“Ucho” mounted on anti-aircraft tripod.
[dropcap]T[/dropcap]hermal imagers are among the most important weapons in modern combat. We had one, but it didn’t always work. The Ukrainian Army had plenty of them, thanks to the “non-lethal aid” from the their masters in the USA. Every time I stood at the window on guard duty, I wondered if my thermal signature was in the crosshairs of a Nazi sniper’s thermal scope, made in the good ol’ USA. I would bob and weave at the window, hoping I would move enough between the time the trigger was pulled and the time the bullet arrived. The veterans would just stand there, perfectly still, facing death fearlessly.
I learned to emulate what the veterans did. They would communicate what I needed to know, but would mostly say nothing and see how long it took me to figure things out for myself. It wasn’t that they didn’t care, it was simply that they were soldiers in a combat zone and they had other things to do besides babysit me. I had volunteered to be a soldier, so I was expected to look after myself. It was a steep learning curve, but I did my best, and that was good enough. Good enough to keep me alive.
is an advocate and defender of the victims of the Novorossiyan War, and war correspondent for anti-imperialist media outlets, especially for The Greanville Post, the online magazine“New Eastern Outlook”, and a select number of other leading political sites.
FIFTH ITERATION REV. 11.15.15 19:11
ADDENDUM
“COME AND SEE” (1985)
Come And See (1985) pt. 1 by karimberdi
Come And See (1985) pt. 2 by karimberdi
Note to Commenters
Due to severe hacking attacks in the recent past that brought our site down for up to 11 days with considerable loss of circulation, we exercise extreme caution in the comments we publish, as the comment box has been one of the main arteries to inject malicious code. Because of that comments may not appear immediately, but rest assured that if you are a legitimate commenter your opinion will be published within 24 hours. If your comment fails to appear, and you wish to reach us directly, send us a mail at: editor@greanvillepost.com
We apologize for this inconvenience.
Nauseated by the
vile corporate media?
Had enough of their lies, escapism,
omissions and relentless manipulation?
Send a donation to
The Greanville Post–or
But be sure to support YOUR media.
If you don’t, who will?
