Memoirs of the Veteran of the Afghan War 1979–1989: Interview with Igor Nikolaevich Bezborodykh

Abstract. The Afghan war (1979–1989) is a tragic event in the historical memory of our country. The greatest military losses since the Great Patriotic War the Soviet Union suffered during the war in Afghanistan. During the period from 1979 to 1989, 620 thousand soldiers passed military service in Afghanistan, more than 15 thousand of them died. The living evidence of the participants in the Afghan war obtained during the interviews helps to study the war anthropology more deeply through the experience of combatants. This article presents a part of a large interview with Igor Nikolayevich Bezborodykh, a citizen of Gukovo town, Rostov Region, who had been in military service in Afghanistan from 1984 to 1987 in the Navy of the Border Troops State Security Committee of the USSR with the rank of a senior sailor. The meeting with him took place on June 2, 2017, at the office of the State Treasury Institution “Cossacks of the Don” in Gukovo, Rostov Region. The interview was dedicated to military biography and everyday life. During the conversation, the respondent spoke about military preparation for service in the Soviet army, assessed the level of public awareness about the Afghan war, attitudes towards combatants, about the specifics of military service the Navy of the Border Troops, about the interaction of military branches, and about the Afghan war peculiarities.

Keywords: Afghan War, 1979–1989, Afghanistan, DRA, USSR, interviews, memoirs, participant, internationalist warrior, veteran, combatant.