Soviet Soldiers, Moscow
A photo from October 1983. I had been walking along Smolenskaya Naberezhnaya Street by the Moskva River and had just taken a photo of the British Embassy. That was a dodgy thing to do at the time: it was still the Communist USSR - and there were strict restrictions on what one could photograph.
I was putting my camera back in its bag when I heard a shout and saw a soldier beckoning me from a nearby truck. I was convinced I was going to end up in the infamous Lubyanka prison for flouting the rules! It was with some trepidation therefore that I approached. However, I needn't have worried. The soldier - the one with his hands on the tailgate in the shot - said in halting English: "You take our photo!". Whereupon he and his colleagues grinned for the camera and I clicked the shutter.
I've often wondered what became of them. Possibly sent to Afghanistan (the USSR invaded in 1979 and the war lasted until 1989 when the Soviets withdrew). If so, it is probable that many of them died there.
Note: the CA lettering on their uniforms stands for Soviet Army (Sovetskaya Armiya) - the Cyrillic CA is SA in the Latin alphabet. The MHФ letters on the tailgate translate to MNF. Multi National Force? That would make sense given the different ethnicities in the group.
Soviet Soldiers, Moscow
A photo from October 1983. I had been walking along Smolenskaya Naberezhnaya Street by the Moskva River and had just taken a photo of the British Embassy. That was a dodgy thing to do at the time: it was still the Communist USSR - and there were strict restrictions on what one could photograph.
I was putting my camera back in its bag when I heard a shout and saw a soldier beckoning me from a nearby truck. I was convinced I was going to end up in the infamous Lubyanka prison for flouting the rules! It was with some trepidation therefore that I approached. However, I needn't have worried. The soldier - the one with his hands on the tailgate in the shot - said in halting English: "You take our photo!". Whereupon he and his colleagues grinned for the camera and I clicked the shutter.
I've often wondered what became of them. Possibly sent to Afghanistan (the USSR invaded in 1979 and the war lasted until 1989 when the Soviets withdrew). If so, it is probable that many of them died there.
Note: the CA lettering on their uniforms stands for Soviet Army (Sovetskaya Armiya) - the Cyrillic CA is SA in the Latin alphabet. The MHФ letters on the tailgate translate to MNF. Multi National Force? That would make sense given the different ethnicities in the group.