The Expired Tanks
We all get used to those small “best before” or “expiry” labels stamped on the items from the grocery stores, but it looks like some much bigger in size things like tanks can have an expiration date too.
Here’s what the Russian blogger, ex soldier writes: “Last summer I visited the army camp as a soldier, in the tanks unit. And that’s what we’ve done there. Every soldier was given a crowbar, hammers, set of wrenches and unlimited free time to crush all you can crush with all those tools. Dashboards, electronic fillings, plastic fittings etc. can be easily first crashed, then the next step is more challenging - with wrenches you need to loose all screws you can reach.”
All the tanks are new, just from the warehouse. The only reason why they should be destroyed is their expiration date. They come to this tank slaughter house by their own, not towed or dragged just to become a pile of scrap metal days later.
Russian Terminator
Did you know that initially the terminator robot was built by Soviet soldiers during World War2. The construction operation was held on the secret army base, on the wooden table between Russian tanks. Even back there he already looked like Arnie.
Don’t believe? We have photo report from back then.
Mess with the Best…
Yesterday in the news there was a story about Russian soldier who was beaten to death by other soldiers while on the exam to get accepted to Special Forces service.
It comes out that they have a special tradition on those exams when the wannabe soldier have to face a few of Russian active service special force desperados for a given amount of minutes, and should not get down. I don’t know have the soldier in question got down or not, but he died as a result of the “exam”.
And here are some photos of those who were more fortunate than him and passed the exam.
The Parade 2009
Since the World War 2 was over there has been a tradition in Russia to conduct Russian Army Parades on the Red Square in Moscow. They have selected the best of the best soldiers from all the country to participate, the best armaments to show and it was rehearsed many times starting month or two before.
Then in 1990s, when economic situation was not too good in Russia, there was a number 50th parade at the Red Square, in 1995. After that parade there was officially announced that now, after 50 years has passed since the end of the war, this day would not be celebrated in such the grand manner. That meant no more mighty parades in future, no technics, just some soldiers marching.
Well, I can’t remember, why they changed their mind later, as far as I remember first year they kept the word and the parade was really minimalistic. But now the parades are triumphal again, here are some shots from the rehearsal of the upcoming event.
Get the Coin
Guess what this boy is doing?
After the Army Service
The military service in Russia is compulsory for anyone aged 18-27 unless he is not studying in the college. When the service term is near to its end young men usually prepare themself to look bright upon return home.
Soviet Soldiers at World War 2 in Color
Such photos always fascinate me. I mean the color photos from the past, the older the better. These ones is no exception. We got used to see only black and white photos from the World War 2 - the color photography was very expensive at that times and actually was not widely implemented, and especially usually nobody took the expensive equipment to the battlefront. Still there are some color photos from the times where our grandfathers were young, like 70 years ago.
McCain Shooter
This presidential elections in USA has been brought to light the story of this man, living now in poverty in a small wooden hut at the suburbs of St. Petersburg.
Probably everyone knows about the accident John McCain had during his service in Vietnam, when his plane was shot down by the Vietnamese (as was thought before) missile. It’s a well known fact that during that war thousands of Russian officers and military engineers helped the Vietnamese Communist Army to fight against US troops. All the newest weapons were also brought by Russian comrades from the North and Vietnamese were taught how to operate it properly. During one of such “demonstration” the John McCain’s plane was shot down to the ground by this man on video.
According to his words it was the 13th missile that hit the target finally, twelve missed. He says it was a great luck that a group of Russian soldiers has arrived to the crash site, and ordered Vietnamese not to harm the shot down pilot but just to take him out of the river, because, he explained, usually locals hammered down with their stone hoes any American pilot they managed to find, so actually they saved him life. Such an attitude locals as a revenge for their burned to ground villages by American napalm. Russian officer was rewarded with the honorable “Red Star” medal and 1000 Russian rubles addition for his retirement pension.
Also later he have visited a few times McCain in the Hanoi prison, where they were implementing special Soviet “tortures” for American prisoners: they forced them to study Communistic literature, like “Capital” by Karl Marx and many other thick Soviet ideological books. When he was asked if he would meet McCain what he could ask a man who is now a popular American politician - he said “I wanted to ask him if he finished reading Karl Marks”. Also he said, he didn’t want McCain to become a forty-forth US president, because as he says “McCain hates Russia way too much, though I can understand him”.
He also demonstrated some booty he got from Vietnam, among them is the McCain’s “paratroopers book” - some special military ID the pilots and parachutists had to have with them while on duty.
Just a few days ago it was published that he has passed away.
Below you can see one of his last interviews (on Russian):
Belarus Special Forces
The training of Belarus Special Forces.
Russian Jet Fighters in Afghanistan
These are photos from private archives of Russian SU-25 jet fighters in Afghanistan War at 1980s.
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