I was among the first 20 people who decided to join the “Essence of Time” mission assembled by Sergei Ervandovich Kurginyan in Donetsk in July 2014. My patriotic feelings, pride for our ancestors’ military and labour feats, and desire to restore our great country inspired me to do that. I knew that I could not calmly watch from the distance, or that I could help while being in a safe place, away from my native city Donetsk. And since I fully share the ideals, values, goals of the “Essence of Time” movement, my decision to join the mission was thrilling, but easy.
We had a talk with Sergei Kurginyan and his comrades who arrived to Donetsk, and my confidence in the correctness of my choice and, as I thought, the confidence of all the guys gathered in Donetsk, only strengthened. I was simply amazed by the level of understanding of the situation, processes, speed of response to them. Most clearly I saw it during the press conferences with Sergey Kurginyan in Donetsk, to which Pavel Gubarev arrived without invitation (read more on this in one of the upcoming stories told by Alan Mamiev, “Koba”, a direct participant of those events – Editor).
Our arrival to the base of the “Vostok” battalion is now remembered as something ordinary, but at that time it was very exciting and interesting. New people, austere conditions, unfamiliar types of work and activities – all that was for the first time for me.
At first our main occupations were details and self-training of the basics of firearms handling. Our guys who have served in the military trained us, though there were few of them among us. Young Royce, the training platoon commander, tried to find time for us, but there were absolutely not enough people, they were few and far between, and we had to find a solution on our own. Our instructors’ appearance invariably aroused widespread foretaste – now something should happen. And it definitely happened. Information about events, tips, hints, instructions.
And Volga’s training… Physical training until you drop; training in the use of weapons till there was blood on fingers caused by grips, brackets, breechblocks; learning the feeling of comradeship, the fact that the team is what’s important. The things or events that seemed simple and unimportant to us were explained with such attention and depth revealing their complexity and importance that sometimes I personally became ashamed of the fact that I didn’t see or understand this earlier. Therefore, the most memorable for us were not living conditions and details, but training and communication. With the guys and commanders.
And also air-raid alarms, which still happened back then, engraved in my mind. Warplanes arose very unpleasant feelings, I must say. I understood what is the particular “hostility” towards the enemy pilots (I didn’t see them differently among other kinds of military before this), after I saw with my own eyes the events on May 26 and night alarms on the base, when we ran out in underwear and barefoot in the direction of bunker or basement. Although I calmed down after instruction on how to use Man-portable air-defense systems and lecture on methods of combating enemy aircraft. Indeed – the unknown frightens.
Almost immediately it was decided to focus on specializations to make our activity most effective. As there was an urgent need in filming and film editing, and I had an amateurish experience in that field, I offered my help reserving the possibility of later joining in the battle group. So I started my work as an operator along with Alan Mamiev in the “Essence of Time” information center of the “Vostok” battalion.
Other stories of “Essence of Time” unit soldiers: “Essence of Time” unit in Donbass
Source (for copy): https://eu.eot.su/?p=7362
