Artist: Marianna Yarovskaya (Los Angeles, United States)
Project Title: Aftermath
Dates: February 22 - March 31, 2005

Aftermath is a documentary video which chronicles the lives of Chechen and Afghanistan war veterans in Russian and Afghanistan. Today virtually every Russian family is directly affected by its wars, while in the United States not everyone is immediately affected by the wars, opinions are widely divergent.  After the fall of the Soviet Union, a number of military conflicts broke out. All of them were held under the slogan: “We are fighting this war to secure peace”.

The deadliest conflict, between Russia and the Chechen Muslims, has lasted over a decade and cost over 200,000 lives. This documentary was filmed in the soldiers homes, in their military divisions, through conversations with their wives and sons, and by following them in their daily activities. It was also filmed in the Russian soldiers dorms and in their recruitment offices.

Among the characters documented in the story is a former Russian sniper in Afghanistan known as Muslim. He is a veteran of the Russian War in Afghanistan and a close friend of another of the central characters in the documentary, Father Nicolas.  Father Nicolas fought in Afghanistan as well as in the more recent conflict in Chechnya, and is now an Orthodox priest. The third character in the film is Shaman, a mercenary who spent over seven years fighting in the Chechen conflict, and was nominated for the prestigious title of "Hero of Russian".

The documentary explores the lives of families affected by these armed conflicts, including the communist mother of a young soldier Eugeny Rodionov killed in Chechnya who was later canonized by the Russian Orthodox church, and the families of martyred United States soldiers.

On the Russian side, the main characters, though they are from different religious backgrounds have a lot in common. Each share the belief that "there are no atheists at war" and they view religion as protection from the consequences of war. Their lives are shaped by these experiences and they offer insight into these conflicts and others throughout the world.

The film looks at the perspective of today's young soldiers already assigned to military attachments and ready for war, as well as soldiers of the future, young men taking their first steps into the recruitment offices. These soldiers who will end up on the front lines in current Russian "hot spots" like Georgia and Chechnya as well as American points of conflict such as Haiti, Afghanistan, and Iraq. They share their thoughts on religion, the current conflicts between Muslims and Christians and the state of the world.

These stories continue to be important because thousands of families today continue to be affected by the armed conflicts of the past and present.