Heroes of Karabakh
In 1989, Nagorny Karabakh became the first hot zone in the former USSR. Today, 20 years later, Armenia and Azerbajan, which have been fighting over this tiny piece of land set between the Caucasus mountains, are still in the state of war. This story shows people, who were fighting each other during the conflict, and who all now say, they want peace.
Violence in Ingushetia
The tiny Russian republic of Ingushetia, bordering the war-torn Chechnya, has become a place in nowadays Russia, where the majority of security cleanups, kidnaps, killings and terror attacks take place. I’ve started working on this story this summer and slowly proceed trying to avoid police scrutiny
Freedom Square
The breakaway Georgian republic of Abkhazia, which gained the recognition as an independent state on August 26, 2008, but only by Russian Federation, (and later by Nicaragua) has been fighting for its independence in different ways not only for these last 15 years after the end of the war with Georgia, but it’s possible to say for ages. Once a powerful Caucasian principality with the autonomous status within Byzantine Empire, which even helped Georgian kings to fight enemies and gave them a shelter when they had to flee their castles – these legends are known by everyone in Abkhazia and told to every guest from outside – it was later seized by Georgians, then – by Ottoman Empire. Then Russian Empire came to install its power in Caucasus, which with the appearance of the Soviet Union again ended for Abkhazia to discover itself in the hands of Georgia, although initially it became the part of the Soviet Union as one of the republics. Soon after my arrival to Akhazia in Summer 2008 major events in the life of the republic started happening with the beginning of the new war in another breakaway republic, South Ossetia. It was obvious, that I followed the crowds coming to the main square in Sukhumi, Freedom Square, every time when something important happened. Sometimes people came with the guns to shoot in the air out of joy, sometimes they carefully held their children in their hands to vote for independence or watch a firework – but they kept coming till the September 30, when the parade, dedicated to the 15th anniversary of Abkhazia’s victory in the war with Georgia, was held next to the symbol of this war –the destroyed House of Parliament of Soviet Abkhazia, which will be never renovated due to a major crack which can only let to demolishing the symbolic building Abkhazians want to preserve. It was a big kick in the Georgia’s face to remind about the recognition one more time. After the anniversary celebrations were over, people felt they needed to go back to the things they normally do, they stopped partying and the square became empty. This story was over due to absolutely natural circumstances.
With war in the eyes
Portrait series of children from South Ossetian capital of Tskhinvali, who survived the August 2008 war with Georgia
Bury Your Enemy
How would you feel if you could see a cemetery of your enemies from your window? The people of Subbotino and Turitsyno, neighboring villages about 60 kilometers northwest of Moscow, have been living for decades next to a large common grave of hundreds of Germans killed in the battle for Moscow in the winter of 1941. Thanks to the volunteer gravedigger NGO called Trizna, which means “mourning for the dead” in Russian, the half of that grave, remains of 40 soldiers, were exhumed in the fall of 2007. To open the remaining part of the grave was impossible without the help of local authorities, because now it’s covered with the brand-new road leading to the village of Turitsyno. The German War Graves Commission, operating here in Russia, in fact shows little interest to these graves, claiming that the Russian government does not give them enough land for the cemeteries. The remains of those that Trizna members have found in this grave, are still kept at the summer house of one of them. My project will be finished, when all the soldiers, including the ones, who are still under the road, will be reburied. I also want to find the relatives of those, who will be identified.
UAZIK
In August 2008 six people spent 2 hours on the roof and the hood of a Russian-made off-road vehicle UAZ, after it got stuck in the mountainous river Gumista in Abkhazia. They were by chance saved by a loaded log truck, which unexpectedly appeared in the area. I dedicate this story to the memory of my friend Astamur, who survived in this accident as we all did, but died in a car crash at the age of 29 some two months later
Primorsk. The Sunken Soviet City
For this project I chose the place, which is an iconic symbol of all the destruction and recession in Abkhazia even 15 years after the end of the war with Georgia. It’s a story of people, not only stuck in an isolated place, but stuck in time and forgotten by civilization. Although now there are no fights there, and no one dies of hunger, I try to prove with the pictures, that the situation of this people is still a big human drama. Once a Soviet industrial enclave in the republic of Georgia, built to serve the needs of the Ingouri power plant, and a role model Communist city, the Black Coast city of Primorsk, is today overgrown by weed and swamps. Those 60 ethnic Russians out of 5000, who decided not to leave Primorsk, survive on subsistence farming in the most dangerous area of Abkhazia, the so-called lower zone, bordering Georgia, where, officials say, Georgian guerillas have the easiest access to Abkhazia. These people have to walk for 22km by foot to the regional center, Gali, to pick up 100-roubles ($3) Abkhazian pension, do not have proper IDs to leave for Russia and do not even have a chance to send their children to school. Moreover, they are now attacked by a channel they had built with their own hands for the needs of the Ingouri plants. Mile by mile, it is seizing the land. One of abandoned Soviet sanatoriums has already been under water, but now the houses are in danger. In fact, nothing really happens in Primorsk today, people just survive. The times when people had to hide their children in potato bags to protect them from being raped by both Abkhazian and Georgian gangs in the afterwar period had gone. But one can read the sense of isolation and despair from their eyes, that’s why I decided to shoot Holga, whose quality of picture lets me stress more on emotions I feel each time I come to Primorsk rather on what’s going on. This makes project a bit arty, but I still consider it photojournalism, because I tell the story of these people via their portraits and the pictures of their environment.
Abkhazia’s beauty contest. Backstage
It was important to me to shoot it because I wanted to get closer to Abkhazian women. From one side, they have pretty Western mentality and the fact that they hold this beauty contests, shows that. But from the other side, the remains of the patriarchal society left them without a proper respect from men’s side. They are free now to have their own business and drive the cars, but their men are only interested in them as in potential wives and mothers of their children. They find Russian tourists much more beautiful and easy-going when it comes to having sex and prefer to hang around with them. But if an Abkhazian girl will behave like that, she will loose her chance to get married. Still, most of marriages end in husbands having new tourist dates every summer season.