Forgotten wars: Russian nurses reflect on their choices in the armed conflicts of Afghanistan and Chechnya

Abstract

This article examines Russian nurses’ reflections about their individual moral experience of the armed conflicts in Afghanistan (1979–1989) and in Chechnya (1994–1996; 1999–2009). The study relies on published documents and interviews featured in various online sources. The study aims to shed light on the main value orientations that influence present-day evaluations of these events and to show how the values systems of those participating in war had become transformed under the influence of wartime experiences. The concept of charity plays a crucial role in the nurses’ reflection as it enables them to emphasise their special mission in war: not only to provide people with health care but also with moral support. This concept also underpins the practises of justification of moral choice. The article demonstrates that the discrepancy between established commemorative practises and the personal inability to make sense of death in war makes any justification of casualties impossible on the level of individual reflection relative to the events of the WWII. The circumstances of war’s ‘trauma epidemics’ remain significant within these women’s personal moral experience. In addition to the paralysis or passivity in the face of death that they experienced, in their civilian lives, they become acutely aware of the impossibility of finding any meaning in the death toll that is war’s inevitable result. The nurses’ memoirs lay a special emphasis on their attitudes toward the enemy. On one hand, they remember the feelings they experienced toward the enemies in Chechnya or Afghanistan; on the other hand, from a more recent perspective, it becomes clear that these armed conflicts require new interpretations and evaluations.

Keywords:

ethics of war, moral experience, death, compassion, charity, representation of the enemy