I’ve just read an article over at the BBC news web site about a soldier who recorded a cover of the Eminem (featuring Dido) track Stan. In much the same way as the original features a disgruntled young man writing a letter, the soldier’s was supposed to be a letter to the minister of defence , regarding the unsavoury conditions fellow soldiers had to endure, despite previous assurances that living conditions would improve. It would appear that he became frustrated to the lack of a reply to a previous conventional letter, and so wrote (possibly in May 2008?) a new ? ?????? ?? ??? ???????? ??????? in the form of a video uploaded to RuTube.ru .
In case you want to watch the full video, here it is…
It looks as though relying on Google to translate ‘a letter to the minister of defense’ (or defence, depending on which variant of English you use 🙂 ) was a little inaccurate, as the video is simply titled ?????? ???????? ??????? .
October 1st, 2008 4:20 pm
And as usual the shame falls on the person who exposes problems, not the people who created the problems.
That video is very clever and the lyrics (as best I could follow them) were also very good. And his complaints are 100% accurate as far as I hear from friends who have served in Russia, the USSR, and Kazakhstan.
October 1st, 2008 4:31 pm
[…] Digging the awesome post at Chris Merriman.com on a Russian solider who covered Eminem’s Stan in a video showing the squalor of the Russian army and got exiled for dishonoring the image of the […]
October 2nd, 2008 11:49 am
Just FYI, I’ve BCCed you in on a reply to someone from Harper’s magazine who was looking for help with the soldier’s lyrics. Another reason I don’t want our child to have Kazakh citizenship is the state of ex-Soviet military organizations. I have nothing against someone volunteering to defend their country – but to be possibly forced into such (potentially) appalling conditions would be too much.
October 3rd, 2008 10:53 am
Some people are saying the video was not done by a solider but by a human rights group to draw attention to poor conditions. So the whole thing, including the exile, might be a publicity stunt.
Can’t help with translating, I looked for the text but I can’t find it and I don’t understand well enough to transcribe.
October 3rd, 2008 1:22 pm
Thanks for the heads up on that, I hadn’t come across that possibility.
November 14th, 2009 9:44 am
[…] Digging the awesome post at Chris Merriman.com on a Russian solider who covered Eminem’s Stan in a video showing the squalor of the Russian army and got exiled for dishonoring the image of the […]