# 9th Company/9 Rota (A.K.A. Russia's Vietnam Movie)



## ZeroSignal (Oct 14, 2009)

I started becoming interested in the Russian military when I started playing Airsoft and I came across this film about the Soviet 9th Airborne (VDV) Company.

It's based in Afghanistan at the very end of the Soviet Union's 10 year long war there. Their war in Afghanistan is the Russian version of Vietnam and despite the geographic differences between the two countries it is a very good approximation.

It is a dramatisation of the Battle For Hill 3234 where 39 Soviet Airbourne troops defend against 200-400 Afghan Mujahideen and Pakistani Black Storks' fighters. The Soviet forces sustained 34 casualties (out of a force of 39 men), including 6 men killed and 28 injured.

Although this is an extremely dramatic Hollywood style film (made by a Finnish company for some reason) the realism and attention to detail is quite impressive. Especially to do with the training and weapons (AK-74s ricocheting in the tunnels and br00tle Soviet training regimes for instance).

My only complaint is that the locational inaccuracies and that that the characters are very hard to follow and I'm never sure who I'm watching. And beware crappy subtitling. 

One of my favourite things about the film is how the "Hind" helicopters are portrayed as these untouchable sentinels and protectors. It's like they're almost otherworldly.


Spoiler



And the fact that they're fighting and dying for a country that completely ceases to exist after a year.



Well worth a look if you like war films or are interested in Soviet Union/Russian stuff. 

Enjoy!







Part 6 was removed by YouTube because of a sex scene! D:


----------



## Deconstruct (Oct 19, 2009)

Watched it, loved it, am going to learn Russian now.


----------



## hairychris (Oct 22, 2009)

Was this the movies where


Spoiler



only one of them got out alive after being given a good luck pendant by another soldier who was the only person from his company to survive


?

If so, absolutely bad-assed film. 

EDIT: No, not watched the YouTubes. If I'm right it was on UK TV a while back.


----------



## ZeroSignal (Oct 23, 2009)

hairychris said:


> Was this the movies where
> 
> 
> Spoiler
> ...



Yup. That's the one. The sheer amount of badassery in that film is nuts.


----------

