Eugenijus Juodvalkis

This chapter looks at the story of Eugenijus Juodvalkis, who was called to the army in October of 1979, before the Soviet War in Afghanistan officially began. Juodvalkis was conscripted for twenty-seven months, spending eighteen months in Afghanistan. He worked as a driver in Kabul and Jalalabad. At the time of his service, Juodvalkis did not question his conscription, but looking back, he views it in a different light. Healing from combat experiences, he acknowledges, has been different for every veteran. Juodvalkis then alludes to the patterns of propaganda and narrative control in the media that he observed during the Soviet occupation of Lithuania reappearing within Russia.