In addition to the killed and wounded, there are hundreds of soldiers whose fates remain unknown; the official status of whom is listed as Missing in Action; however after thirty years it is assumed that most of these missing soldiers are dead. We are learning however that this may not necessarily be the case.
This past week it was reported by the news agency Ria that a local Afghan healer living in the province of Herat and goes by the name Abdullah is actually the Soviet soldier Bakhretdin Khakimov who was reported missing more than 33 years ago.
He suffered from severe head trauma and following his recovery he never tried to contact his family and instead began building a new life with his former enemies, who in this case were the ones who tended him back to health. Abdullah, or Khakimov, has forgotten most of the Russian language and while he remembers parts of his former life, he has no intention of returning to the home he left as a 20 year old Soviet soldier.
Thoughts?