African Horn Adventure

In the early 1980s, Mykola Polonskyi is a young Ukrainian translator serving the Soviet army. Fascinated by his reading on the adventures of explorers in exotic African lands, he seizes the opportunity to leave for the Soviet Military Mission in Ethiopia. Soon enough, Mykola finds himself in the heart of the African horn, at the height of the Cold War, and in the middle of the Ethiopian civil war. Everyday life is difficult, and survival endangered by the mysteries hiding in the jungle and the threats of attacks from separatist troops and bandits. This is a first-hand account of the USSR's political and military machine, enriched by anecdotes about rare animal and human fauna: sleepy hippos and obnoxious officials, dangerous pythons and fickle generals.