Russia's invasion of Afghanistan,told by a former British AmbassadorTwenty-five years ago,when the Soviets pulled out of Afghanistan after a gruelling nine-year occupation,they left a legacy obscured by distortion and distrust. Fuelled by Cold War propaganda and the myths of the nineteenth-century Great Game,in many ways it remains so.The USSR entered the country in 1979 as part of efforts to quash growing anti-Soviet feeling in Kabul. What followed was a particularly brutal and bloody episode in world history - and one that is often credited as setting the stage for the Taliban's takeover in 1996. Basing his account on Russian sources and interviews,Rodric Braithwaite shows the conflict through the eyes of the Russians who fought it - politicians,officers,soldiers,advisers and journalists - moving seamlessly from the high politics of the Kremlin to lonely Russian conscripts in isolated mountain outposts.This is a powerful and sweeping history of the Soviets in Afghanistan,told with the unique insights of a former Ambassador to Moscow.
MEDIA REVIEWS
Publisher: Profile Books LtdISBN: 9781846680625Number of pages: 448Weight: 360 gDimensions: 196 x 130 x 32 mmEdition: Main
MEDIA REVIEWS
This book finally dispels many of the Cold War myths surrounding the Soviet-Afghan war.It offers the most nuanced,sympathetic and comprehensive account yet.An outstanding book...these accounts provide a fascinating insight not only into the war but also into Soviet societyA splendid read,full of interesting material,and essential for anyone trying to understand the RussiansThis bids fair to become the standard history,but it is a kind of parable too. Here is a battery of facts,intervoven with human stories,soldiers'tales and a thousand flashes of individual experience gathered in interview. For the mountain of evidence he has assembled before a generation passes away,historians (including Russian historians) will always be grateful; but Braithwaite's immense,urgent project offers more than a history,but a cool and deadly assessment of the mess that Power can get itself into. He never overstates; there is more tragedy here than villainy,more confusion than conspiracy; and the abiding impression is not so much shocking as unutterably sad. The read-across to other nations'wars leaps at you from every page.
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