Afghanistan's Unknown War: Memoirs of Russian War Veterans [Paperback]

Vladimir Grigoriev (Author), Andrei Blinushov (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 2001

This is a collection of stories based on the memoirs of Russian war veterans drawn from their Afghan war experiences in 1979-89. This book could be an important source of information for military historians, and a popular reference book about the Soviet war in Afghanistan in 1979-89.

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Russian

About the Author

Vladimir Grigoriev, born in 1964 in Russia, graduated from the St. Petersburg University, served in Afghanistan in the 1880s as a communication officer; now is the president of the Association of Afghan War Veterans in Russia, and the host of the web site- Soviet-Afghan War; the winner of the ART Teneta National Literary competition for his Afghan memoirs.

Andrei Blinushov is the eidtor-in-chief of the KARTA history Journal published by the Moscow Human Rights Group; he is also the editor of a volume Memoirs of Russian War Veterans.

Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Megapolis Pub Co (October 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1894485157
• ISBN-13: 978-1894485159
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,960,293 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars afgantsi memoirs, November 10, 2002

By 

Chapulina R (Tovarischi Imports, USA/RUS) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Afghanistan's Unknown War: Memoirs of Russian War Veterans (Paperback)

This short compilation of memoirs was published from the Karta Journal web site for Russian war veterans. The contributors include officers of the Spetznaz and air forces, and professional mercenaries. Basically, these are standard Soviet war memoirs: fairly impersonal accounts of battles, ambushes, casualties. Caravans of foreign weapons and jihadists constantly intercepted from Pakistan. The Afghan government forces ("tsarandoi") were considered soft targets by the rebel mujahedin ("dushmani"), and often proved to be of little help to their Soviet comrades. The book contains details of a couple of notorious massacres, in which Russian platoons were abandoned or even betrayed by their Afghan allies. And there are some curiously indifferent accounts of torture at the hands of mujahedin. Although translated from the veterans' own words, the anecdotes and interviews give little indication of their writers' emotions. The translation itself is barely adequate. The overall quality of the book is below average. It appears to have been printed on a Xerox machine. Pages alternate between text and illustrations, the latter consisting of small, badly-reproduced sketches and photos. There are approximately twenty different illos, which are repeated in series. Each one appears over a half-dozen times, apparently for the purpose of "padding" the contents. ...! Overall, these memoirs are interesting, and valuable as historical reference. ...