Russia's invasion of Afghanistan, told by a former British Ambassador Twenty-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.

A timely and eye-opening examination of the Russian experience during the Soviet war in Afghanistan

About the Author
Rodric Braithwaite spent much of his Foreign Office career dealing with Russia. He was British Ambassador in Moscow during the fall of the Soviet Union, about which he wrote in Across the Moscow River (2002, Yale). His book Moscow 1941 [Profile, 9781846687748] was a bestseller, translated into seventeen languages. He was subsequently adviser to the Prime Minister, John Major, and Chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee. He writes and speaks regularly about Russia, and is currently writing about the nuclear confrontation in the Cold War. He lives in London.

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. -- Rory Stewart
An outstanding book ... these accounts provide a fascinating insight not only into the war but also into Soviet society * THES *
A splendid read, full of interesting material, and essential for anyone trying to understand the Russians * BBC History Magazine *
This 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. -- Matthew Parris


Awards
Winner of Duke of Westminster's Medal for Military Literature 2011 (UK) and British Army Military Book of the Year 2012 (UK). Long-listed for BBC Four Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction 2011 (UK) and Orwell Prize 2012 (UK).



Book Information
ISBN 9781846680625
Author Sir Rodric Braithwaite
Format Paperback
Page Count 448
Imprint Profile Books Ltd
Publisher Profile Books Ltd
Weight(grams) 360g
Dimensions(mm) 196mm * 130mm * 32mm