Afgantsy: The Russians in Afghanistan, 1979-89 - Tapa dura

This book finally dispels many of the Cold War myths surrounding the Soviet-Afghan war. By using the testimonials of Soviet politicians, soldiers, and advisers in Afghanistan, it offers the most nuanced, sympathetic, and comprehensive account yet of the Soviet experience in Afghanistan. (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)

More than anything, Afgansty is a powerful warning of the tragic mistakes leaders seem destined to repeat again and again. (Yorkshire Evening Post 2011-03-19)

Millions of words - and I do not exaggerate - have been written seeking to explain how and why the Soviet Union collapsed, bringing an end to the Bolshevik revolution of 1917 and probably, the future of communism on this planet. How could the world's second super-power topple like a pack of cards, bringing with it the collapse of the global communist dream? The answer remains debateable; yet I cannot recall any previous book coming closer to a credible analysis than this remarkable work by Sir Rodric Braithwaite - a book glowing with stunning research on how and why the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan failed so disastrously. (Tribune 2011-04-15)

Braithwaite vividly portrays the life of the ordinary soldier: the army bullying, the bittersweet songs and ballads, the lure of Afghan markets, the biting cold, the operations where bravery mixed with desperation. (The Times 2011-03-26)

Rodric Braithwaite's brilliant study of the Soviets in Afghanistan is filled with such extraordinary personal moments but it never loses sight of its purpose. [...] It is written in the lucid, elegant style of the best of Foreign Office mandarins. It forms the sort of elongated briefing note that a prime minister should devour in his nightly red box. (The Glasgow Herald 2011-03-19)

Wouldn't it make a wonderful change if our increasingly youthful and inexperienced political class took the trouble to read this book, grasped that war is always hell, and stopped launching conflicts because of something they saw on TV? (Mail on Sunday 2011-04-24)

This is the book every politician, every general, every diplomat contemplating getting into, or out of, Afghanistan should be made to read. It is a book we should have had 10 years ago, and need more than ever today. It is a minor masterpiece. (Sherard Cowper-Coles Guardian)