The Soviet–Afghan War 1979–89 (Essential Histories)

This book, "The Soviet-Afghan War 1979-89", by Gregory Fermont-Barnes, is an entry in Osprey Publishing's Essential History Series. To quote from Osprey's web page, "Each Essential Histories book studies the origins, politics, fighting and repercussions of one major war or theatre of war, from both military and civilian perspectives ... Featuring full colour maps, diagrams and photography throughout, each book in Osprey's Essential Histories series also includes pictures of contemporary artwork and artifacts, providing a full visual appreciation what it was like to live through each war." Including the index, the book is 96 pages cover to cover (not 80 pages as listed in the product description above).As suggested by Osprey's summary, the book is more of a high level overview of the Afghanistan and the Soviet -Afghan conflict than a pure coverage of the war. The author begins with a discussion of the genesis of Russian/Soviet-Afghan relations (primarily beginning in the 1800's), discusses the warring sides, and covers the outbreak of the conflict and the fighting itself. He then shifts to following one Soviet soldier's story for a chapter, provides a look into how the typical Afghani lived, and discusses the experience of a western journalist who rode with the mujahedeen on two expeditions in 1985. He then explains how the war ended, and offers some analysis of the war and conclusions. I'll admit that I was expecting more detailed coverage of the Soviet campaigns and various battles when I purchased the book. Most of the depictions are either broad overviews or notional examples of how each side would conduct operation. This is partly understandable given how there were no defined "fronts" as there were in say, World War II, and a large part of the problems the Soviets faced arose because they couldn't force the mujahedeen to fight a convention war.Overall, this is a good, erudite book that gives you the background into how the war came about, why the war was fought the way it was (in large part because of the different cultures and expectations for each side), and what the ramifications of the war were. Four stars.

This is an excellent overview of the Soviet conflict in Afghanistan that has been compared to America's experience in Vietnam. I feel the author did a good job of creating a cogent chronicle of the conflict from many points of view. The author covers a number of aspects of the war quite well.The author spends a little time on the past invasions of Afghanistan but brings the reader quickly to the fateful events that brought a superpower into the mountainous land of the Afghans. The reader quickly notices that the USSR did not dictate events but was constantly reacting to what was going on internally on the Afghan political scene.The USSR moved quickly and decisively into their neighbor to the south with what seemed to them to be massive force sufficient for the task. Throughout the conflict, the Soviets overestimated their own abilities and underestimated those of the mujahadin and with forces too few for the task and often the wrong weapons. They were a mechanized army optimized for war in central europe, not for fighting a guerrilla war in mountains. Gregory Freemont-Barnes introduces the reader to the rural Afghan who is tough, self-reliant and fiercely Islamic and one can hardly think of a worse place and an even worse people for the atheist, Marxist USSR to attempt to subdue.We get a sense of the geography of the land and how it affected combat. The reader gets a sense of the kind of war the mujahadin fought as well as the downside of their lack of a "united front". It's fairly obvious the Soviets lasted as long as they did because of the fracturous nature of the opponents. On the other hand, we read about how lightly they were armed and poorly they were supplied and yet how highly motivated they were as "fighters of God".Lastly, I liked that the book contains first-hand accounts in the form of the words of Pvt. Vladislav Tamarov as well as American journalist Arthur Bonner. The book contains numerous passages from the journals of these men and others. It's valuable to get a sense of what it was like by those who were there.If you're looking for a good overview of the conflict, this would be a good choice. It contains good maps as well as excellent photos and artwork as one would expect from Osprey. I give this Osprey title five stars.

This book provides a helpful overview of the two sides involved in the conflict but is simply too short to provide any great detail about any particular topic. The book is divided into parts dealing with the history leading up to the conflict, the composition of the Soviet troops involved in the war and the Afghans who opposed them, and some detail about the tactics used in the war.The books brief length means that no one particular subject can be covered in any great detail which hurts the value of the book to any interested in the Soviet war in Afghanistan. Some important parts are left out entirely, such as the equipment and weapons used by the opposing sides in the war. If your a novice to the subject this is a good starting point but you should look for longer, more in-depth books to gain a solid understanding of the war.

This book, the latest in Osprey's Essential Histories' series, deals with the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in the waning days of the the Soviet Union (yes, the invasion that led the U.S. to pull out of the Moscow Olympics). The book is well illustrated with maps and photos, and has much useful detail on this obscure conflict, which began the chain of events that led to the United States also being drawn into Afghanistan in 2001. In that war, the Soviet Union was backing a pro-Soviet government that had overthrown its predecessor, against a Muslim insurgency that came to be heavily backed by the U.S., ironic in light of the current posture of the U.S. there. The author's analysis of the conflict is sound, and highlights the difficulty of putting down an Afghan insurgency even by one of the strongest military forces in the world, as well as the many mistakes the Russians made.

They say that this was Russia's `Vietnam' but that's not a particularly good comparison. The Vietnam War went on for twice as long (18 years) and the fighting forces on both sides were vastly larger and so consequently were the losses. Like most wars there were atrocities from both sides and allies with a vested interest, especially so to aid the insurgents.It is also claimed that this war caused the demise of Russia as a world force? That's not strictly true either, as Gorbachev came to power in 1985 and knew at that time that the Russian economy was in ruins and that the whole political structure had to change for his country to survive politically and economically. He'd already made up his mind that Russia had to pull out of the war.Yes, the war disaffected many Russians against the communist way of life and rule, as it saw the war as a total mismanagement by its leaders, a failure and a waste of precious resources for the country, however, it was the resulting restructuring and reforms that led to the eastern bloc's revolt and eventual collapse.It was similar to Vietnam in that it was fought as a guerrilla war. Russia rued the day they ever entered this war and whilst they suffered relatively few killed in action over the period, (14,000), they did suffer enormously with the wounded,(54,000), and those taken sick due to appalling sanitation conditions, (400,000), which the Mujahedeen were of course hardened to. However,it was the civilians who suffered the most, with an estimated 1,000,000+ killed and 5,000,000 refugees left homeless and exiled after the war.This is definitely one of the better `histories' with excellent photographs & maps and some first class demographics and detail. Anyone who likes history /wars should look at this series as it really is first class at giving you the basics of any conflict.

I found this book rather good and very informative. In all honnesty, I have not read many books about this conflict but found it quite well balanced, interesting and decenly written. I think the force of this book is that the author is probably a journalist consequently it is relatively well written and reading is relatively pleasant unlike some other Osprey books.But the book may fail with the following: - Poor military coverage and very little information on the operation themselves. Dont get me wrong, the conflict is really well covered but is perhaps not a military book as per se. - Photographs captions which are very dull, repetitive and pointless most of the time. One wonder if the author was just filling space. - The book is perhaps a bit too pro-afghan. I found "afgantsy" from Braithwaite dealing a bit more with the point of view of the soviet soldier (different of book size apart)Overall, some traditional Osprey readers may find a bit light in terms of military context but it will be a very good book for the general reader.

Excellent analysis of the failed Soviet campaign in the 80ties, well presented with rare field photographs and maps. Good read, pager thrower.

Very informative guide to the war. Excellent.

Finger weg von diesem Buch.Handwerklich falsch dargestellte Waffensysteme. Selbst einfach zu identifiziere Schützenpanzer wie BMP-1 werden nicht erkannt und es wird wild herumgeraten. Ist das ein Ratebuch.Diese Fehler ziehen sich durch das ganze Buch.