Afgantsy: The Russians in Afghanistan 1979-1989 by Rodric Braithwaite, and: A Long Goodbye: The Soviet Withdrawal from Afghanistan by Artemy M. Kalinovsky (review)

Two important English-language books on the Soviet-Afghan War were published in 2011. This is noteworthy because, for many years, Western scholarship on the war was limited to a small group of academics, soldiers, retired diplomats, regional specialists, and journalists. Publication was sporadic. Now, the Russian press has produced a variety of books on the subject, and the current conflict in Afghanistan has created a Western demand for more information about the earlier Soviet war in Afghanistan.

Sir Rodric Braithwaite is known and respected as one of the grand old men of the expert community on the USSR/Russia. Following occupation duties as a soldier in postwar Vienna, Braithwaite studied Russian at Cambridge University from 1952 to 1955. He then entered the Foreign Service and, among other postings, had two tours in Moscow, the second as British ambassador from 1988 to 1992. This last tour spanned the end of the Soviet-Afghan War and the collapse of the Soviet Union. Braithwaite was thus in an optimal position to view and analyze these events. This is his third book on Russian affairs.

Artemy M. Kalinovsky is a much younger analyst who has already established a name for himself in the community. He earned his master's and doctoral degrees in international history from the London School of Economics and his undergraduate degree from George Washington University. He is on the faculty of the University of Amsterdam. This is his second book.

Scholarship on the Soviet-Afghan War begins with the work of two participants in that conflict. General Aleksandr Lyakhovskii (who died on 2 February 2009) wrote the pivotal work on the war itself, Tragediya i doblest Afgana (Moscow: DPI Iskona, 1995), based on his service with the Ministry of Defense operational group inside Afghanistan during the fighting. General Makhmut Gareev wrote the preeminent work on the Soviet withdrawal and aftermath based on his assignment as the senior Soviet adviser after the departure of the Soviet 40th Army, Moya poslednyaya voina: Afganistan bez sovetskikh voisk (Moscow: INSAN, 1996). Braithwaite and Kalinovsky have built on the two generals' books, and both of them interviewed Lyakhovskii. Primary research in the documents of the war should be in Dari and Russian. In fact, most of the accessible material is in Russian, which has a certain bias and slant.

Braithwaite uses his Russian-language skills, his access to Russian archives, his diplomatic contacts, and his numerous Russian friends and contacts to draw the Russian perspective on events. He has produced a balanced, often sympathetic work on the Soviet Union's long war in Afghanistan that discounts many of the assumptions, pronouncements, and misconceptions that are held in the West. The book deals especially with political events (he is, after all, an ambassador) and individual vignettes. It is not so much a military history of the war as a thematic series of short vignettes about many of the people who were involved in it. This may sound like a chaotic approach, but it is not—it works well. The book is about the Afgantsy—the Russians who served in Afghanistan. This is their story written for an English-speaking audience.

Afgantsy's core theme is that the Soviet 40th Army came to prop up a Communist regime in chaos. Political leaders intended to leave within two years but were trapped in the middle of a civil war. The Soviet Army had its problems but fought successfully, controlled its battle space, and left the country in good order. Braithwaite weaves vignettes throughout this theme and covers peripheral topics such as advisers, troop hazing, women in combat, the combat experience, the missing in action, posttraumatic stress, and the internal politics of the Soviet Politburo. The book is remarkably well crafted and has the most poignant dedication I have read.

Kalinovsky...