THE RUSSIANS IN AFGHANISTAN

Abstract

The author sets the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan (1979–1989) in the historical context of the “Great Game”, in which the British and the Russians had paranoid suspicions of each other. An analogous process continued through the Cold war and, as a result, after the coup against Daoud the Soviets were forced slowly down the road to the 1979 intervention which they tried hard to avoid. His detailed analysis of the campaign sheds new light on many aspects of the Soviet presence in Afghanistan, overturning many Cold War myths in the process. He then assesses their overall performance, making some interesting comparisons with both Vietnam and the current Coalition campaign.