Rodric
Braithwaite, Afgantsy: The Russians in Afghanistan 1979-1989
London, Profile
Books, 2011, 431 pages
Lester W. Grau,
Foreign
Military Studies Office
1. For many years, Western
scholarship on the Soviet-Afghan War was limited to a small group of academics,
soldiers, retired diplomats, regional specialists and journalists. With the
current mission in Afghanistan,
this group has grown. Sir Rodric Braithwaite is a most welcome addition.
Following occupation duties as a soldier in post-war Vienna,
Rodric Braithwaite studied Russian at Cambridge
from 1952-1955. 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. He clearly was in an optimum position to view and analyze
these events. This is his third book on Russian affairs. It is a very good book
indeed.
2. Ambassador Braithwaite is known and
respected as one of the grand old men among the Russian analytical crowd. He
uses his Russian language skills, his access to Russian archives, diplomatic
contacts and variety of Russian friends and contacts to draw the Russian
perspective on events. He has again applied these resources to this book. 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. It is more detailed in 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
that were involved in it. It sounds like a chaotic approach, but it works well.
The book is about the Afgantsy - the Russians who served in Afghanistan and
is their story written for an English-speaking audience.
3. Braithwaite’s core theme is that the
Soviet 40th Army came to prop up a communist regime in chaos. The
political leadership intended to leave within two years, but was 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 the vignettes throughout this theme and covers peripheral
topics such as advisers, troop hazing, women in combat, the combat experience,
the missing in action, post-traumatic stress and the internal politics of the
Politburo. The book is remarkably well crafted. It also has the most poignant
dedication that I have read.
4. An author is not doing his job if the
reader does not disagree with him on one or two points. The reviewer found him
a bit snarky when comparing Afghanistan
to the reviewer’s own war in South Vietnam. But, this is
precisely the same feeling that the Afgantsy have for outsiders who write about
their war, but did not personally experience it. So, bravo Sir Braithwaite!
Well researched, well written and well worth reading.
5. This is a must-read book for coalition
planners and governments involved with Afghanistan
and Pakistan.
I strongly recommend his book to planners, historians and military
professionals alike.
Electronic reference
Lester W. Grau, « Rodric Braithwaite, Afgantsy: The
Russians in Afghanistan
1979-1989 », The Journal of Power Institutions in
Post-Soviet Societies [Online], Issue 12 | 2011, Online
since 14 December 2011, connection on 24 December 2011. URL :
http://pipss.revues.org/3861