World History
The Soviet-Afghan War - How a Superpower Fought and Lost. The Russian General Staff's study of the war, translated and edited by Lester W. Grau and Michael A. Gress, is partially presented. Includes online text of introduction, editor preface and foreward.
The text is available in both html and pdf form. If you want to read the whole book you are going to have to buy it or borrow it from a library. However, the online content is interesting and enjoyed browsing it.
From the site:
The War in Afghanistan (1979-1989) has been called "the Soviet Union's Vietnam War," a conflict that pitted Soviet regulars against a relentless, elusive, and ultimately unbeatable Afghan guerrilla force (the mujahideen). The hit-and-run bloodletting across the war's decade tallied more than 25,000 dead Soviet soldiers plus a great many more casualties and further demoralized a USSR on the verge of disintegration.
In The Soviet-Afghan War the Russian general staff takes a close critical look at the Soviet military's disappointing performance in that war in an effort to better understand what happened and why and what lessons should be taken from it. Lester Grau and Michael Gress's expert English translation of the general staff's study offers the very first publication in any language of this important and illuminating work.
Surprisingly, this was a study the general staff never intended to write, initially viewing the war in Afghanistan as a dismal aberration in Russian military history. The history of the 1990s has, of course, completely demolished that belief, as evidenced by the Russian Army's subsequent engagements with guerrilla forces in Chechnya, Azerbaijan, Tadjikistan, Turkmenistan, and elsewhere. As a result, Russian officers decided to take a much closer look at the Red Army's experiences in the Afghan War.
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World History
The Soviet-Afghan War - How a Superpower Fought and Lost
The Soviet-Afghan War - How a Superpower Fought and Lost. The Russian General Staff's study of the war, translated and edited by Lester W. Grau and Michael A. Gress, is partially presented. Includes online text of introduction, editor preface and foreward.
The text is available in both html and pdf form. If you want to read the whole book you are going to have to buy it or borrow it from a library. However, the online content is interesting and enjoyed browsing it.
From the site:
The War in Afghanistan (1979-1989) has been called "the Soviet Union's Vietnam War," a conflict that pitted Soviet regulars against a relentless, elusive, and ultimately unbeatable Afghan guerrilla force (the mujahideen). The hit-and-run bloodletting across the war's decade tallied more than 25,000 dead Soviet soldiers plus a great many more casualties and further demoralized a USSR on the verge of disintegration.
In The Soviet-Afghan War the Russian general staff takes a close critical look at the Soviet military's disappointing performance in that war in an effort to better understand what happened and why and what lessons should be taken from it. Lester Grau and Michael Gress's expert English translation of the general staff's study offers the very first publication in any language of this important and illuminating work.
Surprisingly, this was a study the general staff never intended to write, initially viewing the war in Afghanistan as a dismal aberration in Russian military history. The history of the 1990s has, of course, completely demolished that belief, as evidenced by the Russian Army's subsequent engagements with guerrilla forces in Chechnya, Azerbaijan, Tadjikistan, Turkmenistan, and elsewhere. As a result, Russian officers decided to take a much closer look at the Red Army's experiences in the Afghan War.
- The Russo-finnish War
The Russo-Finnish War. This is a book review by S. J. Larly of the book A Frozen Hell: The Russo-Finnish Winter War Of 1939 - 40 which was written by William R. Trotter. This is a substantial review which also gives a good overview of the Russo-Finnish...
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- Battle Of Moscow
Battle of Moscow - Discusses the German attack and Russian defence of Moscow and counteroffensive during the 1941-1942 campaign on the Eastern Front. It is also available in Russian. (And it probably reads better in Russian as the English at the site...
- Afghanistan: War Without End?
Afghanistan: War Without End?. Experts discuss the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan and the U.S. reaction to heightened tensions in the region in December 1985. Transcript of News Hour with Jim Lehrer. From the site: Soviet troops crossed the border...
- Teaching About The Soviet Union.
Teaching about the Soviet Union. This is an essay which gives ideas for teaching about the Soviet Union including it's history. The essay is from 1987 (and the Soviet Union stilled existed then!) so it disuccess the Soviet Union in the present tense...