Afgantsy

9 Quoted in C. Gall and T. de Waal, Chechnya: A Small Victorious War (London, 1997), p. 97.

10 V. Krivenko, Ekipazh mashiny boevoi (St Petersburg, 2004), p. 372.

11 Valeri Shiryaev, interview, Moscow, 12 March 2010.

12 A. Prokhanov, Tretii tost (Moscow, 2003), p. 61.

13 The first was ECOSOC E/CN.4/1985/21 in 1985; the last was E/CN.4/1995/64 in 1995.

14 Report on the Situation of Human Rights in Afghanistan, UN General Assembly A/43/742.

15 In 1979, according to a government census which may or may not have been accurate, the population of Afghanistan was 15.5 million, of whom just over 900,000 lived in Kabul.

16 Bobrov, Soldatskaya saga, p. 283.

17 Afghanistan Justice Project, Casting Shadows: War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity, 1978–2001, The Century Foundation (www.tcf.org), 2005, p. 34 (http://www.afghanistanjusticeproject.org/).

18 Ibid., p. 56.

19 Krivenko, Ekipazh mashiny boevoi, p. 351.

20 V. Snegirev, ‘Afganski plennik’, Rossiiskaya gazeta, 12 August 2003; Vyacheslav Nekrasov, interview, Moscow, 13 May 2007.

21 A. Greshnov, Afganistan: Zalozhniki vremeni (Moscow, 2006), p. 133.

22 Ibid., p. 148.

23 Afghanistan Justice Project, Casting Shadows, p. 63.

24 Alan A. H. Macdonald, Chief of Staff, Mine Action Coordination Centre of Afghanistan, email to author, 4 May 2009.

25 Greshnov, Afganistan, p. 56.

26 101st Motor-rifle Regiment website (http://101.int.ruin dex.phpoptioncom_content&taskview&id204&ltemid5).

27 V. Voinovich, ‘Glavny tsenzor’ (http://www.voinovich.ru/home_reader.jsp?books8.jsp).

28 Lyakhovski A, Tragedia i doblest Afgana, Moscow 1995 (http://www.rsva.ru/biblio/pros e_af/afgan_tragedy_and_glory/index.shtml); R. Keeble and J. Mair (eds.), Afghanistan, War and the Media: Deadlines and Frontlines (London 2010), p. 87.

29 Varennikov, Nepovtorimoe, p. 308. The Politburo record has been widely reproduced—for example, by Alexander Lyakhovski—and in other memoirs and histories of the war.

30 D. Gai and V. Snegirev, Vtorzhenie (Moscow, 1991), pp. 192, 190, and 175. Sakharov’s ‘Open Letter to Brezhnev’ is at http://www.uic.unn.ru/ads/biography/txt1.htm.

31 A. Chernyaev, Sovmestny iskhod: Dnevnik dvukh epokh 1972–1991 gody (Moscow, 2008), diary entry for 5 February 1979, p. 391.

32 Gai and Snegirev, Vtorzhenie, p. 207.

33 National Security Archive, Afghanistan: Lessons from the Last War, Vol. II, Document 15, 12 November 1981, translated by Svetlana Savranskaya (http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB /NSAEBB57/soviet.html).

34 A. Volkov, ’40-aya Armia: Istoria sozdania, sostav, izmenenie struktury’ (www.rsva-ural.ru/library/?id63).

35 Gai and Snegirev, Vtorzhenie, p. 204.

36 Maiorov, Pravda ob afganskoi voine, pp. 5, 154, and passim.

37 National Security Archive, Afghanistan: Lessons from the Last War, Vol. II, Document 20, 13 August 1987, translated by Svetlana Savranskaya (http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB /NSAEBB57/soviet.html).

38 Rastem Makhmutov, interview, Moscow, 27 May 2007.

39 Alexander Gergel, email to author, 23 September 2009.

40 Lyakhovski and Nekrasov, Grazhdanin, politik, voin, pp. 213–14.

41 Gai and Snegirev, Vtorzhenie, p. 207.

42 Private information.

43 V. Plastun and V. Andrianov, Najibulla: Afghanistan v tiskakh geopolitiki (Moscow, 1998), p. 2.

Part III: The Long Goodbye

1 This much shortened translation of one of Igor Morozov’s most famous songs is printed with his kind permission. When it was first published the military censorship insisted on changing ‘O mighty land for which we fought/Can you now dry our mothers’ tears?’ to ‘O distant land, Afghanistan,/Can you now dry our mothers’ tears?’ in an attempt to shift the blame for the war away from the Soviet government.

11: Going Home

1 See A. Dyshev, PPZh: Pokhodno-polevaya Zhena (Moscow, 2007).

2 V. Krivenko, Ekipazh mashiny boevoi (St Petersburg, 2004), p. 9.

3 Ibid., p. 378.

4 This description of how to clean your uniform is in S. Aleksievich, Zinky Boys (New York, 1992), p. 50.

5 Ibid., p. 50.

6 Krivenko, Ekipazh mashiny boevoi, p. 372.

7 This description of a typical regimental morgue is based on Dyshev, PPZh, pp. 28–38; S. Nikiforov, Bez vsyakikh pravil (St Petersburg, 2008), p. 99; G. Koroleva, ‘Dvadtsat mesyatsev v adu’, Daryal, No. 3, 2001 (http://www.darial-online.ru/2001_3/koroleva.shtml).

8 Blinushov kept notes on these incidents, which he wanted to work up into a book. But someone told the KGB, who confiscated all the material he had gathered together: A. Blinushov, ‘Cherny Tiulpan’ (http://www.reznik.pri.ee/document.php? Id108).

9 A. Smolina, ‘Vsem devushkam, letavshim v afganskom nebe’ (http://artofwar.ru/s/smolina_a/text_0080.shtml).

10 Yu. Lapshin, Afganski dnevnik (Moscow, 2004), p. 95.

11 These figures are taken from Appendix 13 of A. Lyakhovski, Tragedia i doblest Afgana (Moscow, 1995) (http://www.rsva.ru/biblio/pros e_af/afgan_tragedy_and_glory/index.shtml). Though there are a number of soldiers named Viktor in the list who served with the mujahedin, none is easily identifiable with the young man referred to by Alla Smolina.