The Hidden War
Contents:
A vital and fascinating portrait of the Soviet empire at the twilight of its power, this is a book that still resonates today.
A fascinating look at the life and death of Soviet soldiers. Paperback , pages. Published April 10th by Grove Press first published To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up. To ask other readers questions about Hidden War , please sign up. Lists with This Book. To say that this war was a mistake is to say nothing at all. It's a lot easier to find a mistake than to find the truth. World War I was a mistake!
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- Hidden War: A Russian Journalist's Account of the Soviet War in Afghanistan by Artyom Borovik.
The war in Afghanistan was a mistake! The Soviet Union's nine year war in Afghanistan, despite their staunch refusal to admit as much, was their version of the USA's Vietnam war. Borovik only mentions this fact in passing in his wonderfully crafted, first han To say that this war was a mistake is to say nothing at all. Borovik only mentions this fact in passing in his wonderfully crafted, first hand journalism of the war, but any American reader that has passed eyes over one or two books on the Vietnam War will immediately recognize similarities.
The parallels between two Superpowers - countries on the opposite ends of the political and economic spectra - and their independent inability to wage war against a seemingly rag-tag group of rebels is uncanny. Without consciously doing so, Borovik confirmed that humanity fails and breaks at the same weak points in our national character. Democracy or communism makes no difference - the lies we tell our soldiers, our populace and the rest of the world are born from the same failings. It's depressing, but at least we are all in this shit together.
Borovik's book is told in two halves: The second portion is told as the Soviet forces are withdrawing from the country, tail between legs, and the mess that comes with the strategic withdrawl. The writing in each section follows the pattern of the Soviet's war path. The first half of the book is replete with well told vignettes of Borovik's first hand experiences of the soldier life in multiple theaters across the country all of them sound like they could have been told by American soldiers during the last 75 years.
Page after page the linearity of the narrative is crisp, beautifully written Graham Greene's blurb on the front cover referring to the book as "literature, not journalism" is best reflected in this part but like the Soviet army it has no idea where it is headed.
The second part of the book, like the Red Army, knows where it is headed. And like the retreat, the telling of this part of the story is all over the map. Written five years after the first section the reader can easily detect Borovik's growth as a writer and his disinterest in waxing poetic about war. It's a mess, and his telling of the mess isn't going to be bound by the same linearity of the first section. I mentioned in my first update when I started this book on Saturday that Vollmann's reference to this book in Rising Up and Rising Down pushed me to pick it up impulsively.
I'll finish the review by quoting that exchange in all of its sad reality: I ask, "If you were in the shoes of the wisest of the wise man - who, let's suppose, thoroughly and correctly understands the perspective of society's development but also sees thousands of people living in misery, backwardness, even barbarism - wouldn't you have a desire to help those people and bring culture within their reach?
Outside such a society, however, backwardness and barbarism mean something quite different, not at all the opposite of culture. View all 11 comments. Mar 23, mark rated it it was amazing. I thought Oba The Hidden War: I thought Obama was smarter than that—that he was well read. War is war and people are people, and unless you are prepared to station a platoon of soldiers on every hilltop with superior firepower to enforce your will, the will of Established Power will prevail.
Can they all be killed? Can they be bought?
Artyom Borovik, the author of Hidden War, was called “the best journalist in Russia” during the early s. He was a foreign editor for Ogonyok. Until his death in , Artyom Borovik was considered one of the preeminent journalists in Russia. With The Hidden War he provided the world its first glimpse .
Can they be changed? The episode is about soldiers and war —and the hidden desires of men. Watch my reading at: Oh, he died at age forty— imagine that. Feb 19, Tariq Mahmood rated it really liked it Shelves: The Russian soldier was sent into Afghanistan to fight the American soldier and to help the Afghani people retain their freedom. Instead they found themselves fighting against the very same people who they were supposed to save. For a soldier steeped in ideological propaganda it was a horrid experience.
Greece: The Hidden War - Wikipedia
The soldier found his escape shooting drugs to get over shooting ordinary Afghans. Looks like moral was a major issue in the invasion of Afghanistan. War without proper justi Heros or zeros? War without proper justification results in low moral. When I was knocking off twenty people at a time on your orders, you said well done!
Here is an army man with excellent results in combat. Put his name in the board oh honour. But when I got hungry, I did get plastered, I was drunk then, and went to get the lamb because there was no food, I killed some people that I always killed.
The Hidden War: A Russian Journalist's Account of the Soviet War in Afghanistan
This time however it wasn't your orders. So now you've decided to try me? Proxy wars are the best method of winning, because there is little chance of exposing propaganda lies over a sustained period. The real battle was between ideologies, Russia had superior arms, greater numbers and much more resources but were poor reasons to occupy Afghanistan with its archaic year old Allah ideology. But the Allah ideology was well entrenched, understood, and widely accepted by the disparate Afghani people, as they united behind it to fight their Russian oppressor.
Jun 06, Christopher rated it liked it Shelves: The risks of such an endeavor were palpable: Afghanistan was notoriously a country that had never been 'conquered,' and the Soviets learned that bitter lesson first-hand during their invasion and occupation from Afghanistan was the 'Soviet Vietnam', in that it began under dubious circumstances and ended as a quagmire with a messy closure, much like the American experience in Vietnam in the 60s and 70s.
Artyom Borovik was a journalist traveling these days we would call it 'embedded' with Soviet units on a couple of tours during the 80s. His observations begin as cautiously optimistic, but by the end his dispatches are increasingly weary and pessimistic. What becomes most clear in Borovik's writings is the negative effect of the Afghan insurgency on the morale of Soviet troops.
Like the American war in Vietnam, many Soviet conscripts became increasingly disillusioned about the Afghan war and just wanted to get home safely to their families. The conflict became a slow battle of wills: Borovik's candor is brave and refreshing, especially because its ground-level perspective is apart from what the Soviet regime sought to portray again: Seeing the evolution of Borovik's writing and how he slowly became disenchanted himself, much like the soldiers he documents, makes this one of the essential books about that conflict.
It is unfortunate that we don't see this kind of journalism as the norm even in today's Russia. Nov 26, Riley rated it liked it.
This book is a telling account of the Russian invasion of Afghanistan, which was one of the disasters that cemented the fall of the Soviet Union. Some of the writing, by a Russian journalist, is very good. Colonel Frolov, the chief of the hospital This book is a telling account of the Russian invasion of Afghanistan, which was one of the disasters that cemented the fall of the Soviet Union. I am a colonel. Why should I run my life?
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I went out into the courtyard, where the soldier once again offered to sell me some condensed milk. This time was the price was lower, but he was still asking more than a journalist on assignment in Afghanistan could afford. Leaning against the obelisk, a woman in a military uniform was sobbing, her tiny body convulsing as if she were in an electric chair. The tears kept streaming out of her eyes, leaving whitish traces of salt that resembled the lines on the sweaty rump of a horse after a quick blow of the crop.
Her lips were quivering. Her eyebrows puckered over the bridge of her nose. Dec 05, Shawn rated it really liked it Shelves: Intriguing depictions of Soviet Russian soldiers on the frontlines in Afghanistan during the Soviet-Afghan War from Probably the most fascinating thing to me was how much this truly read like a depiction of the American soldier's experience in Vietnam, as cliched as that may sound.
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Simoly substitute the sub-tropical climate and malaria-ridden jungles of southeast Asia for the desolate montaine regions of Aghanistan, and you have the perfect parallel. Soldiers sufferi Pretty good read. Soldiers suffering immensely, needlessly, for some bankrupt ideology, for some callous bureaucrat trying to save face, or maybe even avoid the Gulag. It's always politicians destroying youths.
Just as the United States had no business trying to impose a Western ideology upon Vietnam, the USSR had no business attempting to protect the fragile, much-hated communist ideology upon a nation that was hardly homogeneous and far from unified. The USSR never had a chance. If the American folk singers and rockers and poets lament the fates of poor and working-class lads being sent to the frontlines in the interest of Rich Old White Capitalists, so, too, does Borovik hint at the sins of the Soviet Fathers and their roles in providing the killing fields for their their native sons.
Aug 12, Daniel rated it really liked it. Borovik's account of the Soviet campaign in Afghanistan goes into some harsh truths about the war and the people who fought in it. He devotes less time to maneuvers and engagements than I expected, focusing instead on quiet conversations with soldiers, deserters, officers and politicians. The overall sentiment is one of wasted efforts, resources and lives cloaked by government-sanctioned media that present a much rosier picture of progress and achievement.
It is sad and fucked up how familiar Borovik's account of the Soviet campaign in Afghanistan goes into some harsh truths about the war and the people who fought in it. Michael Mando shares how he, Bob Odenkirk , and the rest of the " Better Call Saul " cast don't treat the show like a prequel series.
The biggest stars, the best looks Let's hit the red carpet. See what's trending now. The Hidden War is a film about love in the time of war. Set against the backdrop of one of the world's longest running armed insurgency - India's Maoist rebellion - this film is an intimate character study of the emotional, psychological and personal impact of war in the lives of ordinary people. Check out the Indian movies with the highest ratings from IMDb users, as well as the movies that are trending in real time.
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