The Great Gamble: The Soviet War in Afghanistan

by Gregory Feifer

Overview

“Fascinating….A highly readable history of the conflict.” —New York Times Book Review

In The Great Gamble, a groundbreaking account of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, former NPR Moscow correspondent Gregory Feifer vividly depicts the war that contributed greatly to the demise of the USSR, and that offers striking lessons for the 21st century, as well. Told from the perspective of the Russians who fought it, The Great Gamble offers valuable insight into the history of Afghanistan’s troubled government and the rise of the Mujahideen and Al-Qaeda. In the words of the Minneapolis Star Tribune, “Feifer has done truly extraordinary research… For all its heft, [The Great Gamble] is an effortless read—an unusual and gratifying combination.”

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780061143199
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	01/05/2010
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	326
Sales rank:	453,406
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 7.90(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Gregory Feifer is the former Moscow correspondent for National Public Radio. He was educated at Harvard University and lives in Prague with his wife, Elizabeth, and son, Sebastian.

What People are Saying About This

Thomas Powers

“Feifer brings to life in spirited detail the bloody, eight-year struggle that killed a million Afghans and tens of thousands of Russians and broke the back of the Soviet Union, which disappeared within two years of the war’s end. You think it can’t happen to us? Read Feifer.”

Thomas Ricks

“This is a provocative and important book, telling us what the Soviet military was thinking and feeling as it lost its war in Afghanistan. Gregory Feifer vividly shows that their campaigns there amounted to a manual of how not to do it.”

From the Publisher

"A new side of a long, sorry war that...[Feifer] recounts with skill." —-The New York Times

Editorial Reviews

This is a provocative and important book, telling us what the Soviet military was thinking and feeling as it lost its war in Afghanistan. Gregory Feifer vividly shows that their campaigns there amounted to a manual of how not to do it.” — Thomas Ricks, author of Fiasco and The Gamble

“Feifer’s thoughtful, deliberative use of eyewitness testimony gives an intensely close-up sense of what the war was like for those who fought it.” — Kirkus Reviews

“Feifer brings to life in spirited detail the bloody, eight-year struggle that killed a million Afghans and tens of thousands of Russians and broke the back of the Soviet Union, which disappeared within two years of the war’s end. You think it can’t happen to us? Read Feifer.” — Thomas Powers, author of Heisenberg’s War

“Tracing the arc of the Soviets’ military disillusionment in Afghanistan, Feifer, who is an NPR reporter in Moscow, provides essential historical background to the present war in Afghanistan.” — Booklist

From the Publisher

This is a provocative and important book, telling us what the Soviet military was thinking and feeling as it lost its war in Afghanistan. Gregory Feifer vividly shows that their campaigns there amounted to a manual of how not to do it.

Thomas Ricks

Feifer brings to life in spirited detail the bloody, eight-year struggle that killed a million Afghans and tens of thousands of Russians and broke the back of the Soviet Union, which disappeared within two years of the war’s end. You think it can’t happen to us? Read Feifer.

Thomas Powers

Tracing the arc of the Soviets’ military disillusionment in Afghanistan, Feifer, who is an NPR reporter in Moscow, provides essential historical background to the present war in Afghanistan.

Booklist

Tracing the arc of the Soviets’ military disillusionment in Afghanistan, Feifer, who is an NPR reporter in Moscow, provides essential historical background to the present war in Afghanistan.

Booklist

…a highly readable history of the conflict…The author, NPR's Moscow correspondent, tells the story mainly through the eyes of Soviet veterans and spies. The results are vivid and original…It's "a tragic human story," Feifer writes—and one that he recounts with skill.
—The New York Times

Nicholas Thompson

Blow-by-blow account of the Soviet Union's nine-year military occupation of Afghanistan, which gained little, wasted lives and helped bring down a formidable empire. Feifer took advantage of his position as NPR's Moscow correspondent to conduct interviews with participants that enabled him to penetrate the Russian reasoning behind the invasion of Afghanistan on December 27, 1979. Moscow's incursion into its small Central Asian neighbor was intended as a quick hit. It stemmed partly from Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev's hurt feelings over the ouster and murder of the country's first communist president by the ruthless Hafizullah Amin, partly by fears that erupting civil violence would disturb Moscow's hard-won hegemony in the region. The senile Politburo had no real understanding of Afghanistan's ethnic divisions, or of the largely illiterate populace's resistance to modernization and long-standing resentment of foreign invaders. The Russian quagmire in Afghanistan, which claimed the lives of some 75,000 Soviets and 1.25 million Afghans, has been compared to America's debacle in Vietnam, but Feifer sees a more apt parallel in America's inability to extricate itself from Iraq. The Soviet invaders shot Amin as an enemy of the people, installed Babrak Karmal as president and flooded the country with troops and arms. The Americans, Saudis and Chinese (among others) aided the mujahideen, rural leaders who overcame ethnic, tribal and economic divisions to unite under Islam, defying the Soviets from their base in the Pakistani mountains. After Mikhail Gorbachev came to power in 1985, he made withdrawal an official policy, though ending the war proved harder than starting it. The last plane leftKabul on February 15, 1989. The war's ramifications would prove long and bitter for both superpowers, as Feifer sketches in a too-brief final chapter. Invisible History by Paul Fitzgerald and Elizabeth Gould, also forthcoming in January, offers more material on Afghanistan's current plight. Feifer's thoughtful, deliberative use of eyewitness testimony gives an intensely close-up sense of what the war was like for those who fought it. Agent: Robert Gottlieb, John Silbersack/Trident Media Group

Kirkus Reviews