Boys In Zinc

Without doubt the best anti-war book written or translated into English. Searing indictment of Soviet Russian invasion of Afghanistan.

Highly recommend...required reading.

Svetlana Alexievich is an investigative journalist and who has turned her hand to writing books. Her most prominent works in English translation include a collection of first-hand accounts from the war in Afghanistan “Zinky Boys” aka Boys in Zinc.The Brezhnev Doctrine was a Soviet foreign policy, which allowed its application to any international situation the USSR saw fit. This included Soviet involvement in Afghanistan starting in the ‘70s.When the Soviet Union decided to move upon a more direct involvement in Afghanistan, it was far from a given that it would lose the conflict. However, the structure and military doctrine of the Soviet forces was at odds to the task in hand. The Soviet Army of the 1980s was skilled and equipped for conventional warfare in Central Europe against an analogous opponent, i.e. it used “armoured and motor-rifle formations”. This was particularly unproductive against “small-scale guerrilla groups using hit-and-run tactics in the rough terrain of Afghanistan”. By the end of the conflict, the fallout, both at home, overseas and the human cost was immense. The seeds for future conflict in Afghanistan were sown, while the foundations of Soviet Union were undeniably damaged.The narrative illustrates to the reader the, almost, methodical injury, destruction, manipulation and duplicity in the way a generation of Soviet teenage men were sent to wage war in Afghanistan in the 1980s. There were older men too, but ‘by and large’ the age’s were 18 and 19. It is their voices we hear, and in the end, their narrative is what resonates with such astonishing command. This is a book that is well worthy of a full five stars.

This book has two distinct parts, in the first the author, Svetlana Alexievich, weaves together the sentiments and memories of some who served in the Soviet forces sent to Afghanistan in 1979, accounts blended with the painful reminisces of those mothers forced to come to terms with the fact that their beloved sons were coming home in a 'zinc coffin.' The second part exposes the rawness generated by what was published, the author facing legal action from a veteran and a grieving mother, individuals who felt what was published did them an injustice.Like American involvement in Vietnam, the Soviet Union's decision to commit its armed forces to Afghanistan turned out to be more difficult than they could have imagined. Over ten years untold damage was done to the Afghan nation and eventually to the Soviet Union itself. For the combatants on both sides it was a disastrous conflict with little quarter given or received, even for those who escaped unharmed the pain of the experiences live on, as they do for many American veterans of Vietnam. In a way it was worse for the Soviet army, given the lack of logistical support, the scale of corruption and the poor treatment often handed out by senior ranks. Even when finally making it home they found, like their American cousins, that the attitudes of those who did not go, and therefore could not understand, levied a further burden that more than resentments. In extracting these outcomes the author did the nation a service, although not all saw it that way.The second part of records the legal challenge and the decision eventually reached by the Belarusian court. Perhaps the most balanced comment here was left by the former 'Afghani' (a veteran of the conflict), Pavel Shetko, although concluding comments by the author offered in her defence are worthy of note.A powerful and frequently an intensely painful account of an ill judged war and the toll it wrought on those ordered to fight it. For those already familiar with the testament of US veterans of Vietnam, you will find much that resonates, all soldiers and parents share a common bond no matter what the underlying cause and driving ideology. Recommended reading.

The ordinary russian soldiers (and their families) sent out to afghanistan over the course of a decade from 1979 to the fall of sovietism, to fight what they had been told was a just liberational campaign, had absolutely no idea of the horrors that awaited. a much needed documentation of the human cost and consequences in the former ussr of that misguided intervention whose effects are still with us today. nobel prize winning Belarusian author Svetlana Alexandrovna Alexievich has written about ww2, chernobyl and is now in danger because of her opposition to dictator Lukashenko.

Told in snippets of verbal narration by the soldiers, their mothers, and their wives, the first half of this book is a depressing exploration of the Soviet Afghan war. The second half is about the trial the author went through after publication as Russia battled to understand it's own position in regard to the war.If only Nato countries could have such a trial.

Very powerful and compelling. I bought this after reading Voices of Chernobyl/Chernobyl Prayer and it is just as good. The moving stories of soldiers, nurses and mothers build up and overlay each other to build a picture of the true horror of a pointless war. It also gives a good idea of soviet life in the 80s. As a bonus there are transcripts and documents from two trials brought against the author by some of the book's subjects. Well worth a read and well deserving of the Nobel Prize

Not at all what I expected, the book consists of a series of interviews of the Soviet soldiers who fought in Afghanistan and of the mothers of those who died there. It is a narrative documentary, and therefore some artistic freedom has been used. The last third of the book is dedicated to the trial that the author went through years after publishing the book as a result of it, uncovering an interesting political analysis. This book is avery interesting reading as the message that it conveys goes beyond national borders, and helps understand the crisis we face today.