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The Soviet-Afghan War: How a Superpower Fought and Lost. By the Russian General Staff. Translated and edited by Lester W. Grau and Michael A. Gress. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2002. ISBN 0-7006-1186-X. Maps. Photographs. Glossary. Appendixes. Notes. Index. Pp. xxvii, 364. $17.95.
This is a translated and edited edition of a Russian General Staff collective study of the 1979-89 Soviet War in Afghanistan. It represents a valuable and comprehensive analysis, written by officers who saw the value of Afghan lessons for Chechnya and elsewhere. While the Soviet General Staff took military history seriously-their studies of 1941-45 are valued by historians-they were out of business before they could analyze the Red Army's last war. This volume did not receive the polish and tight editing of the Soviet...