For the first time, the novel presents a carefully constructed artistic version of a little-known, at the same time symbolic event from the final years of the Soviet era — the uprising of Soviet and Afghan prisoners of war in April 1985 at the Pakistani fortress of Badaber. For the first time in Russian fiction, the curtain of mystery has been partially lifted over the most closed of all Soviet special services — the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the USSR Armed Forces. For the first time, the novel tells about the unique higher education institution of the country, which in Soviet times was called the Military Institute of Foreign Languages. For the first time, the author’s version of the described events comes from practicing professional orientalists, who also proposed, among other things, a brief “artistic encyclopedia” of the decade-long Afghan war.
Contents:
Part I VIIMIA
Part II INTELLIGENCE
Part III WAR
Part IV FORTRESS
Part V BATTLE
AFTERWORD