Sniper in Afghanistan: Torn Souls

"In addition to his main specialty, a Soviet soldier has several off-duty — so-called «interchangeability». Any veteran, if necessary, can take command of a squad or even a platoon, work with any type of small arms (including BMP guns), carry out simple resuscitation measures, defuse a simple mine, and so on. I had a whole string of such secondary specialties…"

The author of this book had to fight — both as part of an AGS crew and as a machine gunner, and even as a sniper — in one of the most “hot spots” of the Afghan war: “In the high-mountain province of Badakhshan, where our unit was stationed, ‘Soviet power’ was limited to only the administrative center — the city of Faizabad. The rest of the territory was entirely under the control of the spirits. Of course, not evenly. There were areas where you could ‘move about’ relatively calmly, and there were others we called nothing less than ‘h…’ — and from which not even once did anyone return without corpses…”

This book is top-grade trench truth: without the parade myths about the “international duty” and “friendship of peoples,” but also without Sinyaskov’s slander. It is an extremely honest and candid account of life and death “beyond the river,” of feats and losses, heroes and “torn souls,” of victories that turned into defeats — of the unforgettable last war of the USSR.