Sniper in Afghanistan. Torn Souls

“A Soviet soldier, besides his main specialty, has several other—so-called ‘interchangeable’ ones. Any long-serving soldier, if necessary, can take command of a squad—or even a platoon—work with any type of small-arms weapon (including BMP guns), carry out simple life-saving medical procedures, remove an ordinary mine, and so on. I had a whole garland of such side specialties...” The author of this book fought and served as well in the AGS gun crew, as a machine gunner, and 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’ spread only to the administrative center—the city of Faizabad. The rest of the territory was entirely under the control of the spirits. True, not evenly. There were areas where you could ‘climb around’ fairly calmly, and there were others that we called nothing other than ‘h…’—and from there you never returned without corpses...

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