The Great Gamble: The Soviet War in Afghanistan

Gregory Feifer

Jan 2009 · Harper Collins

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An account of the USSR’s defeat in Afghanistan drawing on many interviews with Soviet veterans: “Fascinating. . . . A highly readable history of the conflict.” —The New York Times Book Review

In this groundbreaking account of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, former NPR Moscow correspondent Gregory Feifer vividly depicts the war that contributed greatly to the demise of the USSR, and that offers striking lessons for the twenty-first century as well. Told primarily from the perspective of the Russians who fought it, The Great Gamble offers valuable insight into the history of Afghanistan’s troubled government and the rise of the mujahideen and Al-Qaeda.

“Feifer has done truly extraordinary research . . . For all its heft, [The Great Gamble] is an effortless read—an unusual and gratifying combination.” —Minneapolis Star Tribune

“A provocative and important book, telling us what the Soviet military was thinking and feeling as it lost its war in Afghanistan. Gregory Feifer vividly shows that their campaigns there amounted to a manual of how not to do it.” —Thomas Ricks, author of Fiasco

“Thoughtful, deliberative use of eyewitness testimony gives an intensely close-up sense of what the war was like for those who fought it.” —Kirkus Reviews

“Brings to life in spirited detail the bloody, eight-year struggle that killed a million Afghans and tens of thousands of Russians and broke the back of the Soviet Union, which disappeared within two years of the war’s end. You think it can’t happen to us? Read Feifer.” —Thomas Powers, Pulitzer Prize-winner and author of Heisenberg’s War

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Gregory Feifer is the former Moscow correspondent for National Public Radio. He was educated at Harvard University and lives in Prague with his wife, Elizabeth, and son, Sebastian.