Aleksandr Antonovich Lyakhovskiy Working Paper pp

LITERATURE AND SOURCES 

 

Bibliography 

 

 

M. Arunov, V. Basov, V. Plastun, S. Poltavskaya “Aktual’nyy problemy afganskoy revolyutsii (“Pressing 

problems of the Afghan revolution)”. “Nauka” Publishing House, Moscow – 1984. 

 

A. Antipov, “Lev Rokhlin. Zhizhn’ i smert’ generala (The Life and Death of a General)”, “EkSMO” 

Publishing House, Moscow – 1998 

 

Eh. Abdullayev. “Pozyvnoy-‘Kobra’ (“Callsign-‘Kobra’)”, “Vympel” Al’manakh (Almanac), Moscow - 1997 

 

A. Borovik. “Spryatannaya voyna (“The Hidden War)”. “Sovershenno Sekretno” Publishing House, Moscow 

– 1999. 

 

Yu. Bulatov. “Khal’k i Parcham: osnovyye ehtapy bor’by za zavoyevaniye politicheskoy vlasti v Afganistane 

(Khalq and Parcham: the main stages of the struggle to gain political power in Afghanistan)”. “Nauchnaya kniga” 

Publishing House, Moscow – 1997. 

 

V. Vinogradov, G. Degtyarev, A. Dunayev. “Kniga pamyati: voyennosluzhashchiye organov i voysk KGB 

SSSR, pogibshiye v Respublike Afganistane (1979-1989) (A Book of Memory: servicemen of the agencies and troops 

of the USSR KGB who died in the Republic of Afghanistan (1979-1989)). “Granitsa” Publishing  House, Moscow – 

1993. 

 

M. Drobov. “Malaya voyna. Partizanstvo i diversii (Small war. Guerilla operations and sabotage)”. 

Al’manakh “Vympel”, Moscow – 1998. 

 

Yu. Drozdov. “Zapiski nachal’nika nelegal’noy razvedki (Notes of a chief of illegal intelligence)”. “Russkiy 

biograficheskiy institut” Publishing House, Moscow – 1999. 

 

Yu. Drozdov, V. Kurilov “Operatsiya Shtorm-333” (Operation Shtorm-333)”. Al’manakh “Vympel” Nº 3 

(11), Moscow –1999. 

 V. 

Kirpichenko. 

“Razvedka. Litsa i lichnosti (Intelligence. Faces and personalities)”. “Geya” Publishing 

House, Moscow – 1998.] 

 

N. Konrad “Sun-Tsy. Traktat o voyennom iskusstve (Sun-Tsu. Tractate on the military art)”. Publishing 

house of the USSR Academy of Sciences, Moscow –1950. 

 

V. Kryuchkov. “Lichnoye delo (Personnel file)”. “Olimp” Publishing House, Moscow – 1996. 

 

Yu. Kuznets. “’Marodery’ vykhodyat iz igry (The ‘Marauders’ call it quits)”. “Inter-praks” Publishing House, 

Moscow – 1992. 

 

Compiler V. Muntyan. “Afganistan: uroki istorii (Afghanistan: lessons of history)”, “Progress” Publishing 

House, Moscow – 1990. 

 

A. Nikolayev. “Na perelome. Zapiski russkogo generala (At a turning point. Notes of a Russian general)”. 

“Sovremennyy pisatel’” Publishing House, Moscow – 1998. 

 

V. Primakov. “Afganistan v ogne (Afghanistan in the fire)”. State Publishing House. Moscow – 1929 [SIC]. 

 

V. Plastun, V. Andrianov. “Najibullah. Afganistan v tiskakh geopolitiki (Najibullah. Afghanistan in the 

intrigues of geopolitics)”. “Russkiy biograficheskiy institut” and “Agenstvo sokrat” publishers, Moscow – 1998. 

 

Petrov. “Kushkinskiy boy (The Battle of Kushka)”. The Printing House of the 2

nd

 Turkestan Army Corps. 

Ashkhabad. 1910 

 

I. Solonevich. “Narodnaya monarkhiya (Popular monarchy)”. “Luchi Sofii” Publishing House, Minsk – 1988. 

 

V. Spol’nikov. “Afganistan: islamskaya oppozitsiya. Istoki i tseli (Afghanistan: the Islamic opposition. 

Sources and goals)”. “Nauka” Publishing House, Moscow – 1990. 

 

M. Slinkin. “Afganistan”. International Tauride Ecopolitical University. Simferopol’ – 1995. 

 

M. Slinkin. “Narodno-demokraticheskiya partiya Afganistana u vlasti (The People’s Democratic Party of 

Afghanistan in power)”. State University, Simferopol’ – 1999. 

 

A. Snesarev. “Afganistan”. State Publishing House, Moscow – 1921. 

 

I. Starinov. “Zapiski diversanta (Notes of a saboteur)”. Al’manakh “Vympel”, Moscow – 1997. 

 

I. Starinov. “Miny zamedlennego deystviya (Delayed-action mines)”. Almanakh “Vympel”, Moscow – 1999. 

 

Fayz Muhammad. “Kniga upominaniy o myatezhe (Book of mention about the insurrection)”. Translated by 

A. Shkirando. “Nauka” Publishing House, Moscow – 1988. 

 

N. Tsyganik, G. Alekseyev, V. Turbin, et al. “Internatsional’naya missiya (International mission)”. Moscow – 

1999. [SIC – no publisher listed] 

 

Ye. Chazov. “Zdorov’ye i vlast’: vospominaniya kremlevskogo vracha (Health and power: memoirs of a 

Kremlin doctor)”. “Novosti” Publishing House, Moscow – 1992. 

 

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L. Shebarshin. “Iz zhizni nachal’nika razvedki (From the life of a chief of intelligence)”. “Terra” Publishing 

House, Moscow – 1994. 

 

[Selected lists of people Lyakhovskiy talked to]: 

(Ranks as of the moment the book was written) 

 

Under USSR Ministry of Defense Auspices

 

 

Leaders of Working Groups and Other Officials Who Were in Afghanistan Before the Deployment of Soviet Troops 

 

Hero of the Soviet Union [HSU] General of the Army I. G. Pavlovskiy 

General-Colonel V. A. Merimskiy 

General-Colonel P. I. Bazhenov 

General-Colonel M. D. Popkov 

General-Major V. P. Zaplatin 

General-Major S. P. Tutushkin 

Colonel Z. K. Kadyrov 

Colonel A. M. Kuznetsov   

 

Participants of the Operation in Kabul of 27 December 1979 

 

HSU General-Colonel V. A. Vostrotin 

General-Colonel G. I. Shpak 

General-Lieutenant N. N. Gus’kov 

HSU General-Major V. V. Kolesnik 

General-Major A. V. Popov 

Colonel of the Medical Service A. V. Alekseyev 

Colonel Eh. A. Ibragimov 

Colonel V. A. Sharipov 

Colonel O. U. Shvets 

Lieutenant Colonel R. T. Tursunkulov 

 

 

Under USSR KGB Auspices 

 

Generals of the USSR KGB First Main Directorate 

 

General-Lieutenant L. V. Shebarshin 

General-Lieutenant V. A. Kirpichenko 

General-Lieutenant A. T. Golubev 

General-Major Yu. I. Drozdov 

 

Chiefs of the KGB Mission in Afghanistan 

 

General-Lieutenant B. S. Ivanov 

General-Major L. P. Bogdanov 

General-Lieutenant V. P. Zaytsev 

 

Participants of the Operation in Kabul of 27 December 1979 

 

Colonel A. K. Polyakov 

Colonel B. A. Pleshkunov 

Colonel V. V. Rozin 

Colonel V. N. Kim 

Colonel P. I. Nishchev 

 

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Colonel A. A. Puntus 

Colonel A. T. Ryabinin 

Colonel M. V. Golovatov 

Colonel V. I. Shergin 

Lieutenant Colonel Yu. A. Izotov 

Lieutenant Colonel V. M. Irvanev 

 

Participants of the Assault on the Taj-Bek Palace 

 

HSU General-Major V. F. Karpukhin 

Colonel M. M. Romanov 

Colonel S. A. Golov 

Colonel V. P. Yemyshev 

Colonel O. A. Balashov 

Colonel L. V. Gumennyy 

HSU Captain 1

st

 Rank Eh. G. Kozlov 

Colonel Ya. F. Semenov 

Lieutenant Colonel N. V. Berlev 

Lieutenant Colonel A. A. Karelin 

Lieutenant Colonel V. N. Kurilov 

Lieutenant Colonel V. K. Tsvetkov 

Lieutenant Colonel V. P. Grishin 

Lieutenant Colonel S. G. Kolomiyets 

Lieutenant Colonel P. Yu. Klimov 

Lieutenant Colonel G. A. Kuznetsov 

Lieutenant Colonel V. M. Fedoseyev 

Lieutenant Colonel R. T. Tursunkulov 

 

Under USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs Auspices 

 

General-Lieutenant N. Ye. Tsyganik 

General-Lieutenant A. M. Logvinov 

General-Lieutenant V. D. Yegorov 

General-Lieutenant G. A. Alekseyev 

Colonel Yu. K. Plugin 

 

Under USSR Ministry of Foreign Affairs Auspices 

 

A. F. Dobrynin 

F. A. Tabeyev 

P. P. Mozhayev 

N. G. Yegorychev 

Yu. M. Vorontsov 

D. B. Ryurikov 

M. A. Peshkov 

B. M. Khakimov 

Ye. M. Mikhaylov 

Yu. K. Alekseyev 

A. G. Mar’yasov 

 

Under CC CPSU Auspices 

 

V. V. Basov 

K. N. Brutents 

S. M. Veselov 

L. M. Zamyatin 

 

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G. A. Polyakov 

 

 

 

 

 

Foreign Representatives 

 

Admiral S. Turner – Director of the US CIA 

Lieutenant General W. Odom – Senior official of the US National  

 

 

 

 

 

  

Security Council 

S. Harrison - Official of the “Carnegie Center” 

M. Shulman - Special Assistant to the US Secretary of State 

G. Sick - Official of the US National Security Council 

R. Helminen - Head of a UN Mission 

Bo Pelnes - Representative of a UN Mission 

M. Najibullah - President of Afghanistan 

General-Colonel Shah Nawaz Tanay – RA Minister of Defense 

General-Colonel S. M. Gulyabzoy – RA Minister of Internal Affairs 

General of the Army A. M. Watanjar – RA Minister of Foreign Affairs 

General-Colonel M. Rafi – RA Vice-President 

General-Colonel G. F. Yakubi – RA Minister of Security 

General-Colonel N. Olyumi – Governor-General of Kandahar 

General-Lieutenant M. Ayub – Chief of the RA Engineer Troops 

General-Lieutenant M. Gafur – Deputy Chief of the RA Armed Forces   

 

 

 

 

  

General Staff 

B. Baghlani – RA Minister of Justice 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR 

 

 

Alexander Antonovich Liakhovsky is a retired Major General and a leading Russian historian on 

the Soviet War in Afghanistan.  General Liakhovsky was born in Tbilisi, Georgia, and was 

graduated from military school in Baku in 1968. He served in Czechoslovakia and in Germany 

with the sixth tank division. In 1977 he graduated with honors from the Frunze military academy. 

As an adviser he traveled to zones of armed conflict in African countries, including Ethiopia in 

1983 and twice to Angola in 1984. In 1985 he entered the military academy of the Voroshilov 

General Staff of the Armed Forces of the USSR. After graduating in 1987 he was assigned to the 

working group of the Soviet Defense Minister in Afghanistan and worked as the group director’s 

chief advisor until troops were withdrawn in 1989. In May of that year he was wounded while 

observing an arms test and spent almost a year in various military hospitals. It was while 

undergoing treatment that he was asked by Army Gen. Valentin Varennikov to write an analytical 

paper on the military’s role in Afghanistan which became the article “On the Scorched Afghan 

Earth” published in Communist of the Armed Forces of the USSR in mid-1990. 

 

Since 1989, Liakhovsky has conducted research on the Soviet war in Afghanistan in the Russian 

Defense Ministry archives, the General Staff archives, and the Russian Military Archive, and 

interviewed numerous veterans and participants in the events. He has published numerous 

scholarly articles and books on the conflict, including Tragediya I Doblest Afgana [The Tragedy 

and Valor of Afghanistan] (1995) and Plamya Afgana [Afghan Fire] (1999). A new edition of The 

Tragedy and Valor of Afghanistan appeared in July 2004. He has also published widely in 

newspapers and served as consultant for news networks such as the BBC. His work represents the 

most comprehensive attempt to document and analyze the Soviet narrative of the Afghanistan war.  

Most documents in his books were published for the first time, including reports of Soviet Defense 

Ministry representatives, the KGB, and military commanders.  The books also include extensive 

interviews with Soviet military officers and representatives of secret services.  Among the subjects 

covered in his books are Moscow’s efforts to stabilize the situation in Afghanistan in 1980 while 

keeping the mission limited to protection of government buildings and main installations, 

expansion of the mission to include combat operations, the emergence of the Mujahadeen 

resistance, and Soviet efforts to negotiate secretly with the rebel leaders, most notably Ahmad 

Shah Massoud.   

 

Gen. Liakhovsky joined the reserves in March 2002. He is currently the Editor-in-Chief of the 

cultural magazine Lyubimaya Rossiya [Beloved Russia]. He may be reached via e-mail at 

[e-mail]

. 

 

 

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