This volume illustrates the way the war in Afghanistan fed into a wide range of other processes, from the rise of grassroots political activism to the retreat from globalism in foreign policy.

The central thesis of the book is that the war must be seen in the context of the fall of the USSR and the rise of the new Russia. It did not bury Brezhnevism and then Gorbachevism, though it certainly helped. But the experience of Afghanistan played its part in the evolution of post-Soviet Russia's foreign and security policies. When Boris Yeltsin appointed his first defence minister he picked an afganets, and the 1993 Military Doctrine called on the lessons of Afghanistan in quelling unrest within and on Russia's borders.

Introduction - invasion. Part 1 the veterans: the experience of war
coming home - children of the war. Part 2 The victims of the war: broken bodies, broken minds
parents, workmates, neighbours, lovers. part 3 the war and society: veteran
society
Afgantsy and politics
the war and politics - impact
the war and politics, consequences. Part 4 The war and professional soldiers: the Afghan brotherhood
the art of war
Russia's next wars
anatomy of a small war.