Product Description

This book is a collection of vignettes written by Soviet junior officers describing their experiences fighting the Mujahideen guerrillas.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #68464 in Books
• Published on: 1998-09-30
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 272 pages

From the Back Cover
The Bear Went Over the Mountain is a collection of vignettes written by Soviet junior officers describing their experiences fighting the Mujahideen guerrillas. The material was originally collected and published by the Frunze Combined Arms Staff College to serve as a text on combat against a guerrilla force in mountain-desert terrain. It was originally intended for internal use only and as such provides examples of both good and bad military practice. The hard lessons learned are not specifically 'Russian' in nature and many of the same mistakes and successes would apply equally to the American Army in Vietnam. Indeed, the knowledge gained from these reports should also apply to future conflicts involving civil war, guerrilla forces and rugged terrain.

This is not a history of the Soviet-Afghan War, but rather a series of snapshots of combat as seen by young platoon leaders, company commanders, battalion commanders and military advisers. It is an intimate look at the boring, brutal business of counterinsurgency punctuated by moments of heady excitement and terror.

Colonel Grau, the editor and translator, has added his own commentary to produce a useful guide for commanders to meet the challenges of this kind of war and to help keep his fellow soldiers alive. This book will also be of interest to the historian and general reader, who will discover that advances in technology have had little impact on this kind of war, and that many of the same tactics the British Army used on the Northwest Frontier still apply today.

Customer Reviews

Lessons identified
If you have chanced upon this title through a deliberate search for a book about Soviet combat tactics in Afghanistan you should buy it. You will find it most useful if you are:

a. Studying counter insurgency at staff college (I'm guessing here, I've not been)
b. A tactical level commander, especially if you are about to go to Afghanistan
c. Professionally interested, with the possibility of 'b' happening in the future.

After a short introduction, the book contains 47 vignettes, each a few pages long and including a map. These vignettes are first person observations of a particular engagement between Soviet forces and the Mujahideen and cover everything from deliberate attack to ambush in the tactical march. Each vignette has a comment by the DS at the Frunze Academy History Department and the book's editor which explain what went right or wrong in each case. An understanding of tactics and doctrine is useful in order to get the most out of these vignettes.

If you are buying this as a history of the Soviet campaign in Afghanistan you will end up giving it 1 star. The short introduction provides a basic outline of the causes and a list style chronology of events. It does make some very interesting points about the reasons for Soviet failure. One of the main problems being that they had an operational doctrine and not a tactical one. I find this interesting as it is a key difference to the UK approach. Operational art is something that the UK is developing, but at the tactical level things are pretty sound. It is not therefore surprising to have heard UK commanders at the end of summer 2006 saying that 'the Taliban have been tactically beaten' while operationaly they are still a threat. Is this a key difference in Soviet and NATO campaigning? Does it make the two wars less comparable despite what the press says? I'll leave that to you.

In summary, I've given this four stars and not five because I felt that Frunze and Editor's comments although helpful, did not contain as much depth in their analysis as I would have liked. This is probably down to a lack of supporting information about each vignette and other limitations which the Editor himself makes plain in his introduction. Overall though 'excellent' and the Editor should be thanked for committing himself to this task, the lessons of which could yet save lives.

How war in Afghanistan was fought
This book covers different types of operations by Soviet forces in Afghanistan. It covers blocking & destroying guerilla forces, offensive in popolated and mountain areas, tactical air assaults, outpost security, convoy escort and ambushes. It gives soviet perspective with both soviet and authors comments. Excelent study of counter guerilla operations with lessons that aren't aplicable only to Soviets but to all nations.

Not required for junior commanders if Afghanistan
I bought this trying to swat up before going to Afghanistan. It would be good for staff college students but will not help you lead a troop. There are some interesting case studies but nothing that a junior commander could not do without.