6 Galeotti, Afghanistan, p. 30.
7 S. Aleksievich, Zinky Boys (New York, 1992), p. 27. There were similar stories at the beginning of the war in Chechnya.
8 V. Tamarov, Afghanistan: A Russian Soldier’s Story (Berkeley, CA, 2001), p. 138.
9 Andrei Ponomarev, interview, Moscow, 1 March 2010.
10 Vitali Krivenko gives a semi-fictionalised account of his time in Afghanistan in the first part of Ekipazh mashiny boevoi (‘The Crew of a Fighting Vehicle’) (St Petersburg, 2004), pp. 36–336. The second part of the book (Kak pozhivaesh, shuravi?, pp. 336–80) is a memoir, from which these details of Krivenko’s career are drawn. On bullying, see p. 346.
11 A. Chernyaev, Sovmestny iskhod: Dnevnik dvukh epokh 1972–1991 gody (Moscow, 2008), diary entry for 27 August 1985, p. 643.
12 Sergei Morozov, interview, Moscow, 31 May 2007.
13 Krivenko, Ekipazh mashiny boevoi, p. 45; S. Nikiforov, Bez vsyakikh pravil (St Petersburg, 2008), p. 113.
14 A. Lyakhovski, Tragedia i doblest Afgana (Moscow, 1995) (http://www.rsva.ru/biblio/prose_af/afgan_tragedy_and_glory/index.shtml).
15 The problem of dedovshchina and the need for professional NCOs are widely discussed. See, for example, S. Belanovski and S. Marzeeva, Dedovshchina v sovietskoi armii (Moscow, 1991) (www.sbelan.ru/content/ - - - ); M. Radov, ‘Dedovshchina—istoki i prichiny’ (http://slovo.odessa.ua/366/5_4.html); I. Rodionov i, ‘Perestroiku armii nuzhno nachinat s serzhantov’ (http://tr.rkrp-rpk.ru/get.php?42); Alexander Gergel, email to author, 24 June 2009.
16 Andrei Ponomarev, interview, Moscow, 1 March 2010.
17 The inadequacies are graphically spelled out by D. Gai and V. Snegirev, Vtorzhenie (Moscow, 1991), pp. 258–92.
18 S. Nikiforov, Bez vsyakikh pravil, p. 100.
19 G. Krivosheev, Rossia i SSSR v voinakh XX veka: Poteri vooruzhennykh sil (Moscow, 2001), p. 538.
20 A. Dyshev, PPZh: Pokhodno-Polevaya Zhena (Moscow, 2007), pp. 38–9.
21 B. Gromov, Ogranichenny kontingent (Moscow, 1994) (http://www.rsva.ru/biblio/prose_af/limited_contingent/index.shtml).
22 Gai and Snegirev, Vtorzhenie, p. 273.
23 A. Smolina, ‘Kholera v Dzelalabade’ (http://artofwar.ru/s/smolina_a/text_0070.shtml).
24 A. Smolina, ‘Larisa-parikmakhersha’ (http://artofwar.ru/s/smolina_a/text_0160.shtml).
25 Galeotti, Afghanistan, pp. 67–8.
26 Major Vyacheslav Izmailov, interview, Moscow, 29 July 2009.
27 Gromov, Ogranichenny kontingent, Part III: ‘Pervaya Komandirovka, Tashkent–Kabul’.
28 ‘Istoria 3-ego bataliona’ (serg2331.narod.ru).
29 A. Pochtarev, ‘An Afghan Diary’, Novaya gazeta (Moscow), 4 March 2005; Alexander Gergel, interview, Moscow, 16 February 2009.
30 The establishment of a motor-rifle regiment in Afghanistan was 181 officers, 124 praporshchiki, 363 sergeants, 1,530 riflemen, 132 BMPs, forty tanks, eighteen 2SIs, and 264 vehicles: A. Vasiliev, ‘O 149 Polku’ (about the 149th Regiment) (http://artofwar.ru/w/wasilxew_a_i/text_0010.shtml); G. Bobrov, Soldatskaya saga (Moscow, 2007), p. 11; Alexander Gergel, interview, Moscow, 1 March 2010. See also Annex 2, ‘Order of Battle of the 40th Army’, p. 342.
31 Bobrov, Soldatskaya saga, pp. 51–2 and 81.
32 Alexander Gergel, interview, Moscow, 1 March 2010; S. Demyashov, interview (http://www.peresvet-lavra.ru/index.php?typereview&area2&particles&id104&PHPSESSIDcea44aa4bcbb077087dec923e7ece70); Bobrov, Soldatskaya saga, p. 170.
33 Andrei Ponomarev, interview, Moscow, 1 March 2010.
34 Alexander Gergel, interview, Moscow, 28 July 2009.
35 This description of the base at Bakharak is taken from interviews with Alexander Gergel and from his story Pismo schastlivomu soldatu (‘Letter to a Lucky Soldier’) (http://artofwar.ru/g/gergelx_a_n/text_0030.shtml).
36 Colonel Ruslan Kyryliuk, conversation, London, 15 July 2010.
37 W. Olney, ‘Shiloh’ as Seen by a Private Soldier: A Paper Read before California Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, May 31, 1889 (Kessinger Publishing, Whitefish, Mont., 2007), p. 17.
38 Alexander Gergel, email to author, 24 June 2009.
39 Alexander Kartsev, email to author, 22 June 2009.
40 Andrei Ponomarev, interview, Moscow, 1 March 2010.
41 Alexander Gergel, email to author, 23 September 2008.
42 Yu. Lapshin, Afganski dnevnik (Moscow, 2004), pp. 50–59 and 89.
43 A. Kartsev, Shelkovy put (privately published, 2004), Chapter 13; interview, Moscow, 3 March 2010.
44 Valeri Shiryaev, email to author, 16 March 2010, containing an eyewitness description of the incident by a Soviet interpreter who was present.
45 The main sources for the description of Masud and the Pandsher Valley are A. Lyakhovski and V. Nekrasov, Grazhdanin, politik, voin: Pamyati Akhmad Shakha Masuda (Moscow, 2007), pp. 24 et seq.: Ter-Grigoriants’s remarks are on pp. 40–43; P. Clammer, Afghanistan: Lonely Planet Guide (London, 2007); E. Newby, A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush (London, 1974); ‘The Pandsher Valley, the Emerald Mines and the Blue Mountain’ (http://www.travelafghanistan.co.uk/pages/panj.html); Lyakhovski, Tragedia i doblest Afgana, p. 10; and a visit which the author made there in September 2008.
46 A. Giustozzi, Empires of Mud (London, 2009), pp. 282 and 287.
47 Lyakhovski and Nekrasov, Grazhdanin, politik, voin, pp. 73 et seq.
48 Dmitri Fedorov, email to author, 25 July 2007.
49 Alexander Golts, interview, Moscow, 6 December 2006.
50 Alexander Gergel, interview, Moscow, 24 July 2007: this was his father’s salary at the time.
51 Gai and Snegirev, Vtorzhenie, pp. 282 et seq.
52 V. Snegirev in A. Belofastov and A. Rebrik (eds.), Mushavery (Moscow, 2005), p. 25.
53 Aleksievich, Zinky Boys, p. 18.
54 This is confirmed by Alexander Gergel, interview, Moscow, 16 February 2009.
55 Krivenko, Ekipazh mashiny boevoi, p. 352.
56 Masha Slonim, interview, Moscow, 14 March 2010.
57 V. Ogryzko, Pesni afganskogo pokhoda (Moscow, 2000), p. 45.
58 Ibid., p. 7.
59 Interviews with Yuri Kirsanov (http://torrents.ru/forum/viewtopic.php?t322885); Komsomolskaya Pravda Ukrainy, 25 December 2008 (http://kp.ua/daily/251208/67416/); extract from ‘Afganski dnevnik’ by Viktor Verstakov (http://kaskad-4.narod.ru/Dnevnik_Verst.html); Igor Morozov, interview, Moscow, 11 March 2010.