An in-depth look at the struggle between the charismatic rebel commander: Ahmad Shah Masud, The Lion of Panjshir and the Soviet forces who fought to take the Panjshir Valley in Afghanistan. When the Soviets rolled into Afghanistan in 1979, they believed if they took the cities, the country would follow. They were wrong. The Red Army found itself in a bloody stalemate in the Afghan mountains, in the strategically vital Panjshir Valley, where they faced the most able and charismatic of the rebel commanders: Ahmad Shah Masud, the Lion of Panjshir. Time and again the Soviets and their Afghan counterparts sought to take control of the Panjshir, and time and again the rebels either rebuffed their clumsy attempts or ambushed and evaded them, only to retake the valley as soon as Moscow's attention was elsewhere. Over time, the rebels acquired new weapons and developed their own tactics - as did the Soviets. The Panjshir was not just a pivotal battlefield, it also shaped subsequent Afghan civil
The first English-language book to document the men who emerged from the gulags to become Russia’s much-feared crime class: the vory v zakone Mark Galeotti is the go-to expert on organized crime
The first English-language book to document the men who emerged from the gulags to become Russia's much-feared crime class: the vory v zakone Mark Galeotti is the go-to expert on organized crime in Ru
This book cuts through the misunderstandings about Russia’s geopolitical challenge to the West, presenting this not as ‘hybrid war’ but ‘political war’.
Researchers in political and military fields from Western Europe and the US explore relations between the two spheres in post-Soviet Russia. Among their topics are sovereign democracy and great power
The complete and illustrated history of Russia's armed forces from the Russian Revolution until the present day, covering both their involvement in pivotal historical events and in current controversi
Whilst under Putin's regime the size of Russia's regular forces has shrunk recently and will continue to do so, its security and paramilitary elements have become increasingly powerful. In fact, recently they have proliferated - as have their special uniforms and kit - and have become disproportionately important, spearheading all recent operations. They seem set to remain Russia's most active armed agencies for the immediate future. In parallel, within the murky world where government and private interests intersect, a number of paramilitary 'private armies' operate almost as vigilantes, with government toleration or approval.This book offers a succinct overview of the official, semi-official and unofficial agencies that pursue Russian government and quasi-government objectives by armed means, from the 200,000-strong Interior Troops, through Police and other independent departmental forces, down to private security firms (in Moscow alone, the largest four security companies have c. 8,
Illustrated investigation of the forces fighting today's civil war in Ukraine, including Russian regular and clandestine units.Using his extensive contacts in both Russia and Ukraine, and access to a
When the shadowy, notorious Spetsnaz were first formed, they drew on a long Soviet tradition of elite, behind-the-lines commando forces from World War II and even earlier. Throughout the 1960s-70s the
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia's army has undergone a turbulent transformation, from the scattered left-overs of the old Soviet military, through a period of shocking decay and demoral
Using specially commissioned artwork, this is the engrossing story of the victory at Kulikovo in 1380 that heralded the birth of Russian statehood.The 13th-century Mongol conquest of the Rus'--the pri
