Zinky boys: Soviet voices from the Afghanistan war

by Aleksievich, Svetlana

Type Book
Rate 0.0 /5

From 1979 to 1989, a million Soviet troops engaged in a devastating war in Afghanistan that claimed 50,000 casualties-- and the youth and humanity of many tens of thousands more. In Zinky Boys journalist Svetlana Alexievich gives voice to the tragic history of the Afghanistan War. What emerges is a story that is shocking in its brutality and revelatory in its similarities to the American experience in Vietnam-- a resemblance that Larry Heinemann describes movingly in his introduction to the boo…

Read More ↓
Details
Files
Reviews
Download

Title Statements

  • Full title :Zinky boys : Soviet voices from the Afghanistan war / Svetlana Alexievich ; translated by Julia and Robin Whitby ; with introduction by Larry Heinemann.

Summary

From 1979 to 1989, a million Soviet troops engaged in a devastating war in Afghanistan that claimed 50,000 casualties-- and the youth and humanity of many tens of thousands more. In Zinky Boys journalist Svetlana Alexievich gives voice to the tragic history of the Afghanistan War. What emerges is a story that is shocking in its brutality and revelatory in its similarities to the American experience in Vietnam-- a resemblance that Larry Heinemann describes movingly in his introduction to the book, providing American readers with an often uncomfortably intimate connection to a war that may have seemed very remote to us. The Soviet dead were shipped back in sealed zinc coffins (hence the term "Zinky Boys"), while the State denied the very existence of the conflict; even today the radically altered Soviet society continues to reject the memory of the "Soviet Vietnam." Creating controversy and outrage when it was first published in the USSR-- it was called by reviewers there a "slanderous piece of fantasy" and part of a "hysterical chorus of malign attacks"--Zinky Boys presents the candid and affecting testimony of the officers and grunts, nurses and prostitutes, mothers, sons, and daughters who describe the war and its lasting effects. Svetlana Alexievich has snatched from the memory hole the truth of the Afghanistan War-- the beauty of the country and the savage Army bullying, the killing and the mutilation, the profusion of Western goods, the shame and shattered lives of returned veterans. Zinky Boys offers a unique, harrowing, and unforgettably powerful insight into the realities of war and the turbulence of Soviet life today.

Read More ↓

Edition Statements

  • Publication Date:©1992
  • Edition:First American edition

Publication Statements

  • Publisher(s):W.W. Norton & Company
  • Place of Publication:New York, N.Y
  • Language:eng
  • Publication Date:©1992

The Physical Object

  • Description:1 online resource (xix, 197 pages)

Edition Identifiers

  • oclc:on1285846368
  • LC Classification:DS371.2
  • Dewey Decimal:958.104/5

Table of Contents

Introduction -- Translators' Preface -- Short Glossary -- Notes from my Diary -- The First Day -- The Second Day -- The Third Day -- Postscript: Notes from my Diary.

Read More ↓

Subjects

1979 - 1989 Afganistan -- personliga berättelser. -… Afghanistan Afghanistan -- History -- Soviet occupa… Afghanistan -- Personal narratives. -- … Afghanistan -- Personal narratives. -- … Afghānistān -- Récits personnels. -- Hi… Biographies Biography History invasies Krijgshandelingen Personal narratives Soldater -- biografi. -- Sovjetunionen Soldiers Soldiers -- Biography. -- Soviet Union Soviet Union Veteranen

Writers

Aleksievich, Svetlana Aleksievich, Svetlana Heinemann, Larry Whitby, Julia Whitby, Robin

Rate & Review

0.0/5
(0 people Voted)

No reviews yet. Be the first to rate this work.

Files & Downloads

  • Zinky Boys: Soviet Voices from the Afghanistan Wa…

    EPUB · 267.2 KB · updated
    Login →

  • Zinky Boys: Soviet Voices from the Afghanistan Wa…

    EPUB · 259.4 KB · updated
    Login →

  • Zinky Boys: Soviet Voices from the Afghanistan Wa…

    MOBI · 364.3 KB · updated
    Login →

  • Zinky boys: Soviet voices from the Afghanistan wa…

    EPUB · 445.4 KB · updated
    Login →
Log in to request a copy