2004-01-28 00:52
by Vasil Kolev“The limited contingent” (“Ogranicheniyat Kontingent”) does deserve a reading. B.V. Gromov isn’t a writer, but, like a good military man, explains everything clearly and accurately. It’s interesting to see his POV in the Afghanistan conflict from 1980 to 1989, the reasons for the invasion of the Soviet’s troops, (show through declassified documents – stenograms from the CK of CPSU meetings), the real doings of the Red army (a lot more humanitarian and restrictive, and without directed civilian murders, something that Gromov states a few times), and how the whole idea was a mistake… The translation has some problems, but the book isn’t hard to read, and is worth reading by anyone who’s interested in history – IMO this author deserves some confidence.
On the same topic I read the books of Victor Suvorov (pen-name of Vladimir Rezun, ex-GRU soviet spy), for whom there are a lot of things on the net. His ideas sound good, and the great number of discussions out there don’t (IMO) rebut his core ideas. His writing is pretty good, and has some semi-adventure books (“The control” for example), which deserve reading too :)
I bought 2 days ago “Ender’s shadow” by Orson Scott Card, I have to read that – i think it will be good as all other Ender books.
(btw, good thing I got some sleep this afternoon, or I woudn’t be able to do anything now, the alcohol really gets to me…)