# Silk Road Books & Photos

## Afghanistan Travel Literature (Page 5 of 8)

## 1980s

During each year of the Soviet occupation intrepid journalists made the difficult journey by land into all parts of Afghanistan. Some travelled with nationalist groups others with Islamist groups, all accounts detail the massive civilian cost to the Afghan people in terms of massacres, abductions of teenage girls, killing for ‘fun’ and helicopter gunship raids on refugee columns. The different accounts by the Journalists over the years build up a comprehensive picture of what the war was like in Afghanistan during each year of the conflict.

## Sandy Gall’s Books

The first book written by the famous Scottish News Presenter Sandy Gall on Afghanistan was published in 1983. Gall visited the Mujahedin in the Panjshir Valley. Indeed Gall had undertaken the journey at the suggestion of British Intelligence who realized that the war in Afghanistan was getting very little by way of coverage and regarded Ahmed Shah Massoud, the resistance leader in Panjshir as an Afghan Tito. Gall regarded the Panjshiris quite highly. Gall traveled through Nuristan to make his way to the Panjshir valley. As a result, Gall not only produced this book but also a splendid documentary which was shown on the British channel ITN. Note also the different take Nigel Ryan, author of Hitch or two in Afghanistan who travelled with Gall had on the Afghans. Ryan says Gall would brook no criticism of the Afghans. Ryan fell prey to some cultural misunderstandings, He told the Mujahedin on the march to Panjshir that they should not lie to him and tell him it was half an hour to the next destination. Since the destination was often several hours march away and Ryan said he only expected the Soviets to lie to him, not the Mujahedin. Sadly Ryan did not appreciate that not all people have the same appreciation of time as himself.

Gall’s Memoirs, News from the Front a Television Reporter’s life written in 1994 detail his 1984 trip to Afghanistan, along the route into Afghanistan he met four young Pashtun women all four of whom had been raped by Soviet troops and were as a consequence pregnant and travelling to Pakistan, so as to give birth there. Gall was accompanied on his 1984 trip by Pakistani Military to protect him, courtesy of his friend General Zia. Zia had arranged for Gall to go and meet with Pashtun Mujahedin because Zia felt that Masood was being too much prominence.However, an ambush that the Pashtun Mujahedin were setting up for a Soviet convoy failed directly due to the intereference of the Pakistanis. The Mujahedin ahd wanted to wait for the convoy to appear and fire a rocket propelled grenade at the front and rear vehicle which would have brought the convoy to a halt and allowed the Pashtuns to finish off the remaining vehicles. However the Pakistanis wanted the Mujahedin to plant a mine into the concrete road. As the Mujahedin were trying to smash the concrete of the road to lay the mine, the noise alerted Soviet troops in their check post further down the road. Soon a helicopter was flying in the direction of the Mujahedin who were forced to retreat. Gall wrote that the Pakistanis should simply have allowed the Pashtuns to fight as they saw fit and they certainly would then have had greater success against the convoy. Needless to say the 1984 trip did not result in a travelogue.

Gall’s third trip to Afghanistan was in 1986 and was entitled ‘Afghanistan Agony of a Nation’ and he again travelled out to the Panjshir Valley to meet with Massoud and produce a documentary on Massoud’s struggle against the Soviets.

Gall’s memoirs also detail the fall of Kabul in 1992, Massoud advanced rapidly on Kabul by land and took the city. Massoud had been angry that Hekmetyar’s Mujahidin were advancing towards the capital, but Massoud beat his old rival Hekmetyar to the prize of Kabul.

## Soviet Accounts of the Afghan War

Soviet accounts of the Afghan war generally are restrained in their account of atrocities. The two books below, detail an account of a killing by Soviet Troops at a check point of a family in a car and also the rape and slaughter of Afghan villagers by Soviet Troops high on drugs(page 184 Borovik). In both cases Court Martials are instituted against the offending soldiers.

## First Hand Afghan Accounts

Much more recently we have seen the emergence of excellent first hand accounts from participants in the Afghan War against the Soviets. These accounts include Masood Farsivar’s excellent book, Confessions of a Mullah Warrior, and Abdul Salam Zaeef’s account of war in My Life with the Taliban.

#### 41 | #### Asano, Hideo | #### Timber Carriers of Afghanistan A Personal Visit with the Mujahideen of Afghanistan
Paperback 2003 account of Japanese journalists travel into Kunar province with the Mujahedin during the war against the Soviets. £20
#### 42 | #### Bocharov Gennady | #### Russian Roulette
Hamisha Hamilton Publishers 1990. Hardback in dust wrapper. £18
#### 43 | #### Borovik Artyom | #### The Hidden War
Borovik served in the Soviet forces in Afghanistan and later wrote a book about his experiences including details of atrocities which the Russian Military did not look kindly on. On 9 March 2000 Borovik died in a plane crash, he had been planning to write about apartment bombings in Moscow which Putin had used as the justification for the second Chechen war. Hardback first edition in dust wrapper. £18 ## Nick Danziger: Danziger become a famous documentary maker and writer, as a result of his first book on Afghanistan, Beyond Forbidden Frontiers. For Beyond Forbidden Frontiers, Danziger travels by land across Europe into Turkey, Iran and enters Afghanistan with the Mujahedin of Ismail Khan and then exits into Pakistan and onto China following the old Silk route. Danziger’s book describes a lunar landscape in parts of Herat as a consequence of the heavy Soviet bombardment.
#### 44 | #### Danziger, Nick | #### Danziger’s Adventures from Miami to Kabul
290 pages travels in Iran, Afghanistan and Turkey. The author comes to Afghanistan in 1989 to Kabul City. 1992 first edition Harper Colllins in DW. V.good condition. £14
#### 45 | #### Danziger, Nick | #### Beyond forbidden Frontiers
Very good account of travel through war torn Afghanistan with particular reference to the situation in Herat. Hardback in dust wrapper very good condition. Soviet invasion period. £20
#### 46 | #### Farsivar, Masood | #### Confessions of a Mullah Warrior
Hardback 2009 New first edition in dust wrapper. Farsivar participated in the attack on Jalalabad in 1989 and sees Arab men who have had themselves chained up to trees in areas under Communist bombardment so as to achieve martyrdom for themselves. Farsivar wonders why these otherwise brave men have submitted to this form of bondage. Would the Arab men’s courage fail them at the last moment and they fear they will try and escape death Farsivar wonders. He witnesses two other excited Arab men charge headlong at Communist positions and waste their lives needlessly as they are blasted to oblivion. £20
#### 47 | #### Gall, Sandy | #### Behind Rebel lines An Afghan Journal
Hardback signed first edition in dust wrapper. 1983 £45
#### 48 | #### Gall, Sandy | #### Afghanistan Agony of a Nation
1988 Hardback in dustwrapper. Bodley Head Publishers first edition.SIGNED PHOTO PRESENT OF AUTHOR IN BOOK. £45
#### 49 | #### Giradet, Edward | #### Afghanistan, The Soviet War
Account of Afghanistan during the Soviet War the author made 6 prolonged trips to Afghanistan and this book is part travelogue part analysis. Girardet comes across the aftermath of a helicopter gunship attack on a refugee convoy and wrote an article about this atrocity in the Christian Science Monitor, which led to a rare apology from the Kabul regime for their massacre. Hardback first edition in dust wrapper. 1985 Croom Helms Publisher. £20
#### 50 | #### Goodwin, Jan | #### Caught in the Crossfire
Jan Goodwin travelled into Afghanistan with the Mujahedin and met a young fighter whose beautiful fifteen year old sister had been abducted by Soviet troops. Goodwin meets Mujahedin who have seen many of their close colleagues martyred and are traumatized by their experiences of war. Goodwin later visits Kabul to interview Anahita Ratebzad, a minister in the Karmal Govt and also his girlfriend. Moreover then she visits the USSR and interviews the families of dead Central Asian Soldiers. £20
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