Bookvica

[AFGHANISTAN] My – internatsionaisty [i.e. We Are the Internationalists]

Item #2819

Moscow: Izdatel’stvo ‘Plakat’; Tula: Kommunar, 1987. [24] leaves. 29,5x21 cm. Original paper folder containing 24 full-page color posters. Small tears to the folder, otherwise in very good condition.

First and only edition. Rare example of Soviet propaganda of the last full-scale conflict, fought by the Soviet Army. The posters feature newly minted recipients of the Order of "Hero of the Soviet Union”, with the short bio, written by them, their favorite song (often drawn from Afghan campaign folklore). The images of the heroes often done in photo-montage style, depicting them against their battlefield or type of their weapon.

The album was compiled by Major General V. Khrobostov and Colonel A. Razmaznin, with scholarly supervision provided by Colonel General Dmitry Volkogonov (1928–1995), military historian, political scientist, and one of the most influential interpreters of Soviet military history during the final decades of the USSR. The artistic design was executed by N. Gusev, Yu. Zharov, and L. Kirillova, with drawn portraits by Viktor Kabanov (1924–2007), a Soviet painter, portraitist, and veteran of the Second World War. A member of the USSR Union of Artists, Kabanov exhibited widely from the 1950s onward and became known for his portraits and large-scale historical compositions.

The publication incorporates photographs by A. Grashchenkov, V. Sukhodolsky, and L. Yakutin, while the cover was designed by L. Korolev. The project was prepared with the participation of journalists from Pravda, Komsomolskaya Pravda, Krasnaya Zvezda, Kommunist Vooruzhennykh Sil, and the illustrated weekly Sobesednik, reflecting the coordinated effort of the principal Soviet military and youth media organizations to document the Soviet campaign in Afghanistan.

The album is also an important document of the late-Soviet phenomenon of the voiny-internatsionalisty (“internationalist soldiers”), the official designation applied to Soviet servicemen deployed abroad in support of allied socialist governments. The term derived from the doctrine of “proletarian internationalism,” according to which Soviet military involvement outside the USSR was presented not as foreign intervention but as assistance rendered to friendly nations pursuing socialist development. Although hundreds of thousands of Soviet conscripts passed through Afghanistan between 1979 and 1989, the conflict occupied an ambiguous place in Soviet public life. During much of the war, official media avoided detailed reporting on military operations, casualties, and the scale of Soviet involvement. Newspapers and television referred instead to the fulfillment of an “international duty,” while photographs of combat and discussions of losses remained heavily restricted. Unlike the highly visible cult of the Great Patriotic War, Afghanistan produced relatively few public monuments, posters, or street displays during the conflict itself, and most Soviet citizens encountered the war primarily through brief official reports, personal correspondence, and the return of veterans and casualties to their home communities.

Not found in Worldcat.

Price: $1,500.00