The Bleeding Wound

"Encyclopedic and compelling, this meticulously researched book synthesizes the latest scholarship on the Soviet Afghan war. With original survey data and the comprehensive analysis of a decade of Soviet media and public opinion, Yaacov Ro'i shows clearly how Soviet participation in the Afghan war undermined faith in Soviet ideals and accelerated the Soviet collapse."—Karen Petrone, University of Kentucky
"Yaacov Ro'i had the prescience to study the Soviet-Afghan War's effect on veterans and civilians at a time when most observers could only speculate about how the war would affect the USSR and the newly independent states. This book brings his original research into dialogue with new work and materials that have become available in intervening decades. An important and timely study that anyone interested in the region should read."—Artemy Kalinovsky, Temple University
"Ro'i has done students of the Soviet-Afghan War a great service in synthesizing a wealth of sources and setting out a highly detailed account of the effects of the war, and has done so in a readable style that makes the book accessible for novice and expert alike. This thorough book is a very welcome addition to the field and is set to become a standard work."—Markus Balázs Göransson, The Russian Review
"Ro'i's gift for weaving a galaxy of sources, and many different methodologies, into one elegant narrative, makes this book unique. It is both an excellent introduction for the more intrepid general reader and, more obviously, a key reference work about the Afghan War and the Soviet 1980s."—Eren Tasar, Journal of Interdisciplinary History
"Reckoning with the costs of the Soviet war—in Afghanistan, in the former Soviet Union, and elsewhere—is urgent work, and Ro'i is to be thoroughly commended for undertaking and completing it."—Robert Rakove, H-Diplo
"Ro'i presents a social history of those who participated in the war: ordinary soldiers, their officers, women, medics, and a high number of Central Asians.... Ro'i is scrupulous in recording the variety of opinions and attitudes, many of them contradictory, toward the war and those who fought in it, who are known as afgantsy."—Ronald Grigor Suny, H-Diplo
"Reading The Bleeding Wound against the backdrop of the current Russian war in Ukraine, I was struck by numerous parallels between the Soviet war in Afghanistan and what we see every day in accounts of the war in Ukraine. These observations cause not only horror and sadness but incredulity."—Sarah Mendelson, H-Diplo
"Besides being a fascinating work of scholarship, The Bleeding Wound is also a harrowing reminder of what warfare really is."—Alessandro Iandolo, H-Diplo
"The Bleeding Wound is a laudable effort, providing a much-needed and extensive overview of how the Soviet-Afghan War changed Soviet society, ideology and institutions."—Vassily A. Klimentov, Europe-Asia Studies
"Ro'i describes in a multifaceted and differentiated way how the war could serve as an accelerator and enabler, particularly for domestic political processes in the USSR."—Andreas Hilger, H-Russia