I’m very happy to be able to note that my latest compact book from Osprey is out this week. Spetsnaz: Russia’s special forces is, in my admittedly hardly humble opinion the most comprehensive work on Russia’s special forces yet out in English, taking to task many of the myths both old and new about these guys (not least, the idea that they are all some kind of Slavic ninjas), exploring their role in operations ranging through Civil War pacifications, through Afghanistan and to the seizure of Crimea, and considering what they can and, just as importantly, cannot do. Orders of battle, anecdotes about some of their members and operations, and Johnny Shumate‘s amazing colour plates, what more could you want? Available in both paperback and ebook formats.
Here’s the official blurb:
- Introduction: overview; background in Russian history and culture
- The Spetsnaz Tradition: special units of the Bolshevik Red Guard, and behind-the-lines NKVD operations in World War II
- Cold Warriors: foundation by GRU, 1950. Operations 1960s-70s: Angola, Czechoslovakia, etc, and order-of-battle 1980
- Operations in Afghanistan, and order-of-battle
- Spetsnaz after the USSR: the turmoil of the 1990s. Tajikistan and Moldova, imitation units in post-Soviet states
- Operations in Chechnya, the Chechen Spetsnaz
- Modern Spetsnaz: increasing strength and importance
- Naval Spetsnaz, and order-of-battle 2013
- Special Weapons
- Index
milnewsca
/ June 26, 2015Reblogged this on MILNEWS.ca Blog.
Joel Harding
/ June 27, 2015Reblogged this on To Inform is to Influence and commented:
Spetsnaz: Russia’s special forces, is a timely book, much needed and it dispels many of the myths about these Russian fighters.
גל פרל
/ June 28, 2015INTERSTING. WELL WRITTEN AND VERRY INLIGHTING.
Bill Bowring
/ June 29, 2015I’ve just bought this – looks great
Mark Galeotti
/ June 29, 2015Thanks!