The author of this book is Colonel General Viktor Arkadyevich Merimsky (1919–2003), a participant in the Soviet-Finnish and Great Patriotic Wars. In 1979–1984, he was deputy head of the Operational Group of the USSR Ministry of Defense in the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan, where he was responsible for training and directing combat operations of units of a limited contingent of the Soviet army and Afghan troops. In his memoirs, V.A. Merimsky talks about the first years of the Afghan war, provides unique details of the course of hostilities and the development of the political situation in the republic, gives detailed descriptions of a number of Soviet generals and officers, the main figures of the Kabul regime and its most famous opponents. The appendices contain an essay on the military-political situation in and around Afghanistan over the past quarter century and biographical information about some Soviet military leaders.