Zinky Boys: Soviet Voices from the Afghanistan War

Zinky Boys: Soviet Voices from the Afghanistan War is a work by Svetlana Alexievich, a Belarusian journalist and author who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2015. The book is a collection of oral histories from Soviet soldiers and their families about the Soviet-Afghan War (1979-1989). Alexievich's unique literary genre blends journalism and literature to create "a history of human feelings," allowing individuals' voices to narrate their experiences.1

The title "Zinky Boys" refers to the zinc coffins in which Soviet soldiers' bodies were returned home. The war resulted in the deaths of at least 47,000 Afghan civilians and displaced millions. The Soviet Union intervened to support the Afghan communist government but faced a protracted conflict with mujahideen rebels, ultimately withdrawing in 1989. Alexievich's work exposed the hidden and often undocumented futility of this intervention.123