Painting of the Russian Afghanistan war

[MikeyD]

Here's an interesting little site.

http://www.allworldwars.com/Paintings-of-Afghanistan-War-1979-1989.html

[ZPB II]

Amazing stuff. Intensely atmospheric.

[John Kettler]

MikeyD,

Splendid find! There's much to see here if one has a trained eye. For example, there are lots of renderings of Spetsnaz. The quality of the helicopter renderings is most impressive, as is the MiG-23 FLOGGER B. I confess myself baffled, though, when it comes to what it's shooting at. There's a radarless ZSU-23/4 in that road convoy. This is no accident, for it's a mod the Russians made to get high angle firepower without risking expensive, useless for the situation, electronics.

One gets an overwhelming sense of the terrible, confining terrain, and yet, its majesty. When one looks at the brace of HIND covering a convoy, it becomes clear how a Muj with an elephant gun could get a clean shot at a rotor's head assembly. Some of that ground is so confined, its scary. The BMPs barely threading their way through the defile come to mind.

Generally speaking, I love the way things are depicted, and some of the images nearly made me cry. Particularly moving was the fallen comrades tableau of Spetsnaz standing around the blanket draped corpses of their fellow reydeviki. The double amputee portrait was quite powerful.

On balance, the war art here is vastly superior to much of what the Allies produced in World War II, in that it actually looks like a war and one can clearly tell what's being depicted. Landscapes undergo a remarkable transformation when HIND helicopters are added in, looking both like they belong there and that they don't.

A real treat to see these!

Regards,

John Kettler

[Kuderian]

Thanks MikeyD, essential viewing for anyone interested in the past & present Afghan conflicts.

The contrast with the 'Ancientness' of Afghanistan and the hi tech war machines was very striking.

[Phantom Captain]

Really impressive and powerful. Thank you very much for posting these.