لراوبر ویب پاڼه لراوبر يو افغان – تازه خبرونه
Booksellers and publishers in Kabul are doing a brisk business these days. It seems that a number of American and Russian books recounting the history of the Soviet/Afghan War have been or are in the stages of translation from Russian and English into Pashto and or Dari.
Among the best known and authenticated works are Steve Coll’s “Ghost Wars,” Milt Bearden’s “The Main Enemy,” George Crile’s “Charlie Wilson’s War,” Boris Gromov’s “Limited Contingent,” and Alexsandr Liakhovskii’s “The Tragedy and Valor of the Afghantsy,” to name but a few.
Translation by various of the Panjshiri publishers unfortunately bears little if any resemblance to the original works. Each and every reference to the collaboration between Ahmad Shah Massoud and the Soviets has been excised or omitted. Quite obviously, this is historical revisionism or censorship via omission. The authors would not recognize the crude copies bearing the identical title and author citations as their original works, dishonoring their many collective years of personal experiences, scholarship, research and study.
Historical revisionism, however, is not unique to Afghanistan history. Western libraries, institutions of higher learning and book sellers are themselves purveyors of historical revisionism.
source: Bruce G Richardson
