The Bear Went Over the Mountain Audiobook By Les Grau cover art

The Bear Went Over the Mountain

Soviet Combat Tactics in Afghanistan

Preview

Try for $0.00
Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

The Bear Went Over the Mountain

By: Les Grau
Narrated by: Luis Ayala
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $19.95

Buy for $19.95

Confirm purchase
Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.
Cancel

About this listen

The Bear Went Over the Mountain was written by Soviet officers, who had served in Afghanistan and returned for the extensive Command and Staff course at the Frunze Combined Arms Academy in Moscow. While they were at the Academy, the History of the Military Art Department had the Afghanistan veterans write vignettes of their experience. They analyzed these, edited the best and added commentary as lessons learned for future war in mountain-desert terrain. The department published them as an in-house a book in 1991.

The book was intended for internal use only, and, as such, shows both the good and the bad. Mistakes and successes both illustrate the hard lessons learned in fighting guerrillas on rough terrain. It is not a history of the Soviet-Afghan War, rather it is a series of snapshots of combat as witnessed by young platoon leaders, company commanders, battalion commanders, staff officers and advisers to the Afghan government force. It is not a book about right and wrong, rather it is a book about survival and adaptation as young men come to terms with a harsh, boring and brutal existence punctuated by times of heady excitement and terror. This book was part of a US/Russian military exchange following the collapse of the Soviet Union.

©1996 Les Grau (P)2021 Luis Ayala
Afghan War Europe Military War Afghanistan History
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

What listeners say about The Bear Went Over the Mountain

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    14
  • 4 Stars
    4
  • 3 Stars
    6
  • 2 Stars
    2
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    10
  • 4 Stars
    3
  • 3 Stars
    3
  • 2 Stars
    2
  • 1 Stars
    2
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    13
  • 4 Stars
    2
  • 3 Stars
    3
  • 2 Stars
    2
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Good book, horrible reading

Excellent book for any SUT in COIN. Lessons are directly applicable to small unit leaders. Hard to follow without maps, but still worthwhile.

Don’t get me started about the narrator. He was terrible. Tempo was non existent and I’m pretty sure certain words or phrases were overdubbed by at least one other narrator. Was painful.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

fascinating history.

I am andilotory student of history and found this to be a very interesting work.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Very Insightful

Learned a lot about the Soviet way of war and recentish Afghanistan history. The presenter sometimes struggles with the more exotic words, making me feel like it was a lecture from a war collage instead of a professional theatre performance, which I preferred. If recent events have you in an Afghanistan state of mind or you're a military weabu or you're a soldier needing something to listen to over a CQ shift, here you go. warning, not an inspirational children's story about a bear climbing over a mountain, with the mountain representing obstacles in life.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!