When the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979, they ignored one crucial issue: Islam. And not just in terms of faith, but Islam as a mobilizing force in Afghan society. It’s strange when you consider the long relationship the Soviets had with its own Muslim population. Yet they consistently saw Islam as having short roots or as a mere instrument of the US, Iran and Pakistan against Moscow. How to explain this blindness? And how did the Soviet Union’s reckoning with Islam prove to be too little too late? The Eurasian Know discussed this perplexing and crucial aspect of the Soviet-Afghan War at the center of his new book, A Slow Reckoning: The USSR, the Afghan Communists, and Islam. Guest: Vassily Klimentov is a Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF) Postdoctoral Fellow and Lecturer at the University of Zurich. Prior to this, he has worked for several years in the humanitarian field, including for two years in the Middle East. He’s the author of A Slow Reckoning: The USSR, the Afghan Communists, and Islam published by Cornell University Press. Send us your sounds! euraknot.org/contact/ Patreon: www.patreon.com/euraknot Knotty News: eurasianknot.substack.com/ The Knot’s Nest: eurasian-knot.sellfy.store/ Website: euraknot.org/