Zinky Boys

{{Short description|1989 documentary book by Belarusian writer Svetlana Alexievich}}

{{italic title}}

Zinky BoysZinky Boys: Soviet Voices from the Afghanistan War. W W Norton 1992 (ISBN 0-393-03415-1), translated by Julia and Robin Whitby ({{langx|ru|Цинковые мальчики|Tsinkovye malchiki}}), also translated as Boys in ZincBoys in Zinc. Penguin Modern Classics 2016 {{ISBN|9780241264119}}, translated by Andrew Bromfield is a 1989 documentary book by Belarusian writer Svetlana Alexievich about the Soviet–Afghan War. The title refers to {{ill|zinc-plated coffin|lt=zinc-plated coffins|ru|Цинковый гроб}} in which the fallen soldiers were transported home to the Soviet Union as "cargo 200". The book collected anonymous memoirs of soldiers and relatives.Н.А.Сивакова,

[https://www.gsu.by/biglib/GSU/Довузовской%20подготовки/научные%20публикации/сивакова%20н.а/особенности%20текст%20организ%20Цинк%20мал.pdf ОСОБЕННОСТИ ТЕКСТУАЛЬНОЙ ОРГАНИЗАЦИИ ДОКУМЕНТАЛЬНОЙ ПОВЕСТИ СВЕТЛАНЫ АЛЕКСИЕВИЧ «ЦИНКОВЫЕ МАЛЬЧИКИ»]

The book followed the method she employed in her two previous documentary books on war, {{ill|War's Unwomanly Face|ru|У войны не женское лицо}} and {{ill|Last Witnesses|ru|Последние свидетели}}. Although the author corrected the language of the interviewees, she avoids any commentary. German literary critic Dietmar Jacobsen writes:

"The result is shocking. The reader accompanies people full of enthusiasm and a willingness to sacrifice themselves into a war that brutalizes them to the extreme. Young men who love their parents and grow up with books, pictures and music become killing machines whose idealism is not long enough to cope with the bloody reality. While official propaganda at home cultivates the image of the heroic "internationalist fighter" who helps the Afghan people throw off the yoke of feudalism, builds wells and roads, takes part in the collectivization of agriculture and paves the way for women to have a self-determined future, people on the ground live in constant danger of death, poorly equipped and with inadequate food supplies, drawing strength for the next few hours from drugs and alcohol and often mutilating themselves to escape the horror."Dietmar Jacobsen, [https://literaturkritik.de/id/21660 Eine Historikerin des Spurlosen. Mit „Zinkjungen“ setzt Swetlana Alexijewitsch den Veteranen und Opfern des Afghanistankrieges ein Denkmal]

A number of plays and two documentaries were based on the book.