The name of the Lipetsk historian Yu. N. Tikhonov became known to Russian readers and orientalists after the publication of his first book " The Afghan War of the Third Reich "(Moscow, 2003), which aroused great interest. In addition to this monograph, he published six other works devoted to the opposition of the special services of the Soviet Union to the activities of various foreign intelligence agencies in the Central Asian region, mainly in Afghanistan. A new book by Yu. N. Tikhonov- Politics of the Great Powers in Afghanistan and Pashtun Tribes (1919-1945) (Institute of History of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Lipetsk State Pedagogical University, Moscow-Lipetsk, Inform LLC, 2007, 384 p.) is devoted to the activities of foreign special services among Pashtun tribes. Based on previously unavailable materials, the author reveals the background of the secret struggle of the great powers for influence on the state policy of Afghanistan, the attempts of their special services to take advantage of the Pashtun "tribal factor", which is of key importance for Afghanistan. In Afghanistan, it is the tribes that have always determined and determine the nature of foreign policy, the leaders and elders decide on the most important issues of relations with foreign countries at jirgas (tribal meetings) and bring their decisions to the attention of the government. No Afghan monarch could sign an agreement or treaty without receiving the approval of tribal authorities. Political events in Russia, which were marked by the February and then October revolutions of 1917 and the civil War, radically changed the situation on the outskirts of Russia and caused its traditional rivals, especially Britain, to seek to snatch the most delicious pieces from the former powerful empire. Moreover, in Central Asia in 1917-1925, the" Big Game "* entered an even more acute stage: it was supplemented by Comintern attempts to open the "eastern front" of the world revolution, the "leading edge" o ... Read more