Kabul: The Soviet invasion of the late 1970s that drove Afghans into a long and bloody resistance has been recorded in this nation's favourite and most famous art form -- carpets.

Thousands of rugs have been produced, many depicting the hundreds of Red Army tanks that rumbled across the border or the flood of guns and choppers.

Today the best and oldest of examples of these unique "rugs of war" have found a place in the world s museums or private collections.

And there has been a series of exhibitions since the first in Turin in the 1980s by Italian Luca Brancati, who had by then collected 200.

Earlier this year the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles in California presented an impressive collection; in Florida, more than 80 were on display until mid-December at the University of Miami.

The carpets represent "the greatest war art tradition of the 20th century," said Nigel Lendon, a specialist on the rugs who is a deputy director at The Australian National University School of Art.

"It is far more comprehensive than any of the other ways in which artists have reacted to war," he told AFP during a recent visit to Afghanistan for research.

Thousands of people have created the rugs in "20 or 30 different styles, 20 or 30 different parts of the country" and with a range of different reactions to the invasion, he said.

"We think of it as a genuine expression of people's reactions to their experiences of war", he added.
Source : PTI