The
Soviet War in Afghanistan, also known as the
Soviet–Afghan War, was a nine-year
conflictWar is a reciprocated, armed conflict, between two or more non-congruous entities, aimed at reorganising a subjectively designed, geo-politically desired result...
involving the
Soviet UnionThe Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. The name is a translation of the , tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated СССР, SSSR. The common short name is Soviet Union, from , Sovetskiy Soyuz...
, supporting the
MarxistMarxism is the political philosophy and economic worldview based upon a materialist interpretation of history, a Marxist analysis of capitalism, a theory of social change, and an atheist view of human liberation derived from the work of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels; three primary aspects of...
government of the
Democratic Republic of AfghanistanThe Democratic Republic of Afghanistan was a communist state established by the Afghan communist party, People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan by then leader Nur Muhammad Taraki in 1978 in the Saur Revolution. From the start the republic ran into conflict with the local mujahideens which...
at their own request, against the
IslamistIslamism is a set of ideologies holding that Islam is not only a religion but also a political system; that modern Muslims must return to their roots of their religion, and unite politically....
Mujahideen Resistance. The Afghan government was also supported by
IndiaIndia, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the west, and the Bay of Bengal...
, while the mujahideen found other support from a variety of sources including the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
,
Saudi ArabiaSaudi Arabia , is an Arab country and the largest country of the Arabian Peninsula. It is bordered by Jordan on the northwest, Iraq on the north and northeast, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates on the east, Oman on the southeast, and Yemen on the south...
,
PakistanPakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country located at the crossroads of South Asia, the Middle East, and Central Asia...
, and other
Muslim:A Muslim , , is an adherent of the religion of Islam. The feminine form is Muslimah . Literally, the word means "one who submits ". Muslim is the participle of the same verb of which Islam is the infinitive. Muslims believe that there is only one God, translated in Arabic as Allah...
nations through the context of the
Cold WarThe Cold War was the continuing state of political conflict, military tension, and economic competition existing after World War II , primarily between the USSR and its satellite states, and the powers of the Western world, including the United States...
and the regional India-Pakistan conflict.
The initial Soviet deployment of the
40th ArmyThe 40th Army of the Soviet Union's Red Army was a army-level command active from 1941 to 1945 and then again from 1979 to circa 1990.It was first formed, after Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union, had commenced, from elements of the 26th and 37th Armies under the command...
in Afghanistan began on December 24, 1979 under the leadership of Soviet President
Leonid BrezhnevLeonid Ilyich Brezhnev was General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1964 to 1982, serving in that position longer than anyone except Joseph Stalin...
. The final
troop withdrawalAfghanistan and Pakistan, in the Accords of 14 April 1988, signed three instruments-on principles of mutual relations, in particular noninterference and non-intervention, on the voluntary return of Afghan refugees, and on interrelationships for the settlement, which provided for phased withdrawal...
started on May 15, 1988, and ended on February 15, 1989 under the last Soviet leader
Mikhail GorbachevMikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev was the second-to-last General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, serving from 1985 until 1991, and the last head of state of the USSR, serving from 1988 until its collapse in 1991...
. Due to the interminable nature of the war, the conflict in Afghanistan has often been referred to as the Soviets' Vietnam; in relation to the
Vietnam WarThe Vietnam War or the Second Indochina War was a Cold War military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1959 to 30 April 1975...
.
Afghanistan demographics
Having seen many cultures come and go throughout the centuries, the region today known as
AfghanistanThe Islamic Republic of Afghanistan is a landlocked country in south central Asia. It is variously described as being located within Central Asia, South Asia, or the Middle East...
has been predominantly
Muslim:A Muslim , , is an adherent of the religion of Islam. The feminine form is Muslimah . Literally, the word means "one who submits ". Muslim is the participle of the same verb of which Islam is the infinitive. Muslims believe that there is only one God, translated in Arabic as Allah...
since
882-Europe:* Carloman, King of the West Franks, becomes sole king upon the death of his brother.* Oleg of Novgorod takes Kiev and makes it his capital.-Religion:* December 16—Pope Marinus I succeeds Pope John VIII as the 108th pope....
. The country's nearly impassable mountains and desert terrain have contributed to its ethnically and linguistically diverse
populationThe Demographics of Afghanistan are a mix of ethnic and linguistic groups. The population of Afg28,150,000
...
. Pashtuns are the largest
ethnic groupAn ethnic group is a group of humans whose members identify with each other, through a common heritage that is real or presumed.Ethnic identity is further marked by the researcher Seng Yang in the recognition from others of a group's distinctiveness and the recognition of common cultural,...
in the country; however the national population also consists of Tajiks, Hazara,
AimakAymāq , also transliterated as Aimak or Aimaq, are a collection of Persian-speaking nomadic or semi-nomadic tribes of mixed Mongolian and Iranian stock. They are found throughout the north and northwest highlands of Afghanistan, immediately to the north of Herat, and in the Khorasan Province of Iran...
,
UzbeksThe Uzbeks are a Turkic-speaking people in Central Asia. They comprise the majority population of Uzbekistan, and large populations can also be found in Afghanistan, Tajikstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Russia and the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China...
,
UyghurThe Uyghur are a Turkic ethnic group living in Eastern and Central Asia. Today Uyghurs live primarily in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in the People's Republic of China....
,
TurkmenThe Turkmen are a Turkic people located primarily in the Central Asian states of Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, northern Iraq and in northeastern Iran...
and
other small groupsThe Demographics of Afghanistan are a mix of ethnic and linguistic groups. The population of Afg28,150,000
...
.
Many
Soviet MuslimsThe Soviet Union was a state comprising fifteen communist republics which existed from 1922 till its dissolution into a series of separate nation states in 1991. Of these fifteen republics, six had a Muslim majority, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kirghizia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan...
in
Central AsiaAsia is a region of Asia from the Caspian Sea in the west to central China in the east, and from southern Russia in the north to northern India in the south. It is also sometimes known as Middle Asia or Inner Asia, and is within the scope of the wider Eurasian continent.Various definitions of its...
had tribal kinship relationships in both
IranIran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran is a country in Western Asia. The name Iran has been in use natively since the Sassanid period and came into international use from 1935, before which the country was known internationally as Persia...
and Afghanistan.
Russian military involvementThe Military history of Imperial Russia encompasses the period of history in which Russian Imperial ground, naval and air forces participated from its creation in 1721 by Peter the Great, until the Russian Revolution of 1917, which led to the establishment of the Soviet Union.-Conditions in Russian...
in Afghanistan has a long history, going back to
TsaristThe Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia, and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
expansions in the so-called "
Great GameThe Great Game is a term used for the strategic rivalry and conflict between the British Empire and the Russian Empire for supremacy in Central Asia. The classic Great Game period is generally regarded as running approximately from the Russo-Persian Treaty of 1813 to the Anglo-Russian Convention of...
" between Russia and
BritainThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
. This began in the 19th century with such events as the
Panjdeh IncidentThe Panjdeh Incident or Panjdeh Scare was a military skirmish that occurred in 1885 when Russian forces seized Afghan territory south of the Oxus River around an oasis at Panjdeh...
, a military skirmish that occurred in 1885 when Russian forces seized Afghan territory south of the Oxus River around an oasis at Panjdeh. This interest in the region continued on through the
Soviet eraThe military history of the Soviet Union began in the days following the 1917 October Revolution that brought the Bolsheviks to power. The new government formed the Red Army to fight various enemies in the Russian Civil War. The years 1918-1921 saw Red Army's defeats in Polish-Soviet war and...
, with billions in economic and military aid sent to Afghanistan between 1955 and 1978.
In February 1979, the
Islamic RevolutionThe Iranian Revolution of 1979 or 1979 Islamic Revolution refers to events involving the overthrow of Iran's monarchy under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and its replacement with an Islamic republic under Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of the revolution...
ousted the US-backed
ShahShah is a Persian term for a king that has been adopted in many other languages.-Word history:"Shāh" was the title of Iranian kings including the Achaemenid dynasty which unified Persia and created a vast intercontinental empire...
from Afghanistan's neighbor Iran and the United States ambassador to Afghanistan was kidnapped and killed by Islamic militants, despite attempts by the Afghan security forces and Soviet advisers to free him.
The United States then deployed twenty
ships to the
Persian GulfThe Persian Gulf, in the Southwest Asian region, is an extension of the Indian Ocean located between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula. Historically and commonly known as the Persian Gulf, this body of water is sometimes controversially referred to as the Arabian Gulf by most Arab states or simply The...
and the
Arabian SeaThe Arabian Sea is a region of the Indian Ocean bounded on the east by India, on the north by Pakistan and Iran, on the west by Arabian Peninsula, on the south, approximately, by a line between Cape Guardafui, the north-east point of Somalia, Socotra, Kanyakumari in India, and the western coast...
including two
aircraft carriers, and there was a constant stream of threats of warfare between the
US and IranPolitical relations between Iran and the United States began in the mid to late 1800s, but had small importance or controversy until the post-World War II era of the Cold War and of petroleum exports from the Persian Gulf...
.
March 1979 marked the signing of the US-backed
peace agreement between Israel and EgyptThe 1979 Egypt–Israel Peace Treaty was signed in Washington, DC, United States, on March 26, 1979, following the 1978 Camp David Accords...
. The Soviet leadership saw the agreement as a major advantage for the United States. One
Soviet newspaperPrinted media in the Soviet Union, i.e., newspapers, magazines and journals, were under strict control of the Communist Party and the Soviet state.-Early Soviet Union:...
stated that Egypt and Israel were now “
gendarmesA gendarme was a heavy cavalryman of noble birth, primarily serving in the French army from the Late Medieval to the Early Modern periods of European History...
of
the PentagonThe Pentagon is the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense, located in Arlington, Virginia. As a symbol of the U.S. military, "the Pentagon" is often used metonymically to refer to the Department of Defense rather than the building itself....
”. The Soviets viewed the treaty not only as a peace agreement between their erstwhile allies in Egypt and the US-supported Israelis but also as a military pact. In addition, the US sold more than 5,000 missiles to
Saudi ArabiaSaudi Arabia , is an Arab country and the largest country of the Arabian Peninsula. It is bordered by Jordan on the northwest, Iraq on the north and northeast, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates on the east, Oman on the southeast, and Yemen on the south...
and also supplied the Royalists in the
North Yemen Civil WarThe North Yemen Civil War was fought in North Yemen between royalists of the Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen and factions of the Yemen Arab Republic from 1962 to 1970. The war began with a coup d'etat carried out by the republican leader, Abdullah as-Sallal, which dethroned the newly crowned Imam...
against the communist rebellion. Also, the Soviet Union's previously strong relations with
IraqIraq , officially the Republic of Iraq , also known as Mesopotamia, is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert.Iraq shares borders with Jordan to the west, Syria...
had recently soured. In June 1978, Iraq began entering into friendlier relations with the
Western worldThe Western world, also known as the West and the Occident , is a term that can have multiple meanings depending on its context...
and buying
FrenchFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
and
Italian-madeItaly , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia...
weapons, though the vast majority still came from the Soviet Union, their
Warsaw PactThe Warsaw Pact is the informal name for the mutual defense Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance subscribed by eight Communist states in Eastern Europe, that was established at the USSR’s initiative and realised on 14 May 1955, in Warsaw, Poland...
allies and
ChinaChina is a cultural region, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
.
Democratic Republic of Afghanistan
Before the national reconciliation talks in 1987 the official name of the country was the
Democratic Republic of AfghanistanThe Democratic Republic of Afghanistan was a communist state established by the Afghan communist party, People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan by then leader Nur Muhammad Taraki in 1978 in the Saur Revolution. From the start the republic ran into conflict with the local mujahideens which...
(Persian: جمهوری افغانستان). The republic was a self-declared
communist stateIn political science, a Communist state is a state with a form of government characterized by single-party rule of a Communist party and a professed allegiance to a communist ideology as the guiding principle of the state....
established by the Afghan communist party, the
People's Democratic Party of AfghanistanThe People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan was a communist party established on the 1 January, 1965. While a minority, the party helped former president of Afghanistan, Mohammed Daoud Khan, to overthrow his cousin, Mohammed Zahir Shah, and established Daoud's Republic of Afghanistan...
(PDPA) and then leader
Nur Muhammad TarakiNur Muhammad Taraki was an ethnic Pashtun politician from Afghanistan. His party, the PDPA, was eventually successful in overthrowing the Afghan monarchy and, after the prior president and his family were murdered in a coup, assumed authority as the next President of Afghanistan from 1978 until...
in the 1978
Saur RevolutionThe Saur Revolution is the name given to the Communist People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan takeover of political power in Afghanistan on 27 April, 1978. It is said that this movement led indirectly to the Soviet military intervention in Afghanistan....
. From the start, the republic ran into conflict with the local mujahideen which started what is known as the Afghan civil war. In 1979, the Soviet Union entered the country to help the communist government and did not leave until 1989.
After the Soviet withdrawal, the Afghan government continued to deal with attacks from the mujahideen. It received funding and arms from the Soviet Union until 1991 when the Soviet Union collapsed. For several years, the government army had actually increased their effectiveness past levels ever achieved during the Soviet military presence, but the government was dealt a major blow when
Abdul Rashid DostumAbdul Rashid Dostum is a former pro-Soviet fighter during the Soviet war in Afghanistan and is considered by many to be the leader of Afghanistan's Uzbek community...
, a leading general, switched allegiances to the mujahideen in 1992, and together they captured the city of
KabulKabul , is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan, with a population of over 2.5 million, and is located in the province of Greater Kabul...
. Much of the republic and the PDPA's work in Afghanistan from 1978-1992 has been forgotten over the years by the international community and the Afghan people, due to mujahideen and Taliban forces who destroyed much of the infrastructure established during the fourteen years of communist rule. Under the DRA, the Afghan economy, health care system, educational system and law enforcement system, among other elements, entered a peak.[2]
The Saur Revolution
King
Mohammed Zahir ShahMohammed Zahir Shah was the last King of Afghanistan, reigning for four decades, from 1933 until he was ousted by a coup in 1973. Following his return from exile he was given the title 'Father of the Nation' in 2002 which he held until his death.-Family background and early life:Zahir Shah was...
acceded to the throne and reigned from 1933 to 1973. Zahir's cousin, Mohammad Daoud Khan, served as
Prime MinisterThe Prime Minister of Afghanistan is a currently defunct post in the Afghan Government.The position was created in 1927, and was appointed by the king, mostly as an advisor, until the end of the monarchy in 1973...
from 1954 to 1963. The Marxist PDPA party's strength grew considerably in these years. In 1967, the PDPA split into two rival factions, the
KhalqKhalq was a faction of the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan. Its historical leaders were Presidents Nur Mohammed Taraki and Hafizullah Amin. It was also the name of the leftist newspaper produced by the same movement....
(Masses) faction headed by
Nur Muhammad TarakiNur Muhammad Taraki was an ethnic Pashtun politician from Afghanistan. His party, the PDPA, was eventually successful in overthrowing the Afghan monarchy and, after the prior president and his family were murdered in a coup, assumed authority as the next President of Afghanistan from 1978 until...
and
Hafizullah AminHafizullah Amin was the second President of Afghanistan during the period of the communist Democratic Republic of Afghanistan....
and the
ParchamParcham was the name of one of the factions of the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan. The Parcham faction seized power in the country after toppling Hafizullah Amin....
(Flag) faction led by
Babrak KarmalBabrak Karmal was the third President of Afghanistan during the period of the communist Democratic Republic of Afghanistan. He is the best known of the Marxist leadership....
.
Former Prime Minister Daoud seized power in a military
coupA coup d'état , or coup for short, is the sudden unconstitutional deposition of a legitimate government, usually by a small group of the existing state establishment—typically the military—to replace the deposed government with another, either civil or military...
on July 17, 1973, after charges of
corruptionPolitical corruption is the use of legislated powers by government officials for illegitimate private gain. Misuse of government power for other purposes, such as repression of political opponents and general police brutality, is not considered political corruption. Neither are illegal acts by...
and poor economic conditions against the King's government. Daoud put an end to the
monarchyThe person who heads a monarchy is called a monarch. It was a common form of government in the world during the ancient and medieval times. A Monarchy is a form of government in which supreme power is absolutely or nominally lodged with an individual, who is the head of state, often for life or...
but his time in power was widely unpopular. Intense opposition from factions of the PDPA was sparked by the repression imposed on them by Daoud's regime and the death of a leading PDPA member,
Mir Akbar KhyberMir Akbar Khyber was an Afghan intellectual and a leader of the Parcham faction of the communist People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan...
. The mysterious circumstances of Khyber's death sparked massive anti-Daoud demonstrations in
KabulKabul , is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan, with a population of over 2.5 million, and is located in the province of Greater Kabul...
, which resulted in the arrest of several prominent PDPA leaders.
On April 27, 1978, the Afghan army, which had been sympathetic to the PDPA cause, overthrew and executed Daoud along with members of his family. Nur Muhammad Taraki,
Secretary GeneralA number of international organizations, political parties, and other bodies use the title Secretary General or Secretary-General for their chief administrative officer.-International intergovernmental organizations:...
of the PDPA, became
PresidentPresident is a title held by many leaders of organizations, companies, trade unions, universities, and countries. Etymologically, a "president" is one who presides, who sits in leadership...
of the Revolutionary Council and Prime Minister of the newly established
Democratic Republic of AfghanistanThe Democratic Republic of Afghanistan was a communist state established by the Afghan communist party, People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan by then leader Nur Muhammad Taraki in 1978 in the Saur Revolution. From the start the republic ran into conflict with the local mujahideens which...
.
Factions inside the PDPA
After the
revolutionA revolution is a fundamental change in power or organizational structures that takes place in a relatively short period of time.Aristotle described two types of political revolution:...
, Taraki assumed the
PresidencyThe word presidency is often used to describe the administration or the executive, the collective administrative and governmental entity that exists around an office of president of a state or nation...
, Prime Ministership and
General SecretaryThe term General Secretary denotes a leader of various unions, parties, churches or associations. The most notable usages are the following:...
of the PDPA. The government was divided along factional lines, with President Taraki and Deputy Prime Minister
Hafizullah AminHafizullah Amin was the second President of Afghanistan during the period of the communist Democratic Republic of Afghanistan....
of the Khalq faction against Parcham leaders such as Babrak Karmal and
Mohammad NajibullahNajibullah , originally just Najib, was the fourth and last President of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan. He is also considered the second President of the Republic of Afghanistan.-Early years:...
. Within the PDPA, conflicts resulted in
exileExile means to be away from one's home , while either being explicitly refused permission to return and/or being threatened by prison or death upon return...
s,
purgeIn history and political science, a purge is the removal of people who are considered undesirable by those in power from a government, from another organization, or from society as a whole. Purges can be peaceful or violent; many will end with the imprisonment or exile of those purged, but in some...
s and executions of Parcham members.
During its first 18 months of rule, the PDPA applied a Soviet-style program of modernizing reforms. Decrees setting forth changes in marriage customs and
land reformLand reforms is an often-controversial alteration in the societal arrangements whereby government administers possession and use of land...
were not received well by a population deeply immersed in tradition and
IslamIslam Islam Islam ( al-’islām,
[There are ten pronunciations of Islam in English, differing in whether the first or second syllable has the stress, whether the s is or , and whether the a is pronounced as in father, as in cat, or (when the stress is on the i) as in the a of sofa...]
, particularly by the powerful land ownders who were harmed economically by the abolition of
usuryUsury originally meant the charging of interest on loans. This would have included charging a fee for the use of money, such as at a bureau de change. After countries legislated to limit the rate of interest on loans, usury came to mean the interest above the lawful rate...
and the cancellation of farmers' debts. By mid-1978, a
rebellionRebellion is a refusal of obedience or order. It may, therefore, be seen as encompassing a range of behaviors from civil disobedience and mass nonviolent resistance, to violent and organized attempts to destroy an established authority such as the government. Those who participate in rebellions are...
started with rebels attacking the local military
garrisonGarrison is the collective term for a body of troops stationed in a particular location, originally to guard it, of more than 50 men, but now often simply using it as a home base. The station is usually a city, town, fort, castle or similar...
in the Nuristan region of eastern Afghanistan and soon
civil warA civil war is a war between organized groups within a single nation state, or, less commonly, between two nations created from a formerly-united nation state. The aim of one side may be to take control of the nation or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies...
spread throughout the country. In September 1979,
Deputy Prime MinisterA Deputy Prime Minister or Vice Prime Minister is, in some countries, a government minister who can take the position of acting Prime Minister when the Prime Minister is temporarily absent. The position is often likened to that of a vice president, but is significantly different, though both...
Hafizullah Amin seized power after a palace
shootoutA shootout is a gun battle between armed groups. A shootout often, but not necessarily, pits law enforcement against criminal elements; it could also involve two groups outside of law enforcement, such as rival gangs. A shootout in a military context A shootout is a gun battle between armed groups....
that resulted in the death of President Taraki. Over two months of instability overwhelmed Amin's regime as he moved against his opponents in the PDPA and the growing rebellion.
Soviet-Afghan relations
The USSR had provided aid to Afghanistan as early as 1919, shortly after
Russian RevolutionThe Russian Revolution is the collective term for the series of revolutions in Russia in 1917, which destroyed the Tsarist autocracy and led to the creation of the Soviet Union. In the first revolution of February 1917 the Czar was deposed and replaced by a Provisional government...
and when the regime was facing the
Russian Civil WarThe Russian Civil War was a multi-party war that occurred within the former Russian Empire after the Russian provisional government collapsed and the Soviets under the domination of the Bolshevik party assumed power, first in Petrograd The Russian Civil War (1917–1923) was a multi-party war that...
. Provisions were given in the form of
small armsSmall arms is a term of art used by armed forces to denote infantry weapons an individual soldier may carry. The description is usually limited to revolvers, pistols, submachine guns, carbines, assault rifles, rifles, sniper rifles, squad automatic weapons, light machine guns, and sometimes hand...
, ammunition, a few
aircraftAn aircraft is a vehicle which is able to fly by being supported by the air, or in general, the atmosphere of a planet. An aircraft counters the force of gravity by using either static lift or by using the dynamic lift of an airfoil An aircraft is a vehicle which is able to fly by being supported...
, and (according to debated Soviet sources) a million gold
rubleThe ruble or rouble is a unit of currency. It is currently the currency unit of Belarus, Russia, and Transnistria, and was the currency unit of several other countries, notably countries influenced by Russia and the Soviet Union...
s to support the resistance during the
Third Anglo-Afghan WarThe Third Anglo-Afghan War began on 6 May 1919 and ended with an armistice on 8 August 1919. While it was essentially a minor tactical victory for the British in so much as they were able to repel the regular Afghan forces, in many ways it was a strategic victory for the Afghans...
. In 1924, the USSR again moved to strengthen the Afghan army, by providing small arms and aircraft, and establishing training centres in
TashkentTashkent is the capital of Uzbekistan and also of the Tashkent Province. The officially registered population of the city in 2008 was 2.18 million. According to unofficial data, the population is more than 3 million.- History :...
(Uzbek Soviet). Soviet-Afghan military cooperation began on a regular basis in 1956, and further agreements were made in the 1970s, which saw the USSR send advisers and specialists. A final pre-war treaty, signed in December 1978, allowed the PDPA to call upon the Soviet Union for military support.
Initiation of the insurgency
In June 1975, militants from the Jamiat Islami party attempted to overthrow the government. They started their rebellion in the
Panjshir valleyThe Panjshir Valley is a valley in north-central Afghanistan, 150 km north of Kabul, near the Hindu Kush mountain range. Located in the Panjshir Province it is divided by the Panjshir River...
, some 100 kilometers north of
KabulKabul , is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan, with a population of over 2.5 million, and is located in the province of Greater Kabul...
, and in a number of other
provincesThe Provinces of Afghanistan are the primary administrative divisions of Afghanistan.There are currently thirty-four provinces in the country, with two having been added in 2004...
of the country. However, government forces easily defeated the insurgency and a sizable portion of the insurgents sought refuge in
PakistanPakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country located at the crossroads of South Asia, the Middle East, and Central Asia...
where they enjoyed the support of
Zulfikar Ali BhuttoZulfikar Ali Bhutto was a Pakistani politician who served as the President of Pakistan from 1971 to 1973 and as Prime Minister from 1973 to 1977. He was the founder of the Pakistan Peoples Party , the largest and most influential political party in Pakistan...
's government, which had been alarmed by Daoud's revival of the
PashtunistanPashtunistan or Pakhtunistan , was the idea of an independent country constituting the Pashtun dominated areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan that found support in the 1970s...
issue.
In 1978 the Taraki government initiated a series of reforms, including modernization of the civil and especially marriage law, aimed at "uprooting
feudalismFeudalism is a decentralized sociopolitical structure in which a weak monarchy attempts to control the lands of the realm through reciprocal agreements with regional leaders...
" in Afghan society. The government brooked no opposition to the reforms and responded with violence to
unrestUnrest is a sociological phenomenon, for instance:* Industrial unrest* Labor unrest* Rebellion* Riot-Notable historical unrests:* 19th century Luddites* 1978–79 Winter of Discontent...
. Between April 1978 and the Soviet invasion of December 1979, thousands of prisoners, perhaps as many as 27,000, were executed at the notorious
Pul-e-Charkhi prisonPul-e-Charkhi prison is a large prison in Afghanistan east of Kabul. Construction of the jail was begun in the 1970s by order of then-president Mohammed Daoud Khan and was completed during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979-89...
, including many village
mullahMullah/Mula/Molla is a Muslim man, educated in Islamic theology and sacred law. The title, given to some Islamic clergy, is derived from the Arabic word mawla, meaning "vicar", "master" and "guardian"...
s and headmen. Other members of the traditional elite, the religious establishment and
intelligentsiaThe intelligentsia is a social class of people engaged in complex mental and creative labor directed to the development and dissemination of culture, encompassing intellectuals and social groups close to them...
fled the country.
Large parts of the country went into open rebellion. The Parcham Government claimed that 11,000 were executed during the Amin/Taraki period in response to the revolts. The revolt began in October among the Nuristani tribes of the
Kunar ValleyKunar Valley or Chitral Valley is a valley in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Main geographic features are jungles and mountains....
, and rapidly spread among the other ethnic groups. The Afghan army fought back violently, but couldn't subdue the large insurgency. By the spring of 1979, 24 of the 28 provinces had suffered outbreaks of violence. The rebellion began to take hold in the cities: in March 1979 in
HeratHerāt , classically called the Aria, is a major city in western Afghanistan, in the province also known as Herāt. It is situated in the valley of the Hari River, which flows from the mountains of central Afghanistan to the Karakum Desert in Turkmenistan. It is the third largest city of Afghanistan,...
, rebels led by
Ismail KhanIsmail Khan , an ethnic Pushtun from Herat, Afghanistan, was a powerful Mujahedeen commander in the Soviet War in Afghanistan, and then a key member of the Northern Alliance, later the Governor of Herat Province and is now the Minister of Energy for the country...
killed approximately 10 soldiers. The
Afghan Air ForceThe Afghan National Army Air Corps is one of six "corps" of the military of Afghanistan, and the only one responsible for air defense and air warfare. It was established officially in 1924 and for most of its history has functioned as a small but separate air service...
retaliated with a bombing campaign that killed 24,000 inhabitants of the city. Despite these drastic measures, by the end of 1980, out of the 80,000 soldiers strong Afghan Army, more than half had either deserted or joined the rebels.
It was a very bloody war.
1979: Soviet deployment
The Afghan government, having secured a treaty in December 1978 that allowed them to call on Soviet forces, repeatedly requested the introduction of troops in Afghanistan in the spring and summer of 1979. They requested Soviet troops to provide security and to assist in the fight against the mujahideen rebels. On April 14, 1979, the Afghan government requested that the USSR send 15 to 20 helicopters with their crews to Afghanistan, and on June 16, the Soviet government responded and sent a detachment of tanks,
BMPsThe BMP-1 is a Soviet amphibious tracked infantry fighting vehicle. BMP stands for Boyevaya Mashina Pekhoty , meaning "fighting vehicle of infantry") . The BMP-1 was the world's first mass-produced infantry fighting vehicle...
, and crews to guard the government in Kabul and to secure the
BagramBagram, Bagrām or Begram was an ancient city located at the junction of the Ghorband and Panjshir valleys, near today's city of Charikar, Afghanistan. Bagram is located about 60 kilometers north of Kabul, in the Bagram district in Parwan Province...
and
ShindandShindand is a town and the center of the Shindand District, Herat Province, Afghanistan. It is located at at 1066 m Altitude. Near by the town is Shindand Airbase .- Name :...
airfields. In response to this request, an airborne battalion, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel A. Lomakin, arrived at the
Bagram Air BaseThe Bagram Air Base - known and referred to by US military as Bagram Airfield - is a militarized airport and housing complex that is located next to the ancient city of Bagram, southeast of Charikar in Parwan province of Afghanistan...
on July 7. They arrived without their combat gear, disguised as technical specialists. They were the personal bodyguards for President Taraki. The paratroopers were directly subordinate to the senior Soviet military advisor and did not interfere in Afghan politics.
After a month, the Afghan requests were no longer for individual crews and subunits, but for regiments and larger units. In July, the Afghan government requested that two motorized rifle divisions be sent to Afghanistan. The following day, they requested an airborne division in addition to the earlier requests. They repeated these requests and variants to these requests over the following months right up to December 1979. However, the Soviet government was in no hurry to grant them.
The anti-communist rebels garnered support from the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. As stated by the former director of the
Central Intelligence AgencyThe Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government.It is an independent agency responsible for providing national security intelligence to senior United States policymakers....
and current US Secretary of Defense,
Robert GatesRobert Michael Gates is currently serving as the 22nd United States Secretary of Defense. He took office on December 18, 2006. Prior to this, Gates served for 26 years in the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Council, and under President George H. W. Bush as Director of...
, in his memoirs
From the Shadows, the US intelligence services began to aid the rebel factions in Afghanistan six months before the Soviet deployment. On July 3, 1979,
US PresidentThe President of the United States is the head of state and head of government of the United States and is the highest political official in the United States by influence and recognition...
Jimmy CarterJames Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. served as the 39th President of the United States from 1977 to 1981 and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office...
signed an executive order authorizing the CIA to conduct
covertA covert operation is a military, intelligence, or political activity carried out in such a way that the identity of the sponsors of the operation is concealed or kept secret...
propagandaPropaganda is communication aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position. As opposed to impartially providing information, propaganda in its most basic sense, presents information primarily to influence an audience...
operations against the communist regime.
Carter advisor
Zbigniew BrzezinskiZbigniew Kazimierz Brzezinski is an American political scientist, geostrategist, and statesman who served as United States National Security Advisor to President Jimmy Carter from 1977 to 1981...
stated: "According to the official version of history, CIA aid to the mujahideen began during 1980, that is to say, after the Soviet army invaded Afghanistan, December 24, 1979. But the reality, secretly guarded until now, is completely otherwise." Brzezinski himself played a fundamental role in crafting US policy, which, unbeknownst even to the mujahideen, was part of a larger strategy "to induce a Soviet military
interventionIntervention may refer to:*a military offensive** Humanitarian intervention, an attempt to reduce suffering within a state through armed conflict** Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War at 1918-1925...
." In a 1998 interview with
Le Nouvel ObservateurLe Nouvel Observateur is a weekly French newsmagazine. It is the most prominent French general information magazine based in Paris in terms of audience and circulation ....
, Brzezinski recalled: "We didn't push the Russians to intervene, but we knowingly increased the probability that they would...That secret operation was an excellent idea. It had the effect of drawing the Soviets into the Afghan trap ... The day that the Soviets officially crossed the border, I wrote to President Carter. We now have the opportunity of giving to the Soviet Union its
Vietnam WarThe Vietnam War or the Second Indochina War was a Cold War military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1959 to 30 April 1975...
."
Additionally, on July 3, 1979, Carter signed a presidential finding authorizing funding for anticommunist guerrillas in Afghanistan. As a part of the Central Intelligence Agency program
Operation CycloneOperation Cyclone was the code name for the United States Central Intelligence Agency program to arm the Afghan mujahideen during the Soviet war in Afghanistan, 1979 to 1989...
, the massive arming of Afghanistan's mujahideen was started.
Based on information from the
KGBThe KGB was the national security agency of the USSR. From 1954 until 1991, the Committee for State Security was the Communist state's premier secret police, internal security, and espionage organization, whose coat of arms—the Shield and the Sword—illustrate a national military hierarchy...
, Soviet leaders felt that Amin destabilized the situation in Afghanistan. Following Amin's initial coup against and killing of President Taraki, the KGB station in Kabul warned that his leadership would lead to "harsh repressions, and as a result, the activation and consolidation of the opposition."
The Soviets established a special commission on Afghanistan, of KGB chairman
Yuri AndropovYuri Vladimirovich Andropov was a Soviet politician and General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 12 November 1982 until his death fifteen months later.-Early life:...
,
Boris PonomarevBoris Nikolayevich Ponomarev was a Soviet politician, ideologist and historian, and a member of the Secretariat of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union...
from the
Central CommitteeA central Committee is commonly the central executive unit of a Leninist or Communist party, whether ruling or non-ruling. In a Communist party, the Central Committee is made up of delegates elected at a Party Congress...
and Dmitry Ustinov, the
Minister of Defense-People's Commissariat of Military and Sea Affairs of the USSR:People's Commissars:* Nikolai Podvoisky 8 November 1917 – 13 March 1918* Lev Kamenev 13 March 1918 – 28 August 1919* Leon Trotsky 29 August 1919 – 15 January 1925...
. In late April 1978, they reported that Amin was purging his opponents, including Soviet loyalists; his loyalty to Moscow was in question; and that he was seeking diplomatic links with
PakistanPakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country located at the crossroads of South Asia, the Middle East, and Central Asia...
and possibly the
People's Republic of ChinaThe People's Republic of China , commonly known as China, is the largest country in East Asia and the most populous in the world with over 1.3 billion people, approximately one-fifth of the world's population...
. Of specific concern were Amin's secret meetings with the US chargé d'affaires J. Bruce Amstutz, which, while never amounting to any agreement between Amin and the United States, sowed suspicion in the
KremlinKremlin is the Russian word for "fortress", "citadel" or "castle" and refers to any major fortified central complex found in historic Russian cities. This word is often used to refer to the best-known one, the Moscow Kremlin, or metonymically to the government that is based there...
.
Information obtained by the KGB from its agents in Kabul provided the last arguments to eliminate Amin. Supposedly, two of Amin's guards killed the former president Nur Muhammad Taraki with a pillow, and Amin was suspected to be a CIA agent. The latter, however, is still disputed: Amin repeatedly demonstrated official friendliness to the Soviet Union. Soviet
GeneralA general officer is an officer of high military rank. The term or equivalent is used by nearly every country in the world. General can be used as a generic term for all grades of general officer, or it can specifically refer to a single rank that is simply called general.-All general officer...
Vasily Zaplatin, a political advisor at that time, claimed that four of President Taraki's ministers were responsible for the destabilization. However, Zaplatin failed to emphasize this enough.
Also during the 1970s, the Soviet Union reached the peak of its political influence in comparison to the U.S. as the SALT I treaty was created to cooperate in matters of nuclear weapons and technology between the two nations. A second round of talks between communist leader
BrezhnevLeonid Ilyich Brezhnev was General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1964 to 1982, serving in that position longer than anyone except Joseph Stalin...
and president Carter yielded the SALT II treaty in June 1979, which the U.S. Senate though, failed to ratify. This process would eventually culminate and lead up to the buildup and invasion of Afghanistan in December 1979 to preserve, stabilize and militarily intervene on behalf of the communist regime there.
1979: Soviet invasion
On December 7, 1979, Soviet informants to the Afghan Armed Forces who were under orders from the inner circle of advisors under Soviet leader Brezhnev, relayed information for them to undergo maintenance cycles for their tanks and other crucial equipment. Meanwhile, telecommunications links to areas outside of Kabul were severed, isolating the capital. With a deteriorating security situation, large numbers of Soviet airborne forces joined stationed ground troops and began to land in Kabul on December 25. Simultaneously, Amin moved the offices of the president to the
Tajbeg PalaceTajbeg Palace or Tapa-e-Tajbeg Palace is a Palace built in the 1920s and located about ten miles outside of the center of Kabul, Afghanistan, at . The stately mansion sits atop a knoll among snow-covered foothills where the Afghan royal family once hunted and picnicked...
, believing this location to be more secure from possible threats. According to Colonel General Tukharinov and Merimsky, Amin was fully informed of the military movements, having requested Soviet military assistance to northern Afghanistan on December 17. His brother and General Dmitry Chiangov met with the commander of the
40th ArmyThe 40th Army of the Soviet Union's Red Army was a army-level command active from 1941 to 1945 and then again from 1979 to circa 1990.It was first formed, after Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union, had commenced, from elements of the 26th and 37th Armies under the command...
before Soviet troops entered the country, to work out initial routes and locations for Soviet troops.
On December 27, 1979, 700 Soviet troops dressed in Afghan uniforms, including
KGBThe KGB was the national security agency of the USSR. From 1954 until 1991, the Committee for State Security was the Communist state's premier secret police, internal security, and espionage organization, whose coat of arms—the Shield and the Sword—illustrate a national military hierarchy...
and
GRUGRU or Glavnoye Razvedyvatel'noye Upravleniye is the acronym for the foreign military intelligence directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation,...
special forceSpecial Force is a first-person shooter military video game, published by the group Hezbollah, created using the Genesis 3D engine. The game is set in a 3D environment, in which the player takes the role of a Hezbollah combatant fighting the IDF...
officers from the
Alpha GroupThe Alpha Group is an elite dedicated counter-terrorism unit that belongs to OSNAZ of the FSB , or more specifically the "A" Directorate of the FSB Special Operations Center .- Function :Alfa Group's primary function is believed to be to carry out urban counter-terrorist missions under the direct...
and
Zenith Group, occupied major governmental, military and media buildings in Kabul, including their primary target - the
Tajbeg Presidential PalaceTajbeg Palace or Tapa-e-Tajbeg Palace is a Palace built in the 1920s and located about ten miles outside of the center of Kabul, Afghanistan, at . The stately mansion sits atop a knoll among snow-covered foothills where the Afghan royal family once hunted and picnicked...
.
That operation began at 19:00 hr., when the Soviet
Zenith Group destroyed Kabul's communications hub, paralyzing Afghan military command. At 19:15,
the assault on Tajbeg PalaceOperation Storm-333 was the name of the Soviet operation on December 27, 1979 in which Soviet special forces stormed the Tajbeg Palace in Afghanistan and killed President Hafizullah Amin and his 200 personal guards....
began; as planned, president Hafizullah Amin was killed. Simultaneously, other objectives were occupied (e.g. the Ministry of Interior at 19:15). The operation was fully complete by the morning of December 28, 1979.
The Soviet military command at
TermezTermez is a city in southern Uzbekistan near the border with Afghanistan. The city was named by Greeks who came with Alexander the Great. Termez means in Greek "hot" or "hot place" . It is still the hottest point of Uzbekistan. It has a population of 140,404 , and is the capital of the Surxondaryo...
,
Uzbek SSRThe Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic , also known as the Uzbek SSR for short, was one of the republics of the Soviet Union since its creation in 1924...
, announced on
Radio KabulRadio Kabul is the official radio station of Afghanistan. The name Radio Kabul has been given to many different incarnations of the state-run radio station since the first radio transmitters were installed in Kabul in the 1920s....
that Afghanistan had been "liberated" from Amin's rule. According to the Soviet
PolitburoPolitburo, from German Politbüro, short for Political Bureau, , is the executive committee for a number of communist political parties.- Marxist-Leninist states :...
they were complying with the 1978
Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Good Neighborliness and Amin had been
"executed by a tribunal for his crimes" by the Afghan Revolutionary Central Committee. That
committeeA committee is a type of small deliberative assembly that is usually intended to remain subordinate to another, larger deliberative assembly—which when organized so that action on committee requires a vote by all its entitled members, is called the "Committee of the Whole"...
then elected as head of government former Deputy Prime Minister
Babrak KarmalBabrak Karmal was the third President of Afghanistan during the period of the communist Democratic Republic of Afghanistan. He is the best known of the Marxist leadership....
, who had been demoted to the relatively insignificant post of
ambassadorAn ambassador is the highest ranking diplomat who represents their country. They are usually accredited to a foreign sovereign or government, or to an international organization, to serve as the official representative of their country....
to
CzechoslovakiaCzechoslovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
following the Khalq takeover, and that it had requested Soviet military assistance.
Soviet ground forces, under the command of
MarshalMarshal is a word used in several official titles of various branches of society. The word derives from Old High German marah "horse" and schalh "servant", and originally meant "stable keeper"...
Sergei Sokolov, entered Afghanistan from the north on December 27. In the morning, the 103rd Guards '
VitebskVitebsk, also known as Viciebsk or Vitsyebsk , is a city in Belarus, near the border with Russia and Latvia. The capital of the Vitebsk Oblast, in 2004 it had 342,381 inhabitants, making it the country's fourth largest city...
' Airborne Division landed at the
airportAn airport is a location where aircraft such as fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters, and blimps take off and land. Aircraft may be stored or maintained at an airport...
at Bagram and the deployment of Soviet troops in Afghanistan was underway. The force that entered Afghanistan, in addition to the 103rd Guards Airborne Division, was under command of the
40th ArmyThe 40th Army of the Soviet Union's Red Army was a army-level command active from 1941 to 1945 and then again from 1979 to circa 1990.It was first formed, after Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union, had commenced, from elements of the 26th and 37th Armies under the command...
and consisted of the 108th and 5th Guards Motor Rifle Divisions, the 860th Separate Motor Rifle Regiment, the 56th Separate Airborne Assault Brigade, the 36th Mixed Air Corps. Later on the 201st and 58th Motor Rifle Divisions also entered the country, along with other smaller units. In all, the initial Soviet force was around 1,800
tankA tank is a tracked, armoured fighting vehicle designed for front-line combat which combines operational mobility and tactical offensive and defensive capabilities...
s, 80,000 soldiers and 2,000
AFVsAn armoured fighting vehicle is a military vehicle, protected by armour and armed with weapons. AFV's can be wheeled or tracked.Armoured fighting vehicles are classified according to their intended role on the battlefield and characteristics. This classification is not absolute; at different times...
. In the second week alone, Soviet aircraft had made a total of 4,000 flights into Kabul. With the arrival of the two later divisions, the total Soviet force rose to over 100,000 personnel.
December 1979-February 1980: Occupation
The first phase began with the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and their first battles with various opposition groups.
Soviet troops entered Afghanistan along two ground routes and one
air corridorAn air corridor is a designated region of airspace that an aircraft must remain in during its transit through a given region. Air corridors are typically imposed by military or diplomatic requirements...
, quickly taking control of the major urban centers, military bases and strategic installations. However, the presence of Soviet troops did not have the desired effect of pacifying the country. On the contrary, it exacerbated a
nationalisticNationalism is an ideology, a sentiment, a form of culture, or a social movement that focuses on the nation. It is a type of collectivism emphasizing the collective of a specific nation...
feeling, causing the rebellion to spread even more. Babrak Karmal, Afghanistan's new president, charged the Soviets with causing an increase in the unrest, and demanded that the 40th Army step in and quell the rebellion, as his own army had proved untrustworthy. Thus, Soviet troops found themselves drawn into fighting against urban uprisings, tribal armies (called
lashkar), and sometimes against mutinying Afghan Army units. These forces mostly fought in the open, and Soviet airpower and artillery made short work of them.
March 1980-April 1985: Soviet offensives
The war now developed into a new pattern: the Soviets occupied the cities and main axis of communication, while the mujahideen, divided into small groups, waged a guerrilla war. Almost 80 percent of the country escaped government control. Soviet troops were deployed in strategic areas in the northeast, especially along the road from
TermezTermez is a city in southern Uzbekistan near the border with Afghanistan. The city was named by Greeks who came with Alexander the Great. Termez means in Greek "hot" or "hot place" . It is still the hottest point of Uzbekistan. It has a population of 140,404 , and is the capital of the Surxondaryo...
to Kabul. In the west, a strong Soviet presence was maintained to counter
IranIran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran is a country in Western Asia. The name Iran has been in use natively since the Sassanid period and came into international use from 1935, before which the country was known internationally as Persia...
ian influence. Conversely, some regions such as Nuristan and
HazarajatHazarajat, also known as Hazaristan, is the name given to a region in central Afghanistan that makes up the native homeland of Afghanistan's Hazara ethnic group. It is made up of the three central provinces of Bamyan, Daykundi and Ghor and includes large areas of Maidan Wardak, Ghazni, Orūzgān,...
were virtually untouched by the fighting, and lived in almost complete independence.
Periodically the Soviet Army undertook multi-
divisionalA division is a large military unit or formation usually consisting of between ten to thirty thousand soldiers. In most armies, a division is composed of several regiments or brigades, and in turn several divisions make up a corps...
offensives into mujahideen-controlled areas. Between 1980 and 1985, nine
offensivesThe Panjshir offensives were a series of battles between the Soviet Army and groups of Afghan Mujahideen under Ahmad Shah Massoud for the control of the strategic Panjshir Valley, during the Soviet war in Afghanistan in the period from 1980 to 1985.These battles saw some of the most violent...
were launched into the strategic
Panjshir ValleyThe Panjshir Valley is a valley in north-central Afghanistan, 150 km north of Kabul, near the Hindu Kush mountain range. Located in the Panjshir Province it is divided by the Panjshir River...
, but government control of the area did not improve. Heavy fighting also occurred in the provinces neighbouring
PakistanPakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country located at the crossroads of South Asia, the Middle East, and Central Asia...
, where cities and government outposts were constantly under siege by the mujahideen. Massive Soviet operations would regularly break these sieges, but the mujahideen would return as soon as the coast was clear. In the west and south, fighting was more sporadic, except in the cities of
HeratHerāt , classically called the Aria, is a major city in western Afghanistan, in the province also known as Herāt. It is situated in the valley of the Hari River, which flows from the mountains of central Afghanistan to the Karakum Desert in Turkmenistan. It is the third largest city of Afghanistan,...
and
KandaharKandahār, also spelled Qandahār, Pashtoکندهار or قندهار is the second largest city in Afghanistan, with a population of 324,800 . It is the capital of Kandahar province, located in the south of the country at about 1,005 m above sea level...
, that were always partly controlled by the resistance.
On his arrival in power in March 1985, the new Soviet
General SecretaryThe General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was the title synonymous with leader of the Soviet Union after Joseph Stalin's consolidation of power in the 1920s.- Background :In 1919 - 1922, the position of a Responsible Secretary was...
Mikhail GorbachevMikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev was the second-to-last General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, serving from 1985 until 1991, and the last head of state of the USSR, serving from 1988 until its collapse in 1991...
expressed his impatience with the Afghan conflict. He demanded that a solution be found before a one-year deadline. As a result, the size of the LCOSF (Limited Contingent of Soviet Forces) was increased to 108,800 and fighting increased throughout the country, making 1985 the bloodiest year of the war. However, despite suffering heavily, the mujahideen were able to remain in the field and continue resisting the Soviets.
1980s: Insurrection
In the mid-1980s, the Afghan
resistance movementA resistance movement is a group or collection of individual groups, dedicated to fighting an invader in an occupied country or the government of a sovereign nation through either the use of physical force, or nonviolence. The term resistance is generally used to designate movement considered...
, assisted by the United States, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, the
United KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
, PRC and others, contributed to
MoscowMoscow is the capital and the largest city of Russia. It is also the largest metropolitan area in Europe, and ranks among the largest urban areas in the world. Moscow is a major political, economic, cultural, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the world, a...
's high military costs and strained international relations. The US viewed the conflict in Afghanistan as an integral
Cold WarThe Cold War was the continuing state of political conflict, military tension, and economic competition existing after World War II , primarily between the USSR and its satellite states, and the powers of the Western world, including the United States...
struggle, and the CIA provided assistance to anti-Soviet forces through the Pakistani intelligence services, in a program called
Operation CycloneOperation Cyclone was the code name for the United States Central Intelligence Agency program to arm the Afghan mujahideen during the Soviet war in Afghanistan, 1979 to 1989...
.
A similar movement occurred in other Muslim countries, bringing contingents of so-called
Afghan ArabsAfghan Arabs were Arab and other Muslim fighters who came to Afghanistan during and following the Soviet-Afghan War to help fellow Muslims fight Soviets and pro-Soviet Afghans...
, foreign fighters who wished to wage
jihadJihad , an Islamic term, is a religious duty of Muslims. In Arabic, the word jihād is a noun meaning "struggle." Jihad appears frequently in the Qur'an and common usage as the idiomatic expression "striving in the way of Allah "...
against the atheist communists. Notable among them was a young Saudi named
Osama bin LadenOsama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden is a member of the prominent Saudi bin Laden family and one of the founders of the terrorist organization al-Qaeda, best known for the September 11 attacks on the United States and its associations with numerous other mass-casualty attacks against...
, whose
ArabArab people or Arabs are an ethnic group whose members identify along linguistic, cultural or genealogical grounds...
group eventually evolved into
al-QaedaAl-Qaeda , alternatively spelled al-Qaida and sometimes al-Qa'ida, is an Islamist group founded sometime between August 1988 and late 1989 and early 1990...
.
In the course of the guerrilla war, leadership came to be distinctively associated with the title of "commander". It applied to independent leaders, eschewing identification with elaborate military
bureaucracyBureaucracy is the collective organizational structure, procedures, protocols, and set of regulations in place to manage activity, usually in large organizations and government...
associated with such ranks as
generalA general officer is an officer of high military rank. The term or equivalent is used by nearly every country in the world. General can be used as a generic term for all grades of general officer, or it can specifically refer to a single rank that is simply called general.-All general officer...
. As the war produced leaders of reputation, "commander" was conferred on leaders of fighting units of all sizes, signifying pride in independence, self-sufficiency, and distinct ties to local communities. The title epitomized Afghan pride in their struggle against a powerful foe. Segmentation of power and religious leadership were the two values evoked by nomenclature generated in the war. Neither had been favored in the ideology of the former Afghan state.
Afghanistan's resistance movement was born in chaos, spread and triumphed chaotically, and did not find a way to govern differently. Virtually all of its war was waged locally by regional
warlordA warlord is a person with power who has both military and civil control over a subnational area due to armed forces loyal to the warlord and not to a central authority. The term can also mean one who espouses the ideal that war is necessary, and has the means and authority to engage in war...
s. As warfare became more sophisticated, outside support and regional coordination grew. Even so, the basic units of mujahideen organization and action continued to reflect the highly segmented nature of Afghan society.
Olivier RoyOlivier Roy is a research director at the French National Center for Scientific Research and a lecturer for both the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences and the Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris . Since 1984, he has acted as a consultant to the French Foreign Ministry...
estimates that after four years of war, there were at least 4,000 bases from which mujahideen units operated. Most of these were affiliated with the seven expatriate parties headquartered in Pakistan, which served as sources of supply and varying degrees of supervision. Significant commanders typically led 300 or more men, controlled several bases and dominated a district or a sub-division of a province. Hierarchies of organization above the bases were attempted. Their operations varied greatly in scope, the most ambitious being achieved by Ahmad Shah Massoud of the
Panjshir valleyThe Panjshir Valley is a valley in north-central Afghanistan, 150 km north of Kabul, near the Hindu Kush mountain range. Located in the Panjshir Province it is divided by the Panjshir River...
north of
KabulKabul , is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan, with a population of over 2.5 million, and is located in the province of Greater Kabul...
. He led at least 10,000 trained troops at the end of the Soviet war and had expanded his political control of
TajikTajik is a general designation for a wide range of Persian-speaking peoples of Iranian origin, with traditional homelands in present-day Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and southern Uzbekistan. Because of the Soviet war in Afghanistan, large refugee populations can also be found in both Iran and Pakistan...
-dominated areas to Afghanistan's northeastern provinces under the Supervisory Council of the North.
Roy also describes regional, ethnic and sectarian variations in mujahideen organization. In the Pashtun areas of the east, south and southwest, tribal structure, with its many rival sub-divisions, provided the basis for military organization and leadership. Mobilization could be readily linked to traditional fighting allegiances of the tribal
lashkar (fighting force). In favorable circumstances such formations could quickly reach more than 10,000, as happened when large Soviet assaults were launched in the eastern provinces, or when the mujahideen besieged towns, such as
KhostKhost or Khowst is a city in eastern Afghanistan. It is the capital of Khost province, which is a mountainous region near Afghanistan's border with Pakistan. The population of Khost province is over one million people....
in Paktia province in July 1983. But in campaigns of the latter type the traditional explosions of manpower—customarily common immediately after the completion of harvest—proved obsolete when confronted by well dug-in defenders with modern weapons. Lashkar durability was notoriously short; few sieges succeeded.
Mujahideen mobilization in non-Pashtun regions faced very different obstacles. Prior to the invasion, few non-Pashtuns possessed firearms. Early in the war they were most readily available from army troops or
gendarmerieA gendarmerie or gendarmery is a military body charged with police duties among civilian populations. The members of such a body are called gendarmes. The term maréchaussée may also be used but is now uncommon.-Etymology:The word gendarme comes from Old French gens d'armes, meaning men-at-arms...
who defected or were ambushed. The international arms market and foreign military support tended to reach the minority areas last. In the northern regions, little military tradition had survived upon which to build an armed resistance. Mobilization mostly came from political leadership closely tied to
IslamIslam Islam Islam ( al-’islām,
[There are ten pronunciations of Islam in English, differing in whether the first or second syllable has the stress, whether the s is or , and whether the a is pronounced as in father, as in cat, or (when the stress is on the i) as in the a of sofa...]
. Roy convincingly contrasts the social leadership of religious figures in the
PersianPersian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is widely spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and to some extent in Iraq and Bahrain, and has a status of official language in the first three countries under different names...
- and
TurkishThe Turkic languages constitute a language family of some thirty languages, spoken by Turkic peoples across a vast area from Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean to Siberia and Western China, and are considered to be part of the proposed Altaic language family.Turkic languages are spoken by some...
-speaking regions of Afghanistan with that of the Pashtuns. Lacking a strong political representation in a state dominated by Pashtuns, minority communities commonly looked to pious learned or charismatically revered
pirPir may refer to:* Pir , a Sufi teacher, spiritual leader* Pir , a site in Persia, frequently one of the Zoroastrian faith* Pir of the Britons, legendary king of the Britons* Pir, Satu Mare, commune in Satu Mare County, Romania...
s (saints) for leadership. Extensive Sufi and maraboutic networks were spread through the minority communities, readily available as foundations for leadership, organization, communication and indoctrination. These networks also provided for political mobilization, which led to some of the most effective of the resistance operations during the war.
The mujahideen favoured
sabotageSabotage is a deliberate action aimed at weakening another entity through subversion, obstruction, disruption, or destruction. In a workplace setting, sabotage is the conscious withdrawal of efficiency generally directed at causing some change in workplace conditions...
operations. The more common types of sabotage included damaging
power linesElectric power transmission is the bulk transfer of electrical energy, a process in the delivery of electricity to consumers. A power transmission network typically connects power plants to multiple substations near a populated area...
, knocking out
pipelinesPipeline transport is the transportation of goods through a pipe. Most commonly, liquid and gases are sent, but pneumatic tubes that transport solid capsules using compressed air have also been used....
and radio stations, blowing up government office buildings, air terminals, hotels, cinemas, and so on. From 1985 through 1987, an average of over 600 "terrorist acts" a year were recorded. In the border region with Pakistan, the mujahideen would often launch 800
rocketA rocket or rocket vehicle is a missile, spacecraft, aircraft or other vehicle which obtains thrust by the reaction of the rocket to the ejection of a jet of fast moving fluid exhaust from a rocket engine. Chemical rockets create their exhaust by the combustion of rocket propellant...
s per day. Between April 1985 and January 1987, they carried out over 23,500 shelling attacks on government targets. The mujahideen surveyed firing positions that they normally located near villages within the range of Soviet artillery posts, putting the villagers in danger of death from Soviet retaliation. The mujahideen used land mines heavily. Often, they would enlist the services of the local inhabitants, even children.
They concentrated on both civilian and military targets, knocking out bridges, closing major roads, attacking
convoyA convoy is a group of vehicles traveling together for mutual support and protection. Often, a convoy is organized with armed defensive support, though it may also be used in a non-military sense, for example when driving through remote areas.-Age of Sail:Naval convoys have been used for hundreds...
s, disrupting the electric power system and industrial production, and attacking police stations and Soviet military installations and air bases. They
assassinatedAn Assassination is the targeted killing of a public figure.Assassinations may be prompted by ideological, political, or military reasons. Additionally, assassins may be motivated by financial gain, revenge, personal public recognition, or mental illness....
government officials and PDPA members, and laid siege to small rural
outpostOutpost may refer to:Places:* Outpost Estates, Los Angeles, California, a canyon neighborhood* Outpost Islands, Nunavut, CanadaIn entertainment:* Outpost , an arcade game...
s. In March 1982, a bomb exploded at the
MinistryA ministry is a specialised organisation responsible for a sector of government public administration, sometimes led by a minister, but usually a senior public servant, that can have responsibility for one or more departments, agencies, bureaus, commissions or other smaller executive, advisory,...
of
EducationEducation in its broadest sense is any act or experience that has a formative effect on the mind, character or physical ability of an individual...
, damaging several buildings. In the same month, a widespread power failure darkened Kabul when a pylon on the transmission line from the Naghlu power station was blown up. In June 1982 a column of about 1,000 young
communist partyA political party described as a communist party includes those that advocate the application of the social principles of communism through a communist form of government. The name originates from the 1848 tract Manifesto of the Communist Party by Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels...
members sent out to work in the Panjshir valley were ambushed within 30 km of Kabul, with heavy loss of life. On September 4, 1985, insurgents shot down a domestic Bakhtar Airlines plane as it took off from Kandahar airport, killing all 52 people aboard.
Mujahideen groups used for
assassinationAn Assassination is the targeted killing of a public figure.Assassinations may be prompted by ideological, political, or military reasons. Additionally, assassins may be motivated by financial gain, revenge, personal public recognition, or mental illness....
had three to five men in each. After they received their mission to kill certain government officials, they busied themselves with studying his pattern of life and its details and then selecting the method of fulfilling their established mission. They practiced shooting at
automobileAn automobile, motor car or car is a wheeled motor vehicle used for transporting passengers, which also carries its own engine or motor...
s,
shooting out of automobilesDrive By is a New Jersey based music group that has been touring nationally and internationally since 2004 after the release of their debut album I Hate Every Day Without You Kid... After three years of touring in support of the album, they released a new record, title A Delicate Situation, on...
, laying mines in government accommodation or houses, using poison, and rigging explosive charges in transport.
In May 1985, the seven principal rebel organizations formed the Seven Party Mujahideen Alliance to coordinate their military operations against the Soviet army. Late in 1985, the groups were active in and around Kabul, unleashing rocket attacks and conducting operations against the communist government.
By mid-1987 the Soviet Union announced it would start withdrawing its forces.
Sibghatullah MojaddediSibghatullah Mojaddedi , served as the first President of the Islamic State of Afghanistan after the fall of the communist regime in 1992...
was selected as the head of the Interim Islamic State of Afghanistan, in an attempt to reassert its legitimacy against the Moscow-sponsored Kabul regime. Mojaddedi, as head of the Interim Afghan Government, met with then
Vice President of the United StatesThe Vice President of the United States is the holder of a public office created by the United States Constitution. The Vice President, together with the President of the United States, is indirectly elected by the people through the Electoral College to a four-year term...
George H. W. BushGeorge Herbert Walker Bush was the 41st President of the United States . He was also Ronald Reagan's Vice President , a congressman, an ambassador, and Director of Central Intelligence....
, achieving a critical diplomatic victory for the Afghan resistance. Defeat of the Kabul government was their solution for peace. This confidence, sharpened by their distrust of the
United NationsThe United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and the achieving of world peace...
, virtually guaranteed their refusal to accept a political compromise.
Foreign involvement and aid to the mujahideen
The Afghans were supported by a number of other countries, with the US and Saudi Arabia offering the greatest financial support. However, the Afghans were also aided by others: the UK,
EgyptEgypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Western Asia...
,
ChinaChina is a cultural region, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
,
IranIran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran is a country in Western Asia. The name Iran has been in use natively since the Sassanid period and came into international use from 1935, before which the country was known internationally as Persia...
, and Pakistan. Ground support, for political reasons, was limited to regional countries.
The United States began training insurgents in, and directing propaganda broadcasts into Afghanistan from Pakistan in 1978. Then, in early 1979, U.S. foreign service officers began meeting insurgent leaders to determine their needs. According to the then US
National Security AdvisorA National Security Advisor serves as the chief advisor to a national government on matters of security. He or she is not usually a member of the Cabinet but is usually a member of various military or security councils....
Zbigniew BrzezinskiZbigniew Kazimierz Brzezinski is an American political scientist, geostrategist, and statesman who served as United States National Security Advisor to President Jimmy Carter from 1977 to 1981...
, CIA aid to the insurgents within Afghanistan was approved in July 1979, six months before the Soviet Invasion.
United States President
Jimmy CarterJames Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. served as the 39th President of the United States from 1977 to 1981 and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office...
insisted that what he termed "Soviet aggression" could not be viewed as an isolated event of limited geographical importance but had to be contested as a potential threat to US influence in the
Persian GulfThe Persian Gulf, in the Southwest Asian region, is an extension of the Indian Ocean located between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula. Historically and commonly known as the Persian Gulf, this body of water is sometimes controversially referred to as the Arabian Gulf by most Arab states or simply The...
region. The US was also worried about the USSR gaining access to the
Indian OceanThe Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's oceanic divisions, covering about 20% of the water on the Earth's surface. It is bounded on the north by South Asia ; on the west by Africa; on the east by Indochina, the Sunda Islands, and Australia; and on the south by the Southern Ocean...
by coming to an arrangement with Pakistan.
After the Soviet deployment, Pakistan's military ruler General
Muhammad Zia-ul-HaqGeneral Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq was the President and military ruler of Pakistan from July 1977 to his death in August 1988. Distinguished by his role in the Black September in Jordan military operation in 1970, he was appointed Chief of Army Staff in 1976...
started accepting
financial aidStudent financial aid refers to funding intended to help students pay educational expenses including tuition and fees, room and board, books and supplies, etc. for education at a college, university, or private school. General governmental funding for public education is not called financial aid,...
from the
WesternWestern may refer to:* Western , a category of fiction and visual art centered on the American Old West** Western fiction, the Western genre as featured in literatureIn geography:...
powers to aid the mujahideen. In 1981, following the election of US President
Ronald ReaganRonald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States and the 33rd Governor of California .Born in Tampico, Illinois, Reagan moved to Los Angeles, California in the 1930s...
, aid for the mujahideen through Zia's Pakistan significantly increased, mostly due to the efforts of
TexasTexas is the second-largest U.S. state in both area and population, and the largest state in the contiguous United States.The name had wide usage among native Americans, meaning "friends" or "allies"...
Congressman
Charlie WilsonCharles Nesbitt Wilson , is a former United States naval officer and former 12-term Democratic United States Representative from the 2nd congressional district in Texas....
and CIA officer
Gust AvrakotosGustav Lascaris "Gust" Avrakotos was an American case officer and division chief for the United States Central Intelligence Agency....
.
US "Paramilitary Officers" were instrumental in training, equipping and sometimes leading Mujihadeen forces against the
Red ArmyThe Red Army The Red Army The Red Army was the Soviet government’s revolutionary militia beginning in the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the USSR. Since 1946, after the Second World War, it was called the Soviet Army.The 'Red...
. Although the CIA in general and Charlie Wilson, a
TexasTexas is the second-largest U.S. state in both area and population, and the largest state in the contiguous United States.The name had wide usage among native Americans, meaning "friends" or "allies"...
CongressmanThe United States House of Representatives, commonly referred to as the "House," is the lower house of the bicameral United States Congress, the upper house being the United States Senate. The composition and powers of the House and the Senate are established in Article One of the Constitution...
, have received most of the attention, the key architect of this strategy was
Michael G. VickersMichael G. Vickers is the United States Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations and Low Intensity Conflict. He is a former Army Special Forces non-commissioned officer and officer, as well as a Central Intelligence Agency paramilitary operations officer from their elite Special...
, a young Paramilitary Officer from the CIA's infamous
Special Activities DivisionThe Special Activities Division is a division of the United States Central Intelligence Agency's National Clandestine Service , responsible for covert action and "special activities". These activities include covert political action and paramilitary operations...
.
Michael PillsburyMichael Pillsbury is a defense policy adviser, former government official and author of books and reports on China.-Biography:Born in California in 1945, Pillsbury was educated at Stanford University and Columbia University...
, a senior Pentagon official overcame bureaucratic resisistance in 1985-1986 and persuaded President Reagan to provide hundreds of Stinger missiles.
The United States, the United Kingdom, and Saudi Arabia became major financial contributors, the United States donating "$600 million in aid per year, with a matching amount coming from the Persian Gulf states." The People's Republic of China also sold
Type 59The Chinese Type 59 Main Battle Tank is a Chinese produced version of the ubiquitous Soviet T-54A tank. The first vehicles were produced in 1958 and it was accepted into service in 1959, with serial production beginning in 1963...
tanks, Type 68 assault rifles, Type 56 assault rifles,
Type 69 RPGThe Type 69 85mm rocket propelled grenade , made by Norinco, is a Chinese copy of the famous RPG-7 developed by the Soviet Union. First introduced in the early 1970s, the Type 69 RPG is a common individual anti-tank weapon in service with the PLA. New types of grenade rounds have been developed in...
s, and much more to mujahideen in co-operation with the CIA, as did Egypt with assault rifles. Of particular significance was the donation of US-made
FIM-92 StingerThe FIM-92 Stinger is a personal portable infrared homing surface-to-air missile developed in the United States and entered into service in 1981. Used by the militaries of the U.S...
anti-aircraft missile systems, which caused a small increase in aircraft losses of the
Soviet Air ForceThe Soviet Air Force, officially known in Russian as Военно-воздушные силы or Voenno-Vozdushnye Sily and often abbreviated VVS was the official designation of one of the air forces of the Soviet Union...
. The main impact that it made, however, was the change it led to in Soviet tactics – helicopters increasing stayed over friendly forces and limited daytime flights, jetcraft were forced to fly much higher, and other contingency measures were put in place.
In March 1985, the US government adopted National Security Decision Directive (NSDD) 166, which set a goal of military victory for the mujahideen. After 1985 the CIA and
Inter-Services IntelligenceThe Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence is the largest intelligence service in Pakistan...
(ISI) placed greater pressure on the mujahideen to attack government strongholds. Under direct instructions from Director of Central Intelligence William Casey, the CIA initiated programs for training Afghans in techniques such as
car bombA car bomb is an improvised explosive device placed in a car or other vehicle and then detonated. It is commonly used as a weapon of assassination, terrorism, or guerrilla warfare, to kill the occupants of the vehicle, people near the blast site, or to damage buildings or other property...
s and assassinations and in engaging in cross-border raids into the USSR.
Pakistan's ISI and
Special Service GroupSpecial Service Group is an independent commando division of the Pakistan Army. It is an elite special operations force similar to the United States Army Special Forces and the British Army's SAS...
(SSG) were actively involved in the conflict, and in cooperation with the CIA and the
United States Army Special ForcesThe United States Army Special Forces, also known as Green Berets, is a Special Operations Force of the United States Army tasked with five primary missions: unconventional warfare, foreign internal defense, special reconnaissance, direct action, and counter-terrorism. The first two emphasize...
, as well as the British
Special Air ServiceThe Special Air Service is a special forces regiment within the British Army which has served as a model for the special forces of other countries. The SAS forms a significant section of United Kingdom Special Forces alongside the Special Boat Service , Special Reconnaissance Regiment , and the...
, supported the mujahideen.
The theft of large sums of aid spurred Pakistan's economic growth, but along with the war in general had devastating side effects for that country. The siphoning off of aid weapons in the port city of
Karachiis the largest city, main seaport and the financial capital of Pakistan, and the capital of the province of Sindh. It is the 3rd largest city in the world by population and 20th largest city of the world, in terms of metropolitan population. It is Pakistan's premier centre of banking, industry, and...
contributed to disorder and violence there, while
heroinHeroin, or diacetylmorphine , also known as diamorphine , is a semi-synthetic opioid drug synthesized from morphine, a derivative of the opium poppy. It is the 3,6-diacetyl ester of morphine...
entering from Afghanistan to pay for arms contributed to addiction problems.
In retaliation for Pakistan's assistance to the insurgents, the
KHADKhadamat-e Etela'at-e Dawlati , almost always known by its acronym KHAD , is the main security agency and intelligence agency of Afghanistan, and also served as the secret police during the Soviet occupation...
Afghan security service, under leader
Mohammad NajibullahNajibullah , originally just Najib, was the fourth and last President of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan. He is also considered the second President of the Republic of Afghanistan.-Early years:...
, carried out (according to the
MitrokhinVasili Nikitich Mitrokhin was a Major and senior archivist for the Soviet Union's foreign intelligence service, the First Chief Directorate of the KGB, and co-author with Christopher Andrew of The Mitrokhin Archive: The KGB in Europe and the West, a massive account of Soviet intelligence...
archives and other sources) a large number of operations against Pakistan. In 1987, 127 incidents resulted in 234 deaths in Pakistan. In April 1988, an ammunition depot outside the Pakistani capital of
IslamabadIslām ābād is the capital of Pakistan, and is the tenth largest city in Pakistan with an estimated population of over 673,766 in 2009...
was blown up killing 100 and injuring more than 1000 people. The KHAD and
KGBThe KGB was the national security agency of the USSR. From 1954 until 1991, the Committee for State Security was the Communist state's premier secret police, internal security, and espionage organization, whose coat of arms—the Shield and the Sword—illustrate a national military hierarchy...
were suspected in the perpetration of these acts.
Pakistan took in millions of Afghan refugees (mostly Pashtun) fleeing the Soviet occupation. Although the
refugeeUnder the United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, a refugee is a person who owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted on account of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion, is outside the country of their nationality,...
s were controlled within Pakistan's largest
provinceA province is a territorial unit, almost always an administrative division, within a country or state.-Roman provinces:The word is attested in English since c.1330, deriving from Old French province , which comes from the Latin word provincia, which referred to the sphere of activity which a...
,
BalochistanBalochistan is the largest province of Pakistan by geographical area, constituting approximately 48% of the total area of Pakistan. At the 1998 census, Balochistan had a population of roughly 6.5 million. Its neighbouring regions are Iran to the west, Afghanistan and the North West Frontier...
under then-
martial lawMartial law is the system of rules that takes effect when the military takes control of the normal administration of justice.Martial law is sometimes imposed during wars or occupations in the absence of any other civil government. Examples of this form of military rule include Germany and Japan...
ruler General
Rahimuddin KhanGeneral Rahimuddin Khan was the Martial Law Administrator and longest-serving Governor of Balochistan, the largest province of Pakistan, from 1978 to when he resigned in 1984. He was made full General when appointed the fourth Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee in March 1984...
, the influx of so many refugees - believed to be the largest refugee population in the world — spread into several other regions.
All of this had a heavy impact on Pakistan and its effects continue to this day. Pakistan, through its support for the mujahideen, played a significant role in the eventual withdrawal of Soviet military personnel from Afghanistan.
Pakistan went to the point of maintaining a limited air war against Afghan/Soviet forces.
April 1985-January 1987: Exit strategy
The first step of the exit strategy was to transfer the burden of fighting the mujahideen to the Afghan armed forces, with the aim of preparing them to operate without Soviet help. During this phase, the Soviet contingent was restricted to supporting the DRA forces by providing
artilleryArtillery is a military combat Arm that employs weapons capable of discharging large projectiles in combat. They are generally capable of adding considerable fire power to the military capability of an armed force...
, air support and technical assistance, though some large-scale operations were still carried out by Soviet troops.
Under Soviet guidance, the DRA armed forces were built up to an official strength of 302,000 in 1986. To minimize the risk of a
coup d'étatA coup d'état , or coup for short, is the sudden unconstitutional deposition of a legitimate government, usually by a small group of the existing state establishment—typically the military—to replace the deposed government with another, either civil or military...
, they were divided into different branches, each modeled on its Soviet counterpart. The ministry of defense forces numbered 132,000, the ministry of interior 70,000 and the ministry of state security (
KHADKhadamat-e Etela'at-e Dawlati , almost always known by its acronym KHAD , is the main security agency and intelligence agency of Afghanistan, and also served as the secret police during the Soviet occupation...
) 80,000. However, these were theoretical figures: in reality each service was plagued with
desertionIn military terminology, desertion is the abandonment of a "duty" or post without permission from one's Government or superior. The term AWOL is an acronym for "Absent Without Leave." Ultimate "duty" or "responsibility," however, under International Law, is not necessarily always to a "Government"...
s, the army alone suffering 32,000 per year.
The decision to engage primarily Afghan forces was taken by the Soviets, but was resented by the PDPA, who viewed the departure of their protectors without enthusiasm. In May 1987 a DRA force attacked well-entrenched mujahideen positions in the
Arghandab DistrictArghandab is a district in the central part of Kandahar Province, Afghanistan. It borders Panjwai and Khakrez districts to the west, Shah Wali Kot District to the north and east and Kandahar District to the east and south. The population, as of 2006, was 54,900. The district center is Arghandab,...
, but the mujahideen held their ground, and the attackers suffered heavy casualties. In the spring of 1986, an offensive into
Paktia ProvincePaktia is one of the thirty-four provinces of Afghanistan, in the east of the country. Its capital is Gardez. The population is predominantly Pashtun.- History:...
briefly occupied the mujahideen base at
ZhawarThe battles of Zhawar were fought during the Soviet war in Afghanistan between Soviet Army units, and their allies of the Republic of Afghanistan against Afghan mujahideen groups...
only at the cost of heavy losses. Meanwhile, the mujahideen benefited from expanded foreign military support from the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
,
Saudi ArabiaSaudi Arabia , is an Arab country and the largest country of the Arabian Peninsula. It is bordered by Jordan on the northwest, Iraq on the north and northeast, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates on the east, Oman on the southeast, and Yemen on the south...
,
PakistanPakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country located at the crossroads of South Asia, the Middle East, and Central Asia...
and other
Muslim:A Muslim , , is an adherent of the religion of Islam. The feminine form is Muslimah . Literally, the word means "one who submits ". Muslim is the participle of the same verb of which Islam is the infinitive. Muslims believe that there is only one God, translated in Arabic as Allah...
nations. The US tended to favor the Afghan resistance forces led by
Ahmed Shah MassoudAhmad Shah Massoud was a Kabul University engineering student turned military leader who played a leading role in driving the Soviet army out of Afghanistan, earning him the nickname Lion of Panjshir. His followers call him Āmir Sāhib-e Shahīd...
, and US support for Massoud's forces increased considerably during the
Reagan administrationThe United States Presidency of Ronald Reagan, also known as the Reagan Administration, was a Republican administration headed by Ronald Reagan from January 20, 1981 to January 20, 1989. Reagan was the first U.S. president since Dwight D...
in what US military and intelligence forces called "
Operation CycloneOperation Cyclone was the code name for the United States Central Intelligence Agency program to arm the Afghan mujahideen during the Soviet war in Afghanistan, 1979 to 1989...
." Primary advocates for supporting Massoud included two
Heritage FoundationThe Heritage Foundation is an American think tank based in Washington, D.C.The foundation took a leading role in the conservative movement during the presidency of Ronald Reagan, whose policies drew significantly from Heritage's policy study Mandate for Leadership. Heritage has since continued to...
foreign policy analysts,
Michael JohnsMichael Johns is an American health care executive, former federal government of the United States official and conservative policy analyst and writer.-Biography:...
and James A. Phillips, both of whom championed Massoud as the Afghan resistance leader most worthy of US support under the
Reagan DoctrineThe Reagan Doctrine was a strategy orchestrated and implemented by the United States under the Reagan Administration to oppose the global influence of the Soviet Union during the final years of the Cold War...
.
January 1987-February 1989: Withdrawal
In the last phase, Soviet troops prepared and executed their withdrawal from Afghanistan. They hardly engaged in offensive operations at all, and were content to defend against mujahideen raids.
The one exception was
Operation MagistralOperation Magistral was a Soviet Army military operation during the Soviet war in Afghanistan that began in late November 1987 and ended in early January 1988.-The early operation:...
, a successful sweep that cleared the road between Gardez and
KhostKhost or Khowst is a city in eastern Afghanistan. It is the capital of Khost province, which is a mountainous region near Afghanistan's border with Pakistan. The population of Khost province is over one million people....
. This operation did not have any lasting effect, but it allowed the Soviets to symbolically end their presence with a victory.
The first half of the Soviet contingent was withdrawn from May 15 to August 16, 1988 and the second from November 15 to February 15, 1989. The withdrawal was generally executed peacefully, as the Soviets had negotiated ceasefires with local mujahideen commanders, in order to ensure a safe passage. Now fighting alone, the DRA forces were obliged to abandon some provincial capitals, and it was widely believed that they would not be able to resist the mujahideen for long. However, in the spring of 1989 DRA forces inflicted a sharp defeat on the mujahideen at
JalalabadJalalabad is a city in eastern Afghanistan. Located at the junction of the Kabul and Kunar rivers near the Laghman valley, Jalalabad is the capital of Nangarhar province...
, and as a result, the war remained stalemated.
The government of President Karmal, a puppet regime, was largely ineffective. It was weakened by divisions within the PDPA and the Parcham faction, and the regime's efforts to expand its base of support proved futile. Moscow came to regard Karmal as a failure and blamed him for the problems. Years later, when Karmal’s inability to consolidate his government had become obvious, Mikhail Gorbachev, then General Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party, said:
- The main reason that there has been no national consolidation so far is that Comrade Karmal is hoping to continue sitting in Kabul with our help.
In November 1986,
Mohammad NajibullahNajibullah , originally just Najib, was the fourth and last President of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan. He is also considered the second President of the Republic of Afghanistan.-Early years:...
, former chief of the Afghan
secret policeSecret police are a police agency which operates in secrecy to maintain national security against internal threats to the state....
(
KHADKhadamat-e Etela'at-e Dawlati , almost always known by its acronym KHAD , is the main security agency and intelligence agency of Afghanistan, and also served as the secret police during the Soviet occupation...
), was elected president and a new
constitutionA constitution is a set of rules for government—often codified as a written document—that establishes principles of an autonomous political entity. In the case of countries, this term refers specifically to a national constitution defining the fundamental political principles, and establishing the...
was adopted. He also introduced in 1987 a policy of "national reconciliation," devised by experts of the
Communist Party of the Soviet UnionThe Communist Party of the Soviet Union was the ruling and only legal political party in the Soviet Union and one of the largest communist organizations in the...
, and later used in other regions of the world. Despite high expectations, the new policy neither made the Moscow-backed Kabul regime more popular, nor did it convince the insurgents to negotiate with the ruling government.
Informal negotiations for a Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan had been underway since 1982. In 1988, the governments of Pakistan and Afghanistan, with the United States and Soviet Union serving as guarantors, signed an agreement settling the major differences between them known as the Geneva Accords. The
United NationsThe United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and the achieving of world peace...
set up a special
MissionUnited Nations Good Offices Mission in Afghanistan and Pakistan was established in May 1988, during the Soviet war in Afghanistan, to assist in ensuring the implementation of the agreements on the settlement of the situation relating to Afghanistan and investigate and report possible violations of...
to oversee the process. In this way, Najibullah had stabilized his political position enough to begin matching Moscow's moves toward withdrawal. On July 20, 1987, the withdrawal of Soviet troops from the country was announced. The withdrawal of Soviet forces was planned out by Lt. Gen.
Boris GromovBoris Vsevolodovich Gromov , is a prominent Russian military and political figure....
, who, at the time, was the commander of the 40th Army.
Among other things the
GenevaGeneva, is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie...
accords identified the US and Soviet non-intervention in the internal affairs of Pakistan and Afghanistan and a timetable for full Soviet withdrawal. The agreement on withdrawal held, and on February 15, 1989, the last Soviet troops departed on schedule from Afghanistan.
International reaction
US President
Jimmy CarterJames Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. served as the 39th President of the United States from 1977 to 1981 and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office...
claimed that the Soviet incursion was "the most serious threat to peace since the Second World War." Carter later placed a trade
embargoAn embargo is the prohibition of commerce and trade with a certain country, in order to isolate it and to put its government into a difficult internal situation, given that the effects of the embargo are often able to make its economy suffer from the initiative. It is similar to a blockade, as in...
against the Soviet Union on shipments of commodities such as grain and weapons. The increased tensions, as well as the anxiety in the West about tens of thousands of Soviet troops being in such proximity to oil-rich regions in the
Persian GulfThe Persian Gulf, in the Southwest Asian region, is an extension of the Indian Ocean located between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula. Historically and commonly known as the Persian Gulf, this body of water is sometimes controversially referred to as the Arabian Gulf by most Arab states or simply The...
, effectively brought about the end of
détenteDétente is a French term, meaning a relaxing or easing; the term has been used in international politics since the early 1970s. Generally, it may be applied to any international situation where previously hostile nations not involved in an open war de-escalate tensions through diplomacy and...
.
The international diplomatic response was severe, ranging from stern warnings to a US-led boycott of the
1980 Summer OlympicsThe 1980 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXII Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event held in Moscow in the Soviet Union. In addition, the yachting events were held in Tallinn, and some of the preliminary matches and the quarter-finals of the football tournament...
in Moscow (in which Afghanistan competed). The invasion, along with other events, such as the
Iranian revolutionThe Iranian Revolution of 1979 or 1979 Islamic Revolution refers to events involving the overthrow of Iran's monarchy under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and its replacement with an Islamic republic under Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of the revolution...
and the US hostage stand-off that accompanied it, the Iran–Iraq War, the 1982
Israeli invasion of LebanonThe 1982 Lebanon War , , called Operation Peace for Galilee by Israel, and later also known colloquially in Israel as the First Lebanon War, began on 6 June 1982, when the Israel Defense Forces invaded southern Lebanon...
, the escalating tensions between Pakistan and
IndiaIndia, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the west, and the Bay of Bengal...
, contributed to making the Middle East an extremely violent and turbulent region during the 1980s.
The
Non-Aligned MovementThe Non-Aligned Movement is an international organisation of states considering themselves not formally aligned with or against any major power bloc. The movement is largely the brainchild of India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, former president of Egypt Gamal Abdul Nasser and Yugoslav...
was sharply divided between those that believed the Soviet deployment to be legal and others who considered the deployment an illegal invasion. Among the
Warsaw PactThe Warsaw Pact is the informal name for the mutual defense Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance subscribed by eight Communist states in Eastern Europe, that was established at the USSR’s initiative and realised on 14 May 1955, in Warsaw, Poland...
countries, the intervention was condemned only by
RomaniaCommunist Romania was the period in Romanian history when that country was a Soviet-aligned communist state in the Eastern Bloc, with the leading role of Romanian Communist Party enshrined in its successive constitutions...
.
Soviet personnel strengths and casualties
Between December 25, 1979 and February 15, 1989, a total of 620,000 soldiers served with the forces in Afghanistan (though there were only 80,000-104,000 serving at one time): 525,000 in the Army, 90,000 with border troops and other
KGBThe KGB was the national security agency of the USSR. From 1954 until 1991, the Committee for State Security was the Communist state's premier secret police, internal security, and espionage organization, whose coat of arms—the Shield and the Sword—illustrate a national military hierarchy...
sub-units, 5,000 in independent formations of MVD
Internal TroopsInternal Troops, full name Internal Troops of the Ministry for Internal Affairs is a paramilitary national guard-like force in the now-defunct Soviet Union and its successor countries, particularly, in Russia and Ukraine...
, and police forces. A further 21,000 personnel were with the Soviet troop contingent over the same period doing various white collar and blue collar jobs.
The total irrecoverable personnel losses of the Soviet Armed Forces, frontier, and internal security troops came to 14,453. Soviet Army formations, units, and HQ elements lost 13,833, KGB sub-units lost 572, MVD formations lost 28, and other ministries and departments lost 20 men. During this period 417 servicemen were missing in action or taken prisoner; 119 of these were later freed, of whom 97 returned to the USSR and 22 went to other countries.
There were 469,685 sick and wounded, of whom 53,753 or 11.44 percent, were wounded, injured, or sustained concussion and 415,932 (88.56 percent) fell sick. A high proportion of casualties were those who fell ill. This was because of local climatic and sanitary conditions, which were such that acute infections spread rapidly among the troops. There were 115,308 cases of infectious
hepatitisHepatitis implies injury to the liver characterized by the presence of inflammatory cells in the tissue of the organ. The name is from ancient Greek hepar , the root being hepat- , meaning liver, and suffix -itis, meaning "inflammation"...
, 31,080 of typhoid fever, and 140,665 of other diseases. Of the 11,654 who were discharged from the army after being wounded, maimed, or contracting serious diseases, 92 percent, or 10,751 men, were left disabled.
After the war ended, the Soviet Union published figures of dead Soviet soldiers:
the total was 13,836 men, an average of 1,512 men a year. According to updated figures, the Soviet army lost 14,427, the KGB lost 576, with 28 people dead and missing.
Material losses were as follows:
- 451 aircraft (includes 333 helicopters)
- 147 tanks
- 1,314 IFV/APCs
An armoured personnel carrier is an armoured fighting vehicle designed to transport infantry to the battlefield.APCs are usually armed with only a machine gun although variants carry recoilless rifles, anti-tank guided missiles , or mortars...
- 433 artillery guns
Artillery is a military combat Arm that employs weapons capable of discharging large projectiles in combat. They are generally capable of adding considerable fire power to the military capability of an armed force...
and mortarsA mortar is a muzzle-loading indirect fire weapon that fires shells at low velocities, short ranges, and high-arcing ballistic trajectories. It typically has a barrel length less than 15 times its caliber.- Function :...
- 1,138 radio sets and command vehicles
- 510 engineering vehicles
- 11,369 trucks and petrol tankers
Damage to Afghanistan
Over 1 million Afghans were killed. 5 million Afghans fled to Pakistan and Iran, 1/3 of the prewar population of the country. Another 2 million Afghans were displaced within the country. In the 1980s, one out of two refugees in the world was an Afghan.
Along with fatalities were 1.2 million Afghans disabled (mujahideen, government soldiers and noncombatants) and 3 million maimed or wounded (primarily noncombatants).
IrrigationIrrigation is an artificial application of water to the soil. It is usually used to assist in growing crops in dry areas and during periods of inadequate rainfall...
systems, crucial to agriculture in Afghanistan's arid climate, were destroyed by
aerial bombingAerial bombing may refer to:*Short-term air-to-ground attacks known as Airstrikes*Longer-term Strategic bombing campaigns-See also:*Aerial bombing of cities*Aerial bomb, the device used in Aerial bombing...
and
strafingStrafing is the practice of attacking ground targets from low-flying aircraft. The term is usually applied to attacks with aircraft-mounted automatic weapons, but may be applied to attacks with bombs, though not high-level bomb delivery...
by Soviet or government forces. In the worst year of the war, 1985, well over half of all the farmers who remained in Afghanistan had their fields bombed, and over one quarter had their irrigation systems destroyed and their
livestockLivestock are one or more domesticated animals raised in an agricultural setting to produce commodities such as food or fiber, or labor...
shot by Soviet or government troops, according to a survey conducted by
SwedishSweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe...
relief experts
The population of Afghanistan's second largest city, Kandahar, was reduced from 200,000 before the war to no more than 25,000 inhabitants, following a months-long campaign of
carpet bombingCarpet bombing is the large scale bombing of large targets, usually by dropping many unguided gravity bombs. The tactic aims for complete destruction of a target region, either to destroy personnel and materiel, or as a means of demoralizing the enemy...
and bulldozing by the Soviets and Afghan communist soldiers in 1987.
Land mineA land mine is a target triggered explosive weapon. Their non-explosive predecessors have been used on the battlefield since ancient times. Landmines were designed to be used to deter, channel, delay and kill an enemy. They have been used in various formats, for centuries and have featured in all...
s had killed 25,000 Afghans during the war and another 10-15 million land mines, most planted by Soviet and government forces, were left scattered throughout the countryside to kill and maim.
A great deal of damage was done to the civilian children population by land mines. A 2005 report estimated 3-4% of the Afghan population were disabled due to Soviet and government land mines. In the city of
Quetta) is the largest city and the provincial capital of the Balochistan Province of Pakistan. It is known as the "Fruit Garden of Pakistan", due to its diversity in plant and animals wildlife. The city has been a major stronghold along the western frontier of the country. It is situated at an average...
, a survey of refugee women and children taken shortly after the Soviet withdrawal found over 80% of the children refugees unregistered and child mortality at 31%. Of children who survived, 67% were severely malnourished, with
malnutritionMalnutrition is the insufficient, excessive or imbalanced consumption of nutrients.A number of different nutrition disorders may arise, depending on which nutrients are under or overabundant in the diet....
increasing with age.
Critics of Soviet and Afghan government forces describe their effect on Afghan culture as working in three stages: first, the center of customary Afghan culture, Islam, was pushed aside; second, Soviet patterns of life, especially amongst the young, were imported; third, shared Afghan cultural characteristics were destroyed by the emphasis on so-called nationalities, with the outcome that the country was split into different ethnic groups, with no language, religion, or culture in common.
The Geneva Accords of 1988, which ultimately led to the withdrawal of the Soviet forces in early 1989, left the Afghan government in ruins. The accords had failed to address adequately the issue of the post-occupation period and the future governance of Afghanistan. The assumption among most Western diplomats was that the Soviet-backed government in Kabul would soon collapse; however, this was not to happen for another three years. During this time the Interim Islamic Government of Afghanistan (IIGA) was established in exile. The exclusion of key groups such as refugees and Shias, combined with major disagreements between the different mujaheddin factions, meant that the IIGA never succeeded in acting as a functional government.
Before the war, Afghanistan was already one of the world's poorest nations. The prolonged conflict left Afghanistan ranked 170 out of 174 in the UNDP's
Human Development Index, making Afghanistan one of the least developed countries in the world.
Once the Soviets withdrew, US interest in Afghanistan ceased. The US decided not to help with reconstruction of the country and instead they handed over the interests of the country to US allies, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. Pakistan quickly took advantage of this opportunity and forged relations with
warlordA warlord is a person with power who has both military and civil control over a subnational area due to armed forces loyal to the warlord and not to a central authority. The term can also mean one who espouses the ideal that war is necessary, and has the means and authority to engage in war...
s and later the Taliban, to secure trade interests and routes. From wiping out the country's trees through
loggingLogging is the process in which certain trees are cut down for forest management and timber.In forestry the term logging is sometimes used in a narrow sense concerning the logistics of moving wood from the stump to somewhere outside the forest, usually a sawmill or a lumber yard. In common usage...
practices, which has destroyed all but 2% of forest cover country-wide, to substantial uprooting of wild
pistachioThe pistachio is a small tree native to mountainous regions of Greece, Syria, Iran, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Turkey and western Afghanistan, that produces an important culinary nut. Pistacia vera often is confused with other species in the genus Pistacia that are also known as pistachio...
trees for the exportation of their roots for therapeutic uses, to
opiumOpium is a narcotic formed from the latex released by lacerating the immature seed pods of opium poppies . It contains up to 12% morphine, an opiate alkaloid, which is most frequently processed chemically to produce heroin for the illegal drug trade...
agricultureAgriculture is the production of food and goods through farming and forestry. Agriculture was the key development that led to the rise of human civilization, with the husbandry of domesticated animals and plants creating food surpluses that enabled the development of more densely populated and...
, the past ten years have caused much ecological and agrarian destruction.
Captain Tarlan Eyvazov, a soldier in the Soviet forces during the war, stated that the Afghan children's future is destined for war. Eyvazov said, "Children born in Afghanistan at the start of the war... have been brought up in war conditions, this is their way of life." Eyvazov's theory was later strengthened when the Taliban movement developed and formed from orphans or refugee children who were forced by the Soviets to flee their homes and relocate their lives in Pakistan. The swift rise to power, from the young Taliban in 1994, was the result of the disorder and civil war that had warlords running wild because of the complete breakdown of law and order in Afghanistan after the departure of the Soviets.
The
CIA World Fact Book reported that as of 2004, Afghanistan still owed $8 billion in bilateral debt, mostly to Russia, however, in 2007 Russia agreed to cancel most of the debt.
Civil war
The
civil warA civil war is a war between organized groups within a single nation state, or, less commonly, between two nations created from a formerly-united nation state. The aim of one side may be to take control of the nation or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies...
continued in Afghanistan after the Soviet withdrawal. The Soviet Union left Afghanistan deep in winter with intimations of panic among Kabul officials. The Afghan mujahideen were poised to attack provincial towns and cities and eventually Kabul, if necessary.
Najibullah's regime, though failing to win popular support, territory, or international recognition, was however able to remain in power until 1992. Ironically, until demoralized by the
defectionIn politics, a defector is a person who gives up allegiance to one state or political entity in exchange for allegiance to another. More broadly, it involves abandoning a person, cause or doctrine to whom or to which one is bound by some tie, as of allegiance or duty.This term is also applied,...
s of its senior officers, the Afghan Army had achieved a level of performance it had never reached under direct Soviet tutelage. Kabul had achieved a stalemate that exposed the mujahideen's weaknesses, political and military. For nearly three years, Najibullah's government successfully defended itself against mujahideen attacks, factions within the government had also developed connections with its opponents.
According to
RussiaRussia , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia . It is a semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n publicist Andrey Karaulov, the main reason why Najibullah lost power was the fact that Russia refused to sell oil products to Afghanistan in 1992 for political reasons (the new Yeltsin government did not want to support the former communists) and effectively triggered an embargo. The
defectionIn politics, a defector is a person who gives up allegiance to one state or political entity in exchange for allegiance to another. More broadly, it involves abandoning a person, cause or doctrine to whom or to which one is bound by some tie, as of allegiance or duty.This term is also applied,...
of General Abdul Rashid Dostam and his Uzbek
militiaThe term militia is commonly used today to refer to a military force composed of ordinary citizens to provide defense, emergency law enforcement, or paramilitary service, in times of emergency without being paid a regular salary or committed to a fixed term of service. It is a polyseme with...
, in March 1992, ultimately undermined Najibullah's control of the state. In April, Najibullah and his communist government fell to the mujahideen, who replaced Najibullah with a new governing council for the country.
Grain production declined an average of 3.5% per year between 1978 and 1990 due to sustained fighting, instability in rural areas, prolonged drought, and deteriorated infrastructure. Soviet efforts to disrupt production in rebel-dominated areas also contributed to this decline. During the withdrawal of Soviet troops, Afghanistan's
natural gasNatural gas is a gas consisting primarily of methane. It is found associated with fossil fuels, in coal beds, as methane clathrates, and is created by methanogenic organisms in marshes, bogs, and landfills...
fields were capped to prevent sabotage. Restoration of gas production has been hampered by internal strife and the disruption of traditional trading relationships following the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
Ideological impact
The Islamists who fought also believed that they were responsible for the fall of the Soviet Union.
Osama bin LadenOsama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden is a member of the prominent Saudi bin Laden family and one of the founders of the terrorist organization al-Qaeda, best known for the September 11 attacks on the United States and its associations with numerous other mass-casualty attacks against...
, for example, was asserting the credit for "the collapse of the Soviet Union ... goes to God and the mujahideen in Afghanistan ... the US had no mentionable role," but "collapse made the US more haughty and arrogant." As discussed in 'The power of Nightmares' many neoconservatives in the US also believed that through the US aid to the mujahideen the US had caused the collapse of the USSR.
See also
- Mujahideen Victory Day
Mujahideen Victory Day is a political holiday observed in Afghanistan, falling on the 28th April each year. It commemorates the day when the Afghan mujahideen overthrew the socialist government in Afghanistan in 1992.-Current festivities:...
- Collapse of the Soviet Union
- Democratic Republic of Afghanistan
The Democratic Republic of Afghanistan was a communist state established by the Afghan communist party, People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan by then leader Nur Muhammad Taraki in 1978 in the Saur Revolution. From the start the republic ran into conflict with the local mujahideens which...
- People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan
The People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan was a communist party established on the 1 January, 1965. While a minority, the party helped former president of Afghanistan, Mohammed Daoud Khan, to overthrow his cousin, Mohammed Zahir Shah, and established Daoud's Republic of Afghanistan...
- Military of Afghanistan
The Military of Afghanistan is composed of the Afghan National Army, the Afghan National Army Air Corps , and scattered small-sized authorized militia forces. Being a landlocked country, Afghanistan has no navy...
- CIA's Special Activities Division
- (Russian Special Purpose Regiments) or Spetsnaz
Russian special purpose regiments or Spetsnaz, Specnaz is a general term for "special forces" in Russian, literally "special purpose"...
Further reading
- Muhammad Ayub,An Army It's Role and Rule (A History of the Pakistan Army from Independence to Kargil 1947-1999), ISBN 0-8059-9594-3
- The Sword and the Shield: The Mitrokhin Archive and the Secret History of the KGB, Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin, Basic Books, 1999, ISBN 0-465-00310-9
- Kurt Lohbeck, Holy War, Unholy Victory: Eyewitness to the CIA's Secret War in Afghanistan, Regnery Publishing (1993), ISBN 0-89526-499-4
- George Crile, Charlie Wilson's War: the extraordinary story of the largest covert operation in history, Atlantic Monthly Press 2003, ISBN 0-87113-851-4
- Robert D. Kaplan
Robert David Kaplan is an American journalist, currently a National Correspondent for the Atlantic Monthly...
, Soldiers of God: With Islamic Warriors in Afghanistan and Pakistan, ISBN 1-4000-3025-0
- Mark Galeotti, Afghanistan: the Soviet Union's last war, ISBN 0-71468-242-X
- John Prados, Presidents' Secret Wars, ISBN 1-56663-108-4
- Kakar, M. Hassan, Afghanistan: The Soviet Invasion and the Afghan Response, 1979-1982, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995. (free online access courtesy of UCP)
- Borovik, Artyom
Artyom Genrikhovich Borovik was a prominent Russian journalist and media magnate. He was the son of a Soviet-era journalist, Genrikh Borovik, who worked for many years as a foreign correspondent in the U.S.-Journalism:...
, The Hidden War: A Russian Journalist's Account of the Soviet War in Afghanistan, ISBN 0-8021-3775-X
External links
*
ar:غزو سوفييتي لأفغانستان
an:Embasión sobietica d'Afganistán
bg:Война в Афганистан (1979-1989)
ca:Guerra afgano-soviètica
cs:Sovětská válka v Afghánistánu
da:Den afghansk-sovjetiske krig
de:Sowjetisch-afghanischer Krieg
et:Nõukogude-Afganistani sõda
el:Σοβιετικός πόλεμος στο Αφγανιστάν
es:Invasión soviética de Afganistán
fa:جنگ شوروی در افغانستان
fr:Guerre d'Afghanistan (1979-1989)
ko:소비에트 연방의 아프가니스탄 침공
hi:अफ़ग़ानिस्तान में सोवियत युद्ध
hr:Sovjetsko-afganistanski rat
id:Perang Soviet-Afganistan
is:Stríð Sovétmanna í Afganistan
it:Invasione sovietica dell'Afghanistan
he:מלחמת אפגניסטן (ברית המועצות)
jv:Perang Sovyet-Afganistan
ka:საბჭოთა კავშირის ომი ავღანეთში
lv:Afganistānas karš (1979—1989)
lt:Tarybinės armijos intervencija į Afganistaną
hu:A Szovjetunió afganisztáni háborúja
mwl:Guerra de l Afeganistan
nl:Afghaanse Oorlog (1979-1989)
ja:アフガニスタン紛争 (1978年-1989年)
no:Den afghansk-sovjetiske krig
nn:Den afghansk-sovjetiske krigen
nds:Sowjetische Besetzung Afghanistans
pl:Radziecka interwencja w Afganistanie
pt:Invasão soviética do Afeganistão
ro:Războiul Afgano-Sovietic
ru:Афганская война (1979—1989)
simple:Soviet war in Afghanistan
sk:Sovietska intervencia v Afganistane
sr:Совјетско-авганистански рат
sh:Afgansko-sovjetski rat
fi:Afganistanin sota
sv:Afghansk-sovjetiska kriget
tr:Sovyet-Afgan Savaşı
uk:Інтервенція Радянського Союзу в Афганістан
vi:Chiến tranh Xô viết tại Afghanistan
zh:阿富汗战争 (1979年)