Afghan conflict 1979 1989 briefly interesting facts. The USSR's war in Afghanistan: the main thing

What is the history of the Afghan war of 1979-1989?

Afghan War 1979–1989

An armed conflict between the Afghan government and allied Soviet troops, who sought to maintain the pro-communist regime in Afghanistan, on the one hand, and the Muslim Afghan resistance, on the other.

The main cause of the war was foreign interference in the Afghan internal political crisis, which was a consequence of the struggle for power.

The struggle was for complete political control over the territory of Afghanistan. The “limited contingent” of Soviet troops in Afghanistan amounted to 100 thousand military personnel. In total, 546,255 Soviet soldiers and officers took part in the hostilities. 71 soldiers became Hero of the Soviet Union. The armed forces of the government of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan (DRA) on the one hand and the armed opposition (Mujahideen, or dushmans) on the other also took part in the conflict. The Mujahideen were supported by military specialists from the United States, a number of European NATO member countries, as well as Pakistani intelligence services. During 1980–1988 Western aid to the mujahideen amounted to $8.5 billion, half of which was provided by the United States. The war continued from December 25, 1979 to February 15, 1989 (3338 days).

On December 25, 1979, the entry of Soviet troops into Afghanistan began in three directions: Troops landed at the airfields of Kabul, Bagram, and Kandahar. The entry of troops was relatively easy; During the capture of the presidential palace in Kabul, the President of Afghanistan was killed. The Muslim population did not accept the Soviet presence, and an uprising broke out in the northeastern provinces, spreading throughout the country.

The Soviet contingent included: the command of the 40th Army with support and service units, 4 divisions, 5 separate brigades, 4 separate regiments, 4 combat aviation regiments, 3 helicopter regiments, 1 pipeline brigade, 1 logistics brigade and some other units and institutions.

For a number of years, a “limited contingent” controlled the situation in the main cities, while the rebels felt relatively free in the countryside. Changing tactics, Soviet troops tried to deal with the rebels using tanks, helicopters and airplanes, but highly mobile groups of Mujahideen easily avoided attacks.

In accordance with the agreements, the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan began on May 15, 1988. On February 15, 1989, Soviet troops completely withdrew from Afghanistan. The withdrawal of the troops of the 40th Army was led by the last commander of the limited contingent, Lieutenant General Boris Gromov. This event did not bring peace, as various mujahideen factions continued to fight for power among themselves.

According to updated official data, the irretrievable losses of Soviet army personnel in the Afghan War amounted to 14,427 people, the KGB - 576 people, the Ministry of Internal Affairs - 28 people dead and missing. During the war, there were 49,984 wounded, 312 prisoners, and 18 internees. St. received wounds and concussions. 53 thousand people. A significant number of people who were admitted to hospitals on the territory of the USSR died from the consequences of severe wounds and injuries. These people who died in hospitals were not included in the number of officially announced losses. The exact number of Afghans killed in the war is unknown. Available estimates range from 1 to 2 million people.

| USSR participation in Cold War conflicts. War in Afghanistan (1979-1989)

Brief results of the war in Afghanistan
(1979-1989)

Colonel General B.V. Gromov, the last commander of the 40th Army, in his book “Limited Contingent” expressed the following opinion about the results of the actions of the Soviet Army in Afghanistan:

“I am deeply convinced: there is no basis for the assertion that the 40th Army was defeated, nor that we won a military victory in Afghanistan. Soviet troops entered the country unhindered at the end of 1979, fulfilled - in contrast from the Americans in Vietnam - their tasks and returned to their homeland in an organized manner. If we consider the armed opposition units as the main opponent of the Limited Contingent, then the difference between us is that the 40th Army did what it considered necessary, and the dushmans did only that what they could."

Before the withdrawal of Soviet troops began in May 1988, the Mujahideen had never managed to carry out a single major operation and had not managed to occupy a single major city. At the same time, Gromov’s opinion that the 40th Army was not tasked with military victory does not agree with the assessments of some other authors. In particular, Major General Yevgeny Nikitenko, who was deputy chief of the operations department of the 40th Army headquarters in 1985-1987, believes that throughout the war the USSR pursued constant goals - suppressing the resistance of the armed opposition and strengthening the power of the Afghan government. Despite all efforts, the number of opposition forces only grew from year to year, and in 1986 (at the peak of the Soviet military presence) the Mujahideen controlled more than 70% of the territory of Afghanistan. According to Colonel General Viktor Merimsky, former deputy. head of the Operational Group of the USSR Ministry of Defense in the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan, the Afghan leadership actually lost the fight against the rebels for its people, could not stabilize the situation in the country, although it had 300,000-strong military formations (army, police, state security).

After the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan, the situation on the Soviet-Afghan border became significantly more complicated: there were shelling of the territory of the USSR, attempts to penetrate into the territory of the USSR (in 1989 alone there were about 250 attempts to penetrate into the territory of the USSR), armed attacks on Soviet border guards, mining of Soviet territory (before May 9, 1990, border guards removed 17 mines: British Mk.3, American M-19, Italian TS-2.5 and TS-6.0).

Losses of the parties

Afghan casualties

On June 7, 1988, in his speech at a meeting of the UN General Assembly, the President of Afghanistan M. Najibullah said that “from the beginning of hostilities in 1978 to the present” (that is, until June 7, 1988), 243.9 thousand people have died in the country. military personnel of government forces, security agencies, government officials and civilians, including 208.2 thousand men, 35.7 thousand women and 20.7 thousand children under 10 years of age; Another 77 thousand people were injured, including 17.1 thousand women and 900 children under the age of 10 years. According to other sources, 18 thousand military personnel were killed.

The exact number of Afghans killed in the war is unknown. The most common figure is 1 million dead; Available estimates range from 670 thousand civilians to 2 million in total. According to a researcher of the Afghan war from the United States, Professor M. Kramer: “During nine years of war, more than 2.7 million Afghans (mostly civilians) were killed or maimed, several million more became refugees, many of whom fled the country.” . There appears to be no precise division of victims into government soldiers, mujahideen and civilians.

Ahmad Shah Massoud, in his letter to the Soviet Ambassador to Afghanistan Yu. Vorontsov dated September 2, 1989, wrote that the Soviet Union’s support for the PDPA led to the death of more than 1.5 million Afghans, and 5 million people became refugees.

According to UN statistics on the demographic situation in Afghanistan, between 1980 and 1990, the total mortality rate of the population of Afghanistan was 614,000 people. At the same time, during this period there was a decrease in the mortality rate of the population of Afghanistan compared to previous and subsequent periods.

The result of hostilities from 1978 to 1992 was the flow of Afghan refugees to Iran and Pakistan. Sharbat Gula's photograph, featured on the cover of National Geographic magazine in 1985 under the title "Afghan Girl", has become a symbol of the Afghan conflict and the refugee problem around the world.

The Army of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan in 1979-1989 suffered losses in military equipment, in particular, 362 tanks, 804 armored personnel carriers and infantry fighting vehicles, 120 aircraft, 169 helicopters were lost.

USSR losses

1979 86 people 1980 1484 people 1981 1298 people 1982 1948 people 1983 1448 people 1984 2343 people 1985 1868 people 1986 1333 people 1987 1215 people 1988 759 people 1989 year 53 people

Total - 13,835 people. These data first appeared in the Pravda newspaper on August 17, 1989. Subsequently, the total figure increased slightly. As of January 1, 1999, irretrievable losses in the Afghan war (killed, died from wounds, diseases and accidents, missing) were estimated as follows:

Soviet Army - 14,427
KGB - 576 (including 514 border troops)
Ministry of Internal Affairs - 28

Total - 15,031 people.

Sanitary losses - 53,753 wounded, shell-shocked, injured; 415,932 cases. Of those sick with infectious hepatitis - 115,308 people, typhoid fever - 31,080, other infectious diseases - 140,665 people.

Out of 11,294 people. 10,751 people dismissed from military service due to health reasons remained disabled, of which 1st group - 672, 2nd group - 4216, 3rd group - 5863 people.

According to official statistics, during the fighting in Afghanistan, 417 military personnel were captured and went missing (of which 130 were released before the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan). The Geneva Agreements of 1988 did not stipulate the conditions for the release of Soviet prisoners. After the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan, negotiations for the release of Soviet prisoners continued through the mediation of the DRA and Pakistani governments.

Losses in equipment, according to widespread official data, amounted to 147 tanks, 1,314 armored vehicles (armored personnel carriers, infantry fighting vehicles, BMD, BRDM-2), 510 engineering vehicles, 11,369 trucks and fuel tankers, 433 artillery systems, 118 aircraft, 333 helicopters (helicopter losses only 40th Army, excluding helicopters of the border troops and the Central Asian Military District). At the same time, these figures were not specified in any way - in particular, information was not published on the number of combat and non-combat aviation losses, on the losses of airplanes and helicopters by type, etc. It should be noted that the former deputy commander of the 40th Army for armaments, General Lieutenant V.S. Korolev gives other, higher figures for losses in equipment. In particular, according to his data, Soviet troops in 1980-1989 irretrievably lost 385 tanks and 2,530 units of armored personnel carriers, armored personnel carriers, infantry fighting vehicles, infantry fighting vehicles (rounded figures).

The decision to send Soviet troops into Afghanistan was made on December 12, 1979 at a meeting of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee and formalized by a secret resolution of the CPSU Central Committee.

The official purpose of the entry was to prevent the threat of foreign military intervention. The Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee used repeated requests from the Afghan leadership as a formal basis.

The limited contingent (OKSV) was directly drawn into the civil war that was flaring up in Afghanistan and became its active participant.

This conflict involved the armed forces of the government of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan (DRA) on the one hand and the armed opposition (Mujahideen, or dushmans) on the other. The struggle was for complete political control over the territory of Afghanistan. During the conflict, the dushmans were supported by military specialists from the United States, a number of European NATO member countries, as well as Pakistani intelligence services.

December 25, 1979 The entry of Soviet troops into the DRA began in three directions: Kushka Shindand Kandahar, Termez Kunduz Kabul, Khorog Faizabad. The troops landed at the airfields of Kabul, Bagram, and Kandahar.

The Soviet contingent included: the command of the 40th Army with support and maintenance units, divisions - 4, separate brigades - 5, separate regiments - 4, combat aviation regiments - 4, helicopter regiments - 3, pipeline brigade - 1, material support brigade 1 and some other units and institutions.

The presence of Soviet troops in Afghanistan and their combat activities are conventionally divided into four stages.

1st stage: December 1979 - February 1980 Entry of Soviet troops into Afghanistan, placing them in garrisons, organizing the protection of deployment points and various facilities.

2nd stage: March 1980 - April 1985 Conducting active combat operations, including large-scale ones, together with Afghan formations and units. Work to reorganize and strengthen the armed forces of the DRA.

3rd stage: May 1985 - December 1986 The transition from active combat operations primarily to supporting the actions of Afghan troops with Soviet aviation, artillery and sapper units. Special forces units fought to suppress the delivery of weapons and ammunition from abroad. The withdrawal of six Soviet regiments to their homeland took place.

4th stage: January 1987 - February 1989 Participation of Soviet troops in the Afghan leadership's policy of national reconciliation. Continued support for the combat activities of Afghan troops. Preparing Soviet troops for the return to their homeland and implementing their complete withdrawal.

April 14, 1988 With the mediation of the UN in Switzerland, the foreign ministers of Afghanistan and Pakistan signed the Geneva Agreements on a political settlement of the situation around the situation in the DRA. The Soviet Union pledged to withdraw its contingent within 9 months, starting on May 15; The United States and Pakistan, for their part, had to stop supporting the Mujahideen.

In accordance with the agreements, the withdrawal of Soviet troops from the territory of Afghanistan began May 15, 1988.

February 15, 1989 Soviet troops were completely withdrawn from Afghanistan. The withdrawal of the troops of the 40th Army was led by the last commander of the limited contingent, Lieutenant General Boris Gromov.

Losses:

According to updated data, in total in the war the Soviet Army lost 14 thousand 427 people, the KGB - 576 people, the Ministry of Internal Affairs - 28 people dead and missing. More than 53 thousand people were wounded, shell-shocked, injured.

The exact number of Afghans killed in the war is unknown. Available estimates range from 1 to 2 million people.

The military conflict in Afghanistan, which began more than thirty years ago, remains the cornerstone of world security today. The hegemonic powers, in pursuit of their ambitions, not only destroyed a previously stable state, but also crippled thousands of destinies.

Afghanistan before the war

Many observers, describing the war in Afghanistan, say that before the conflict it was an extremely backward state, but some facts are kept silent. Before the confrontation, Afghanistan remained a feudal country in most of its territory, but in large cities such as Kabul, Herat, Kandahar and many others, there was a fairly developed infrastructure; these were full-fledged cultural and socio-economic centers.

The state developed and progressed. There was free medicine and education. The country produced good knitwear. Radio and television broadcast foreign programs. People met in cinemas and libraries. A woman could find herself in public life or manage a business.

Fashion boutiques, supermarkets, shops, restaurants, and a host of cultural entertainment existed in the cities. The outbreak of the war in Afghanistan, the date of which is interpreted differently in sources, marked the end of prosperity and stability. The country instantly turned into a center of chaos and destruction. Today, power in the country has been seized by radical Islamist groups who benefit from maintaining unrest throughout the territory.

Reasons for the start of the war in Afghanistan

To understand the true reasons for the Afghan crisis, it is worth remembering history. In July 1973, the monarchy was overthrown. The coup was carried out by the king's cousin Mohammed Daoud. The general announced the overthrow of the monarchy and appointed himself president of the Republic of Afghanistan. The revolution took place with the assistance of the People's Democratic Party. A course of reforms in the economic and social sphere was announced.

In reality, President Daoud did not carry out reforms, but only destroyed his enemies, including the leaders of the PDPA. Naturally, discontent in the circles of the communists and the PDPA grew, they were constantly subjected to repression and physical violence.

Social, economic, and political instability in the country began, and external intervention by the USSR and the USA served as an impetus for even more massive bloodshed.

Saur revolution

The situation was constantly heating up, and already on April 27, 1987, the April (Saur) Revolution took place, organized by the country’s military units, the PDPA and the communists. New leaders came to power - N. M. Taraki, H. Amin, B. Karmal. They immediately announced anti-feudal and democratic reforms. The Democratic Republic of Afghanistan began to exist. Immediately after the first jubilations and victories of the united coalition, it became clear that there was discord between the leaders. Amin did not get along with Karmal, and Taraki turned a blind eye to this.

For the USSR, the victory of the democratic revolution came as a real surprise. The Kremlin was waiting to see what would happen next, but many prudent Soviet military leaders and apparatchiks understood that the start of the war in Afghanistan was just around the corner.

Participants in the military conflict

Just a month after the bloody overthrow of the Daoud government, new political forces were mired in conflicts. The Khalq and Parcham groups, as well as their ideologists, did not find common ground with each other. In August 1978, Parcham was completely removed from power. Karmal, together with his like-minded people, travels abroad.

Another setback befell the new government—the implementation of reforms was hampered by the opposition. Islamist forces are uniting into parties and movements. In June, armed uprisings against the revolutionary government began in the provinces of Badakhshan, Bamiyan, Kunar, Paktia and Nangarhar. Despite the fact that historians call 1979 the official date of the armed conflict, hostilities began much earlier. The year the war in Afghanistan began was 1978. The civil war was the catalyst that pushed foreign countries to intervene. Each of the megapowers pursued its own geopolitical interests.

Islamists and their goals

Back in the early 70s, the organization “Muslim Youth” was formed in Afghanistan. Members of this community were close to the Islamic fundamentalist ideas of the Arab “Muslim Brotherhood”, their methods of struggle for power, including political terror. The primacy of Islamic traditions, jihad and suppression all kinds of reforms that contradict the Koran - these are the main provisions of such organizations.

In 1975, Muslim Youth ceased to exist. It was absorbed by other fundamentalists - the Islamic Party of Afghanistan (IPA) and the Islamic Society of Afghanistan (IAS). These cells were led by G. Hekmatyar and B. Rabbani. Members of the organization were trained to conduct military operations in neighboring Pakistan and were sponsored by the authorities of foreign countries. After the April Revolution, opposition societies united. The coup in the country became a kind of signal for military action.

Foreign support for radicals

We must not lose sight of the fact that the start of the war in Afghanistan, the date of which in modern sources is 1979-1989, was planned as much as possible by foreign powers participating in the NATO bloc and some If earlier the American political elite denied involvement in the formation and financing of extremists, then The new century has brought some very interesting facts to this story. Former CIA employees left a lot of memoirs in which they exposed the policies of their own government.

Even before the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the CIA financed the mujahideen, set up training bases for them in neighboring Pakistan and supplied the Islamists with weapons. In 1985, President Reagan personally received a mujahideen delegation at the White House. The most important US contribution to the Afghan conflict was the recruitment of men throughout the Arab world.

Today there is information that the war in Afghanistan was planned by the CIA as a trap for the USSR. Having fallen into it, the Union had to see the inconsistency of its policies, deplete its resources and “fall apart.” As we see, this is what happened. In 1979, the start of the war in Afghanistan, or rather, the introduction of a limited contingent became inevitable.

USSR and support for the PDPA

There are opinions that the USSR prepared the April Revolution for several years. Andropov personally supervised this operation. Taraki was a Kremlin agent. Immediately after the coup, friendly assistance from the Soviets to brotherly Afghanistan began. Other sources claim that the Saur Revolution was a complete surprise for the Soviets, albeit a pleasant one.

After the successful revolution in Afghanistan, the USSR government began to monitor events in the country more closely. The new leadership, represented by Taraki, showed loyalty to friends from the USSR. KGB intelligence constantly informed the “leader” about instability in the neighboring region, but the decision was made to wait. The USSR took the beginning of the war in Afghanistan calmly, the Kremlin was aware that the opposition was sponsored by the States, it did not want to give up the territory, but the Kremlin did not need another Soviet-American crisis. Nevertheless, I did not intend to stand aside; after all, Afghanistan is a neighboring country.

In September 1979, Amin killed Taraki and proclaimed himself president. Some sources indicate that the final discord in relation to former comrades occurred due to President Taraki’s intention to ask the USSR to send in a military contingent. Amin and his associates were against it.

Soviet sources claim that the Afghan government sent them about 20 requests to send troops. The facts state the opposite - President Amin was opposed to the introduction of the Russian contingent. A resident in Kabul sent information about the US attempts to drag the USSR into the USSR. Even then, the leadership of the USSR knew that Taraki and the PDPA were residents of the States. Amin was the only nationalist in this company, and yet they did not share with Taraki the $40 million paid by the CIA for the April coup, this was the main reason for his death.

Andropov and Gromyko didn’t want to listen to anything. In early December, KGB General Paputin flew to Kabul with the task of persuading Amin to call on USSR troops. The new president was relentless. Then on December 22 an incident occurred in Kabul. Armed “nationalists” burst into a house where USSR citizens lived and cut off the heads of several dozen people. Having impaled them on spears, the armed “Islamists” carried them through the central streets of Kabul. The police who arrived at the scene opened fire, but the criminals fled. On December 23, the USSR government sent a message to the Afghan government, informing the president that Soviet troops would soon be in Afghanistan in order to protect the citizens of their country. While Amin was thinking about how to dissuade the troops of his “friends” from invading, they had already landed at one of the country’s airfields on December 24. The start date of the war in Afghanistan is 1979-1989. - will open one of the most tragic pages in the history of the USSR.

Operation Storm

Units of the 105th Airborne Guards Division landed 50 km from Kabul, and the KGB special forces unit “Delta” surrounded the presidential palace on December 27. As a result of the capture, Amin and his bodyguards were killed. The world community gasped, and all the puppeteers of this idea rubbed their hands. The USSR was hooked. Soviet paratroopers captured all major infrastructure facilities located in major cities. Over 10 years, more than 600 thousand Soviet soldiers fought in Afghanistan. The year the war in Afghanistan began was the beginning of the collapse of the USSR.

On the night of December 27, B. Karmal arrived from Moscow and announced the second stage of the revolution on the radio. Thus, the beginning of the war in Afghanistan is 1979.

Events of 1979-1985

After the successful Operation Storm, Soviet troops captured all major industrial centers. The Kremlin's goal was to strengthen the communist regime in neighboring Afghanistan and push back the dushmans who controlled the countryside.

Constant clashes between Islamists and SA troops led to numerous civilian casualties, but the mountainous terrain completely disoriented the fighters. In April 1980, the first large-scale operation took place in Panjshir. In June of the same year, the Kremlin ordered the withdrawal of some tank and missile units from Afghanistan. In August of the same year, a battle took place in the Mashhad Gorge. SA troops were ambushed, 48 soldiers were killed and 49 were wounded. In 1982, on the fifth attempt, Soviet troops managed to occupy Panjshir.

During the first five years of the war, the situation developed in waves. The SA occupied the heights, then fell into ambushes. The Islamists did not carry out full-scale operations; they attacked food convoys and individual units of troops. The SA tried to push them away from large cities.

During this period, Andropov had several meetings with the President of Pakistan and members of the UN. The representative of the USSR stated that the Kremlin was ready for a political settlement of the conflict in exchange for guarantees from the United States and Pakistan to stop funding the opposition.

1985-1989

In 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev became the first secretary of the USSR. He was constructive, wanted to reform the system, and outlined a course for “perestroika.” The protracted conflict in Afghanistan slowed down the process of resolving relations with the United States and European countries. There were no active military operations, but still Soviet soldiers died on Afghan territory with enviable regularity. In 1986, Gorbachev announced a course for a phased withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan. In the same year, B. Karmal was replaced by M. Najibullah. In 1986, the leadership of the SA came to the conclusion that the battle for the Afghan people was lost, since the SA could not take control of the entire territory of Afghanistan. January 23-26 A limited contingent of Soviet troops conducted their last Operation Typhoon in Afghanistan in the Kunduz province. On February 15, 1989, all troops of the Soviet army were withdrawn.

Reaction of world powers

After the media announcement of the seizure of the presidential palace in Afghanistan and the murder of Amin, everyone was in a state of shock. The USSR immediately began to be viewed as a total evil and an aggressor country. The outbreak of the war in Afghanistan (1979-1989) for European powers signaled the beginning of the Kremlin’s isolation. The President of France and the Chancellor of Germany personally met with Brezhnev and tried to persuade him to withdraw his troops, Leonid Ilyich was adamant.

In April 1980, the US government authorized $15 million in aid to Afghan opposition forces.

The United States and European countries called on the world community to ignore the 1980 Olympics taking place in Moscow, but due to the presence of Asian and African countries, this sporting event still took place.

The Carter Doctrine was drawn up during this period of strained relations. Third world countries overwhelmingly condemned the actions of the USSR. On February 15, 1989, the Soviet state, in accordance with agreements with UN countries, withdrew its troops from Afghanistan.

Outcome of the conflict

The beginning and end of the war in Afghanistan are conditional, because Afghanistan is an eternal hive, as its last king said about his country. In 1989, a limited contingent of Soviet troops “organized” crossed the border of Afghanistan - this was reported to the top leadership. In fact, thousands of prisoners of war of the SA soldiers, forgotten companies and border detachments that covered the retreat of that same 40th Army remained in Afghanistan.

Afghanistan, after a ten-year war, was plunged into absolute chaos. Thousands of refugees fled their country to escape the war.

Even today the exact number of Afghan deaths remains unknown. Researchers voice a figure of 2.5 million dead and wounded, mostly civilians.

During the ten years of war, the SA lost about 26 thousand soldiers. The USSR lost the war in Afghanistan, although some historians claim the opposite.

The economic costs of the USSR in connection with the Afghan war were catastrophic. $800 million was allocated annually to support the Kabul government, and $3 billion to arm the army.

The outbreak of the war in Afghanistan marked the end of the USSR, one of the world's largest powers.

The military conflict on the territory of Afghanistan, called the Afghan War, was essentially one of the stages of the civil war. On the one hand were government forces that had secured the support of the USSR, and on the other were numerous Mujahideen formations, which were supported by the United States and the majority of Muslim states. For ten years there was a senseless struggle for control over the territory of this independent state.

Historical context

Afghanistan is one of the key regions for ensuring stability in Central Asia. For centuries, in the very center of Eurasia, at the junction of South and Central Asia, the interests of the world's leading states have intersected. Since the beginning of the nineteenth century, the so-called “Great Game” for dominance in South and Central Asia was waged between the Russian and British empires.

At the beginning of the last century, the king of Afghanistan declared the state's independence from Great Britain, which became the cause of the third Anglo-Afghan war. The first state to recognize the independence of Afghanistan was Soviet Russia. The Soviets provided economic and military assistance to the ally. At that time, Afghanistan was a country with a complete absence of an industrial complex and an extremely poor population, more than half of which were illiterate.

In 1973, a republic was proclaimed in Afghanistan. The head of state established a totalitarian dictatorship and tried to carry out a number of reforms, which ended unsuccessfully. In fact, the country was dominated by the old order, characteristic of the era of communal-tribal system and feudalism. This period in the history of the state is characterized by political instability and rivalry between Islamist and pro-communist groups.

The April (Saur) Revolution began in Afghanistan on April twenty-seventh, 1978. As a result, the People's Democratic Party came to power, and the former leader and his family were executed. The new leadership attempted to carry out reforms, but ran into resistance from the Islamic opposition. Civil war began, and the government officially asked the USSR to send Soviet advisers. Specialists from the USSR left for Afghanistan in May 1978.

Causes of the war in Afghanistan

The Soviet Union could not allow a neighboring country to leave its sphere of influence. The coming to power of the opposition could lead to the strengthening of the position of the United States in a region located very close to the territory of the USSR. The essence of the war in Afghanistan is that this country has simply become a place where the interests of two superpowers collide. It was interference in domestic politics (both overt intervention by the USSR and hidden by the United States) that became the cause of the destructive ten-year war.

The decision to send USSR troops

At a meeting of the Politburo on March 19, 1979, Leonid Brezhnev said that the USSR “does not have to be drawn into a war.” However, the rebellion forced an increase in the number of Soviet troops along the border with Afghanistan. The memoirs of the former CIA director mention that in July of the same year, US Secretary of State John Carter signed a (secret) decree according to which the United States provided assistance to anti-government forces in Afghanistan.

Further events of the war in Afghanistan (1979-1989) caused concern among the Soviet leadership. Active armed protests by the opposition, mutinies among the military, internal party struggle. As a result, it was decided to prepare to overthrow the leadership and replace it with a more loyal USSR. When developing an operation to overthrow the Afghan government, it was decided to use requests for help from the same government.

The decision to send troops was made on December 12, 1979, and the next day a special commission was formed. The first attempt to assassinate the leader of Afghanistan was made on December 16, 1979, but he remained alive. At the initial stage of the intervention of Soviet troops in the war in Afghanistan, the actions of the special commission consisted of the transfer of military personnel and equipment.

Storming of Amin's Palace

On the evening of December twenty-seventh, Soviet soldiers stormed the palace. The important operation lasted for forty minutes. During the assault, the leader of the state, Amin, was killed. The official version of events is somewhat different: the Pravda newspaper published a message that Amin and his henchmen, as a result of a wave of popular anger, appeared before citizens and were executed by a fair people's court.

In addition, USSR military personnel took control of some units and military units of the Kabul garrison, a radio and television center, and the Ministry of Internal Affairs and State Security. On the night of December twenty-seventh to twenty-eighth, the next stage of the revolution was proclaimed.

Chronology of the Afghan War

Officers of the USSR Ministry of Defense, who were engaged in summarizing the experience of the military, divided the entire war in Afghanistan into the following four periods:

1. The entry of USSR troops and their deployment to garrisons lasted from December 1979 to February 1980.
2. From March 1980 to April 1985, active hostilities were carried out, including large-scale ones.
3. The Soviet military moved from active operations to supporting Afghan troops. From April 1985 to January 1987, USSR troops were already partially withdrawn from Afghanistan.
4. From January 1987 to February 1989, troops participated in the policy of national reconciliation - this is the course of the new leadership. At this time, preparations for the withdrawal of troops and the withdrawal itself were carried out.

This is the brief course of the war in Afghanistan, which lasted ten years.

Results and consequences

Before the start of the withdrawal of troops, the Mujahideen had never managed to occupy a large populated area. They did not carry out a single major operation, but by 1986 they controlled 70% of the state's territory. During the war in Afghanistan, USSR troops pursued the goal of suppressing the resistance of the armed opposition and strengthening the power of the legitimate government. The goal of unconditional victory was not set before them.

Soviet soldiers called the war in Afghanistan a “sheep war” because the Mujahideen, in order to overcome border barriers and minefields installed by the USSR troops, drove herds of sheep or goats in front of their troops so that the animals would “pave” the way for them, blowing up mines and landmines.

After the withdrawal of troops, the situation on the border worsened. There were even shelling of the territory of the Soviet Union and attempts to penetrate, armed attacks on Soviet border troops, and mining of the territory. Just before May 9, 1990, border guards removed seventeen mines, including British, Italian and American.

USSR losses and results

Over ten years, fifteen thousand Soviet troops died in Afghanistan, more than six thousand became disabled, and about two hundred people are still listed as missing. Three years after the end of the war in Afghanistan, radical Islamists came to power, and in 1992 the country was declared Islamic. Peace and tranquility never came to Afghanistan. The results of the war in Afghanistan are extremely ambiguous.