Why we are cooler: truth and myths about the inhabitants of Siberia. Different, but together

Many times I came across similar questions on the Internet. Some people are sure that war in Afghanistan was pointless. Some whim of the bloodthirsty Soviet regime, which suddenly, out of boredom, decided to organize a massacre, in the manner of Vietnam.

"Degenerates tend to hate normal people. Millions and millions of normal people are dying for the amusement and sadistic pleasure of the leaders of a degenerate sect.”
G.P.Klimov

Other people sincerely do not understand why this war was needed? Official reason"loyal support USSR government in Afghanistan” does not provide an answer (primarily a moral one), but why did Russian soldiers actually have to die in order to resolve the political issues of another country? We have no visible benefit supposedly have not received.

So Why was the war started in Afghanistan?

The main clue in this matter is that the reasons for the Afghan war do not lie in what we received (seized territory or achieved some other tangible benefits), but what was avoided, what negative events NOT happened.

It is precisely this formulation of the question that gives rise to the position - was there a threat at all? After all, if it did not exist, then it is absolutely fair to consider such a war senseless.

Here I want to emphasize and draw your attention to the very important detail. This position was still justified in 1989. But today it is completely untenable for a very simple reason. If earlier the calculation of all threats was available only to intelligence services and was an exclusively theoretical calculation, today it is available to everyone with access to the Internet, because all the predicted threats have actually come true.

A little theory

The USSR adhered to the ideology of internationalism and friendship of peoples. There is an opinion that this friendship was imposed on people almost by force. There is some truth in this. Most of the population really wasn't fed strong love towards other peoples, but were not hostile either, i.e. easily got along with equally adequate representatives of any other nationalities.

However, in addition to sane people, on the territory of almost all republics there were local “Svidomo” - a special caste turned to radical nationalism or religious fanaticism . Pay attention to this link, I will mention it below.

With strong Soviet power they could not afford to behave in any way active work, but represented a social time bomb that would go off at the first opportunity, i.e. as soon as government control weakens ( a shining example Chechnya is such a trigger).

The leadership of the USSR believed that if radical Islamists came to power in Afghanistan, and let me remind you that Afghanistan directly bordered the USSR, they would inevitably begin to inflame existing pockets of tension within the country.

Thus, the actions of the USSR were the actions of a person who saw that his neighbor’s house was on fire. Of course, this is not our home yet and we can imposingly drink tea, but entire settlements are burning down. Common sense suggests that we need to start fussing when our house is not yet on fire.

Was this assumption correct?

Our generation has unique opportunity, not to guess, but to look at how history developed after the events in Afghanistan.

War in Chechnya

We lived peacefully as part of the USSR and suddenly here we are - war.

There were as many as 2 reasons for the war, and they were mutually exclusive:

• the war of the Chechen people for independence;
• jihad.

If this is war Chechen people, it is not clear what Khattab, Una-UNSO (Muzychko) and mercenaries from the Baltic republics were doing there.

If this jihad - What do the Chechen people have to do with it? After all, nationalism is a sin for a Muslim, because... Allah created people different and did not differentiate between them.

Availability of two mutually exclusive reasons indicates that in reality it was not so much the idea or reason itself (one specific one) that was important, but the war itself and preferably on the greatest possible scale, for which it was used maximum amount reasons to simultaneously drag both nationalists and religious fanatics into it.

Let's turn to the primary sources and listen to what its main instigator, Dudayev, says about the causes of the war. If you wish, you can watch the entire video, but we only care about its beginning, namely the phrase from 0:19-0:30.

Are these enormous sacrifices and destruction worth the desire of the Chechens to live in a free and independent state?

Freedom and independence are for us life or death.

It sounds very poetic and beautiful. But a natural question arises. Why wasn’t the topic of independence raised earlier, if this is such a fundamental question of life and death?

Yes, it’s trivial because in Soviet times, Dudaev’s formulation of the question in this way “freedom or death” would have ended with his death within 48 hours. And for some reason it seems to me that he knew about it.

Simply because the leadership of the USSR, with all its shortcomings, had the political will and was able to accept complex solutions, such as the Storming of Amin's Palace.

Dudayev, being a military officer, felt perfectly well that Yeltsin was not able to make such a decision. And so it happened. As a result of the inaction of Boris Nikolaevich, Dzhakhar Dudayev was able to seriously strengthen his position in the military, political and ideological sense.

As a result, the ancient military wisdom worked: The one who cannot strike first gets it first. Athenagoras of Syracuse

I would also like to draw your attention to the fact that shortly before the war in Chechnya, 15 (!!!) republics separated from the USSR. Their separation occurred without a single shot being fired. And let’s ask ourselves a simple question: was there a peaceful way to resolve the issue of life and death (to use Dudayev’s poetic terminology)? If 15 republics managed to do this, it is logical to assume that such a method existed. Draw your own conclusions.

Other conflicts

The example of Chechnya is very striking, but it may not be convincing enough, because it is just one example. Let me remind you that it was presented to substantiate the thesis that in the USSR there really were social time bombs, the activation of which by some external catalyst could provoke serious social problems and military conflicts.

Chechnya is not the only example of the explosion of these “mines”. I provide a list of similar events that occurred on the territory of the republics former USSR after its collapse:

• Karabakh conflict - the war of Armenians and Azerbaijanis for Nagorno-Karabakh;
• Georgian-Abkhaz conflict - conflict between Georgia and Abkhazia;
• Georgian-South Ossetian conflict - conflict between Georgia and South Ossetia;
• Ossetian-Ingush conflict - clashes between Ossetians and Ingush in the Prigorodny region;
• Civil War in Tajikistan - inter-clan civil war in Tajikistan;
• the conflict in Transnistria is the struggle of the Moldovan authorities with the separatists in Transnistria.

Unfortunately, it is not possible to consider all these conflicts within the framework of the article, but you can easily find materials on them on your own.

Islamic terrorism

Take a look at events in the world - Syria, Libya, Iraq, Islamic State.

Wherever Islamic extremism takes root, there's a war going on. Long, protracted, with a large number of civilian casualties, with terrible social consequences. It is noteworthy that Islamic extremists kill even fellow believers who do not share radical views.

Soviet Union It was an atheistic state in which any religion was subject to repression. There is also communist China, but China never conquered Muslim territories, unlike the USSR.

And let me remind you that the oppression of Muslims on their territory is a reason to start Jihad. Moreover, it is a reason that is recognized by all movements of Islam.

As a result, the Soviet Union took a risk become enemy number 1 for the entire Muslim world.

US threat

It's no secret that the United States supported Islamic radicals in Afghanistan. In the distant 1980s, the United States, as part of Operation Cyclone, financed the training of Mujahideen detachments in Pakistan, which were then armed and transferred to Afghanistan to participate in the civil war. This is precisely why the Afghan government could not resist them alone. For the United States, the Soviet Union was the main, and in fact, the only enemy. Accordingly, if we had not entered Afghanistan, the United States would have done so, because by that time they had already begun to spend a lot of money on training and supplying the Mujahideen. Moreover, they could enter Afghanistan in different meanings:

• establish a controlled regime in Afghanistan, which would become their springboard for subversive activities against the USSR in an ideological war;
• to send its troops into Afghanistan and have the prospect of placing its ballistic missiles on our border.

Were these fears justified? Today we know that the Americans actually entered Afghanistan. Therefore, these concerns are fully justified.

conclusions

The beginning of the war in Afghanistan was vital.

Soviet the soldiers were heroes, who died for a reason, but defended the country from a COLOSSAL number of threats. Below I will list them and next to each I will write the state of affairs today, so that it would be clearly visible whether these were fictitious threats or real ones:

• the spread of radical Islam in the southern republics, where there was favorable soil for it. Today, radical Islamists pose a threat to the entire world. Moreover, a threat in different senses of the word, ranging from direct military actions and terrorist attacks, as in Syria, to simply social unrest and tension, as for example in France or Germany;
• creation of the USSR as the main enemy of the Islamic world. Wahhabis in Chechnya openly called on the entire Islamic world for Jihad. At the same time, another part of the Islamic world turned its attention to the United States;
• the location of NATO troops on the borders with the Soviet Union. US troops are in Afghanistan today. Let me remind you that Afghanistan is located 10,000 km from the United States and was on the border of the USSR. Draw your own conclusions;
• increase in drug trafficking to the Soviet Union, across a 2,500 km border. After the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan, drug production in this country increased many times over.

The Afghan War is a military conflict in the territory Democratic Republic Afghanistan (DRA). A limited contingent of Soviet troops took part in this conflict. The conflict took place between the Afghan government forces and the armed forces of the Afghan Mujahideen, which were supported by NATO, and primarily the United States, which actively armed the enemies of the Afghan regime.

Background to the Afghan War

The war itself, which lasted from 1979 to 1989, is defined in historiography by the presence of a limited contingent of the USSR Armed Forces on the territory of Afghanistan. But the beginning of the entire conflict must be considered 1973, when King Zahir Shah was overthrown in Afghanistan. Power passed to the regime of Muhammad Daoud, and in 1978 the Saur (April) Revolution took place, and the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA), which proclaimed the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan, became the new government. Afghanistan began to build socialism, but all construction took place in an extremely unstable internal situation.

The leader of the PDPA was Nur Mohammad Taraki. His reforms were extremely unpopular in a country where traditionally the majority were rural residents. Any dissent was brutally suppressed. During his reign, he arrested thousands of people, some of whom were executed.

The main opponents of the socialist government were radical Islamists, who declared a holy war (jihad) against it. Mujahideen detachments were organized, which later became the main opposing force - the Soviet army fought against it.

The majority of Afghanistan's population was illiterate, and it was easy for Islamist agitators to turn the population against the new government.

Beginning of the war

Immediately after coming to power, the government was faced with the outbreak of armed uprisings organized by Islamists. The Afghan leadership was unable to cope with the situation and turned to Moscow for help.

The issue of assistance to Afghanistan was considered in the Kremlin on March 19, 1979. Leonid Brezhnev and other members of the Politburo opposed armed intervention. But over time, the situation at the borders of the USSR worsened, and opinion changed radically.

On December 12, 1979, a resolution was adopted by the CPSU Central Committee on the entry of Soviet troops into Afghanistan. Formally, the reason was repeated requests from the Afghan leadership, but in fact these actions were supposed to prevent threats of foreign military intervention.

It must be remembered that, in addition to tense relations with the Mujahideen, there was no unity in the government itself. The internal party struggle, which reached its climax in September 1979, became particularly irreconcilable. It was then that the leader of the PDPA, Nur Mohammad Taraki, was arrested and killed by Hafizullah Amin. Amin took Taraki's place and, while continuing to fight against the Islamists, intensified repression within the ruling party.

According to Soviet intelligence, Amin tried to come to an agreement with Pakistan and China, which our experts considered unacceptable. On December 27, 1979, a detachment of Soviet special forces captured the presidential palace, Amin and his sons were killed. Babrak Karmal became the new leader of the country.

Progress of the war

As a result, our soldiers found themselves drawn into the outbreak of a civil war and became its active participants.

The entire war can be divided into several stages:

1st stage: December 1979 - February 1980. Introduction of the 40th Soviet Army of General Boris Gromov into Afghanistan, placement in garrisons, organization of security of strategic objects and locations.

2nd stage: March 1980 - April 1985. Conducting active large-scale combat operations. Reorganization and strengthening of the armed forces of the DRA.

3rd stage: May 1985 - December 1986. Reduction of active hostilities and transition to supporting the actions of Afghan government troops. Assistance was provided by aviation and sapper units. Organization of counteraction to the delivery of weapons and ammunition from abroad. Six regiments were withdrawn to their homeland.

4th stage: January 1987 - February 1989. Assisting the Afghan leadership in pursuing a policy of national reconciliation. Continued support for military operations carried out by government forces. Preparations for the withdrawal of Soviet troops.

In April 1988, an agreement was signed in Switzerland between Afghanistan and Pakistan to resolve the situation around the DRA. The Soviet Union pledged to withdraw its troops within nine months, and the United States and Pakistan were to stop supporting the mujahideen. In April 1988, in accordance with the agreement, Soviet troops were completely withdrawn from Afghanistan.

Losses in the Afghan War

At the moment, it is known that the losses of the Soviet army amounted to 14 thousand 427 people, the KGB - 576 people, the Ministry of Internal Affairs - 28 people (dead and missing). There were 53 thousand people wounded and shell-shocked during the fighting.

The exact data on Afghans killed in the war is unknown. By different sources, these losses could range from 1 to 2 million people. From 850 thousand to one and a half million people became refugees and settled mainly in Pakistan and Iran.

After the end of the war

The Mujahideen did not take part in the Geneva negotiations and did not support these decisions. As a result, after the withdrawal of Soviet troops fighting did not stop, but even intensified.

The new leader of Afghanistan, Najibullah, could barely hold back the onslaught of the Mujahideen without Soviet help. There was a split in his government, many of his associates joined the ranks of the opposition. In March 1992, General Dostum and his Uzbek militia abandoned Najibullah. In April, the Mujahideen captured Kabul. Najibullah long time hid in the UN mission building, but was captured by the Taliban and hanged.

The United States of America provided great assistance in supporting the counter-revolution in Afghanistan. They were the initiators and organizers of many international protests against the Soviet Union.

Back in 1980, an Islamic conference was organized, at which 34 foreign ministers demanded the immediate withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan. At the instigation of the United States, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution protesting against Soviet intervention. American President D. Carter advocated a boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics.

The United States and the Arab monarchies of the Persian Gulf organized unprecedented assistance to Afghan militants. With their money, Mujahideen were trained in Pakistan and China. Actively participated in operations against Soviet forces CIA.

Throughout the entire period of hostilities, the United States supplied the Mujahideen with a variety of modern weapons (recoilless rifles, Stinger anti-aircraft missiles, and others).

The advantageous geopolitical position of this small and poor country in the center of Eurasia has determined that world powers have been fighting for control over it for several hundred years. IN last decades namely Afghanistan itself hot spot on the planet.

Pre-war years: 1973-1978

Officially, the civil war in Afghanistan began in 1978, but events that occurred several years earlier led to it. For many decades state system Afghanistan had a monarchy. In 1973 statesman and general Muhammad Daoud overthrew his cousin King Zahir Shah and established his own authoritarian regime, which neither local Islamists nor communists liked. Daoud's attempts at reform failed. The situation in the country was unstable; conspiracies were constantly being organized against the Daoud government, and in most cases they were suppressed.

The rise to power of the left party PDPA: 1978-1979

Ultimately, in 1978, the left-wing People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) carried out the April or, as it is also called, the Saur Revolution. The PDPA came to power, and President Mohammed Daoud and his entire family were killed in the presidential palace. The PDPA proclaimed the country the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan. From that moment on, a real civil war began in the country.

Afghan War: 1979-1989

The opposition of local Islamists to the PDPA authorities, constant riots and uprisings became a reason for the PDPA to turn to the USSR for help. Initially, the Soviet Union did not want armed intervention. However, the fear that forces hostile to the USSR would come to power in Afghanistan forced the Soviet leadership to send a limited contingent of Soviet troops to Afghanistan.

The Afghan war for the USSR began with the fact that Soviet troops eliminated a PDPA figure who was undesirable to the Soviet leadership Hafizullah Amina, who was suspected of having ties to the CIA. Instead, he began to lead the state Barak Karmal.

The USSR hoped that the war would not be long, but it dragged on for 10 years. Government troops and Soviet soldiers were opposed by the Mujahideen - Afghans who joined armed forces and adhered to radical Islamic ideology. The Mujahideen were supported by part of the local population, as well as foreign countries. The United States, with the help of Pakistan, armed the Mujahideen and provided them with financial assistance as part of Operation Cyclone.

In 1986, the new President of Afghanistan became Mohammad Najibullah, and in 1987 the government set a course for national reconciliation. Around the same years, the name of the country began to be called the Republic of Afghanistan, and a new constitution was adopted.

In 1988-1989, the USSR withdrew Soviet troops from Afghanistan. For the Soviet Union, this war turned out to be essentially meaningless. Despite a large number of The military operations carried out failed to suppress the opposition forces, and the civil war in the country continued.

The Afghan government's fight against the mujahideen: 1989-1992

After the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan, the government continued to fight the Mujahideen. Foreign supporters of the Mujahideen believed that ruling regime will soon fall, but the government continued to receive assistance from the USSR. In addition, Soviet troops were transferred to government troops. military equipment. Therefore, hopes for a quick victory of the Mujahideen were not justified.

At the same time, after the collapse of the USSR, the government's position worsened, Russia stopped supplying arms to Afghanistan. At the same time, some prominent military personnel who previously fought on the side of President Najibullah went over to the side of the opposition. The president completely lost control over the country and announced that he agreed to resign. The Mujahideen entered Kabul, and the PDPA regime finally fell.

"Internecine" Mujahideen wars: 1992-2001

Having come to power, the Mujahideen field commanders began to fight among themselves. The new government soon collapsed. Under these conditions, the Islamist Taliban movement was formed in the south of the country under the leadership of Muhammad Omar. The Taliban's opponent was the unification field commanders called the Northern Alliance.

In 1996, the Taliban captured Kabul and executed former president Najibullah, who was hiding in the UN mission building, and proclaimed the state of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, which almost no one officially recognized. Although the Taliban did not completely control the country, they introduced Sharia law in the captured territory. Women were prohibited from working and studying. Music, television, computers, the Internet, chess, art. Thieves had their hands cut off and stoned for infidelity. The Taliban were also characterized by extreme religious intolerance towards those who adhered to other faiths.

Taliban granted political asylum former leader terrorist organization al-Qaeda Osama bin Laden, who initially fought against the Soviet presence in Afghanistan, and then began the fight against the United States.

NATO in Afghanistan: 2001–present

After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 in New York, new stage war, which is still ongoing. The United States suspected the number one terrorist Osama bin Laden of organizing terrorist attacks and demanded the Taliban to hand him over and the leadership of al-Qaeda. The Taliban refused to do this, and in October 2001, American and British troops, with the support of the Northern Alliance, launched an offensive operation in Afghanistan. Already in the first months of the war, they managed to overthrow the Taliban regime and remove them from power.

A NATO contingent, the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), was deployed in the country, and a new government emerged in the country, headed by Hamid Karzai. In 2004, after the adoption of a new constitution, he was elected president of the country.

At the same time, the Taliban went underground and began guerrilla warfare. In 2002, international coalition troops carried out Operation Anaconda against al-Qaeda militants, as a result of which many militants were killed. The Americans called the operation successful, but at the same time, the command underestimated the strength of the militants, and the actions of the coalition troops were not properly coordinated, which caused many problems during the operation.

In subsequent years, the Taliban began to gradually gain strength and carry out suicide attacks, in which both contingent soldiers and civilians died. At the same time, ISAF forces began to gradually advance to the south of the country, where the Taliban had gained a foothold. In 2006-2007, fierce fighting took place in these areas of the country. Due to the escalation of the conflict and increased hostilities, civilians began to die at the hands of coalition soldiers. In addition, disagreements began between the allies. In addition, in 2008, the Taliban began to attack the Pakistani supply route for the contingent, and NATO turned to Russia with a request to provide an air corridor to supply troops. In addition, that same year there was an assassination attempt on Hamid Karzai, and the Taliban released 400 members of the movement from Kandahar prison. Taliban propaganda among the local population has led to civilians becoming dissatisfied with NATO's presence in the country.

The Taliban continued to wage guerrilla warfare, avoiding major clashes with coalition troops. At the same time, more and more Americans began to speak out for the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan.

A major American victory was the killing of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan in 2011. That same year, NATO decided to gradually withdraw troops from the country and transfer responsibility for security in Afghanistan to local authorities. In the summer of 2011, the withdrawal of troops began.

In 2012, US President Barack Obama reported that the Afghan government controls areas in which 75% of the Afghan population lives, and by 2014 the authorities will have to control the entire territory of the country.

February 13, 2013. After 2014, between 3 and 9 thousand should remain in Afghanistan American soldiers. In the same year, a new international peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan, which does not involve military operations, should start.

USSR war in Afghanistan It lasted 9 years 1 month and 18 days.

Date of: 979-1989

Place: Afghanistan

Result: Overthrow of H. Amin, withdrawal of Soviet troops

Opponents: USSR, DRA against - Afghan Mujahideen, Foreign Mujahideen

Supported by : Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, UAE, USA, UK, Iran

Strengths of the parties

USSR: 80-104 thousand military personnel

DRA: 50-130 thousand military personnel According to NVO, no more than 300 thousand.

From 25 thousand (1980) to more than 140 thousand (1988)

Afghan war 1979-1989 - a long-term political and armed confrontation between the parties: the ruling pro-Soviet regime of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan (DRA) with the military support of the Limited Contingent of Soviet Troops in Afghanistan (OCSVA) - on the one hand, and the Mujahideen ("dushmans"), with a part of Afghan society sympathetic to them, with political and financial support foreign countries and a number of states of the Islamic world - on the other.

The decision to send troops of the USSR Armed Forces to Afghanistan was made on December 12, 1979 at a meeting of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee, in accordance with the secret resolution of the CPSU Central Committee No. 176/125 “Towards the situation in “A””, “in order to prevent aggression from outside and strengthen the southern borders friendly regime in Afghanistan." The decision was made by a narrow circle of members of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee (Yu. V. Andropov, D. F. Ustinov, A. A. Gromyko and L. I. Brezhnev).

To achieve these goals, the USSR sent a group of troops into Afghanistan, and a detachment of special forces from the emerging special KGB unit “Vympel” killed the current President H. Amin and everyone who was with him in the palace. By Moscow's decision, the new leader of Afghanistan was a protege of the USSR, former Ambassador Extraordinary Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Afghanistan in Prague B. Karmal, whose regime received significant and diverse - military, financial and humanitarian - support from the Soviet Union.

Chronology of the USSR war in Afghanistan

1979

December 25 - Columns of the Soviet 40th Army cross the Afghan border along a pontoon bridge over the Amu Darya River. H. Amin expressed gratitude to the Soviet leadership and gave orders General Staff Armed Forces DRA on providing assistance to the incoming troops.

1980

January 10-11 - an attempt at an anti-government mutiny by artillery regiments of the 20th Afghan division in Kabul. About 100 rebels were killed during the battle; Soviet troops lost two killed and two more were wounded.

February 23 - tragedy in the tunnel at the Salang pass. When the oncoming columns moved in the middle of the tunnel, a collision occurred and a traffic jam formed. As a result, 16 Soviet soldiers suffocated.

March is the first major offensive OKSV units against the Mujahideen - Kunar offensive.

April 20-24 - Mass anti-government demonstrations in Kabul are dispersed by low-flying jets.

April - The US Congress authorizes $15 million in "direct and open assistance" to the Afghan opposition. The first military operation in Panjshir.

June 19 - decision of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee on the withdrawal of some tank, missile and anti-aircraft missile units from Afghanistan.

1981

September - fighting in the Lurkoh mountain range in Farah province; death of Major General Khakhalov.

October 29 - introduction of the second “Muslim battalion” (177 Special Operations Forces) under the command of Major Kerimbaev (“Kara Major”).

December - defeat of the opposition base in the Darzab region (Dzauzjan province).

1982

November 3 - tragedy at the Salang pass. The explosion of a fuel tanker killed more than 176 people. (Already in the years civil war between the Northern Alliance and the Taliban, Salang became a natural barrier and in 1997 the tunnel was blown up on the orders of Ahmad Shah Massoud to prevent the Taliban from moving north. In 2002, after the unification of the country, the tunnel was reopened).

November 15 - meeting between Yu. Andropov and Ziyaul-Haq in Moscow. Secretary General had a private conversation with the Pakistani leader, during which he informed him about “the new flexible policy of the Soviet side and the understanding of the need for a quick resolution of the crisis.” The meeting also discussed the feasibility of the war and the presence of Soviet troops in Afghanistan and the prospects for the participation of the Soviet Union in the war. In exchange for the withdrawal of troops, Pakistan was required to refuse assistance to the rebels.

1983

January 2 - in Mazar-i-Sharif, dushmans kidnapped a group of Soviet civilian specialists numbering 16 people. They were released only a month later, and six of them died.

February 2 - the village of Vakhshak in northern Afghanistan was destroyed by volumetric explosion bombs in retaliation for the hostage-taking in Mazar-i-Sharif.

March 28 - meeting of the UN delegation led by Perez de Cuellar and D. Cordovez with Yu. Andropov. He thanks the UN for “understanding the problem” and assures the mediators that he is ready to take “certain steps”, but doubts that Pakistan and the United States will support the UN proposal regarding their non-intervention in the conflict.

April - operation to defeat opposition forces in the Nijrab gorge, Kapisa province. Soviet units lost 14 people killed and 63 wounded.

May 19 - Soviet ambassador in Pakistan, V. Smirnov officially confirmed the desire of the USSR and Afghanistan to “set a date for the withdrawal of the contingent of Soviet troops.”

July - the attack of the dushmans on Khost. The attempt to blockade the city was unsuccessful.

August— hard work D. Cordovez's mission to prepare agreements for a peaceful settlement of the war in Afghanistan was almost completed: an 8-month program for the withdrawal of troops from the country was developed, but after Andropov's illness, the issue of the conflict was removed from the agenda of Politburo meetings. Now the talk was only about “dialogue with the UN.”

Winter - fighting intensified in the Sarobi region and the Jalalabad Valley (Laghman province is most often mentioned in reports). For the first time, armed opposition units remain on the territory of Afghanistan for the entire winter period. The creation of fortified areas and resistance bases began directly in the country.

1984

January 16 - dushmans shot down a Su-25 aircraft using Strela-2M MANPADS. This is the first case of successful use of MANPADS in Afghanistan.

April 30 - during a major operation in the Panjshir Gorge, the 1st battalion of the 682nd motorized rifle regiment was ambushed and suffered heavy losses.

October - over Kabul, the dushmans use the Strela MANPADS to shoot down an Il-76 transport plane.

1985

April 26 - uprising of Soviet and Afghan prisoners of war in Badaber prison in Pakistan.

June - army operation in Panjshir.

Summer - a new course of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee towards a political solution to the “Afghan problem”.

Autumn - The functions of the 40th Army are reduced to covering the southern borders of the USSR, for which new motorized rifle units are brought in. The creation of support base areas in hard-to-reach areas of the country began.

1986

February - at the XXVII Congress of the CPSU, M. Gorbachev makes a statement about the beginning of developing a plan for a phased withdrawal of troops.

March - the decision of the R. Reagan administration to begin deliveries to Afghanistan to support the Mujahideen Stinger ground-to-air MANPADS, which makes the combat aviation of the 40th Army vulnerable to attack from the ground.

April 4-20 - operation to destroy the Javara base: a major defeat for the dushmans. Unsuccessful attempts by Ismail Khan’s troops to break through the “security zone” around Herat.

May 4 - at the XVIII plenum of the Central Committee of the PDPA, M. Najibullah, who previously headed the Afghan counterintelligence KHAD, was elected to the post of Secretary General instead of B. Karmal. The plenum proclaimed the intention to solve the problems of Afghanistan through political methods.

July 28 - M. Gorbachev demonstratively announced the imminent withdrawal of six regiments of the 40th Army (about 7 thousand people) from Afghanistan. Late deadline output will be carried over. There is debate in Moscow about whether to withdraw troops completely.

August - Massoud defeated a government military base in Farhar, Takhar Province.

Autumn - Major Belov's reconnaissance group from the 173rd detachment of the 16th special forces brigade captures the first batch of Stinger man-portable anti-aircraft missile systems in number of three pieces in the Kandahar region.

October 15-31 - tank, motorized rifle, and anti-aircraft regiments were withdrawn from Shindand, motorized rifle and anti-aircraft regiments were withdrawn from Kunduz, and anti-aircraft regiments were withdrawn from Kabul.

November 13 - The Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee sets the task of withdrawing all troops from Afghanistan within two years.

December - an emergency plenum of the PDPA Central Committee proclaims a policy of national reconciliation and advocates an early end to the fratricidal war.

1987

January 2 - an operational group of the USSR Ministry of Defense headed by the First Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the USSR Armed Forces, Army General V.I. Varennikov, was sent to Kabul.

February - Operation Strike in Kunduz province.

February-March - Operation Flurry in Kandahar province.

March - Operation Thunderstorm in Ghazni province. Operation Circle in Kabul and Logar provinces.

May - Operation Salvo in the provinces of Logar, Paktia, Kabul. Operation "South-87" in Kandahar province.

Spring - Soviet troops begin to use the Barrier system to cover the eastern and southeastern sections of the border.

1988

Soviet special forces group prepares for operation in Afghanistan

April 14 - 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 USSR and the USA became guarantors of the agreements. The Soviet Union pledged to withdraw its contingent within a 9-month period, starting on May 15; The United States and Pakistan, for their part, had to stop supporting the Mujahideen.

June 24 - Opposition groups captured the center of Wardak province - the city of Maidanshahr.

1989

February 15 - Soviet troops are 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 B.V. Gromov, who, allegedly, was the last to cross the border river Amu Darya (the city of Termez).

War in Afghanistan - results

Colonel General Gromov, the last commander of the 40th Army (led the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan), in his book “Limited Contingent” expressed this opinion regarding victory or defeat Soviet army in the war in Afghanistan:

I am deeply convinced: there is no basis for the assertion that the 40th Army was defeated, as well as for the fact that we won military victory in Afghanistan. At the end of 1979, Soviet troops entered the country unhindered, fulfilled their tasks - unlike the Americans in Vietnam - and returned home 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 what they could.

The 40th Army faced several main tasks. First of all, we had to provide assistance to the Afghan government in resolving the internal political situation. Basically, this assistance consisted of fighting armed opposition groups. In addition, the presence of a significant military contingent in Afghanistan was supposed to prevent external aggression. These tasks were completed completely by the personnel of the 40th Army.

Before the start of the OKSVA withdrawal in May 1988, the Mujahideen had never managed to carry out a single major operation and had not managed to occupy a single large city.

Military losses in Afghanistan

USSR: 15,031 dead, 53,753 wounded, 417 missing

1979 - 86 people

1980 - 1,484 people

1981 - 1,298 people

1982 - 1,948 people

1983 - 1,448 people

1984 - 2,343 people

1985 - 1,868 people

1986 - 1,333 people

1987 - 1,215 people

1988 - 759 people

1989 - 53 people

By rank:
Generals, officers: 2,129
Ensigns: 632
Sergeants and soldiers: 11,549
Workers and employees: 139

Out of 11,294 people. fired from military service 10,751 remained disabled due to health reasons, of which 672 were in the 1st group, 4,216 in the 2nd group, 5,863 in the 3rd group.

Afghan Mujahideen: 56,000-90,000 (civilians from 600 thousand to 2 million people)

Losses in technology

According to official data, there were 147 tanks, 1,314 armored vehicles (armored personnel carriers, infantry fighting vehicles, BMD, BRDM), 510 engineering vehicles, 11,369 trucks and fuel tankers, 433 artillery systems, 118 aircraft, 333 helicopters. 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.

Economic losses of the USSR

About 800 million US dollars were spent annually from the USSR budget to support the Kabul government.

What were the prerequisites or interests of the USSR for introducing a limited contingent of Soviet armed forces into Afghanistan?

When did the Soviet armed forces fight in Afghanistan and how did it all end?

Afghan stalemate

On December 25, 1979, the USSR joined last war in its history. It was officially announced that on December 24, 1979, the Minister of Defense of the USSR Ustinov D.F. Directive No. 312/12/001 was signed, stating that some of the units of the Central Asian and Turkestan military districts will be introduced into the DRA in order to provide assistance to the friendly people of Afghanistan and create conditions there that make any hostile actions on the part of states bordering the DRA impossible.

The history of the tender friendship of the two neighboring states begins back in 1919, when Soviet Russia was the first in the world to recognize the independence of Afghanistan and provide military and economic support. Which, however, did not help. Afghanistan was and remains a poor feudal country, “stuck” in the Middle Ages. What Soviet specialists managed to build, for example, the airport in Kabul, highways, everything remains the same.
On April 27, 1978, the Saur Revolution took place, proclaiming Afghanistan a Democratic Republic. Armed Islamic terrorists, unrest in the army, internal party bickering - these factors did not contribute to the authority of the people's government. The events taking place in Afghanistan were closely watched in Moscow. The Commission of the CPSU Central Committee reported to the Politburo of the Central Committee that direct intervention would have Negative consequences. Having received about twenty requests for help from Kabul, the “Kremlin elders” were in no hurry to respond.

The decision to bring in a limited contingent of Soviet troops was made at a secret meeting only on December 12, 1979. Chief of Staff Ogarkov N.V. turned out to be the only one who was against this decision. And the participation of our troops in battles with the Mujahideen was not envisaged; they were assigned security functions. The mission was supposed to be short-term.

The reasons for the entry of Soviet troops, in fact, were not a secret to the world community. Afghanistan's territorial neighbor was Pakistan, created not so long ago, which accepted American assistance in the form of financial support, the presence of military specialists, and the supply of weapons. Afghanistan was supposed to become a “layer” that would prevent Americans from appearing dangerously close to Soviet borders. Each of the superpowers, the USSR and the USA, sacredly looked after its geopolitical interests, extending its influence to greatest number potential supporters.
On December 25, 1979, at 15:00, the 4th battalion of the 56th Guards Air Assault Brigade crossed the pontoon bridge across the Amu Darya. The countdown to losses has begun.
The entire history of war can be divided into several periods. About 50 thousand military personnel and civilian specialists were immediately sent to Afghanistan, so the first 2-3 months were devoted to their deployment. Active hostilities began in March 1980 and lasted about five years. At the beginning of April 1985, combat operations were carried out mainly by units of government troops and people's militia, with Soviet troops providing support with artillery, aviation and sapper units. A partial withdrawal of the Soviet contingent from Afghanistan is being prepared. Since January 1987, a policy of national reconciliation has been pursued. Preparations for the complete withdrawal of the Soviet military contingent began on May 15, 1988. General Gromov B.V., commander of the 40th Army, was the last to leave the territory of Afghanistan on February 15, 1989. For Soviet soldiers the war was over.

Losses among Soviet military personnel were calculated, which amounted to 13,833 people during the fighting of 1979-1989. Ten years later, more accurate figures for irretrievable losses appeared: among military personnel of the Soviet Army - 14,427 people, KGB employees - 576 people, employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs - 28 people. 417 people are considered missing or captured.
Exact number The Afghans who died during the war have not yet been named. The following figures appear in the press: 5 million became refugees, and one and a half million Afghans died.
Now let's look at economic losses. Every year, 800 million “evergreen” US dollars were allocated from the country’s budget to support the government of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan. The cost of maintaining the 40th Army and conducting military operations amounted to 3 billion US dollars annually.
And in what units can we calculate the mortal horror of parents whose children ended up serving in Afghanistan? How many decalitres of tears did mothers shed while burying their boys in zinc coffins? How much energy will a crippled 20-year-old boy need to continue living? But with 99% confidence we can say that Afghan war became the biggest mistake of the “Kremlin sages”, which accelerated the collapse of the USSR.