Afghan war of the USSR. Why did the Afghan war start?

Afghan war 1979-1989


	Afghanistan
	Overthrow of H. Amin, withdrawal of Soviet troops
Opponents
	Afghan Mujahideen
	Foreign Mujahideen
	Supported by:









Commanders
Yu. V. Tukharinov, B. I. Tkach, V. F. Ermakov, L. E. Generalov, I. N. Rodionov, V. P. Dubynin, V. I. Varennikov, B.V. Gromov, Yu. P. Maksimov, V. A. Matrosov Muhammad Rafi, B. Karmal, M. Najibullah, Abdul-Rashid Dostum	G. Hekmatyar, B. Rabbani, Ahmad Shah Masood, Ismail Khan, Yunus Khales, D. Haqqani, Said Mansur, Abdul Ali Mazari, M. Nabi, S. Mojaddedi, Abdul Haq, Amin Wardak, Abdul Rasul Sayyaf, Syed Gailani
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)
Military losses
USSR: 15,051 dead, 53,753 wounded, 417 missing DRA: losses unknown	Afghan Mujahideen: 56,000-90,000 (civilians from 600 thousand to 2 million people)

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 from 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 introduced a group of troops into Afghanistan, and a detachment of special forces from among the emerging special unit The KGB Vympel killed the current President H. Amin and everyone who was with him in the palace. By decision of Moscow, 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 Soviet Union.

Background

"Big Game"

Afghanistan is located in the very center of Eurasia, which allows it to play an important role in relations between neighboring regions.

From the beginning of the 19th century, a struggle began between the Russian and British empires for control over Afghanistan, called “ Big game"(English) TheGreatGame).

Anglo-Afghan Wars

The British attempted to establish dominance over Afghanistan by force, sending troops from neighboring British India in January 1839. Thus began the first Anglo-Afghan war. Initially, the British were successful - they managed to overthrow the emir Dost Mohammed and put Shuja Khan on the throne. Shuja Khan's reign, however, did not last long and he was overthrown in 1842. Afghanistan concluded a peace treaty with Britain and retained its independence.

Meanwhile, Russian Empire continued to actively move south. In the 1860-1880s, the annexation was basically completed Central Asia to Russia.

The British, concerned about the rapid advance of Russian troops towards the borders of Afghanistan, began the Second Anglo-Afghan War in 1878. The stubborn struggle continued for two years and in 1880 the British were forced to leave the country, but at the same time leaving the loyal emir Abdur Rahman on the throne and thus maintaining control over the country.

In the 1880-1890s, the modern borders of Afghanistan were formed, determined by joint treaties between Russia and Britain.

Afghan independence

In 1919, Amanullah Khan declared Afghanistan's independence from Great Britain. The third Anglo-Afghan war began.

The first state to recognize independence was Soviet Russia, which provided Afghanistan with significant economic and military assistance.

At the beginning of the 20th century, Afghanistan was a backward agrarian country with complete absence industry, an extremely poor population, more than half of whom were illiterate.

Republic of Daoud

In 1973, during the visit of the King of Afghanistan Zahir Shah to Italy, a coup d'état took place in the country. Power was seized by Zahir Shah's relative Mohammed Daoud, who proclaimed the first republic in Afghanistan.

Daoud established an authoritarian dictatorship and tried to carry out reforms, but most of them ended in failure. The first republican period in Afghanistan's history was characterized by strong political instability and rivalry between pro-communist and Islamist groups. Islamists launched several uprisings, but all of them were suppressed by government troops.

Daoud's reign ended with the Saur Revolution in April 1978, as well as the execution of the president and all members of his family.

Saur revolution

On April 27, 1978, the April (Saur) Revolution began in Afghanistan, as a result of which the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) came to power, proclaiming the country the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan (DRA).

Attempts by the country's leadership to carry out new reforms that would overcome Afghanistan's lagging behind have encountered resistance from the Islamic opposition. Since 1978, even before the introduction of Soviet troops, Afghanistan began civil war.

In March 1979, during the uprising in the city of Herat, the Afghan leadership made its first request for direct Soviet military intervention (there were about 20 such requests in total). But the CPSU Central Committee Commission on Afghanistan, created back in 1978, reported to the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee about the obvious negative consequences of direct Soviet intervention, and the request was rejected.

However, the Herat rebellion forced the reinforcement of Soviet troops at the Soviet-Afghan border and, by order of Defense Minister D.F. Ustinov, preparations began for a possible landing of the 105th Guards Airborne Division into Afghanistan.

Further development The situation in Afghanistan - armed uprisings of the Islamic opposition, mutinies in the army, internal party struggle and especially the events of September 1979, when the leader of the PDPA N. Taraki was arrested and then killed on the orders of H. Amin, who removed him from power - caused serious concern among the Soviet leadership. It warily followed Amin's activities at the head of Afghanistan, knowing his ambitions and cruelty in the struggle to achieve personal goals. Under H. Amin, terror unfolded in the country not only against Islamists, but also against members of the PDPA, who were supporters of Taraki. The repression also affected the army, the main support of the PDPA, which led to a drop in its already low morale, causing mass desertion and rebellion. The Soviet leadership was afraid that a further aggravation of the situation in Afghanistan would lead to the fall of the PDPA regime and the coming to power of forces hostile to the USSR. Moreover, the KGB received information about Amin’s connections with the CIA in the 1960s and about secret contacts of his emissaries with American officials after the assassination of Taraki.

As a result, it was decided to prepare for the overthrow of Amin and his replacement with a leader more loyal to the USSR. B. Karmal was considered as such, whose candidacy was supported by KGB Chairman Yu. V. Andropov.

When developing the operation to overthrow Amin, it was decided to use Amin’s own requests for Soviet military assistance. In total, from September to December 1979 there were 7 such appeals. At the beginning of December 1979, the so-called “ Muslim battalion"- GRU special forces detachment - specially formed in the summer of 1979 from Soviet military personnel of Central Asian origin to guard Taraki and perform special tasks in Afghanistan. In early December 1979, USSR Minister of Defense D.F. Ustinov informed a narrow circle officials from among the top military leadership that in the near future a decision will obviously be made on the use of Soviet troops in Afghanistan. From December 10, on the personal orders of D.F. Ustinov, the deployment and mobilization of units and formations of the Turkestan and Central Asian military districts was carried out. Boss General Staff N. Ogarkov, however, was against the introduction of troops.

According to V.I. Varennikov, in 1979 the only member of the Politburo who did not support the decision to send Soviet troops to Afghanistan was A.N. Kosygin, and from that moment A.N. Kosygin had a complete break with Brezhnev and his entourage .

On December 13, 1979, the Operational Group of the Ministry of Defense for Afghanistan was formed, headed by the First Deputy Chief of the General Staff, Army General S. F. Akhromeev, which began work in the Turkestan Military District on December 14. On December 14, 1979, a battalion of the 345th Guards Separate Parachute Regiment was sent to Bagram to reinforce the battalion of the 111th Guards Parachute Regiment of the 105th Guards Airborne Division, which had been guarding Soviet troops in Bagram since July 7, 1979 -transport aircraft and helicopters.

At the same time, B. Karmal and several of his supporters were secretly brought to Afghanistan on December 14, 1979 and were in Bagram among Soviet military personnel. On December 16, 1979, an attempt was made to assassinate Amin, but he remained alive, and B. Karmal was urgently returned to the USSR. On December 20, 1979, a “Muslim battalion” was transferred from Bagram to Kabul, which became part of the security brigade of Amin’s palace, which significantly facilitated preparations for the planned assault on this palace. For this operation, 2 KGB special groups also arrived in Afghanistan in mid-December.

Until December 25, 1979, in the Turkestan Military District, the field command of the 40th Combined Arms Army, 2 motorized rifle divisions, an army artillery brigade, an anti-aircraft missile brigade, an air assault brigade, combat and logistics support units were prepared for entry into Afghanistan, and in the Central Asian military district - two motorized rifle regiments, a mixed air corps directorate, 2 fighter-bomber air regiments, 1 fighter air regiment, 2 helicopter regiments, aviation technical and airfield support units. Three more divisions were mobilized as reserves in both districts. More than 50 thousand people from the Central Asian republics and Kazakhstan were called up from the reserves to complete the units, and were transferred from national economy about 8 thousand cars and other equipment. This was the largest mobilization deployment of the Soviet Army since 1945. In addition, the 103rd Guards Airborne Division from Belarus was also prepared for transfer to Afghanistan, which was already transferred to airfields in the Turkestan Military District on December 14.

By the evening of December 23, 1979, it was reported that troops were ready to enter Afghanistan. On December 24, D. F. Ustinov signed directive No. 312/12/001, which stated:

The directive did not provide for the participation of Soviet troops in hostilities on the territory of Afghanistan; the procedure for the use of weapons, even for the purposes of self-defense, was not determined. True, already on December 27, D. F. Ustinov’s order appeared to suppress the resistance of the rebels in cases of attack. It was assumed that Soviet troops They will become garrisons and take under protection important industrial and other facilities, thereby freeing up parts of the Afghan army for active action against opposition forces, as well as against possible external interference. The border with Afghanistan was ordered to be crossed at 15:00 Moscow time (17:00 Kabul time) on December 27, 1979. But on the morning of December 25, the 4th battalion of the 56th Guards Air Assault Brigade crossed the pontoon bridge across the border river Amu Darya, which was tasked with capturing the high-mountainous Salang pass on the Termez-Kabul road to ensure the unhindered passage of Soviet troops.

In Kabul, units of the 103rd Guards Airborne Division completed their landing by midday on December 27 and took control of the airport, blocking Afghan aviation and air defense batteries. Other units of this division concentrated in designated areas of Kabul, where they received tasks to blockade the main government institutions, Afghan military units and headquarters, other important facilities in the city and its environs. After a skirmish with Afghan soldiers, the 357th Guards Parachute Regiment of the 103rd Division and the 345th Guards Parachute Regiment established control over the Bagram airfield. They also provided security for B. Karmal, who was again taken to Afghanistan with a group of close supporters on December 23.

Storming of Amin's Palace

On the evening of December 27, Soviet special forces stormed Amin's palace, and Amin was killed during the assault. Government institutions Soviet paratroopers captured Kabul.

On the night of December 27-28, B. Karmal arrived in Kabul from Bagram and Kabul radio broadcast an appeal from this new ruler to the Afghan people, in which the “second stage of the revolution” was proclaimed.

Main events

In July 1979, a battalion from the 111th Parachute Regiment (111 pdp) 105th Airborne Division (105 Airborne Division), the 103rd Airborne Division also arrived in Kabul, in fact, after the regular reorganization in 1979 - a separate battalion 345 OPDP. These were the first military units and units of the Soviet Army in Afghanistan.

From December 9 to 12, the first “Muslim battalion” arrived in Afghanistan - 154 ooSpN 15obrSpN.

On December 25, the columns of the 40th Army (40 A) Turkestan Military District cross the Afghan border along a pontoon bridge over the Amu Darya River. H. Amin expressed gratitude to the Soviet leadership and ordered the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the DRA to provide assistance to the incoming troops.

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. At the same time, a directive from the Minister of Defense D. Ustinov appeared on the planning and commencement of military operations - raids against rebel detachments in the northern regions of Afghanistan adjacent to the Soviet border, using an equally reinforced battalion and the use of firepower from the army, including the Air Force, to suppress resistance.

February 23 - tragedy in the tunnel at the Salang pass. When passing the tunnel by units 186 SME and 2 zrbr In the complete absence of the commandant's service, a traffic jam formed in the middle of the tunnel due to an accident. As a result, 16 Soviet servicemen suffocated 2 zrbr. There are no data on Afghans who suffocated.
February-March - the first major operation to suppress an armed rebellion in the mountain infantry regiment in Asmara, Kunar province of OKSV units against the Mujahideen - the Kunar offensive. On February 28-29, units of the 317th Guards Parachute Regiment of the 103rd Guards Airborne Division in the Asmara region entered into heavy bloody battles due to the blocking of the 3rd Parachute Battalion in the Asmara Gorge by dushmans. 33 people were killed, 40 people were injured, one soldier was missing.
April - The US Congress authorizes $15,000,000 in "direct and open assistance" to the Afghan opposition.

The first military operation in Panjshir.

May 11 - death of the 1st motorized rifle company 66th Omsbr (Jalalabad) near the village of Khara, Kunar province.
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.
August 3 - battle near the village of Shaest. In the Mashhad Gorge - the Kishim region near the city of Faizabad, the 783rd separate reconnaissance battalion of the 201st MSD was ambushed, 48 servicemen were killed, 49 were wounded. It was one of the bloodiest episodes in the history of the Afghan war.
August 12 - Special forces of the USSR KGB “Karpaty” arrive in the country.
September 23 - Lieutenant General Boris Tkach was appointed commander of the 40th Army.

September - fighting in the Lurkoh mountain range in Farah province; death of Major General Khakhalov.
October 29 - introduction of the second “Muslim battalion” (177 ooSpN) under the command of Major Kerimbaev (“Kara Major”).
December - defeat of the opposition base in the Darzab region (Jawzjan province).

April 5 - during a military operation in western Afghanistan, Soviet troops mistakenly invaded Iranian territory. Iranian military aircraft destroyed two Soviet helicopters.
In May-June, the fifth Panjshir operation was carried out, during which a mass landing of troops in Afghanistan was carried out for the first time: only during the first three days Over 4,000 airborne personnel were landed. In total, about 12,000 military personnel took part in this confrontation. various genera troops. The operation took place simultaneously throughout the entire 120 km depth of the gorge. As a result of this operation, Panjshir was captured.
November 3 - tragedy at the Salang pass. As a result of a traffic jam outside the tunnel, more than 176 people died in the tunnel.
November 15 - meeting between Yu. Andropov and Zia ul-Haq in Moscow. Secretary General had a private conversation with the Pakistani President, during which he informed him about “ the new flexible policy of the Soviet side and understanding of the need to quickly resolve the crisis" The meeting also discussed the feasibility of 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.

January 2 - in Mazar-i-Sharif, the Mujahideen kidnapped a group of Soviet “civilian specialists” numbering 16 people.
February 2 - hostages kidnapped in Mazar-i-Sharif and kept in the village of Vakhshak in northern Afghanistan were released, but six of them died.
March 28 - meeting of the UN delegation led by Perez de Cuellar and D. Cordovez with Yu. Andropov. Andropov thanks the UN for “ understanding the problem" and assures the intermediaries that he is ready to undertake " 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 " set deadlines for the withdrawal of the contingent of Soviet troops».
July - Mujahideen attack on Khost. The attempt to blockade the city was unsuccessful.
August - the intense work of D. Cordovez’s mission to prepare agreements for the peaceful settlement of the Afghan problem is 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 it was only about " dialogue with the UN».
Winter - fighting became more active 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.

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

April 30 - in the Khazar Gorge, during a large-scale military operation in the Panjshir Gorge, the 1st Battalion of the 682nd Motorized Rifle Regiment was ambushed and suffered heavy losses.
October 27 - Mujahideen shoot down an Il-76 transport plane over Kabul using Strela MANPADS.

April 21 - Death of the Maravar company.
April 26 - uprising of Soviet and Afghan prisoners of war in Badaber prison, located in Pakistan.
May 25 - Kunar operation. Battle near the village of Konyak, Pechdara gorge, Kunar province, 4th company of the 149th Guards. Motorized rifle regiment. Finding themselves surrounded by Mujahideen and Pakistani mercenaries - the "Black Storks", the guardsmen of the 4th company and the forces of the 2nd battalion attached to it lost 23 dead and 28 wounded.
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”.
October 16-17 - Shutul tragedy (20 dead, several dozen wounded)
The main task of the 40th Army is to cover the southern borders of the USSR, for which new motorized rifle units are brought in. The creation of stronghold fortified areas began in hard-to-reach areas of the country.
On November 22, 1985, while carrying out a mission, an outpost of the Motorized Maneuverable Group (MMG) of the Panfilov Border Detachment of the Eastern Border District of the KGB of the USSR was ambushed. In a battle near the village of Afrij in the Zardev Gorge of Badakhshan province, 19 border guards were killed. These were the most big losses border guards in one battle in the Afghan War of 1979-1989.

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.
April 4-20 - operation to destroy the Javara base: a major defeat for the Mujahideen. Failed Attempts Ismail Khan's troops 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.
June 16 - Military operation "Maneuver" - Takhar province. A long battle on Mount Yafsaj of the 783rd ORB of the 201st MSD - Jarav Gorge, in which 18 scouts were killed and 22 were wounded. This was the second tragedy of the Kunduz Intelligence Battalion.
July 28 - M. Gorbachev publicly announced the imminent withdrawal of six regiments of the 40th Army (about 7,000 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.
August 18-26 - Military operation “Trap” under the command of Army General V.I. Varennikov. Assault on the Kokari-Sharshari fortified area in Herat province.
Autumn - Major Belov's reconnaissance group from 173 ooSpN 22obrSpN captures the first batch of three Stinger MANPADS 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 - at a meeting of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee, Mikhail Gorbachev noted: “ We have been fighting in Afghanistan for six years. If we don’t change our approaches, we will fight for another 20-30 years" Chief of the General Staff Marshal Akhromeyev stated: “ There is not a single military task that was set but not solved, and there was no result.<…>We control Kabul and provincial centers, but we cannot establish power in the occupied territory. We have lost the fight for the Afghan people" At the same meeting, the task was set to withdraw all troops from Afghanistan within two years.
December - an emergency plenum of the PDPA Central Committee proclaims a course towards a policy of national reconciliation and advocates an early end to the fratricidal war.

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 8 - Mujahideen shelling of the city of Pyanj in the Tajik SSR.
March - Operation Thunderstorm in Ghazni province.
March 29, 1986 - during the fighting of the 15th brigade, when the Jalalabad battalion, with the support of the Asadabad battalion, defeated a large Mujahideen base in Karer.

Operation Circle in Kabul and Logar provinces.

April 9 - Mujahideen attack on a Soviet border post. When repelling the attack, 2 Soviet soldiers were killed and 20 Mujahideen were killed.
April 12 - the defeat of the Milov rebel base in Nangarhar province.
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 state border.
November 23 - Operation Magistral begins to unblock the city of Khost.

January 7-8 - battle at height 3234.
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 troops captured the center of Wardak province - the city of Maidanshahr. In September 1988, Soviet troops near Maidanshahr carried out an operation to destroy the Khurkabul base area.
August 10 - Mujahideen took Kunduz

January 23-26 - Operation Typhoon, Kunduz province. The last military operation of the SA in Afghanistan.
February 4 - the last unit of the Soviet Army left Kabul.
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 Military Contingent, Lieutenant General B.V. Gromov, who, according to the official version, was the last to cross the border river Amu Darya (Termez). He stated: “There is not a single Soviet soldier left behind me.” This statement was not true, since both Soviet soldiers who were captured by the Mujahideen and border guard units who covered the withdrawal of troops and returned to USSR territory only in the afternoon of February 15 remained in Afghanistan. The border troops of the KGB of the USSR carried out tasks to protect the Soviet-Afghan border in separate units on the territory of Afghanistan until April 1989.

Results

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

I am deeply convinced that there is no basis for the assertion that the 40th Army was defeated, nor that we won a 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.

No one has ever set the task of winning a military victory in Afghanistan to the Limited Contingent. All the combat operations that the 40th Army had to conduct from 1980 until almost last days our stay in the country, were either proactive or reactive in nature. Together with government forces, we carried out military operations only to prevent attacks on our garrisons, airfields, automobile convoys and communications that were used to transport goods.

Indeed, 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. 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 outbreak of the Afghan war, several countries announced a boycott of the 1980 Olympic Games held in Moscow.

Humanitarian consequences

The result of hostilities from 1978 to 1992 was a flow of refugees to Iran and Pakistan, a large percentage of whom remain there to this day. 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 bitterness of the warring parties reached extreme limits. It is known that the Mujahideen subjected prisoners to torture, among which the “red tulip” is widely known. Weapons were used so widely that many of the villages were literally built from rockets left over after the departure of Soviet army, residents used rockets to build houses, as ceilings, window and door beams, but statements by the US administration about the use of the 40th Army chemical weapons, voiced in March 1982, were never documented.

Losses of the parties

Exact number Afghans killed in the war are unknown. The most common figure is 1 million dead; Available estimates range from 670 thousand civilians to 2 million in total. According to Harvard professor M. Kramer, an American researcher of the Afghan war: “During the nine years of war, more than 2.5 million Afghans (mostly civilians) were killed or maimed, and 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.

USSR losses

Total - 13,833 people. These data first appeared in the Pravda newspaper in August 1989. Subsequently, the final figure increased slightly, presumably due to those who died from the consequences of injuries and illnesses after dismissal from armed forces. 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
Ministry of Internal Affairs - 28

Total - 15,031 people. Sanitary losses - almost 54 thousand wounded, shell-shocked, injured; 416 thousand sick.

According to the testimony of Vladimir Sidelnikov, a professor at the Military Medical Academy of St. Petersburg, the final figures do not take into account military personnel who died from wounds and illnesses in hospitals on the territory of the USSR.

In a study of the Afghan war conducted by officers of the General Staff under the leadership of prof. Valentin Runova, provides an estimate of 26,000 dead, including those killed in battle, those who died from wounds and illnesses, and those killed as a result of accidents. The breakdown by year is as follows:

Of the approximately 400 military personnel listed as missing in action during the war, a certain number of prisoners were taken by Western journalists to Western Europe and North America. According to the USSR Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as of June 1989, about 30 people lived there; three people, after the statement by the USSR Prosecutor General that former prisoners would not be subject to criminal prosecution, returned to the Soviet Union. According to data from the Committee on the Affairs of Internationalist Soldiers under the Council of Heads of Government of the Commonwealth (CIS) as of February 15, 2009, there were 270 people on the list of missing Soviet citizens in Afghanistan from 1979 to 1989.

Number of dead Soviet generals according to press publications, it is usually four dead; sometimes the figure is 5 dead in Afghanistan.

	Title, position		Circumstances
Vadim Nikolaevich Khakhalov	Major General, Deputy Commander of the Air Force of the Turkestan Military District	Lurkokh gorge	Died in a helicopter shot down by the Mujahideen
Pyotr Ivanovich Shkidchenko	Lieutenant General, Head of the Combat Operations Control Group under the Minister of Defense of Afghanistan	Paktia Province	Died in a helicopter shot down by ground fire. Posthumously awarded the title of Hero Russian Federation (4.07.2000)
Anatoly Andreevich Dragun	Lieutenant General, Head of the General Staff of the USSR Armed Forces	DRA, Kabul?	Died suddenly during a deployment to Afghanistan
Nikolay Vasilievich Vlasov	Major General, Advisor to the Commander of the Afghan Air Force	DRA, Shindand Province	Shot down by a hit from a MANPADS while flying on a MiG-21
Leonid Kirillovich Tsukanov	Major General, Advisor to the Commander of Artillery of the Afghan Armed Forces	DRA, Kabul	Died from illness

Losses in equipment, according to official data, amounted to 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.

Some Soviet military personnel who fought in Afghanistan suffered from the so-called “Afghan syndrome” - post-traumatic stress disorder. Testing conducted in the early 1990s showed that at least 35-40% of participants in the war in Afghanistan were in dire need of help from professional psychologists.

Other losses

According to Pakistani authorities, in the first four months of 1987, more than 300 civilians were killed as a result of Afghan air raids on Pakistani territory.

Economic losses of the USSR

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

In works of culture and art

Fiction

Andrey Dyshev. Reconnaissance. - M.: Eksmo, 2006. - ISBN 5-699-14711-X
Dyshev Sergey. Lost Platoon. - M.: Eksmo, 2006. - ISBN 5-699-15709-3
Mikhail Evstafiev. Two steps from paradise. - M.: Eksmo, 2006 - ISBN 5-699-18424-4
Nikolay Prokudin. Raid battalion. - M.: Eksmo, 2006 - ISBN 5-699-18904-1
Sergei Skripal, Gennady Rytchenko. Doomed contingent. - M.: Eksmo, 2006. - ISBN 5-699-16949-0
Gleb Bobrov. Soldier's saga. - M.: Eksmo, 2007 - ISBN 978-5-699-20879-1
Alexander Prokhanov. Tree in the center of Kabul. - M.: Soviet writer, 1982. - 240 p.
Svetlana Alexievich. Zinc boys. - M.: Time, 2007. - ISBN 978-5-9691-0189-3
Frolov I. A. Walks with the flight engineer. Helicopter pilot. - M.: EKSMO, 2007. - ISBN 978-5-699-21881-3
Victor Nikolaev. Alive in help. Notes from an "Afghan". - M.: Soft Publishing, 2006. - ISBN 5-93876-026-7
Pavel Andreev. Twelve stories. "Afghan War 1979-1989", 1998-2002.
Alexander Segen. Lost armored personnel carrier. - M.: Armada-Press, 2001, 224 p. - ISBN 5-309-00098-4
Oleg Ermakov. Afghan stories. Mark of the Beast.
Igor Moiseenko. Firing sector. - M.Eksmo, 2008

Memoirs

Gromov B.V."Limited contingent." M., Ed. group “Progress”, “Culture”, 1994. 352 p. The book by the last commander of the 40th Army contains many documents revealing the reasons for the deployment of troops and describes many events of the war.
Lyakhovsky A. A. Tragedy and valor of Afghanistan M., Iskona, 1995, 720 pp. ISBN 5-85844-047-9 Large fragments of the text coincide with the book by B.V. Gromov.
Mayorov A. M. The truth about the Afghan war Testimony of the chief military adviser. M., Human Rights, 1996, ISBN 5-7712-0032-8
Gordienko A. N. Wars of the second half of the 20th century. Minsk., 1999 ISBN 985-437-507-2 A large section of the book is devoted to the background and course of hostilities in Afghanistan
Ablazov V.I."Afghanistan. The Fourth War", Kyiv, 2002; “A cloudless sky over all of Afghanistan”, Kyiv, 2005; “The long way from Afghan captivity and obscurity”, Kyiv, 2005.
Bondarenko I. N.“How we built in Afghanistan”, Moscow, 2009
Podushkov D. L. Confession to yourself (about participation in hostilities in Afghanistan). - Vyshny Volochyok, 2002. - 48 s.
David S. Insbee. Afghanistan. Soviet victory// Flame " cold war": Victories that never happened. = Cold War Hot: Alternative Decisions of the Cold War / ed. Peter Tsouros, trans. Yu. Yablokova. - M.: AST, Lux, 2004. - P. 353-398. - 480 s. - (Great Controversies). - 5000 copies. - ISBN 5-17-024051 ( alternative history war)
Kozhukhov, M. Yu. Alien stars above Kabul - M.: Olympus: Eksmo, 2010-352 pp., ISBN 978-5-699-39744-0

In cinema

“Hot Summer in Kabul” (1983) - film directed by Ali Khamraev
“Paid for Everything” (1988) - film directed by Alexey Saltykov
"Rambo 3" (1988, USA)
“Sergeant” (1988) - a film in the film anthology “The Bridge”, dir. Stanislav Gaiduk, production: Mosfilm, Belarusfilm
“Scorched by Kandahar” (1989, director: Yuri Sabitov) - a Soviet Afghan officer, decommissioned due to injury, enters the fight against the mafia and, in the end, exposes the criminals at the cost of his own life
“Cargo 300” (1989) - film from the Sverdlovsk film studio
“Two steps to silence” (1991) - film directed by Yuri Tupitsky
“Gorge of Spirits” (1991) - film directed by Sergei Nilov
“Afghan Break” (1991, USSR-Italy) - a film by Vladimir Bortko about the war in Afghanistan
“The Leg” (1991) - film directed by Nikita Tyagunov
“Afghan” (1991) - film directed by Vladimir Mazur. Contrabalt
“Afghan-2” (1994) - continuation of the film “Afghan”
“Peshawar Waltz” (1994) - a film by T. Bekmambetov and G. Kayumov, in the opinion of “Afghan” veterans, one of the most poignant and truthful films about that war, dedicated to the events in Badaber
“Muslim” (1995) - a film by Vladimir Khotinenko about a Soviet soldier who returned home after 7 years in captivity of the Mujahideen
“9th Company” (2005, Russia-Ukraine-Finland) - film by Fyodor Bondarchuk
“The Soldier’s Star” (2006, France) - a film by French journalist Christophe de Ponfilly about the story of a Soviet prisoner of war in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The prototype of the main character was one of the participants in the armed uprising in the Badaber camp
"Charlie Wilson's War" (2007, USA) - the film is based on real story about how, during the Afghan War, Texas Congressman Charles Wilson organized the financing of a covert CIA operation to supply weapons to the Afghan resistance forces (Operation Cyclone)
"The Kite Runner" (2007)
“Afghan War” 2009 - documentary-fiction series with elements of historical reconstruction
“Caravan Hunters” (2010) - a military drama based on the works of Alexander Prokhanov “Caravan Hunter” and “Muslim Wedding”.

In music

“Blue Berets”: Our Afghan, Afghan break, Silver plane, War is not a walk in the park, Borders
“Cascade”: Cuckoo, We leave at dawn, On the Bagram road, I will return, We are leaving, To the motorist warriors, Who needed this war?
"Contingent": Cuckoo, Prisoners, Two meters
“Echo of Afghanistan”: I was killed near Kandahar, Cigarette smoke
"Lube": For you
“Survival Instructions”: 1988 - Confrontation in Moscow - Afghan Syndrome
Igor Talkov: Ballad of an Afghan
Maxim Troshin: Afghanistan
Valery Leontyev. Afghan wind (I. Nikolaev - N. Zinoviev)
Alexander Rosenbaum. Monologue of the Black Tulip pilot, Caravan, In the Afghani mountains, Rain on the pass, We will return
Yuri Shevchuk. War is childish, don't shoot
Konstantin Kinchev. Tomorrow May Be Late (album “Nervous Night”, 1984)
Egor Letov. Afghan syndrome
N. Anisimov. The last monologue of the Mi-8, the song of the helicopter gunner
M. Bessonov. My heart aches until it hurts
I. Burlyaev. In memory of Afghan helicopter pilots
V. Verstakov. Allah Akbar
A. Doroshenko. Afghan
V. Gorsky. Afghan
S. Kuznetsov. An incident on the road
I. Morozov. Convoy Talukan-Faizabad, Midnight toast, Helicopter pilots
A. Smirnov. For KamAZ drivers
I. Baranov. An incident in battle, in the mountains near Peshawar
Sprint. Afghanistan
Nesmeyana.“A Fur Coat from Afghanistan”, “Bottle”, “Elevator of Love”
Collection of Afghan songs "Time has chosen us", 1988

In computer games

Squad Battles: Soviet-Afghan War
Rambo III
9th company
The truth about the ninth company
Front line. Afghanistan 82

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.

Government armed forces took part in this conflict Democratic Republic 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 US military specialists, a number of European countries- NATO members, 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 service units, 4 divisions, 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 Transition from active combat operations primarily to supporting the actions of Afghan troops 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 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 to ensure stability in the 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 is interference in domestic policy(both the obvious intervention of the USSR and the hidden one of the USA) became the cause of a 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 government of Afghanistan, 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, the radio and television center, 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:

The entry of USSR troops and their deployment to garrisons lasted from December 1979 to February 1980.
From March 1980 to April 1985, active hostilities were carried out, including large-scale ones.
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.
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.

That's how short stroke 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 locality. 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 set 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.

On December 25, 1979, the introduction of a limited contingent of Soviet troops into the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan began.

This undeclared war, which lasted 9 years, 1 month and 19 days, remains to this day unknown war despite numerous published books of memoirs of participants, very detailed descriptions of the events of the war, veteran websites, etc. If we compare how much is known about the three-year Patriotic War of 1812 and the four-year Great Patriotic War, then we can say that we know almost nothing about the Afghan War Nothing. The image of a ten-year “march across the river” in the minds of people, filmmakers and journalists is not cleared up at all, and, 33 years later, the same cliches about a “senseless bloody war”, about “mountains of corpses” and “rivers of blood”, about numerous, veterans who went crazy from these “rivers of blood” and then became drunkards or became bandits.

Some young people, seeing the abbreviation OKSVA, think that this stupid tattoo artist made a mistake in the word “Moscow”. I was 16 years old when this strange war began, and a year later I graduated from school and either entered college or entered the army. And my comrades and I really didn’t want to end up in this same OKSV in Afghanistan, from where the first zinc coffins had already begun to arrive! Although some crazy people rushed there themselves...

And that's how it all began...

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. As a formal basis, the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee used repeated requests from the Afghan leadership for the deployment of Soviet troops.

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 at 15-00, the entry of Soviet troops into the DRA began in three directions: Kushka - Shindand - Kandahar, Termez - Kunduz - Kabul, Khorog - Fayzabad. The troops landed at the airfields of Kabul, Bagram, and Kandahar. On December 27, the KGB special forces “Zenith”, “Grom” and the “Muslim battalion” of the GRU special forces stormed the Taj Beg Palace. During the battle, Afghan President Amin was killed. On the night of December 28, the 108th Motorized Rifle Division entered Kabul, taking control of all the most important facilities in the capital.

The Soviet contingent included: the command of the 40th Army with support and service units, divisions - 4, separate brigades - 5, separate regiments - 4, combat aviation regiments - 4, helicopter regiments - 3, pipeline brigade - 1, material support brigade - 1. And also, divisions Airborne troops USSR Ministry of Defense, units and subdivisions of the GRU General Staff, the Office of the Chief Military Advisor. In addition to formations and units of the Soviet Army, there were separate units of border troops, the KGB and the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR in Afghanistan.

On December 29, Pravda publishes the “Address of the Government of Afghanistan”: “The Government of the DRA, taking into account the expanding interference and provocations of the external enemies of Afghanistan in order to protect the gains of the April Revolution, territorial integrity, national independence and maintaining peace and security, based on the Treaty of Friendship and Good Neighborliness of December 5, 1978, appealed to the USSR with an urgent request for urgent political, moral, economic assistance, including military assistance, with which the DRA government had previously repeatedly appealed to the government of the Soviet Union “The government of the Soviet Union satisfied the request of the Afghan side.”

Soviet troops in Afghanistan guarded roads, Soviet-Afghan facilities economic cooperation(gas fields, power plants, nitrogen fertilizer plant in Mazar-i-Sharif, etc.). Ensured the functioning of airfields in major cities. Contributed to the strengthening of government bodies in 21 provincial centers. They carried convoys with military and national economic cargo for their own needs and in the interests of the DRA.

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 objects.

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 engineer 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.

On 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 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 Afghanistan began on May 15, 1988.

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.

Materials from the sites: http://soldatru.ru and http://ria.ru and photos from open Internet sources were used.

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 a 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. A total of 546,255 took part in hostilities Soviet soldiers and officers. 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 individual shelf, 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 rural areas. 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.