Afghan War (1979-1989) - one of the stages of the civil war in Afghanistan between the armed forces of the government of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan (DRA) and the armed opposition (mujahideen); during this period, by decision of the Central Committee of the CPSU, a limited contingent of Soviet troops (OKSV) was introduced into the territory of Afghanistan.

According to the official version of the Soviet leadership, the Soviet Army was supposed to prevent the threat of a foreign military invasion of the territory of the USSR.
The formal basis for the commissioning of the OKSV was the repeated requests of the Afghan leadership for help.

The decision 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 beginning of the Afghan war (commissioning of the OKSV) - December 25, 1979.
Completion - February 15, 1989.

Irrecoverable losses(killed, died from wounds, diseases, in accidents, missing) - 15 051 people (as of January 1, 1999).
Sanitary losses - almost 54 thousand wounded, shell-shocked, traumatized; 416 thousand cases (as of January 1, 1999).
Losses in equipment - 147 tanks, 1,314 armored vehicles (armored personnel carriers, BMP, BMD, BRDM), 510 engineering vehicles, 11,369 trucks and fuel tankers, 433 artillery systems, 118 aircraft, 333 helicopters (as of January 1, 1999).

After the outbreak of the Afghan war, several countries boycotted the 1980 Olympics, which were held in Moscow.
In the course of the developing conflict, support to the Mujahideen was provided by military specialists from the United States and a number of European countries - NATO members, China, as well as Pakistani special services.

The beginning of the civil war in Afghanistan

In the sixties, a communist party was created in the Kingdom of Afghanistan, which soon split into two factions: "Khalq" ("People", leader - Nur Muhammad Taraki) and "Parcham" ("Banner", leader - the son of General of the Afghan armed forces Babrak Karmal) ...

In 1973, the king's cousin, Mohammed Daoud Khan, staged a coup d'etat, and a republic was proclaimed in the country. The president tried to carry out a series of reforms, but on April 27, 1978, he was overthrown as a result of a military coup. The People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) came to power, Nur Mohammed Taraki became president, and Babrak Karmal became vice president.

In April 1979, an uprising against the communist regime, the so-called "Saur (April) revolution", began in all provinces. As a result, the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan (DRA) was proclaimed. Taraki became the head of state, and Hafizullah Amin became the chairman of the Revolutionary Council. The government launched reforms that sparked protests in traditional Afghan society.
PDPA split into two factions, Amin stormed the presidential palace (September 14, 1979), Taraki was killed.

The Soviet government decided to send troops to the territory of Afghanistan to help the communist government cope with the rebels, remove Amin from the leadership and return Babrak Karmal to power.

The entry of Soviet troops into Afghanistan

Back in July 1979, a battalion from the 111th Parachute Regiment of the 105th Airborne Division arrived in Bagram. It was the first regular unit of the Soviet Army in Afghanistan.

On December 9-12, the first so-called "Muslim battalion" arrived in Afghanistan, a special forces unit of the Soviet Army, created in the course of preparations for the introduction of troops into Afghanistan and staffed by fighters with a "Central Asian" appearance.

On December 14, a separate battalion of the 345th Guards Parachute Regiment (OPDP) arrived in Bagram.
On December 25, 1979, at 15.00, Soviet troops began to enter Afghanistan over two pontoon bridges across the Amu-Darya River near the city of Termez. The scouts were the first to cross, then the columns of the 40th Army - the 108th Motorized Rifle Division (commanded by General K. Kuzmin).

Military transport aviation with the help of Il-76, An-22, An-12 transport aircraft began airlifting the main forces of the 105th Airborne Division of a separate parachute regiment to the airfields of Kabul and Bagram.
7,700 paratroopers and 894 units of military equipment were delivered.

At the same time, the 357th and 66th motorized rifle divisions, which occupied Herat and Farah in the west of the country, entered Afghanistan through Kushka and other border points.
On December 27, Operation Storm-333 was carried out - Amin's palace was taken by storm. The operation lasted 43 minutes. Amin, his son and about 200 Afghan guards and soldiers were killed.

1980 year

In February 1980, the contingent of Soviet troops in Afghanistan reached 58,000 people.
In March, the first major offensive operation of the OCSV units against the Mujahideen was carried out, the so-called Kunar offensive.
In the summer, the 16th and 54th motorized rifle divisions were brought into Afghanistan. In northern Afghanistan, a 100-kilometer security zone was created along the Soviet-Afghan border.

1981 year

The 357th division was replaced by the 346th division and the 5th motorized rifle division was additionally brought into Afghanistan.
In December, the opposition base point in the Darzab region (Jowzjan province) was destroyed.

1982 year

On November 3, in the Hindu Kush mountains at the Salang pass, more than 176 people died as a result of the explosion of a fuel tanker.

1983 year

On January 2, in Mazar-i-Sharif, the Mujahideen took 16 Soviet civilian specialists hostage. 10 of them were released a month later, but six died.
In April, opposition units were defeated in the Nijrab Gorge (Kapisa province). Losses on the Soviet side: 14 killed, 63 wounded.
The command of the 40th Soviet Army, located 50 km north of Kabul near the Bagram airbase, was transferred to the vicinity of Kabul.

1984 year

In 1984, the number of Soviet troops in Afghanistan reached 150,000.
Seven Soviet motorized rifle divisions were stationed along the important Afghan ring road and on the road to the Kiber Pass.
The 105th Guards Airborne Division was stationed in the Bagram-Kabul area. One of the five airborne brigades that make up this division was stationed in Jalalabad.
The command of the 40th Soviet Army was transferred from the vicinity of Kabul to the Soviet border and to Termez.

The main supply depots were located on Soviet territory, in Kushka and Termez, and in Afghanistan - the Shindand air base between Herat and Farah, Bagram near Kabul, Abdalmir alam near Kunduz and Kelagay on the Salang road. A fuel pipeline reaches Kelagai from the Soviet border. A combined road and railway bridge was built at Termez across the Amu-Darya.

To participate in ground combat operations, Su-25 aircraft and helicopters, including the MI-24, were used. On January 16, the Mujahideen for the first time shot down a Su-25 aircraft from the Strela-2M portable anti-aircraft missile system (MANPADS). On October 27, an Il-76 transport aircraft was shot down from MANPADS over Kabul.

On April 30, in the Panjshir Gorge, the 1st Battalion of the 682nd Motorized Rifle Regiment was ambushed and suffered heavy losses.

1985 year

On April 21, in the Maravarsky gorge (Kunar province), the 1st company of the Soviet special forces under the command of Captain Nikolai Tsebruk was surrounded and destroyed.
Irreplaceable losses: 31 people.
On April 26, there was an uprising of Soviet and Afghan prisoners of war in the Badaber prison in Pakistan.
In the fall, the creation of support base regions began in hard-to-reach places of the country.

1986 year

At the 27th Congress of the CPSU, Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee Mikhail Gorbachev announced the beginning of the development of a plan for a phased withdrawal of troops.
In April, the Mujahideen suffered a major defeat as a result of the operation to defeat the Javar base.

On May 4, at the XVIII plenum of the Central Committee of the PDPA, Muhammad Najibullah was elected to the post of general secretary instead of Babrak Karmal. The new government proclaims a policy of national reconciliation.

1987 year

Operations were carried out in February and March: Strike in Kunduz province, Shkval in Kandahar province, Thunderstorm in Ghazni province, Krug in Kabul and Logar provinces.
Operations were carried out in May: "Volley" in the provinces of Logar, Paktia, Kabul and "South-87" in the province of Kandahar.
Operation Magistral was launched in November for the Afghan province of Khost on the border with Pakistan.

1988 year

The most fierce battle of Operation Magistral took place on January 7-8 in the area of ​​the altitude indicated on the maps as 3234.
The 9th Airborne Company of the 345th Guards Independent Parachute Regiment, totaling 39 people, with the support of regimental artillery, defended the hill, which was attacked by special rebel units trained in Pakistan. The battle lasted 12 hours, the Mujahideen retreated.
Irreplaceable losses: six people. For this battle, all paratroopers were awarded the Orders of the Battle Red Banner and the Red Star; junior sergeant V. A. Aleksandrov and private A. A. Melnikov were posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

On April 14, the Geneva agreements on a political settlement of the situation around the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan were signed. The Soviet Union pledged to withdraw its contingent within 9 months, and the United States and Pakistan had to stop supporting the mujahideen.

1989 year

The last Soviet military operation in Afghanistan - "Typhoon" - was carried out on January 23-26. On February 4, the last unit of the Soviet Army left Kabul.
On February 15, Soviet troops were completely withdrawn from Afghanistan. The command of the 40th Army, Lieutenant General Boris Gromov, supervised the withdrawal of troops.

All-Russian public organization"Russian Union of Afghanistan Veterans":

The location of Afghanistan, in the very center of Eurasia, at the junction of "South" and "Central" - Asia, puts it in the category of key regions in ensuring the stability of the military-political situation in the entire Central Asian region, where the interests of all the leading powers of the world have intersected for centuries.

At the end of 1979, Soviet troops entered Afghanistan without hindrance. Collected here are images from the 1979-1989 Afghan War.
The purpose of the introduction of Soviet troops at the end of 1979 is to secure its southern borders and the USSR's desire to support the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan.

1. Soviet tanks near Kabul.

2. Afghan combat helicopter. Provides cover for a Soviet convoy that supplies food and fuel to Kabul. Afghanistan, January 30, 1989.

3. Afghan refugees, May 1980. (Photo by AP Photo):

4. Mujahideen. Herat, Afghanistan, February 28, 1980.

5. Muslim rebels with AK-47, February 15, 1980. Despite the presence of Soviet and Afghan government forces, the rebels patrolled the mountain ranges along the Afghan border with Iran.

6. Soviet troops on their way to Afghanistan in the mid-1980s.

7. A detachment of Muslim rebels near Kabul, February 21, 1980. At that time, they attacked the columns moving from Pakistan to Afghanistan.

8. Soviet soldiers are watching the area.

9. Two Soviet soldiers taken prisoner.

10. Afghan partisans on top of the downed Soviet Mi-8 helicopter, January 12, 1981.

11. Before the start of the withdrawal of Soviet troops in May 1988, the Mujahideen had never succeeded in carrying out a single major operation and had not succeeded in occupying a single major city.

The exact number of Afghans killed in the war is unknown. The most common figure is 1 million deaths; available estimates range from 670,000 civilians to 2 million in total.

12. Afghan guerrilla leader Ahmad Shah Massoud surrounded by mujahideen, 1984.

It is curious that according to the UN statistics on the demographic situation in Afghanistan, in the period from 1980 to 1990, there was a decrease in the mortality rate of the Afghan population in comparison with the previous and subsequent periods.

13. Afghan guerrilla with the American portable anti-aircraft missile system Stinger, 1987.

The losses of the USSR are estimated at about 15,000 people.

14. Soviet soldiers leave an Afghan store in the center of Kabul, April 24, 1988.

To support the Kabul government, $ 800 million was spent annually from the USSR budget. On the maintenance of the 40th Army and the conduct of hostilities from the budget of the USSR, from 3 to 8.2 billion US dollars were spent annually.

15. A village destroyed during the fighting between Mujahideen and Afghan soldiers in Salang, Afghanistan. Rebours):

16. Mujahideen 10 kilometers from Herat, waiting for a Soviet convoy, February 15, 1980.

17. Soviet soldiers with German shepherds trained to find mines, Kabul May 1, 1988.

18. Mangled Soviet cars in northeastern Pakistan, February 1984.

19. Mujahideen with anti-aircraft gun, July 20, 1986.

20. A Soviet plane lands at the Kabul airport on February 8, 1989.

21. Our plane, cars and shells at the airbase in Kabul, January 23, 1989.

22. Soviet soldiers in Kabul, February 10, 1989.

23. Afghan firefighters and a girl killed in a powerful explosion in the center of Kabul, May 14, 1988.

24. Soviet soldiers in the center of Kabul, October 19, 1986.

25. Soviet and Afghan officers pose for the press in the center of Kabul, October 20, 1986.

26. The beginning of the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan, May 1988.

27. A column of Soviet tanks and military trucks leaves Afghanistan, February 7, 1989.

28. After the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan, the situation on the Soviet-Afghan border became much more complicated: there were shelling of the territory of the USSR, attempts to penetrate the territory of the USSR, armed attacks on Soviet border guards, mining of Soviet territory.

| The participation of the USSR in conflicts during the Cold War. War in Afghanistan (1979-1989)

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

Colonel-General Boris V. Gromov, the last commander of the 40th Army, in his book "Limited contingent" expressed the following opinion about the results of the actions of the Soviet Army in Afghanistan:

“I am deeply convinced: there are no grounds for the assertion that the 40th Army was defeated, as well as that we won a military victory in Afghanistan. from the Americans in Vietnam - their tasks and returned to their homeland in an orderly manner.If the armed opposition units are considered as the main enemy of the Limited contingent, the difference between us is that the 40th Army did what it saw fit, and the spooks did only that what they could. "

Before the start of the withdrawal of Soviet troops in May 1988, the Mujahideen had never been able to carry out a single major operation and did not succeed in occupying a single large city. At the same time, Gromov's opinion that the 40th Army was not given the task of military victory does not agree with the assessments of some other authors. In particular, Major General Yevgeny Nikitenko, who in 1985-1987 was the deputy chief of the operations department of the headquarters of the 40th Army, believes that throughout the war the USSR pursued unchanging goals - suppressing the resistance of the armed opposition and strengthening the power of the Afghan government. Despite all efforts, the number of opposition formations 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, the former deputy. Head of the Operational Group of the USSR Ministry of Defense in the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan, the leadership of Afghanistan actually lost the fight against the rebels for their people, could not stabilize the situation in the country, although they had 300,000 military formations (army, police, state security).

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

Losses of the parties

Afghanistan losses

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

The exact number of Afghans killed in the war is unknown. The most common figure is 1 million deaths; available estimates range from 670,000 civilians to 2 million in total. According to the researcher of the Afghan war from the United States, Professor M. Kramer: "During the nine years of the war, more than 2.7 million Afghans (mostly civilians) were killed or maimed, several million more ended up in the ranks of refugees, many of whom left the country." ... Apparently, there is no exact division of victims into government army soldiers, mujahideen and civilians.

Ahmad Shah Massoud in his letter to the Soviet ambassador to Afghanistan Y. Vorontsov on September 2, 1989, wrote that the Soviet Union's support for the PDPA led to the deaths of more than 1.5 million Afghans, and 5 million people became refugees.

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

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

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

Losses of the USSR

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

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

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

Total - 15,031 people.

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

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

According to official statistics, during the hostilities on the territory of Afghanistan, 417 servicemen were captured and disappeared (of which 130 were released during the period before the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan). In the Geneva agreements of 1988, the conditions for the release of Soviet prisoners were not fixed. After the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan, negotiations for the release of Soviet prisoners continued with the mediation of the government of the DRA and Pakistan.

Losses in equipment, according to widespread official data, amounted to 147 tanks, 1,314 armored vehicles (armored personnel carriers, BMP, BMD, BRDM-2), 510 engineering vehicles, 11,369 trucks and fuel tankers, 433 artillery systems, 118 aircraft, 333 helicopters (helicopter losses only 40th Army, excluding helicopters border troops and the Central Asian Military District). At the same time, these figures were not specified in any way - in particular, information was not published on the number of combat and non-combat losses of aviation, on the losses of aircraft and helicopters by type, etc. It should be noted that the former deputy commander of the 40th Army for armaments, General Lieutenant V.S.Korolev gives other, higher figures for losses in equipment. In particular, according to him, in 1980-1989, Soviet troops irretrievably lost 385 tanks and 2530 armored personnel carriers, BRDM, BMP, BMD (rounded figures).

When in December 1979 Soviet troops entered Afghanistan to support the friendly communist regime, no one could have imagined that the war would drag on for ten long years and eventually "drive" the last nail into the "coffin" of the USSR. Today, some are trying to present this war as the villainy of the "Kremlin elders" or the result of a worldwide conspiracy. However, we will try to rely only on facts.

According to modern data, the losses of the Soviet Army in the Afghan war amounted to 14,427 people killed and missing. In addition, 180 advisers and 584 specialists from other departments were killed. More than 53 thousand people were shell-shocked, wounded or injured.

Cargo "200"

The exact number of Afghans killed in the war is unknown. The most common figure is 1 million deaths; available estimates range from 670,000 civilians to 2 million in total. According to Harvard professor M. Kramer, an American researcher of the Afghan war: "During the nine years of the war, more than 2.7 million Afghans (mostly civilians) were killed or maimed, several million more ended up in the ranks of refugees, many of whom left the country." ... Apparently, there is no clear division of victims into government army soldiers, mujahideen and civilians.

The dire consequences of the war

For courage and heroism shown during the war in Afghanistan, more than 200 thousand servicemen were awarded orders and medals (11 thousand were awarded posthumously), 86 people were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union (28 were posthumous). Among the awardees – 110 thousand soldiers and sergeants, about 20 thousand warrant officers, more than 65 thousand officers and generals, more than 2.5 thousand employees of the SA, including – 1350 women.

A group of Soviet servicemen awarded with government awards

Over the entire period of hostilities, 417 servicemen were in Afghan captivity, 130 of whom were released during the war and were able to return to their homeland. As of January 1, 1999, 287 people remained among those who did not return from captivity and were not found.

Captured Soviet soldier

In nine years of war NS The loss of equipment and weapons was: airplaneetov - 118 (in the Air Force– 107); helicopters - 333 (in the Air Force – 324); tanks - 147; BMP, BTR, BMD, BRDM - 1314; guns and mortars - 433; radio stations and KShM - 1138; engineering machines - 510; flatbed vehicles and tank trucks - 11 369.

Burned out Soviet tank

During the war, the government in Kabul was dependent on the USSR, which from 1978 to the early 1990s provided it with military assistance in the amount of about $ 40 billion. Meanwhile, the rebels made contacts with Pakistan and the United States, and also received widespread support from parties Saudi Arabia, China and a number of other states, which in aggregate allocated weapons and other military equipment to the Mujahideen in the amount of about $ 10 billion.

Afghan mujahideen

On January 7, 1988, a fierce battle took place in Afghanistan at an altitude of 3234 m above the road to the city of Khost in the area of ​​the Afghan-Pakistani border. This was one of the most famous military clashes of the units of the Limited contingent of Soviet troops in Afghanistan with the armed formations of the Afghan mujahideen. On the basis of these events in 2005, the film "Ninth Company" was shot in the Russian Federation. The height of 3234 m was defended by the 9th paratrooper company of the 345th guards separate parachute regiment with a total of 39 people with the support of regimental artillery. Soviet fighters were attacked by units of mujahideen numbering from 200 to 400 people, trained in Pakistan. The battle lasted 12 hours. The Mujahideen did not manage to capture the height. Having suffered heavy losses, they retreated. Six paratroopers died in the ninth company, 28 were injured, nine of them – heavy. All paratroopers for this battle were awarded the Orders of the Battle Red Banner and the Red Star. Junior Sergeant V. A. Aleksandrov and Private A. A. Melnikov were posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

Shot from the movie "9th company"

The most famous battle of Soviet border guards during the war in Afghanistan took place on November 22, 1985 near the Afridzh village in the Zardev Gorge of the Darayi-Kalat mountain range in northeastern Afghanistan. The combat group of the frontier guards of the Panfilov outpost of the motor-maneuvering group (in the amount of 21 people) was ambushed as a result of an incorrect crossing of the river. During the battle, 19 border guards were killed. These were the most numerous losses of border guards in the Afghan war. According to some reports, the number of Mujahideen who participated in the ambush was 150 people.

Border guards after the battle

There is a well-established opinion in the post-Soviet period that the USSR was defeated and was expelled from Afghanistan. It is not true. When Soviet troops left Afghanistan in 1989, they did so in a well-planned operation. Moreover, the operation was carried out in several directions at once: diplomatic, economic and military. This allowed not only to save the lives of Soviet soldiers, but also to save the Afghan government. Communist Afghanistan held out even after the fall of the USSR in 1991, and only then, with the loss of support from the USSR and the increasing attempts from the mujahideen and Pakistan, did the DRA begin to slide towards defeat in 1992.

Withdrawal of Soviet troops, February 1989

In November 1989, the Supreme Soviet of the USSR announced an amnesty for all crimes committed by Soviet military personnel in Afghanistan. According to the military prosecutor's office, from December 1979 to February 1989, as part of the 40th Army in the DRA, 4,307 people were brought to criminal responsibility, at the time the USSR Armed Forces decree on amnesty came into force, there were more than 420 former soldiers in prison -internationalists.

We have returned…

Afghan War 1979-1989
	Afghanistan
	Overthrow of H. Amin, withdrawal of Soviet troops
Opponents
	Afghan mujahideen
	Foreign mujahideen
	With the support of:
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 Mohammed Rafi, B. Karmal, M. Najibullah, Abdul-Rashid Dostum	G. Hekmatyar, B. Rabbani, Ahmad Shah Massoud, Ismail Khan, Yunus Khales, D. Haqqani, Said Mansour, Abdul Ali Mazari, M. Nabi, S. Mojaddedi, Abdul Haq, Amin Wardak, Abdul Rasul Sayyaf, Syed Gailani
Forces of the parties
USSR: 80-104 thousand military personnel DRA: 50-130 thousand servicemen According to NVO, no more than 300 thousand.	From 25 thousand (1980) to more than 140 thousand (1988)
War losses
USSR: 15 051 dead, 53 753 wounded, 417 missing DRA: losses unknown	Afghan Mujahideen: 56,000-90,000 (civilians ranging from 600,000 to 2 million)

Afghan war 1979-1989 - prolonged 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 Forces in Afghanistan (OKSVA) - on the one hand, and the mujahideen ("dushmans"), with a part of Afghan society sympathetic to them, with political and financial support of 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 Central Committee of the CPSU, in accordance with the secret resolution of the Central Committee of the CPSU No. friendly regime in Afghanistan ”. The decision was taken by a narrow circle of members of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee (Yu. V. Andropov, DF Ustinov, AA Gromyko and LI Brezhnev).

To achieve these goals, the USSR sent a group of troops into Afghanistan, and a detachment of special forces from among the emerging KGB special 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 versatile - military, financial and humanitarian - support from the Soviet Union.

Background

"Big game"

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

WITH early XIX century between the Russian and British empires begins a struggle for control over Afghanistan, called the "Great Game" (eng. TheGreatGame).

Anglo-Afghan wars

The British tried to forcefully establish domination over Afghanistan, sending their troops from neighboring British India in January 1839. This is how the first Anglo-Afghan war began. Initially, success was accompanied by the British - they managed to overthrow Emir Dost Mohammed and put Shuja Khan on the throne. The reign of Shuja Khan, however, did not last long and in 1842 he was overthrown. Afghanistan concluded a peace treaty with Britain and retained its independence.

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

The British, worried about the rapid advance of Russian troops to the borders of Afghanistan, began the second Anglo-Afghan war in 1878. A stubborn struggle lasted 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 retaining control over the country.

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

Independence of Afghanistan

In 1919, Amanullah Khan proclaimed the independence of Afghanistan 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 a complete lack of industry, an extremely poor population, more than half of which were illiterate.

Republic of Daoud

In 1973, during the visit of the King of Afghanistan Zahir Shah to Italy, a coup d'etat took place in the country. Power was seized by a relative of Zahir Shah, 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 the history of Afghanistan is characterized by strong political instability, rivalry between pro-communist and Islamist groups. The Islamists raised several uprisings, but all of them were suppressed by government forces.

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 make it possible to overcome the backlog of Afghanistan met with resistance from the Islamic opposition. Since 1978, even before the introduction of Soviet troops, a civil war began in Afghanistan.

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

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

The further development of the situation in Afghanistan - armed demonstrations of the Islamic opposition, mutinies in the army, internal party struggles 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 manuals. It watched Amin's activities at the head of Afghanistan with caution, knowing his ambitions and cruelty in the struggle to achieve personal goals. Under H. Amin, terror unfolded in the country not only against the Islamists, but also against the PDPA members who were supporters of Taraki. The repressions also affected the army, the main support of the PDPA, which led to the fall of its already low morale, and caused mass desertions and revolts. The Soviet leadership feared that a further exacerbation 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 the overthrow of Amin and replace him with a leader more loyal to the USSR. As such, B. Karmal was considered, whose candidacy was supported by the chairman of the KGB, Yu. V. Andropov.

When developing the operation to overthrow Amin, it was decided to use the requests of Amin himself about the Soviet military aid... In total, from September to December 1979, there were 7 such appeals. At the beginning of December 1979, the so-called "Muslim battalion" was sent to Bagram - a special task force of the GRU - specially formed in the summer of 1979 from Soviet military personnel of Central Asian origin to guard Taraki and carry out special tasks in Afghanistan. In early December 1979, the Minister of Defense of the USSR D.F.Ustinov informed a narrow circle of officials from among the top military leadership that in the near future, obviously, a decision would be made on the use of Soviet troops in Afghanistan. From December 10, on the personal order of D.F.Ustinov, the deployment and mobilization of units and formations of the Turkestan and Central Asian military districts was carried out. Chief of the 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, General of the Army 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 from July 7, 1979 was guarded in Bagram by the Soviet military -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 servicemen. On December 16, 1979, an attempt was made to assassinate Amin, but he survived, and B. Karmal was urgently returned to the USSR. On December 20, 1979, a "Muslim battalion" was transferred from Bagram to Kabul, which entered the guard brigade of the Amin's palace, which greatly facilitated the 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 administration of the 40th combined-arms army, 2 motorized rifle divisions, an army artillery brigade, an anti-aircraft missile brigade, an airborne assault brigade, combat and logistics support units were prepared for entering Afghanistan, and in the Central Asian military district - two motorized rifle regiments, a mixed air corps department, 2 fighter-bombers, 1 fighter-bombers, 2 helicopter regiments, aviation technical and airfield support units. Three more divisions were mobilized as a reserve in both districts. More than 50 thousand people from the Central Asian republics and Kazakhstan were called up to complete the units, about 8 thousand cars and other equipment were transferred from the national economy. It was the largest mobilization deployment of the Soviet Army since 1945. In addition, the 103rd Guards Airborne Division from Belarus was also prepared for the transfer to Afghanistan, which was transferred to airfields in the Turkestan Military District on December 14.

By the evening of December 23, 1979, the readiness of the troops to enter Afghanistan was reported. 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 self-defense purposes, was not determined. True, already on December 27, DF Ustinov's order appeared to suppress the resistance of the rebels in cases of attack. It was assumed that Soviet troops would become garrisons and secure important industrial and other facilities, thereby freeing up parts of the Afghan army for active operations against opposition units, as well as against possible external interference. The border with Afghanistan was ordered to cross at 15:00 Moscow time (17:00 Kabul) on December 27, 1979. But on the morning of December 25, the 4th battalion of the 56th Guards Airborne Assault Brigade crossed the built pontoon bridge across the border river Amu Darya, which was tasked with capturing the high-mountain Salang pass on the Termez-Kabul road in order to ensure the unhindered passage of Soviet troops.

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

The assault on Amin's palace

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

On the night of December 27-28, B. Karmal arrived in Kabul from Bagram and the radio of Kabul broadcast the appeal of 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), the 103rd airborne division also arrived in Kabul, in fact, after a regular reorganization in 1979 - a separate battalion 345 opdp... These were the first military units and units of the Soviet Army in Afghanistan.

The first "Muslim battalion" arrived in Afghanistan from 9 to 12 December - 154 ooSpN 15obrSpN.

December 25 columns of the 40th Army (40 BUT) The Turkestan Military District is crossing the Afghan border on 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 assist the troops being deployed.

• January 10-11 - an attempt at an anti-government mutiny by artillery regiments of the 20th Afghan division in Kabul. During the battle, about 100 rebels were killed; 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 beginning of hostilities - raids against rebel units in the northern regions of Afghanistan adjacent to the Soviet border, by the forces of an equally reinforced battalion and the use of army firepower, including the Air Force, to suppress resistance.

• February 23 - tragedy in a tunnel on the Salang pass. When passing the tunnel by divisions 186 sms 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 is no data on the suffocated Afghans.
• February-March - the first major operation to suppress an armed rebellion in a mountain regiment in Asmara, Kunar province of the 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 heavy bloody battles, as a result of the blocking of the 3rd Parachute Battalion by the dushmans in the Asmara Gorge. 33 people were killed, 40 people were wounded, one serviceman was missing.
• April - US Congress authorizes $ 15,000,000 of "direct and overt aid" to the Afghan opposition.

First military operation in Panjshir.

• May 11 - the death of the 1st motorized rifle company of the 66th OMRB (Jalalabad) near the village of Khara, Kunar province.
• June 19 - the decision of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee to withdraw some tank, missile and anti-aircraft missile units from Afghanistan.
• August 3 - the battle near the village of Shaesta. The 783rd separate reconnaissance battalion of the 201st Motorized Rifle Division was ambushed in the Mashhad Gorge - the Kishim region near the town of Faizabad, 48 servicemen were killed, 49 were wounded. It was one of the bloodiest episodes in the history of the Afghan war.
• August 12 - arrival in the country of the special forces of the KGB of the USSR "Karpaty".
• September 23 - Lieutenant General Boris Tkach is appointed Commander of the 40th Army.

• September - fighting in the Lurkokh mountain range in the Farah province; death of Major General Khakhalov.
• October 29 - the entry of the second "Muslim battalion" (177 ooSpN) under the command of Major Kerimbayev ("Kara-Major").
• December - the defeat of the opposition base point in the Darzab region (Jowzjan province).

• April 5 - During the military operation in the west of 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 was carried out for the first time in Afghanistan: in the first three days alone, over 4,000 airborne personnel were parachuted. All in all, about 12,000 servicemen of various types of troops took part in this confrontation. The operation took place simultaneously for the entire 120 km into the depth of the gorge. As a result of this operation, Panjshir was taken.
• November 3 - tragedy at the Salang pass. As a result of a traffic jam outside the tunnel, more than 176 people died.
• November 15 - meeting of Yu. Andropov and Zia ul-Haq in Moscow. The Secretary General had a private conversation with the Pakistani President, during which he briefed him on “ a new flexible policy of the Soviet side and an understanding of the need for the fastest resolution of the crisis". The meeting also discussed the expediency of Soviet troops in Afghanistan and the prospects for the Soviet Union's participation in the war. In exchange for the withdrawal of troops from Pakistan, it was required to refuse to help the rebels.

• 2 January - in Mazar-i-Sharif, the Mujahideen abducted a group of 16 Soviet “civilian specialists”.
• February 2 - The hostages abducted in Mazar-i-Sharif and in the village of Vakhshak in northern Afghanistan were released, but six of them died.
• March 28 - meeting of the UN delegation headed by Perez de Cuellar and D. Cordovez with Y. 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 US will support the UN proposal regarding their non-interference in the conflict.
• April - Operation to defeat opposition units in the Nijrab Gorge, Kapisa province. Soviet units lost 14 people killed and 63 wounded.
• May 19 - Soviet Ambassador to Pakistan V. Smirnov officially confirmed the aspiration of the USSR and Afghanistan " schedule the withdrawal of the contingent of Soviet troops».
• July - Mujahideen attack on Khost. An attempt to blockade the city was unsuccessful.
• August - the hard work of D. Cordovez's mission to prepare agreements for a peaceful settlement of the Afghan problem is almost completed: an 8-month program for the withdrawal of troops from the country has been developed, but after Andropov's illness, the issue of the conflict was removed from the agenda of the Politburo meetings. Now it was only about “ dialogue with the UN».
• Winter - fighting intensified in the region of Sarobi and the Jalalabad Valley (in the reports, the province of Laghman is most often mentioned). For the first time, armed opposition units remain on the territory of Afghanistan for the entire winter period. The creation of fortified areas and bases of resistance began directly in the country.

• January 16 - Mujahideen shot down a Su-25 aircraft from 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 aircraft over Kabul from Strela MANPADS.

• April 21 - Death of the Maravara company.
• April 26 - the uprising of Soviet and Afghan prisoners of war in the Badaber prison, located in Pakistan.
• May 25 - Kunar Operation. Battle near the village of Konyak, Pechdara gorge, Kunar province of the 4th company, 149th Guards. Motorized rifle regiment. Caught in the ring of the surrounded mujahideen and Pakistani mercenaries - "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 is the new course of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU on political decision"Afghan problem".
• October 16-17 - Shutulian 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 involved. The creation of support fortifications began in the hard-to-reach regions of the country.
• On November 22, 1985, while performing the task, the outpost of the Motor-Maneuvering Group (MMG) of the Panfilov border detachment of the Eastern border district of the KGB of the USSR was ambushed. 19 border guards were killed in the battle near the Afrij village in the Zardev gorge of the Badakhshan province. These were the largest losses of border guards in one battle in the Afghan war 1979-1989.

• February - at the XXVII Congress of the CPSU M. Gorbachev makes a statement about the beginning of the development of a plan for a phased withdrawal of troops.
• April 4-20 - Operation to defeat the Javar base: a major defeat for the Mujahideen. Unsuccessful attempts by the detachments of Ismail Khan to break through the "security zone" around Herat.
• May 4 - at the 18th plenum of the Central Committee of the PDPA, M. Najibullah, who had previously headed the Afghan counterintelligence service in the KHAD, was elected to the post of General Secretary instead of B. Karmal. The plenary session proclaimed an orientation towards solving the problems of Afghanistan by political methods.
• June 16 - Military Operation Maneuver - Takhar Province. A prolonged battle on Mount Yafsadzh of the 783rd ORB of the 201st Motorized Rifle Division - the 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 from Afghanistan of six regiments of the 40th Army (about 7000 people). Later term the output will be carried over. There is a debate in Moscow about whether to withdraw the troops completely.
• August - Massoud defeats the government forces base in Farhar, Takhar province.
• August 18-26 - Military operation "Trap" under the command of General of the Army V. I. Varennikov. The assault on the Kokari-Sharshari fortified area in the Herat province.
• Autumn - reconnaissance group of Major Belov of 173 ooSpN 22obrSpN captures the first batch of three Stinger MANPADS in the Kandahar region.
• October 15-31 - tank, motorized rifle, 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 Akhromeev said: “ There is not a single military task that has been set, but not solved, but there is no result.<…>We control Kabul and the provincial centers, but we cannot establish power in the occupied territory. We 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 extraordinary plenum of the Central Committee of the PDPA proclaims 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, General of the Army V.I.Varennikov, was sent to Kabul.
• February - Operation Strike in Kunduz province.
• February-March - Operation Flurry in Kandahar province.
• 8 March - shelling of the city of Pyanj in the Tajik SSR by the Mujahideen.
• March - Operation Thunderstorm in Ghazni province.
• March 29, 1986 - during the hostilities of the 15th brigade, when the Jalalabad battalion, with the support of the Assadabad battalion, defeated a large mujahideen base in Karer.

Operation Circle in Kabul and Logar provinces.

• April 9 - Mujahideen attack on the Soviet border post. When repelling the attack, 2 Soviet servicemen are killed, 20 Mujahideen are killed.
• April 12 - The defeat of the Milov rebel base in the province of Nangarhar.
• May - Operation Volley 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 to unblock the city of Khost begins.

• January 7-8 - battle at altitude 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 the guarantors of the agreements. The Soviet Union pledged to withdraw its contingent within a 9-month period starting on May 15; The US and Pakistan, for their part, had to stop supporting the mujahideen.
• June 24 - opposition detachments captured the center of the Wardak province - the city of Maidanshehr. In September 1988, Soviet troops near Maidanshehr conducted 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 (the city of Termez). He said: "Not a single Soviet soldier was left behind me." This statement did not correspond to reality, since both Soviet servicemen who were captured by the mujahideen and border guards who covered the withdrawal of troops and returned to the territory of the USSR only in the afternoon of February 15 remained in Afghanistan. The border troops of the KGB of the USSR carried out the tasks of protecting the Soviet-Afghan border by 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, as well as that we won a military victory in Afghanistan. At the end of 1979, Soviet troops entered the country without hindrance, fulfilled - unlike the Americans in Vietnam - their tasks and returned to their homeland in an orderly manner. If armed opposition units are regarded as the main enemy of the Limited Contingent, the difference between us is that the 40th Army did what it thought was necessary, and the spooks did only what they could. The 40th Army had several main tasks. First of all, we were supposed to provide assistance to the Afghan government in resolving the internal political situation. Basically, this assistance consisted in the fight against armed opposition groups. In addition, the presence of a significant military contingent in Afghanistan should have prevented aggression from outside. These tasks were completed by the personnel of the 40th Army. No one has ever set the task of winning a military victory in Afghanistan before the Limited Contingent. All the hostilities that the 40th Army had to wage from 1980 and almost until last days of our stay in the country were either proactive or retaliatory. Together with government forces, we carried out military operations only in order to exclude attacks on our garrisons, airfields, automobile convoys and communications that were used to transport goods.

Indeed, the Mujahideen, prior to the start of the withdrawal of the OKSVA in May 1988, never managed to carry out a single major operation and did not succeed in occupying a single large city. At the same time, Gromov's opinion that the 40th Army was not given the task of a military victory does not agree with the assessments of some other authors. In particular, Major General Yevgeny Nikitenko, who in 1985-1987 was the deputy chief of the operations department of the headquarters of the 40th Army, believes that throughout the war the USSR pursued unchanging goals - suppressing the resistance of the armed opposition and strengthening the power of the Afghan government. Despite all efforts, the number of opposition formations 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, the former deputy. Head of the Operational Group of the USSR Ministry of Defense in the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan, the leadership of Afghanistan actually lost the fight against the rebels for their people, could not stabilize the situation in the country, although they had 300 thousand military formations (army, police, state security).

• After the outbreak of the Afghan war, several countries boycotted the 1980 Moscow Olympics.

Humanitarian implications

The result of hostilities from 1978 to 1992 was the flow of refugees to Iran and Pakistan, a considerable percentage of whom remain there to this day. The photo of Sharbat Gula, featured on the cover of National Geographic magazine in 1985 under the title "Afghan Girl", has become a symbol of the Afghan conflict and refugee problems around the world.

The bitterness of the belligerents reached extreme limits. It is known that the Mujahideen subjected prisoners to torture, among which such as the "red tulip" is widely known. The weapons were used so widely that many of the villages were literally built from rockets left over after the departure of the Soviet army, residents used rockets to build houses, as ceilings, window and door beams, but the US administration's statements about the use of the 40th Army Chemical Weapons, announced in March 1982, have not been documented.

Losses of the parties

The exact number of Afghans killed in the war is unknown. The most common figure is 1 million deaths; available estimates range from 670,000 civilians to 2 million in total. According to Harvard professor M. Kramer, an American researcher of the Afghan war: "During the nine years of the war, more than 2.5 million Afghans (mostly civilians) were killed or maimed, several million more ended up in the ranks of refugees, many of whom left the country." ... Apparently, there is no exact division of victims into government army soldiers, mujahideen and civilians.

Losses of the USSR

Total - 13 833 people. These data first appeared in the Pravda newspaper in August 1989. Subsequently, the total figure increased slightly, presumably due to the deaths from the consequences of injuries and diseases after being discharged from the armed forces. As of January 1, 1999, the irretrievable losses in the Afghan war (killed, died from wounds, diseases and in 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, traumatized; 416 thousand cases.

According to the testimony of a professor at the Military Medical Academy of St. Petersburg, Vladimir Sidelnikov, the final figures do not include servicemen who died of wounds and diseases in hospitals on the territory of the USSR.

In the study of the Afghan war, conducted by officers of the General Staff under the guidance of prof. Valentina Runova, an estimate of 26,000 dead is given, including those killed in action, those who died from wounds and diseases, and those who died in accidents. The breakdown by year is as follows:

Of the approximately 400 servicemen listed as missing 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, in June 1989 there were about 30 people living there; three people returned to the Soviet Union after the statement of the USSR Prosecutor General that the former prisoners would not be subject to criminal prosecution. According to the data of 15.02.2009, the Committee for Internationalist Warriors under the Council of Heads of Government of the Commonwealth (CIS) member states, 270 people remained in the list of Soviet citizens missing in Afghanistan in the period from 1979 to 1989.

The death toll of Soviet generals according to publications in the press, it is usually four deaths, sometimes the figure of 5 deaths and deaths in Afghanistan is called.

		Title, position			Circumstances
Vadim N. Khakhalov		Major General, Deputy Commander of the Air Force of the Turkestan Military District	Lurkokh gorge		Killed in a helicopter shot down by the Mujahideen
Pyotr Ivanovich Shkidchenko		Lieutenant General, Chief of the Combat Operations Command under the Minister of Defense of Afghanistan	Paktia province		Killed 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 Directorate of the General Staff of the USSR Armed Forces	DRA, Kabul?		Died suddenly during a business trip to Afghanistan
Nikolay Vasilievich Vlasov		Major General, Adviser to the Commander of the Afghan Air Force	DRA, Shindand province		Shot down by a hit from 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, BMP, 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 on the number of combat and non-combat losses of aviation, on the losses of aircraft and helicopters by type, etc. was not published.

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

Other losses

According to the 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... A stone's throw from paradise. - M .: Eksmo, 2006 - ISBN 5-699-18424-4
• Nikolay Prokudin... Raid battalion. - M .: Eksmo, 2006 - ISBN 5-699-18904-1
• Sergey Skripal, Gennady Rytchenko... The doomed contingent. - M .: Eksmo, 2006 .-- ISBN 5-699-16949-0
• Gleb Bobrov... Soldier saga. - M .: Eksmo, 2007 - ISBN 978-5-699-20879-1
• Alexander Prokhanov... A 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. Walking with a flight technician. Helicopter pilot. - M .: EKSMO, 2007 .-- ISBN 978-5-699-21881-3
• Victor Nikolaev... Live in help. Notes of the "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. The mark of the beast.
• Igor Moiseenko... Shelling sector. - M. Eksmo, 2008

Memoirs

• Gromov B.V."Limited contingent". M., Ed. group "Progress", "Culture", 1994. 352 p. In the book of the last commander of the 40th Army, many documents are given that reveal the reasons for the entry of troops, many events of the war are described.
• Lyakhovsky A.A. The tragedy and valor of Afgan M., Iskona, 1995, 720 p. ISBN 5-85844-047-9 Large fragments of the text coincide with the book of Gromov B.V.
• Mayorov A.M. The Truth About the Afghan War Testimonies of the Chief Military Adviser. M., Human Rights, 1996, ISBN 5-7712-0032-8
• A. N. Gordienko 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 prerequisites and the course of hostilities in Afghanistan
• Ablazov V.I."Afghanistan. The Fourth War ", Kiev, 2002; “A cloudless sky over the whole of Afghanistan”, Kiev, 2005; "Long way from Afghan captivity and obscurity", Kiev, 2005
• Bondarenko I. N.“How we built in Afghanistan”, Moscow, 2009
• D. L. Podushkov Confession to yourself (about participation in hostilities in Afghanistan). - Vyshny Volochyok, 2002 .-- 48 p.
• David S. Innsby. Afghanistan. Soviet Victory // The Flame of the Cold War: Victories That Did Not Happen. = Cold War Hot: Alternative Decisuicions of the Cold War / ed. Peter Tsuros, trans. Y. Yablokova. - M .: AST, Lux, 2004 .-- S. 353-398. - 480 p. - (Great confrontations). - 5000 copies. - ISBN 5-17-024051 (alternate history of the war)
• Kozhukhov, M. Yu. Alien stars over Kabul - M .: Olympus: Eksmo, 2010-352 p., ISBN 978-5-699-39744-0

In cinema

• "Hot Summer in Kabul" (1983) - a film directed by Ali Khamraev
• "Everything Paid For" (1988) - a film directed by Alexey Saltykov
• Rambo 3 (1988, USA)
• "Sergeant" (1988) - a film as part of the film almanac "The Bridge", dir. Stanislav Gaiduk, production: Mosfilm, Belarusfilm
• "Scorched by Kandahar" (1989, director: Yuri Sabitov) - an Afghan Soviet officer decommissioned by injury enters the fight against the mafia and, in the end, at the cost of his own life, exposes the criminals
• "Cargo 300" (1989) - a film of the Sverdlovsk film studio
• "Two Steps to Silence" (1991) - film directed by Yuri Tupitsky
• "Gorge of Spirits" (1991) - film directed by Sergei Nilov
• "Afghan Breakdown" (1991, USSR-Italy) - a film by Vladimir Bortko about the war in Afghanistan
• "Leg" (1991) - a film directed by Nikita Tyagunov
• "Afghan" (1991) - a film directed by Vladimir Mazur. Contrabalt
• "Afghan-2" (1994) - continuation of the movie "Afghan"
• "Peshawar Waltz" (1994) - a film by T. Bekmambetov and G. Kayumov, according to veterans-"Afghans", 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 by the Mujahideen
• "9 company" (2005, Russia-Ukraine-Finland) - a film by Fyodor Bondarchuk
• Soldier's Star (2006, France) is a film by French journalist Christophe de Ponfilli about the history of a Soviet prisoner of war in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The prototype of the protagonist was one of the participants in the armed uprising in the Badaber camp
• Charlie Wilson's War (2007, USA) - Based on a true story about how, during the Afghan War, Texas Congressman Charles Wilson organized funding for 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 war 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, Borders
• "Cascade": Cuckoo, We leave at dawn, On the Bagram road, I will return, We are leaving, Warriors-motorists, Who needed this war?
• "Contingent": Cuckoo, Captive, Two meter
• Echo of Afgan: I was killed near Kandahar, Cigarette smoke
• "Lube": For you
• Survival Guide: 1988 - Confrontation in Moscow - Afghan Syndrome
• Igor Talkov: Ballad of an Afghan
• Maxim Troshin: Afghanistan
• Valery Leontiev. Afghan wind (I. Nikolaev - N. Zinoviev)
• Alexander Rosenbaum. Monologue of the pilot of the "Black Tulip", Caravan, In the Afghani mountains, Rain at the pass, We will be back
• Yuri Shevchuk. War is childish, don't shoot
• Konstantin Kinchev. Tomorrow May Be Late (Nervous Night Album, 1984)
• Egor Letov. Afghan Syndrome
• N. Anisimov. The last monologue of the Mi-8, Song of the helicopter gunner
• M. Bessonov. Heart shrinks to pain
• 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
• Not laughing."A fur coat from Afgan", "A bottle", "A love elevator"
• Collection of Afghan songs "Time has chosen us", 1988

In computer games

• Squad Battles: Soviet-Afghan War
• Rambo III
• 9 Rota
• The Truth About the Ninth Company
• Front line. Afghanistan 82