The Afghan war (briefly): the causes, the course of the war, the results, the consequences. A Brief History of the Afghan War (1979-1989)

The last Soviet decade was marked by the Afghan war (1979-1989). The course of the war, briefly, is today not known to every citizen of Russia and other countries of the former USSR. In the 1990s, due to turbulent reforms and economic crises, the Afghan campaign was almost driven out of public consciousness. But today, when a lot of work of historians and researchers has been carried out, all ideological cliches have disappeared, there was a good opportunity to look impartially at the events of those years.

Prerequisites

In Russia and throughout the post-Soviet space, the Afghan war, briefly, is associated with a ten-year period (1979-1989), when the armed forces of the USSR were present in this country. In fact, it was only one part of a prolonged civil conflict. Preconditions for its emergence appeared in 1973, when the monarchy was overthrown in Afghanistan. To the power came the short-lived regime of Mohammed Daoud. It ceased to exist in 1978, when the Saur (April) revolution took place. After it, the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA), which proclaimed the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan (DRA), began to rule the country.

The organization was Marxist, which made it akin to the Soviet Union. The left ideology became the dominant one in Afghanistan. Just like in the USSR, socialism began to be built there. However, by 1978 the country already existed in the conditions of incessant chaos. Two revolutions, a civil war - all this destroyed stability in the region.

The socialist government was opposed by different forces, but primarily by radical Islamists. They considered the members of the PDPA to be enemies of the entire Afghan people and Islam. In fact, the new political regime was declared a holy war (jihad). To fight the infidels were formed groups of mujahideen. It was with them that the Soviet army fought, for which the Afghan war soon began. Briefly, the success of the Mujahideen can be explained by their skillful propaganda work in the country. For Islamist agitators, the task was facilitated by the fact that the absolute majority of the population of Afghanistan (about 90%) was illiterate. In the state outside the big cities there were tribal orders with extremely patriarchal views of the world. Religion in such a society, of course, played a significant role. These were the reasons for the Afghan war. They were briefly described in official Soviet newspapers as providing international assistance to the friendly people of a neighboring country.

Requests PDPA on Soviet intervention

No sooner had the PDPA come to power in Kabul, as in the other provinces of the country armed rebellions fueled by Islamists began. The Afghan leadership began to lose control of the situation. In these conditions, in March 1979, it first applied for help to Moscow. Later such messages were repeated several times. Wait for the help of the Marxist party, surrounded by nationalists and Islamists, there was nowhere else.

For the first time the issue of providing assistance to Kabul's "comrades" was considered in the Kremlin on March 19, 1979. Then Brezhnev opposed armed intervention. However, as time went on, the situation at the borders of the USSR was getting worse. Gradually the members of the Politburo and other top state functionaries changed their minds. For example, Defense Minister Dmitry Ustinov believed that the Afghan war, briefly, could cause danger to the Soviet borders.

In September 1979, another upheaval took place in Afghanistan. This time, the leadership in the ruling PDPA party changed. Hafizullah Amin became the head of the party and state. The KGB sent to the Soviet Politburo reports that he was an agent of the CIA. These reports further inclined the Kremlin to military intervention. At the same time, preparations began for the overthrow of Amin. At the suggestion of Yuri Andropov, it was decided to place Babrak Karmal, loyal to the Soviet Union, in his place. This member of the PDPA was at first an important person in the Revolutionary Council. During the party purges, he was first sent to Czechoslovakia as an ambassador, and then declared a traitor and conspirator. Karmal, who was at that time in exile, and stayed abroad. At the same time, he moved to the USSR, becoming a figure, which put the Soviet leadership.

Decision on the introduction of troops

December 12, 1979 it was finally clear that the Soviet Union will begin its own Afghan war. Briefly discussing the recent reservations in the documents, the Kremlin approved the operation to overthrow Amin.

Of course, hardly anyone in Moscow at that time was aware of how long this military campaign would last. But from the outset, the decision to enter the troops were also opponents. First, the chief of the General Staff Nikolay Ogarkov did not want this. Secondly, Alexei Kosygin did not support the decision of the Politburo . This position was an additional and decisive reason for the final break with Leonid Brezhnev and his supporters.

Immediate measures to prepare for the transfer of the Soviet army to Afghanistan began the next day, December 13. Soviet special services tried to organize an attempt on Hafizzul Amin, but the first pancake was a lump. The operation hung in the balance. Nevertheless, preparation continued.

Assault of the Amin Palace

The entry of troops began on December 25. Two days later Amin, being in his palace, felt ill and lost consciousness. The same thing happened to some of his associates. The reason for this was poisoning, which was organized by Soviet agents, settled in the residence by cooks. Amin was given medical help, but the guards felt unwell.

At seven o'clock in the evening, near the palace, the Soviet subversive group stalled in its car, stopped near the hatch, which led to the distribution hub of all Kabul communications. There, the mine was safely dropped, and a few minutes later the explosion exploded. Kabul was left without electricity.

Thus began the Afghan War (1979-1989). Briefly assessing the situation, the commander of the operation, Colonel Boyarintsev ordered to proceed to storm the palace of Amin. The Afghan leader himself, having learned about the attack of unknown military men, demanded from his relatives to ask for help from the Soviet Union (formally the authorities of the two countries continued to remain friendly to each other). When Amin was reported that the special forces of the USSR were at his gate, he did not believe it. It is not known exactly under what circumstances the head of the PDPA perished. Most eyewitnesses later claimed that Amin committed suicide even before Soviet servicemen appeared in his apartment.

Anyway, but the operation was successfully carried out. Not only the palace was captured, but all of Kabul. On the night of December 28, Karmal arrived in the capital, which was declared the head of state. The Soviet forces lost 20 people (including paratroopers and special forces). Grigory Boyarintsev, commander of the assault, also died. In 1980 he was posthumously assigned to the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

Chronology of the conflict

According to the nature of the fighting and the strategic tasks, a brief history of the Afghan war (1979-1989) can be divided into four periods. In the winter of 1979-1980. Soviet troops entered the country. Servicemen were sent to garrisons and important infrastructure facilities.

The second period (1980-1985) was the most active. Fighting was conducted throughout the country. They were offensive. The Mujahideen were destroyed, and the army of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan was improving.

The third period (1985-1987) is characterized by the operations of Soviet aviation and artillery. Actions with the use of ground troops were carried out less and less, until finally they came to naught.

The fourth period (1987-1989) was the last. Soviet troops were preparing to withdraw. At the same time, the civil war in the country continued. The Islamists were not completely defeated. The withdrawal of troops was caused by the economic crisis in the USSR and a change in the political course.

The continuation of the war

When the Soviet Union only introduced its troops to Afghanistan, the country's leadership argued its decision by the fact that it only provided assistance, according to the numerous requests of the Afghan government. On fresh tracks at the end of 1979, the UN Security Council was convened . It presented an anti-Soviet resolution prepared by the United States. The document was not supported.

The American side, although it did not take actual participation in the conflict, actively financed the mujahideen. The Islamists had weapons purchased in the West. Thus, in fact the cold confrontation between the two political systems has received a new front, which the Afghan war has become. The course of the war was briefly covered in all the world's media.

The CIA organized several training and training camps in the territory of neighboring Pakistan, in which Afghan mujahideen (dushmans) were trained. Islamists, in addition to American funding, received money through drug trafficking. In the 80s, this country became the world leader in the production of heroin and opium. Often the goal of Soviet operations was precisely the destruction of these industries.

The causes of the Afghan war (1979-1989), in short, sent a huge mass of people to the confrontation, who had never before had a weapon in their hands. Recruitment into the ranks of the dushmans was led by a broad network of agents throughout the country. The advantage of the Mujahideen was the lack of a definite center. Throughout the entire armed conflict, this was a collection of numerous diverse groups. They were commanded by field commanders, but there was no "leader" among them.

Low effectiveness of guerrilla operations was fully demonstrated by the Afghan war (1979-1989). Briefly, the results of many Soviet offensives were mentioned in the media. Many raids were nullified by effective propaganda work of the enemy among the local population. For the Afghan majority (especially in the deep provinces with a patriarchal way of life), Soviet servicemen have always been invaders. No sympathy for socialist ideology was experienced by commoners.

"The policy of national reconciliation"

In 1987, the implementation of the "national reconciliation policy" began. At its plenary meeting, the PDPA renounced the monopoly right to power. A law appeared that allowed the opponents of the authorities to create their own parties. The country has a new Constitution and a new president, Mohammed Najibullah. All these measures were taken in order to end the war by compromise and concessions.

Simultaneously, the Soviet leadership headed by Mikhail Gorbachev took a course to reduce its own weapons, which meant the withdrawal of troops from a neighboring country. The Afghan war (1979-1989), in short, could not be conducted in the conditions of the economic crisis that began in the USSR. In addition, already on the last breath was a cold war. The USSR and the United States began to negotiate among themselves by signing numerous documents on disarmament and stopping the escalation of the conflict between the two political systems.

The withdrawal of Soviet troops

Mikhail Gorbachev first announced the forthcoming withdrawal of Soviet troops in December 1987, while on an official visit to the United States. Soon after, the Soviet, American and Afghan delegations sat at the negotiating table in Geneva, Geneva. On April 14, 1988, as a result of their work, program documents were signed. So the end of the Afghan war came to an end. In short, according to the Geneva agreements, the Soviet leadership promised to withdraw its troops, and the American leadership would stop financing the opponents of the PDPA.

Half of the military contingent of the USSR left the country in August 1988. In the summer, important garrisons were left in Kandahar, Grades, Faizabad, Kundduz and other towns and settlements. The last Soviet serviceman who left Afghanistan on February 15, 1989, was Lieutenant-General Boris Gromov. The whole world was visited by footage of how the military passed and moved the Bridge of Friendship across the border river Amu Darya.

Losses

Many events of the Soviet years were subjected to a one-sided communist assessment. Among them was the history of the Afghan war. Short appeared dry reports in the newspapers, and television talked about the continued success of the soldiers-internationalists. However, right up to the beginning of Perestroika and the announcement of the policy of glasnost, the authorities of the USSR tried to keep silent about the true scale of their irretrievable losses. Zinc coffins with conscripts and soldiers returned to the Soviet Union in a half-secret. The soldier was buried without publicity, and on the monuments for a long time there was no mention of the place and cause of death. A stable image of the "cargo of 200" appeared among the people.

Only in 1989 in the newspaper "Pravda" were published real data on the losses - 13,835 people. By the end of the twentieth century, this figure reached 15,000, as many soldiers were already dying in their homeland for several years because of injuries and illnesses. Such were the real consequences of the Afghan war. Briefly mentioning their losses, the Soviet government only increased the conflict with society. By the end of the 1980s, the demand to withdraw troops from a neighboring country had become one of the main slogans of Perestroika. Even earlier (under Brezhnev), dissidents acted for this. So, for example, in 1980 the famous academician Andrei Sakharov for his criticism of the "solution of the Afghan question" was exiled to Gorky.

Results

What are the results of the Afghan war? In short, Soviet intervention extended the life of the PDPA exactly at the time that the Soviet troops remained in the country. After their withdrawal, the regime suffered an agony. The Mujahideen groups quickly regained their control over Afghanistan. The Islamists appeared even at the borders of the USSR. Soviet border guards had to tolerate shelling of the enemy after the troops had left the country.

The status quo was violated. In April 1992, the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan was finally eliminated by Islamists. The country began a full-fledged chaos. It was divided by numerous factions. The war of all against all there continued until the invasion of NATO troops in the early 21st century. In the 1990s, the Taliban movement appeared in the country, which became one of the leading forces of modern world terrorism.

In the mass post-Soviet consciousness, one of the most important symbols of the 1980s was the Afghan war. Briefly for the school about it today is told in the history textbooks for the 9th and 11th grades. The war is devoted to numerous works of art - songs, films, books. The evaluation of its results differs, although at the end of the existence of the USSR, the majority of the population, according to opinion polls, advocated the withdrawal of troops and the cessation of senseless war.