When did the Soviet Afghan war take place? Afghan war - briefly

The military conflict in Afghanistan, called the Afghan war, was in fact one of the stages of the civil war. On the one hand, government forces acted, enlisting the support of the USSR, and on the other, numerous formations of the Mujahideen, who were supported by the United States and most Muslim states. For ten years there was a senseless struggle for control over the territory of this independent state.

Historical context

Afghanistan is one of the key regions for ensuring the stability of the situation in Central Asia. For centuries, in the very center of Eurasia, at the junction of South and Central Asia, the interests of the leading states of the world intersect. Since the beginning of the nineteenth century, the so-called " Big game for dominance in South and Central Asia.

At the beginning of the last century, the king of Afghanistan proclaimed the independence of the state from Great Britain, which caused the third Anglo-Afghan war. The first state to recognize the independence of Afghanistan was Soviet Russia. The Soviets provided the ally with economic and military aid. Then Afghanistan was a country with total absence industrial complex and an extremely impoverished population, more than half of whom were illiterate.

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

The April (Saur) revolution began in Afghanistan on April 27, 1978. As a result, the People's Democratic Party came to power, the former leader and his family were executed. The new leadership made an attempt to carry out reforms, but ran into resistance from the Islamic opposition. A civil war began, and the government officially turned to the USSR with a request 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 the exit neighboring country from the 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 the two superpowers clash. It is the intervention in internal politics(moreover, both the overt intervention of the USSR and the covert intervention of the United States) became the cause of a devastating ten-year war.

The decision to send Soviet troops

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

Further events of the war in Afghanistan (1979-1989) caused a stir among the Soviet leadership. Active armed protests by the opposition, mutinies among the military, intra-party struggle. As a result, it was decided to prepare the overthrow of the leadership and its replacement by 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 deploy 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 survived. At the initial stage of the intervention of Soviet troops in the war in Afghanistan, the actions of the special commission consisted in the transfer of military personnel and equipment.

Storming of Amin's Palace

On the evening of December 27, Soviet soldiers stormed the palace. The important operation went on 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, the USSR military personnel took control of some units and military units of the Kabul garrison, a radio and television center, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and state security. On the night of the twenty-seventh to the twenty-eighth of December, the next stage of the revolution was proclaimed.

Timeline of the Afghan War

The officers of the USSR Ministry of Defense, who generalized the experience of the military, divided the entire war in Afghanistan into the following four periods:

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

Such short stroke ten years of war in Afghanistan.

Results and consequences

Before the start of the withdrawal of troops, the Mujahideen never managed to occupy a major locality. They did not conduct a single major operation, but by 1986 they controlled 70% of the state's territory. The troops of the USSR during the war in Afghanistan pursued the goal of suppressing the resistance of the armed opposition and strengthening the power of the legitimate government. They did not set the goal of an unconditional victory.

Soviet military personnel called the war in Afghanistan a “sheep war”, because the Mujahideen, in order to overcome the border barriers and minefields set up by the USSR troops, drove out herds of sheep or goats in front of their detachments so that the animals “paved” the way for them, undermined by mines and land mines.

After the withdrawal of troops, the situation on the border escalated. There were even shellings of the territory Soviet Union and penetration attempts, armed attacks on the Soviet border troops, mining of the territory. Until May 9, 1990 alone, seventeen mines were removed by border guards, including British, Italian and American ones.

Losses of the USSR and results

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

When Soviet troops entered Afghanistan in December 1979 to support a friendly communist regime, no one could have thought that the war would drag on for a long ten years and in the end "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 the facts.

According to current data, losses Soviet army in the Afghan war amounted to 14427 people dead 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 dead; 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 were killed or maimed (mostly civilians), several million more found themselves in the ranks of refugees, many of whom fled the country.” Apparently, there is no clear division of victims into government army soldiers, Mujahideen and civilians.

Terrible Consequences wars

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 posthumously). Among those awarded – 110 thousand soldiers and sergeants, about 20 thousand ensigns, more than 65 thousand officers and generals, more than 2.5 thousand employees of the SA, including – 1350 women.

A group of Soviet military personnel awarded government awards

During 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 searched for.

Captured Soviet soldier

For nine years of war P loss of equipment and weapons amounted to: aircraftecomrade - 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 vehicles - 510; flatbed vehicles and tank trucks - 11,369.

Burnt out Soviet tank

The government in Kabul was dependent on the USSR throughout the war, which provided it with about $40 billion in military assistance between 1978 and the early 1990s. sides Saudi Arabia, China and a number of other states, which together provided the Mujahideen with weapons and other military equipment worth 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 zone of the Afghan-Pakistani border. It was one of the most famous clashes between the units of the Limited Contingent of Soviet Troops in Afghanistan and the armed formations of the Afghan Mujahideen. On the basis of these events, in 2005, the film "The Ninth Company" was filmed in the Russian Federation. The height of 3234 m was defended by the 9th Airborne Company of the 345th Guards Separate Airborne Regiment with a total of 39 people, supported by regimental artillery. Soviet fighters attacked parts of the Mujahideen numbering from 200 to 400 people who were trained in Pakistan. The battle lasted 12 hours. The Mujahideen never managed to capture the height. incurring big losses they retreated. In the ninth company, six paratroopers were killed, 28 were injured, nine of them – heavy. All paratroopers for this battle were awarded the Orders of the Red Banner of War 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.

Frame from the film "9th company"

The most famous battle of the Soviet border guards during the war in Afghanistan took place on November 22, 1985 near the village of Afrij in the Zardev Gorge of the Darai-Kalat mountain range in northeastern Afghanistan. Battle group of the border guards of the Panfilov outpost of the moto-maneuverable 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 participating 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 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 increasing attempts from the Mujahideen and Pakistan, did the DRA begin to slide to meet 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, 4,307 people were prosecuted as part of the 40th army in the DRA, at the time the USSR Armed Forces decree on amnesty came into force, more than 420 former soldiers were in prison -internationalists.

We have returned…

On May 15, 1988, the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan began. The operation was led by the last commander of the limited contingent, Lieutenant General Boris Gromov. Soviet troops have been in the country since December 25, 1979; they acted on the side of the government of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan.

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 decree 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 Central Committee of the CPSU used the repeated requests of the leadership of Afghanistan.

A limited contingent of Soviet troops (OKSV) was directly involved in the civil war that was flaring up in Afghanistan and became an active participant in it.

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 took part in the conflict. The struggle was for complete political control over the territory of Afghanistan. Dushmans during the conflict were supported by military specialists from the United States, a number of European NATO member countries, as well as Pakistani intelligence services.
December 25, 1979 the entry of Soviet troops into the DRA began in three directions: Kushka-Shindand-Kandahar, Termez-Kunduz-Kabul, Khorog-Faizabad. The troops landed at the airfields of Kabul, Bagram, Kandahar.

The Soviet contingent included: the administration of the 40th Army with support and maintenance units, four divisions, five separate brigades, four individual regiment, four combat aviation regiments, three helicopter regiments, one pipeline brigade, one material support brigade and some other units and institutions.

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

1st stage: December 1979 - February 1980 The entry of Soviet troops into Afghanistan, their placement in garrisons, the organization of the protection of deployment points and various objects.

2nd stage: March 1980 - April 1985 Conducting active hostilities, including large-scale ones, together with Afghan formations and units. Work on the reorganization and strengthening of the armed forces of the DRA.

3rd stage: May 1985 - December 1986 Transition from active hostilities primarily to supporting the actions of Afghan troops Soviet aviation, artillery and sapper units. Special forces units fought to prevent the delivery of weapons and ammunition from abroad. The withdrawal of 6 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. Preparation of Soviet troops for their return to their homeland and the implementation of their complete withdrawal.

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 around the situation in the DRA. The Soviet Union undertook to withdraw its contingent within 9 months, beginning May 15; The US 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. On 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.

under the term " Afghan war“in Russia they understand the period of armed confrontation between the current and opposition regimes in Afghanistan in 1979-1989, when the troops of the USSR were involved in the conflict. In fact Civil War in this state continues to this day.

Among the reasons for the entry of the Soviet Union into the war, historians note the desire to support a friendly regime - the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan - and the desire to secure their own southern borders.

At first, the idea to send troops to the territory of Afghanistan did not meet with the support of the then head of government, Brezhnev. However, information soon appeared in the USSR that the CIA was assisting the Mujahideen. Then the decision was made to intervene, since there were fears about the victory in Afghanistan of political forces hostile to the USSR.

Soviet troops entered Afghanistan in December 1979. They were supposed to overthrow Amin's government. As a result of the storming of Amin's palace, the ruler, causing distrust among the top of the USSR, was killed. They wanted to replace him with a more loyal leader.

The military conflict flared up with new force. From 1980 to 1989 there were battles in which the losses were significant on both sides. A number of battles ended in the defeat of the Mujahideen, however, it was not possible to radically change the course of hostilities: the Mujahideen still held power.

In the summer of 1985, the policy of the USSR was scheduled new course- on peace settlement conflict. At that time General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev became the Central Committee of the CPSU. He considered it inexpedient to continue the war on the territory of a foreign state, entailing only large losses of people and equipment. In February 1986, Gorbachev declared: "Our troops will be gradually withdrawn from Afghanistan." The chief of the General Staff, Marshal Akhromeev, confirmed the senselessness of the further presence of Soviet troops on the territory of the republic: "Despite the fact that we control Kabul and the provinces, we are unable to establish power in the controlled areas."

In April 1988, an agreement was signed in Switzerland between Afghanistan and Pakistan on a peaceful solution to the conflict. The guarantors were the USSR and the USA, which pledged to withdraw their troops and not provide support to the warring parties. A phased withdrawal of army units began. The last of the Soviet military units left Afghanistan in April 1989. However, prisoners remained. The fate of some of them is still unknown.

Our losses in Afghanistan were enormous for a peaceful period: 14,427 deaths are known. At the same time, 54 thousand injuries were noted in the reports, as well as outbreaks infectious diseases that took away the health and lives of soldiers. Unusual harsh climate, lack of pure water, confrontation in an unfamiliar area with an enemy who was well versed in the mountains - all this additionally undermined the strength of Soviet soldiers.

The losses of equipment turned out to be considerable: 1314 armored vehicles, 118 aircraft, 147 tanks - this is far from full list. From the budget of the USSR, a fabulous amount was withdrawn annually - up to 800 million dollars - to support our army in Afghanistan. And who, in what units, will measure the tears and grief of mothers whose sons returned home in zinc coffins?

“Not in the forty-first near Kaluga, where the hill is high,

- in the eighties near Kabul, face in the sand ... "

What were the results of the Afghan war? For the USSR - losses. For the people of Afghanistan, it is completely impossible to talk about any results: for them, the war continues. Should we intervene in this conflict? Perhaps this will become clearer centuries later. So far, there are no good reasons...

Afghan war brief information.

· Year 1985 · Year 1986 · Year 1987 · Year 1988 · Year 1989 · Results · Subsequent events · Losses of the parties · Foreign aid to the Afghan Mujahideen · War crimes · Media coverage · "Afghan Syndrome" · Memory · In works of culture and art · Related articles · Literature · Notes · Official site ·

Afghanistan casualties

June 7, 1988, in his speech at the meeting General Assembly UN, Afghan President M. Najibullah said that "from the beginning of hostilities in 1978 to the present" (that is, until 06/07/1988) 243.9 thousand military personnel of government troops, security agencies, civil servants and civilians have died in the country , 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 years.

The exact number of Afghans killed in the war is unknown. The most common figure is 1 million dead; available estimates range from 670,000 civilians to 2 million in total. According to the researcher of the Afghan war from the USA, 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 became 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 in Afghanistan Y. Vorontsov dated September 2, 1989, wrote that the support of the PDPA by the Soviet Union led to the death of more than 1.5 million Afghans, and 5 million people became refugees.

According to UN statistics on 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 of the population of Afghanistan in comparison with previous and subsequent periods.

The result of hostilities from 1978 to 1992 was the flow of Afghan refugees to Iran and Pakistan. Cover photo of Sharbat Gula magazine National Geographic in 1985 under the name "Afghan Girl", became a symbol of the Afghan conflict and the problem of refugees around the world.

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

USSR losses

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

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

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

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

In a study conducted by officers of the General Staff under the direction of prof. Valentina Runova, gives an estimate of 26,000 dead, including those killed in action, those who died of wounds and disease, and those who died in accidents. The breakdown by year is as follows:

By official statistics, during the fighting in Afghanistan, 417 military personnel were captured and went missing (of which 130 were released in the period before the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan). In the Geneva Accords of 1988, the conditions for the release of Soviet prisoners were not fixed. After the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan, negotiations on the release of Soviet prisoners continued through the mediation of the government of the DRA and Pakistan:

• So, on November 28, 1989, in the territory of Pakistan, in the city of Peshawar, two Soviet soldiers were handed over to representatives of the USSR - Andrey Lopukh and Valery Prokopchuk, in exchange for the release of which the DRA government released 8 previously arrested militants (5 Afghans, 2 citizens of Saudi Arabia and 1 Palestinian ) and 25 Pakistani citizens detained in Afghanistan

The fate of those who were taken prisoner developed in different ways, but an indispensable condition for saving lives was their acceptance of Islam. At one time, the uprising in the Pakistani camp of Badaber, near Peshevar, received a wide response, where on April 26, 1985, a group of Soviet and Afghan captured soldiers tried to free themselves by force, but died in an unequal battle. In 1983, the Committee for the Rescue of Soviet Prisoners in Afghanistan was created in the United States through the efforts of Russian emigrants. Representatives of the Committee managed to meet with the leaders of the Afghan opposition and persuade them to release some Soviet prisoners of war, mainly those who expressed a desire to stay in the West (about 30 people, according to the USSR Foreign Ministry). Of these, three people returned to the Soviet Union after the USSR Prosecutor General's statement that the former prisoners would not be prosecuted. There are cases when Soviet soldiers voluntarily went over to the side of the Mujahideen and then participated in hostilities against the Soviet Army.

In March 1992, the Russian-American Joint Commission on Prisoners of War and Missing Persons was established, during which the United States provided Russia with information about the fate of 163 Russian citizens who were missing in Afghanistan.

The number of dead Soviet generals according to publications in the press, as a rule, there are four dead, in some cases the figure is 5 dead and died in Afghanistan.

Losses in equipment, according to widely disseminated official data, amounted to 147 tanks, 1314 armored vehicles (armored personnel carriers, infantry fighting vehicles, BMD, BRDM), 510 engineering vehicles, 11,369 trucks and fuel trucks, 433 artillery systems, 118 aircraft, 333 helicopters (only 40 helicopters were lost). th Army, excluding helicopters of the border troops and the Central Asian Military District). At the same time, these figures were not specified in any way - in particular, information was not published on the number of combat and non-combat 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, Soviet troops in 1980-1989, 385 tanks and 2530 armored personnel carriers, BRDM, BMP, BMD units were irretrievably lost (rounded figures).

Read more: List of Soviet Air Force aircraft losses in the Afghan war

Read more: List of losses of Soviet helicopters in the Afghan war

Expenses and expenses of the USSR

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

Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR N. Ryzhkov formed a group of economists who, together with specialists from various ministries and departments, were to calculate the cost of this war for the Soviet Union. The results of this commission's work are unknown. According to General Boris Gromov, “Probably, even incomplete statistics turned out to be so stunning that they did not dare to make it public. Obviously, today no one is able to give an exact figure that could characterize the expenses of the Soviet Union for the maintenance of the Afghan revolution.

Losses of other states

Pakistan Air Force lost 1 combat aircraft in dogfight. Also, 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.

Iranian Air Force lost 2 combat helicopters in air battles.