On February 15, 1989, the last Soviet units left the territory of Afghanistan. Before the bridge over the border river Amu Darya, Colonel General Boris Gromov, the future governor of the Moscow region and then commander of the Limited Contingent in Afghanistan, jumped from an armored personnel carrier to cross the border on foot. Izvestia special correspondents N. Sautin and V. Kuleshov were also present.

Photo: TASS/Viktor Budan, Robert Netelev, Khodzhaev I.

“Today, thousands of people gathered on the high bank of the Amu Darya are watching armored vehicles crossing the bridge connecting our country and Afghanistan. On the first armored personnel carrier under the guards banner is Lieutenant Alexey Sergachev, who started in Afghanistan as a simple soldier,” wrote special correspondents in the newspaper editorial on February 15, 1989.

However, Boris Gromov and the units that followed him were far from the last to leave Afghanistan - behind him there were still border guards and special forces who covered the departing troops (they would only be on Soviet territory by the evening of the same day), as well as several hundred military personnel who remained in the Afghan captivity.

The Afghan war, which lasted 10 years, from 1979 to 1989, cost the lives of thousands of Soviet troops - official statistics published back in 1989 estimated losses at 13 thousand people, but this figure did not take into account those who later died from wounds in hospitals . According to other researchers, losses could exceed 20 thousand people. Izvestia recalls what happened in Afghanistan in those years, why the Soviet Union decided to send troops, and how events in this country are connected with the large-scale geopolitical game that was started by the Russian and British empires.

A year before the entry of Soviet troops, in 1978, a civil war began in Afghanistan. At the end of April, as a result of the April Revolution, the People's Democratic Party came to power in the country, proclaiming a democratic republic in the country and setting out to carry out a number of reforms. Representatives of the opposition, expressing the interests of the conservative Islamic world, spoke out against it. The political confrontation resulted in war. In 1979, the new leadership of Afghanistan turned to the USSR with a request for support, but the difficulties that such intervention threatened were so obvious that the Soviet leadership refused, although the Soviet garrison on the border with Afghanistan was strengthened for security purposes. In total, the Soviet leadership will receive about 20 such requests over the next year.

Around the same time, US President Jimmy Carter signed a secret decree under which the US provided support to opposition forces, including supplying the rebels with weapons and training in military camps.

However, in the fall of 1979, a split within the PDPA party was brewing in Afghanistan - on the orders of a member of the Politburo of the party's Central Committee, Hafizullah Amin, its leader Nur Mohammad Taraki was arrested and then killed. Amina, having come to power, unleashed terror, which shook the position of the PDPA. Fearing that US-backed opposition forces, on whose side were the Mujahideen, would come to power in Afghanistan, the USSR decided to send troops and conduct an operation to overthrow Amin. Numerous letters previously sent by the Afghan leadership to the Soviet government were used as the reason.

Why the USSR was important to Afghanistan

Afghanistan, located at the junction of Central and South Asia, serves as a unique point of intersection of the interests of world powers fighting for dominance over the Central Asian region. It was the strategic location that historically attracted the attention of a number of states to the country.

For the USSR, the conflict in Afghanistan was all the more important because it borders on three countries that were then part of the Union - Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. Unrest within the country could pose a threat to peace in the republics, and the coming to power of the opposition, supported by NATO forces during the Cold War, was even more undesirable.

However, the armed conflict of the 80s, which resulted in a confrontation between the Soviet Union and Western countries, became a kind of continuation of a geopolitical dispute that lasted almost two centuries. At the beginning of the 19th century, the interests of the Russian Empire, which was expanding its presence in Central Asia in order to gain access to the goods of Asian peoples, as well as to stop raids on its southern territories, collided with the interests of the British Empire, which was interested in maintaining its influence in India and nearby territories. In the 1830s, Russian representatives won their first diplomatic victories in Kabul, followed by a series of Anglo-Afghan wars that lasted until almost the end of the century. By the beginning of the 20th century, the confrontation would remain rather at the level of intelligence, with the light hand of Rudyard Kipling receiving the name “Great Game”. By the end of World War II, the “game” would gradually fade away. But the conflict of interest will remain.

Operation Storm

At the end of 1979, when the start of the deployment of troops to Afghanistan was announced, the new Afghan president, Amin, thanked the USSR for the decision to provide military assistance and ordered assistance to Soviet troops. And in December of the same year, Soviet special forces launched Operation Storm - the assault on Amin’s Kabul residence.

On the afternoon of December 27, the presidential chef, Azerbaijani Mikhail Talibov, who was a KGB agent, poisoned the dishes served at dinner. When the President of Afghanistan and the guests felt unwell, the wife of the Afghan leader called doctors from the Soviet military hospital - unaware of the special operation being carried out, they provided assistance to everyone present.

In the evening of the same day, an assault began, as a result of which not only the presidential residence was captured, but also the buildings of the general headquarters of the Afghan army and the Ministry of Internal Affairs, communications centers, radio and television. Hafizullah Amin was killed. The Soviet military doctor Kuznechenkov, who was inside the palace at that moment, also died. Almost all participants in the assault were wounded; in total, 20 Soviet servicemen were killed during the assault, as well as the head of the operation, Colonel Boyarinov.

However, the main goal of the Soviet leadership was achieved - instead of Amin, Karmal, who collaborated with the USSR, was brought to Kabul, and the “second stage of the revolution” was proclaimed in the country.

Photo: TASS/Viktor Budan

Another "9th company"

Despite the fact that the Soviet contingent was in Afghanistan for ten years, active hostilities developed over five years - from March 1980 to April 1985. During this same five-year period, most of the most tragic events in the history of the Soviet contingent in the country occurred. And the biggest losses - over 2 thousand people - occurred in 1984.

On February 29, as part of the Kunar offensive, the first clash between airborne troops and mujahideen in the history of this war took place - in a battle with rebel units that had previously sided with government forces, 37 servicemen were killed, and the total losses for the raid amounted to 52 people. Later, experts noted that the reason for such large losses in this battle was the disorientation of the command in unusual terrain.

At the same time, the confrontation in the international arena also reached its peak - because of the conflict in Afghanistan, Western countries boycotted the 80 Olympics held in Moscow, and Soviet athletes did not go to the 84 Olympics held in Los Angeles.

Soviet military personnel had to fight in territory unfamiliar to them, which, however, was well known to members of local opposition-minded armed groups - the Mujahideen or Dushmans. However, the danger was not always associated with the actions of the Mujahideen. The tunnel at the Salang Pass acquired sad fame: on February 23, 1979, 16 military personnel suffocated in it due to a traffic jam, and three years later, in 1982, due to a traffic jam that formed outside the tunnel, almost 180 people died under its arches - 62 of them were Soviet military personnel. In 1985, another 17 people froze to death after their unit was forced to spend the night near a glacier in the Shutun Gorge.

The way home

The main condition for the withdrawal of troops to the USSR was the cessation of external interference in the internal life of Afghanistan. In 1983, talk about the withdrawal of troops began to be heard more and more often, at the same time the eight-month program for the withdrawal of Soviet troops from the territory of Afghanistan was almost completed, but due to the illness of Soviet leader Yuri Andropov, the issue was removed from the agenda. The end of the Afghan conflict was postponed for another five years - in April 1988, with the mediation of the UN in Switzerland, the Geneva Agreement on resolving the situation around the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan was signed, the guarantors of which were the USSR and the USA. In accordance with the document, the USSR pledged to withdraw its contingent from May 15 to February 15, 1989, and the United States and Pakistan pledged to stop supporting the rebels.

Soviet units began returning to their homeland, for many of them this meant the beginning of a new life, for which they had to wait for many years.

“You won’t believe it, but life has turned out in such a way that my fiancée, Larisa Lobzhanidze, a student from Tiraspol, has been waiting for me for six years. Write: let him get ready for the wedding, I’m on my way,” Lieutenant Viktor Kapitan, political officer of the sapper company, shared with Izvestia correspondents who were present at the bridge over the Amu Darya.

However, not everyone will be able to survive the 10 months remaining before returning to their homeland. During the withdrawal of troops due to attacks by the Mujahideen, according to the American newspaper The Washington Post, about 500 more military personnel will be killed. Among them was Izvestia photojournalist, 29-year-old Alexander Sekretarev.

“He died in Afghanistan in May last year, when preparations for the withdrawal of our troops were just beginning. Sasha’s business trip was then extended until May 15. And how carefully he prepared! How I dreamed of being the best person to photograph the first convoy heading home for history! And, of course, I thought: I’ll film on May 15 and will definitely come here on February 15... These two dates were already linked by Geneva for all of us,” R. Armeev wrote about him in the issue of Izvestia on February 15, 1989, dedicated to the withdrawal of troops .

Photo: TASS/Georgy Nadezhdin

Remaining in Afghanistan

The Afghan war cost the lives of not only ordinary soldiers and officers, as well as civilian specialists, many of whom were captured or died during terrorist attacks organized in Kabul and other cities of the country, but also representatives of the command staff.

In 1981, while exiting an attack on an enemy command post, the helicopter in which Major General Khakhalov was located was destroyed - everyone on board died. In 1985, the Mujahideen shot down a MiG-21 fighter piloted by Major General Vlasov. The pilot managed to eject, but was captured after landing. To search for the general, the largest search operation of the entire war was launched, but it did not produce results - the general was shot in captivity shortly after his identity was established. In total, five Soviet generals were killed in Afghanistan.

And even after Boris Gromov crossed the symbolic Friendship Bridge across the Amu Darya in 1989, and the units covering the departing troops returned to their homeland, the Afghan war did not end for everyone.

According to official statistics, during the entire period of hostilities, 417 military personnel were captured. 130 of them were released before the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan, but the conditions for the release of the rest were not specified in the Geneva Agreements. It is believed that about eight people were converted by the enemy, 21 people were released with the help of the Committee for the Rescue of Soviet Prisoners, created by Russian emigrants in the United States, and after their release they emigrated to the West. More than a hundred prisoners died, including while trying to escape from the camps on their own.

“There, beyond the Amu Darya, peace has not yet come. But there is still hope, and it is in the heart of every internationalist soldier of ours, that harmony in Afghanistan will be restored,” Izvestia correspondents N. Sautin and V. Kuleshov wrote on the day of the withdrawal of troops.

The Afghan conflict, which caused the deployment of troops in 1979, was never fully resolved - clashes in the country continue to this day.

Evgenia Priemskaya

Class hour on the topic:

"25th anniversary of the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan"

Target:

1.Expand students’ knowledge about the war in Afghanistan.

2. Help the children understand why we must remember the difficult times in the life of our people, our loved ones.

3. Foster a sense of respect for the participants in the Afghan events.

4.Help to understand the events of the Afghan war from a universal human point of view;

5.To foster patriotism and internationalism in the younger generation.

6. Form an idea of ​​duty, honor, responsibility, morality.

I don't know who or why

It is necessary,

Who sent them to their deaths

With an unshaking hand,

It's just so useless

So evil and unnecessary

They were released to eternal rest. (A. Vertinsky)

More than 20 years ago, the ten-year war in Afghanistan ended. These events played a significant role in the history of our Motherland. Afghanistan is located in South Asia, separated from the rest of Asia by a chain of massive mountain ranges. Afghanistan is home to the world's second highest mountain range, the arid Hindu Kush, which runs through central Afghanistan.

Area of ​​Afghanistan: 649,507 sq. km.

Population 25,825,000 people.

Capital: Kabul.

Currency: 1 Afghani.

Official language: Afghan, Persian, Pashto.

Other languages: Uzbek, Turkish.

Main religions: Islam 99%, Hinduism, Judaism.

On February 15, 1989, the withdrawal of Soviet troops from the territory of Afghanistan was completed. This year we will celebrate the 25th anniversary of this event. More than 14 thousand soldiers who did not return from Afghanistan, this is the price of this war.

For the first time, the issue of sending our troops into Afghanistan was put on the agenda on March 15, 1979, when an anti-government rebellion broke out in Herat. Afghan leaders requested military assistance in suppressing this rebellion by sending Soviet troops into the territory of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan (DRA).

On December 25, 1979, at 15.00, the entry of a limited contingent of Soviet troops into the territory of Afghanistan began, through Kushka to Herat and Kandahar, and then to Kabul. On the night of December 27, 1979, special groups of the USSR KGB “Zenith” and “Thunder”, formed during the operation in Afghanistan from Alpha employees, together with special forces of the Main Intelligence Directorate, stormed the presidential palace on the outskirts of Kabul. The entire operation “Storm-333” lasted no more than 20 minutes; in addition to the palace, 17 more objects in Kabul were captured.

The next morning, Soviet troops began to arrive in Kabul. Thus began the ten-year Afghan war...

Hymn

We are given only an hour before departure,

Just an hour of last rest.

They told us: we are flying to Afghanistan.

Yesterday's boys are flying to Kabul.

Today we are not writing any lines.

And, entrusting your fate to the domes,

Let's descend into the Afghan sands,

And we will measure the rocks with our boots...

1st student: Spring is already coming
Without the whistle of bullets in the Afghan whirlwind,
But the mountains come to me again in my dreams,
Those mountains on which there is a sea of ​​death.
The desert snapped back hotly,
In the sands hiding the ghost of a caravan,
Everything was, everything was left behind,
But I will never forget Afghanistan.

2 student. Memory, memory, call for you
In those distant days that passed by,
You revive my dead friends,
And give back your youth to your living friends.
Memory, memory, you can, you must
Turn these arrows for a moment,
I don't just want to remember names,
I want to look my friends in the eye!

The conditions in Afghanistan bore little resemblance to the usual airfields and training grounds. In winter, thirty-degree frosts suddenly gave way to prolonged rains and slush, and dust storms often occurred, reducing visibility to 200-300 meters. It was even worse in the summer, when the air temperature rose to +52C, and the skin of the aircraft under the scorching sun heated up to +80C. The constantly drying heat, which did not subside either day or night, monotonous food and lack of conditions for rest, exhausted people.

Remember!

He protected others on the battlefield,

Fell without taking a step back

And this hero has a name -

The great army is a simple soldier!

We kneel before those

who survived, who is in service today.

And my heart aches with pain -

you went through this war.

It's a pity, we can't forget the war...

But besides the desire to survive,

There is still the courage to live!

My friends, all those killed in wars,

Let’s remember and be silent for a minute.

The events of those years are assessed differently. Those who gave the orders and those who carried them out look at the Afghan war differently. But for both of them, the actions that took place on the territory of Afghanistan fit into one capacious and terrible word - war. A war that should never happen again, the lessons of which should be learned for the rest of our lives.

When the war ended, soldiers, sergeants, and officers returned to their native land with a sense of fulfilled duty. Their fathers and mothers, wives and children, friends and loved ones greeted them with great joy. And a calm, peaceful life began...

They managed to overcome physical and spiritual trauma and, relying on their solidarity and mutual support, stand firmly and reliably on their feet and in civil life have become real men - strong, reliable, wise.

For those who returned from Afghanistan seemingly alive and well, the war was not in vain. We often hear that people who returned from “hot spots” are embittered towards the whole world and can no longer live as before in peaceful conditions, but strive to go where there is risk. Let us think: could it have been otherwise? After all, hundreds, thousands of kilometers of someone else’s pain passed before their eyes. There was not a soldier in Afghanistan who was not aware of the fact that the head of a Soviet officer was valued at 300 thousand Afghanis, and the harvest from an average peasant plot was worth only 50 thousand. And many “peaceful peasants” cultivated their piece of land during the day, and at night they went out to fish for a completely different kind. And Soviet soldiers knew that a “surprise” could be expected from everyone, be it an old man, a woman or a child. Just as there was no front line in Afghanistan, there was no border between “peaceful” and “non-peaceful”population. The soldiers had a question: why are we here? And the understanding constantly came that this is a world living according to a special law, we need to leave it alone, give it the opportunity to solve all the problems on our own, without “entering someone else’s monastery with our own charter.” And the Afghans said quite frankly: Go away, shuravi, we We'll figure it out ourselves. This is our business."

The "Afghans" returned and were simply not needed. Then the society of Afghan warriors appeared. In 1992, the Russian Union of Afghanistan Veterans was created in Moscow. The Union provides assistance to the families of the victims, since there are no funds to provide assistance to all members of the Union. The moral injury to the “Afghans” is caused by the fact that they were simply forgotten. They say time heals. But this pain is unlikely to subside. War is always war. Under her black veil there will certainly be someone's home, someone's family.

When Soviet troops were withdrawn from Afghanistan, many hoped that there would be more peace in the world, that wars would engage in creative work, that the hearts of their mothers and wives would calm down. But, alas, that did not happen. Very little time passed and conflicts began in Chechnya. And again the help of Russian soldiers was needed, and again mothers began to lose their sons and shed endless tears.

A minute of silence.

The battles end, but the story is eternal. The Afghan War is also a thing of history. But it will live in human memory for a long time, because it was written with the blood of soldiers and the tears of mothers. She will live in the memory of orphans left without fathers. It will live in the souls of those who participated in it.

February 15 is the Day of Remembrance of Russians who performed their official duties outside the Fatherland. This memorial date was established in honor of internationalist soldiers who performed their military duty outside the borders of their native country. Twenty-eight years ago, on February 15, 1989, the last column of Soviet troops left the territory of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan. “Afghans”, veterans of combat operations in the DRA, are considered the largest category of internationalist warriors. But, of course, Soviet and then Russian military personnel, intelligence officers and internal affairs officers took part not only in the fighting in Afghanistan, but also in a number of armed conflicts in other countries. China and Korea, Angola and Mozambique, Egypt and Ethiopia, Yemen and Syria, Lebanon and Algeria, Vietnam and Laos, Cambodia and Bangladesh - this is not a complete list of countries where Soviet internationalist soldiers once visited.

Although Soviet military personnel participated in hostilities outside the USSR even before World War II (the Spanish Civil War, the Chinese Civil War), the practice of using internationalist soldiers reached a particularly serious scale in the post-war period. Since the late 1940s. In the countries of Asia and Africa, national liberation movements intensified, advocating the liberation of their countries from colonial dependence. Support for the anti-colonial struggle fell well within the framework of the dominant ideology in the USSR, but in addition to ideological considerations, the Soviet Union was also guided by more mundane goals - to prevent the establishment of pro-American regimes in a number of countries in Asia and Africa.

The concept of “international duty” arose, which consisted in the opposition of socialist countries to world imperialism in its most varied manifestations. The Soviet Union, as well as other socialist countries, including Cuba, China, the DPRK, and the GDR, began to provide military assistance to national liberation movements, people's democratic governments, revolutionary and communist organizations waging armed struggle against their opponents. Since the opponents of decolonization or people's democracies were most often backed by the United States and other Western countries, the revolutionaries of the "Third World" needed large-scale military assistance - and the USSR provided it to them, not only in the form of military equipment and ammunition, but also in the form of military advisers, instructors, and even direct force support through the sending of contingents of Soviet troops.

One of the first examples of the participation of Soviet military personnel in hostilities outside the USSR after World War II can be called military assistance to the People's Liberation Army of China in 1946-1950. In many ways, it was the assistance of the Soviet Union that played one of the key roles in the victory of the Chinese communists over the forces of the Kuomintang and in the creation of the People's Republic of China. Soviet military specialists provided assistance in servicing military equipment and training PLA command and engineering personnel.

By the end of December 1949, 1012 Soviet military specialists provided assistance to the PLA. However, in addition to military advisers and instructors, entire military units and formations of fighter aircraft and air defense anti-aircraft artillery took part in the fighting in China. Since the PLA did not have its own highly qualified pilots, aircraft engineers, or air defense specialists, Soviet military personnel took over the defense of the skies over the liberated areas of China. Soviet aviation played a vital role in protecting Shanghai and the surrounding area from raids by the Kuomintang air force. Of course, the long-term provision of military assistance to China was accompanied by impressive human losses. Thus, according to some sources, up to 900 Soviet military personnel died in 1946-1949. on Chinese soil. In the PRC there are several graves of Soviet soldiers who participated in hostilities on the territory of the country. The lists of the dead include officers, sergeants, and privates of the Soviet Army.

The Soviet army also took part in the Korean War, although it was not advertised. The fighting on the Korean Peninsula became one of the first examples of open confrontation between the socialist and capitalist worlds in the Cold War. The United States and numerous allies of Washington came to the aid of South Korea; assistance to North Korea was provided, first of all, by the Soviet Union and China. From the USSR, primarily the Group of Soviet Military Specialists in Korea and the 64th Fighter Aviation Corps took part in the hostilities. The total number of Soviet military personnel who took part in the conflict reached 30 thousand people. The 64th IAK included all flying and anti-aircraft units and units involved in combat operations in Korea. During their participation in the war, pilots of the 64th Fighter Wing flew approximately 64,000 combat missions and fought 1,872 dogfights. Hull losses amounted to 335 aircraft. At least 120 pilots and 68 anti-aircraft gunners were killed in combat. In total, at least 300 Soviet military personnel were killed or died from wounds in the fighting in Korea, including 160 fighter aviation and anti-aircraft artillery officers.

Soviet internationalist soldiers took part in the national liberation struggle of the peoples of Indochina against pro-American regimes and then American interventionists. Thus, back in 1960, crews of transport aircraft were sent to Vietnam to deliver aid to the partisans of the Pathet Lao front in Laos. In total, from 1960 to 1970. 113 Soviet military personnel visited Laos, mostly officers and pilots. Much more extensive was the participation of Soviet military personnel in the Vietnam War, one of the bloodiest conflicts in the post-war history of the 20th century. More than 6 thousand Soviet military personnel, primarily pilots, anti-aircraft artillery specialists, and engineering services, took part in hostilities in Vietnam at various times; the losses of Soviet military specialists amounted to 7 people, according to official data.

In 1956 and 1968 Soviet military personnel had to take part in operations on the territory of the Warsaw Pact countries - Hungary and Czechoslovakia, respectively. In 1956, Soviet troops were sent to Hungary to suppress the anti-communist uprising, which grew into a real uprising that threatened the political system of Hungary and called into question the prospects for the continued presence of the Hungarian People's Republic in the socialist camp. It was Soviet troops who played a key role in suppressing the Budapest uprising and restoring order in the country. In total, at least 31.5 thousand Soviet soldiers and officers were deployed on the territory of Hungary, the losses were 669 killed, 1251 wounded, 51 missing. Thus, the Hungarian events, in terms of the number of troops involved and human losses, became the largest example of the use of Soviet troops abroad by that time.

At the end of August - beginning of September 1968, Soviet troops participated in Operation Danube on the territory of Czechoslovakia - again, with the aim of suppressing anti-communist protests in the country. The troops of the USSR, East Germany, Poland, Hungary and People's Republic of Belarus were brought into the territory of Czechoslovakia. Soviet troops numbered about 170 thousand soldiers and officers and included 18 motorized rifle, tank and airborne divisions, 22 aviation and helicopter regiments.

Another “hot region” of the planet, in the conflicts of which Soviet military personnel managed to take part, was the Middle East. First of all, we are talking about the Arab-Israeli conflict, which lasted for decades. In the 1950s - early 1970s. The main target of Soviet military assistance in the Middle East was Egypt. The USSR provided support to the national socialist leadership of the country, headed by Gamal Abdel Nasser. First of all, the Soviet Union supplied Egypt with weapons, however, since the level of training of Egyptian military personnel, especially pilots and technical specialists, was extremely low, military advisers and instructors were sent to this country.

In 1967, the Soviet Union broke off diplomatic relations with Israel. By March 1970, 1.5 thousand Soviet military personnel with the latest air defense systems and about 150-200 fighter aircraft pilots arrived in Egypt. By the end of 1970, the number of Soviet troops in Egypt increased to 20 thousand military personnel. First of all, Soviet military personnel served in anti-aircraft missile divisions deployed to Egypt, in ship crews sent to the Suez Canal zone, and in fighter aircraft. More than 40 Soviet military personnel - sailors, anti-aircraft gunners, aviators, and general military advisers - were killed in the fighting in Egypt. In addition to Egypt, Soviet military personnel, namely military advisers and transport aviation crews, took part in the civil war in Yemen in 1962-1969. Soviet military advisers were in Syria, where they performed duties of providing advisory assistance to the army of the Syrian Arab Republic.

In 1982, Soviet troops were sent to Syria due to another deterioration in Syrian-Israeli relations. The leadership of the USSR decided to send 3 long-range anti-aircraft missile regiments, a technical regiment and electronic warfare units with a total number of 5-6 thousand military personnel to Syria. Soviet soldiers and officers were transferred to Syria in civilian clothes, under the guise of tourists. Soviet troops remained in Syria until July 1984.

The long history of the Soviet military presence on the continent, stretching over several decades, is associated with providing assistance to the national liberation movements of Africa. Back in 1962-1964. Soviet military specialists assisted the young sovereign Algeria in clearing mines on its territory - eliminating the consequences of the long and bloody struggle of the largest French colony in North Africa for its political independence. On July 27, 1963, an agreement was signed between the Soviet Union and Algeria on the USSR carrying out demining of Algerian territory free of charge. More than 100 Soviet military specialists - miners - arrived in the republic.

Soviet military specialists played a vital role in the wars on the territory of the former Portuguese colonies of Angola and Mozambique. Soviet military specialists were sent to Mozambique in 1976. These were military advisers and translators who served in units and formations of the Mozambican People's Liberation Forces (FPLM). During the years of armed conflict in Mozambique, 6 Soviet soldiers were killed, and 2 more died from disease.

More extensive was the participation of Soviet military personnel in the civil war in Angola, where they assisted the ruling pro-Soviet MPLA party in the fight against the UNITA rebels. Cuba sent a 15,000-strong military contingent to Angola, and the USSR helped, first of all, with weapons and specialists. Thousands of Soviet military personnel - advisers, instructors, specialists and translators - passed through Angola. In this distant country, 7 officers, 2 warrant officers and 2 employees of the Soviet Army were killed and died of disease.

In 1977-1979 Soviet soldiers took part in the fighting in the Horn of Africa - the Ogaden War. The Soviet Union decided to provide military assistance to Ethiopia in the armed conflict with neighboring Somalia. For this purpose, impressive contingents of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Cuba and the Army of South Yemen, and over 1.5 thousand Soviet military advisers and specialists were sent to Ethiopia. The losses of the Soviet side amounted to about thirty military personnel.

The war in Afghanistan is forever inscribed in the military history of our state. Hundreds of thousands of Soviet troops passed through Afghanistan during the ten years of war. Therefore, it is with the “Afghans” that, first of all, warriors - internationalists are personified by people far from military service and military history. A lot has been written about the participation of the Soviet Army in the Afghan War, so there is no point in retelling what has already been stated. It is only worth noting that the problems of many internationalist soldiers who fought in Afghanistan have often not been resolved to this day - the state does not provide the support that former officers and soldiers who paid their international duty outside the country can quite rightly count on.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the view that the participation of Russian citizens in armed conflicts abroad was a thing of the past was actively promoted in society. Tendentious politicians and journalists tried to convince society of the exclusive guilt of the Soviet Union for the use of Soviet military personnel in foreign wars. However, life itself has shown the fallacy of such thoughts.

Russia is a great power, and like any power it has to defend its geopolitical interests, including by resorting to armed intervention. Especially if the national security of the Russian state itself is at stake, which is inextricably linked with such current areas as, for example, the fight against international terrorism. Nowadays, military personnel of the Russian army and other security forces serve outside Russia, risking their lives every hour and every minute. First of all, these are our military fighting in Syria against terrorists. Of course, we must not forget about the thousands of retired military personnel who went to defend the people of Donbass.

The main problem that requires a solution at the state level today remains the issue of social (including financial) support for participants in combat operations outside the country. Unfortunately, often soldiers who heroically defended the interests of their Motherland are left without well-deserved awards, without significant material assistance (combat veterans, as we know, receive very small payments if they are not military pensioners). But another aspect is no less important - when “they are not there,” then officers and soldiers are not officially honored, and they try in every possible way to hide their very participation in certain conflicts.

It remains to congratulate all internationalist soldiers on this memorable date, to wish them health and fewer losses - both in combat and in peacetime. Eternal memory to all the fallen internationalist soldiers, and those of them who passed away after returning to their homeland.

Today in Russia we celebrate the Day of Remembrance of Russians who performed their official duties outside the Fatherland. 29 years ago, on February 15, 1989, Soviet troops completed their withdrawal from Afghanistan.

This date is symbolic. It reflected loyalty to the oath, official duty, the front-line brotherhood of soldiers and officers who gave, defending the interests of their country, the most precious thing on earth - life.

“Hot spots” forever became a pain for the family and friends of the heroes. Our duty is to provide all possible assistance to those injured in battles and the families of those killed. Let us not spare words of gratitude to the Afghans who work with teenagers, raising them with examples of valor and honor, thereby strengthening the Russian traditions of patriotism.

Thank you, soldiers, for your feat and military work. We believe that you will continue to be the pillar of the state and society. We wish peace and hope for the best to everyone whose fate has passed through the fiery years.

Historical reference

(based on materials from the site encyclopaedia-russia.ru)

February 15, 2018 marks the 29th anniversary of the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan.

The withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan began on May 15, 1988. According to the Geneva Agreements on a political settlement of the situation around the DRA concluded in April 1988, the Soviet Union undertook to withdraw its contingent within nine months, that is, before February 15 of the following year. In the first three months, 50,183 troops reportedly left Afghanistan. Another 50,100 people returned to the USSR between August 15, 1988 and February 15, 1989. The withdrawal operation was constantly attacked by dushmans; a total of 523 Soviet soldiers were killed during this period.

The operation to withdraw Soviet troops was led by the last commander of the Limited Military Contingent, Lieutenant General B.V. Gromov. According to the official version, he was the last to cross the border river Amu Darya (Termez): “There was not a single Soviet soldier left behind me.” However, Soviet soldiers who were captured by the Mujahideen remained in Afghanistan, as well as border guard units that covered the withdrawal of troops and returned to USSR territory only in the afternoon of February 15. The border troops of the KGB of the USSR carried out tasks to protect the Soviet-Afghan border in separate units on the territory of Afghanistan until April 1989. This is how the war in Afghanistan, which lasted almost 10 years, ended.

Start

In March 1979, during the uprising in the city of Herat, the Afghan leadership made its first request for direct Soviet military intervention (there were about 20 such requests in total). But the CPSU Central Committee Commission on Afghanistan, created back in 1978, reported to the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee on the obvious negative consequences of direct Soviet intervention, and the request was rejected. However, the Herat rebellion forced the reinforcement of Soviet troops at the Soviet-Afghan border and, by order of Defense Minister D. F. Ustinov, preparations began for a possible landing in Afghanistan by the landing method of the 105th Guards Airborne Division.
The further development of the situation in Afghanistan - armed uprisings of the Islamic opposition, mutinies in the army, internal party struggle and especially the events of September 1979, when the leader of the PDPA N. Taraki was arrested and then killed on the orders of H. Amin, who removed him from power - caused serious concern among the Soviet manuals. It warily followed the activities of H. Amin at the head of Afghanistan, knowing his ambitions and cruelty in the struggle to achieve personal goals. Under H. Amin, terror unfolded in the country not only against Islamists, but also against members of the PDPA, who were supporters of Taraki. The repression also affected the army, the main support of the PDPA, which led to a drop in its already low morale and caused mass desertion and rebellion. The Soviet leadership was afraid that a further aggravation of the situation in Afghanistan would lead to the fall of the PDPA regime and the coming to power of forces hostile to the USSR. Moreover, the KGB received information about Amin’s connections with the CIA in the 1960s and about secret contacts of his emissaries with American officials after the assassination of Taraki.
The decision to send troops was made at a Politburo meeting on December 12, 1979.
Until December 25, 1979, in the Turkestan Military District, the field command of the 40th Combined Arms Army, 2 motorized rifle divisions, an army artillery brigade, an anti-aircraft missile brigade, an air assault brigade, combat and logistics support units were prepared for entry into Afghanistan, and in the Central Asian military district - two motorized rifle regiments, a mixed air corps directorate, 2 fighter-bomber air regiments, 1 fighter air regiment, 2 helicopter regiments, aviation technical and airfield support units. Three more divisions were mobilized as reserves in both districts. More than 50 thousand people from the Central Asian republics and Kazakhstan were called up from the reserves to complete the units, and about 8 thousand cars and other equipment were transferred from the national economy. This was the largest mobilization deployment of the Soviet Army since 1945. In addition, the 103rd Guards Airborne Division from Belarus was also prepared for transfer to Afghanistan, which was already transferred to airfields in the Turkestan Military District on December 14.
By the evening of December 23, 1979, it was reported that troops were ready to enter Afghanistan. On December 24, D. F. Ustinov signed directive No. 312/12/001, which stated: “A decision was made to introduce some contingents of Soviet troops stationed in the southern regions of our country into the territory of the DRA in order to provide assistance to the friendly Afghan people, as well as creating favorable conditions for prohibiting possible anti-Afghan actions by neighboring states.”
The directive did not provide for the participation of Soviet troops in hostilities on the territory of Afghanistan; the procedure for the use of weapons, even for the purposes of self-defense, was not determined. True, already on December 27, D. F. Ustinov’s order appeared to suppress the resistance of the rebels in cases of attack. It was assumed that Soviet troops would become garrisons and take protection of important industrial and other facilities, thereby freeing up parts of the Afghan army for active action against opposition forces, as well as against possible external interference. The border with Afghanistan was ordered to be crossed at 15:00 Moscow time (17:00 Kabul time) on December 27, 1979. But on the morning of December 25, the 4th battalion of the 56th Guards Air Assault Brigade crossed the pontoon bridge across the border river Amu Darya, which was tasked with capturing the high-mountainous Salang pass on the Termez-Kabul road to ensure the unhindered passage of Soviet troops.
In Kabul, units of the 103rd Guards Airborne Division completed their landing by midday on December 27 and took control of the airport, blocking Afghan aviation and air defense batteries. Other units of this division concentrated in designated areas of Kabul, where they received tasks to blockade the main government institutions, Afghan military units and headquarters, and other important objects in the city and its environs. After a skirmish with Afghan soldiers, the 357th Guards Parachute Regiment of the 103rd Division and the 345th Guards Parachute Regiment established control over the Bagram airfield. They also provided security for B. Karmal, who was again taken to Afghanistan with a group of close supporters on December 23.
On the evening of December 27, Soviet special forces stormed Amin's palace, and Amin was killed during the assault.
On the night of December 27-28, B. Karmal arrived in Kabul from Bagram and Kabul radio broadcast an appeal from this new ruler to the Afghan people, in which the “second stage of the revolution” was proclaimed.

Ahead were 9 bloody years of the Afghan War (1979-1989) - a long political and armed confrontation between the parties: the ruling pro-Soviet regime of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan (DRA) with military support from the Limited Contingent of Soviet Troops in Afghanistan (OCSVA) - on the one hand, and the Mujahideen (“dushmans”), with a part of Afghan society sympathetic to them, with political and financial support from foreign countries and a number of states of the Islamic world - on the other.

The largest military operations carried out by Soviet troops in Afghanistan: Panjshir Gorge (1980 - 1986); Jowzjan Province (December 1981); Green Zone of Jabal Ussaraj, Cherikar (Parwan Province), Mahmudaraki (Kanisa Province) (January–February 1982); Kandahar (January 1982); Nimroz Province (April 1982); Nijrab district (Kanisa province) (April 1983); Baghlan, Kanisa, Parwan provinces (October 1985); Kunar Province (1985); Khost District (February–April 1986); Herat Province (1986); Kandahar Province (April–September 1987); Paktia province and Khost district (December 1987 - January 1988 (“Magistral”).

Losses of the parties

The exact number of Afghans killed in the war is unknown. The most common figure is 1 million dead; Available estimates range from 670 thousand civilians to 2 million in total.
As of January 1, 1999, the irretrievable losses of the USSR in the Afghan War (killed, died from wounds, diseases and accidents, missing) were estimated as follows:

Soviet Army - 14,427;
KGB - 576;
Ministry of Internal Affairs - 28;
Total - 15,031 people.

Since January 1987, Soviet troops largely stopped conducting active offensive combat operations and entered into military clashes only in the event of an attack on their places of deployment. According to the commander of the 40th Army, Colonel General B.V. Gromov, “the commander was obliged to carry out retaliatory or, depending on the situation, preemptive combat actions only in order to prevent the mass death of our people and even eliminate such a threat.”

In 1987, the policy of national reconciliation, adopted and approved at the Plenum of the PDPA Central Committee in December 1986, began to be implemented in Afghanistan. According to this policy, the PDPA officially renounced its monopoly on power; in July 1987, a law on political parties was published, approved by the Presidium of the Revolutionary Council of the DRA.

This law regulated the creation and activities of political parties. Only in October, at the all-party conference of the PDPA, the resolution “On the urgent tasks of strengthening the unity of the PDPA in the context of the struggle for national reconciliation” was approved and signed by all delegates. After all, the split of the party into two wings – “Khalq” and “Parcham” – continued to operate.

On November 29, the Supreme Council of Afghanistan, the Loya Jirga, was held in Kabul. On November 30, the Loya Jirga approved the Constitution of the Republic of Afghanistan, the country's president, Najibullah, was elected, who announced to the delegates of the Afghan parliament that the ceasefire would continue until July 15, 1988. The withdrawal of Soviet troops from the Republic of Afghanistan, by agreement of both parties, was supposed to be carried out within twelve months.

Already in the second half of January 1987, the opposition carried out a decisive offensive against both the Soviet and Afghan garrisons, not leaving peaceful villages without attention.

The very presence of the 40th Army did not allow the Mujahideen to irrevocably achieve their goals of overthrowing the DRA government. At the same time, the opposition parties regarded the policy of national reconciliation primarily as a weakness of state power and only intensified the struggle to overthrow it. The combat activity of Mujahideen detachments increased under the conditions of a unilateral ceasefire by Soviet and government troops.

In November–December, one of the largest operations, Magistral, was carried out to unblock Khost. Taking advantage of the absence of Soviet units in the Khost district, by the fall of 1987 the dushmans restored one of the largest transshipment bases, “Javara,” which Soviet troops had destroyed in the spring of 1986. There was a danger of creating a provisional government of opposition forces in Khost. It was decided to plan and conduct a large joint military operation of Afghan and Soviet troops and provide the population of Khost primarily with food, as well as other types of material resources, and thwart the plans of the opposition to form an alternative government in Afghanistan.

The forces of the 108th and 201st motorized rifle divisions, the 103rd airborne division, the 56th separate air assault brigade, the 345th separate parachute regiment, etc. took part in this operation from the 40th Army. The Afghan army attracted the forces and assets of five infantry divisions, one tank brigade and several special forces units. In addition, more than ten tsarandoy and state security battalions took part in the operation.

The situation on the Gardez-Khost highway was difficult. First we had to conquer the Seti-Kandav pass - it is located at an altitude of three thousand meters. The opposition faction in the area consisted mainly of the paramilitary Jadran tribe. This tribe was not subordinate to any government at all and acted as its leaders saw fit. In the 80s, the leadership of the Mujahideen formations was carried out by Jalaluddin, a native of this tribe.

As negotiations with Jalaluddin proved fruitless, Operation Highway was launched on 23 November. By the end of November 28, the advanced units captured the Seti-Kandav pass. Then negotiations began again with the leaders of the warring Jadran tribe. But on December 16, the troops were forced to continue fighting. On December 30, the first trucks with food moved along the highway to Khost.

During a visit to the USA in December 1987, M.S. Gorbachev said that the political decision to withdraw Soviet troops had been made. Soon in Geneva, delegations of the USSR, USA, Afghanistan and Pakistan sat down at the negotiating table with the aim of developing a political solution to the Afghan problem. On April 14, 1988, five fundamental documents on the settlement of the political situation around Afghanistan were signed.

According to these agreements, which came into force on May 15, 1988, Soviet troops must leave Afghanistan, and the United States and Pakistan pledged to completely stop funding the Afghan rebels.

The Soviet Union strictly fulfilled all its obligations. By August 15, 1988, half of the Limited contingent had been withdrawn. For the withdrawal of Soviet troops, directions were determined: in the west - Kandahar - Shindand - Kushka, in the east - routes united in Kabul from Ghazni, Gardez and Jalalabad, then through the Salang pass to Puli-Khumri and Termez.

In the summer of 1988 (from May 15 to August 15), Soviet troops were withdrawn from garrisons such as Jalalabad, Ghazni, Gardez, Kandahar, Lashkar Gah, Faizabad and Kunduz. At the same time, hostilities against opposition groups did not stop.

Of course, the opposition would have been branded as incompetent if it had not taken advantage of the opportunity. Since the beginning of the withdrawal of Soviet troops, it began to act with even greater assertiveness throughout the country.

Since mid-May, rocket attacks on Kabul have become regular. Previously cut paths along which military equipment was supplied to the Mujahideen were revived. Fortified areas, bases, and warehouses were urgently revived and re-created in the areas bordering Pakistan and Iran. The supply of weapons increased sharply, including surface-to-surface missiles with a range of up to 30 kilometers, Stingers, etc.

The result, of course, was immediate. Afghan aviation activity has been significantly reduced. From May 15 to October 14, armed opposition forces shot down 14 airplanes and 36 helicopters of the Afghan Air Force. They made an attempt to capture some provincial centers. On June 24, Mujahideen detachments managed to capture for some time the center of Wardak province - the city of Maidanshahr.

More than 2 thousand people took part in the battles for the city from the opposition. In July, the center of the Zabol province, the city of Kalat, was subjected to a long siege and assault. The besiegers were defeated by troops brought in from other areas, but Kalat, a small settlement with about 7 thousand inhabitants, was severely destroyed

Colonel General B.V. Gromov, summing up the results of this year, in his book “Limited Contingent” said: “As a result of the combat activities of the 40th Army during 1988, the opposition units were significantly weakened. Together with units of the Afghan armed forces, we did a lot of work to clear areas along the highways. After failed negotiations with the opposition during military operations, we inflicted significant damage on the Mujahideen.

Soviet troops captured more than 1,000 anti-aircraft mountain installations and more than 30,000 rockets for them, more than 700 mortars and approximately 25,000 mines, as well as a significant amount of small arms and more than 12 million rounds of ammunition. In the second half of 1988, the forces of the 40th Army captured 417 opposition caravans coming from Pakistan and Iran. However, the Mujahideen continued to pose a threat to the Afghan government."

In November, after the departure of the Soviet brigade, the opposition, in collusion with officials of the Second Army Corps of the Afghan Army, attempted to seize power in Kandahar. The coup was averted. But this did not de-escalate the situation; it continued to heat up both here and in other provinces - as fewer and fewer Soviet military units remained in the DRA.

The Soviet side complied with the Geneva agreements. By February 15, 1989, the 40th Army left the territory of Afghanistan. All events after the withdrawal of Soviet troops confirmed that the status quo was maintained in this country only thanks to the presence of Soviet troops there.

www.coldwar.ru - link

By the mid-1980s, it became clear that the current USSR policy towards Afghanistan was reaching a dead end. The limited contingent of Soviet troops in the DRA, together with local government forces, did not allow the Mujahideen to take control of the country's major cities, but they were not able to completely neutralize the armed gangs of oppositionists.

The Mujahideen, in turn, despite generous financial support and arms assistance from the United States, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern Islamic monarchies, were unable to overthrow the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul.

However, between May 15 and August 15, 1988, over 50 thousand Soviet soldiers, that is, half of the entire Limited Contingent, left Afghanistan.

The remaining Soviet units had to carry out active military work, eliminating pockets of Mujahideen resistance and intercepting caravans with weapons. According to the commander of the 40th Army, Colonel General Boris Gromov, in the second half of 1988 alone, his units managed to intercept 417 caravans with weapons for the Mujahideen coming from Pakistan and Iran.

If you believe the data of the American newspaper The Washington Post, then during the period of troop withdrawal, that is, when the USSR’s intention to leave Afghanistan was documented, the Mujahideen killed 523 Soviet soldiers.

However, the losses of militants during the same period numbered in the thousands, because Soviet soldiers knew how to fight very well.

The Americans and their allies were counting on the rapid fall of the Najibullah regime.

However, contrary to their expectations, the government of Mohammad Najibullah managed to stabilize the situation, repelling the attacks of the Mujahideen.

Moreover, after the withdrawal of Soviet troops, Najibullah gained wider support from various sectors of Afghan society, and his successful policy of national reconciliation found more and more supporters.

Perhaps Afghanistan would not have been mired in war for another two decades if at that moment the West, and primarily the United States, had taken a sober look at the situation. However, a burning desire to destroy the “pro-Soviet regime” forced the American “hawks” to continue to feed the opposition.

Hardly anyone in America realized that the United States was currently digging a hole for itself.

Najibullah's policy was ruined by the betrayal committed by the authorities of the new Russia after the fall of the USSR. Boris Yeltsin and his Foreign Minister Andrei Kozyrev, under whom Russian foreign policy became completely subordinate to US interests, entered into behind-the-scenes negotiations with the Mujahideen, while simultaneously stopping the supply of weapons, ammunition and fuel to the Afghan government.

While the Afghan opposition continued to be generously sponsored by Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Western countries, government forces lost the resources to resist. As a result, in April 1992, Kabul fell and power passed to the Mujahideen.

Mohammad Najibullah (seated) with his brother General Shahpur Ahmadzai. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org

Mohammad Najibullah took refuge in the UN mission in Kabul. But with the fall of the pro-Soviet regime, peace did not come to Afghan soil. Yesterday's allies in the war against the “infidels,” the Mujahideen, started a bloody feud, challenging each other for power. The sparks of this conflict reached Central Asia, turning into a full-scale civil war in Tajikistan.

Four years of chaos in the country ended with the most radical Islamists from the Taliban movement, also created with the participation of the US CIA, coming to power.

After the Taliban captured Kabul in 1996, Mohammad Najibullah was captured at a UN mission and brutally killed. The regime established by the Taliban in Afghanistan made even the most fierce opponents of the USSR among the Mujahideen, for example, Ahmad Shah Massoud, who began to seek help from the Russian authorities to fight the Taliban, shudder with horror.