This week, on February 15th, comes another anniversary of the Soviet troops’ withdrawal from Afghanistan. It’s been 29 years now. Time goes by and a lot of water has passed under the bridge over the Amu Daria River, the one the commander of the 40th army, General Boris Gromov, led his troops over to the Soviet territory.
Veterans of that war have grown old and live in different countries now, not only the countries of the former USSR. I personally happened to meet Afghanistan veterans in the Check Republic, Germany and Israel.
It is obvious that the veterans are all a part of the large Russian world spread all over the globe, from Brighton Beach to Haifa and from Melbourne to Shanghai.
Withdrawal of the Soviet troops from Afghanistan. Picture: cont.ws
February the 15th is a memorable day for “Afghan war” veterans. A lot of us meet on this day to recall those events and try to reconsider and analyse the past.
Society still has a lot of questions. What was that we did in that country? Who needed all that? What was really happening there? What were external and internal forces trying to achieve when they tried to loosen or tighten the entangled “Afghan knot”? And what did they achieve? What are the conclusions to be made now, after all these years?
In today’s Russia representatives of different political forces answer these questions differently. Some keep saying it was the right thing to do, others state it was a mistake.
When I am asked these questions, I recall the 28th of April 1992, the day when Nadgbullah’s government finally collapsed and mujahids forced Kabul. It happened 14 years after the so-called April Revolution, which had commenced building of socialism’s regime in Afghanistan. This time a new revolution was announced, the Islamic Revolution.
"A lot of scenarios were voiced that evening. I distinctly remember one. When somebody asked an elderly diplomat what would happen to Kabul in ten years’ time, he said, “There will be Americans in Kabul.”
I chanced to witness this memorable event. Together with other Russian citizens, the diplomats, journalists, and technical specialists who stayed in Kabul after the troops’ withdrawal, I watched the torchlight procession surrounding Russian embassy in the mountains.
1992 г. Shootings in Kabul streets
It was getting dark and thousands of mujahids started shooting the air with tracer bullets to make a bigger effect, apparently. Fire dashed the sky over the embassy, the hot lead dropped from the air breaking windows and piercing car roofs. And above all that the crowd was shouting “Allah Akbar!”.
A lot of scenarios were voiced that evening. I distinctly remember one. When somebody asked an elderly diplomat what would happen to Kabul in ten years’ time, he said, “There will be Americans in Kabul.”
I have been thinking about his words since then. A lot of people didn’t believe it at the time. For example, some young people inspired by the democratic ideas, which were new for Russia at the time adamantly assured everyone that Washington didn’t need that and the Americans would be nothing but happy to welcome “the liberation of the Afghanistan people from the proxy rule”. Some older people doubted it as well. They thought that the Americans, being practical, would avoid falling into the same trap, would consider our experience in Afghanistan and their own mistakes in Vietnam. It turned out that they didn’t…
In a few years I personally witnessed the US armoured vehicles going through the streets of Kabul. Three AMCs were driving as a unit, pointing their guns in all directions. The Yankees must have been very cautious of the Afghans and were apprehensive of their safety.
I thought that our elderly party leaders appeared to have been right when they claimed in the late 1979, just before the troops’ withdrawal, that the Americans had “their own plans” for Afghanistan. In particular, Washington was trying to find there a place for the military bases that had been forced out of Iran.
Nevertheless, bringing the limited Soviet troops into Afghanistan in December 1979, in my opinion, was a mistake. It was possible to do without it, by just increasing the military procurement. Besides, there are reasons to believe that the USSR was pulled into this operation deliberately, and with a little help form the Afghan revolutionists. As far as I understood from talking to the people who had taken part in the events preceding the troops’ withdrawal, the PDPA had not received any kind of approval from Moscow for the April Revolution or, more exactly, for the military coup in April 1978.
In the spring of 1992 it was impossible to undo the events happening 14 years ago. So, instead of correcting the old mistakes, the Russian government committed new ones, just as grave.
I remember turbulent events, which took place before the April turnover and our conversation in the embassy.
As you know, Nadgbullah’s regime stayed for three more years after the Soviet troops’ withdrawal. According to many forecasts, it would have stayed longer if it were not for the events of August 1991 in Moscow and the USSR’s decision to stop supporting Kabul.
It was the beginning of 1992. The Russian citizens who stayed in Afghanistan were told that everything that was going on there was none of their business. “This is somebody else’s war and we are just observers here,” that was the strategy recommended by Andrey Kozyrev, the Minister of Foreign Affairs for the new democratic Russia.
Withdrawal of Soviet Troops from Afghanistan. Coverage of Vremya TV programme
At first our Afghan friends did not believe it. At meetings in January-February they stressed that betraying them was bad for us in the first place. In their opinion the Americans had already accepted the idea that the Afghan problem couldn’t be solved by military force. There was supposed to be a meeting in Geneva, where the representatives of Nadgbullah’s regime would form joined teams with mujahids. So, Moscow would still influence the situation. Russia would have “their people” in the new government. Besides, Afghanistan didn’t need “any serious” help from Russia. They understood our problems. All they needed was fuel for planes and tanks since the planes and armoured machinery were key advantages in the war against guerrillas and mujahids. Moscow refused. As a result, Nadgbullah’s regime fell and Kabul was forced by the mujahids.
Betraying Kabul cost Moscow dear. Russia soon faced, for example, need to protect the Afghanistan-Tajikistani border. Before the spring of 1992 Nadjbullah’s army had done that from their side. It had also stopped drug traffic successfully. After the fall of Nadjbullah’s regime, mudjahid squads and drug caravans made their way to Tajikistan."
Betraying Kabul cost Moscow dear. Russia soon faced, for example, need to protect the Afghanistan-Tajikistani border. Before the spring of 1992 Nadjbullah’s army had done that from their side. It had also stopped drug traffic successfully. After the fall of Nadjbullah’s regime, mudjahid squads and drug caravans made their way to Tajikistan. The new Russian authorities that had claimed that they wouldn’t spend a dime on the “Afghan affair” had to invest heavily into supporting the Tajikistani border and send our soldiers there. Otherwise the “Afghan plague” would reach Russia even quicker.
Mudjahids. Picture: vladnews.ru
Even now Afghanistan is a real tinderbox at the CIS border. The threat is real and not only for the neighbouring Asian countries, but for Russia as well. “Jihad soldiers” and Islam preachers cross the border. Drugs flow like a river.
In addition, according to different sources, all kinds of radical Islam supporters who had “got kicked out” of Russia head for Afghanistan through Syria. First of all, they are the supporters of ISIS, banned in Russia, but not only them. As the Afghans say, at variety of militant groups in their country today make “a stew with lots of ingredients”.
It seems to me that one of the reasons why the situation develops like that in Afghanistan is a badly judged decision taken by Moscow in the end of 1991- the beginning of 1992. The veterans of the war witnessed those decisions and felt very bad about them.
Another anniversary of the troops’ withdrawal won’t be unattended for them. So, for example, the “Afghan” journalists have already scheduled a meeting.
The veterans of Afghanistan have been meeting on February 15th for 29 years now, irrespective of the situation they see through their frozen Moscow windows. No matter what political forces - the Soviet, the liberal, or the patriotic, rule in the Kremlin. Their memory of Afghanistan is independent on anything and everlasting. Those, who came back home, are heroes and, those who perished, may rest in peace…
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