Today, February 15, 2018, marks the 29th anniversary of the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan. This is not a red date in the calendar, but nevertheless, it is celebrated as a day of remembrance for the dead and honoring living “Afghan” soldiers.
7,141 people from Kyrgyzstan took part in the bloody war of 1979-1989 in the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan. During the battles, over 300 people died, 4 went missing, and about 1,500 Kyrgyzstanis were injured. Today, about 5.5 thousand veterans live in the country.
For reference: In July 1973, the monarchy was overthrown in Afghanistan and a republican system was established. This was the impetus for the start of the civil war between various socio-political and nationalist forces in the country. In April 1978, the People's Democratic Party (PDPA) came to power in Afghanistan. The radicalism of the new Afghan leadership, the hasty destruction of the centuries-old traditions of the people and the foundations of Islam, strengthened the population's resistance to the central government. The situation was complicated by foreign interference in the internal affairs of Afghanistan. The USSR and some other countries provided assistance to the Afghan government, and NATO countries, Muslim states and China provided assistance to the opposition forces. Soviet troops brought into Afghanistan found themselves involved in an internal military conflict on the side of the country's government against the opposition forces, to whom Pakistan provided the greatest assistance. On May 15, 1988, the withdrawal of OKSV began, which was completed on February 15, 1989.
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The withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan began on May 15, 1988, in accordance with the Geneva Agreements concluded in April 1988 on a political settlement of the situation around the DRA. The Soviet Union pledged to withdraw its contingent within nine months, that is, by 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 operation to withdraw troops was constantly attacked by dushmans. According to the Washington Post, a total of 523 Soviet soldiers were killed during this period.
On February 15, 1989, Lieutenant General Boris Gromov, according to the official version, became the last Soviet soldier to cross the border of the two countries along the Friendship Bridge. In reality, both Soviet soldiers who were captured by dushmans and border guard units who covered the withdrawal of troops and returned to the territory of the USSR only in the afternoon of February 15 remained on the territory of Afghanistan. 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.
In December 1979, hastily formed units of a “limited contingent of Soviet troops,” as Defense Minister D.F. slyly called the 40th Army, entered Afghanistan across the bridge over the Amu Darya River. Ustinov. At that time, few people understood the purpose for which the troops were going “across the river,” who they would have to fight with, and how long this “international mission” would last.
As it turned out later, the military, including marshals and generals, also did not understand, but the order for the invasion was carried out accurately and on time.
In February 1989, that is, more than nine years later, the tracks of tanks and armored vehicles rumbled across the bridge again: the army was returning back. The generals sparingly announced to the soldiers that the task of fulfilling their “international duty” was completed, and it was time to go home. The politicians remained silent.
There is a gap between these two dates.
Over the abyss is a bridge connecting two eras. They went to Afghanistan at the peak of the Cold War. The fulfillment of “international duty” announced to the soldiers was nothing more than a continuation of communist expansion, part of the unshakable Kremlin doctrine, according to which we support any revolutions if they proclaim national liberation slogans and their leaders swear allegiance to the ideals of Marxism-Leninism.
We returned back at the peak of Gorbachev’s perestroika. When our leaders hypnotized both themselves and a significant part of their population that the time had come for “new thinking.” When soldiers who had been on guard for many years around the world were recalled to barracks, tanks were sent for melting down, the military alliance of the Warsaw Pact countries was living out its last months, and many of us (if not all) believed: a life without wars and violence was coming.
It seemed to some that this bridge led to that future life.
In February, veterans celebrated the 25th anniversary of the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan
From a distance of a quarter of a century, many things are seen differently. It’s not a fact that now the truth will be revealed to us, but still, it’s time to reconsider some recently persistent stereotypes about the Afghan war.
The most important and most persistent of them - about the criminal nature of that nine-year campaign - many Russian liberals continue to repeat like a mantra.
At the same time, they do not stigmatize the even longer military presence in Afghanistan of Americans and their allies in the same way. It’s strange... After all, if we put aside all ideological chaff, then both we and they did the same work there, namely, they fought with rabid religious extremists. They defended not so much the secular regimes in Kabul as their own national interests.
In order to objectively assess what happened then, we need to remember the real situation that developed in the region by the end of the 70s.
And this is what was there. T.N. The “April Revolution,” essentially a coup d’état staged in the spring of 1978 by young, leftist-minded officers, was ahead of another rebellion that Islamic radical organizations had been preparing for several years. Before this, their combat groups mainly carried out one-time raids on the provinces of the country, but gradually this black force thickened, gained power and became a real factor in regional politics.
At the same time, it must be recalled that Afghanistan, in all previous decades, was an absolutely secular state - with a network of lyceums and universities, morals that were quite free by Islamic standards, cinemas, cafes and restaurants. At one time, even Western hippies chose it for their parties - that’s what kind of country it was.
He was secular-Soviet, and skillfully balanced between the superpowers, receiving help from both the USSR and Western countries. “We light American cigarettes with Soviet matches,” the Afghans themselves joked about this.
Now we must admit something else: the revolution that happened greatly intensified the Mujahideen groups and their sponsors in Pakistan, who, supporting them, played their game in this field.
Withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan
Forget that war like a bad dream? Did not work out
And since Moscow reacted favorably to the revolution, other, much more powerful forces automatically joined in this support. Islamist uprisings broke out every now and then throughout the country, and when the infantry division in Herat went over to their side in the spring of 1979, things really started to smell like hell.
Already almost forgotten, but very eloquent fact: then, in March 1979, the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee met for three days in a row (!), discussing the situation in Herat and considering the pleas of the Afghan leadership to provide it with immediate military assistance.
The Herat rebellion became a kind of signal for the CIA to intensify actions in the Afghan direction. American intelligence viewed Afghanistan in the context of the entire situation that had developed in the region by that time. The States just then suffered a painful defeat in Iran, from where they had to leave after the overthrow of the Shah. The Khomeinists who seized power fiercely criticized the Americans. A vast piece of the globe, rich in oil and strategically important from all points of view, now remained ownerless, but could well come under the control of the Soviets - this was feared overseas.
Detente was ending and was replaced by a long period of confrontation. The Cold War was approaching its peak.
Proposing to launch large-scale secret operations to support the Islamists, American intelligence did not exclude the possibility that it would be able to drag the Soviets into armed struggle and thereby bleed the main enemy. If the partisans' positions become stronger, Moscow will unwittingly have to expand its military assistance to the regime up to and including a direct invasion of Afghanistan, CIA analysts reasoned. This will become a trap for the Soviet Union, which will get bogged down in bloody clashes with partisans for many years - that's it. The future conflict will be a gift for Western propagandists, who will finally receive visible evidence of the Kremlin’s treachery and its expansionist plans - that’s two. And if the fighting continues for a long period, then they will certainly exhaust the USSR, and then victory in the Cold War will remain with the Americans.
That is why, very soon, what seemed to our generals to be fleeting and easy, “walking beyond the Amu Darya” turned into a protracted, grueling campaign. They did not fight with a handful of rabid fanatics, but with a secret force, behind which stood the colossal resources of the West, Arab countries and even China. No rebel movement in the entire history of mankind has benefited from such large-scale outside help.
It was easy to enter Afghanistan through this bridge. It is impossible to go back.
I remember a conversation with our ambassador in Kabul F.A. Tabeev, which took place in the summer of 1983. Well aware of what was happening at the top, the ambassador told me: “Andropov is now in the Kremlin, and he realizes the senselessness of our military presence in Afghanistan. Soon everything will change.” But Andropov died, and the sick Chernenko did not get around to war, and only with the advent of Gorbachev began the long process of searching for ways to escape the Afghan trap.
Yes, from a distance of several decades, many things are now seen differently.
Declassified documents indicate that our leaders, not without reason, feared a radical infection from the south that could affect the Central Asian republics. Andropov’s department may have been mistaken in its assessments of the internal Afghan situation, but we must give it credit for being aware of the mood inside the USSR. Alas, in our southern republics even then there was fertile ground for religious extremism.
And this means only one thing: Soviet soldiers - Russians, Ukrainians, Tatars, Tajiks, Belarusians, Estonians, everyone who was part of the 40th Army - fulfilling combat orders, protected peace and tranquility on their land, defended the national interests of their common homeland.
Withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan. Afterword
It is with this feeling, with the awareness of this mission, that Afghan veterans celebrate the 25th anniversary of the end of that long and bloody war.
Over the past decades, volumes of books and scientific studies have been written about the war. After all, on top of everything else, it was a bitter, but very instructive experience. What useful lessons could be learned from that tragic epic! What mistakes to avoid! But, unfortunately, our bosses do not have the habit of learning from the mistakes of others. Otherwise, there would not have been such insane losses in Chechnya and the war itself would not have happened in the North Caucasus. Otherwise, we would have long ago (and not now) begun to radically rebuild our armed forces, which clearly do not meet the requirements of the time.
When on February 15, 1989, the last battalions crossed the bridge separating the two banks, no one from the top Soviet leadership met them in Termez, said kind words, did not remember the dead, or promised to support the mutilated.
It seems that the fathers of perestroika and “new thinking” wanted to quickly, like a bad dream, forget that war and start the future with a clean slate.
Did not work out. The bridge across the Amu Darya did not at all lead to a world without wars and upheavals.
It turns out that gunpowder must now be kept dry.
Withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan. In 1989, the government of the Soviet Union finally withdrew a limited contingent of troops from the territory of this state. This terrible war, which was initially kept silent, brought grief and pain to many families.
Almost a decade
The Afghan war lasted ten years for the Soviet people. For our military, it began in 1979, on December 25, when the first soldiers were sent to Afghanistan. At that time, newspapers did not write about this, and soldiers serving in Afghanistan were forbidden to tell their relatives where they were and what they were doing. And only in 1989, on February 15, Soviet troops finally left the territory of this eastern country. It was a real holiday for our country.
In a terrible and bloody war, a final point was reached. And in the Soviet Union, and later in the Russian Federation and the states - former republics of the Land of the Soviets, they began to celebrate February 15th. The day of the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan is not only an occasion to pay tribute to those who died in that terrible war. This is also a sign that it is necessary to take care of those who went through a senseless and unnecessary war, which lasted almost 3 thousand 340 days. Longer than the Great Patriotic War.
Fateful April
The world's progressive community has long called on the Soviet Union to withdraw its military from Afghanistan. Such demands began to be heard increasingly louder within the country itself. The negotiations lasted long and hard. In April 1988, some clarity was achieved. On this day in Switzerland, with the direct participation of representatives, the foreign ministers of Pakistan and Afghanistan signed the so-called “The speech was about finally resolving the unstable situation in Afghanistan.”
Under these agreements, the Soviet Union was ordered to withdraw a limited contingent of its troops within 9 months. It was truly a fateful decision.
The withdrawal of troops itself began in May 1988. And the final date for the end of the Afghan war came in 1989. February 15 is the day of the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan, the day when the last Soviet soldier left the territory of this country forever. This is a significant date in the history of our state.
For their part, the United States of America and Pakistan, according to the Geneva agreements, had to stop providing any support to the Mujahideen. the condition was violated all the time.
Gorbachev's role
If earlier the Soviet government placed the main emphasis on a military solution to the Afghan problem, then after Mikhail Gorbachev came to power in the USSR, the tactics were radically changed. The political vector has changed. Now the policy of national reconciliation has been put at the forefront.
This was the only way to get out of the protracted conflict. Negotiate, convince, don’t shoot!
Najibullah's initiatives
At the end of 1987, Mohammad Najibullah became the leader of Afghanistan.
He developed a very progressive program for ending hostilities. He proposed moving to dialogue and stopping the shooting, releasing militants and those who were opponents of the regime from prison. He suggested that all parties seek a compromise. But the opposition did not make such concessions; the Mujahideen wanted to fight to the bitter end. Although ordinary soldiers strongly supported the option of a truce. They threw down their weapons and happily returned to peaceful work.
It is worth noting that Najibullah’s initiatives did not please the United States and other Western countries at all. They were aimed at continuing hostilities. As Colonel General Boris Gromov says in his memoirs, his units intercepted 417 caravans with weapons from July to December 1988 alone. They were sent to the Mujahideen from Pakistan and Iran.
But still, common sense triumphed, and the decision that Soviet troops should leave Afghanistan for their homeland became final and irrevocable.
Our losses
Since then, every year on February 15, the Day of Remembrance of Soldiers Who Died in the Afghan War, is celebrated at the state level in all republics of the former Soviet Union whose citizens died in Afghanistan. And the losses in this senseless battle were considerable. Gruz-200 became familiar to many cities of the Soviet Union. More than 15 thousand of our children in the prime of their lives died in Afghanistan. At the same time, the greatest losses were suffered. 14,427 people died at the fronts and went missing. Also listed as dead were 576 people who served in the State Security Committee and 28 employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. February 15 is the Day of Remembrance of these guys, of those who met their last hour on distant Afghan soil, who never had time to say goodbye to their mothers and loved ones.
Many servicemen returned from that war with poor health. According to official statistics, more than 53 thousand people received wounds, concussions and various injuries. They celebrate every year on February 15th. The Day of the Internationalist Warrior is an opportunity to meet with your fellow soldiers, with those with whom you shared soldiers’ rations and took refuge from heavy fire in the gorges, with whom you went on reconnaissance and fought against the “spirits.”
Hundreds of thousands of missing Afghans
They suffered huge losses during this war and there are still no official statistics on this matter. But, as the Afghans themselves say, during the hostilities hundreds of thousands of their compatriots died from bullets and shells, and many went missing. But the worst thing is that huge losses among the civilian population occurred precisely after our troops left. Today in this country there are about 800 thousand disabled people who were injured during the Afghan war.
Difficulties of care
February 15, the Day of Withdrawal of Troops from Afghanistan, is celebrated as a public holiday in Russia and other former Soviet republics. Of course, for mothers and fathers there was nothing better than knowing that their son would not be sent to serve in Afghanistan. However, in 1989, during the withdrawal of troops, the military leadership experienced great difficulties. On the one hand, the Mujahideen resisted in every possible way. Knowing that February 15 (the day of the withdrawal of Soviet troops) was the final date, they intensified military operations. They wanted to show the whole world how Soviet soldiers were running, how they were abandoning their wounded and dead. They fired indiscriminately to prove their superiority.
On the other hand, the Kabul leadership understood perfectly well that without the help of the Soviet army the country would have a very hard time, and they also prevented the withdrawal of troops through certain actions.
Some public figures in the Soviet Union itself were ambivalent about the idea of withdrawing troops. They believed that after so many years of war it was impossible to capitulate and leave without victory. This was equivalent to defeat. But only those who never hid from bullets and never lost comrades could reason this way. As Boris Gromov, commander of the 40th Army in Afghanistan, recalls, no one needed this war. It gave our country absolutely nothing except colossal human losses and enormous grief.
This date - February 15, Afghanistan Day, has become truly tragic for our country. But at the same time, on this February day, the final point was put in this senseless ten-year war.
Celebration with tears
February 15, Afghan Day, is solemn and sad; it always passes with tears in the eyes and pain in the heart. The mothers of those who did not return from the Afghan war are still alive. Standing in the parade formation are men who were boys in those years and did not understand at all what they were fighting for. There are many left who returned from that war not only with crippled souls, but also with upside-down destinies.
Our people sacredly honor the feat of those who carried out the state order, risking their lives and health. This war is our pain and our tragedy.
On February 15, 1989, the almost ten-year stay of a limited contingent of Soviet troops in Afghanistan ended.
Thousands of Russian mothers were able to breathe a sigh of relief that their sons were returning home alive.
Political games are a cynical and dirty thing, but when they result in thousands of deaths, such games can confidently be called a crime.
How it all began
Due to its geographical and economic position, Afghanistan in all periods of modern history has been an attractive territory for countries seeking dominance in the Central Asian region.
Most of the world's major states, accustomed to dictating their will and imposing policies beneficial to them, did not need an independent and developing people's Afghanistan. During the civil war that engulfed the country after the overthrow of the monarchy in 1973, confrontation took place between nationalist and socio-political forces.
The People's Democratic Party, which came to power in 1978, not only did not stop, but aggravated the civil war. The policy of radicalism of the new Afghan government increased the resistance of the opposition forces. The opposition was openly supported by NATO member countries, Muslim countries and China. The Soviet Union led a small coalition of states supporting the legally elected government of Afghanistan.
Afghan war
After repeated requests from the Afghan government for military assistance, the Soviet Union sent a limited contingent of its troops to Afghanistan in late December 1979. The main task of the Soviet troops was the protection and defense of national economic facilities, as well as escorting convoys with cargo.
But when the question arose about an adequate response to armed attacks by opposition forces on Soviet military personnel, a limited contingent of troops found themselves drawn into hostilities. This participation in hostilities received the unofficial name “Afghan War”. The conflict turned out to be too protracted.
It placed a heavy burden on the economy of the Soviet Union, but the most terrible and irreparable losses were human losses. The “cargo of 200” regularly sent home, a large number of wounded and missing, made the “Afghan war” not only unpopular among the population, but also threatened to lead to a social explosion. Finally, sanity overcame political ambitions and the Soviet Union announced the withdrawal of its troops from Afghanistan in 1988.
Systematic withdrawal of troops
According to the command plan, the withdrawal was to begin in May and end on February 15, 1989. The operation to withdraw Soviet troops took place strictly according to schedule in several stages. By August 1988, half of the personnel had been withdrawn. The Mujahideen, who control more than 70% of the territory of Afghanistan, intensified hostilities, and the withdrawal of the Soviet contingent was suspended until November.
In order to reduce the losses of Soviet military personnel, missile weapons were used against the armed forces of the opposition. Until the complete withdrawal of troops, 92 launches of Luna-class tactical missiles were carried out. This saved thousands of lives of Soviet soldiers. In the abandoned territories there remained capital military camps with modern infrastructure, a large amount of equipment and weapons.
Despite the agreement reached on non-participation in hostilities with the majority of opposition leaders, the withdrawal of our troops took place under constant artillery and rocket fire. And yet, on February 15, 1989, the commander of the 40th Army, General Boris Gromov, at 15:00 Moscow time, was the last of his subordinates to cross the Friendship Bridge. The withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan was completed strictly according to plan. The last to leave Afghanistan were the border troops, who closed the state border of the USSR.
Results
Official statistics claim that more than 600 thousand Soviet troops fought in the Afghan war. Losses amounted to about 14 thousand killed, more than 6 thousand Soviet Afghan soldiers remained disabled. Recently, Russia has been celebrating February 15 as the Day of Remembrance of Russians who performed their military duty outside the Fatherland.
February 15, 1989 is the official day of the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan. At 10:00 the last soldier, Lieutenant General of the 40th Army, left the territory of Afghanistan on the border passing along the bridge across. 24 years have passed since then, but the events of that war have not yet been erased from the memory of the participants, they remind us of them in books, films.
Everyone remembers the sensational film "9th Company", which describes the events of that war. In one episode, when asked what he would do after returning home, the serviceman replied: “Drink, then drink some more, and drink until I forget the whole nightmare I experienced there.” What did the Soviet soldiers have to endure there, in the mountains of Afghanistan, and most importantly, for what?
Protracted 10-year war
The withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan marked the end of a war about which we, in fact, know almost nothing. If we compare it with the First and Second World Wars, then the information about the “mountain hikes”, which lasted for less than 10 years, was preserved only in the memory of the participants. The secret war began on December 25, 1979, and, as a result, the introduction of troops showed the USSR in the international arena as an aggressor.
In particular, the decision of the USSR was incomprehensible, and only the USA was amused by this, since it had been going on for a long time between the two strongest states. On December 29, the Pravda newspaper published an appeal from the Afghan government for outside assistance to resolve internal conflicts. The Soviet Union provided assistance, but almost immediately realized the “Afghan mistake,” and the road back was difficult.
In order to carry out the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan, it took the government almost 10 years, it was necessary to sacrifice the lives of 14 thousand soldiers, injure 53 thousand, and also take the lives of 1 million Afghans. It was difficult for Soviet soldiers to lead in the mountains, while the Mujahideen knew them like the back of their hand.
The withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan became one of the main issues, which was first raised on February 7, 1980. But the government then considered it necessary to delay the troops, since the situation in Afghanistan, in their opinion, had not stabilized. It took 1.5 - 2 years to completely liberate the country. Soon L.I. Brezhnev decided to withdraw troops, but his initiative was not supported by Yu.V. Andropov and D.F. Ustinov. For some time, the solution to this problem was suspended, and the soldiers continued to fight and die in the mountains, it is not clear for whose interests. And only in 1985 M. S. Gorbachev resumed the issue of troop withdrawal; a plan was approved according to which Soviet troops were to leave the territory of Afghanistan within two years. And only after the intervention of the UN did the papers go into action. Pakistan and Afghanistan signed a contract that prohibited the United States from interfering in the internal affairs of the country, and the USSR had to carry out the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan.
Did the Soviet soldiers return with victory or defeat?
Many people are wondering what the outcome of the war was? Can Soviet soldiers be considered victors?
There is no definite answer, but the USSR did not set itself the task of conquering Afghanistan; it was supposed to assist the government in stabilizing the internal situation. The USSR most likely lost this war to itself, 14 thousand soldiers and their relatives. Who asked to send troops to this country, what awaited them there? History does not know a more reckless massacre that has caused such victims. The withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan in 1989 was the smartest decision during this war, but a sad aftertaste will forever remain in the hearts of the physically and mentally crippled participants and their loved ones.