Russians+in+Afghanistan

__﻿Russians In Afghanistan __

__BackGround Info ﻿ __ = ﻿ = =__Timeline__=


 * 17 April 1973, Muhammad Zahir Shah deposed. (Monarchy Ended)


 * 17 July 1973, First republican government created with Mohammed Daoud Khan as the first President of Afghanistan.


 * 27 April 1978 Mohammed Daud Khan overthrown in the Saour (April) "Revolution," organized by the PDPA. Nur Mohammad Taraki became president of the Revolutionary Council, prime minister of the country and secretary general of party. Babrak Karmal and Hafizullah Amin were elected deputy prime ministers. (Afghanistan and Russian Relations Begin)


 * 5 December 1978, Afghan-Soviet Treaty of cooperation signed.


 * 28 March 1979, Amin became prime minister.


 * 24 December 1979, Soviet invasion of Afghanistan began. (Amin asks for Soviet aid to restore order)


 * 27 December 1979, Amin died. Karmal assumed power.


 * November 1987, new Afghan constitution adopted.


 * 14 April 1988, Gorbachev, in a meeting in Tashkent with Najibullah, announced the start of Soviet troop withdrawals.


 * 15 May 1988, Soviet troops began to withdraw. Mujahideen could not be defeated, especially with the impact of glasnost' and world TV coverage.


 * 9 June 1988, Najibullah declared, according to the Bakhtar News Agency, that 243,900 soldiers and civilians had died in ten years of war in Afghanistan.


 * 15 February 1989, Soviet pull-out completed.

=﻿__At a Glance__=
 * Russians invaded Afghanistan around the time of Christmas in 1979
 * Soviet Union never really invaded but were asked to help restore order
 * They remained there for about 10 years
 * Aimed to restore power back to Hafizullah Amin
 * December 27th, 1979 they shot and killed the Prime Minister, Hazifullah Amin
 * Later Babrak Karmal needed Russian soldiers to be able to keep him in power
 * He needed an estimate of over 80,000 soldiers to be able to stay in power
 * Mujahideen took over resisting the "infidels" aka Soviets
 * Soviets claimed Mujahideen were terrorists
 * Russia seemed powerfull during military displays but were no match because the Mujahdeen knew the terrain
 * By 1982 75% of Afghanistan was controlled by the Mujahdeen
 * In 1986 the Prime Minister of the Soviet Union outlined the withdrawal of the Soviet Troops
 * In 1989 the last Soviet soldier was out of Afghanistan



__Quotes__
 * "The end, the official end, would come first in April 1978 with the communist coup d'etat, and then in December 1979, when Russian tanks would rolll into the very same streets where Hassan and I played, bringing the death of the Afghanistan I knew and marking the start of a still ongoing era of bloodletting" -pg.36 (Amir)
 * "The Hindi kid would soon learn what the british learned earlierin the century, and what the Russians woud eventually learn by the late 1980s: that Afghans are an independent people. Afghans cheirsh custom but abhor rules." -pg.52
 * "Even at the dinner table, in the privacy of their home, people had to speak in a calculated manner-the Rafiqs were in the classrooms too; they'd taught children to spy on their parents, what to listen for, whom to tell"-pg.113

=﻿__Additional Information__=
 * __[|Documentary Part 1]__
 * [|Documentary Part 2]
 * [|Documentary Part 3]
 * [|Documentary Part 4]
 * [|Documentary Part 5]
 * Self Research: Scroll to the bottom of the page

__Citations__
 * Russian Invasion of Afghanistan (2010). Retrieved from [|www.historylearningsite.co.uk/russia_invasion_afghanistan.htm]
 * Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan (2011). Retrieved from [|www.guidetorussia.com/russia-afghanistan.asp]
 * The Origins of the Soviet-Afghan War (2001). Retrieved from [|www.alternativeinsight.com/Afghan_War.html]
 * Afghanistan and Russsia (2009). Retrieved from []

=﻿__Self Research__=


 * The Cold War International History Project has a number--over 600--of online documents available (Go to the [|CWIHP] and search using "Afghanistan."), but the collection is not easy to use. There is a specific collection on the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan (*.pdf file).
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica; font-size: 16px;">The personal memoir by Mohammad Ismail Sloan, [|A Brief History of the War in Afghanistan], is very interesting.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica; font-size: 16px;">Another good site for political information and current events is [|Political Resources on the Net - Afghanistan]
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica; font-size: 16px;">Well, I hate to say this, but the wikipedia article on the [|Soviet War in Afghanistan] is a good starting point for research, and it is one of the few comprehensive accounts on the web, with some good references included.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica; font-size: 16px;">Check the online book by M Hassan Kakar, [|Afghanistan: The Soviet Invasion and the Afghan Response, 1979-1982]
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica; font-size: 16px;">Lester W. Grau, [|The Take-Down of Kabul: An Effective Coup de Main]
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica; font-size: 16px;">There is analysis, essays and links to documents at [|Afghanistan: Lessons from the Last War], edited by John Prados and Svetlana Savranskaya, (an excellent resource)--might I add here, lessons that few seem to have learned.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica; font-size: 16px;">[|The CIA's Intervention in Afghanistan], Interview with Zbigniew Brzezinski, President Jimmy Carter's National Security Adviser
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica; font-size: 16px;">[|The Origins of the Soviet-Afghan War: Revelations from the Soviet Archives]
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica; font-size: 16px;">[|J.Bruce Amstutz //Afghanistan// //- the first five years of Soviet occupation// (1986)]
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">[|Inside the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan and the Seizure of Kabul] (*.pdf file)
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">[|U.N resolution A/RES/37/37] about the Soviet Intervention in Afghanistan
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">[|A Video Documentary] made by Soviet soldiers
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">[|Pain and Hope of Afghanistan, 1979-1989], another documentary with English subtitles
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">[|Background information] from the United Nations Good Offices Mission in Afghanistan and Pakistan
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">[|Geneva Accords 1988]
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">[|Role of the USSR in the 1978 coup d’etat] and subsequent invasion and occupation of Afghanistan by Soviet troops
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">[|CIA declassified information] about the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan