By Alex Gordon
The war in Afghanistan, launched by the Soviet Union in December 1979, was conducted for the sake of “fulfillment of the international duty to help the brotherly Afghan people.”
It lasted for nine years and ended with the forced and not victorious withdrawal of Soviet troops from the territory of the neighboring state.
In this war, conducted with the purpose of establishing socialist order in Afghanistan, 18,833 Soviet people were killed, died of wounds, and diseases, while 49,985 people were wounded, 669 became disabled, 417 were captured (and only about one third of them returned home).
During the nine years of the war, 620,000 soldiers and officers passed through Afghanistan. Many of them fell ill with “Afghan syndrome” (post-traumatic stress disorder) and other mental illnesses.
Socialism was not established in Afghanistan. This war, not very understandable to Soviet citizens, demonstrated to the world the regime’s imperialist character and was the catalyst for the collapse of the USSR…
