The Soviet-Afghan War, a proxy conflict in the Cold War, devastated Afghanistan and had long-lasting consequences.The Old World officially ended in August 1945 after Japan had offered to surrender without any condition to the Allied Forces. But we all know that World War II ended, but it was replaced by another kind of new war that was neither asymmetrical war nor hybrid war; rather, it was known as Cold War. The world was divided into two blocs after World War II. Two new superpowers came into existence: one was the United States of America, and the other was the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. So, the United States of America, or in short USA, led the democratic capitalist bloc, and the USSR led the Marxist/socialist/leftist blocs. And both the superpowers were fighting, not directly, through their proxies. So, the Korea War was the first example of Cold War. But today, I will not discuss about Korea War; rather, I will discuss about the Soviet-Afghan War. So, the Soviet-Afghan War took place in Afghanistan. Basically, that war happened from December 1979 to February 1989, for almost nine years. So, that was the beginning, beginning of 46 years long Afghan conflict. Initially, the Afghan military and Red Army of USSR fought the Afghan Mujahideen, religious holy warriors, who were directly supported, aided by the United States of America, and the Islamic Republic of Pakistan was its main base. Though the Afghan rebels or Islamists were backed by several countries, but the majority support to those Islamists or Afghan Mujahideen came from Pakistan, the USA, UK, China, Iran, and Arab states of Persian Gulf. But Pakistan was the main ally of USA against the USSR because Pakistan is a neighbor of Afghanistan, and after Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, million Afghan refugees fled to Pakistan, and Pakistan became the main base of Americans. CIA, or Central Intelligence Agency of USA, secret organization, provided million dollars to the Mujahideen to purchase arms, and Americans were directly providing arms, though not Americans, later Americans supplied deadly Stinger missile. So, I will discuss it later. So, after beginning of that war, million Afghan refugees entered into Pakistan, mainly in Balochistan and North-West Frontier Province, which is now known as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Basically, the people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Afghan Pashtuns are of same stock, so racial stratagem, so it was not difficult for them to use as a secure region as its main base. So, American and British involvement on the side of Afghan Mujahideen further escalated the Cold War, and a warm relation between USA and USSR officially ended. So, in '80s, the world saw bloody wars, conflict, military escalation in Afghanistan. And according to the data, the Afghan-Soviet conflict killed one to three million Afghan civilians, and millions fled from their homeland as a result of Soviet invasion, and Afghan refugees sought asylum in Pakistan and Iran. Though exact number is difficult to be given, but decade-long confrontation between the Mujahideen and Russians inflicted grave destruction on Afghanistan. That happened to be a modern state until 1970. Afghanistan ruled by Durranis. I think King Zahir Shah was the last Afghan king. At that time, Afghanistan happened to be a modern state. But the Afghan Mujahideen were resulted in the total destruction of Afghanistan, and now Afghanistan is looking like a medieval state. So, in 1991, the USSR collapsed, but before it, in 1989, USSR decided to withdraw its armies from Afghanistan, and with Soviet withdrawal, that war finally ended, but again it was followed by civil war. So, now I will explain the exact incidents, what happened before Afghan Mujahideen war with Russians. So, in 1979, in the month of March, a violent riot, rebellion was broken out in the Herat, where a large number of Soviet military advisors were executed. That means the Soviet Union sent large number of their military advisors to help the Afghan government and to train the Afghan National Army. At that time, Afghanistan was ruled by People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan. It was a Soviet-backed political party. Its main doctrine was Marxism. That party immediately requested the Soviet Union to send its troops because Afghan National Army was not in a position to fight them. So, at that time, Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin refused to send troops; rather, he advised then Afghan Prime Minister Nur Muhammad Taraki to use his local army. At that time, Afghanistan was a socialist state, and they always viewed USSR as the role model. But everything changed when Brezhnev became main leader of USSR. He sent Soviet armies to support the Afghan Marxist government which was installed after a Soviet-sponsored execution of then Afghan President Hafizullah Amin. Mr. Amin was considered to be a pro-American president, and the Soviet Union apprehended that he might be an American agent. So, they executed and a new president was installed who was extremely loyal to USSR. So, once the Russians arrived, the Muslim world and Western world immediately condemned it as an invasion. Basically, they thought that it was a ploy of Soviet leaders to reach the warm waters of Arabian Sea, or they wanted to use Afghanistan as its strategic asset, dominate the entire South Asian region. So, Soviet troops, mostly Russians, occupied major cities of Afghanistan like Kandahar, Kabul, Herat, etc., and all major center of communications were occupied by them. And the American-backed Mujahideen, who consider the Marxist communists as infidels, the force of atheists. So, communists were regarded as their enemy number one. So, they continued their fight. So, the Mujahideen was fully exploiting the geographical advantages of Afghanistan, and they were armed by the Americans. Americans already provided them million, perhaps billion dollars. And what happened, the Mujahideens were advised to purchase Kalashnikov rifles from the black market as their basic infantry weapons. The Americans did not supply their weapons to them. So, they were mostly purchasing or using the Russian origin Kalashnikov rifle, machine guns, rockets, I mean RPG, mortars, etc., as their main weapons. And Americans secretly supplied captured weapons of Arab states by Israel to them so as to hide the American involvement, I mean direct involvement of America. So, USSR had initially planned to secure Afghans towns and road network and had withdrawn all its military forces to the towns, main strategic places. In mid '80s, I mean maybe in '84, '85, Soviet military presence in Afghanistan had increased to 15 lakh, and perhaps within two years, maybe in '86 or '87, Soviet Union had nearly three lakh troops in Afghanistan, several thousand tanks, artillery, infantry fighting vehicles, helicopter gunship, even some light aircraft like Sukhoi 24, Sukhoi 27 also used against Mujahideen. So, but in 1987, then moderate Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev decided to withdraw Soviet forces from Afghanistan. So, briefly I will discuss with you the backgrounds. We all know that in 19th century, the British Empire was firmly established in today's Indian Pakistan, I mean in British India. But Soviet Union at that time was non-existent; rather, Russia, Russian Empire was always looking Afghanistan, and the British were fearful that Soviet, I mean Soviet Union later became Russians would invade Afghanistan, and that would definitely threaten the British interest. In 1885, Russian forces seized some disputed areas of today's Uzbekistan. At that time, those areas were under Afghan occupation. However, a border agreement was signed between Anglo-Russian governments, and Russian interest in Afghanistan continued through the Soviet era with the USSR was investing billion in economic and military aid. So, we all know that in 1929 or 30, Red Army intervened Afghanistan because Russia later became Soviet Union number one and most powerful state. So, that was going on. But we also know that British India and Afghan border, that was officially known as Durand Line. Durand Line was created by British in 1893 something to demarcate the boundaries between British India and Afghanistan. But rather I will tell you that it was a clever tactics of British government to divide the Pashtun people. Basically, Pashtuns were even today now residing on the both sides of Durand Line. So, Afghanistan was founded by Ahmed Shah Durrani, and Afghan are basically consisting of the Pashtun people, Tajik people, Uzbek people, Hazara people, and Turkmens. So, initially Afghanistan remained neutral in the Cold War. They did not join anyone side. So, in 1960 and 1961, the Afghan army on the orders of Daoud Khan following his policy of Pashtun nationalism made two unsuccessful in interzone into Pakistan Pashtun dominated district. So, that was going on. In 1973, Daoud Khan organized a coup and he seized power from King Zahir Shah in a bloodless coup. No one died, and Afghanistan became a republic. Following his return to power, Daoud revived his Pashtun nationalism, and Pakistan was alarmed, and that was going on. The Marxist People's Party of Afghanistan strength was growing and increasing after its foundation in 1967. It was again divided. So, after the revolution that again happened, Nur Muhammad Taraki assumed the leadership, and then came the rule of Hafizullah Amin who claimed to be a communist. So, finally communist came to power. And next in 1978, Taraki government initiated a series of reforms. That means Taraki government, communist government introduced some reforms, but Afghan people disliked it. Basically, I am telling you that Afghans are fierce people. They, they even today they don't like intervention of any foreign power, and they are devout Muslims. Islam religion which came to Afghanistan in 7th, 8th century, the Afghan people became ardent follower of Prophet Muhammad, and anything that was, that is found against their Islamic faith, that was not unacceptable to Afghan people.That trend is still ongoing today.

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