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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This book could not have been written without the assistance of a great many people who shared their experiences in Afghanistan, put me in touch with knowledgeable friends, gave me books, and read the manuscript in whole or in part.
The late General Alexander Lyakhovski, Vyacheslav Nekrasov, and Alexander Gergel were particularly helpful over several years. Alexander Kartsev regularly commented by email and in our Moscow meetings. He, Alexander Gergel, Artemy Kalinovsky, Svetlana Savranskaya, and Peter Carson read and commented at length on the draft. Svetlana kindly gave permission to use the documents for which she was responsible. Artemy and Svetlana were assiduous in digging out useful documents and giving scholarly advice. Artemy Kalinovsky’s doctoral thesis, ‘A Long Goodbye: The Politics and Diplomacy of the Soviet Withdrawal from Afghanistan, 1980–1992’, is a most distinguished and elegant work of scholarship, which is now being published by Harvard Press as a book. He and I both read Raymond Chandler, and agreed that neither could claim a monopoly of the title. Masha Slonim, Valeri and Galina Ivanov, Valeri Shiryaev, Vladimir Snegirev, Dmitri Ryurikov, and Alexander Gergel corrected passages relating to them.
Rory Stewart generously let me stay in his room in the Turquoise Mountain Foundation during my brief visit to Afghanistan in September 2008. I owe much thanks to him and his colleagues for enabling me to get an indispensable feeling for a remarkable country—especially Hedvig Alexander and Manja Burton, and to Aziz and Zia, who drove me up the Salang Pass and into the Pandsher Valley, where Aziz showed me his home and introduced me to his wife and family.
Many people gave me introductions, interviews, and useful titbits of information: General Viktor Antonenko, General Ruslan Aushev, Yefim Bashan and Natasha Golitsyna, Professor Oleg Bogomolov, Nikolai Bystrov, Anatoli Chernyaev, Marietta Chudakova, Sherard Cowper-Coles, Vladimir Dolgikh, Arkadi Dubnov, Andrei Dyshev, Dmitri Fedorov, Pavel Felgengauer, Pir Said Ahmad Gailani, Antonio Giustozzi, Captain Yuri Gladkevich, Alexander Golts, Mikhail Gorbachev, Andrei Greshnov, Meredith Hooper, Alexandra Ivanova, Major Vyacheslav Izmailov, Peter Joulwan, Ambassador Zamir Kabulov, Sultan Ali Keshtmand, Yevgeni Khrushchev, Yevgeni Kiselev, Frants Klintsevich, Nikolai Komissarov, Alexander Koniev, Viktor Korgun, General Vladimir Kosarev, Aleksei and Tatiana Krol, Colonel Oleg Kulakov, Colonel Ruslan Kyryliuk, Dr Lutfullah Latif, Colonel Mikhail Lavrenenko, Aleksei Makarkin, Rustem Makhmutov, Sher Ahmad Maladani, Jack Matlock, Omid Mojadedi, Igor Morozov, Sergei Morozov, Mohamed Naser Nahez, Boris Pastukhov, Andrei Ponomarev, John Prados, Professor Mikhail Reshetnikov, Natalia Ryurikova, Ismael Saadat, Valeri Shiryaev, Alexander Shkirando, Alla Smolina, Vladimir Snegirev, Thomas Tugendhat, Rustumkhodzha Tursunkulov, Alexander Umnov, the late General Valentin Varennikov, Alexander Vorontsov, Anatoli Yermolin, Boris Zhelezin.
As always, I have relied shamefully on the generous friendship and hospitality of Yuri Senokosov and Lena Nemirovskaya, and the unfailing help of Inna Berezkina.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Black and White
1. (Top) Mikhail Gorbachev with Mohamed Najibullah (RIA Novosti) (Bottom) Eduard Shevardnadze, the Soviet Foreign Minister, signs the Geneva agreements (RIA Novosti)
2. (Top) Nur Mohamed Taraki (Itar-TASS) (Bottom) Leonid Brezhnev greets Babrak Karmal (Itar-TASS)
3. (Top) Communist Activists (photograph courtesy of A. Dyshev) (Bottom) Students at the Kabul Polytechnic (RIA Novosti)
4. Clockwise from top left: Igor Morozov (Author photograph); Sergeant Alexander Gergel (photograph courtesy of A. Gergel); Nikolai Bystrov (Author photograph) and Lieutenant Alexander Kartsev (photograph courtesy of A. Kartsev)
5. (Top) The elite troops—parachutists, reconnaissance units and special forces (photograph courtesy of A. Dyshev) (Bottom) Dembels (photograph courtesy of A. Dyshev)
6. (Top) The 860th Regiment medical team (photograph courtesy of A. Smolina) (Bottom) Two weddings (photograph courtesy of A. Smolina)
7. Action in the mountains (photographs courtesy of A. Dyshev)
8. Summer 1988. Soviet troops withdraw from Jalalabad towards Kabul (photograph by Richard Ellis)
Colour
9. Babur’s garden and tomb in 2008 (Author photograph)
10. (Top) The Arg (RIA Novosti) (Bottom) The Taj Bek (Author photograph)
11. (Top) Ahmad Shah Masud—the Lion of Pandsher (Sygmus collection, Corbis) (Bottom left) Sher Ahmad Maladani (Author photograph) (Bottom right) Unknown man by the Salang tunnel (Author photograph)
12. (Top) Soldiers fighting off an ambush (RIA Novosti) (Bottom) Soldiers are relaxing on their BMP (RIA Novosti)
13. (Top) Mi-24 battle helicopters, called Crocodiles (photograph courtesy of Yannick Fournier) (Bottom) Mi-8 helicopters, called Bees (RIA Novosti)
14. Sappers searching for mines (RIA Novosti)
15. A Soviet supply column in the mountains (RIA Novosti)
16. Pandsher Valley, September 2008 (Author photograph)
While every effort has been made to contact copyright-holders of illustrations, the author and publishers would be grateful for information about any illustrations where they have been unable to trace them, and would be glad to make amendments in further editions.
INDEX
40th Army 85, 122, 128, 133, 135, 143, 195, 198
A unique army 144
Aircraft losses 205
Corruption 189
Crime statistics 173, 227
Disbanded 308
Disciplinary measures 225
Drinking and drugs 190
Enters Afghanistan 84
Equipment 197
Formation
108th Motor-rifle Division 55, 87–8, 175–6, 227
12th Guards Motor-rifle Regiment 230, 252
15th Special Forces Brigade 133
180th Motor-rifle Regiment 127
201st Motor-rifle Division 87, 142, 175, 227, 291, 305
>
The division fights on 305
22nd Special Forces Brigade 133
345th Guards Independent Parachute Assault Regiment 82, 87, 91, 105, 182, 195, 214, 216, 290, 317, 325
9th Company 116, 215
Suppresses demonstration in Tblisi 1989 308
56th Guards Independent Airborne Assault Brigade 87–8, 172, 176, 214, 217–18
5th Guards Motor-rifle Division 55, 87, 174–5
66th Independent Motor-rifle Brigade 154, 156, 174, 227, 229
70th Independent Motor-rifle Brigade 227
860th Independent Motor-rifle Regiment 87, 157–8, 171, 173, 188, 199, 227–9, 242
Epic march of 176
Trashes base on departure 284
Operations of 209
Reunions of 325–6
Formidable fighters, despite criticism 144
Four main bases 175
Health problems resemble those in Crimean War 175
HQ in Amin’s old palace 142
Inadequacy of strategy 123
Invasion route 86
Large operations on Pakistan border and in Pandsher Valley 213, 215
Living conditions 169
Mobilisation 121
Muddled chain of command 85
Nature of fighting 197
Ordered to begin active operations 140
Politicians fail to welcome the soldiers back 293
Press gangs 137
Soviet troops remain in Afghanistan after 40th Army leaves 294
Success nullified by two basic misjudgements 124
Tactics 129, 132–3, 207
Use of elite forces 133
9th Company, film 215
A
Abdullaev Yusuf, Soviet youth adviser 164–5
Abdur Rahman Khan (1840?—1901), Afghan ruler 13, 15, 26–8, 34, 44, 63
Abdurrahman, deputy chairman of Communist Youth organisation 152
Abram Andrew, English traveller 35
Abramov, interpreter 107
Adamishin Anatoli, Soviet diplomat, criticises invasion in diary 110
Advisers 7, 106, 152, 162, 164–5
Casualties 45, 53, 166
Foreign advisers with mujahedin 134
Helping to suppress rebels? 53, 167
Idealism of 149
Interpreters 153
Military advisers 124, 150
Not targetted by mujahedin 160
Numbers increase in 1979 150
Numbers run down from 1986 168
Party advisers 151
Poor results in the countryside 162
Security arrangements 161
Senior advisers in Kabul replaced 74
Murdered 139
Undermine Afghans’ responsibility 148, 176
Intelligence tasks 166
Youth advisers 151
Afganets—inhabitant of Afghanistan, hot wind, Soviet veteran 194, 326
afgani, Afghan currency 165
Afgantsy, veterans of war in Afghanistan. See: Veterans
Afghan army 151, 272, 279
Attitude of Soviet soldiers towards 138
Betrayal of 223
Brutality of 232
Daud procures Soviet weapons for 16
Desertions 136
Dependent on Soviet supplies 296
Everywhere on defensive 299
Will it resist Soviet invasion? 80
Mutiny in Herat 6
Penetrated by mujahedin 136
Politburo decides to supply specialists and arms, March 1979 49
Short-lived success of assault on Zhawar caves 214
Size, 1979 and 1989 136
Afghan government 124
Accused of betraying Islam 51
Counterproductive policies 123
Exploits divisions among Soviets 61
Fails to mend its ways 53
Issues radical programme 42
Loses authority 59
Panics after Herat rising 7
Signs bilateral agreement with Pakistan 281
Unable to hold territory captured by the Russians 216
Afghan syndrome see: PTSD
Afghanistan 299, 316–17
American interest revives, 1977 33
American invasion, 2001 325
Americans consider incorporating into Baghdad Pact 30
Attempts at modernisation 15
Briefly invaded by Soviets in 1929 29
British and Russian paranoia 23
British designs on 24
Burdensome legacy of Durand Line 28
Destruction after 1979 328
Geography, people, history 12
German influence 30
Good relations with Soviets after 1919 28
Ideal for guerilla warfare 128
Impact of Soviet war 331
Post-war attitudes of Afghans 335
Resistance to Communists spreads 58
Russian designs on 18
Situation deteriorates, Autumn 1979 75
Soviet Congress condemns invasion 328
Afsotr, Afghan-Soviet Transport Company 209, 300
Ahmad Shah Abdali (c.1722–73), Afghan ruler 13–14
Aid
Brings Russians few political dividends 148
Figures for Soviet aid 147
Given by Americans, Russians and Germans before 1979 146
Major Soviet irrigation project 147
Practical value of Soviet aid unclear 148
Russians build Polytechnic Institute in Kabul 148
Soviet aid to Najibullah 296
Ainaksk copper mine 240
Akbari, head of Afghan security police 59
Al-Azhar University, Cairo 17
Aleksandrov-Agentov Andrei, Brezhnev’s diplomatic adviser 42
Aleksievich Svetlana, Soviet journalist 323
Aliev Mahmed, Soviet adviser 105–6
Alksnis Colonel Viktor, critic of Gorbachev 309
Alliance of Seven 200–201
Islamic Party of Afghanistan 202
Islamic Party of Afghanistan (Hekmatyar) 184
Islamic Society of Afghanistan (Rabbani) 184
Amanullah Shah (1892–1960), Afghan ruler 15–17, 29, 34
Amin Hafizullah (1929–79), Afghan Communist President 7, 42, 59–60, 62–9, 73–4, 77–8, 82, 90
Abortive KGB attempts to kill him 94
Accuses Soviet ambassador of lying 72
Afghan people welcomes overthrow 106–7
Alleged contacts with Americans 40, 71
Co founder of Afghan Communist party 17
Death of 98
Furious reaction to Soviet protest 71
Gives orders that aircraft using Bagram be shot down 68
Moscow begins to think of removing him 74
Moves to Taj Bek palace 89
Poisoned at lunch 95
Strengthens hold on power 58
Purges officer corps 136
Amin’s palace cat 102
Amstutz Bruce, US charge d’affairs 71, 79
Amu Darya (Oxus) river 18–19, 27–8, 87, 142, 146, 205
Anava, village in Pandsher valley 182, 216
Andrianov Vladimir, orientalist, criticises war 245
Andropov Yuri (1914–84), Chairman of KGB 49, 52, 56, 74, 79, 109, 123, 237, 324
Accuses Amin of contacts with CIA 77
Congratulates Karmal on assumption of power 103
Considers covert ways of removing Amin 63
Determined to get rid of Amin 73
Illness and death, January 1984 271
Member of Committee on Afghanistan 60
Reports that situation in Kabul is becoming more stable, February 1980 270
Sets up Kaskad special forces unit 134
Succeeds Brezhnev, November 1982 271
Views on Afghan request to send troops 46
Anglo-Afghan wars 15
Antonenko Colonel, Commander of 860th Regiment, views on women 157
Anwar, mujahedin commander 183
>
Arg (Presidential palace) 34, 41, 63, 82, 89–90, 139
Army of the Indus 283, 297
Arutiunov Lieutenant 220
Asadabad, Afghan town 133
Asadullah, head of Afghan counterintelligence 94
Atrocities 225, 234, 244–5, 302
Afghanistan Justice Project report 231
Collateral Damage 230
Committed by mujahedin 214, 227, 232, 254, 296
Geok Tepe, massacre, 1881 24
Helicopter attacks on villages 256
Mass graves at Bamyan and Herat 76
Mine Action Coordination Centre 235
Western propaganda successfully portrays Russians as particularly brutal 234
Auckland Lord (1784–1849), Governor General of India 21
Aushev Ruslan, officer, Hero of Soviet Union 207–8, 257–9, 269, 326
B
Babadzhan General, Afghan staff officer 87
Babchenko Sasha, Soviet youth adviser 164, 166
Babur (1483–1530), Moghul emperor 27
Buried in Kabul 12
Badaber, PoW camp in Pakistan 265–6, 269
Badakhshan, Afghan province 171, 176
Badarak, village in Pandsher valley 261
Bagram air base 54, 68, 206–7, 216, 261
Last Soviet aircraft depart 290
Soviet paratroopers sent to guard 57
Baikonur, Soviet cosmodrome 78
Bakharak, Base of 1st Battalion of 860th Regiment 177–81, 199, 284, 321
“Bakharak Massacre” 209
Bakhturin Colonel, security officer at Soviet embassy 68
Baku, capital of Azerbaijan 309
Bala Hissar, castle 26, 53
Balashikha, KGB training centre outside Moscow 69
Balashin Abdullah, Turkmen spy 261
Balkh, ancient Afghan city 29, 86
Bamyan, Afghan province 206
BAPO, military propaganda unit 156
Bards, soldier singers and poets 138, 193
Baryatinski Prince, warns of British aggression 22
Basir, mujahedin leader 334
Batalionnaya Razvedka, popular soldiers’ song 194
Battleship Potemkin (film) 115
Bekovich Captain Alexander, failed expedition to Khiva 18–19
Bennigsen General, thinks Russian campaign against India impracticable 20
Bessus, Persian pretender 216
betonka, concrete highway, built by Russians and Americans 86
Bhutto Benazir (1953–2007), Pakistani Prime Minister 32, 260