Soviet War in Afghanistan (Greater Cold War)

Soviet War in Afghanistan
Part of the Wars in Afghanistan and the Cold War
Soviet armored convoy on patrol in central Afghanistan, 1980
Date December 24, 1979 – February 12, 1985 Location Afghanistan Result Soviet-Afghan victory Successful Soviet suppression of the Afghan Mujahideen insurgency Geneva Accords of 1984 ratified Successful withdraw of Soviet forces from Afghanistan in 1986 Continuation of the Afghan Civil War
Belligerents
Soviet Union Afghanistan Supported By: China	Sunni Mujahideen Supported By: United States United Kingdom Pakistan
Commanders and leaders
Leonid Brezhnev Yuri Andropov Konstantin Chernenko Dmitriy Ustinov Sergei Sokolov Dmitriy Yakov Valentin Varennikov Igor Rodionov Boris Gromov Babrak Karmal Mohammad Najibullah Abdul Rashid Dostum Abdul Qadir Shahnawaz Tanai Mohammed Rafie	Ahmad Shah Massoud Abdul Haq Abdullah Azzam Ismail Khan Gulbuddin Hekmatyar Jalaluddin Haqqani Mohammad Nabi Nab Alikozai Abdul Rahim Wardak Fazal Haq Mujahid Burhanuddin Rabbani Michael G. Vickers
Strength
Soviet Armed Forces 620,000 total troops Afghan Military 55,000 total troops	Mujahideen 200,000-250,000
Casualties and losses
Soviet Forces 8142 total killed 33,389 wounded 13,438 total vehicles destroyed Afghan Forces 9000 total killed	Mujahideen 68,000-72,000 total killed 68,000 total wounded Pakistani Forces 300+ total killed One F-18 shot down

The Soviet War in Afghanistan was an armed conflict and guerrilla war fought between the Islamic Mujahideen insurgency and the communist government of Afghanistan supported by the Soviet Union in a military intervention and occupation from 1979 to early 1985. The war saw the deaths of up to 482,000-1.48 million Afghan civilians and thousands of Afghan security forces and Mujahideen fighters dead along with over 8000 Soviet troops dead. The war saw the communist government of Afghanistan remaining in power and Soviet communist influence retained.

Prior to the war, the communist Afghan politician Nur Muhammad Taraki had secured control over the country in a military coup in 1978 and Taraki seized power as the country's president. A series of radical reformations were implemented which alienated much of the country's conservative and deeply traditional religious population who formed the Mujahideen to overthrow him and the communist regime. Fearing the spread of the ideals of the Islamic revolution from Iran, Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev sent Soviet troops into Afghanistan and occupied the country from late 1979 until the withdraw in early 1985 to suppress the Mujahideen insurgency and maintain the communist regime in Afghanistan. 

Background

In 1885 during the Russian Empire's expansion down south into Afghanistan after their successful conquest of Central Asia, a diplomatic crisis had broke out on a disputed Oasis Panjdeh between the British and Russian Empires. Throughout the 1950s post-World War II, the Soviet Union had provided economic and military aid to Afghanistan from 1955 to 1978, until the Saur Revolution occurred that same year and the formation of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan had occurred afterwards. After Nur Muhammad Taraki took power, he established a pro-poor, pro-farmer socialist state and developed warmer and closer relations with the Soviet Union with a friendship treaty established between the USSR and Afghanistan on December 5th, 1978. 

Relations between the United States and Afghanistan would go one to decline and would further deteriorate after the American ambassador to Afghanistan, Adolph Dubs, was kidnapped by Settam-e-Melli militants and later killed in a raid by Afghan police which was assisted by Soviet advisors. In Southwestern Asia, things turned sour for the United States as the Iranian Revolution saw the collapse of the Shah regime in 1979 and a naval fleet to be sent to the Gulf by the Americans, which had the Soviets on edge fearing expansion of American power in the Middle East and the spread of the Iranian Revolution's ideas into communist Afghanistan. To maintain the communist regime, Soviet Premier Leonid Brezhnev would mobilize the Soviet Armed Forces and prepare for the deployment of Soviet troops to Afghanistan in the event that the communist Afghan government calls on the USSR for help if they had needed it. 

1979: Soviet Landings

After Afghanistan had successfully signed a treaty with the Soviet Union in December of 1978 allowing them to call on their assistance if needed, the agreement was put into action after the Afghan government requested military aid and assisted from the Soviet Union to combat the rising threat of the Mujahideen, which began launching numerous terrorist attacks and an insurgency against the communist regime. Seeking to retain the communist government and suppress any opposition in the region, Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev had launched a ground and air offensive into Afghanistan which saw the Red Army quickly take over roads, bridges, towns and cities in Afghanistan and provided the needed military assistance to their Afghan allies. The initial Soviet deployment saw 15-20 helicopters arrive at first and a detachment of tanks, BMPs, and other ground forces were sent to Bagram Air Base on July 7th disguised as technical specialists.  

The Soviet forces first deployed and arrived in Afghanistan were originally supposed to act as bodyguards for the Afghan President Taraki and were ordered to not interfere in Afghan politics and internal affairs. The Soviet troops were lead by senior Soviet military officers and advisors and several paratroopers were sent in. At the time of the initial deployment, the majority of the Soviet people and government supported the intervention, but some politicians such as Alexei Kosygin and Andrei Gromyko were against the intervention. After a month had followed, the Afghan government requested more forces and larger Soviet military units were sent into Afghanistan such as two motorized rifle divisions and an airborne division be sent in to help stabilize the situation in the country. According to Soviet intelligence at the time from the KGB, the situation in Afghanistan was worsened after Taraki was killed and replaced by Prime Minister Hafizullah Amin who took over the vacant presidency. In response, Moscow had warned Kabul that Amin's leadership would lead to "harsh repressions, and as a result, the activation and consolidation of the opposition" as a warning to Amin and his entire cabinet and government.