They say that the war does not end until the last soldier is buried. The Afghan conflict ended a quarter of a century ago, but we do not even know about the fate of those Soviet soldiers who, after the withdrawal of troops, remained in captivity of the Mujahideen. The data is different. Of the 417 missing, 130 were released before the collapse of the USSR, more than a hundred died, eight people were recruited by the enemy, 21 became “defectors”. These are the official statistics. In 1992, the United States provided Russia with information about another 163 Russian citizens missing in Afghanistan. The fate of dozens of soldiers remains unknown.
Bahretdin Khakimov, Herat. He was drafted into the army in 1979. In 1980, he went missing during a battle in the province of Herat, was officially named dead. In fact, he was seriously wounded in the head. The locals picked him up and left. Most likely, it was the injury that led to the fact that Khakimov practically forgot the Russian language, confusing dates and names. Sometimes calls himself an intelligence officer. Psychologists explain that with such injuries, there is a high probability of forming a false memory, rearranging dates and names.
Bahretdin Khakimov now lives in Herat on the territory of the Jihad Museum in a small room.
Photographer Alexey Nikolaev found former Soviet soldiers who told him their amazing stories about life in captivity and after, in the world. All of them have lived in Afghanistan for a long time, converted to Islam, started families, speak and think in Dari - the eastern version of the Persian language, one of the two official languages of Afghanistan. Someone managed to fight on the side of the Mujahideen. Someone made a hajj. Some returned to their homeland, but sometimes they are drawn back to the country that gave them a second life.
“I first heard about Afghanistan from my stepfather. He served in the western province of Herat, fought in the Shindand region. He practically did not tell me anything about that war, but his colleagues often came to us. Then the taboo on Afghanistan was temporarily removed, and I listened to stories from the distant amazing East - both funny and sad, heroic and touching. Sometimes calm and restrained conversations developed into heated arguments, but at that age I could not understand what.
Nikolai Bystrov was taken prisoner in 1982: the old-timers sent him AWOL for marijuana. Wounded and captured, Bystrov was taken to Panjshir, to the base of the Mujahideen, where he met with Amad Shah Massoud. Later, Nicholas converted to Islam and became the personal bodyguard of Ahmad Shah. He returned to Russia in 1999 with his Afghan wife and daughter.
Nikolai Bystrov lives with his family in the Krasnodar Territory, the village of Ust-Labinskaya.
Afghanistan returned to my life much later, after a conversation with photo editor Olesya Emelyanova. We thought about the fate of Soviet prisoners of war who went missing during the war of 1979-1989. It turned out that there are many of them, they are alive, and their destinies are unique and do not resemble one another. We started looking for "Afghans", talked, arranged meetings. After the first conversation with a former prisoner of war, I realized that I could no longer stop. I wanted to find everyone possible, talk to everyone, hear and understand their fate. What was captivity for them? How did they cope with the post-war syndrome and did they cope at all? What do they think of a country that sent them to war and forgot to bring them back? How did they build their lives after returning to their homeland? These human stories dragged on, and it soon became clear that we were creating one big unique project. I realized that I had to see the war through the eyes of the Afghans, and I decided to find, among other things, those Russian guys who, after captivity, remained to live in a different culture, in a different world.
Yuri Stepanov at work in the shop. Priyutovo, Bashkiria.
Yuri Stepanov with his family. Private Stepanov was captured in 1988 and was presumed dead. In fact, he converted to Islam and stayed in Afghanistan. He returned to Russia in 2006 with his wife and son. Lives in Bashkiria, the village of Priyutovo.
A trip to Afghanistan was like jumping into cold water. For the first time I was in a country that has been at war for decades, where the government is fighting the majority of the population, and foreign invasion is taken for granted because it never ends in occupation. This is a fantastic world, all the colors of which can only be seen through the lens of a camera.
Traveling in Afghanistan is like traveling in a time machine. You leave the borders of Kabul and you are in the 19th century. In some places, people do not change their way of life for centuries. In Chaghcharan, only the skeletons of armored personnel carriers and torn-off tank towers along the roadsides reminded of civilization. The locals reacted suspiciously to the man with the camera, but a few words in Russian were enough to meet with a warm welcome. Here they remember very well that it was the Russians who built the only hospital in the district and paved roads to several villages. Almost no one discusses the war with the Soviets, and how many new military conflicts have already swept through the long-suffering Afghanistan since the 80s ... And the Soviet hospital still serves people.
Alexander (Ahmad) Levents.
Gennady (Negmamad) Tsevma. Alexander (Akhmad) Levents and Gennady (Negmamad) Tsevma are 49 years old. Both are natives of southeastern Ukraine (one from Lugansk, the other from Donetsk region), both ended up in Afghanistan during military service. In the fall of 1983, they were captured, converted to Islam, got married, and after the withdrawal of Soviet troops settled in the city of Kunduz in the north-east of the country. Gennady is disabled and has difficulty moving. Alexander works as a taxi driver.
Afghanistan is amazingly beautiful and terribly unsafe. I remember that on the way back from the city of Kunduz, at the highest point of the pass, the timing belt broke at the car. Part of the way we just rolled down the slope, sometimes pushing the car on flat sections of the road. We marveled at the beauties of the mountains and prayed that someone would not shoot our turtle procession inadvertently.
For the first few weeks after returning to Moscow, I had the feeling that as soon as I turned the corner of Tverskaya, I would see men frying shish kebabs, carpet merchants, a bird market and women hidden behind bright blue cloaks. My friend said: "Either you will hate this country on the first day, or you will fall in love on the third." It was impossible not to fall in love."
The story of Sergei Krasnoperov
Arriving in Chagcharan early in the morning, I went to work with Sergei. It was possible to get there only on a cargo scooter - it was still a trip. Sergei works as a foreman, he has 10 people under him, they extract crushed stone for the construction of the road. He also works part-time as an electrician at a local hydroelectric power station.
He received me cautiously, which is natural - I was the first Russian journalist who met with him during his entire life in Afghanistan. We talked, drank tea and agreed to meet in the evening for a trip to his house.
But my plans were violated by the police, surrounding me with protection and care, which consisted in a categorical unwillingness to let me out of the city to Sergey in the village.
As a result, several hours of negotiations, three or four liters of tea, and they agreed to take me to him, but on the condition that we would not spend the night there.
After this meeting, we saw each other many times in the city, but I never visited him at home - it was dangerous to leave the city. Sergey said that everyone now knows that there is a journalist here, and that I could get hurt.
At first glance, Sergei was impressed as a strong, calm and self-confident person. He talked a lot about his family, that he wanted to move from the village to the city. As far as I know, he is building a house in the city.
When I think about his future fate, I am calm for him. Afghanistan has become a real home for him.
I was born in the Trans-Urals, in Kurgan. I still remember my home address: 43 Bazhov Street. I ended up in Afghanistan, and at the end of my service, when I was 20 years old, I went to dushmans. He left because he did not get along in character with his colleagues. They all united there, I was all alone - they insulted me, I could not answer. Although this is not even hazing, because all these guys were with me from the same call. After all, in general, I didn’t want to run away, I wanted those who mocked me to be punished. And the commanders didn't care.
I didn’t even have a weapon, otherwise I would have killed them right away. But the spirits that were close to our unit accepted me. True, not immediately - for 20 days I was locked in some small room, but it was not a prison, there were guards at the door. They put on shackles at night, and took them off during the day - even if you find yourself in the gorge, you still won’t understand where to go next. Then the commander of the Mujahideen arrived, who said that since I myself came, I can leave myself, and I don’t need shackles, guards. Although I would still hardly return to the unit - I think they would immediately shoot me. Most likely, their commander tested me this way.
For the first three or four months I did not speak Afghan, and then gradually they began to understand each other. The Mujahideen were constantly visited by mullahs, we began to communicate, and I realized that in fact there is only one God and one religion, it's just that Jesus and Muhammad are messengers of different faiths. I didn’t do anything with the Mujahideen, sometimes I helped with the repair of machine guns. Then I was assigned to one commander who fought with other tribes, but he was soon killed. I did not fight against Soviet soldiers - I only cleaned weapons, especially from the area where I was, the troops were withdrawn quite quickly. The Mujahideen realized that if they marry me, then I myself will stay with them. And so it happened. I got married a year later, after that they completely removed supervision from me, they didn’t let me go anywhere before. But I still didn’t do anything, I had to survive - I suffered several deadly diseases, I don’t even know which ones.
I have six children, had more, but many died. They are all blond, almost Slavic. However, the wife is the same. I make 1,200 dollars a month, that's not the kind of money fools get paid here. I want to buy a plot in the city. The governor and my boss promised to help me, I'm standing in line. The state price is small - a thousand dollars, and then you can sell it for six thousand. Affordable if you still want to leave. As they say in Russia now: this is business.
On April 27, 1978, the April (Saur) revolution began in Afghanistan, as a result of which the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) came to power, proclaiming the country the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan (DRA). The new leadership of the country established friendly relations with the USSR.
Attempts by the country's leadership to carry out new reforms that would make it possible to overcome the backlog of Afghanistan ran into resistance from the Islamic opposition. In 1978, a civil war broke out in Afghanistan.
In March 1979, during a mutiny in the city of Herat, the first request from the Afghan leadership for direct Soviet military intervention followed (there were about 20 such requests in total). But the commission of the Central Committee of the CPSU for Afghanistan, created back in 1978, reported to the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU about the obvious negative consequences of direct Soviet intervention, and the request was rejected.
However, the Herat rebellion forced the reinforcement of Soviet troops near the Soviet-Afghan border, and by order of the Minister of Defense D.F. Ustinov, preparations began for a possible landing in Afghanistan by the landing method of the 103rd Guards Airborne Division. The number of Soviet advisers (including military ones) in Afghanistan was sharply increased: from 409 in January to 4,500 by the end of June 1979.
According to the memoirs of former CIA Director Robert Gates, on July 3, 1979, US President Jimmy Carter signed a secret presidential decree authorizing the funding of anti-government forces in Afghanistan. In his 1998 interview with the French magazine Le Nouvel Observateur, Zbigniew Brzezinski recalled: We didn't push the Russians to intervene, but we intentionally increased the likelihood that they would... »
Further development of the situation in Afghanistan - armed uprisings of the Islamic opposition, mutinies in the army, intra-party struggle, and especially the events of September 1979, when the leader of the PDPA Nur Mohammad Taraki was arrested and then killed on the orders of Hafizullah Amin, who removed him from power - all this led to that in December 1979 Soviet troops were introduced into Afghanistan.
Soviet troops were withdrawn from Afghanistan on February 15, 1989. Over 14,000 Soviet servicemen were killed in 10 years. The losses of the Afghans have not yet been established. The presence of Soviet troops in Afghanistan was called the Afghan War.
A Soviet helicopter at the Salang Pass provides cover for the convoy.
Soviet-made Afghan MIG-17 jet fighters line up at an airport in Kandahar, southeastern Afghanistan, February 5, 1980.
Afghans near the walls of the Pul-i-Charki prison in Kabul, in the courtyard of which the executed prisoners were buried in 1978-1979. January 1980
Afghan refugees flee the fighting to Pakistan, near Peshawar, in May 1980.
Afghan Mujahideen on motorcycles are ready to fight the Soviet troops in the mountainous region of Afghanistan, January 14, 1980.
The calculation of the AGS of the Soviet troops is changing its deployment. April 1980
Soviet troops en route to Afghanistan, mid-1980s.
Soviet soldiers visiting the area. Afghanistan. April 1980
A Soviet soldier runs for cover after his armored vehicle comes under fire from Muslim rebels, near the city of Herat, February 13, 1980.
Two Soviet soldiers captured by Afghan fundamentalists of the Hizb-e-Islami faction in the Afghan province of Zabul in September 1981.
A military parade that took place on the occasion of the 5th anniversary of the April Revolution in Afghanistan in 1978, on the streets of Kabul on April 27, 1983.
Afghan Mujahideen around a downed Soviet Mi-8 transport helicopter. Salang pass.
US President Ronald Reagan met with a group of Afghan freedom fighters to discuss Soviet atrocities in Afghanistan, especially the September 1982 massacre of 105 Afghan residents in Lowgar province.
An Afghan mujahid demonstrates peanut butter from an American-made dry ration.
An Afghan guerrilla leader, Ahmad Shah Massoud, is surrounded by mujahideen at a rebel rally in the Panchir Valley in northeastern Afghanistan in 1984.
Afghan Mujahideen with the American anti-aircraft complex "Stinger".
War-orphaned Afghan boys salute the youth organization Watan. Kabul January 20, 1986.
Two Soviet Army soldiers exit an Afghan store in downtown Kabul on April 24, 1988.
A village located on the Salang pass, which was shelled and destroyed during the fighting between the Mujahideen and Afghan soldiers. Afghanistan.
Mujahideen in hiding, 10 km from Herat.
Soviet T-64 tank knocked out in the Pandsher Gorge, 180 km north of Kabul, February 25, 1981.
Soviet soldiers with dogs trained to find explosives. At a base near Kabul on May 1, 1988.
The remains of Soviet military equipment, in the village of Panchir in the Omarz Valley in northeastern Pakistan in February 1984.
A Soviet aviation technician pours out a bucket of used rounds of heat traps at an air base in Kabul on January 23, 1989.
A Soviet army officer who smokes at the checkpoint of the airfield in Kabul shows with his hand that he should not be filmed.
Police and armed Afghan militias walk through the rubble of a bomb blast in downtown Kabul during celebrations for the 10th anniversary of the Afghan revolution, April 27, 1988.
Afghan firefighters carry the body of a girl who died in a massive explosion that destroyed a number of houses and shops in downtown Kabul on May 14, 1988.
Soviet soldiers on the line, in the center of Kabul, shortly before returning to the Soviet Union.
Afghan President Mohammed Najibullah (center) smiles as he greets Soviet Army soldiers on October 19, 1986, in downtown Kabul, during a parade.
A Soviet and Afghan officer pose for the press on October 20, 1986, in downtown Kabul.
The Soviet tankman smiles. Soldiers of the Afghan army escort the Soviet troops who are being withdrawn from Afghanistan. May 16, 1988.
A column of Soviet tanks and military trucks moves along the highway towards the Soviet border on February 7, 1989 in Hairatan. The convoy left the Afghan capital of Kabul, as part of the Soviet withdrawal process.
A mother embraces her son, a Soviet soldier who had just crossed the Soviet-Afghan border at Termez, during the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan, May 21, 1988.
After the withdrawal of Soviet troops. A young man guards livestock with a heavy machine gun. The war is not over.
Afghanistan has always been the key to Asia and at all times has become the focus of the geopolitical interests of the Eurasian empires. For centuries, they tried to conquer it, they stationed their contingents there and sent military advisers. In 1979, Soviet troops entered there. We present pictures of that long ten-year mission.
1. Soviet tanks near Kabul. (Photo by AP Photo)
2. Afghan combat helicopter. Provides cover for a Soviet convoy that supplies food and fuel to Kabul. Afghanistan, January 30, 1989. (AP Photo | Liu Heung Shing)
3. Afghan refugees, May 1980. (Photo by AP Photo)
5. Muslim rebels with AK-47, February 15, 1980. Despite the presence of Soviet and Afghan government troops, the rebels patrolled the mountain ranges along the Afghan border with Iran. (Photo by AP Photo | Jacques Langevin)
6. Soviet troops on their way to Afghanistan in the mid-1980s. (Photo by Georgi Nadezhdin | AFP | Getty Images)
7. A detachment of Muslim rebels near Kabul, February 21, 1980. At that time, they attacked columns moving from Pakistan to Afghanistan. (Photo by AP Photo)
8. The Soviets are watching the area. (Photo by AP Photo | Estate of Alexander Sekretarev)
9. Two Soviet soldiers taken prisoner. (Photo by AFP | Getty Images)
10. Afghan partisans on top of a downed Soviet Mi-8 helicopter, January 12, 1981. (Photo by AP Photo)
11. Until the start of the withdrawal of Soviet troops in May 1988, the Mujahideen never managed to carry out a single major operation and failed to occupy a single large city. (Photo by AP Photo | Barry Renfrew). The exact number of Afghans killed in the war is unknown. The most common figure is 1 million dead; available estimates range from 670,000 civilians to 2 million in total.
12. Afghan guerrilla leader Ahmad Shah Massoud surrounded by Mujahideen, 1984. (Photo by AP Photo | Jean-Luc Bremont). It is curious that according to the UN statistics on the demographic situation in Afghanistan, in the period from 1980 to 1990, there was a decrease in the mortality of the population of Afghanistan compared to previous and subsequent periods.
13. An Afghan guerrilla with an American portable anti-aircraft missile system Stinger, 1987. (Photo by AP Photo | David Stewart Smith). The losses of the USSR are estimated at about 15,000 people.
14. Soviet soldiers leave the Afghan store in downtown Kabul, April 24, 1988. (Photo by AP Photo | Liu Heung Shing). 800 million US dollars were spent annually from the USSR budget to support the Kabul government. From the budget of the USSR, from 3 to 8.2 billion US dollars were annually spent on the maintenance of the 40th Army and the conduct of hostilities.
15. Village destroyed during the fighting between the Mujahideen and Afghan soldiers in Salang, Afghanistan. (Photo by AP Photo | Laurent Rebours)
16. Mujahideen 10 kilometers from Herat, waiting for a Soviet convoy, February 15, 1980. (Photo by AP Photo | Jacques Langevin)
17. Soviet soldiers with German Shepherds trained to find mines, Kabul May 1, 1988. (Photo by AP Photo | Carol Williams)
18. Wrecked Soviet cars in the northeast of Pakistan, February 1984. (Photo by AP Photo)
20. A Soviet plane comes in to land at Kabul airport, February 8, 1989. (Photo by AP Photo | Boris Yurchenko)
21. Our plane, cars and shells at the air base in Kabul, January 23, 1989. (Photo by AP Photo | Liu Heung Shing)
23. Afghan firefighters and a girl who died as a result of a powerful explosion in the center of Kabul, May 14, 1988. (Photo by AP Photo | Liu Heung Shing)
24. Soviet soldiers in the center of Kabul, October 19, 1986. (Photo by Daniel Janin | AFP | Getty Images)
25. Soviet and Afghan officers pose for the press in the center of Kabul, October 20, 1986. (Photo by Daniel Janin | AFP | Getty Images)
26. The beginning of the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan, May 1988. (Photo by Douglas E. Curran | AFP | Getty Images)
27. A column of Soviet tanks and military trucks leaves Afghanistan, February 7, 1989. (Photo by AP Photo)
28. After the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan, the situation on the Soviet-Afghan border became significantly more complicated: there were shelling of the territory of the USSR, attempts to penetrate the territory of the USSR, armed attacks on Soviet border guards, and mining of Soviet territory.
Photos from the archive of the veteran of the Afghan war Sergei Salnikov.
T-62D shot down on the Shindant-Kandahar road, Delaram province area. 1985
2. Officers of the 5th Guards MSD with a friendly gang of spooks. Old Herat. 1986 
3. Old Herat. 
4. Padded BMP-2. 
5. Ml.s-t Salnikov with an Afghan warrior Sarboz and bacha. Shindant. 
6. T-34-85 - firing point of the Afghan army. 
7. Airfield Shindant after shelling. 
8. Dushmansky Katyushas. 107 mm PC made in China. 
9. Column near Kandahar. T-62D with TMT-5 trawl. 
10. Near Kandahar. The column passes the gorge. 
11. UR-67, in the background is a BRDM-2 without a turret. 
12. Trophies. 
13. Local prison. Farah province. 
14. Leshchenko behind a machine gun. 
15. Leshchenko with a gun. 
Afghan 1985-1987
Photos from the archive of the veteran of the Afghan war Gennady Tishin.
2. Gennady Tishin - commander of the air assault battalion (in the center). Asadabad city, Kunar province. 
3. Malishi - local self-defense units. Together with the 2nd SME, they are carrying out an operation to eliminate the bandit formation. 
4. Joint operation with the troops of the DRA. Maravara gorge. Kunar province. 
5. The T-54 tank of the DRA army blown up by a landmine. 
6. Italian plastic anti-tank mine. It was used to undermine Soviet and Afghan armored vehicles. 
7. Combat satellite of the company of the 6th MSR. 
8. Birthday of the foreman of the 6th MSR ensign Vasily Yakimenko. 
9. Fun monkey Mashka. 
10. Undermining the Soviet tank T-62D. 
11. Battle trophies. Machine gun DP-27 (made in China "Type 53"), Rifle Lee-Enfield "Bur" (England). 
12. Undermined military equipment. 
13. Afghan trading machine. Column inspection. 
14. "Rose". Neutralization of undermined equipment during retreat to reserve positions. 
15. Combat operation to eliminate a caravan with weapons from Pakistan. Province of Logan. 
16. Field medical station of the battalion. 
17. Command of the 6th company of the 2nd MSB. 
18. Personnel of the 6th MCP on the implementation of intelligence. River Kunar. In the distance is Pakistan. 
19. Mujahideen fortified point taken. 
I continue to publish photos from the personal archives of veterans of the war in Afghanistan.
Photos from the personal archive of Major Vasily Ulyanovich Polishchuk. PV USSR.
2. Column to Chakhiab across the Pyanj River. 1984 
3. On Suthama. 1984 
4. Airfield in Moscow, Odessa - helicopter pilots before the flight in 1983. 
5. In the smoking room at the minbat behind the 120mm mortar Sani 1984. 
6. Beware of mines! 1984 
7. Water intake from the Chakhiab well. Dushmans often mined this place. 
8. Undermined water carrier. Chahiab 1984 
9. Tolya Pobedinsky with a wet nurse, Masha, 1983 
10. Trophies DShK, Zikyuyuk and small things 1984 
11. Hawn. Construction of a power line in Khown village 1983 
12. MI-26 delivered BTR-60PB. Hawn 1984 
13. Sarbozes at the barbukhayka in front of the entrance to the point. Chakhiab 1983. 
14. Head Khada Mirvayz, Ulyanych, head of the airport and Kondakov Nikolai. Hawn 1984 
15. Captive bandglavari with Safar (in front). Chahiab 1984 
16. Rusty mine along the Basmachi path. Chashmdara November 7, 1983 
17. Below the kishlak Sutkham 1983 
18. Soyunov (center) plays chess. Chahiab 1984 
19. Chakhiab dukan maker at the bazaar, 1984 
20. Chakhiab blacksmith 1984 
21. DSHG after surgery (in the center of Lipovskikh, Volkov, Popov). Chahiab 1984 
Afghanistan 1983-1985
The war in Afghanistan has left many wounds in our memory that will not heal. The stories of the "Afghans" reveal to us a lot of shocking details of that terrible decade, which not everyone wants to remember.
Without control
The personnel of the 40th Army, which was carrying out its international duty in Afghanistan, constantly lacked alcohol. That small amount of alcohol that was sent to the units rarely reached the addressees. However, on holidays the soldiers were always drunk.
There is an explanation for this. With a total shortage of alcohol, our military adapted to drive moonshine. The authorities forbade doing this legally, so in some parts there were specially guarded home-brewing points. The headache for home-grown moonshiners was the extraction of sugar-containing raw materials.
Most often they used trophy sugar seized from the Mujahideen.
The lack of sugar was compensated for with local honey, which, according to our military, was “pieces of dirty yellow color.” This product was different from our usual honey, having a "disgusting aftertaste." Moonshine turned out to be even more unpleasant on its basis. However, there were no consequences.
Veterans admitted that in the Afghan war there were problems with the control of personnel, cases of systematic drunkenness were often recorded.
They say that in the first years of the war many officers abused alcohol, some of them turned into chronic alcoholics.
Some soldiers who had access to medical supplies became addicted to taking painkillers as a way to suppress their uncontrollable feelings of fear. Others who managed to establish contacts with the Pashtuns became addicted to drugs. According to former special forces officer Alexei Chikishev, in some units, up to 90% of the rank and file smoked charas (an analogue of hashish).
Doomed to die
The Mujahideen who were taken prisoner were rarely killed immediately. Usually followed by an offer to convert to Islam, in case of refusal, the soldier was actually sentenced to death. True, as a “goodwill gesture”, the militants could hand over the prisoner to a human rights organization or exchange it for their own, but this is rather an exception to the rule.
Almost all Soviet prisoners of war were kept in Pakistani camps, it was impossible to rescue them from where. After all, for all the USSR did not fight in Afghanistan. The conditions of detention of our soldiers were unbearable, many said that it was better to die from a guard than to endure these torments. Even worse were the tortures, the mere description of which makes one uncomfortable.
American journalist George Crile wrote that shortly after the entry of the Soviet contingent into Afghanistan, five jute bags appeared near the airstrip. Pushing one of them, the soldier saw blood seep out. After opening the bags, a terrible picture appeared before our military: in each of them was a young internationalist wrapped in his own skin. Doctors found that the skin was first cut on the stomach, and then tied in a knot over the head.
The people called the execution "red tulip". Before the execution, the prisoner was drugged, bringing him to unconsciousness, but the heroin ceased to act long before death. At first, the doomed man experienced a severe pain shock, then he began to go crazy and eventually died in inhuman torment.
They did what they wanted
Local residents were often extremely cruel to the Soviet soldiers-internationalists. Veterans recalled with a shudder how the peasants finished off the Soviet wounded with shovels and hoes. Sometimes this gave rise to a ruthless response from the colleagues of the victims, there were cases of completely unjustified cruelty.
Corporal of the Airborne Forces Sergei Boyarkin in the book "Soldiers of the Afghan War" described an episode of his battalion patrolling the outskirts of Kandahar. The paratroopers had fun shooting livestock with machine guns until an Afghan chasing a donkey got in their way. Without thinking twice, a line was fired at the man, and one of the military decided to cut off the victim's ears as a keepsake.
Boyarkin also described the favorite habit of some military men to plant dirt on the Afghans. During the search, the patrolman quietly pulled out a cartridge from his pocket, pretending that it was found in the things of the Afghan. After presenting such evidence of guilt, a local resident could be shot right on the spot.
Victor Marochkin, who served as a driver in the 70th brigade stationed near Kandahar, recalled an incident that occurred in the village of Tarinkot. Previously, the settlement was fired from "Grad" and artillery, in a panic, local residents who ran out of the village, including women and children, were finished off by the Soviet military from "Shilka". In total, about 3,000 Pashtuns died here.
"Afghan Syndrome"
On February 15, 1989, the last Soviet soldier left Afghanistan, but the echoes of that merciless war remained - they are commonly called the “Afghan syndrome”. Many Afghan soldiers, having returned to civilian life, could not find a place in it. Statistics that appeared a year after the withdrawal of Soviet troops showed terrible numbers:
About 3,700 war veterans were in prison, 75% of the families of the "Afghans" faced either divorce or escalation of conflicts, almost 70% of the soldiers-internationalists were not satisfied with their work, 60% abused alcohol or drugs, among the "Afghans" there was a high suicide rate .
In the early 90s, a study was conducted that showed that at least 35% of war veterans needed psychological treatment. Unfortunately, over time, old mental trauma without qualified help tends to worsen. A similar problem existed in the United States.
But if in the USA in the 80s a state program of assistance to veterans of the Vietnam War was developed, the budget of which amounted to 4 billion dollars, then in Russia and the CIS countries there is no systematic rehabilitation of the "Afghans". And it is unlikely that anything will change in the near future.