Soviet-Afghan War

Date

December 1979 to February 1989

Category

Military & conflict

Region

Central/South Asia (Afghanistan)

Era

Contemporary

Significance

Soviet forces entered Afghanistan in late December 1979 (the 40th Army's main incursion began on 24 to 25 December) to prop up the embattled communist government in Kabul.

They faced a protracted insurgency by the mujahideen, who received substantial covert support from the United States, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and others. The war became a costly quagmire: roughly 15,000 Soviet soldiers were killed, while estimates of Afghan deaths range from around one million to higher figures, with millions displaced as refugees. Under Gorbachev, the Soviet Union negotiated a withdrawal; the last troops crossed the border on 15 February 1989. The conflict drained Soviet resources and prestige, deepened domestic disillusionment, and is widely seen as a contributing factor to the USSR's collapse. It also left a militarised, fragmented Afghanistan that shaped later regional conflict.

Empires active in December 1979 to February 1989

• Soviet Union
  1922 CE to 1991 CE
• British Empire
  1583 CE to 1997 CE
• Portuguese Empire
  1415 CE to 1999 CE
• Yugoslavia
  1918 CE to 1992 CE

Related military & conflict events

• Fall of Saigon and reunification of Vietnam
  30 April 1975 (reunified 1976)
• Khmer Rouge Seize Cambodia and Declare Year Zero
  1975
• The Rwandan genocide against the Tutsi
  7 April to 19 July 1994
• Cuban Missile Crisis
  16 to 28 October 1962
• The September 11 attacks
  11 September 2001
• Korean War
  25 June 1950 to 27 July 1953

Also relevant

• The Iran-Iraq War Begins
  1980 to 1988

Essential reading

• Soweto Uprising Galvanises Anti-Apartheid Struggle
  1976
• Apollo 11 Moon landing
  20 July 1969 (mission 16 to 24 July 1969)
• Containerisation begins: SS Ideal X first container voyage
  26 April 1956
• Castle Bravo Test and the Nuclearisation of the Pacific
  1 March 1954

Further reading

Empires of the Silk Road: A History of Central Eurasia from the Bronze Age to the Present

The wider story

Empires of the Silk Road: A History of Central Eurasia from the Bronze Age to the Present

Christopher I. Beckwith

Bold single-volume history placing the steppe and Silk Road at the center of Eurasia.

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