‘Traditions of heroism, dedicated to internationalist Soviet soldiers in Afghanistan, 1979 -1989,’ was the name of the exhibition hosted by Patriotic War Museum of Moscow to mark 23rd year of withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan in 2012.
Map released by Ministry of Defence of Russia shows the location of Soviet and forces of erstwhile Democratic Republic of Afghanistan and flight stations; also shows regions controlled by anti-Soviet forces & the location Soviet security agency, KGB. KGB’s positions are marked in the map by red flags.
Google Earth was not born and everything had to be done using map sheets. This map is an example of the detailed ground work done by the Russians over ground forces & KGB to identify areas under rebel control. The map, headlined as - Groups of Rebels in the district of Bagram – identify the areas controlled by the various groups of rebels in Afghanistan. The Map marks areas controlled by 43 rebel groups only in and around Bagram town.
A booklet of ‘do’s and don’t’s’ for Soviet soldier in Afghanistan. It says, a soldier is not supposed to enter into any ‘unapproved relationship’ with a local, must never visit local shops, should not undress or swim in presence of locals, should not take gifts and bribes from locals and get into any conversation with Afghan women. It could be interesting to find out if something similar was developed by the US forces, as they are planning their ‘retreat’ – 25 years after the Russians.
The uniform of US backed Mujahideen (today’s Taliban) and Ahmad Shah Massoud’s United Islamic Front or Northern Alliance. Being repeatedly targeted by the Mujahideen, backed by many countries including US and Britain, Afghanistan requested help from the Russians early in 1979. The first Soviet troop entered on June 16, 1979.
Several brigades of special force was active in Afghan War. Here is the photo of 22nd Guards [Detached] Special Operations Brigade. Russians matched the combined strength of at least four militarily powerful nations for a decade but then they gave up in 1989 as Union of Soviet Socialist Republics started showing signs of collapse.
Erstwhile Soviet Union and today’s Russia is proud of their special force or Spetsnaz GRU (Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff). Several books are written on what is considered to be one of the best trained combat forces of the world, played a major role in Afghanistan.
One of the books on display was by British diplomat Rodric Braithwaite. While the Russians are not particularly fond of Englishmen, due to long history of animosity in Central Asia, Sir Braithwaite – served as an Ambassador in Moscow when Soviet Union was leaving Afghanistan – is loved for his intellect. ‘Afgantsy’ is perhaps the best account of the time by a foreign diplomat, said many Russian experts.
Russian Rocket Propelled Grenades. The model, RPG 7, is an all time favourite of the state and the rebel forces across the world and huge hit in Afghan War. It is a shoulder-fired weapon which fires rockets equipped with an explosive warhead. This model fetched huge foreign currency for Russia, the second largest arms exporting country of the world after US.
GSh-6-23 (one on top) and GSh-23L – two 23 mm guns, best works when placed in aircraft. Those were used ‘liberally’ during Afghan war. Till recently GSh-6-23 used to earn lot of money for Russia’s weapons industry as they fire 30-40 percent more rounds per minute compared to its US counterpart, M61 Vulcan. GSh-6-23 fires 9000 to 10,000 rounds per minute. No one knows who placed the red rose on a deadly aircraft gun.
While publicity material depicting Soviet-Afghan friendship was circulated widely, there were sketches like the one on the centre that is captioned in Pharsi as, ‘Sinners of Bloodshed.’ The white poster above the photograph shows a Soviet army general in the pocket of a US businessman; and an Afghan Islamist fighter in the pocket of Soviet General. The poster elucidates the great Afghan sense of humour.
Soviet – Afghan relationship generated a whole lot of art work produced predominantly by Afghan artistes. Such sketches were also part of the month long exhibition.
Russians can be remembered for – if not, for all the films, music and literature – then for one thing: love for museums. Russians have museum to mark all the events and developments in history. Great Patriotic War Museum, which hosted the exhibition, is one such museum dedicated to World War II.