Soviet War in Afghanistan
Invasion, occupation, and scorched provinces
Moscow invaded Afghanistan to prop up a client regime and stayed through the 1980s with mass bombing, village clearances, and secret-police terror. Millions fled; the occupation wrecked agriculture and seeded long-run war.
Damage
The Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979 and fought a decade of occupation war against the population and mujahideen.
Lives lost
Hundreds of thousands to over a million Afghan dead (order-of-magnitude)
Value lost
Destroyed rural economy, mines, and mass refugee displacement
Record Points
- December 1979 airborne seizure of Kabul installed a dependent leadership.
- Soviet forces used carpet bombing and antipersonnel mines across rural zones.
- KHAD and occupation security organs ran torture and disappearances.
- Refugee flows into Pakistan and Iran numbered in the millions.
- Withdrawal in 1989 left a militarized wreck and unresolved civil war.
Perpetrator(s)
Victims
Afghanistan