Images from the past : Afghanistan

[ghazi52]

American nurse Nancy Lamson teaches Afghan nurses English at the Kabul University, 1977 (c).

Naghlu Hydro-electric Power Station Constructed By The Soviet Union For Afghanistan, 1974 (c).

© A. Goryachev

Young students wearing mini-skirts walking down the street in Kabul, despite violent opposition to women showing their bare legs, Afghanistan, 1972 (c).

 

[ghazi52]

Aerial view of Afghanistan's capital, Kabul in 1979.

Kabul Gorge, Afghanistan, 1972 (c).

Dog Fight Outside Kabul, Afghanistan, 1972 (c).

A Baker Of Breads, Afghanistan, 1976 (c).

 

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Young Merchant In Kabul, Afghanistan, 1978 (c).

Kabul Airport, November 1979.

Outside of the Presidential Palace in Kabul the day after the Saur Revolution, 28th April 1978.

The Saur Revolution, also romanized Sowr Revolution, and alternatively called the April Revolution or April Coup, was a coup d'état led by the Soviet-backed People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan against the rule of Afghan President Mohammed Daoud Khan on 27–28 April 1978.

 

[ghazi52]

One Of The First Automobiles In Afghanistan, Photo By M. Owen Williams, 1931 (c).

Soldier Watching People In Horse-drawn Wagon Pass On Road In Kabul, Afghanistan, 1938 (c).

© Frederick G. Clapp / UWM Libraries

Men riding elephants carrying loads of wheat in Kabul province, Afghanistan, 1936 (c).

 

[ghazi52]

Hotel Intercontinental, Kabul, Afghanistan, 1970 (c).

King Zahir Shah of Afghanistan hosts President Ayub Khan at the Gulkhana Palace, Kabul, Afghanistan, 1966.

Ayub was invited by Zahir Shah after winning the elections. Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto was also part of the delegation. At that time, Bacha Khan was also in Kabul in self-exile.

 

[Ali_Baba]

And to think they threw ALL of that away through their internal political fighting by bringing foreigners into their internal fights(eg soviets) and now look where they have ended up. It is gonna take them 100years to get back to where they were in 1978/9 before all this crap started.

 

[ghazi52]

This picture shows a cinema in Kabul in mid 1940's. The movie of the day was a Hollywood movie ‘burn ‘em up’.

 

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Timur Shah Durrani Mausoleum in Kabul, 1936 (c).

Timur Shah Durrani, was the second ruler of the Durrani Empire, from 4 June 1772 until his death in 1793. An ethnic Pashtun, he was the second child and eldest son of Ahmad Shah Durrani.

The tomb of Timur Shah Durrani (Maqbara-i-Timur Shah) is located in Kabul and was built in 1815. It is the mausoleum of Timur Shah Durrani, who was the second ruler of the Durrani Empire, from 1772–1793. In 1776 Timur Shah chose Kabul as the capital of Afghanistan, which was Kandehar until then.

© Frederick G. Clapp

 

[ghazi52]

Young men and women stroll in Kabul park, one year before the civil war and at the beginning of the Soviet troop withdrawal, Afghanistan, Late 1980's.
© Sygma

Pioneer Festival In Kabul, Afghanistan, 1985 (c).

A guerrilla soldier aims a stinger missle at passing aircraft near a remote rebel base in the Safed Koh Mountains February 10, 1988 in Afghanistan.

The end of Soviet military occupation, which began in 1979, has left the Afghan Army more vulnerable to these guerrilla forces, who are fighting the Russian-installed Afghan government.

© Robert Nickelsberg

 

[ghazi52]

Sergeant Andrew Goryachev, 173rd Special Forces squad, Soviet GRU special forces, Kandahar, Afghanistan, 1987 (c).

A Soviet pilot rocking a Krinkov in the cockpit of a Mil Mi-24 gunship, Soviet Afghan War, 1980's (c).

 

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The headquarters of the Soviet 40th Army in Kabul, 1987. Before the Soviet intervention, the building was Tajbeg Palace, where Hafizullah Amin was killed.

A column of Soviet armor and military trucks moves up the highway toward the Soviet border on February 7, 1989 in Hayratan. The convoy came from the Afghan capital Kabul as part of the withdrawal of Soviet soldiers.

A Child Standing Beside A Missile Thrown By The Government Forces During Soviet-Afghan War, July 1989.

 

[ghazi52]

By 1921, banditry was dramatically curtailed in Afghanistan by harsh punishment, such as being imprisoned in suspended cages and left to die.

One such punishment was the "man-cage," like this one at Lateh Band Pass. A thief was "put in this iron cage, raised to the top of the pole, so that his friends could not pass food or poison to him, and here he was left to die."

 

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Mashiach Gul and Daniel Gul president of Afghan Jewish community in Palestine, 1917 (c).

An Airplane View Of The Amir's Palace At Kabul, Afghanistan, 1921 (c).

 

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Group of Jews from Afghanistan, posing for a family photograph, 1961 (c).

 

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Highway Patrol": An Afghan police officer in front of his company vehicle. German police trainers have been coming to Afghanistan since the late 1950's.

In the 1960's, no country spent more money on development aid in Afghanistan than Germany. In the mid-seventies, the GDR took over the training of the police.