Images : When USSR left Afghanistan

[ghazi52]

A Soviet air force technician empties a bucket of spent flare cartridges at the Kabul airbase on January 23, 1989.

© AP Photo / Liu Heung Shing

A Mujahideen fighter aiming a FIM-92A Stinger, Surkh Rood, Nangarhar, Afghanistan, 1989 (c).

Soviet soldier on watch in Afghanistan, 1988 (c).

 

[ghazi52]

Americans running for survival.
Lesson: Never fight with those who have nothing to lose.
Never prolong the war. Know when to stop.


Soviet troops leaving Afghanistan in BTR armoured personnel carriers in 1989.

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

Afghans wait outside the Kabul central Pulicharkhi prison on January 14, 1980, days after the Moscow-installed regime of Babrak Karmal took over. Although the regime released 126 prisoners from the notorious jail, around 1,000 residents stormed the compound to set 12 inmates free.

© Hans Paul / AFP

 

[MultaniGuy]

looks like the graveyard of empires defeated USSR

 

[ghazi52]

Afghan guerrillas atop a downed Soviet Mi-8 transport helicopter, near the Salang Highway, a vital supply route north from Kabul to the Soviet border, Afghanistan, January 12, 1981.

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Iqbal Sidhu

The primary and tail rotors are both intact, the hull looks unpenetrated with door in ajar position, the engine compartment hatch is wide open and the aircraft is sitting along a landing axis; my guess based on these observations alone is the helicopter wasn't brought down but abandoned by the Soviets and then found by the Mujahideen who're posing on it (according to standard military doctrine an abandoned platform has to be scuttled like this one is, notice the side and front windows having been blown out by what was likely a grenade blast inside the helicopter done by the last exiting soldiers).

Hind is a tough machine and can take a lot of punishment before going down and it's entirely possible that this particular one was landed close to the highway for easier extrication, which was more or less secured by the Soviets, especially close to the Salang tunnel given its strategic importance.

 

[ghazi52]

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.

 

[ghazi52]

Remnants Of A Damaged Soviet Aircraft, Nangarhar Province, Afghanistan, 1988 (c).

 

[ghazi52]

 

[ghazi52]

 

[ghazi52]

The final column of Soviet forces consisting of BTR-80s crossing the Hairatan Bridge into the Uzbek SSR on 15 February 1989, ending the Soviet military presence in Afghanistan.
© A. Solomonov / А. Соломонов

 

[ghazi52]

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

 

[vostok]

Notice - we have retreated in full battle order with unfolded banners.

 

[aziqbal]

from Alexander the Great

Genghis Khan

Tamerlane

British Empire

Soviet Union

and now Americans

just learn from history will you

 

[ghazi52]

 

[ghazi52]

 

[ghazi52]

Kandahar, Afghanistan, 1993 (c).

© Steve McCurry

These children are maybe around 35 years now and knew only war and war all their life.

Kabul's Jadayi Maiwand in 1993.

A view of Kabul as documented by Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) during civil war, which shows destruction caused by in-fighting of fundamentalist groups following the fall of the pro-Russian government of Dr. Najibullah in 1992.