Ghosts in the Mountains: The Mujahideen Civil War (Part 4)

Conflicted: A History Podcast

Zach Cornwell

Education, History, Society & Culture

4.8 • 610 Ratings

🗓️ 19 October 2021

⏱️ 120 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

It’s 1992. The 40th Army is long gone and the Soviet Union has collapsed, but war still rages across Afghanistan. As the Afghan communist regime crumbles, Ahmed Shah Massoud and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar’s forces clash in Kabul. While America turns its back and the Mujahideen turn on each other, new threats arise and threaten to sweep the old generation of freedom fighters away – The Taliban and Osama bin Laden. (Part 4 of Ghosts in the Mountains) SOURCES: Ahmadi-Miller, Enjeela. The Broken Circle: A Memoir of Escaping Afghanistan. 2019. Alexievich, Svetlana. Zinky Boys. 1989. Ansari, Mir Tamim. Games Without Rules: The Often-Interrupted History of Afghanistan. 2012. Barfield, Thomas. Afghanistan: A Cultural and Political History. 2010. Borovik, Artyom. The Hidden War. 1990. Braithewaite, Rodric. Afgantsy: The Russians in Afghanistan, 1979-1989. 2011. Coll, Steve. Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan and Bin Laden from the Soviet Invasion to 2001. 2004. Dobbs, Michael. Down with Big Brother: The Fall of the Soviet Empire. 1997. Feifer, Gregory. The Great Gamble: The Soviet War in Afghanistan. 2009. Fremont-Barnes, Gregory. The Soviet-Afghan War, 1979-89. 2012. Galeotti, Mark. Storm-333: KGB and Spetsnaz Seize Kabul. 2021. Gall, Sandy. Afghan Napoleon: The Life of Ahmed Shah Massoud. 2021. Grad, Marcela. Massoud: An Intimate Portrait of the Legendary Afghan Leader. 2009. Goodwin, Jan. Caught in the Crossfire. 1987. Grau, Lester W. The Bear Went Over the Mountain: Soviet Combat Tactics In Afghanistan. 1996. Hosdon, Peregrine. Under a Sickle Moon: A Journey Through Afghanistan. 1986. Kalinovsky, Artemy. A Long Goodbye: The Soviet Withdrawal from Afghanistan. 2011. Kaplan, Robert D. Soldiers of God: With Islamic Warriors in Afghanistan and Pakistan. 2001. Rosen, Ethan. The Bear, The Dragon, & the AK-47. 2017. Sands, Chris. Qazizai, Fazelminallah. Night Letters: Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and the Afghan Islamists Who Changed the World. 2019. Tanner, Stephen. Afghanistan: A Military History of Afghanistan from Alexander the Great to the War Against the Taliban. 2009. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to Conflicted, the history podcast where we talk about the struggles that shaped us, the tough questions that they pose, and why we should care about any of it.
0:09.6	Conflicted is a member of the Evergreen podcast network, and as always, I'm your host, Zach Cornwell.
0:15.3	You are listening to the fourth and final episode of a limited series on the Soviet-Afghan War and the fallout that it triggered.
0:22.7	Today's episode is about the fallout. Now, you might have noticed upon clicking or tapping on
0:27.8	this episode that the naming structure is slightly different this time around. The series' name is
0:32.7	still Ghosts in the Mountains, but rather than subtitle it, the Soviet-Afghan War Part
0:37.1	4, I decided to subtitle it the Soviet-Afghan War Part 4, I decided to subtitle it
0:39.3	the Mujahideen Civil War. Because at this point in the story, the Soviet-Afghan War is over.
0:45.3	The Russians are gone, and it didn't feel quite right to extend that title to this installment.
0:50.1	Now, it goes without saying, if you haven't listened to parts one, two, and three of the series,
0:54.9	definitely go ahead and do that. A lot of important characters and events from part three are
0:59.5	going to be carrying over to this episode, so without that context, you might be scratching
1:04.2	your head a little bit. But for everybody who's caught up, let's remind ourselves of where we've
1:08.5	been, so we can jump into the next phase of our story,
1:11.5	clear-eyed and confident. When we left off last time, the Soviet 40th Army was finally leaving
1:17.0	Afghanistan after 10, long, miserable years. On February 15, 1989, the last Soviet soldiers
1:24.4	crossed the friendship bridge and said, D'Uzvidanya to the ghost in the mountains, the Mujahadine.
1:30.3	But the Soviets were leaving some ghosts of their own behind in those valleys and ravines.
1:34.8	Ghosts of friends, ghost of allies, ghosts of the men that they had once been, or might have
1:40.8	been.
1:41.4	Afghanistan in 1989 was very, very different from Afghanistan in 1979.
1:47.8	After a decade of atrocity and upheaval, the Soviets were leaving behind a country that
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