Ghosts in the Mountains: The Soviet-Afghan War – Part 1

Conflicted: A History Podcast

Zach Cornwell

Education, History, Society & Culture

4.8 • 610 Ratings

🗓️ 27 July 2021

⏱️ 63 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

When Soviet Russia invaded Afghanistan in December of 1979, few could have imagined what a seismic impact it would have on the modern world. In an attempt to prop up a wobbly client regime, the Soviets sparked a transnational jihad, inflamed Cold War tensions, and hastened the downfall of their own empire. Often referred to as “Russia’s Vietnam”, the Soviet-Afghan War is an overlooked, deeply misunderstood, and immensely important conflict. In this first installment of a multi-part series, we will explore how the Soviets found themselves ensnared in the “graveyard of empires”, through the eyes of the everyday people who experienced it firsthand. SOURCES: Ahmadi-Miller, Enjeela. The Broken Circle: A Memoir of Escaping Afghanistan. 2019. 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. 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. 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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0:27.7	slash setup hello and welcome to conflicted the history podcast where we talk about the
0:34.1	struggles that shaped us the tough questions that they pose and why we should care about any of it. Conflicted is a member of the Evergreen Podcast Network, and as always,
0:43.4	I'm your host, Zach Cornwell. Today's episode is taking us to a historical era that I will
0:49.0	never stop being fascinated with, the Cold War. On this show, we've actually tackled several Cold War topics.
0:56.0	We've looked at the American War in Vietnam, specifically the pattern of disillusionment and atrocity,
1:01.0	that culminated in the infamous Mili Massacre of 1968. We've also dissected the wars that raged between the nation of Israel
1:09.0	and its Arab neighbors in the late 60s and
1:11.0	early 70s, specifically the Six-Day War of 1967 and the Yom Kippur War of 1973.
1:18.1	But today, we're going to be looking at a conflict that arguably served as the death knell for
1:23.3	not only the Cold War, but one of its principal antagonists, Soviet Russia. Today, we're going
1:30.0	to be examining the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Now, in America, we are very, very familiar
1:37.0	with the country of Afghanistan, at least on a surface level. The U.S. military has been fighting,
1:42.9	killing, and dying there for more than two decades.
1:45.9	And only very recently have we officially extricated ourselves from the so-called Forever War.
1:51.6	But while the word Afghanistan has become kind of a grim wallpaper in our foreign policy
1:56.6	over the last 20 years, there's really not a widespread understanding of how this backwater tribal
2:02.2	nation made its debut on the world stage. For many Americans, Afghanistan entered our common
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