Editing Soviet–Afghan War (section)

== Impact ==
[[File:Demonstranten met protestborden achter een dranghek, Bestanddeelnr 933-5236.jpg|thumb|A demonstration against the Soviet presence in Afghanistan, in [[The Hague]], Netherlands, 1985]]

=== Soviet personnel strengths and casualties ===
[[File:RIAN archive 476785 Soviet Army soldiers return from Afghanistan.jpg|thumb|Soviet soldiers return from Afghanistan, October 1986]]
[[File:Разведрота на рейде.jpg|thumb|[[Spetsnaz]] troops interrogate a captured [[mujahideen]] with an RPG, rounds and AK47 in the background, 1986]]

Between 25 December 1979, and 15 February 1989, a total of 620,000 soldiers served with the forces in Afghanistan (though there were only 80,000–104,000 serving at one time): 525,000 in the Army, 90,000 with border troops and other [[KGB]] sub-units, 5,000 in independent formations of [[Ministry of Internal Affairs (Soviet Union)|MVD]] [[Internal Troops]], and police forces.{{citation needed|date=April 2011}} A further 21,000 personnel were with the Soviet troop contingent over the same period doing various white collar and blue-collar jobs.

The total official fatalities of the Soviet Armed Forces, frontier, and internal security troops came to 14,453.<ref name="vfw.org" /> Other estimates give a figure of 26,000 killed Soviet soldiers.<ref name="Beaumont">{{cite news| work=Guardian| author=[[Peter Beaumont (journalist)|Peter Beaumont]]| title=Same old mistakes in new Afghan war|date=18 October 2009| url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/oct/18/afghan-war-soviet-invasion-mistakes}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |editor-last1=Grau |editor-first1=Lester W. |editor-link1=Lester W. Grau |editor-last2=Gress |editor-first2=Michael A. |date=2002 |title=The Soviet-Afghan War: How a Superpower Fought and Lost |url=https://archive.org/details/The_Soviet-Afghan_War_How_a_Superpower_Fought_and_Lost/page/n71/mode/2up |publisher=University Press of Kansas |isbn=0-7006-1185-1 |pages=43–44}}</ref> Soviet Army formations, units, and HQ elements lost 13,833, KGB sub-units lost 572, MVD formations lost 28, and other ministries and departments lost 20 men. During this period 312 servicemen were missing in action or taken prisoner; 119 were later freed, of whom 97 returned to the USSR and 22 went to other countries.

Of the troops deployed, 53,753 were wounded, injured, or sustained concussion and 415,932 fell sick. A high proportion of casualties were those who fell ill. This was because of local climatic and sanitary conditions, which were such that acute infections spread rapidly among the troops. There were 115,308 cases of infectious [[hepatitis]], 31,080 of [[typhoid]] fever, and 140,665 of other diseases. Of the 11,654 who were discharged from the army after being wounded, maimed, or contracting serious diseases, 10,751 men, were left disabled.<ref>{{cite book|first=G. F.|last=Krivosheev|year=1993|title=Combat Losses and Casualties in the Twentieth Century|publisher=Greenhill Books|location=London}}</ref>

Material losses were as follows:<ref name="vfw.org">[https://web.archive.org/web/20060718225045/http://www.vfw.org/resources/levelxmagazine/0203_Soviet-Afghan%20War.pdf The Soviet-Afghan War: Breaking the Hammer & Sickle] by Lester W. Grau and Ali Ahmad Jalali| vfw.org</ref>
* [[List of Soviet aircraft crashes in Afghanistan|451 aircraft]] (includes 333 [[helicopters]])
* 147 [[tank]]s
* 1,314 [[IFV]]/[[Armoured personnel carrier|APCs]]
* 433 [[Artillery|artillery guns]] and [[Mortar (weapon)|mortars]]
* 11,369 cargo and fuel tanker trucks.

In early 1987 a CIA report estimated that, from 1979 to 1986, the Soviet military spent 18 billion rubles on the war in Afghanistan (not counting other costs incurred to the Soviet state such as economic and military aid to the DRA). The CIA noted that this was the equivalent of US$50 billion<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20170119060458/https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/DOC_0000499320.pdf The Costs of Soviet Involvement in Afghanistan.] Directorate of Intelligence. Langley, United States. Feb. 1987. Page 4.</ref> ($115 billion in 2019 USD).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm|title=CPI Inflation Calculator|website=www.bls.gov}}</ref> The report credited the relatively low cost to the small size of the Soviet deployment and the fact that the supply lines to Afghanistan were very short (in some cases, easier and cheaper than internal USSR lines). Military aid to the DRA's armed forces totaled 9.124 billion rubles from 1980 to 1989 (peaking at 3.972 billion rubles in 1989).<ref>Anton Minkov and Gregory Smolynec. [https://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a475460.pdf Economic Development in Afghanistan During the Soviet Period, 1979–1989: Lessons Learned from the Soviet Experience in Afghanistan.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190702232823/https://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a475460.pdf |date=2 July 2019 }} DRDC Centre for Operational Research & Analysis, Canada. p. 4.</ref> Financial and economic aid were also significant; by 1990, 75% of the Afghan state's income came from Soviet aid.<ref>Minkov and Smolynec, p. 17.</ref>

=== Casualties and destruction in Afghanistan ===
{{main article|Genocide of Afghans during the Soviet-Afghan War}}
[[File:Працівники МКЧХ допомагають дітям, що постраждали через мінну небезпеку в Афганістані.jpg|thumb|left|250px|upright|A member of the [[International Committee of the Red Cross]] helping a wounded Afghan child walk in 1986]]The war resulted in the deaths of approximately 3,000,000 Afghans,<ref>{{Cite book |last=James Joes |first=Anthony |title=Victorious Insurgencies: Four Rebellions that Shaped Our World |publisher=The University Press of Kentucky |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-8131-2614-2 |pages=211 |chapter=4: Afghanistan: End of the Red Empire |quote=}}</ref> Civilian death and destruction from the war was massive and detrimental. Estimates of Afghan civilian deaths vary from 562,000<ref name="562k" /> to 2,000,000.{{sfn|Klass|2018|p=129}}{{sfn|Goodson|2011|p=5}} 

[[File:Russische Schmetterlingsmine PFM-1.jpg|thumb|A [[PFM-1 mine]], often mistaken for a toy by children. The mine's shape was dictated by aerodynamics.<ref>{{cite book|title=Landmines: Legacy of Conflict: A Manual for Development Workers|last=McGrath|first=Rae|year=1998|publisher=Diane Publishing Company|isbn=978-0-7881-3280-3|pages=39–40|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=369Xfpy7Sa0C&pg=PA40}}</ref>]]

The [[Geneva Accords (1988)|Geneva Accords of 1988]], which ultimately led to the withdrawal of the Soviet forces in early 1989, left the Afghan government in ruins. The accords had failed to address adequately the issue of the post-occupation period and the future governance of Afghanistan. The assumption among most Western diplomats was that the Soviet-backed government in Kabul would soon collapse; however, this was not to happen for another three years. During this time the Interim Islamic Government of Afghanistan (IIGA) was established in exile. The exclusion of key groups such as refugees and [[Shia]]s, combined with major disagreements between the different Mujahideen factions, meant that the IIGA never succeeded in acting as a functional government.<ref>Barakat, S. (2004). ''Reconstructing War-Torn Societies: Afghanistan''. New York: Palgrave Macmillan (p. 5)</ref>

Before the war, Afghanistan was already one of the world's poorest countries. The prolonged conflict left Afghanistan ranked 170 out of 174 in the UNDP's ''Human Development Index'', making Afghanistan one of the least developed countries in the world.<ref>Barakat, S. (2004). ''Reconstructing War-Torn Societies: Afghanistan''. New York: Palgrave Macmillan (p. 7)</ref>

[[File:AfghanGuerillainUS1986e.JPEG|thumb|Afghan guerrillas that were chosen to receive medical treatment in the United States, [[Norton Air Force Base]], California, 1986]]

Once the Soviets withdrew, US interest in Afghanistan slowly decreased over the following four years, much of it administered through the DoD Office of Humanitarian Assistance, under the then Director of HA, George M. Dykes III. With the first years of the Clinton Administration in Washington, DC, all aid ceased. The US decided not to help with reconstruction of the country, instead handing the interests of the country over to US allies Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. Pakistan quickly took advantage of this opportunity and forged relations with [[warlord]]s and later the [[Taliban]], to secure trade interests and routes. The ten years following the war saw much ecological and agrarian destruction—from wiping out the country's trees through logging practices, which has destroyed all but 2% of forest cover country-wide, to substantial uprooting of wild [[pistachio]] trees for the exportation of their roots for therapeutic uses, to [[opium]] agriculture.<ref>{{cite web|last=Panetta |first=L. |year=2007 |title=Collateral damage and the uncertainty of Afghanistan... |url=http://www.opticalrealities.org/Afghanistan02/CollateralDamage.html |location=San Francisco |work=opticalrealities.org |access-date=17 August 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090922015906/http://www.opticalrealities.org/Afghanistan02/CollateralDamage.html |archive-date=22 September 2009 }}</ref>

Captain Tarlan Eyvazov, a soldier in the Soviet forces during the war, stated that the Afghan children's future is destined for war. Eyvazov said, "Children born in Afghanistan at the start of the war... have been brought up in war conditions, this is their way of life." Eyvazov's theory was later strengthened when the Taliban movement developed and formed from orphans or refugee children who were forced by the Soviets to flee their homes and relocate their lives in Pakistan. The swift rise to power, from the young Taliban in 1996, was the result of the disorder and civil war that had warlords running wild because of the complete breakdown of law and order in Afghanistan after the departure of the Soviets.<ref>{{cite news|last=Kirby|first= A. |year=2003|title= War has ruined Afghan environment|access-date=27 November 2007|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/2704989.stm|work=BBC News}}</ref><ref name="Bhutta-2002">{{cite journal |pmc=1122273|year=2002|last1=Bhutta|first1=Z. A.|title=Children of war: The real casualties of the Afghan conflict|journal=BMJ: British Medical Journal|volume=324|issue=7333|pages=349–352|pmid=11834566|doi=10.1136/bmj.324.7333.349}}</ref>

The ''CIA World Fact Book'' reported that as of 2004, Afghanistan still owed $8 billion in bilateral debt, mostly to Russia,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/afghanistan/|title=USSR aid to Afghanistan worth $8 billion|publisher=CIA|access-date=15 February 2012}}</ref> however, in 2007 Russia agreed to cancel most of the debt.<ref>[https://archive.today/20080311054211/http://www.rusembcanada.mid.ru/pr2007/037.html Russia Cancels Afghanistan's Debt] Press-Release 08.08.07 – wayback.archive.org</ref>

=== Refugees ===
{{Main|Afghan refugees|Afghans in Pakistan}}
5.5 million Afghans were made refugees by the war—a full one third of the country's pre-war population—fleeing the country to Pakistan or Iran.{{sfn|Kaplan|2008|p=11}} Another estimate states 6.2 million refugees.<ref>{{cite book |last=Maley |first=William |date=2021 |title=The Afghanistan Wars |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PpJKEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA59 |edition=3rd |publisher=Red Globe Press |isbn=978-1-352-01100-5 |page=59}}</ref> By the end of 1981, the [[UN High Commission for Refugees]] reported that Afghans represented the largest group of refugees in the world.<ref name="Sliwinski">{{cite journal| first=Marek |last=Sliwinski |title=Afghanistan: Decimation of a People | journal=Orbis| volume= 33 |issue= 1 |year=1989 |pages=39–56 | s2cid=211172972 |pmid= 11617850}}</ref>{{sfn|Klass|2018|p=129}}{{sfn|Goodson|2011|p=5}}

A total of 3.3 million Afghan [[refugee]]s were housed in Pakistan by 1988, some of whom continue to live in the country up until today. Of this total, about 100,000 were based in the city of [[Peshawar]], while more than 2 million were located in other parts of the northwestern province of [[Khyber Pakhtunkhwa]] (then known as the North-West Frontier Province).<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/1988/11/16/world/pakistan-restricts-afghan-refugees.html Pakistan Restricts Afghan Refugees] by Donatella Lorch for ''[[The New York Times|New York Times]]''. 16 November 1988.</ref><ref name="nation.com.pk">{{cite web|url=http://nation.com.pk/national/14-Feb-2012/visa-extension-to-foreigners-banned|title=Visa extension to foreigners banned|first=Imran|last=Mukhtar|work=The Nation|date=14 February 2012}}</ref> At the same time, close to two million [[Afghans in Iran|Afghans were living in Iran]]. Over the years Pakistan and [[Iran]] have imposed tighter controls on refugees which have resulted in numerous returnees.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.refugees.org/resources/refugee-warehousing/archived-world-refugee-surveys/2009-wrs-country-updates/iran.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120324141757/http://www.refugees.org/resources/refugee-warehousing/archived-world-refugee-surveys/2009-wrs-country-updates/iran.html|archive-date=24 March 2012|title=World Refugee Survey 2009: Iran|work=USCRI|date=2009}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.irinnews.org/report/64489/pakistan-un-cautions-on-afghan-refugee-camp-closures|title=Pakistan: UN cautions on Afghan refugee camp closures|work=irinnews.org|date=17 January 2007|access-date=1 May 2015}}</ref> In 2012 Pakistan banned extensions of visas to foreigners.<ref name="nation.com.pk" /><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2012/02/17/national/no-more-visa-extensions-for-foreigners-in-pakistan/|title=No more visa extensions for foreigners in Pakistan|work=pakistantoday.com.pk|date=17 February 2012|access-date=1 May 2015}}</ref> Afghan refugees have also settled in India and became Indian citizens over time.<ref>{{cite web|author=United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees|url=http://www.unhcr.org/news/NEWS/47bc36204.html|title=Afghan refugee teaches Hindi to tots in India|publisher=UNHCR|date=20 February 2008|access-date=15 February 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/487390023.cms|work=The Times of India|location=India|title=Escape from War}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|author=United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees|url=http://www.unhcr.org/news/NEWS/441190254.html|title=Afghan refugees in India become Indian, at last|publisher=UNHCR|access-date=15 February 2012}}</ref> Some also made their way into North America, the [[European Union]], Australia, and other parts of the world.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IRIN/56e2b1010a330a11d2d7c10f8619804d.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081205030600/http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IRIN/56e2b1010a330a11d2d7c10f8619804d.htm |archive-date=5 December 2008 |title=A Thomson Reuters Foundation Service|publisher=AlertNet|access-date=15 February 2012}}</ref> The photo of [[Sharbat Gula]] placed on ''[[National Geographic Magazine|National Geographic]]'' cover in 1985 became a symbol both of the 1980s Afghan conflict and of the refugee situation.

{| class="wikitable"
! colspan="2" |Estimated number of Afghan refugees by destination, as of 1984{{sfn|Amstutz|1994|p=224}}
|-
|{{flag|Pakistan}}
|3,200,000
|-
|{{flag|Iran}}
|1,800,000
|-
|{{flag|India}}
|40,000
|-
|{{flag|Europe}}
|15,000
|-
|{{flag|United States}} & {{flag|Canada}}
|10,000
|-
|Elsewhere
|5,000
|}

=== Effect on Afghan society ===
The legacy of the war introduced a culture of guns, drugs and terrorism in Afghanistan. The traditional power structure was also changed in favor of the powerful Mujahideen militias:<ref name="cdlib">{{cite web|url=https://publishing.cdlib.org/ucpressebooks/view?docId=ft7b69p12h;chunk.id=0;doc.view=print|title=Afghanistan: The Soviet Invasion and the Afghan Response, 1979–1982 |first1=M. Hassan |last1=Kakar |date=1995 |website=UC Press E-Books Collection, 1982-2004 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230121200011/https://publishing.cdlib.org/ucpressebooks/view?docId=ft7b69p12h;chunk.id=0;doc.view=print |archive-date= Jan 21, 2023 }}</ref>

{{blockquote|"In present-day Afghanistan the groups of clergy, community elders, intelligentsia, and the military cannot be seen."<ref name="cdlib" />}}

The [[militarization]] transformed the society in the country, leading to heavily armed police, private bodyguards, and openly armed civil defense groups becoming the norm in Afghanistan both during the war and decades thereafter.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://prr.hec.gov.pk/jspui/bitstream/123456789/6891/1/Aqab_Mehmood_Malik_Strategic_%26_Nuclear_Studies_2015_NDU_19.05.2016.pdf |title= The Weaponization of Afghanistan and the Effects of Small Arms and Light Weapons on Conflict Dynamics |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200909110438/http://prr.hec.gov.pk/jspui/bitstream/123456789/6891/1/Aqab_Mehmood_Malik_Strategic_%26_Nuclear_Studies_2015_NDU_19.05.2016.pdf |archive-date=9 September 2020}}</ref>

The war also altered the ethnic balance of power in the country. While [[Pashtuns]] were historically politically dominant since the modern foundation of the [[Durrani Empire]] in 1747, many of the well-organized pro-Mujahideen or pro-government groups consisted of [[Tajiks]], [[Uzbeks]] and [[Hazaras]]. With Pashtuns increasingly politically fragmented, their influence on the state was challenged.<ref name="Noor-2007" />