Soviet-afghan War

	partof	the Cold War , Afghan Civil War
	caption	<small>A Soviet soldier on guard in Afghanistan in 1988<br>Photo by Mikhail Evstafiev </small>
	date	December 1979 &ndash February 1989
	place	Afghanistan
	casus	Mujahideen insurgency against PDPA Request by DRA Government for Soviet military deployment under 1978 treaty
	result	Soviet withdrawal Afghan Civil War continues Self-declared Mujahideen victory
	combatant1	USSR <br> DRA
	combatant2	<br> Saudi Arabia <br> Pakistan <br> Iran <br> China <br>and others
	commander1	Soviet forces:<br><br> Mohammad Najibullah
	commander2	Abdul Haq <br> Jalaluddin Haqqani <br> Gulbuddin Hekmatyar <br> Ismail Khan <br> Ahmad Shah Massoud
	strength1	Soviet forces: 80,000-104,000<br>Afghan forces: 329,000 (in 1989)Marshall, A(2006) ''Phased Withdrawal, Conflict Resolution and State Reconstruction'' Conflict research Studies Centre ISBN 1 905058-74-8 {Link without Title} , p2
	strength2	45,000 (in 1983)<br>150,000 (in 1986)Marshall, p6
	casualties1	Official Soviet figures: <br>14,453 killed, <br>53,753 wounded, <br>417 missing, <br>415,932 sick N F Ivanov, Operation Storm to Begin Earlier, Chapter 1 Moscow: Voenizdat, 1993 <br>Revised estimate: 26,000 killedRussian General Staff(translated and edited by Lester Grau and Michael Gress)(2002) ''The Soviet-Afghan war: how a superpower fought and lost'' University Press Of Kansas ISBN 0-7006-1185-1 , p 43<br>DRA casualties N/A
	casualties2	Estimated over 1 million Afghan Civilian s and Combatant s killed (as well as 55 million displaced)

The Soviet war in Afghanistan also known as the '''Soviet-Afghan War''' was a nine-year Conflict involving Soviet Forces supporting Afghanistan 's Marxist People's Democratic Party Of Afghanistan (PDPA) Government against the largely Islamic Fundamentalist Mujahideen Insurgents . The latter group found support from a variety of sources including the United States , United Kingdom , West Germany , Saudi Arabia , Pakistan and other Muslim nations in The Context Of the Cold War . This conflict was concurrent to the 1979 Iranian Revolution and the Iran-Iraq War .

The initial Soviet Deployment of the 40th Army in Afghanistan began on December 25 , 1979 . The final Troop Withdrawal began on May 15 , 1988 , and ended on February 15 , 1989 . Due to the high cost and ultimate futility of this conflict for this Cold War superpower, the Soviet war in Afghanistan has often been referred to as the equivalent of the United States' Vietnam War .

	CATEGORIES ABOUT SOVIET WAR IN AFGHANISTAN

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	anti-communism

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	guerrilla wars

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	wars involving the soviet union

	afghanistan

	soviet war in afghanistan

	anti-communism

	afghan civil war

	islam and communism

	cold war

	soviet occupation

	invasions

	guerrilla wars

	wars involving afghanistan

	wars involving the soviet union

	afghanistan

	anti-communism

	afghan civil war

	islam and communism

	cold war

	soviet occupation

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