Afghanistan 1979:
The War That Changed the World
Director:
Gulya Mirzoeva
Year: 2014
Rating: 6.0
This French documentary from 2014 relates the tragic story of the reluctant
Russian invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, the resistance from the Mujahedeen
and the departure of the Russians 10 years later. There is not a huge amount
of information here but if you are unfamiliar with the events this will be
a good and reasonably quick look at it. A while ago I read the book Afghansty
(what the Russians there called themselves) which obviously goes into much
more detail.
The Russians had no desire to go into Afghanistan, but the Communists who
had come to power through a coup and were in close co-operation with the
Soviet Union made such a hash of things that the people were up in arms.
So the Russians overthrew the Communist leader and 100,000 troops entered
the country - for what they expected would be a year or so till they had
it under control. It didn't work out that way and the loss of men and finances
was a factor in the dissolution of the Soviet Empire and the collapse of
the Communist Party.
Sadly, the end of the war with the Soviets did not bring an end to war. The
many factions of the Mujahedeen began a civil war that killed thousands more
until a one-eyed Mullah organized the Taliban with Pakistani arms and swept
away the other factions and took power. The war against Russia was instrumental
in forming radical Islam and Al-Qaeda whose leader Osama Bin-laden had been
a part of the resistance. The war of course continues to this day. Hard to
imagine living in 38 years of near continuous war.
This is on YouTube and is narrated in English.