stupor between march 979 and december 979 when the soviet union doesn't invade several things change one is that the tensions within the ruling party become much worse. and not only are many of the party members of the weak recently sidelined but even the 2. how key leaders mohamad i.q. and. and his who i mean are increasingly at odds with each other. several things would change gratian adds opinion for your peace efforts were in decline account of the adult and peace was his baby but it also of this will be from the american perspective the soviet union is also using the day this kind of period of detente to expand its influence in the 3rd world. 1975 of course we have the downfall of south vietnam and the reunification of vietnam as a communist state an afghanistan that seems to fit into this pattern i think the problem for britain of personally the reason to become so amenable to the idea of

leaving me is that his embrace of iraqi was very it was very public right he made a point of saying don't worry you'll be ok we'll support you when he misses when he visits moscow in 1979 and sees him off at the airport that he goes back and then he's arrested and killed and so then version of also sees this not just as a political insult to the soviet union but as a personal insult to himself. once his rival was out of the way i mean undertook new revolutionary reforms in the country they took no account of traditional culture or islam and were widely misunderstood by the public. far from sticking to brezhnev stop trying i mean provoked the soviet spy installing a dictatorship in afghanistan and oppressing the people many of the afghan military deserted and joined the mujahideen. in

the soviet kind of mindset of the fall of 1979 where they're worried about the united states taking advantage of the situation in afghanistan it almost seems like i mean is deliberately destabilizing the country and look deliberately destabilizing the leadership on top of that they're receiving subsidies that i mean had met with americans and of course there's the fact that i mean had studied in the united states right so suddenly these kind of aspects of his biography and his behavior which on their own would not even be that suspicious start to come together and start to kind of point to the idea that i mean might be working with the cia. in total secrecy the red army invaded afghanistan at the end of december 1979 the soviets assassinated i mean and replaced him with a kremlin loyalist comma. an air bridge to kabul marks the start of

a bloody conflict one that was to be defined the engagement of the cold war it would seal the fate of the communist bloc and the soviet union it would change the world. this is a callous. international long and the united nations charter is a deliberate effort of apollo 8 years to government to subjugate. islamic people. from all of them but you remember you want. me to meet and improve the world but only. you know. well there was a meeting between british naval and his closest advisors when they decided to

intervene in afghanistan's long awaited point in style reduction while the only document we now have about it is titled the situation in a which was at bell solicitors and the letter a is in quotation marks. doc a physically. there was a climate of secrecy it was conspiratorial even some of the politburo were not told immediately and wouldn't learn about it until early 1980. plus the soviet people would learn from press reports that there's a limited contingent of troops that had been sent at the request of the afghan government to help them reestablish order and that this contingent would not stay long and that it was either a friendly country and they were there to help them as they've been doing for years etc etc i said that the soviets had wanted to get out of afghanistan almost from the moment that they went in right so they were there from 1900 in 1989 but they had never intended to be there for 10 years and they were looking for

a way out very early on so already in 1983. when they decided this they made a mistake that they didn't talk about the duration of the occupation of iraq how long without troops stay there a month a year 2 years 3 years or so were in my opinion that was very important as the events that followed proved but even the intervention and the deployment of troops was warmly welcomed by the americans visits with says they wanted the soviet union to intervene militarily somewhere or other in the us or it's august when that happened in afghanistan they were well pleased by will still. be another part but the united states and other western countries wanted to soviet union to get involved in a war that would weaken the country economically militarily and politically and that's exactly what happened burks is scarce among the military the professional

military as far as we know was very happy with this decision and they were actually warned. they'd warned the civilian leadership that it would be a mistake. marsalis we had good relations with the afghans toward a certain point of our troops was welcomed by the populations. but soon began the so-called resistance short of which i stress the word cold because they quickly started to receive lots of money from the pakistan militia. it was clear the americans were giving money to the much as deans through pakistan's are doing this for years. they didn't catch who they made war against it was normal fanatically to do they were always this war with some muslims snooker you sustain you in the skill or job you know they want your idea we were a group of about 20 or maybe 30 or which i had seen and many were very young men. i had some very good friends in that group may they rest in peace and may god be

merciful to them they are martyrs. we planned the attack well i asked them have you got incendiary bullets they replied yes we have i asked them to find out which vehicle in the soviet convoy was carrying the reserve if you want us to look at it and to tell me if it was in the front or the middle of the convoy that was not the shells we waited on a slope for the convoy to arrive and then we fired at the field tanker after that the convoy was blocked. the armored cars caught fire and the russians were all killed at the that's how it happened. after that attack we seized 30 or 40 weapons. see jimmy sell all. of my group one of our units was caught in an ambush.

your mother one of my friends had command of the unit the fighting was very brutal . some were beheaded or had their eyes pushed out and. furious which was. for the 1st thing you feel when your friend is dead is a desire for revenge yes. but i'm still i thought about the magazine in my weapon and i wanted to empty it into my enemies were sitting where it should. be of them why does this desire for revenge overrides everything in the actual civility can they the soviet reaction was a sort of genocide by deportation to see due to the regime or populations but. just where mr butler there to get your stuff like that lived

along the big roads connecting afghan cities to the borders of pakistan and iran were routed and pushed out of the country. that would extend your sis was moscow's strategy in central asia and the 1920 s. and early thirty's the beauties of the 12 to surround isolate and destroy because. the 20. 3000000 afghans pledged to pakistan. 2000000 to iran and. pakistan and iran were pursuing their own interests in the region and played a big role in the afghan resistance and least also have gotten to know d.c. was that if you will. this is the disability it to name the soviet public was kept in the dark about what was going on in afghanistan. soviet media was under the complete control of the communist party. the press radio television. they

only reported on what was happening abroad in a very limited and filtered way even before the intervention the soviet regime was not very popular. there was a general disinterest in politics and a lack of belief in communism was more the regime couldn't ensure supplies of basic necessities is the keepin your legal thought if they can't even do that what good are they are. 6 regime the tenuous hope of reprobation with the west was ended by the intervention in afghanistan the consequences were clear. there were sanctions against the soviet union and in bargo on cereals and technology and the boycott of the moscow olympic games in 1980 court. in terms of image afghanistan was absolutely catastrophic for the soviet union.

even and then died in this movie i remember the absolutely soporific spectacle of these old fossils carrying the coffins of leaders of the politburo you were all over 70 years old. afi images of the funeral images of the regime on its deathbed on. the soviet union was in its death throes yet the old guard chose another sick old man to succeed bresh nath yuri andropov. both. yuri andropov was a man of the k.g.b. because you see headed the k.g.b. secret service and secret police from 196-7982 this really embodied the golden age of the k.g.b. with its vast operations abroad in latin america and africa. does of guys want

to get me on f.t. and they clytie but he also represents a time when dissidents were arrested and put in psychiatric hospital as a period of repression. i know her on the look of our. d. . i because it is unique andropov wanted dialogue with the united states stressful . but when he came to power soviet american relations were very bad or rather east west relations. but by could he do it was a phase that couldn't be called a cold war anymore a chilly war maybe commando nice west relations had again deteriorated though not because of and drop of rise to power but the process had begun in the 2nd half of the 1970 s. preschool led because that's when the most unfair don't assume what it is and this

was. the only an illusion. i'm a pilot in the soviet air force my name is bloody made a coalition a cough. for coming here to afghanistan. i only know what i've been told which in reality means absolutely nothing naturally i had my doubts. very but i knew that if i came here. anything could happen to me more from which it's. poor guy says mom you're not on julie doot burbled up 100 ton elite as time went on doubts grew. because there were huge losses. and the soldiers who came back alive began to talk about the atrocities they'd suffered. or that they'd inflated. to because both sides were violent people and all

that began to attract criticism slope lucas's model of the us you see dear de critique. my mission today was to seek out caravans and targets to strike. and i think the only people who could understand how i feel and what we experience here are those who were in the vietnam war. they lived through the same thing and were exposed to the same dangers that we are. and all countries and all societies people look out for themselves their own daily problems and then the soviet union people don't know about what goes on in afghanistan was more than enough good 3 when we go back there are people who will ask us questions but i know now that they won't understand anything about our life here you see him the next this is a really dirty war. and you didn't just go in there. if i'm

a sucker designs on expressed. on the bomb mission bringing back those confidence in them are. good for you not

one single mother accepted our explanation that our son had fulfilled his duty and had been a good soldier for the. jewish such words had no meaning for a mother's heart. nothing could replace the son who'd been killed. ocean throwing to comfort them was the hardest thing for us because just. to sit the arrival of these coffins change not public opinion the opinion of civil society you'll see less and less will see to see the fallen soldiers wives and mothers would come to embody the rejection of this war in afghanistan to sit to do

sit on that good stone. but for the united states the war in afghanistan was a godsend it's allowed the country to justify its own foreign policy. i mean it's in 1901 ronald reagan became us president in 1903 he delivered his famous evil empire as the john. of the and scorekeeper knows the room well that's only he gave the speech to evangelical christians it may not break in the view that many religious people in the us were pacifists who might become an obstacle to his aggressive policies against the soviet union is. to ignore the facts of history of the aggressive impulses of an evil empire to simply call the arms race a giant misunderstanding and thereby remove yourself from the struggle between

right and wrong and good and evil. you know as in vietnam the soviets were hoping you know the americans we. were always hoping that it would be the south vietnamese we deal with the communist insurgency and that the americans would just be there in a supporting role. carrying out some operations but mostly focusing on training and in charge. and in a very similar way this is what the soviets were hoping that their military could do in afghanistan also as the case was and get it was very hard to maintain security once an operation was finished. so the american forces would pull back to their forward bases and once again the terrain would be a threat would be open. and of course both shared a kind of. i could say materialist idea of what it would take to win the majority of the population over to their own side i mean and the soviets also

thought ok we need to do economic development we need to provide aid we need to provide you know food and medicine all of these things and that will make people more amenable to the communist government in afghanistan. and so they spent a lot of resources on this but of course in the end there wasn't enough. for the the formal proof just when i tell my andropov who was very ill at the design last week was proof that his worst fears were true and a series of events supported ventral called belief that the united states wanted to provoke a war as it doesn't need it you know the particular game that there must be if it is not. just me and never let them know that but you are going to go by the town of shari count. as highly dangerous here. from here on once is the most dangerous zone in the region. that you just feel free

control of this route from 8 o'clock to 6 o'clock and then a little bit at night it's controlled by the much again vision of what they watch us and sometimes fire at times during the day to. the point of british. lookout take cover they're firing up ahead. and. for the love of a rocket landed right in front of our tank was at the bottom graduations comrade capitalists. the mujahideen and young weapons a bit better but nobody would ever see your film your.

music history in 1985 the city it became clear to the u.s. that the resistance would last also of gun do you think good looking humans human on the scene the muslim world had realized that this wasn't just a proxy war between the soviets and the americans he thought of what the op was easy because it was he thought it justified muslim resistance. none seek a cinematic it isn't illegal and so the reagan administration sense that it now had political cover to supply anti aircraft weapons to resistance groups and it together with its pakistani allies you know google is you stop. but where the americans aiding the right side while the mujahideen declared jihad or holy war to drive the soviet occupiers out of their country other extremist groups took advantage of the situation.

together with the pakistani secret service they tricked the americans a large portion of the american military aid fell into the hands of radical fundamentalist groups including one led by a certain osama bin. there were also resistance fighters for whom no u.s. help arrived like those in pan shia or valley in the northeast of the country they had to fend for themselves doing whatever they could to secure weapons. to be gay so much snow here in the valley of i'm sure. we have nothing but soviet quite honest. weapons captured from the enemy.

leading the pan hsieh mujahideen was a 28 year old commander shah massoud with no support from the us he managed the impossible he resisted the red army reputedly the most powerful force in the world . we have no direct or indirect relations with the americans. and. during the last attack no one came to our aid. the articles in american newspapers are lies. they are true london. must soon his natural charisma and his military exploits against the soviets made him a symbol of the afghan resistance he was respected as a commander and loved as

a person but apart from his strategic and military talents he was known in pan shia for establishing a community based on respect for islam even today he remains a legendary figure. of church. sued was young tall handsome. with fine features and offers. myself shortly after he was very charismatic and well spoken so work making sure he had a big effect on people he was friendly. here a checker that i'm kind of moving his army though she was there's no doubt that he was a gifted military strategist and an exceptional talent but i want to stress his humanistic values he was a great humanist as a chance observed neither one but. he was the most peaceful man i ever knew but he found himself in the worst of circumstances war.

so even while afghanistan was at war with the soviets he was thinking about the future about the schools that should be built about the education of the next generation or more than we saw he tried to flee that's before we are some. i can only say positive things about masood. he was intelligent sophisticated and he never made irrational decisions. for he always kept his word however difficult that might be he did a great deal for his people who supported me. while most sued for the red army life in moscow continued as normal until the day when the aged constantine chen yanker who had succeeded and drop off died in march 1905 a younger man came to power a new face in the kremlin the fate of afghanistan and of the soviet union would

change forever. i'll sit for our says will not go but short of. the hour had come for mikhail gorbachev the heir apparent to under all part of the became general secretary of the communist party of the soviet union no one knew then that he would be the last and he was different from his predecessors much younger of 54 guys than them he was born in 1931 near stefano paul in the caucasus if you did he had humble origins his father and grandfather were peasants because. he would prove to be a good authority on agricultural matters that was his trademark. that's why he was called to moscow. when 1980 he became a member of the polish. galleys magick that's an arched

his rapid rise was due to his charisma and also his age and his easy manner he could give speeches without notes 6 pretty improvised views if some for the soviet people observing his demeanor it was something completely new he liked appearing in public which was also unusual all vulnerable his predecessors had had very little direct contact with the people places or have a clip of gorbachev visited factories spoke with people was interested in every day problems. there was a sense that a new era was beginning to. you know. when one of the 2 i don't know what this war is about why they have to be millions of deaths. what are we fighting for. this.

this is their country and i think they can take the responsibility for it themselves. they can decide their future and vote for the policies they want. to believe that. being he makes no sense it's a mistake. one of the for the ship. psych 1985 was the most atrocious year of the war in afghanistan. gorbachev came to power and the generals wanted to persuade him that winning was still possible. it meant pulling out all the stops before the resistance fighters got american anti aircraft weapons. cache deep in 1905 tens of thousands of peasants and their livestock were killed. but it was too late

for the opposition. were equipped with those american anti aircraft guns view of that they were suddenly able to shoot down on average one so be a plane in one soviet helicopter predate the thieves and no soviet pilot wanted to be part of that statistic but. the result was that from 1986 the resistance fighters were also active during the day see soviet air operations only took place at night because the pilots were afraid of being shot down. so the ground troops lost their air support you and the soviet occupation was doing. looking for city to. defeat. afghanistan was a thorn in gorbachev's side it was referred to as the russian vietnam it was a war with big losses and for which the people suffered. it also presented

a foreign policy problem. if got a bunch of couldn't find a solution to the problem the west would see him as no different to his predecessors. because as far as the west was concerned if the affair went on unresolved it meant nothing had changed in the soviet union if you know the morning . he really had to show that his policy had changed and that the soviet union was moving into a new era. he had to draw a line under it do it wouldn't be easy because the americans were quite standoffish to begin with. you weren't sure who they were dealing. with slowly he was able to build up confidence by making a lot of concessions. go back to the concessions were mostly on his side who produced it. image registry very serious carol tell us the printer issue and yes yes you were in your shoes i love you the

concert issued you sort of lose interest of what are you so going to stun a bullet was rushing you know you know shea spoke well i didn't turn to a bomber to still close it reasonably safe stop making you were there was a player who were going to start to come on the show i was sent back to afghanistan as commander of the 40th ami's and head of all soviet forces in afghanistan stand. in the middle that's my mission was can. to bring home our troops we see were this pretty good morning but how could a little valley with only 5000 men and 700 weapons stop the red army reputed to be the most powerful in the world. so it's thanks to the structure of the valley with its mountains and rivers that was good for us and bad for the enemy. masood defied the soviets for 10 years they never managed to take his strongholds

the pan she advani he also held the key to a successful withdrawal the soviet troops because his mujahideen controlled part of the routes linking kabul and the u.s.s.r. his relationship to groom wolf was respectful almost friendly. yes the ship is most the service guy never met must food in punch always on neutral territory of the bunch then we put a horde of prigs along the main road from kabul to the song pass where the punchy valley begins. where we agreed on a particular site i am arrived by helicopter and he came on horseback all by jeep a woman in a marsh accompanied by his bodyguards powers and his sister who. nobody here is the last week they were here is even in year soviets corporators these 2 or 3 israeli. this is there they were sure we would say it is

a win is that what they said that i knew yes there was no war so that the. sense that when i was on the bridge i didn't expect to be greeted by my eldest son in a crib and i was overcome by emotions. i felt relief but also dispatches to border as if i suddenly became aware of all the responsibility that i had carried all those years and. nirvana and the nervous tension was a man walked across the situation had been very hard and complicated review organism i had a feeling of total emptiness as i crossed the bridge i had the impression that my life was over i was completely burnt out. of seriousness of the war the during the 1980 s. everything had revolved around afghanistan. just like it hand for hundreds of thousands of soviet families. and for my own friends and family who suddenly after

this war most of the 1990 s. began really difficult years that destroyed our country was built in the system nationalist of. the mood in the soviet union turned. voices critical of go but shelf and the ruling elite group allowed people called for him to resign they wanted real change. glasnost and perestroika failed. and the economic crisis hit the country hard shops were empty the people no longer believed in go but self all the future of communism. but his policies had opened pandora's box there was no stopping the course of history.

9 months after the soviet withdrawal from afghanistan the burning wolf. even in moscow statues were toppled they started with that of felix jasmine ski the founder of the cheka the forerunner of the k.g.b. . the growing discontent became more more focused on those in power in the kremlin. one after another the soviet socialist republics declared independence. the days of communism and the soviet union were numbered. most it gathered good story i get that these are the afghanistan war was the catalyst for

the fall of the u.s.s.r. it played an important role for one thing it exposed the military weakness of the red army. which wasn't able to control the situation on the ground. also. the war showed that the soviet economy was no longer strong enough to finance such a conflict. it shone a light on the structural problems of the regime. and it undermined the myth of proletarian internationalism put in the idea that the powerful soviet union should help developing countries. beyond the one small country was able to defy a superpower. that us had gone to source it too so that led the u.s.s.r. to question its identity including its capacity to go toe to toe with the united states as the war in afghanistan raised some very painful questions in the union.

again. february 1909 marked the end of what's known as the soviet invasion of afghanistan or the afghanistan war or as moscow called it sending a limited contingent to aid a brother country. the end of the conflict brought great relief to the multi-ethnic populations of both afghanistan and the soviet union it was to be the last armed conflict of the cold war. but it had taken a heavy toll around 2000000 dead on the afghan side 15000 soviet soldiers killed and millions when days. there were countless victims of landmines and there was mass population displacement with around 6000000 people fleeing to

pakistan and iran. it was a war that would change the face of the world a devastated afghanistan fell into a bloody civil war in which the islamist taliban would emerge just sponsors of a new sort of international terrorism. it's no coincidence that the country is known as the graveyard of empires that's certainly true when it comes to the soviet union 2 and a half years after withdrawing its troops in december 1991 it ceased to exist. because. the receipt enjoyed men's hand enough. to devon colligan stuttgart is not without consequences.

moods much merrier in the labor concerned with 4 goals against tottenham and the rhinelander shoot their way to the top of the table. the fight against the coronavirus pandemic. has the rate of infection been developing. measures are being taken. what does the latest research search. information and context. coronavirus up to the code of special monday to friday on g.w. . the fairy tale. legend. i am going through it was the century for the trick monarch.

i. treasure i wish. secrets because it starts to seem to the dog. this is d w news live from berlin and forcibly sterilized and tortured for not speaking the language an exclusive report from john on the repression of leaders inside of

china's re-education camps. cameras everywhere you're not allowed to posix press your head or cry if they saw that they would force you want to a metal chain or they would make you sit there for 12 hours 24 hours. also on the coke route the u.s. led call.