Afghanistan

* “From Herat to Homs, the Western left’s decades-long zeal for Russian bombs” by Emron Feroz https://www.aljumhuriya.net/en/content/herat-homs-western-left%E2%80%99s-decades-long-zeal-russian-bombs [EN] (WARNING!- Taliban supporter)
* “United in Struggle: Social Revolution of the Pashtun Borderlands” by Laura Cesaretti https://theglobepost.com/2020/01/23/pashtuns-afghanistan-pakistan/
* «АФГАНСКАЯ ВОЙНА 1979-1989 ГГ.» https://www.levada.ru/2014/02/13/afganskaya-vojna-1979-1989-gg/ [RU]
* “The murder of Afghanistan’s Farkhunda and the distorting lens of Islamophobia” by Suraia Sahar https://ricochet.media/en/388/the-murder-of-afghanistans-farkhunda-and-the-distorting-lens-of-islamophobia [EN]
* "RAWA Responds to the Taliban Takeover" http://www.afghanwomensmission.org/2021/08/rawa-responds-to-the-taliban-takeover/ [EN]
* "Afghanistan: The Taliban Victory in a Global Context" https://crimethinc.com/2021/08/16/afghanistan-the-taliban-victory-in-a-global-context-a-perspective-from-a-veteran-of-the-us-occupation [EN]

### **Related pages**

* Afghan refugee crisis
* Han chauvinism
* Islamophobia
* Russian chauvinism
* War on Terror
* Xinjiang

### **Research articles**

* “The Muslim Battalions: Soviet Central Asians in the Soviet-Afghan War” by Jiayi Zhou https://sci-hub.st/https://doi.org/10.1080/13518046.2012.705567 [PDF, 192kb, EN]

### **News articles**

* «Мы должны смыть с себя этот страшный позор» https://www.znak.com/2019-02-15/k\_30\_letiyu\_vyvoda\_voysk\_iz\_afganistana\_kak\_prinimalos\_reshenie\_osudit\_etu\_voynu [RU]
* "China may send peacekeeping force to Afghanistan after US troops leave, observers say" https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3129707/china-may-send-peacekeeping-force-afghanistan-after-us-troops [EN] (owned by Alibaba)
* "China Criticized the Afghan War. Now It Worries About the Withdrawal." by Steven Lee Myers https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/15/world/middleeast/china-pakistan-afghanistan.html [EN] (archived: https://archive.ph/UkxHm)
* "Why Afghanistan’s growing chaos alarms leaders from Tajikistan to Russia" by Robyn Dixon https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/07/09/afghanistan-taliban-central-asia-russia/ [EN] (archived: https://archive.ph/mQuRP)
* "U.S. targets Chinese Uighur militants as well as Taliban fighters in Afghanistan" by F. Brinley Bruton and Tony Brown https://www.nbcnews.com/news/ncna845876 [EN] (owned by Comcast Corporation)
* "Bush rejects Taliban offer to hand Bin Laden over" https://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/oct/14/afghanistan.terrorism5 [EN] (owned by Scott Trust Limited)
* "Bush Rejects Taliban Offer On Bin Laden" by John F. Harris https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2001/10/15/bush-rejects-taliban-offer-on-bin-laden/bc0ec919-082b-40e6-91ca-55e5ca34a70a/ [EN] (archived: https://archive.ph/ylrV0)

### **Magazine articles**

* "Is China Bringing Peace to Afghanistan?" by Sudha Ramachandran https://thediplomat.com/2018/06/is-china-bringing-peace-to-afghanistan/ [EN] (owned by Trans-Asia Inc.)

### **Documents**

* «ПОСТАНОВЛЕНИЕ от 24 декабря 1989 г. N 982-1: О ПОЛИТИЧЕСКОЙ ОЦЕНКЕ РЕШЕНИЯ О ВВОДЕ СОВЕТСКИХ ВОЙСК В АФГАНИСТАН В ДЕКАБРЕ 1979 ГОДА» http://www.consultant.ru/cons/cgi/online.cgi?req=doc&base=ESU&n=3113#05017532827552953 [RU]

### **Books**

* “Aiding Afghanistan: A History of Soviet Assistance to a Developing Country” by Jay Dixon and Paul Robinson
* “Modern Afghanistan: A History of Struggle and Survival” by Amin Saikal https://libgen.is/book/index.php?md5=F4438F440D28FAE1FB82DFF2C8652607 [PDF, 1MB, EN]
* “Afghanistan: A Modern History” by Angelo Rasanayagam https://libgen.is/book/index.php?md5=F3A7A3CBEBAAC3BB13977558D9C7EF32 [PDF, 14MB, EN]
* “Regime change in Afghanistan: foreign intervention and the politics of legitimacy” by Amin Saikal and William Maley https://libgen.is/book/index.php?md5=7E3A3796F358D1A28C5F9FD5955746BC [PDF, 20MB, EN]
* “Al Qaeda, the Islamic State, and the Global Jihadist Movement: What Everyone Needs to Know” by Daniel Byman https://libgen.is/book/index.php?md5=0DC19E8D8AC72484C4934D8B4577AB4B [PDF, 2MB, EN]
* “Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001” by Steve Coll https://libgen.is/book/index.php?md5=811375AA7144CC0CCA91D761B1DD3F72 [EPUB, 769kb, EN], https://libgen.is/book/index.php?md5=DE06ACD89CF6BB8E6DAA6B1E051C5F16 [MOBI, 1MB, EN], https://libgen.is/book/index.php?md5=684BC5B66688357AAF5CFA9060605F54 [PDF, 59kb, EN]
* “The Other Side of the Mountain: Mujahideen Tactics in the Soviet-Afghan War” by Ali Ahmad Jalali, Lester W. Grau and John E. Rhodes https://libgen.is/book/index.php?md5=B33E8A45C1473A82FDEB3AB0F1937AF7 [EPUB, 4MB, EN], https://libgen.is/book/index.php?md5=DE16A83720A229C9F61B3F6BBC3DBC13 [PDF, 3MB, EN]
* “Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil and Fundamentalism in Central Asia” by Ahmed Rashid https://libgen.is/book/index.php?md5=B6122EF50386AD328DD0571D1427FE8F [PDF, 14MB, EN], https://libgen.is/book/index.php?md5=6938AD4184546B4385B59844AAC0B076 [EPUB, 1MB, EN], https://libgen.is/book/index.php?md5=B9B55E2F724B6326B9354DED3AF98CD5 [7Z, 198MB, EN]
* “Afgantsy: The Russians in Afghanistan, 1979-1989” by Rodric Braithwaite https://libgen.is/book/index.php?md5=4FCBFF822B725405A73093E9AF94ECED [PDF, 4MB, EN], https://libgen.is/book/index.php?md5=87AC5A79A1D454BD6323DD83DBEAA02A [MOBI, 928kb, EN], https://libgen.is/book/index.php?md5=F2B388E207F8433ACCC934C4E9B926BB [EPUB, 609kb, EN]
* "Gender and International Aid in Afghanistan: The Politics and Effects of Intervention" by Lina Abirafeh https://libgen.is/book/index.php?md5=C2606C98731C6AFC219299B177F22719 [PDF, 12MB, EN]
* “Politics of the Dispossessed: Superpowers and Developments in the Middle East” by Hafizullah Emadi [EN]
* “Repression, Resistance, and Women in Afghanistan” by Hafizullah Emadi https://libgen.is/book/index.php?md5=986312586DF26F162C82094732E72C67 [PDF, 2MB, EN]
* "Afghanistan: The Soviet Invasion and the Afghan Response, 1979-1982" by Mohammed Kakar https://libgen.is/book/index.php?md5=390BC04FC021A92992B052BA13F1A97D [PDF, 1MB, EN]

### **Videos**

* «Сахаров о войне в Афганистане» reducedtomato https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26pJ4rU5cfE [6:01, RU]
* "Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan - Operation Storm-333 DOCUMENTARY" uploaded by Kings and Generals https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpm5dPIULF0 [16:55, EN SUB, EN]

### **Archived**

* https://archive.ph/pHDmC [EN] - thread explaining how Soviets knew their presence was unwanted
* https://archive.vn/3iWFI [EN] - explaining oversimplification of mujahideen narratives
* https://archive.vn/Wz0gt [EN] - correcting historical revisionism of Soviet-Afghan War
* https://archive.ph/r7CEw [EN] - explaining the damage by the Soviet-Afghan war using statistics
* https://archive.is/j54ZH [EN] - correcting misinformation about Democratic People's Republic of Afghanistan
* https://archive.ph/nfLUy [EN] - why conflating mujahideen and Taliban is not helpful to anyone

### **Notes**

* Leninism and concept of the vanguard party is built into Hezbi Islami and Taliban’s vein of deobandism
* The uprising against the Soviet-backed Afghan government was a military-led reaction to the purges, many of the students were Marxists, and many leading the uprisings were Maoists
* Soviet ambassadors were horrified by the purges and in response Soviet-backed Afghans pulled a whataboutism with purges occurred during the Russian Civil Wars and Stalinist purges during 1920s / 1930s
* The majority of Russians saw the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan as unnecessary and as a crime
* Decision to invade Afghanistan was undemocratic and did not receive support from Soviet institutes or councils, but instead amongst a handful of politicians
* The invasion of Afghanistan was deeply unpopular amongst Soviet Central Asians, which resulted in riots and protests followed by state-enforced repressions
* The mujahideen were not a monolith. It was a popular resistance to Soviet invasion that sprung up from all across the ideological spectrums. Most wouldn't fit into whatever is meant by the “War on Terror” categorization of religious extremists.
* After the USSR invaded Afghanistan, the US provided weapons and assistance to Ahmad Massoud. But he was not al-Qaeda. He was killed by al-Queda suicide bombers in 2001
* The conflation of mujahideen with “religious extremists” is in reference to Arab Maktab al Khidamat
* Maktab al Khidamat, the organization that preceded al-Qeuda, never received US funds. US funds were funnelled by the Pakistani ISI to seven separate Afghan mujahideen organizations. A favourite hardliner by Pakistani intelligence agency was the Hekmatyar.
* Pakistan never funded Bin Laden or the Arab Afghans with U.S. dollars— they were part of a different movement. The main source of funding of the Arab Afghans came from Saudi Arabia. The Arab Afghans often clashed ideologically with the local mujahideens and mostly did their own thing as a result.
* Soviet Central Asian recruits were not the reason why USSR lost as they were rotated out of the military in 1983
* In 1989, the Congress of People's Deputies morally and politically condemned the Soviet invasion
* The whole “religious extremist” revisionism with the Soviet-Afghan history in the (currently capitalistic) Russian Federation was retroactively retconned by Vladimir Putin and the Russian elites to ally the Russian state with Bush’s doctrine of “War on Terror”
* The Taliban was not a fighting force in the Afghan-Soviet War. Individuals, who later formed the Taliban often fought independently in various mujahadeen organizations, but they were never a political or unified force. Pakistan would not assist the Taliban to power until after 1994.
* The people visiting Ronald Reagan in the photo oppurunity were civilians, and one of them was feminist Afghan woman. It would be wrong to assume they are part of the mujahadeen or imply they religious fanatics
* Osama Bin Laden never met Ronald Reagan
* Bin Laden had no interest in international terrorism until he was influenced in this direction by Ayman al-Zawahiri
* Bin Laden was criticized several times by his comrades for carrying out attacks against the US while being a guest of the Taliban. And the Taliban government would have handed over Bin Laden with diplomacy if Bush hadn't invaded. Furthermore, the Bush administration demonstrated they were not interested in capturing Bin Laden because they were already planning to invade Iraq the year after
* Iran supported the Afghan jihad which was fought mostly by Sunnis but also Maoists as well
* PRC has their own geopolitical reasons for opposing the USSR thus funding and aiding mujahideens
* Operation Storm-333 (Шторм-333) was a covert operation that took place on December 27, 1979, in which Soviet special forces stormed the Tajbeg Palace in Afghanistan and assassinated communist Afghan President Hafizullah Amin
* Thomas Sankara opposed the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan