To what extent did the war in Afghanistan a catalyst to the dissolution of the Soviet Union?
By: Amanda Luo
Abstract The invasion of Afghanistan by Soviet forces began on December 24, 1979. The focus question of the essay asks “To what extent did the war in Afghanistan a catalyst to the dissolution of the Soviet Union?” To answer this question, the buildup of Soviet economic and social problems will be closely examined, the years preceding the Afghanistan war up to year of the Soviet collapse will primarily be focused on. The conclusion reached is that the war in Afghanistan was a disadvantage to the Soviet Union, the collapse of the government was inevitable but the war quickened the collapse. The war quickly …show more content…
When Daoud captured power in Afghanistan, he was tasked with mending the disagreements within the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (the PDPA) - a political party that supported communism. The invasion of Afghanistan was an accumulation of the USSR becoming increasingly, and actively involved in Afghanistan’s domestic affairs after the PDPA regime emerged in 1978 and failed to procure widespread support for their socialist reforms. President Daoud’s efforts to increase and consolidate his own authority without the help of other members of the PDPA combined with his attempt to distance himself from the more ‘socialist’ oriented leaders of the coup that brought him to power, only served to cause further concern on the part of the Soviet Union’s leadership watching from afar in Moscow. In 1967, the PDPA split into two rival factions, the Khalq faction headed by Nur Muhammad Taraki and Hafizullah Amin and the Parcham faction led by Babrak Karmal. The resistance to Taraki and Amin’s rule slowly unfolded as the deteriorating situation between the Soviet backed PDPA and their Afghani people reached the point of no return during the winter of 1978. By late 1978, however, a rebellion against the Taraki government’s policies started an Islamic extremist movement in eastern Afghanistan and quickly spread throughout …show more content…
Several million Afghans had either fled to Pakistan or Iran for refuge or had become internal refugees. Millions had died from starvation or from the bombings and raids. Homes, property, food production, and irrigation systems were destroyed, leaving the country in ruins. Land mines set up during the war still continued to pose a hazard to the people long after the war ended. Soon after their entry into Afghanistan, the Soviets imposed harsh military and social reforms that began to make enemies within different sectors of the indigenous population. They initiated land reforms that created tension with the landowners, implemented economic measures that worsened conditions for the poor, and tried to curb ethnic uprisings by mass arrests, torture, executions of people that did not conform and aerial bombardments. The drive for the Soviet Union to surround itself with communist regimes eventually led to the demise of the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union attempted to assert itself as the world's dominant superpower and their self-pride was their demise. The invasion of Afghanistan was the Soviet Union's final foreign military intervention before the end of the cold war and its eventual dissolution in
By: Amanda Luo
Abstract The invasion of Afghanistan by Soviet forces began on December 24, 1979. The focus question of the essay asks “To what extent did the war in Afghanistan a catalyst to the dissolution of the Soviet Union?” To answer this question, the buildup of Soviet economic and social problems will be closely examined, the years preceding the Afghanistan war up to year of the Soviet collapse will primarily be focused on. The conclusion reached is that the war in Afghanistan was a disadvantage to the Soviet Union, the collapse of the government was inevitable but the war quickened the collapse. The war quickly …show more content…
When Daoud captured power in Afghanistan, he was tasked with mending the disagreements within the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (the PDPA) - a political party that supported communism. The invasion of Afghanistan was an accumulation of the USSR becoming increasingly, and actively involved in Afghanistan’s domestic affairs after the PDPA regime emerged in 1978 and failed to procure widespread support for their socialist reforms. President Daoud’s efforts to increase and consolidate his own authority without the help of other members of the PDPA combined with his attempt to distance himself from the more ‘socialist’ oriented leaders of the coup that brought him to power, only served to cause further concern on the part of the Soviet Union’s leadership watching from afar in Moscow. In 1967, the PDPA split into two rival factions, the Khalq faction headed by Nur Muhammad Taraki and Hafizullah Amin and the Parcham faction led by Babrak Karmal. The resistance to Taraki and Amin’s rule slowly unfolded as the deteriorating situation between the Soviet backed PDPA and their Afghani people reached the point of no return during the winter of 1978. By late 1978, however, a rebellion against the Taraki government’s policies started an Islamic extremist movement in eastern Afghanistan and quickly spread throughout …show more content…
Several million Afghans had either fled to Pakistan or Iran for refuge or had become internal refugees. Millions had died from starvation or from the bombings and raids. Homes, property, food production, and irrigation systems were destroyed, leaving the country in ruins. Land mines set up during the war still continued to pose a hazard to the people long after the war ended. Soon after their entry into Afghanistan, the Soviets imposed harsh military and social reforms that began to make enemies within different sectors of the indigenous population. They initiated land reforms that created tension with the landowners, implemented economic measures that worsened conditions for the poor, and tried to curb ethnic uprisings by mass arrests, torture, executions of people that did not conform and aerial bombardments. The drive for the Soviet Union to surround itself with communist regimes eventually led to the demise of the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union attempted to assert itself as the world's dominant superpower and their self-pride was their demise. The invasion of Afghanistan was the Soviet Union's final foreign military intervention before the end of the cold war and its eventual dissolution in