Support The Moscow Times!

Remembering the Soviet Withdrawal from Afghanistan, 30 Years Later, in Pictures

Feb. 15, 2019 marks the 30th anniversary of the Soviet withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan. 

The nine-year Afghan War claimed the lives of over 1 million Afghani civilians and over 14,000 Soviet troops. In 1989, Gorbachev's decision to withdraw the Soviet military from the country was hailed as a long overdue ending to a bloody conflict and the decision to invade was condemned as a mistake by the Congress of People's Deputies of the Soviet Union.

In recent years, however, Russian politicians have sought to repackage the war as a patriotic success.