Aleksandr Antonovich Lyakhovskiy Working Paper pp - Woodrow ...

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Inside the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan and the Seizure of Kabul, December 1979 By Alexander Antonovich Liakhovsky Translations by Gary Goldberg and Artemy Kalinovsky January 2007 TABLE OF CONTENTS I. Preface 2 by James G. Hershberg and Svetlana Savranskaya II. Inside the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan 3 and the Seizure of Kabul, December 1979 by Alexander Antonovich Liakhovsky III. Literature and Sources 72 IV. About the Author 76
PREFACE The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in December 1979 is recognized as one of the pivotal moments of Cold War history, yet the circumstances surrounding this event have remained murky ever since they took place. This Cold War International History Project Working Paper presents, for the first time in English, substantial examples of the work of the preeminent Russian military historian of the Soviet war in Afghanistan, Alexander Liakhovsky. After serving as Deputy Director of the USSR Defense Ministry working group in Afghanistan under General Valentin Varennikov from 1987 to 1989, since 1991, Liakhovsky has written a series of important Russianlanguage works on the conflict, including Tayni Afganskoy Voyni [Secrets of the Afghan War] (1991), Tragedia I Doblest’ Afgana [The Tragedy and Valor of Afghanistan] (1995) and Plamia Afgana [The Flame of Afghanistan] (1999). A new edition of The Tragedy and Valor of Afghanistan appeared in July 2004. All of these works incorporate important primary sources, including the author’s extensive oral history interviews with many of the Soviet military participants in the Afghan operation ranging from senior figures in the Defense Ministry in Moscow to officials managing the seizure of Kabul to soldiers engaged in the storming of Amin’s heavily-guarded presidential palace. Although the Soviet collapse facilitated the release of much previously secret communist documentation that has greatly enhanced understanding of the political (CPSU) and intelligence (KGB) processes pertinent to the Afghan invasion and war—and much important scholarship and archival evidence in these areas has appeared in English 1 — Liakhovsky’s oeuvre constitutes the most significant contribution by Russian scholars to a fuller comprehension of the Soviet military dimension of the conflict. In this Working Paper, the co-editors, in cooperation with Liakhovsky, have selected excerpts illuminating the Soviet military occupation of Kabul, including the dramatic and in some cases bloody operations that led to the elimination of Amin and some of his defenders, at a substantial cost to the Soviet military invaders. In particular, excerpts have been translated from The Tragedy and Valor of Afghanistan (2004). As this Working Paper aims merely to present an illustrative sampling of Liakhovsky’s work, full citations are not provided, and scholars wishing to obtain fuller documentation or analysis may consult the original Russian-language works, or contact the author himself at alya46@mail.ru. The translations have been made by Gary Goldberg and Artemy Kalinovsky. • James G. Hershberg (George Washington University) • Svetlana Savranskaya (National Security Archive) January 2007 1 See, e.g., Raymond L. Garthoff, Détente and Confrontation (Washington, DC: Brookings Institution, rev. ed., 1994); Odd Arne Westad, “Prelude to Invasion: The Soviet Union and the Afghan Communists,” International History Review 16:1 (February 1994), pp. 49-69; Odd Arne Westad, “The Situation in ‘A’: New Russian Evidence on the Soviet Intervention in Afghanistan” (and accompanying translated Soviet and East German archival documents) CWIHP Bulletin 8-9 (Winter 1996/1997), pp. 128-132, 133-184; “New Evidence on the War in Afghanistan” (articles and translated documents), CWIHP Bulletin 14-15 (Winter 2003-Spring 2004), pp. 139-271; Odd Arne Westad, The Global Cold War: Third World Interventions and the Making of Our Times (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2005), esp chap. 8; and on the intelligence aspects, Vasilyi Miktrokhin, The KGB in Afghanistan, CWIHP Working Paper no. 40 (Washington, DC: Woodrow Wilson Center, February 2002). 2
Page 1 and 2: COLD WAR INTERNATIONAL HISTORY PROJ
Page 3 and 4: COLD WAR INTERNATIONAL HISTORY PROJ
Page 5: #42 Sergey Radchenko, “The Soviet
Page 9 and 10: Parchamists were forced to hide or
Page 11 and 12: “Now, a few words on the question
Page 13 and 14: Staff Nikolay Vasil’yevich Ogarko
Page 15 and 16: Thus in the person of Amin we have
Page 17 and 18: consideration of the CC CPSU Politb
Page 19 and 20: …On 3 December there was a meetin
Page 21 and 22: Feeling that the leadership of the
Page 23 and 24: Minister stopped him abruptly and s
Page 25 and 26: When Ustinov returned he again list
Page 27 and 28: (dated December 12, 1979) was consi
Page 29 and 30: 17.12.1979 the USSR KGB representat
Page 31 and 32: easonable. The real purpose of the
Page 33 and 34: udget of a majority of NATO members
Page 35 and 36: esponsibility for the results of th
Page 37 and 38: The radio and television building g
Page 39 and 40: plane which was loaded with kerosen
Page 41 and 42: The KGB Chairman warmly greeted us
Page 43 and 44: They told [us] about it on the morn
Page 45 and 46: But all the same, in spite of diffi
Page 47 and 48: although this is a southern country
Page 49 and 50: and also level of vehicle and cart
Page 51 and 52: It was recognized as advisable that
Page 53 and 54: action the commanders of the s almo
Page 55 and 56: From the memoirs of Valeriy Yemyshe
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Klimov recalled that “Immediately
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eceived the order to carry out the
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We had barely gotten out of the sen
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Probably…Right! So what was I to
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…The “Shilka”’s shifted the
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just shone a flashlight since there
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Ivanov again asked, “Was he kille
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At 1850 a “Zenit” detachment of
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A reconnaissance company of the 345
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During the firefight “Zenit” so
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LITERATURE AND SOURCES Bibliography
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Colonel A. A. Puntus Colonel A. T.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR Alexander Antonovi
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