On February 15, 1989, the last column of Soviet troops was withdrawn from Afghanistan. The 10-year war has ended. About how much Soviet soldiers died in this monstrous operation, they are still arguing. The official figures are 15,000, of which 94 were Krasnoyarsk residents; this is only a fraction of the dead.
Then they did not take into account the pilots who transported cargo and died heroically in the sky, helicopters with demobilization, which were already considered to have returned from the war and came under fire, nurses and orderlies. It was not beneficial for the Soviet Country to count the true losses.
Ivan Vorobyov. Photo: From personal archive / Personal archive of I. Vorobyov
In 1999, the lists of the USSR Ministry of Defense were declassified. And it turned out that the first Soviet citizen to die in the Soviet-Afghan conflict was Krasnoyarsk resident Nikolai Bizyukov. He was killed during an uprising of the opposition National Democratic Party of Afghanistan on March 17, 1979 - 10 months before the official introduction of troops into the territory of the republic. And even later it turned out that one of the last dead was also our fellow countryman, Oleg Shishkin. Who are these Krasnoyarsk residents who gave their lives in that terrible war, says Ivan VOROBYOV, chairman of the Krasnoyarsk regional branch of the All-Russian public organization"The Brotherhood of War" .
In Herat, my uncle taught tanks to Afghans and wore the uniform of Afghan officers, recalls his nephew Gennady Vergilesov. - In March 1979, wives began to come to military advisers, but Nikolai’s wife Arina fell ill and could not come. And on March 17, a rebellion began in Herat. The protesters demanded the release of prisoners from prisons and called for the destruction of all Soviets. The families of our citizens began to urgently evacuate. My uncle’s car was already heading to the airport when he ordered us to turn around back to the hotel: “I left something there.” Returning back to the car, he again moved towards the plane, but by this time all the cordons had already been captured by the Mujahideen. Having released the Afghan driver, they dragged the Soviet officer onto the road and brutally killed him, dismembering his body. The next day, a Soviet helicopter took away only pieces of meat that the pilots were able to collect at the scene of the massacre.
The grave of Nikolai Bizyukov. Photo: From personal archive / Personal archive of I. Vorobyov
The zinc coffin with Nikolai’s body arrived in Vershino-Rybnoye on March 21, 1979. Relatives were not allowed to open it. The funeral took place quickly and modestly - divulge details Afghan war in those days it was impossible. Only 27 years later, a monument was erected to the first internationalist soldier who died in Afghanistan. In 2001, the local school where he studied was named after him. And for the last four years, Krasnoyarsk Afghan veterans have been holding a volleyball tournament in memory of Bizyukov in Vershino-Rybny.
When Oleg turned 23, a call came from the Syzran Higher Military aviation school. By that time he was already married. He graduated from college with honors as an external student in three years. He served in Germany for five years, after which he returned to his homeland. “I’m Russian and I want to hear Russian speech,” Oleg told his family then. But in October 1988, Captain Shishkin was sent to Afghanistan. Despite the fact that Soviet troops were already withdrawing from the country, the fighting was fierce. In 4 months, Shishkin made 150 combat missions.
Oleg Shishkin. Photo: From personal archive / Personal archive of I. Vorobyov
The fatal fight took place on February 9, 1989. A helicopter under the command of Oleg Shishkin attacked a group of dushmans who ambushed the convoy Soviet troops. The bandits were neutralized, but the car was shot down, and the entire crew, led by the commander, was burned. Oleg did not live only six days before the end of the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan. At home he is survived by his wife and daughters Olesya and Kristina. Oleg Shishkin was awarded the Order of the Red Banner and two Orders of the Red Star - posthumously. Oleg’s wife received one of the orders only 20 years after her husband’s death.
The war in Afghanistan has left an indelible mark. Photo: From personal archive / Personal archive of I. Vorobyov
The fighting of the Mujahideen against Soviet soldiers was particularly brutal. For example, the authors of the book “Battles that Changed the Course of History: 1945-2004” make the following calculations. Since opponents considered the Russians to be “interventionists and occupiers,” when counting those killed, about 5 thousand per year—13 people died per day in the Afghan war. There were 180 military camps in Afghanistan, 788 battalion commanders took part in military operations. On average, one commander served in Afghanistan for 2 years, therefore, in less than 10 years, the number of commanders changed 5 times. If you divide the number of battalion commanders by 5, you get 157 combat battalions in 180 military camps.
1 battalion - no less than 500 people. If we multiply the number of towns by the number of one battalion, we get 78,500 thousand people. Troops fighting the enemy need a rear. The auxiliary units include those who transport ammunition, replenish provisions, guard roads, military camps, treat the wounded, and so on. The ratio is approximately three to one, meaning another 235,500 thousand people were in Afghanistan per year. Adding the two numbers, we get 314,000 people.
According to this calculation by the authors of “Battles that Changed the Course of History: 1945-2004”, over 9 years and 64 days, a total of at least 3 million people took part in military operations in Afghanistan! Which seems like absolute fantasy. Approximately 800 thousand participated in active hostilities. The losses of the USSR were at least 460,000 people, of which 50,000 were killed, 180,000 were wounded, 100,000 were blown up by mines, about 1,000 people are listed as missing, more than 200,000 people were infected with serious diseases (jaundice, typhoid fever). These numbers show that the data in the newspapers is underestimated by a factor of 10.
It must be admitted that both the official data on losses and the figures given by individual researchers (probably biased) are unlikely to correspond to reality.
The exact number of Afghans killed in the war is unknown. The most common figure is 1 million dead; Available estimates range from 670 thousand civilians to 2 million in total.
According to Harvard professor M. Kramer, an American researcher of the Afghan war: “During the nine years of war, more than 2.5 million Afghans (mostly civilians) were killed or maimed, and several million more became refugees, many of whom fled the country.” . The exact division of victims into soldiers of the government army, Mujahideen and civilians, apparently, does not exist.
USSR losses:
Total - 13,833 people. These data first appeared in the Pravda newspaper in August 1989. Subsequently, the final figure increased slightly, presumably due to those who died from the consequences of wounds and illnesses after leaving the armed forces.
As of January 1, 1999, irretrievable losses in the Afghan war (killed, died from wounds, diseases and accidents, missing) were estimated as follows:
Total - 15,031 people. Sanitary losses - almost 54 thousand wounded, shell-shocked, injured; 416 thousand sick.
According to the testimony of Vladimir Sidelnikov, a professor at the Military Medical Academy of St. Petersburg, the final figures do not take into account military personnel who died from wounds and illnesses in hospitals on the territory of the USSR.
In a study of the Afghan War conducted by General Staff officers under the leadership of Prof. Valentina Runova, an estimated 26 thousand dead, including those killed in battle, those who died from wounds and illnesses, and those killed as a result of accidents:
Of the approximately 400 military personnel considered missing during the war, a certain number of prisoners were taken by Western journalists to the countries Western Europe And North America. According to the USSR Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as of June 1989, about 30 people lived there. Three people after the statement Prosecutor General USSR that former prisoners would not be subject to criminal prosecution returned to Soviet Union. According to data from 02/15/2009 of the Committee on the Affairs of Internationalist Soldiers under the Council of Heads of Government of the Commonwealth (CIS) Member States, 270 people remained on the list of missing Soviet citizens in Afghanistan from 1979 to 1989.
Number of dead Soviet generals, according to press publications, is four people, sometimes called the number 5:
|
Title, position |
Circumstances |
||||
|
Vadim Nikolaevich Khakhalov |
Major General, Deputy Commander of the Air Force of the Turkestan Military District |
Lurkokh gorge |
Died in a helicopter shot down by the Mujahideen |
||
|
Petr Ivanovich Shkidchenko |
Lieutenant General, Head of the Combat Operations Control Group under the Minister of Defense of Afghanistan |
Paktia Province |
Died in a helicopter shot down by ground fire. Posthumously awarded the title of Hero Russian Federation (4.07.2000) |
||
|
Anatoly Andreevich Dragun |
Lieutenant General, Head of the General Staff of the USSR Armed Forces |
DRA, Kabul? |
Died suddenly during a deployment to Afghanistan |
||
|
Nikolay Vasilievich Vlasov |
Major General, Advisor to the Commander of the Afghan Air Force |
DRA, Shindand Province |
Shot down by a hit from a MANPADS while flying on a MiG-21 |
||
|
Leonid Kirillovich Tsukanov |
Major General, Advisor to the Commander of Artillery of the Afghan Armed Forces |
DRA, Kabul |
Died from illness |
Losses in equipment, according to official data, amounted to 147 tanks, 1,314 armored vehicles (armored personnel carriers, infantry fighting vehicles, BMD, BRDM), 510 engineering vehicles, 11,369 trucks and fuel tankers, 433 artillery systems, 118 aircraft, 333 helicopters. At the same time, these figures were not specified in any way - in particular, information on the number of combat and non-combat aviation losses, losses of aircraft and helicopters by type, etc. was not published.
Some Soviet soldiers who fought in Afghanistan suffered from the so-called “Afghan syndrome” - post-traumatic stress disorder. Testing conducted in the early 1990s showed that at least 35-40% of participants in the war in Afghanistan were in dire need of help from professional psychologists.
Economic losses of the USSR
About 800 million US dollars were spent annually from the USSR budget to support the Kabul government.
Total losses by year:
1979 - 86 people.
1980 - 1484 people.
1981 - 1298 people.
1982 - 1948 people.
1983 - 1446 people.
1984 - 2346 people.
1985 - 1868 people.
1986 - 1333 people.
1987 - 1215 people.
1988 - 759 people.
1989 - 53 people.
Total deaths: 14,453.
In battle: 9511.
Died from wounds: 2386.
Died from disease: 817.
Died in accidents, disasters, accidents, committed suicide: 739.
By rank:
Generals, officers: 2129.
Ensigns: 632.
Sergeants and soldiers: 11,549.
Workers and employees: 139.
Missing and captured: 417.
Were released: 119.
Returned home: 97.
Live in other countries: 22.
Total sanitary losses in Afghanistan: 469,685.
Wounded, shell-shocked, injured: 53,753.
Cases: 415,392.
Returned to service: 455,071.
Dismissed for health reasons: 11,654.
Died (included in permanent losses): 2960.
Of the 11,654 dismissed due to health reasons.
Became disabled: 10,751.
1 group: 672.
2 groups: 4216.
3 groups: 5863.
Equipment losses:
Aircraft: 118.
Helicopters: 333.
Tanks: 147.
BMP, armored personnel carrier, BRDM: 1314.
Guns, mortars: 433.
Radio stations, command and staff vehicles: 1138.
Engineering vehicles: 510.
Flatbed vehicles, fuel tankers: 11,369.
Losses of the local population 1 million 240 thousand people. (9 percent of the country's population).
For reference:
Total permanent casualties during the Vietnam War: 57,605
Injured: 300,000
Cost of the Vietnam War: $165 billion.
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February 15th is a holiday for all the guys who had the opportunity to fulfill their international duty in Afghanistan, defending people other than their own, being seriously wounded and maimed, dying in a foreign country in a strange, but not our, war. Large, bright, anniversary. This year marks exactly 20 years since the withdrawal of Soviet troops from the DRA.
The war in Afghanistan lasted from 1979 to 1989. It lasted nine years, one month and nineteen days. On December 25, 1979, on the basis of the Soviet-Afghan treaty of 1978, the introduction of Soviet troops into the DRA began in three directions: Kushka-Shindand-Kandahar, Termez-Kunduz-Kabul, Khorog-Fayzabad. The troops landed at the airfields of Kabul, Bagram, and Kandahar.
The official purpose of the entry was to prevent the threat of foreign military intervention, but very soon our limited contingent (OKSV) was drawn into the flaring civil war and became an active participant
Some of those who went through all the circles of hell in this war are trying to forget about it, not to remember or share memories, someone is embittered at the whole world for the crippled body, soul, youth, life, someone, on the contrary, believes that went through a harsh but very necessary school of life.
But be that as it may, February 15, 1989 became a starting point for all survivors. Countdown to peaceful life…..
Every year on this day, “Afghans” remember and commemorate their comrades who died on foreign soil and remained young forever. This year will be no exception.
Statistics on losses.
Total losses:
1979 - 86 people
1980 - 1484 people
1981 - 1298 people
1982 - 1948 people
1983 - 1446 people
1984 - 2346 people
1985 - 1868 people
1986 - 1333 people
1987 - 1215 people
1988 - 759 people
1989 - 53 people.
Total deaths: 14,453 people.
In combat: 9511
Died from wounds: 2386
Died from disease: 817
Died in accidents, disasters, as a result of incidents, committed suicide: 739.
By rank:
Generals and officers: 2129
Ensigns: 632
Sergeants and soldiers: 11,549
Workers and employees: 139.
Missing and captured: 417
Released: 119
Returned home: 97
Live in other countries: 22
Total sanitary losses in Afghanistan: 469,685
Wounded, shell-shocked, injured: 53,753
Sick: 415 392
Of them:
- returned to service: 455 071
- dismissed due to health reasons: 11,654
- died (included in the number of irretrievable losses): 2960
- Of 11,654 dismissed for health reasons
- became disabled: 10,751
1 group: 672
2 groups: 4216
3 groups: 5863
Equipment losses:
Aircraft: 118
Helicopters: 333
Tanks: 147
BMP, armored personnel carrier, BRDM: 1314
Guns, mortars: 433
Radio stations, command and staff vehicles: 1138
Engineering vehicles: 510
Flatbed vehicles, fuel tankers: 11,369.
Losses of the local population 1 million 240 thousand people. (9 percent of the country's population).
Well very interesting information Political-economic analysis of events and interesting statistics can be obtained at.
