afghanistanthrough the secular North American and European school and university
systems. Inside Afghanistan, meanwhile, the state indoctrinated pupils
and students in Marxism and sent thousands of students to study in the
ussr or Soviet bloc countries. By the time Afghan refugees began to return
to their country in large numbers in 2002, a whole generation had been
educated in a variety of conflicting world views and many younger people
spoke Urdu better than Dari or Pushtu.
Despite the suffering, deprivation and many other problems facing
the Afghan refugees, the war did have some positive aspects. For many
Afghans their understanding of the wider world was broadened after
generations of spatial, intellectual and cultural isolation. Television, radio,
films, newspapers and the wide range of literature available in Pakistani
and Iranian bookshops widened intellectual horizons, while freedom from
the restraint of state censorship allowed marginalized communities to
publish works in their own languages and their version of Afghan history.
Hundreds of thousands of children, both boys and girls, gained literacy
skills, learnt trades and skills through refugee assistance programmes,
and some even gained a university education. Afghans eagerly embraced
modern technology, including satellite and mobile phones, the internet and
social media, while merchants set up dozens of free enterprise ventures,
which were often highly profitable.
Mikhail Gorbachev and the Soviet withdrawalAs the war in Afghanistan ground on with no prospect of ending, divi-
sions emerged within the Soviet leadership over the intervention. Brezhnev
died three years after sending in the Red Army and his successors Yuri
Andropov, one of the main advocates of the intervention, and Konstantin
Chernenko died soon after. All these men belonged to the early generation
of Communists who had been born in pre-Revolutionary Russia, but their
position was increasingly being challenged by younger Party members.
When Chernenko died in March 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev, the youngest
member of the Politburo, became General Secretary of the Communist
Party. One of his priorities was to staunch what he called the ‘bleeding
wound’ and find a way to either win the war in Afghanistan or withdraw
with honour more or less intact. 51
By the time Gorbachev came to power, not only was the war in
Afghanistan going badly, the costs were having a negative effect on the
Soviet Union’s economy and finances. Even more worrying were the poten-
tial social and economic repercussions from a war that was increasingly