Many Russians Today Take Pride In Afghan War That Foretold Soviet Demise
Thirty years ago, the Soviet Union withdrew from a disastrous nine-year war in Afghanistan. "Those who fought are being looked up to again," says one Russian veteran.
In 1982, Igor Yerin was working in a Moscow car plant when he was drafted into the Soviet Army at age 20 and sent to Afghanistan to fight U.S.-backed guerrillas known as the mujahedeen. He ended up serving as a platoon sergeant with the 149th Motorized Rifle Regiment based in the northern city of Kunduz.
Three years earlier, the Soviet Union had invaded Afghanistan to prop up a friendly regime. But the war against the mujahedeen turned into an unwinnable quagmire, and on Feb. 15, 1989, the last Soviet soldiers came limping out of Afghanistan — an omen of the Soviet Union's dissolution less than three years later.
"First of all, we
