cachibatches

We all know that it would have fallen due to internal forces anyway, but did the cost of the war and demoralization of the Russian people contribute in any meaningful way, even if just to accelerate it?

Siberian Man

Yes. War in Afghanistan was one of the reasons which have accelerated disintegration of the USSR. But disintegration wouldn't be, if Gorbachev hasn't betrayed our country. Now Gorbachev for Russian - is worse, than Hitler. We hate him.

OUNUPA

Greetings from the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan !

Hello Shura,
Greetings from your soldier friend Yuri , Shura you promised to write but you forgot , you lazy sod : I suppose you've been living it up where you are, while here we're up to our necks in muck and bullets. We;ve arrived in a new place, not far from Almaznaya. The worst thing is that they aren't Dushman ( bandits ) round here, they are mercenaries. They've got DSKs and mortars, and sometimes they have us so tightly pinned down that we feel well and truly buggered. Four of our lads have been killed and our commissar, Batuev, was blown up by a mine. There was almost nothing left of him afterwards. As for your battalion-it's being slowly hammered into the ground. I won't write much, it's impossible to describe everything...How's civvy life going ? Did you get your teeth replaced ? Dinka and Grinya send you greetings but are offended of course, everyone promised, but none has written so far ! Everythin' just bloody fine here and we're counting the days till demob. That's it for now. BTW, the 3ird company has been wiped out. They're all lying in tin boxes.
Goodbye.
Yuri,Dima, Grigory.

( the letter was taken from the body of a young Russian soldier ).

Siberian Man

It is interesting to me. And what will occur to the USA? After all you have went in the same heap of sh...t, as we. Sorry for my words. But it's true.

fuser

Afghanistan debacle had little if anything to do with fall of Soviet Union

Belgarion

I would say yes. On my brief visit to Russia I saw several war memorials, all of the heroic, steely eyed Soviet soldier type, except the Afghan war memorial in Yekaterinburg. This memorial was quite different and shows the way USSR felt about this war. It cannot have had any effect but to hasten its downfall.

Afghanistan War Memorial, Yekaterinburg | Photo

I think the pose of the soldier here says it all. it is one of the most evocative war memeorials I have seen.

OUNUPA

But it's true that now Germans have NO RIGHT to judge ANYBODY for their OWN crimes which were committed by their FATHERS during WWII. That's the way it is.

Siberian Man

What do you mean?

ReaganSmash

It definitely accelerated it, as some refer to as the Soviet's "Vietnam".

Panthera tigris altaica

Afghanistan played an important part, but i wouldn't say it was the most significant reason that caused the USSR too fall. For that, there were other more important multiple factors that had caused it's eventual dissolution. In naming a few:

- The cold war
- Decades long policy of guns over bread and butter production
- Gorbachev policies of Glasnost and perestroika
- Supporting other communists or allied states with the little rubles they could not really spare
- The break away of the smaller Baltic and central Asian republics and the lack of soviet military response.

Well, at least, those are some of the first things that come to my mind besides their intervention in Afghanistan.