Opalev served as a captain in the Soviet army as it was gradually humbled by Afghan mujahedeen fighters during a decade of war in the 1980s. The problem, he says, is how U.S. forces left.

Comments by senior Soviet leaders about the reasons for Moscow’s failure in Afghanistan are eerily similar to those being made today. In a 1986 Politburo meeting focused on the Afghan situation ...

The first official deployment of the Soviet army into the Kingdom of Afghanistan began Dec. 25, 1979, and marked the beginning of a decade-long Soviet rule in the country.

In a long study of Soviet military progress as of mid-1987, a leading Westren military expert concluded that Soviet forces were proving “devastatingly effective against the Afghan resistance ...

Missing in action since 1980, a former Soviet soldier has been found alive and well in Afghanistan almost 33 years after he was wounded during the Soviet campaign in the country. Bakhredtin Khakimo… ...

2001-09-25 04:00:00 PDT St. Petersburg, Russia-- Fagim Safin fought back tears as he recalled the war he fought as a Soviet attack helicopter pilot in Afghanistan. There, he watched hundreds of ...

The reliable and low-maintenance 5.45-mm assault rifle became the most widely-used weapon in units of the Limited Contingent of Soviet Troops in Afghanistan.

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.

The Soviet army was driven from Afghanistan 30 years ago. Putin’s Russia is repackaging that defeat as a patriotic victory. February 14, 2019 More than 6 years ago ...

The Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in December 1979 to shore up the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul. Photo by Douglas E. Curran - AFP/Getty Images In 1982, Igor Yerin was working in a Moscow car plant ...

When the Soviet Union shocked the world by sending troops into Afghanistan 40 years ago this December, few Western observers guessed it was more thanks to accident and blunder than a conscious ...