Soviet Union Completes Withdrawal from Afghanistan

Context

The Soviet Union entered Afghanistan in December 1979 to prop up a faltering communist government installed after a 1978 coup. That regime faced immediate resistance from disparate mujahideen groups, many of which received covert support from the United States, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and others seeking to counter Soviet influence during the Cold War. The resulting conflict turned into a grinding guerrilla war that drained Soviet resources and morale.

By the mid-1980s, new Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev recognized that the occupation conflicted with his domestic reform agenda and broader foreign-policy goals. He pursued a negotiated exit through United Nations-mediated talks, while directing Afghan president Mohammad Najibullah to implement a policy of national reconciliation that aimed to broaden the Kabul government's base and reduce reliance on Soviet troops. These efforts culminated in the Geneva Accords of April 1988, which set the terms for a complete Soviet military withdrawal.

What Happened

The withdrawal unfolded in two phases between May 15, 1988, and February 15, 1989, under the command of Lieutenant General Boris Gromov of the Soviet 40th Army. Roughly half the Soviet contingent departed in the first four months, followed by the remainder in the final phase. Soviet forces handed over bases and equipment to Afghan government troops as they pulled back toward the northern border.

On the final day, the last column of armored vehicles and troops moved across the Hairatan Bridge, also known as the Friendship Bridge, spanning the Amu Darya River into the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic at Termez. Gromov, the last Soviet soldier to leave Afghan soil, walked across the bridge on foot after the vehicles had passed, symbolically marking the formal end of the intervention.

Aftermath

The Najibullah government, bolstered by continued Soviet military and economic aid, maintained control of major cities for three more years despite mujahideen offensives. When that aid abruptly ended following the Soviet Union's dissolution in December 1991, Najibullah's forces rapidly lost cohesion. He was ousted in April 1992, after which rival mujahideen factions entered Kabul and began fighting among themselves.

Legacy

The withdrawal underscored the limits of Soviet military power and accelerated the internal political and economic crises that led to the USSR's collapse in 1991. It also left Afghanistan in a state of civil war that enabled the later rise of the Taliban. Historians view the episode as a pivotal moment in the Cold War's endgame and a cautionary example of the difficulties superpowers face in asymmetric conflicts.