![]() Today, Opalev works at the Union of Veterans of Afghanistan's office in central Moscow, where he pulls out the decorated uniform he wears for ceremonies and occasional talks at schools.Įxplaining the Soviet military effort to prop up a communist government in Kabul can be a tough sell, he admits. The USSR propped up its communist ally in Kabul "The main thing was that it was organized," he says. Opalev was among the last Soviet troops to withdraw in February 1989. Sergei Opalev poses with a map of Afghanistan at the Union of Veterans of Afghanistan's office in Moscow. "If you pull out an army of tens of thousands, you need a year."Īs the United States grapples with the fallout from its exit from Afghanistan, former soldiers who fought as part of the USSR's own losing military campaign see echoes in their experiences - similar searing loss - but also evidence of American miscalculation that casts the Soviet experience in a more flattering light. "It's just a fact that if you want to evacuate a division, you need a week," says Opalev, who was among the last Soviet soldiers to withdraw from Afghanistan. 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. It's not the defeat that confounds him - he understands that part all too well. ![]() withdrawal from Afghanistan, and Sergei Opalev is still trying to wrap his head around the chaotic end to America's 20-year war. ![]() MOSCOW - It has been more than a month since the U.S. Among the first deployed was Rustam Khodzhayev, seen posing here (front row, first from the left) with his special operations unit in 1981. Over half a million Soviet troops served in Afghanistan between 19. ![]()
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