SPOT THE DIFFERENCES
Seven quotes from Afghan War veterans reminiscent of war in Ukraine propaganda
Soviet forces were fully withdrawn from Afghanistan on 15 February 1989. The USSR had invaded the country ten years before — ostensibly to fulfil an “international duty” and “help” the Afghans.
For the thirtieth anniversary of the troop withdrawal, in 2019, independent Russian news website 7x7 surveyed veterans of the Soviet-Afghan War from different regions about their take on that war’s events. We read the text five years later and were amazed. There was hardly any difference when we replaced the word “Afghanistan” with “Ukraine.”
We chose veterans’ quotes from the 2019 survey and compared them with quotes from the Russian authorities and Russians who support the war in Ukraine. We also spoke with Alexander Cherkasov, former board chair of the Memorial Human Rights Centre, about the similarities and differences between the two military conflicts.
For the thirtieth anniversary of the troop withdrawal, in 2019, independent Russian news website 7x7 surveyed veterans of the Soviet-Afghan War from different regions about their take on that war’s events. We read the text five years later and were amazed. There was hardly any difference when we replaced the word “Afghanistan” with “Ukraine.”
We chose veterans’ quotes from the 2019 survey and compared them with quotes from the Russian authorities and Russians who support the war in Ukraine. We also spoke with Alexander Cherkasov, former board chair of the Memorial Human Rights Centre, about the similarities and differences between the two military conflicts.
The Afghan conflict was planned as a major war with NATO, while the war in Ukraine was planned as a swift occupation. In reality, both military operations turned into protracted conflicts.
SIMILARITIES BETWEEN THE WARS
February 15, 2024
DISCLAIMER:
This article has been published as part of 30 Years Before, a project by Memorial Human Rights Defence Centre. The views of its authors and editors do not necessarily reflect the views of Memorial Human Rights Defence Centre, and vice versa.
This article has been published as part of 30 Years Before, a project by Memorial Human Rights Defence Centre. The views of its authors and editors do not necessarily reflect the views of Memorial Human Rights Defence Centre, and vice versa.
Afghanistan 1979 — 1989
“We thought we were fulfilling an international duty, helping a friendly government that asked us for support.”
— Alexander Rassokhin, Afghan War veteran from Komi
Source: 7х7, 2019
Ukraine 2022 — present
“The circumstances require decisive, urgent action from us. The people’s republics of the Donbass have asked Russia for help.”
— Vladimir Putin, President of Russia
Source: KREMLIN.RU
“It was a brutal war [in Afghanistan], with executions, shelling of mountain villages, and security sweeps of the cities. The practices that were later used in Nagorny Karabakh, Chechnya and right up to Ukraine came out of Afghanistan. It can be said that Russia has been at war for more than forty years: there was the Afghan War, wars in the Soviet Union’s hinterlands, and in the post-Soviet space, the First and Second Chechen Wars. They were back-to-back wars in which traditions were preserved,” Cherkasov said.
In his opinion, the wars have in common aggression against another state and interference in its domestic affairs, as well as the involvement of the special services. The events in Afghanistan and Ukraine resulted in sanctions being imposed on the USSR and Russia and the country being banned from international sports. They also pushed the world closer to all-out nuclear war.
In his opinion, the wars have in common aggression against another state and interference in its domestic affairs, as well as the involvement of the special services. The events in Afghanistan and Ukraine resulted in sanctions being imposed on the USSR and Russia and the country being banned from international sports. They also pushed the world closer to all-out nuclear war.
Afghanistan 1979 — 1989
“Why did the Soviet Union decide to invade? They were afraid the Americans would go in and put their missiles there. Then they would start to stir up our Central Asian republics and play on ethnic tensions.”
— Sergei Kremenev, Afghan War veteran from Maloyaroslavetsi
Source: 7х7, 2019
Ukraine 2022 — present
“The Anglo-Saxons and their allies are attempting to destabilise the sociopolitical situation in Russia and to provoke ethnic conflicts.”
— Nikolai Patrushev, Secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation
Source: RG.RU
There were domestic changes in addition to foreign ones. Cherkasov noted that political crackdowns intensified in the 1980s. Human rights activist Andrei Sakharov was exiled without trial to the city of Gorky for seven years for criticising the invasion of Afghanistan. Nearly 20,000 people in Russia have been detained for opposing the war in Ukraine (per OVD Info as of 11 February 2024).
“Ukraine is now the main theme of the Russian news. But the Afghan War was ‘somewhere’ [out of sight]. Of course, everyone knew that [soldiers] were being sent to Afghanistan, there were people who had returned, and there were semi-underground collections of Afghan War songs. But it was a shadow war,” Cherkasov says.
Differences between the two conflicts
Afghanistan 1979 — 1989
“Is it correct to say that the USSR withdrew troops in 1989? They shouldn’t have been deployed. But all of that depended more on the politicians than on us. We were just rank-and-file soldiers.”
— Iskhak Baishev, Afghan War veteran from Penza
Source: 7х7, 2019
Ukraine 2022 — present
“None of it depends on us.”
— A woman living in Moscow, on the programme “Face to Face”ikolai Patrushev, Secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation
Source: RADIO SVOBODA
Cherkasov said that Soviet propaganda conveyed the idea of pacifism and friendship among peoples. A colonial war didn’t fit into this. Not much was said about the hostilities either by the country’s leadership or in society. Most people sensed that the war was unjust, but they tried not to notice it.
The civil rights activist says that society sees the two wars differently. Afghanistan was a secret shame for Soviet people. For many Russians, the military actions in Ukraine are a reason to be proud. And, in Cherkasov’s opinion, the war in Ukraine has a greater effect on people than Afghanistan did.
“That war’s impossibility was part of why the Soviet Union could not continue to exist. And now it’s precisely the war in Ukraine that is transforming the Russian state quite seriously and hardly for the better.”
This transformation is related to a general change in how war is perceived. During the Soviet period people would say, “Never again.” Now the memory of a war features only a depersonalised victory, not its cost.
The civil rights activist says that society sees the two wars differently. Afghanistan was a secret shame for Soviet people. For many Russians, the military actions in Ukraine are a reason to be proud. And, in Cherkasov’s opinion, the war in Ukraine has a greater effect on people than Afghanistan did.
“That war’s impossibility was part of why the Soviet Union could not continue to exist. And now it’s precisely the war in Ukraine that is transforming the Russian state quite seriously and hardly for the better.”
This transformation is related to a general change in how war is perceived. During the Soviet period people would say, “Never again.” Now the memory of a war features only a depersonalised victory, not its cost.
Afghanistan 1979 — 1989
“Our chief task was to prevent a foreign invasion, which we thwarted in 1982.”
— Alexander Pitatelev, Afghan War veteran from Mariy El
Source: 7х7, 2019
Ukraine 2022 — present
“[The Ukraine invasion] is not only a response to someone else’s hostile actions, but also preventive actions to eliminate the threat of war.”
— Dmitry Medvedev, Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of the Russian Federation
Source: TASS
Cherkasov argues that the experience in Afghanistan should have started a process of rethinking war and been an inoculation against it. But Soviet and then Russian policy got in the way of this. Cherkasov defines the 1990s as a time when Russian society refused to rethink military operations. Three years after the Soviet Union collapsed, in 1994, Russia started a new “victorious” war in Chechnya. The human rights activist argues that it was intended to keep voters, who no longer liked Boris Yeltsin, from straying. It was thought that a quick victory over separatist armed groups would make him look stronger and restore public trust.
The annual Victory Day parades on Red Square started in 1995. They reinforced the memory of the war as a victory.
“How can we see the Afghan War here [in Russia] if our ‘glorious’ past is part of our ‘bright’ future?” Cherkasov asks.
The annual Victory Day parades on Red Square started in 1995. They reinforced the memory of the war as a victory.
“How can we see the Afghan War here [in Russia] if our ‘glorious’ past is part of our ‘bright’ future?” Cherkasov asks.
Cherkasov argues that the propaganda has become more powerful over the decades. There were few newspapers and TV channels in Soviet times, but now there are new platforms for propaganda thanks to the internet.
One of the narratives of the propaganda then and now is of a preventive war. The Soviet and Russian leaders said the same thing: that the conflicts were intended to thwart NATO’s plans. Such rhetoric reinforces the idea of a “just war” in both the Soviet and Russian public mind.
The war propaganda uses messaging that helps individuals feel like they aren’t complicit. Cherkasov says this is done because people need to justify themselves, convincing themselves, for example, that they are strong and decent, keep their word, and defend the weak.
One of the narratives of the propaganda then and now is of a preventive war. The Soviet and Russian leaders said the same thing: that the conflicts were intended to thwart NATO’s plans. Such rhetoric reinforces the idea of a “just war” in both the Soviet and Russian public mind.
The war propaganda uses messaging that helps individuals feel like they aren’t complicit. Cherkasov says this is done because people need to justify themselves, convincing themselves, for example, that they are strong and decent, keep their word, and defend the weak.
The role of propaganda in justifying aggression
Afghanistan 1979 — 1989
“At first, our troops went in to help the Afghans build plants and treat sick people. It was a limited contingent of Soviet troops in Afghanistan.”
— Nikolai Kirzhenko, Afghan War veteran from Kirov
Source: 7х7, 2019
Ukraine 2022 — present
“All our actions have been aimed at helping people living in the Donbass. It’s our duty and we will fulfil it to the end.”
— Vladimir Putin, president of Russia
Source: IZVESTIYA
“‘We aren’t attacking, we are defending,’ ‘we’re not the ones who are violating treaties: other [countries] are violating treaties,’ ‘we’re not the aggressors, our opponent is the aggressor,’ ‘we are defending civilians’—all of this is intended to make a person feel that they belong to the right side, the just side. It’s also meant to keep the person involved [in the war or in justifying it],” Cherkasov says.
Afghanistan 1979 — 1989
“But that’s all politics. It’s the common people who suffer.”
— Iskhak Baishev, Afghan War veteran from Penza
Source: 7х7, 2019
Ukraine 2022 — present
“Almost every day we see civilians dying and suffering in the southeast [of Ukraine].”
— Svetlana Petrenko, spokesperson for the Russian Investigative Committee
Source: INTERFAX
Following the same rationale, the propaganda and the authorities try not to use the word “war.” “Deploying a limited contingent of troops” in Afghanistan and the “special military operation” in Ukraine shape the perception of the events as something positive, necessary, and not shameful.
Afghanistan 1979 — 1989
“We wrote about everything in the [military] newspaper. However, we put quotes around the words ‘wounded,’ ‘battle,’ and ‘ambush.’ Because there was no war: we were providing international assistance. That was in 1981–1983.”
— Nikolai Kirzhenko, Afghan War veteran from Kirov
Source: 7х7, 2019
Ukraine 2022 — present
“Russia is not waging a war; we don’t wage wars. Waging a war is completely different. It means the complete destruction of infrastructure, it means the complete destruction of cities, and so forth. We do not do this.”
— Dmitry Peskov, press secretary for the President of Russia
Source: GAZETA.RU
“My late friend Misha Rozanov wrote an article entitled ‘I'm an antifascist.’ This is one of the observations he made there: ‘Fascism makes the entire nation accomplices in crimes—both good people and bad people, consciously or unconsciously, and even its own victims.’ This lie [about war] is one of the ways of gently compelling good people to be complicit in crimes,” Cherkasov concluded.