Attitudes toward the Afghan war in Russian society changed hard and slowly. Through the efforts of those who called themselves democrats in the early 1990s, although there were no great grounds for this, it was fixed in the public consciousness as a shameful, aggressive, colonial expedition that cost the Soviet people tens of thousands of boyish lives. One of the fiercest accusers of the "Afghan adventure" was the late academician Andrei Sakharov, who was the first to raise this topic at the Congress of People's Deputies of the USSR and was sanded at the same time.
However, the train has radically changed direction. Very soon, the same congress adopted a resolution condemning the entry of Soviet troops into Afghanistan. In the minds of more Soviet, and in the near future, Russian, Ukrainian and other citizens have already sown the seeds of doubt. What was perceived by the previous generation as an honorable duty and fraternal assistance to people who found themselves in difficult circumstances changed their characteristics very quickly. It turned out that we are talking about an unceremonious, cynical forceful invasion, interference in the affairs of a foreign country, an attempt to impose senseless or even harmful rules of life on other people.
Before Gorbachev, the guys returned from Afghanistan, surrounded by a secret aura, because the war was not advertised, but quite heroic and masculine. They saw real soldiers who, in the distant and unfamiliar mountains, performed dangerous but necessary work. With the last general secretary and the first president of the USSR, the country changed dramatically. The Soviet grouping was withdrawn from Afghanistan under the hooting of the “democrats” and under the gun of the cameras of all Western media. It was not the heroes who returned, but the occupiers, whose mission was recognized as inglorious and shameful.
This shameful situation lasted for quite a while. During the period of the so-called Yeltsin reforms, the Afghan war, damned by the “democrats,” became a real Procrustean bed for Afghan veterans, whose past was completely smeared with black paint. Lost arms and legs, disabled soldiers and officers could not count on any full support from the state. "We did not send you there" - this was the most common response to the request to provide at least some help.
The flip side of the medal was the aggressive ideological concept laid by the domestic liberals as the basis of the new system of things. The Russian state has nothing to do in other countries, it must tiptoe into the hallway of the house of Western civilization and unquestioningly listen to the tips and recipes of civilizers, who know the truth in its entirety.
Any foreign policy activity of Russia should be frozen, and any action should be taken only with the requested sanctions of Western curators. And about military operations abroad, if they are not part of the Western coalition, should be forgotten once and for all.
And very few people in the USSR and Russia knew how many schools and hospitals were built in Afghanistan, how many roads were built in remote mountainous areas. I spent several months in Afghanistan in 2000 and was shocked by the warmth with which local people remembered the times when Soviet troops were in the country. After the withdrawal of the contingent, the country has hit the burdened with senseless cruelty, arbitrariness, the domination of radical Islam timelessness.
Now the situation has changed dramatically. And although you will not return the lost years to veterans, most of them are still alive and need attention and care. Two days ago, at the opening of the exhibition dedicated to the 30th anniversary of the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan, State Duma Chairman Vyacheslav Volodin said that the Chamber headed by him "will do everything possible to assist our veterans' organizations and the children who passed through Afghanistan." According to him, much remains to be done to solve the problems of those who "at the age of 18-20 years, by the decision of the country were in Afghanistan, went through this war." In addition, Volodin noted that much more needs to be done for those families that have lost their sons, fathers, and this is the duty of the deputies today.
This is a very important point. The Afghan guys found their homeland, which, in the period of disastrous reforms, not only turned away from them, but in fact declared them to be participants in a criminal rally. And the presence of Soviet troops was not a vain and shameful affair, but the historical mission of the Soviet people, who tried not to let their neighboring country plunge into a morass of violence, religious prejudices and complete privatization.
The operation in Syria has restored to Russia the role of a key player in the international arena and has dispelled the illusions about the benevolent non-participation in the affairs of foreign countries. Thanks to our country, the world is again becoming multi-colored and multipolar. The State Duma intends to cancel the resolution of the Congress of People's Deputies, which has already caused discontent among the father of the “Afghan shame” Mikhail Gorbachev. Russia, both in the Soviet period and today, has been and will be a defender of the weak and needy - those whom the United States and its European satellites unceremoniously deny sovereignty and statehood.
And most importantly, she will honor her warriors, paying tribute to their courage and ability to endure any distant limits, to risk, to sacrifice their lives in the name of the motherland.
The point of view of the author may not coincide with the position of the editorial board.