Why Did The Ussr Or Russia Invade Afghanistan In The 1980

Why did the Russians Invade Afghanistan?

There are four reasons for the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan:
1a) To prop up the democratically elected (albeit after a fairly fraudulent election) Communist regime that was coming under pressure from the emerging Mujaheddin.
1b) For ideological reasons, the CPSU - communist party of the Soviet Union - did not want a "fraternal", i.e. communist, country to fall to "bourgeois elements". Part of Marxist orthodoxy is that communism is "inevitable", so it was their duty to help a communist regime in trouble.
2) For strategic reasons. Afghanistan is an important crossroads between India and Pakistan, and Iran & Turkey. It also gave the Soviets "Global Reach" - the means to reach anywhere in the World, something the US had had since the end of WWII.
3) For historic reasons: Russia had always wanted access to the Indian Ocean and to the trade routes of that part of the World, Afghanistan got them to within a few hundred miles of the ocean.
4) To control their own population. The USSR was home to many millions of Muslims and having a backwards, but fervently religious, country on its doorstep that could be used as a springboard for Iranian style Islamic revolts was a great concern.
See:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/...

Why did Russia invade Afghanistan in 1980? What did Russia want from Afghanistan?

Russia is virtually land-locked during winter and has had an ages-old quest for warm water ports. It was the cause of numerous military conflicts with Turkey, and The Crimean War over control of the Black sea and the Bosporus/Dardanelles passage into the Mediterranean Sea, and the Russian/Japanese conflict in 1903. There are no warm water ports in Afghanistan, but they were in control of the Khyber Pass (an ancient trade route to China) on the East, and one step closer to Iran and Turkey on the West and Pakistan on the South, all with warm water ports. The old Russian Czars also saw themselves as modern-day crusaders who would re-conquer Istanbul from the Moslems and re-establish it once again as Constantinople. For the modern day Soviets, it was not only control of the trade route but the oil that passed through it. Also, Afghanistan was politically fragmented, militarily weak and not an ally of the U.S.

Why did the Russians invade Afghanistan in the 1980's?

Largely because it was on their border, traditionally, Russia and Britain had fought over it, it was called "the great game." Afghanesetan has been very fractured, and in cold war era, usually Russia back one camp and the West back the other, so when the faction supported by them was doing badly, Russians felt oblidged to intervene, much like US invasion of Cuba on the Bay of Pigs.

Why did the Soviets invade Afghanistan?

Main reason was to get to warm water port. The strategic location of Afghanistan as a crossroads to East Wets trade was another reason, you would have a wall North to South cutting off India and Pakistan from any land based trade or support and a Russian Naval Base usable in all seasons sitting to threaten sea trade. Pakistan at that time was "friendly" to both China and Russia while Russia was arming the Indians; this put Pakistan between two "enemies" if they ever decided to try to fight India. The Russian troops there walked into a prolonged guerrilla war with forces supported by the United States. Much as the Americans were forced to fight Russian and Chinese armed guerrilla's in Vietnam; the Russian military was not trained for fighting that type action and took heavy losses which caused morale to plummet. The Afghans have a very long history of fighting foreign invaders, the U.S. is having an easier time there because the common Afghans had not loyalty to the Taliban and, maybe more importantly, the U.S. has no history with Afghanistan. The British and Russians have both been historical enemies of the Afghans and neither had success against them in the long term.

Why was Russia in Afghanistan in the 1980's?

It was called the Soviet War . It lasted 10 years.

In keeping with its previous suppression of rival political factions, the Soviets (Of the old Soviet Union as it was called) were likely intending a show of force to prop up the Afghan Communist regime. However, the Afghans decided to fight back and it quickly escalated into a major conflict that continued for 10 years.

Its a very long and complicated conflict. But the Russians (called the Soviet Union , at the time) invaded Afghanistan in an effort to expand their Asian influence and preserve the communist government. They also sought to protect their interests in Afghanistan, mainly oil, from Iran and other nations.

The Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan for a number of reasons. One is because of the expansion of both communism and soviet influence. The government of Afghanistan at the time was prosocialism and pro-communism, it was trying to be allies with the soviets. It was also running into a significant problems as it was trying to implement hard line reforms, so in the end Russia ended up asking the Soviet Union for help. As the soviets provided initial help, their involvement grew until it reached the level of a full scale war.

Why did the soviet union invade Afghanistan in 1979?

The Soviet Union had a long history of being involved trying to influence the politics of countries on their borders. They always wanted a friendly generous buffer zone between them and countries in the West. They have a long history of dealing with invaders, such has the Nazis and Napoleon. There was also Cold War thinking that the Soviets had a bigger plan to eventually try and reach the Indian Ocean through Pakistan.

Politics in Afghanistan became unstable in the 70s and the Soviets saw their chance to install a pro-Soviet government in Kabul. In Afghanistan controlling the cities has never necessarily meant controlling the countryside, and a fundamentalist Islamic rebellion broke out that threatened the Kabul government. This is when the Soviets decided to invade. 10 years later they had enough and left.

BTW: The Islamic forces that came from around the world to help their Islamic brothers fight the infidels in Afghanistan, also included Osama bin Ladin. The organization he created to fight the Russians later became Al Queda, and this is also why he sought refuge there.