this is from memory, so be patient: in the early 1970's afghanistan was essentially a monarchy. the soviet union, always keen on imperialism, wanted to exploit the region for its vast natural resources. they got their opportunity when a coup effectively ended the rule of the kingship and an afghanni communist party emerged to govern. the "glorious april revolution" of 1978 was possible because of the commies gaining a foothold during the period of modernization between 1954 to 1964. they were allowed to thrive as a party, and grew in numbers, despite their atheism. the communists decided that they could operate independantly of the USSR, and began to break away from their watch. the soviets were not willing to let this commie government go, and invaded in december of 1979. they had the support of the french communist party, and thought of the red army as unbeatable. the war quickly turned ugly, as guerilla wars do, and the reds began using time-tested tactics like villiage liquidations, mass deportations, land-mines, mass murder and assassinations. they even sprinkled brightly colored toys that contained explosives, so that when picked up, they would blow. the CIA began to support the mujahadeen through a complex network that began with the ISI in pakistan, and eventually ended up in afghanistan. US interests in seeing the USSR lose are many and obvious, so i won't get into them. the invasion began under brezhnev's rule, and was inherited by gorbachev - who amazingly (given his record of openness and moderation) stepped up the effort! the world was now horrified, and thought it would be over by then. nevertheless, EVERYONE in afghanistan became a combatant, they fought bravely for their independence, and got it with the soviet withdrawal in february 0f 1989. the cost was: 1.5 million dead, 7 million refugees and a costly civil war that followed immidiately after.