Aghanistan, a contemporary history

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Author: David Yuri

Afghanistan's contemporary history is very much influenced by the county's relations with its northern neighbor, Russia or the Soviet Union until 1991. This period is characterized by different phases of this relationship that has ended with the Red Army's invasion in 1979.

After King Amanullah proclaimed the country's independence in 1919 he sent a delegation in all European and Asian countries in order to set up diplomatic relations. The Afghan delegation first stopped in Moscow in October 1919, where it was very friendly received by the leaders of the new regime. This represented Moscow's first diplomatic relation after the 1917 revolution, thus Afghanistan was the first country ever to recognize the new Bolshevik regime. In their turn the Russians entirely recognized the Afghan independence and completely supported their struggle against the British imperialism. This event has established some sort of special relationship between the two neighbor countries. This Afghani-Soviet diplomatic relations lasted for 60 years with ups and downs until the Red Army invaded Afghanistan in December 1979. These 60 years of diplomatic relations can be divided into three major phases. First Phase The first phase is considered to have lasted ten years between 1919 and 1929 and it was quite amicable. As Afghanistan has broken all relations with Great Britain it reached for support from the Soviet Union, thus a lot of the Afghan industry was now invaded by Soviet technicians who begun to instruct the workers here. The country's military forces were also trained by the Soviets. Afghanistan was also a very important market for the Soviet goods as it had been till then monopolized by the British. Obviously, this situation did not look good at all for the British eye mainly because the Bolshevik propaganda started to gain interest in India too. King Amanullah has started implementing a set of reforms that were modeled along the Turkish lines that did not completely fit the situation in Afghanistan, thus it raised a lot of rioting especially concerning religion and tribal matters. All this ended with the fall of the reformer monarc and the establishment of a new regime that was in favor of the British policy.

Second Phase The new leader in 1929 was Nader Shah and his accession represents the beginning of a new phase of the Afghani-Soviet diplomacy. This period lasted until 1973 and the first years were characterized by poor relations with the USSR, the diplomatic relations and commercials exchanges being of no significance. After WWII, the British withdrawn from India had a political vacuum effect for Afghanistan. The Afghan leaders have sought for support from the USA, in order to obtain support in the economical and technical fields. Thus, the government offered great opportunities for American companies that decided to develop the unproductive areas in Afghanistan's southern areas. However, the US was suspicious at that time about Afghanistan's strategic and economical importance and even though the "cold war" was beginning the Americans leaders did not have a friendly look on Afghanistan's situation as they were supporting Pakistan a country with which the Afghan government had a few political disputes concerning the tribes living at the frontier of the two countries.

Third Phase The Afghan government made a last try to convince the Americans as Prince Daoud met vice-president Nixon at Kabul in 1953. Here, the Americans demanded that Afghanistan should join the Baghdad Pact and abandon their neutrality. The Afghani refused and thus the third phase in the Afghani-Soviet relations started. The post-Stalin regime in Moscow was eager to attract Afghanistan on their side and I order to assure them of their support their granted them with a $100 million loan. In 1964 Doud annulled the democratic constitution and established a revolutionary regime against communists. He and his family was murdered in 1978 and a Marxist government was established. Continuous revolutionary violence has determined the Red Army's invasion in December 1979.

About the Author
Afghanistan diplomatic relations with the Soviets have been quite turbulent and the Afghan government has sought for support in this direction several times until the Soviet invasion in 1979.