Paper 1 – Communism in Crisis
Lesson 3a – Soviet invasion of Afghanistan (1978-88)
Essential Question
To what extent did the Afghanistan War
lead to the collapse of the Soviet Union?
Learning Outcomes - Students will:
• Preview – War in Afghanistan
• Learn about the Afghan Communist Revolution
• Find out why the USSR sent troops
Success Criteria
• I can explain why the Soviet Union
entered Afghanistan
• War in Afghanistan
• Who is fighting?
• What are the Afghan’s
fighting for?
Preview
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Mohammad Taraki
Mullah
Jihad
Iranian Revolution
Mujahideen
Carter Doctrine
Hafizullah Amin
Vocab
Reading
• SL & HL – Pg. 57~66
(Communism in Crisis)
• SL & HL – Pg. 205~207 (Cold
War)
• HL – Pg. 132~138 (USSR and
Eastern Europe)
• Make sure you are adding to
• Notes
• Essential Question
• IB Math
• Notes only = max 5
• Textbook only = max 5
• Notes + Textbook = 6~7
• Apr 1978 – Communist Revolution in
Afghanistan under Mohammad Taraki
• Ask the USSR for help
• New Government had little popular
support
• Land taken from owners and given to
peasants
• Encouraged women to not wear veils and
went to school
• Soviets objected to the speed of reforms
Afghan
Revolution
• Mullahs objected, along with the
feudal landlords
• Communists were breaking “God’s
Law”
• God has decided who is rich and
poor, man cannot change this
• Would burn down schools and
universities in protest
• Called for a jihad (‘Holy War’)
against the Godless communists
• Muslims from all over the Middle
East went, some walked, to
Afghanistan to join the
Mujahideen (‘Soldiers of God’)
Jihad
• 1979 – Iranian Revolution sees
an overthrow of the Shah and is
replaced by a theocracy
• US lose the most important ally in
the Middle East
• Why is this important for
Afghanistan?
• The US was worried that the
USSR may take over the region
and the oil supply
• Carter Doctrine – if there was a
problem along the Persian Gulf,
the US would intervene
• July 1979 – US begin to send
arms to the Mujahideen via
Pakistan called Operation Cyclone
Context
• The unmotivated Afghan army was losing
badly to the Mujahideen
• Asked for Soviet soldiers but were refused
• The reforms continued
• Sept 1979 – Hafizullah Amin, hearing of a
Soviet plan to oust Taraki, captured and
killed Taraki, making him leader
• Soviets feared Amin as head of the KGB
Andropov believed that he would turn to the
US for help and they would send their troops
• Removing leaders using the military had
worked in Hungary and Czechoslovakia
Afghan seek Help
• Dec ’79 – NATO announced it would
place cruise missiles in Europe to
counter Soviet missile
• Nothing to lose internationally
• Fear of the spread of Islamic
Fundamentalism from Iran
• Secure the Southern Border
Other Factors
Lesson 3b – Soviet invasion of Afghanistan (1978-88)
Essential Question
To what extent did the Afghanistan War
lead to the collapse of the Soviet Union?
Learning Outcomes - Students will:
• Preview – Paper 1 Topic
• Learn about the international reaction to the War in
Afghanistan
• Find out how the Soviets got out
Success Criteria
• I can explain why the Soviet Union
entered Afghanistan
• What is the
message of this
source?
Preview
• Moscow Olympic boycott
• 1988 Geneva agreements
Vocab
Reading
• SL & HL – Pg. 57~66
(Communism in Crisis)
• SL & HL – Pg. 205~207 (Cold
War)
• HL – Pg. 132~138 (USSR and
Eastern Europe)
• Make sure you are adding to
• Notes
• Essential Question
• IB Math
• Notes only = max 5
• Textbook only = max 5
• Notes + Textbook = 6~7
• World response
• US will boycott
1980 Olympics
in Moscow
• (65 countries
total)
• US will stop grain
shipments and
technology to
USSR
• US will increase
arms race spending
• UN condemned the
invasion
International Reaction
Paper 1 2013
• 1982 – Brezhnev dies
• New leader Andropov is for UN peace
plan for leaving Afghanistan
• US did not trust the USSR
• USSR stepped up its bombing and
atrocities in Afghanistan
• Ex. Destroying villages, killing civilians
who refused to join the Afghan army,
some civilians were covered in gas and
set on fire
• Similar atrocities by the Mujahideen as
well
• USSR soldiers turn to drugs and begin to
question the system
• “What are we fighting for?”
• Propaganda couldn’t hide 15,000 dead
Getting Out
Can you find
any similarities
with the
Americans in
Vietnam?
• US rejected peace and
believed they could win
• USSR wanted to “save face”
by having a Soviet friendly
leader
• 1988 Geneva
agreements saw USSR
troops come out, but both
sides continued to support the
civil war
• Increased military aid to the
Mujahideen
Out
• Why did the Soviet’s invade
Afghanistan?
• US Right-wing – Communist
expansionism
• Post-revisionist – threat within the
Soviet ‘sphere of influence’ made
its intervention understandable.
The US took advantage of the
situation and destabilized the
situation further
Historiography Question
• Compare and contrast the views of Source F and G
regarding Soviet military intervention in Afghanistan.