The Soviet-Afghan War

The Soviet Union’s decade-long incursion into Afghanistan has been compared to the American experience in Vietnam. Both wars bore some surface similarities to each other, though closer examination reveals a multitude of differences behind the circumstances that brought them about, the relative commitment both great powers had to these conflicts, and the motivations for their involvement in the first place.

The generation of Soviet veterans who emerged from this conflict were called the “Afgantsy,” and would later serve in Chechnya and Georgia. Thousands of them are fighting currently, on both sides, in the war in Ukraine. It is my hope that this wargame brings some small recognition to this war, which is a conflict that regrettably exists outside of the American body of knowledge.