Soviet Forces Research Articles

Large, but Dispersal-Limited Populations of the Marsh Fritillary Euphydryas aurinia Persist on Abandoned Military Training Areas Three Decades After the End of the Cold War.

Military training areas can host important biodiversity, due to the preservation of diverse, nutrient-poor historical cultural landscapes and an insect-friendly disturbance regime. In Europe, many training areas were abandoned after the end of the cold war in 1991 and the withdrawal of the Allied and Soviet forces. Many of these are now protected areas, and current management strategies vary from rewilding to active habitat management such as grazing or mowing. In a capture-release-recapture approach, marking 2418 individuals, we assessed the population size and movement patterns of the dry ecotype of the Marsh Fritillary Euphydryas aurinia Rottemburg 1775 on three former military training areas in Germany that varied in size and management (natural succession, mowing, and sheep-/goat grazing). Euphydryas aurinia is a rare and declining butterfly species listed in Annex II of the European Union Habitats Directive. Jolly-Seber models revealed a large population of ca. 19,000 individuals on the largest study site and a smaller population at a second site, whereas recapture rates were too low to predict the population size reliably at a third site. Population densities were 190-194 butterflies ha-1 at the unmanaged, large site and 56-71 butterflies ha-1 at a smaller site grazed with sheep. Thirty-nine percent of the recapture events occurred within the same 1-ha-study plot. The average minimum flight distance between the study plots was 313 m for males and 328 m for females. The maximum lifetime flight distance was 1237 m within 3 days. No dispersal was detected between study sites. Thirty years after cessation of the military use, the large former training site still held what likely is one of the largest populations of the species dry ecotype in Central Europe, including in areas where management ceased already in 1991. This suggests remarkable persistence of the species in areas without regular management, contrary to current opinion. However, regular flight distances seem not to be sufficient to connect the isolated habitat patches. It remains unknown how long the large population at the abandoned military area will persist without active habitat management. Careful, but active habitat management and restoration of habitat connectivity should thus be considered.

Penal practices of partisans in the Kaunas Region (1944–1952). Part II

Part 1 of this Article analyses campaigns of the partisans in Kaunas county and Kaunas city that took place in 1944-1945. Kaunas county geographically was a midpoint of Lithuania, it bordered the counties of Šakiai, Raseiniai, Kėdainiai, Ukmergė, Trakai (from April 1946 – Kaišiadorys), Alytus and Marijampolė. In 1944 the county consisted of 16 rural districts: Aukštoji Panemunė (164 km2), Babtai (224 km2), Čekiškė (252 km2), Garliava (152 km2), Jonava (418 km2), Kruonis (230 km2), Lapės (115 km2), Pakuonis (122 km2), Pažaislis (71 km2), Raudondvaris (103 km2), Rumšiškės (128 km2), Seredžius (83 km2), Vandžiogala (269 km2), Veliuona (134 km2), Vilkija (152 km2), Zapyškis (117 km2). The territory of this part of the county – 2734 km2. The city of Kaunas is not included, the territory of which – 130 km2. Thus, the entire territory of the county, including the city of Kaunas, occupied 2864 km2. In June 1945, Kaunas county had 24 thousand households and 107 thousand population. In the summer 1945, 86 064 inhabitants lived in Kaunas city. On June the 23rd 1944, the Soviet Army started the Strategic Offensive Operation “Bagration”. During this operation, the German group “Centro” was destroyed. At the beginning of July, Soviet forces – units of the 1st Baltic and 3rd Belorussian Front– invaded the territory of Lithuania. In Kaunas county, the divisions of the 3-rd Belorussian Front were fighting, who reached this county by the end of July. By middle-August, the entire territory of Kaunas county was occupied. The organized partisan warfare against the Soviets in Kaunas county started in November 1944. Already in December it spread throughout the entire county, and Kerinas, who was the head of Kaunas NKVD division, called this phenomenon an uprising against the Soviet authorities. Partisan platoons used to contain up to 100 people, these platoons used to join other groups of partisans. Such platoons used to occupy the centres of rural districts and fight NKVD battalions. In 1944, during campaigns of the partisans, 45 people were killed. NKVD-people, having been intimidated by partisan struggle, organized chekist-military operations, during which they managed to destroy large platoons of partisans, therefore, from the year 1945 on, the partisans changed their tactics and started to use another way of fighting – partisan platoons were divided into groups consisting of 5-10 people and then Soviet repressive bodies encountered difficulties in detecting and destroying platoons of partisans. Mostly, the partisans attacked collaborators with the Soviet authorities, and especially – their military squads. The most famous assault of the partisans in 1945 in Kaunas county, was an attack on Seredžius rural district, during which a military platoon of the collaborators was annihilated totally. In total, during the campaigns of the year 1945, the partisans killed 173 people.

Polish Forced Labourers in the Klaipėda Region during World War II

This paper examines the plight of Polish forced labourers in the Klaipėda region during World War II, shedding light on a lesser-known aspect of Nazi occupation policies. Drawing on a database maintained by the Polish Institute of National Remembrance, the author collected data on nearly 2,000 Polish individuals subjected to forced labour in Klaipėda. Through archival research and analysis of personal testimonies, the study explores the demographics, origins, working conditions, and treatment of these labourers. The occupation of Klaipada by Nazi Germany resulted in the displacement of local populations and the influx of foreign workers to meet wartime labour demands. Polish labourers, predominantly young and from economically disadvantaged regions like Ciechanów, were among those forcibly mobilized. They were subjected to harsh treatment, discriminatory laws, and often found themselves in precarious working and living conditions. The paper highlights the experiences of Polish labourers in various industries, including construction and agriculture, and examines the motivations behind their escapes from forced labour. It also addresses the sensitive issue of sexual violence against female Polish workers, which remains largely overlooked in historiography. The liberation of Klaipėda by Soviet forces in 1945 brought an end to forced labour in the region, but many labourers faced further hardships, including mistreatment by Soviet authorities. The paper concludes with reflections on the post-war reparations process and calls for further research and cross-border cooperation to fully understand the history of forced labour in the Klaipėda region and its lasting impact on affected communities.

Red star over the Baltic: the sovietisation of representative assemblies in Poland's ‘Recovered Territories’ via the ‘three times “Yes”’ referendum of 1946

ABSTRACT Based on Polish-language archive material and personal testimony, this article is a case study concerning the Sovietisation of Poland's representative democratic institutions in its Baltic provinces, a region which witnessed sweeping changes regarding its borders and population as formerly German territory was incorporated into a re-constituted Polish state following the Second World War. Although under-populated and geographically peripheral, these ‘Recovered Territories’ were central to the raison d’être of the post-war Polish state. However, due to a common desire to reclaim these lands for Poland, the Polish communist regime's policies of rapid ‘degermanisation’ and ‘repolonisation’ were supported by both the London-based Polish government-in-exile, as well as the anti-communist underground. Despite the Red Army's looting of the region, the regime engendered the fear of German revanchism among the settlers to justify its ‘protection’ by Soviet forces and gain political support in new local ‘democratic’ assemblies. This article uses official, semi-official and ‘unofficial’ primary material sources aiming to show that, although the ‘Three Times ‘‘Yes’” referendum of 1946 was held at a national level with aim of assessing the true level of support for communism in Poland, in the Recovered Territories it was employed as a propaganda campaign aimed at creating Homo Sovieticus, a new society and Soviet-dominated ‘representative’ institutions.

Mitte ainult mängu asi

Doll Lottchen is an example of a museum object that has changed its nature and functions throughout its lifespan, so it can be described as a toy and as a comfort object, but also as a symbolic item of personal childhood and national identity, and a delicate museum object with restrictions in use. Doll Lottchen belonged to Anne, who was given it as a gift in 1947, during a film shooting in Saint Petersburg (then Leningrad) by the host of a local family, when she was four years old. She found the little smiling doll lovely and called her Lottchen. Anne believed that the doll was produced in Germany and was probably taken as a trophy by some Soviet soldier at the end of the Second World War, but the moulded mark shows that the doll was made in Okhta factory in Russia. Its origin is still unclear as Rheinische Gummi- und Celluloidfabrik in Germany indeed launched a similar doll called Mädi between 1930 and 1957. The Okhta factory used German moulds in the 1930s and 1940s. Sometimes detecting the history of the previous usage of a museum object needs effort and time; for Lottchen the material was collected within eight months of communication with the donator. As Lottchen was an affective object or sensitive object (Frykman and Frykman) there are various memories about it. Anne describes three dramatic episodes from her childhood, during which the doll was either temporarily lost or broken by a dog. At the age of ten the life story of Anne and the story of her favourite doll intersected. Accidentally Anne learned from a tipsy neighbour that she was actually a “German girl”. During two years, when she kept this shocking information a secret and made a new costume for the doll, her doll Lottchen acquired a new meaning. When Anne became 12, it was revealed that she had been rescued by her Estonian stepmother from Königsberg in 1946. By then the city had been destroyed by the allies and occupied by the Soviet forces; thousands of civilians had died of diseases and starvation. Anne was three and a half, her biological family had lost the father and two other children, and little Roswitha Anne Browarzyck (her actual name) was very fragile, with her feet swollen from hunger. Miraculously escaped to Estonia with her future stepmother, she had to hide her East-Prussian origin and was not allowed to speak German. So she quickly forgot her real identity. When finally donating the doll to the museum, Anne sent her off with the following words of farewell: “May you, dear Lottchen, have many good friends and excitement on every day at the toy museum! Maybe I’ll come to see you sometime! Hugs, your Rose (that’s how I was called at home).” As toy museums tend to be places of childhood nostalgy and the Tartu Toy Museum is no exception, there are some dilemmas about dealing with this kind of objects. As they are made of hazardous and fragile celluloid, the best way to preserve them is to keep them in controlled conditions in the repository. Today doll Lottchen is kept this way. However, as a modern museum would like to exhibit its items and share its collections with visitors, there are ethical questions of how to organise it. It is argued whether the happy-faced doll could be displayed in a showcase together with other celluloid dolls without any explanations, to follow the toy museum’s current policy to keep any war themes or sensitive topics of children’s life as silent as possible. Or should toy museums take a more active part in highlighting uneasy topics and white spots in history? Today the world is dangerous and the ongoing war in Ukraine raises questions about war, forcing parents to find ways to answer them. By means of historical stories about toys and children to whom they belonged, museums could contribute to this task. It seems that the best way could be to conduct visitor´s research among children and adults both through surveys and observations. In this way it could be possible to find out what is preferred and whether and how to deal with difficult topics through temporary exhibitions, events or museum education.

Touring Communist Poland: British Defence Attachés in Search of Secrets, 1980–1987

This article explores problems of collecting intelligence in Poland by British defence attachés. In the 1980s, the last decade of the Cold War, tours of Poland by the British defence attaché staff turned out to be an essential method of collecting military intelligence about the Polish Army and Soviet forces in Poland. Annual reports of British attachés in Warsaw were declassified for every year of the 1980s except 1988 and 1989. Most of their content was made available, with the exception of some parts related to equipment and coordination of tours with North Atlantic Treaty Organization partners. The reports provided a detailed picture of the British Section’s knowledge about the Polish armed forces whose military capabilities it sought to assess.

The exile returns as conquering soldier: Collisions of past and future in Konrad Wolf’s Ich war neunzehn and Axel Corti’s Welcome in Vienna

A young exile from fascist Germany returns to his homeland with the conquering army in 1945 and must grapple with questions of identity, belonging, conscience and ideology. This is the premise of both Konrad Wolf’s East German film Ich war neunzehn (1968) and Axel Corti’s Austrian production Welcome in Vienna (1986). The differences between the two films are, however, striking. Wolf’s protagonist Gregor returns with the Soviet forces, while Corti’s Freddy is an American GI; however this is merely the starting point. This article probes the narratives as well as the production and reception contexts that determine this stark contrast and examines the two films in terms of aesthetics, national politics and as ideological statements by their directors and documents of the Cold War.

Interese defensive româno-germane în bazinul de vest al Mării Negre (1943)

After the Battle of Stalingrad, Soviet forces moved towards the Sea of Azov and the Crimean Peninsula. Therefore, the German forces in the Black Sea devised plans to strengthen defensive capabilities. Among other things, the German 4th Air Fleet ordered the 8th Air Corps to plan the protection of convoys in the western Black Sea and the prevention of Soviet landings on the coasts. The new plans also included the participation of secondary allies – Romania and Bulgaria – with various air units. During March-May 1943, German-Romanian discussions and negotiations took place to materialize air collaboration in the west of the Black Sea. Finally, it was decided that Romania would participate with seven squadrons in the joint effort, especially in the Crimean Peninsula. The Romanian pilots remained in Crimea until April 1944, when they were evacuated to Romania.

Saga of Love under the Hail of Fire

This short story is excerpted from a memoir entitled Raha Dar Bad (Los Angeles: Ketab Corp., 2012), written by Soraya Baha. Ms. Baha was the sister-in-law of Mohammad Najibullah (1947–1996) who served as president of Afghanistan from 1986–1992. Najibullah became head of the secret police when the Soviet Union occupied Afghanistan in the December 1979. He was infamous for his brutality and ruthlessness. He became president of the country when the Soviet forces withdrew in 1989, and his widely despised government was considered a puppet regime of the Soviets. Ms. Baha was against the Soviet occupation, as well as the dictatorship of Najibullah. She ran away with her husband and their two children, Khaled, and Roya, and joined the war front in northern Afghanistan (Panjshir), where the famous partisan commander Ahmad-Shah Masoud had stationed his mujahedin forces. Masoud was fighting the Russians and led the largest war front in the mountains and valleys of Panjshir. Soraya Baha stayed there for some time in a small cabin with her two children. She later wrote her memoir and included this experience. The excerpted story below is based on true events that the author personally witnessed while in Panjshir.

SOVYETLER BİRLİĞİ’NİN ÇEKOSLOVAKYA’YA MÜDAHALESİNİN TÜRK KAMUOYUNDA DEĞERLENDİRİLMESİ

When the Second World War ended, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), established dominance over the region in all its dimensions by establishing satellite governments in the East of Europe that coincided exactly with its own system in political, economic, and social terms. The Eastern European countries, which had come under the full control of the USSR, began to take steps towards producing relatively more independent policies since the 1960s. Since January 1968, Czechoslovakia, under the leadership of Alexander Dubcek, the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (CPC), also moved towards socialism in a more original way in accordance with its own social dynamics. It started a reform initiative called the “Prague Spring”. After Dubcek’s insistence on reform, the Warsaw Pact countries, except Romania, intervened militarily in Czechoslovakia under the leadership of the USSR. The CPC leadership decided not to resist this invasion carried out by the countries affiliated with the Warsaw Pact. Soviet forces going into Prague arrested CPC General Secretary Dubcek and Prime Minister Cernik and took them to Moscow. After the “normalization” talks between the parties in Moscow, although CPC General Secretary Dubcek said that they would not back down from the idea of “socialism, humanism, and national independence”, he ultimately agreed to act in accordance with the demands of the USSR. Turkish Political thought, following the developments in Czechoslovakia. In this study, based on the prominent newspapers and magazines of the period such as Akşam, Ant, Cumhuriyet, Milliyet, Ulus, and the Turkish Left, it was aimed to examine the reflections of the events experienced in Czechoslovakia in August 1968 on Turkey’s public opinion.

The Policing of Berlin as a Post-Conflict City

The essay explores the difficult transition from war to peace in the defeated capital of Hitler’s Third Reich. Not only did Soviet forces exact terrible revenge on the civilian population, but conditions of desperation and hunger led to a spike in blackmarket activity and crime. The Unconditional Surrender, ratified by Potsdam, set up a significant imbalance of power between the occupiers and the occupied. Amid conditions of continued hunger, in the sheets as well as on the streets, such a blatant asymmetry encouraged exploitation and immorality. As a wounded and postconflict city, Berlin posed special problems for the police authorities. With many policemen having tainted themselves through participation in illegitimate oppression and war crimes, policing had to be begun again from scratch. Although the Allies had lofty ideals of how to reform policing (reflecting their national traditions, but also progressive ideas about the employment of women), their lack of unity, together with the scale of the practical difficulties the city faced, meant that such reforms became watered down and ineffectual. The former capital’s need to regenerate and heal was sacrificed to the needs of the cold war. Women and antiNazis were increasingly marginalized, while former Gestapo men found favour.

A Holocaust Paragon of Virtue’s Rise to Fame

Abstract During the summer of 1940, Sugihara Chiune (1900–1986), the Japanese consul in Lithuania, issued transit visas to several thousand Polish-citizen refugees, mostly Jews. His willingness to do so was instrumental in their departure overseas shortly after the country was taken over by Soviet forces. Almost a year later, as Operation Barbarossa unfolded, the Jewish community in Lithuania, along with the remaining refugees, was brutally annihilated. Decades later, the Israeli state memorial Yad Vashem conferred the title of Righteous Among the Nations on Sugihara, thereby initiating his commemoration as a Holocaust rescuer. Today, Sugihara has become a national hero in Japan and is considered a paragon of virtue in a number of other countries too. This article examines the way Sugihara was transformed from a completely unknown figure into a world-famous symbol of Holocaust-era heroism. It focuses on the transnational mechanisms that facilitated this transformation as well as on the divergent but often also complementary motives in three of the countries most involved in the commemoration: Japan, Israel, and Lithuania. By so doing, this article seeks to uncover the theoretical underpinning of heroism and its memory and the way they are manipulated across cultures.

Russian Reassertion in Afghanistan: Implications of the Doha Peace Agreement 2020

The research aims to explore the causes of Russian reassertion in Afghanistan and delves into its impact on the peace process. Russia has a deep-rooted history in Afghanistan. At the peak of its power, it sent troops to Kabul to protect the communist regime but faced strong resistance from the Afghan people. The Soviet- backed Afghan regime and the Soviet forces tried to control the insurgency for ten years; eventually, it had to pull back all troops from Afghanistan. The extended engagement in Kabul worsened internal conditions in Russia which attempted to prevent them from the Afghan scenario. During the brief period of the government of Mujahedeen and later, under the rule of the Taliban*, it was concerned by the rise of Islamic militancy in Afghanistan that emerged as a peril for Russia and the Central Asian states where Moscow aspired to maintain a soft influence. The 9/11 incident transformed the political approach of the world community. The paper analyses the reasons for Russian support of the US in the war against terrorism, and Russian coordination with Central Asian states to facilitate the US in utilizing military bases of the former Soviet Union for the first time. Russia re-opened its embassy in Kabul in 2007. After two years, it endorsed a new strategy of the US President in Afghanistan based upon a troop surge, a withdrawal plan, and reconciliation with the moderate Taliban*. Russia also formed a multi-dimensional policy towards Afghanistan. Kremlin developed ties with the Afghan government as well as diplomatic engagement with the Taliban*. A hypothesis is made that due to the assertive Russian role in Afghanistan, the US had to speed up the peace process which resulted in the withdrawal of all foreign troops from Afghanistan.

Research About the Policy of Soviet Government Toward Kurdish Mahabad Republic

The study of the history of Kurdish Mahabad Republic is considered one of the studies and topics which got the interest of writers and rescarchers, particularly the part which is aloowt the saviet Government policy to ward the establishment this fresh Repulic and them its role in ending it (declining). In accordance with its importance, we will shed same light on this important topic of the contemporary history of kurds. The experience of Kurdish Mahabad history is considered one of the most important and unique of the history of kurds. They succeeded in establishing an independent Rebublic in Kurdistan of Iran. But the policy of the colonialism state toward this republic played aralr in declining it, Particulary, the policy of Soviet Union which has an effective impact toward kurds and its question. Thin report consists of three sections. The first one is about the occupation of the Soviet forces of the Kurdistan of Iran and its policy toward kurds unit the establishment of Mahabad Republic, whereas we mentioned in the second section the role of Soviet Union in Establishing the Kurdish Mahabad Repulic which has a great role in letting kurds and the judge Mohammad in announcing the dependence of Mahabad in 1946. The third and the last section tackles the details concerning the Soviet role in declining Mahabad Republic.  This section shows the torturing, suffering, practicing pressure on kurds throughout its long history by the colonialists’ states. After Soviets goving a chance to establish this Republic, it withdrew from thin care when it got a treaty from Iranian Government abaut oil.  So, the young republic was eliminated.

Shaping Destinies

By December 1958, Canada had admitted almost 38,000 Hungarian refugees, forced to flee their country after Soviet forces crushed the October 1956 uprising. A rich historiography has examined this migration from a range of perspectives, but an analysis of women’s actions and attitudes represents an uncharted approach. Archival research reveals that Canadian women expressed opinions and took on a variety of roles related to the refugee movement. Examining those opinions and roles not only offers a novel perspective on Canada’s response to the refugee crisis, but it also provides insights into the evolving roles of women in Canadian society. The weight of intersectionality often muted the voices of women of Hungarian origin, both Canadians and refugees. Yet, refugee women were accorded a symbolic power that played its own role in the movement, and they found ways to exercise their agency to achieve their desired admission and settlement outcomes. (ST)

Nazi Conspirator, Russian Patriot: Judging General Andrei Vlasov

Lieutenant General A.A. Vlasov was an infamous, high-ranking Soviet defector during the Second World War. After his capture by German soldiers in 1942, Vlasov featured heavily in anti-Soviet German propaganda and organized anti-Soviet resistance in German-occupied territories. He was recaptured by Soviet forces in May 1945 and executed as a traitor in August 1946. Vlasov’s story challenged crucial Soviet narratives about the war and posed a threat to Soviet solidarity and stability in its aftermath. His case was rarely acknowledged among Soviet historians, only resurfacing after its collapse in a wave of nationalistic works that sympathized with Vlasov as a patriot and martyr of Stalinist repression. In the West, numerous political and practical factors since the 1950s have left scholars split on the truth of Vlasov’s intentions, beliefs, and historical impact. His story remains controversial in Russian academia; attempts to rehabilitate Vlasov have been suppressed by the Putin regime. This paper utilizes German and Soviet primary sources from recently declassified Russian state archives, as well as Western, Soviet, and Russian historiographic works from the 1950s to today. This paper demonstrates that Vlasov was intensely preoccupied with how he would be perceived by history; in this pursuit, he actively curated a vague, inconclusive record of his wartime experience. It also assesses why Vlasov’s case presents a unique challenge to historians and remains highly controversial in academic and political discourse under the Putin regime.

Семиотические аспекты афганских татуировок

This article presents a semiotic analysis of Afghan tattoos done by Soviet soldiers in memory of their service in Afghanistan, when the Limited Contingent of Soviet Forces was deployed there (1979– 1989). As the material the author used photos of tattoos posted on six thematic websites. These tattoos were compared with similar sailor, prison and foreign military tattoos. The research found an essential difference between Afghan and prison tattoos and a strong influence of Western tattoo art on the former. At the same time, Afghan tattoos have unique forms of visual representation of the Soviet– Afghan War, which consist in using Islamic calendar, Arabic script, images of Soviet military vehicles and numerous Afghan toponyms. Interestingly, Afghan tattoos contain no official Soviet (hammer and sickle) or Eastern Orthodox (cross, angel, church, icon) symbols. Instead, we can see various animalistic images (eagle, tiger, wolf) and regimental identity insignia. Standing out among unofficial Soviet symbols represented in Afghan tattoos is the image of an eternal flame. Additionally, the research identified different modalities of perception of this war in tattoo art and Soviet/Russian cinematography: as a rule, films demonstrate the fatality of the Soviet–Afghan War, while in soldiers’ tattoos we observe a pronounced commemorative aspect and pride in their service in Afghanistan. On the whole, Afghan tattoos are an important cultural projection for understanding Soviet spiritual culture.

THE POSITION OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA ON THE POLITICAL DEVELOPMENTS IN IRAN (1939-1955)

The features of Iran’s importance in the American strategy emerged during the first stage of World War II, after Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet lands and turned it into an important transit point for weapons, materiel, foodstuffs and logistical support from the allies of the Soviet Union. Thus, the latter, along with Britain, had to issue more than one warning to the government of Reza Shah Pahlavi in order to expel the Germans on Iranian soil. When the Shah refused the Soviet-British warnings, he was removed from the throne and his son was installed in his stead. The British and Soviet forces occupied large areas of Iran, and the American war effort joined them to make Iran one of the countries under foreign occupation. and by virtue of its importance, a conference was held in it Known as the (Tehran) Conference in 1943 which attended by the leaders of the United States of America, represented by President Franklin Roosevelt, President of the Soviet Union Joseph Stalin, and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. Key words:

The Soviet Union And Afghanistan Relations, 1919-1945

Bu çalışmanın amacı 1919-1945 yılları arasında kalan dönemde Afganistan-Sovyetler Birliği arasındaki ikili ilişkilerini ve bu ilişkinin her iki tarafa olan etkilerini incelemektir. Çarlık Rusyası Afganistan’la hep ilgilenmiştir. Çarlık Rusyası’nın bu ilgisi halefi ve mirasçısı olan Sovyetler Birliği tarafından da devam ettirilmiştir. Sovyetler Birliği’nin kuruluşunun ilk yıllarında iktidarda olan Bolşevikler uluslararası siyaset ve dış politikaya da ideolojik bir bakış açısıyla yaklaşmış ve dünya genelinde bir devrim beklentisi içinde hareket etmiştir. Fakat bu durumun bazı istisnaları olmuştur. Bunlardan biri de Afganistan’la olan ilişkilerdir. Sovyetler ilk yıllarında sınır komşuları olan ve siyasi, sosyal, ekonomik şartların uygun olduğu Afganistan’da bir devrimi teşvik etmek yerine normal bir ikili ilişki tesisini daha uygun bulmuştur. Hatta Sovyetler, bu dönemde ülkede uygulamaya çalıştığı modernleşme programı nedeniyle, bir isyanla karşı karşıya olan otoriter eğilimli Afgan Kralı Emanullah Han’ı, tüm iddiaları ve söylemleri ile çelişmek pahasına desteklemiştir. Çünkü Sovyet çıkarları açısından o dönemde ihtiyaç duyulan, devrim ihraç edilmiş istikrasız, iç karışıklıklarla mücadele eden bir Afganistan değil, yönetimi otoriter de olsa Sovyetlerle işbirliği yapabilecek bir Afganistan’dır. Bunun da en önemli sebeplerinden birisi Afganistan’da barınan ve Sovyet Orta Asyası’nı istikrarsızlaştıran Basmacılardır. İsyanın bastırılabilmesi için Afganistan’daki ikmal ve lojistik imkânlarının ellerinden alınması olmazsa olmaz bir zorunluluk olmuştur. Keza Afganistan’ın 19. yüzyılda da olduğu gibi, tampon bölge olarak kalması stratejik açıdan uygun görülmüştür. Bu sayede İngiliz ve Sovyet güçleri doğrudan karşı karşıya gelmeyecektir. Bu yüzden Sovyetler Afganistan’ı kontrol edebilmek adına içişlerine müdahil olma seçeneğini 1979 yılındaki işgale kadar ertelemiştir.

Pak Afghan Border Problems and its Inferences on Pushtoon Both Sides Residents

It is widely accepted that Pakistan is situated at a very important strategic location on world map. Russia, China and Central Asian countries in north, Middle east in south west and far east countries in east of Pakistan makes this country strategically very important among world nations. Because of its valuable strategic location, most importantly its sea connection to the central Asian states, China and Russia which connects trade, oil and gas routs to the rest of the world through warm waters increases the importance of the country at no-match level. As every big fortune brings a trouble, this strategic importance brings a lot of troubles for the country. After world war II, Soviet Union needed to access warm waters for its uninterrupted connectivity with the world through sea routs. For that Soviets need a good sea port, the options they had were limited. Either they would connect through Chabahar port, Iran or either they would touch Baluchistan region of Pakistan. Comparatively, they found Pakistan an easy target aimed their invasion to Afghanistan as their direct neighbor and Pakistan as a weak state and a sandwich between India and Russia through Afghanistan. Besides this scenario, since the foundation of Pakistan, mismanagement at Pakistan Afghanistan border has been a reason of conflicts. A well secure and managed border can bring stability in economic and security situation of the region. After Soviet invasion, federally administered tribal areas (FATA) became the heaven of militant groups and the symbol of resistance against Soviet forces. Since that time, cross border movement of militant groups is a huge security concern for both countries. Available data also suggests that Pakistan has suffered huge economic and security costs because of the mismanagement of its western border with Afghanistan. In order to maintain peace and stability in the region, Pakistan has proposed and started construction of fences and infrastructure in 2016 including gateways for trade and cross border activities of complex socio-economic tribal system on the both sides of Pak-Afghanistan border. These steps significantly reduced cross border terrorist activities.