The word has Arabic and Persian roots. It spread among the population of Afghanistan during the war. "Shuravi" (translated from Afghan - "Soviet") is the colloquial name of our soldiers among local residents, often used with respectful intonation.
Background of the war
In the spring of 1978, the Afghan “April Revolution” took place, a military coup, as a result of which the authoritarian republican government was ousted by the opposition People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA), oriented in its policy towards the USSR. The world did not last long. At the end of the summer of 1979, the conflict caused by the split in the inter-party ranks escalated so much that the current head of the government, N. M. Taraki, was removed, expelled from the party and arrested. A little later, he "died of unrest," according to Afghan media. The result of the coup was large-scale purges in the environment of the current party. H. Amin, who gained power, aroused serious concerns and doubts in the government of the USSR in choosing the course of development for Afghanistan.
On December 12, 1979, hiding behind the earlier request from H. Amin to support the revolutionary regime, the USSR government sent troops into Afghanistan. H. Amin himself died from a grenade explosion during an assault on a government building. The Soviet media, which had previously positively assessed his activities, changed course and began to write about him as a “henchman of the CIA,” and his entourage was called the “bloody clique”.
The reaction of the people of Afghanistan
Most of the local population did not accept the entry of foreign troops and began to actively provide armed resistance. What is shuravi for a local? Of course, first of all - the enemy. Opponents of socialism and the revolutionary struggle, called “Dushmans,” that is, bandits, fought against our soldiers. The rebels, who controlled most of Afghanistan, received material assistance from the United States. Separate, united only by the idea of a holy war (jihad) Mujahideen (defenders of the faith) through neighboring Pakistan supplied weapons and ammunition, provided material support.
Course of war
The protracted war was a difficult test for the Soviet Union. Our soldiers had absolutely no experience in warfare in the mountains. The armed groups of the Mujahideen, on the contrary, were well oriented on the ground and actively supported by the local population. Helicopters became the most effective weapon, but Mujahideen armed with grenade launchers often shot down them in the daytime, so they had to fly at night. The peak of hostilities occurred in the mid-80s
What is shuravi for the mujahideen? First of all, the goal that should be destroyed. Opposition groups used guerrilla warfare methods: they set up ambushes, terrorist attacks, attacked posts, shelled troops, and mined roads.
Soviet military posts and bases scattered across Afghanistan needed constant supply by road. Attacking military columns has become a favorite means of fighting dushmans. Excellent knowledge of their native land contributed to the use of all the advantages of the highlands. The large military camps deployed by the Afghans at the beginning of the war and vulnerable from the air soon gave way to small camps hiding in the rocks.
A large number of voluntary assistants supplying the rebels with information and food, a deep religious conviction in the fight against the “infidels”, and unpretentiousness made the Afghans a difficult opponent. The word "shuravi" became for them the slogan of the liberation struggle.
Among conscripts there were those who firmly believed that they were truly fulfilling their duty by providing assistance to residents of an illiterate, undeveloped country. Soviet soldiers in Afghanistan, brought up in a socialist spirit, understood that they were fulfilling their duty to the Fatherland, and did it honestly. Together with the military, thousands of peaceful specialists came to work in the country: engineers, builders, doctors. What is “shuravi” for those who went through the Afghan war? Probably his own, the same as they are.
Troop withdrawal
The superpower interests of the USSR did not take into account the fate of individual people. Military operations lasted more than nine years and claimed the lives of almost a million Afghans. The government voiced our losses in the figure of 15 thousand people.
In the middle of the summer of 1987, the new government of Afghanistan proposed to the rebels a peaceful solution to the protracted military conflict. As a result of the agreement signed by the USSR in Geneva, on May 15, 1988, an organized withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan began. Nine months later, on February 15, 1989, the last Soviet armored platoon officially left it. This date entered the history of the Soviet Union as the day of the end of the Afghan war.
Echo of war
After the withdrawal of troops, hundreds of Soviet citizens remained on the land of Afghanistan. Some of them are prisoners of war, some are deserters. Some of them returned to their homeland in the 90s, then they converted to Islam, found a new family and refused to return. There are still volunteer commissions and committees looking for our compatriots in Afghanistan.
Some local residents, peacefully disposed towards Soviet soldiers, now note positive traces of the Soviet military presence in the country. What is shuravi for them? People who brought material and medical assistance to their native land, built strong buildings and paved good roads. People who are still remembered with a kind word.