The Taliban has declared, February 15, the day soviet forces withdrew from Afghanistan, a public holiday.
Thirty-three years ago, on February 15, 1989, the final Soviet soldier crossed the border bridge between Afghanistan and Uzbekistan, concluding the nine-year invasion of Afghanistan that left behind a country in ruins and a long trail of blood.
The Taliban’s commemoration of the soviet’s withdrawal is one of the rare consistency points with the former government as the group continues to erase any legacy of the system that was toppled in 2021.
The founding leaders of the Taliban were part of the same generation of guerrilla fighters who expelled the Red Army and then toppled the Moscow-backed government in 1992.
Of course, they soon found each other on the opposing sides of a bloody civil conflict that continues to engulf Afghanistan for decades. The Red Army entered Afghanistan by land and air in June 1979. However, their presence ignited a popular uprising and armed resistance from the Afghan population, which drove them out after nine years.
