The Tadzh-Bek palace served as a residence for the Afghan government. But after bringing Soviet troops it became its main headquarters where the Directorate of Intelligence was located.


Approaching Gerat city. A concrete road of great quality paved by Americans. A good highway let Russain military squadrons quickly take control of all the administrative centers, bridges, passes and other key objects.


A reconnaissance company on the road to the Baglansky gorge. At the very beginning of the war a long conduit has been built here to provide Russian troops with diesel oil and aviation kerosene.


The main feature of all recon vehicles was a quadriradiate star within a white circle. All requires were abroad – spare parts, additional units of fire, sleeping bags, blankets, tools and containers with water.


On the road near Samangan province.


The Baluchi beduins, residents of the South provinces, were always quite friendly, though never apart from their arms. They agreed to assist and accompany Russians wherever they wanted, and the best price for their services was arms they loved and appreciated so much.


Special recon arms included shooting knives with several bullets, night and telescopic sights for Kalashnikov assault rifles and silencers for both rifles and pistols.


A rifle-attached grenade launcher has been on hand of the Russian army since 1985.  Antipersonnel grenades were also quite popular.


Special belts and bags served for the rifle-attached grenade launchers carrying. But there was also enough empty space inside them for storing “frog” grenades which exploded and covered the victim with lots of splinters from above.

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A machine gun was also a very popular arm at that time. A troop had to have at least one machine gunner among every 3, 4 soldiers.


The Kalashnikov machine gun (PK) and its modernized version (PKM) usually had cartridge belts with armour piercing and steel core bullets. Carriages for these guns were almost never used because of their heavy weight and inconvenient transportation.


The heavy machine gun “Utes” had a telescopic sniper sight which let the machine gunner shoot at a distance of 2 km. It usually fired in series of 4-6 shots (aimed firing) or 10-15 shots (barrage firing).


The “Utes” with a sniper machine gun sight. Ammunition boxes, loaded with stones, support the carriage.


The cartridge belts with 50 bullets were very often used.


Massive 50 g bullets hit vehicles in caravans, were able to neutralize firing points and maintained its wounding power in a forested area.


In mountain conditions mortars were the only sort of artillery used. The “Podnos” mortars were the most popular among Soviet troops because of their moderately heavy weight.


Ammunition vests with many pockets were an essential attribute of the military fashion of that time. As the USSR didn’t produce them till the very end of the war, soldiers had to either make them themselves or find among the trophies. Such vests usually contained pockets for 3 loading cases, several grenades and a first aid dressing package.


Ghazni helicopter aviators with the commander of the recon company (with a trophy rifle in his hands and a big plastic pistol holster on his thigh).

20200 soldiers and officers served on the sentry outposts and bridges by the end of the first year of the war. Their aim was to control the area, defend and guard the restricted areas around cities, garrisons and magistrals. Pictured: a sentry outpost at the entrance to the Pandzher valley. On the top of the mountain – an observation post, at its foot – a cover for machinery, barracks and a storage.


Every sentry outpost should also have protected 15-20 km of road. But the most difficult thing was to protect the conduit which has always been set off, shot up or simply screwed off by locals who tried to get some free oil. So the most profitable solution of this problem was to pay locals for its safety and sometimes distrubute free oil to them. Pictured: a roadside cluttered with burnt scrap metal.


The shift in a sentry outpost lasted 6 months. Severe conditions, frequent diseases and constant lack of water exhausted soldiers. So they often took dogs and other animals with themselves (sometimes even monkeys) to make the tense atmosphere a little better.


It was helicopters which brought the next shift, food, ammunition and all other requires to the sentry outposts. They also evacuated the wounded, sick, victims of heat and delivered the mail.


A machine gunner in a sentry outpost.


A large-caliber machine gun.


This powerful machine gun fires in short series of several shots.


The ZU-23, an anti-aircraft gun, wasn’t often used in sometimes quite small sentry outposts because of its size.

An officer of the Afghan special forces wearing a Soviet camouflage suit, Pakistani warm jacket, shot belts for Kalashnikov and compulsive for any muslim prayer beads.


A light armor vest consisted of 2 parts joined together by strings. The front part was able to stop a bullet and provided quite good protection while the back part protected only from splinters.


Checking the arms before leaving. Everybody had his own rifle or machine gun adjusted for himself.


All heavy firepower equipment, its ammunition and other things were distributed among the soldiers who, besides that, had to carry their belongings as well.


Landing of the recon detachment.


An armed helicopter fires at the ground targets.


The recon group at the mountain foot. Always staying in the shade, they avoided both sun heat and detection by the enemies.


The mountain outfit was in deficit. Soldiers, spending so much time walking, were often especially in need of shoes.