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PaperclipPerfector  7d ago (text post)   26017 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of December 30, 2024

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there was a major opportunity to actually do some real feminism, to actually reshape Afghan culture to make it more liberal, and it just didn't happen. I'm not sure how much it was even attempted.

The Soviet-installed government had originally tried this back in the 1970s. From Wikipedia

Once in power, the PDPA implemented a socialist agenda. It moved to promote state atheism.[5] Men were obliged to cut beards, women were banned from wearing the burqa, and mosques were placed off limits. The government of the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan moved to prohibit traditional practices which were deemed feudal in nature, including banning bride price and forced marriage. The minimum age for marriage was also raised. Education was stressed for both men and women and widespread literacy programmes were set up.

...

Between April 1978 and the Soviet invasion of December 1979, Afghan Communists executed an estimated 27,000 political prisoners at Pul-i-Charki prison six miles east of Kabul. Many of the victims were village mullahs and headmen who were obstructing the modernization and secularization of the intensely religious Afghan countryside.

...

The Soviet Union, which had initially supported the PDPA government, became increasingly concerned about the scale of violence and the destabilizing effects of these repressive measures. Soviet leaders were particularly alarmed by the PDPA’s brutal tactics, which they feared would alienate the Afghan populace and strengthen the insurgency.

To be clear, the attempts to repress the reactionary violence against modernization was brutal enough that even the freaking Soviets thought it was too much.

The Soviet backed government lasted much longer than the American backed government did, the Soviet puppet survived Soviet withdrawal and actually outlasted the Soviet Union itself, albeit only by a few months.

Meanwhile the American backed government disintegrated before the US even completed its withdrawal.

Between April 1978 and the Soviet invasion of December 1979, Afghan Communists executed an estimated 27,000 political prisoners at Pul-i-Charki prison six miles east of Kabul. Many of the victims were village mullahs and headmen who were obstructing the modernization and secularization of the intensely religious Afghan countryside.

You cut off "Some claim that" from the begining of the sentence, and the only source is a book by an American journalist written twenty years after the event is said to have taken place. Far from me being some Soviet fan, but a mass murder of such enormity requires a bit more evidence.

even the freaking Soviets thought it was too much.

"The freaking Soviets" would go on to enact Loudness, Perestroika, and agree to dissolve in just a couple of years. The stereotype of ruthless invaders, who destroy everything and anyone whom they see as a threat, is based on Stalin, not every General Secretary. Hard to imagine Gorby ordering the Katyn Executions.

I do wonder how the Soviets of the latter-era Union felt about these kinds of extreme measures compared to the Soviets of Lenin and Stalin. This was the era of the Gerontocracy, men like Andropov were most likely alive to witness Stalin's regime. Then again, perhaps the gerontocrats were soft by comparison precisely because they were alive to witness Stalin's regime.

"The freaking Soviets" would go on to enact Loudness

Incorrect, Loudness was a Japanese project.

The Soviet experience (and practices) in Afghanistan have always been my go-to thought when someone makes an argument about how the US could have won Afghanistan if it had just been willing to be tougher.

Say what you will about the Soviet intervention, but a lack of brutality was not the issue.

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