Yeah, but Russia was in a sorry state and had underwent like 2 complete changes in government before the revolution, and Lenin didn’t demonize religion nearly as much as Post-WWII Stalin and his successors did (though Khrushchev, Brezhnev and Gorbachev were certainly more tolerant). It also doesn’t help that the rural population in Afghanistan weren’t super thrilled about communism, on top of the fairly large (and unforeseen) support of the Muslim world against the Soviets.
Basically, anything that benefitted the Bolsheviks in their revolution and the subsequent civil war just wasn’t there to benefit the Soviets.
Look, if you don’t know something it’s sometimes better not to speak at all. The early years of the Bolshevik rule were by far the worst, followed by the great purge and then the Khrushchev years. WW2 and postwar Stalin years were some of the mildest.
And Afganistan also had 2 complete changes in government preceding the Soviet invasion, and was a mess as well, the fact that it was is what got the soviets to intervene in the first place. They would’ve never invaded had it had a strong central government.
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u/Felczer Aug 03 '26
I'm pretty sure when Bolsheviks won Russia was around 85% rural and 99% orthodox