Soviet Project of Nation-State-Building in Afghanistan
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21638/spbu13.2022.201Abstract
The article examines the Soviet Union’s policy in Afghanistan during the period of its military presence there (1979–1989) as a set of measures corresponding to the modern interpretation of the concepts of nation-building and state-building. It also analyzes modern theories of nation- and state-building and highlights their main trends, forms, and problems. The author also proposes a unique approach that combines these two concepts as “nation-state-building” in relation to the Soviet project in Afghanistan. The article elaborates on the main tasks of the Soviet policy in the 1980s in Afghanistan as well as their implementation and results. Due to the combination of “nation-building” and “state-building” concepts in a complex structure of “nation-state-building”, the article draws conclusions, first, about the applicability of this approach to the specific Soviet project of state-building in Afghanistan, and, second, about the complexity of the project itself, which included ideological, political, economic, and military components. On the basis of archive documents, memoirs of military and diplomatic actors, and a wide scope of academic research, the author substantiates the idea of large-scale tasks of nation-state-building in Afghanistan in Soviet foreign policy, and also indicates that the implementation of the project encountered great difficulties from the unfolding civil war to the inability of the Afghan leaders to consolidate the political life of the country. Soviet leadership quickly realized the unreadiness of the Afghan society for the proposed systemic social transformations. Despite the fact that the goals of the Soviet project were not achieved, this does not diminish its scale and historical significance.
Keywords:
Afghanistan, nation-building, state-building, USSR, economic assistance, Soviet foreign policy.
Downloads
Download data is not yet available.
References
Robinson P. Russian Lessons: We aren’t the first to try nation-building in Afghanistan. The American Conservative. August 2009, pp. 30–32.
Kalinovsky A. The Blind Leading the Blind: Soviet Advisors, Counter-Insurgency and Nation-Building in Afghanistan. CWIHP. Working paper, No. 60, January 2010, pp. 1–29.
Brief Report on the work of the group of advisers of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the USSR in Afghanistan. Russian State Archive of Social and Political History (RGASPI), fund 797, inventory 1, file 31, pp. 98–130. (In Russian)
Nabat M. M. The USSR’s Economic Assistance Strategy to Afghanistan on the Threshold of the SovietTroops’ Withdrawal. Vestnik of Saint Petersburg University. Asian and African Studies, 2018, vol. 10, issue 1, pp. 118–132. https://doi.org/10.21638/11701/spbu13.2018.110
Minkov A., Smolynec G. 4-D Soviet Style: Defense, Development, Diplomacy, and Disengagement in Afghanistan during the Soviet Period. Part I: State-Building. Journal of Slavic Military Studies, 2010, no. 23, pp. 306–327.
Kipping M. Two Interventions: Comparing Soviet and US-led State-building in Afghanistan. The Afghanistan Analysts Network (AAN), Thematic Report, January 2010. Аvailable at: http://aan-afghanistan.com/uploads/AAN_Two_Interventions.pdf (accessed: 12.11.2020).
Pinjugina E. V. Afghanistan: How to Create a Modern State? Pp. 143–162. Available at: https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/afganistan-kak-sozdat-sovremennoe-gosudarstvo/viewer (accessed: 30.09.2021). (In Russian)
von Bogdandy A., Haubler S., Hanschmann F., Utz R. State-Building, Nation-Building, and Constitutional Politics in Post-Conflict Situations: Conceptual Clarifications and an Appraisal of Different Approaches. In A. von Bogdandy and R. Wolfrum (ed.), Max Planck Yearbook of United Nations Law, vol. 9, 2005, pp. 579–613.
Hess S. Coming to terms with neopatrimonialism: Soviet and American nation-building projects in Afghanistan. Central Asian Survey, vol. 29, no. 2, June 2010, pp. 171–187.
Tilly Ch. Coercion, Capital, and European States, AD 990–1990. Cambridge, Mass.: B. Blackwell, 1990.
Bendix R. Nation Building and Citizenship. New York: Wiley, 1964.
Deutsch K. W. Nationalism and its alternatives. New York, Knopf, 1969.
Parsons T. Structure and Process in Modern Societies. Glencoe: The Free Press, 1960.
Lipset S. M. Political Man: the Social Bases of Politics. New York: Doubleday, 1960.
Almond G. A., Sidney V. The Civic Culture: Political Attitudes and Democracy in Five Nations. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1963.
Rostow W. W. Politics and the Stages of Growth, Cambridge University Press, 1971.
Huntington S. P. Political Order in Changing Societies. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1968.
Marx K. The Capital, vol. 1–3, 1867–1894. (In Russian)
Sombart W. The Modern Capitalism, vol. 1–2, Moscow, 1903–1905, vol. 3, Moscow-Leningrad, 1930. (In Russian)
Schumpeter J. A. Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy. New York: Harper & Row, 1942.
Braudel F. Civilization and Capitalism, 15th–18th Century, vol. 1–3, 1979.
Wallerstein I. The Modern World-System, vol. I–IV. San Francisco: Univ. of California Press, 2011.
Dobbins J., Seth G. J., Keith C., Beth Cole DeGrasse. The Beginner’s Guide to Nation-Building. Santa Monica: Rand, 2007, pp. 330.
Dobbins J., McGlinn J. G., Crane K., Jones S. G., Lal R., Rathmell A., Swanger R., Timilsina A. America’s Role in Nation-Building: From Germany to Iraq. Santa Monica: Rand, 2003, pp. 281.
Monten J. Intervention and State-Building: Comparative Lessons from Japan, Iraq, and Afghanistan. ANNALS, AAPSS, vol. 656, November, 2014, pp. 173–191. Available at: https://osce-academy.net/upload/Policy_briefs/Policy_Brief_9.pdf (accessed: 14.10.2021).
Berger M. T. From Nation-Building to State-Building: The Geopolitics of Development, the Nation State System and the Changing Global Order. Third World Quarterly, 2006, vol. 27, no. 1, pp. 5–25.
Francis F. State-Building: Governance and World Order in the Twenty-First Century, Profile books, 2005, 186 p.
Bremmer I. Nation- and State-Building in Eurasia. Georgetown Journal of International Affairs, Winter/Spring 2003, vol. 4, no. 1 (Winter/Spring, 2003), pp. 29–37.
Grotenhuis R. Nation-Building as Necessary Effort in Fragile States. Amsterdam University Press, 2016, pp. 201.
Maley W. Statebuilding in Afghanistan: challenges and pathologies. Central Asian Survey, 2013, vol. 32, no. 3, pp. 255–270.
Elham G. Afghanistan: State, Boundaries, and the Threats of Perpetual Conflict/. OSCE Academy, Bishkek, 2012. Available at: https://osce-academy.net/upload/Policy_briefs/Policy_Brief_9.pdf (accessed: 31.10.2021).
Communist Party. 24th Congress, Verbatim Record. March 30 — April 9, 1971. In two volumes. Vol. 1. Moscow: Politizdat Publ., 1971. 598 p. (In Russian)
Materials of the XXV Congress of the CPSU. Moscow: Politizdat Publ., 1976. 256 p. (In Russian)
Mann M. The Sources of Social Power: Volume 1, A History of Power from the Beginning to AD 1760, Cambridge University Press, 1986. 560 p.
Record of the discussion between expert Gendelman S. S. with the Head of External Relations Department of the Ministry of Planning of Democratic Republic of Afghanistan M. Kazem, November 20. Russian State Economic Archive (RGAE), fund 365, inventory 9, file 2775. (In Russian)
Meeting of Politburo of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union on March 10, 1983. Wilson Center, Digital Archive, pp. 11–14. Available at: https://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/assets/media_files/000/000/768/768.pdf (accessed: 22.10.2021).
Meeting of Politburo of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union on November 13, 1986. National Security Archive. Digital Collection. Available at: https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/rus/text_files/Perestroika/1986.11.13%20CC%20CPSU%20discussion%20on%20Afghanistan.pdf (accessed: 22.10.2021).
Anis, panjshanbeh 9, hut, 1364 (Thursday 9, February 1364 (1985)), Dusti — Hosn-i hamjavori va berodari (Friendship of Good Neighbourliness and Brotherhood). (In Dari)
Anis, yekshanbeh 17, hamal, 1365 (Sunday 17, March 1365 (1986)), Tafviz neshon-i darafsh-i sorkh (Delegation of the Red Flag Emblem). (In Dari)
Anis, yekshanbeh 27, mizon, 1365 (Sunday 27, September 1365 (1986)), Khotere-i jovedon-i dusti-i voqei (The Eternal Memory of True Friendship). (In Dari)
Anis, panjshanbeh 9, hut, 1364 (Thursday 9, February 1364 (1985)), Dusti-i Afghan-Shuravi dusti-i piruzmand (Afghan-Soviet Friendship is Victorious Friendship). (In Dari)
Anis, panjshanbeh 27, qaus, 1365 (Thursday 27, November 1365 (1986)), Dusti-i jovedone-i berodari hameshagi (Eternal Friendship of Eternal Brotherhood). (In Dari)
Anis, 27 dalva, 1366 (January 27, 1366 (1987)), Tawse’a-i dusti-i berodarone (Development of Fraternal Friendship). (In Dari)
Record of the discussion of Deputy Minister of Foreign Trade of the USSR comrade Grishin I. T. with the Trade Representatives Delegation of Democratic Republic of Afghanistan and Afghan Business Community, November 22, 1984. Russian State Economic Archive (RGAE), fund 413, inventory 32, file 3569. (In Russian)
Note on the progress of the implementation of measures in the field of foreign trade adopted at the second meeting of the Soviet-Afghan Commission, 1984, pp. 3–5. State Archive of Russian Federation (GARF), fund 5456, inventory 144, file 1550. (In Russian)
Khristoforov V. S. Afghanistan: Ruling Party and Army (1978–1989). Moscow, Granitsa Publ., 2009. 320 p. (In Russian)
Speech by Yegorychev N. G. at a Meeting of the Politburo Commission on Afghanistan 27.06.1988, pp. 36–68. Russian State Archive of Social and Political History (RGASPI), fund 797, inventory 1, file 31. (In Russian)
Lyahovskij A. A. The Afghan Tragedy and Valor. Iskona, 1995, 386 p. Available at: https://avidreaders.ru/book/tragediya-i-doblest-afgana.html (accessed: 25.08.2020). (In Russian)
Gromov B. V. Limited Contingent. Moscow, Progress — Kultura Publ., 1994. 352 p. (In Russian)
Gareev M. A. Afghan Harvest: With Soviet Troops and Without. Moscow, INSAN Publ., 1999, second ed., 416 p. (In Russian)
Merimskij V. A. The Mystery of Afghan War. Veche, 2015, 320 p. (In Russian)
Downloads
Published
2022-08-01
How to Cite
Nabat, M. M. (2022). Soviet Project of Nation-State-Building in Afghanistan. Vestnik of Saint Petersburg University. Asian and African Studies, 14(2), 162–175. https://doi.org/10.21638/spbu13.2022.201
Issue
Section
Russia and Asia
License
Articles of "Vestnik of Saint Petersburg University. Asian and African Studies" are open access distributed under the terms of the License Agreement with Saint Petersburg State University, which permits to the authors unrestricted distribution and self-archiving free of charge.
