AFGHANISTAN
(Islamic State of Afghanistan)
Geographical location. Afghanistan is a state in southwest Asia. In the north it borders with Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan; in the east with China, India (the disputed territory of Jammu and Kashmir) and Pakistan; in the south with Pakistan; in the west with Iran.
Square. The territory of Afghanistan covers 647,600 square meters. km.
Main cities, administrative divisions. The capital of Afghanistan is Kabul. Largest cities: Kabul (700 thousand people), Kandahar (226 thousand people), Herat (178 thousand people). Administrative-territorial division of the country: 29 provinces (wilayats) and 2 districts of central subordination.
State system
Afghanistan is in a transition period: since September 1996, power has been in the hands of the Taliban religious group.
Relief. Afghanistan is a mountainous country: about three-quarters of the territory is occupied by mountains and hills. In the north there are several river valleys, in the south and southwest there are desert areas. The main mountain system of the country is the Hindu Kush, which stretches 965 km from the Pamirs in the northeast to the border with Iran in the west. Average height The Hindu Kush is about 4,270 m high, with some peaks reaching a height of 7,620 m. The interior of the country is connected through several passes. The lowest pass of the Hindu Kush, Shibar, is located at an altitude of 2,987 m and connects the capital of the state, Kabul, with the northern regions of the country. The Khyber Pass on the northeastern border connects Afghanistan with Pakistan.
Geological structure and minerals. The country's subsoil contains rich reserves of natural gas, oil, coal, copper, mica, barite, sulfur, lead, zinc, iron ore, precious and semi-precious stones.
Climate. The country's climate is varied. Kabul, located at an altitude of 1830 m above sea level, experiences cold winters and warm summer. Jalalabad (550 m above sea level) has a subtropical climate, while Kandahar (1,070 m above sea level) has a mild climate.
Inland waters. The largest rivers of Afghanistan: Amu Darya, Kabul, Helmand and Harirud.
Soils and vegetation. Coniferous forests, occupying about 3% of the territory of Afghanistan, grow at altitudes from 1,830 to 3,660 m, below which there are deciduous forests - juniper and ash. Among the fruit trees, the most common are apple, pear, peach, and apricot. In the extreme south of the country date palms grow, and in the region of Kandahar and Jalalabad there are a large number of citrus fruits.
Animal world. Afghanistan is home to camels, mountain goats, bears, gazelles, wolves, jackals, wild cats and foxes. Afghanistan is also famous for the Afghan hound. Among domestic animals, astrakhan sheep are the most valuable.
Population and language
The population is about 24.792 million. Average density population - about 38 people per 1 sq. km. Ethnic groups: Pashtuns - 38%, Tajiks - 25%, Hazaras - 19%, Uzbeks - 6%. Languages: Pashto, Dari (state), Uzbek, Kyrgyz.
Religion
Sunnis - 84%, Shiites - 15%, Hindus, Jews.
Brief historical essay
The first information about Afghanistan dates back to the 6th century. BC BC, when it was included in the Persian Achaemenid Empire. Around 330 BC e. Afghanistan was
conquered by Alexander the Great. After Alexander's death, the country was under the rule of Greek, Indian, and then Iranian rulers.
In the middle of the 7th century. n. e. The country was conquered by the Arabs, whose influence turned out to be the strongest and lasted until 1220, when the country was captured by the troops of Genghis Khan. The country was under Mongol rule until the 14th century.
In 1747, after another uprising against Iranian rule, the first Afghan state emerged, led by Emir Ahmad Shah. However, the emirate subsequently collapsed.
IN early XIX V. after a period of anarchy, Dost Muhammad Khan came to power, accepting the title of emir in 1835.
From the middle of the 19th century. Russia and Great Britain fought for influence on the country; in 1907, an agreement was signed between them recognizing the integrity of Afghanistan.
Until 1973, Afghanistan remained a monarchy. In 1973, as a result of a military coup, a republic was proclaimed in the country. In 1978 As a result of the coup, the Revolutionary Council came to power. At the end of December 1979, Soviet troops entered Afghanistan, remaining there until February 15, 1989. However, even after the withdrawal of Soviet troops, the civil war continued. On April 16, 1992, rebel troops captured Kabul.
The country became known as the Islamic State of Afghanistan, and power was transferred to the Guiding Vetujihad (Transitional Council of the Mujahideen). In December 1992 B. Rabbani was elected president of the country, heading the Governing Council. Since the mid-1990s. Most of the territory of Afghanistan, after fierce fighting, comes under the control of the Taliban movement, which professes extremely fundamentalist views and enjoys the support of the ruling circles of Pakistan. Rabbani's government has the status of a government in exile.
Brief Economic Sketch
Afghanistan is an agricultural country. 1/3 of cultivated land is irrigated. Grains (mainly wheat, but also corn, barley, rice), industrial crops (cotton, oilseeds, sugar beets, sugar cane). Vegetable growing, melon growing, fruit growing and viticulture. Extraction of natural gas and oil. Textile, chemical, food industry. Carpet making. Export: natural gas, dried fruits, carpets, astrakhan fur.
The monetary unit is Afghani.
Brief sketch of culture
Art and architecture. Kabul. Kabul Museum with a collection of Buddhist exhibits. Mazar-i-Sharif. A 15th-century mosque that houses the tomb of Caliph Ali, the son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammad. Herat. Walls of the old city; Great Mosque. Ghazni. Ruins of old Ghazni. Kandahar. Several mosques; tomb of the first emir of Afghanistan, Ahmad Shah.
Afghanistan is a country that has been the sphere of interest of the most important players in world politics for more than 200 years. Its name is firmly entrenched in the list of the most dangerous hot spots on our planet. However, only a few people know the history of Afghanistan, which is briefly described in this article. In addition, over several millennia, its people have created a rich culture similar to the Persian one, which is currently in decline due to constant political and economic instability, as well as terrorist activities of radical Islamist organizations.
History of Afghanistan since ancient times
The first people appeared on the territory of this country about 5000 years ago. Most researchers even believe that it was there that the world's first settled rural communities arose. In addition, it is assumed that Zoroastrianism appeared in modern Afghanistan between 1800 and 800 BC, and the founder of the religion, which is one of the oldest, spent recent years his life and died in Balkh.
In the middle of the 6th century BC. e. The Achaemenids included these lands. However, after 330 BC. e. it was captured by the army of Alexander the Great. Afghanistan was part of his state until its collapse, and then became part of the Seleucid empire, which introduced Buddhism there. The region then fell under the rule of the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom. By the end of the 2nd century AD. e. The Indo-Greeks were defeated by the Scythians, and in the first century AD. e. Afghanistan was conquered by the Parthian Empire.
Middle Ages
In the 6th century, the territory of the country became part of and later the Samanids. Then Afghanistan, whose history practically did not know long periods of peace, experienced an Arab invasion that ended at the end of the 8th century.
Over the next 9 centuries, the country changed hands frequently until it became part of the Timurid Empire in the 14th century. During this period, Herat became the second center of this state. After 2 centuries, the last representative of the Timurid dynasty, Babur, founded an empire centered in Kabul and began to make campaigns in India. Soon he moved to India, and the territory of Afghanistan became part of the Safavid country.
The decline of this state in the 18th century led to the formation of feudal khanates and a revolt against Iran. During the same period, the Gilzean principality was formed with its capital in the city of Kandahar, which was defeated in 1737 by the Persian army of Nadir Shah.
Durrani Power
Oddly enough, Afghanistan (you already know the history of the country in ancient times) acquired independent statehood only in 1747, when Ahmad Shah Durrani founded a kingdom with its capital in Kandahar. Under his son Timur Shah, Kabul was proclaimed the main city of the state, and by the beginning of the 19th century, Shah Mahmud began to rule the country.
British colonial expansion
The history of Afghanistan from ancient times to the beginning of the 19th century is fraught with many mysteries, since many of its pages have been studied relatively poorly. The same cannot be said about the period after the invasion of its territory by Anglo-Indian troops. The “new masters” of Afghanistan loved order and carefully documented all events. In particular, from surviving documents, as well as from letters British soldiers and officers and their families know the details of not only battles and uprisings local population, but also his life and traditions.
So, the history of the war in Afghanistan, which began in 1838. A few months later, a 12,000-strong British group stormed Kandahar, and a little later Kabul. The emir avoided a collision with a superior enemy and went into the mountains. However, its representatives constantly visited the capital, and in 1841 unrest began among the local population in Kabul. The British command decided to retreat to India, but on the way the army was killed by Afghan partisans. The response was a brutal punitive raid.
First Anglo-Afghan War
The reason for the outbreak of hostilities on the part of the British Empire was the dispatch of Lieutenant Vitkevich to Kabul by the Russian government in 1837. There he was supposed to be a resident under Dost Mohammed, who seized power in the Afghan capital. The latter at that time had already been fighting for more than 10 years with his closest relative Shuja Shah, who was supported by London. The British regarded Vitkevich's mission as Russia's intention to gain a foothold in Afghanistan in order to penetrate India in the future.
In January 1839, a British army of 12,000 troops and 38,000 servants, supported by 30,000 camels, crossed the Bolan Pass. On April 25, she managed to take Kandahar without a fight and launch an attack on Kabul.
Only the fortress of Ghazni offered serious resistance to the British, but it too was forced to surrender. The route to Kabul was opened, and the city fell on August 7, 1839. With the support of the British, Emir Shuja Shah reigned on the throne, and Emir Dost Mohammed fled to the mountains with a small group of fighters.
The rule of the British protege did not last long, as local feudal lords organized unrest and began to attack the invaders in all regions of the country.
At the beginning of 1842, the British and Indians agreed with them to open a corridor through which they could retreat to India. However, at Jalalabad, the Afghans attacked the British, and out of 16,000 fighters, only one escaped.
In response, punitive expeditions followed, and after the suppression of the uprising, the British entered into negotiations with Dost Mohammed, persuading him to abandon rapprochement with Russia. Later a peace treaty was signed.
Second Anglo-Afghan War
The situation in the country remained relatively stable until the Russian-Turkish War began in 1877. Afghanistan, whose history is a long list of armed conflicts, has once again found itself between two fires. The fact is that when London expressed dissatisfaction with the success of the Russian troops, which were quickly moving towards Istanbul, St. Petersburg decided to play the Indian card. For this purpose, a mission was sent to Kabul, which was received with honors by Emir Sher Ali Khan. On the advice of Russian diplomats, the latter refused to allow the British embassy into the country. This was the reason for the entry of British troops into Afghanistan. They occupied the capital and forced the new emir Yakub Khan to sign an agreement according to which his state had no right to conduct foreign policy without the mediation of the British government.
In 1880, Abdurrahman Khan became emir. He attempted to enter into an armed conflict with Russian troops in Turkestan, but was defeated in March 1885 in the Kushka region. As a result, London and St. Petersburg jointly determined the boundaries within which Afghanistan (the history of the 20th century is presented below) exists to this day.
Independence from the British Empire
In 1919, as a result of the assassination of Emir Habibullah Khan and a coup d'etat, Amanullah Khan came to the throne, proclaiming the country's independence from Great Britain and declaring jihad against it. He carried out mobilization, and a 12,000-strong army of regular fighters, supported by a 100,000-strong army of nomadic partisans, moved towards India.
The history of the war in Afghanistan, waged by the British in order to maintain their influence, also contains mention of the first massive air raid in the history of this country. Kabul was attacked by the British Air Force. As a result of the panic that arose among the residents of the capital, and after several lost battles, Amanullah Khan asked for peace.
In August 1919, a peace treaty was signed. According to this document, the country received the right to foreign relations, but lost the annual British subsidy of 60,000 pounds sterling, which until 1919 accounted for about half of Afghanistan's budget revenues.
Kingdom
In 1929, Amanullah Khan, who after a trip to Europe and the USSR was going to begin radical reforms, was overthrown as a result of the uprising of Habibullah Kalakani, nicknamed Bachai Sakao (Son of the Water Carrier). An attempt to return the former emir to the throne, supported by Soviet troops, was unsuccessful. The British took advantage of this and overthrew Bachai Sakao and placed Nadir Khan on the throne. With his accession, modern Afghan history began. The monarchy in Afghanistan began to be called royal, and the emirate was abolished.
In 1933, Nadir Khan, who was killed by a cadet during a parade in Kabul, was succeeded on the throne by his son Zahir Shah. He was a reformer and was considered one of the most enlightened and progressive Asian monarchs of his time.
In 1964, Zahir Shah issued a new constitution that aimed to democratize Afghanistan and eliminate discrimination against women. As a result, radically minded clergy began to express dissatisfaction and actively engage in destabilizing the situation in the country.
Dictatorship of Daoud
As the history of Afghanistan says, the 20th century (the period from 1933 to 1973) was truly golden for the state, as industry appeared in the country, good roads, the education system was modernized, a university was founded, hospitals were built, etc. However, in the 40th year after After his accession to the throne, Zahir Shah was overthrown by his cousin, Prince Mohammed Daoud, who proclaimed Afghanistan a republic. After this, the country became an arena of confrontation between various factions that expressed the interests of Pashtuns, Uzbeks, Tajiks and Hazaras, as well as other ethnic communities. In addition, radical Islamic forces entered into confrontation. In 1975, they launched an uprising that spread to the provinces of Paktia, Badakhshan and Nangarhar. However, the government of dictator Daoud managed to suppress it with difficulty.
At the same time, representatives of the country's People's Democratic Party (PDPA) also sought to destabilize the situation. At the same time, it had significant support in the Afghan Armed Forces.
DRA
The history of Afghanistan (20th century) has experienced another turning point in 1978. On April 27, a revolution took place there. After Noor Mohammad Taraki came to power, Muhammad Daoud and all his family members were killed. Babrak Karmal also found himself in senior leadership positions.
Background to the entry of a limited contingent of Soviet troops into Afghanistan
The policy of the new authorities to eliminate the country's backlog met with resistance from the Islamists, which escalated into a civil war. Unable to cope with the current situation on its own, the Afghan government repeatedly appealed to the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee with a request to provide military assistance. However, the Soviet authorities refrained, as they foresaw the negative consequences of such a step. At the same time, they strengthened the security of the state border in the Afghan sector and increased the number of military advisers in the neighboring country. At the same time, the KGB constantly received intelligence information that the United States was actively financing anti-government forces.
Murder of Taraki
The history of Afghanistan (20th century) contains information about several political assassinations to seize power. One of these events took place in September 1979, when, on the orders of Hafizullah Amin, PDPA leader Taraki was arrested and executed. Under the new dictator, terror unfolded in the country, which also affected the army, in which mutinies and desertion became commonplace. Since the VTs were the main support of the PDPA, the Soviet government saw in the current situation a threat of its overthrow and the coming to power of forces hostile to the USSR. In addition, it became known that Amin had secret contacts with American emissaries.
As a result, it was decided to develop an operation to overthrow him and replace him with a leader more loyal to the USSR. The main candidate for this role was Babrak Karmal.
History of the war in Afghanistan (1979-1989): preparation
Preparations for a coup in a neighboring state began in December 1979, when a specially created “ Muslim battalion"was deployed to Afghanistan. The history of this unit still remains a mystery to many. It is only known that it was staffed by GRU officers from the Central Asian republics, who were well aware of the traditions of the peoples living in Afghanistan, their language and way of life.
The decision to send troops was made in mid-December 1979 at a Politburo meeting. Only A. Kosygin did not support him, which is why he had a serious conflict with Brezhnev.
The operation began on December 25, 1979, when the 781st separate reconnaissance battalion of the 108th MRD entered the territory of the DRA. Then the transfer of other Soviet military formations began. By mid-afternoon on December 27, they were in complete control of Kabul, and in the evening they began storming Amin’s palace. It lasted only 40 minutes, and after its completion it became known that most of those who were there, including the leader of the country, were killed.
Brief chronology of events from 1980 to 1989
Real stories about the war in Afghanistan are stories about the heroism of soldiers and officers who did not always understand for whom and what they were forced to risk their lives. Briefly the chronology is as follows:
- March 1980 - April 1985. Conducting combat operations, including large-scale ones, as well as work on the reorganization of the DRA Armed Forces.
- April 1985 - January 1987. Support for the Afghan troops with air force aviation, engineer units and artillery, as well as an active fight to suppress the supply of weapons from abroad.
- January 1987 - February 1989. Participation in events to implement a policy of national reconciliation.
By the beginning of 1988, it became clear that the presence of the Soviet armed contingent on the territory of the DRA was inappropriate. It can be considered that the history of the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan began on February 8, 1988, when at a meeting of the Politburo the question of choosing a date for this operation was raised.
It became May 15th. However, the last SA unit left Kabul on February 4, 1989, and the withdrawal of troops ended on February 15 with the crossing of the state border by Lieutenant General B. Gromov.
In the 90s
Afghanistan, whose history and prospects for peaceful development in the future are quite vague, plunged into the abyss of brutal violence in the last decade of the 20th century. civil war.
At the end of February 1989, in Peshawar, the Afghan opposition elected the leader of the Alliance of Seven, S. Mujaddedi, as head of the “Transitional Government of the Mujahideen” and began fighting against the pro-Soviet regime.
In April 1992, opposition forces captured Kabul, and the next day its leader, in the presence of foreign diplomats, was proclaimed president of the Islamic State of Afghanistan. The history of the country after this “inaguration” took a sharp turn towards radicalism. One of the first decrees signed by S. Mojaddedi declared all laws that contradicted Islam to be invalid.
In the same year, he transferred power to Burhanuddin Rabbani's group. This decision caused ethnic strife, during which warlords destroyed each other. Soon, Rabbani's authority weakened so much that his government ceased to carry out any activities in the country.
At the end of September 1996, the Taliban captured Kabul, captured the ousted President Najibullah and his brother, who were hiding in the UN mission building, and publicly executed them by hanging in one of the squares of the Afghan capital.
A few days later, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan was proclaimed, and the creation of a Provisional Ruling Council consisting of 6 members, headed by Mullah Omar, was announced. Having come to power, the Taliban stabilized the situation in the country to some extent. However, they had many opponents.
On October 9, 1996, a meeting between one of the main opposition leaders, Dostum, and Rabbani took place in the vicinity of the city of Mazar-i-Sharif. They were joined by Ahmad Shah Massoud and Karim Khalili. As a result, the Supreme Council was established and efforts were united for a common fight against the Taliban. The group was called the Northern Alliance. She managed to form an independent organization in northern Afghanistan during 1996-2001. state.
After the invasion of international forces
The history of modern Afghanistan received new development after the famous terrorist attack of September 11, 2001. The US used it as a pretext to invade this country, declaring it its main goal overthrow of the Taliban regime, which sheltered Osama bin Laden. On October 7, the territory of Afghanistan was subjected to massive air strikes, weakening the Taliban forces. In December, a council of Afghan tribal elders was convened, headed by the future (since 2004) president
At the same time, NATO completed the occupation of Afghanistan, and the Taliban moved on. From that time to this day, terrorist attacks in the country have not stopped. In addition, every day it turns into a huge opium poppy plantation. Suffice it to say that, according to the most conservative estimates, about 1 million people in this country are drug addicts.
At the same time unknown stories Afghanistan, presented without retouching, was a shock to Europeans or Americans, including due to cases of aggression shown by NATO soldiers against civilians. Perhaps this circumstance is due to the fact that everyone is already quite tired of the war. These words are confirmed by Barack Obama's decision to withdraw troops. However, it has not yet been implemented, and now Afghans hope that the new US president will not change plans, and foreign military personnel will finally leave the country.
Now you know the ancient and modern history of Afghanistan. Today this country is experiencing better times, and one can only hope that peace will finally come to her land.
Most of Afghanistan's territory is occupied by mountains. The Hindu Kush ridges (up to 6729 m) stretch from east to west, including a belt of eternal snow. In the southern part of the country there is the Ghazni-Kandahar plateau, and on the northern and southwestern outskirts there are desert plains. The vegetation is highly diverse, but almost everywhere, even in the monsoon-influenced southeastern region, it is dominated by drought-resistant species. Only in the irrigated Jalalabad Valley do date palms, cypresses, olive trees, and citrus fruits grow.
The first Afghan state formations arose in the 16th century. In 1747-1818 there was a Durrani state. In the 19th century, England made several attempts to subjugate Afghanistan (Anglo-Afghan Wars). These attempts ended in failure, but the British achieved control over Afghanistan's foreign policy. In 1919, the government of Amanullah Khan declared the independence of Afghanistan. In July 1973, Afghanistan was declared a republic. In 1978, the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan carried out a coup d'état and proclaimed a course towards building socialism. A civil war began in the country. In 1979, Soviet troops were brought into Afghanistan to help the PDPA retain power. Soon after the withdrawal of Soviet troops (1989), the Mujahideen, supporters of the Islamic state, came to power in 1992. However, the civil war did not end there: contradictions between individual Islamic groups led to more and more new conflicts. In the mid-1990s, most of Afghanistan (including Kabul) came under the control of Taliban fundamentalists. In October 2001, the Taliban, accused of aiding global terrorism, was overthrown by US forces and its allies.
The capital is the ancient city of Kabul (1.4 million people), advantageously located at the crossroads of important transport routes. Other major cities are Mazar-i-Sharif, which has long been known as the center of craft production and trade with a colorful oriental bazaar; ancient Herat - an oasis and cultural center, where the giant Juma Masjid mosque was erected in the 15th century. Afghanistan is an agricultural country whose economy has always been based on pastoralism. The war, which began in the late 1970s, caused enormous damage to the country's economy, significantly destroying the existing agricultural infrastructure and destroying hundreds of libraries, schools, and hospitals.
AFGHANISTAN
state in Asia. It borders Pakistan in the south and east, Iran in the west, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan in the north, China and India in the far northeast.
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NATURE
Surface structure and river network. The basis of the relief of Afghanistan is made up of massive highlands, intersected by high ridges and intermountain valleys. In the center and east of the country, this highland is called the Hindu Kush. The peaks of the ridges rise to 5000-6000 m, and within the Wakhan corridor - above 6000 m. Here, on the border with Pakistan, is the highest point of the country, Mount Naushak (7485 m). In the upper tier of the mountains there is widespread modern glaciation with various types of glaciers. The Helmand and Kabul rivers originate on the southern slopes of the Hindu Kush. The most fertile and densely populated region of Afghanistan is located in the Kabul basin, confined to two large intermountain basins. Connections with neighboring Pakistan are maintained through the Khyber Pass. From the Hindu Kush to the west and southwest, systems of lower ridges fan out. One of them - Paropamiz - is approx. 600 km stands out in the north-west of Afghanistan, where the largest ridge is Safedkoh with heights of up to 3642 m in the east and 1433 m in the west. To the south of it flows the Gerirud River, which originates in the Hindu Kush, in the west it irrigates the fertile Herat oasis and then goes into Turkmenistan. In the north of Afghanistan there is the vast Bactrian Plain, descending to the Amu Darya Valley. The surface of the plain in the foothills of the Hindu Kush and Paropamiz is composed of loess deposits and is dissected by numerous rivers. To the north it turns into a sandy desert. Rivers dry up greatly in summer. Many of them do not reach the Amu Darya and are lost in the sands, forming wide deltas. Significant population clusters are confined to them. In the southwest of Afghanistan there are endorheic hilly plateaus with altitudes of 500-1000 m. Vast areas are occupied by the sandy Registan desert and the clayey-gravelly desert of Dashti-Margo. The large transit river Helmand flows in this area, which irrigates a number of oases and is lost in the central basin of Sistan, occupied by shallow and drying lakes. In the southeast of the country, between the Hindu Kush and the Suleiman Mountains, a weakly dissected plateau (altitudes up to 2000 m) is developed. There are a number of significant oases here, the largest of which is near the city of Kandahar. The climate of Afghanistan is subtropical continental with significant temperature ranges. Average January temperatures on the plains are from 0° to 8° C. Average July temperatures on the plains are 24-32° C, and the absolute maximum temperature reaches 53° C. In Kabul average temperature July 22° C, January - 0° C. The weather is usually clear and sunny during the day, and cool or cold at night. The average annual precipitation is low: on the plains it is about 200 mm, in the mountains up to 800 mm, and there a significant part of the precipitation falls in the form of snow. The rainy season on the plains of Afghanistan lasts from October to April. A specific moisture regime manifests itself in the southeast of the country, where the summer monsoons penetrate, causing heavy rainfall in July-August. Thanks to this, the annual rainfall there also reaches 800 mm. But in the southwest, in some areas of Sistan, there is no precipitation at all, and there is virtually no population there.
Rivers. With the exception of the Kabul River, which flows into the Indus, and the left tributaries of the Panj (the upper reaches of the Amu Darya), the rivers of Afghanistan end in drainless lakes or are lost in the sands. Due to large water withdrawals for irrigation and strong evaporation, even large rivers become shallow in the second half of summer. The soils in Afghanistan are predominantly gray soils, formed in the north on loess deposits, and in the south - on clayey-gravelly deposits. The largest part of arable land is concentrated in the northern regions and intermountain basins (on alluvial soils). The fertile soils of the oases are largely the result of centuries of peasant labor. The vegetation is characterized by a predominance of desert and steppe species. At altitudes up to 1500-1800 m, wormwood and camel thorn grow, and in sandy deserts - saxaul. Pistachio woodlands are developed on the slopes of the foothills. At altitudes up to 2200-2500 m, steppe vegetation of wormwood and grasses dominates, above 2500 m - steppes with feather grass and fescue, and spiny upland pillow xerophytes are found. In the upper tier of the mountains, productive alpine meadows are expressed in some places. Forests grow only in the mountains in the southeast and east of the country. With increasing altitude, oak forests are replaced by coniferous forests - deodar, spruce and fir. The total forested area is estimated at 1.9 million hectares. The fauna of Afghanistan is striking in its diversity. Spotted hyenas, kulans, saigas live in the open spaces of plains and plateaus; in rocky areas - leopards, mountain goats, and mountain sheep. In the tugai thickets along the river valleys one can find foxes, wild boars, and jungle cats. Wolves are widespread and cause considerable damage to sheep flocks, especially in winter. The world of reptiles is richly represented: monitor lizards, steppe pythons, poisonous snakes (viper, cobra, efa). There are many poisonous and harmful insects: scorpions, karakurts, locusts, etc.
POPULATION
Size and national composition of the population. According to the first general census of 1979, the population of Afghanistan was 15,540 thousand people, including 2,500 thousand nomads. In the 1980s, the rate of natural population growth was estimated at 2.2% annually, with a birth rate of 4.9% and a death rate of 2.7%. According to 1998 estimates, the country has 24,792 thousand inhabitants. Afghanistan is a multinational country. Pashtun tribes, professing orthodox Sunni Islam, make up 55% of the country's population. They are settled mainly in the southeastern and southern regions adjacent to the border with Pakistan. In the founding of Afghanistan as an independent state in 1747, Ahmad Shah Durrani, a native of the powerful Pashtun Durrani tribe, played a major role. In this regard, the recent capture of Kabul by the Taliban and their rise to power is considered by them as historical revenge, since the Durranis predominate among the Taliban. President Najibullah, executed by the Taliban, belonged to another Pashtun tribe - the Ahmadzai. All Pashtuns speak Pashto, a language close to Persian (Farsi). Among the Pashtun tribes there are sedentary and nomadic. Both are distinguished by belligerence; many disputes are still resolved on the basis of the traditional code of honor - Pashtunwali. It is based on the protection of personal dignity up to and including blood feud. In second place in number (19% of the population) are Tajiks living in the northern and northeastern regions of the country, behind the Hindu Kush. Being a people of Iranian origin, they use a language very similar to Persian. Among Tajiks, Sunni Muslims predominate, but there are many Islamic sectarians - Ismailis. The main occupations of Tajiks are agriculture and trade. Many of them, having received an education, became officials and statesmen. The President of Afghanistan Burkanuddin Rabani and the commander of government troops Ahmad Shah Massoud (who was nicknamed the “lion of Panjisher”) are Tajiks. Turkmens (3% of the population) live in the north-west of Afghanistan, and Uzbeks live in the north (9% of the population). Both of them are also Sunni Muslims. The main occupations are agriculture and cattle breeding; the Turkmens are famous as skilled carpet weavers. Uzbek leader Ramid Dostum heads the National Movement of Afghanistan, which counters the Taliban. The Hazaras, a people of Mongolian origin who practice Shia Islam, make up 9-10% of Afghanistan's population. They are concentrated in the central part of the country. Among them, farmers and sheep breeders predominate; in cities they form a large stratum of hired workers. Their main political organization is the Islamic Unity Party of Afghanistan (Hezbi-Wahdat). In the western regions of the country live Persian peoples who profess Shiite Islam. Other nationalities (Nuristani, Wakhan, Kyrgyz, Charaimak, Brahui, Kazakh, Pashak, etc.) are few in number. The Nuristanis, including the Kati, Paruni, Vaigali and Ashkuni peoples, were called kafirs (“infidels”) before converting to Islam in 1895-1896, and lead a very secluded lifestyle in the high mountains north of the Kabul River valley. Several thousand Wakhan people are concentrated within the narrow Wakhan corridor, and the Kyrgyz are concentrated in the northeastern corner of the country on the Pamir Plateau. The Charaimak (Aimak), a people of mixed ethnic origin, live in the mountains of western Afghanistan, their numbers are still unknown. Baluchis and Brahuis inhabit some areas in the southwest of the country. Before the outbreak of hostilities in the 1980s, approximately 76% of the Afghan population was primarily a sedentary agriculturalist, while 9% were pastoralists and led a nomadic or semi-nomadic lifestyle.
Languages. The official languages of Afghanistan are Pashto and Dari (or Farsi-Dari, an Afghan dialect of the Persian language). Dari serves as the international language of communication almost everywhere, except in Kandahar province and the eastern regions of Ghazni province, where Pashto dominates. Uzbeks, Turkmen and Kyrgyz are Turkic-speaking peoples. The Hazaras use one of the archaic dialects of the Persian language, with which Balochi and Tajik are also related. Nuristanis speak languages that represent a separate ancient branch, separated from the Iranian and Indian language groups. The Brahuis speak a Dravidian language similar to the languages of the peoples of South India.
Cities. In the mid-1980s, approx. 20% of the country's population. Refugees from villages swelled the population of a number of large cities, primarily Kabul and Jalalabad. However, hostilities in the 1990s, which broke out in close proximity to some big cities, caused an outflow of population, primarily from Kabul and Mazar-i-Sharif. As a result of heavy fighting in 1992, the population of the capital and its environs decreased and, according to 1996 estimates, is only 647.5 thousand people compared to 2 million at the beginning of the 1990s. Other leading cities have a population of (thousands of people): Kandahar approx. 225.5, Herat approx. 177.3, Mazar-i-Sharif 130.6, Jalalabad 58.0 and Kunduz 57.0.
GOVERNMENTAL SYSTEM
Afghanistan as a state entity is a community of tribes over which national political institutions have been built over the past 100 years. Afghan rulers enjoyed international prestige and had an army that allowed them to control clan structures, given the rivalry between the Russian and British empires and their successors in the area. Until the early 1960s, the king and his relatives held a dominant position in the country. But the monarch had to reckon with tribal leaders, religious leaders and the army, which was built on a tribal basis until 1956, when its modernization began with the help of the USSR. In the aftermath of World War II, the king came under pressure from a small but expanding group of urban intellectuals to liberalize the regime. In 1963, a person who did not belong to the royal family was appointed prime minister for the first time. The constitution adopted in 1964 ensured the division of power between the government and the popularly elected legislature. In July 1973, a small group of officers led by General Muhammad Daoud, the king's cousin and former prime minister, removed the monarch from power and declared Afghanistan a republic. Daoud ruled single-handedly, suppressing both right and left opposition. In April 1978, after the arrest of the leaders of the far-left People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA), military units stationed in Kabul overthrew the dictator, freed the PDPA leaders and put them in power. PDPA leader Nur Muhammad Taraki took the posts of chairman of the Revolutionary Council and prime minister of the new government, which began to implement radical reforms. Of primary importance among them were agrarian reforms aimed at eliminating landownership, and a far-reaching campaign to combat illiteracy. The implementation of these events caused army mutinies in almost all provinces and caused a flow of refugees into Pakistan. In September 1979, Taraki was forcibly removed by Hafizullah Amin, who was even more revolutionary and was not inclined to political compromises. Anti-government protests in the country intensified, and attempts by the Soviet leadership, which helped the new regime, to persuade the Kabul authorities to a less radical policy were unsuccessful. In December 1979, the USSR sent a contingent of Soviet troops to Afghanistan. Amin was replaced by Babrak Karmal, who tried to reach agreement with his opponents and expand the social base of his administration. A manifestation of this course was, in particular, the retreat from agrarian reform that began in 1981. However, reconciliation could not be achieved, and Karmal found itself completely dependent on Soviet military, technical and financial assistance. The rebel groups enjoyed the support of the United States and a number of other states. Fighting erupted throughout Afghanistan in the 1980s. A contingent of Soviet troops numbering approx. 130 thousand military personnel and 50 thousand soldiers Afghan army were opposed by approximately 130 thousand rebels, called “Mujahideen” (“fighters for the faith”). In 1986, Najibullah Ahmadzai, as a result of a coup, took Karmal's place and negotiated a ceasefire with the rebels. However, these initiatives were rejected. In April 1988, the USSR and the USA came to an agreement on non-interference in Afghan affairs, which created the conditions for the withdrawal of Soviet troops from May 1988 to February 1989. After the collapse of the USSR in December 1991, the Najibullah government fell (April 1992). The leaders of the rebel groups managed to form a provisional government in 1992, first under the leadership of Sibghatullah Mojadidi and then Burhanuddin Rabbani. Soon the victors were drawn into internecine armed clashes. In 1994, a group of religious students and mujahideen, who became known as the Taliban, took control of Kandahar, and in September 1996, Kabul. In 1999, the Taliban controlled all major cities of the country and 75-90% of its territory.
Central authorities. The Taliban rule Afghanistan based on Muslim legal norms - Sharia law. The country was declared an emirate in October 1997, headed by Emir Mullah Omar. He has a 40-member advisory council known as the Supreme Shura. They also function approx. 20 ministries. The Department for the Promotion of Piety and Combating Vices has been created under the Ministry of Justice, which is designed to implement the Taliban’s tough social policy. In particular, women are prohibited from studying and working outside the home and must wear a veil in public. Men are required to grow a beard. The 1987 Constitution was repealed, the law in the country is based on Sharia law and the decrees of Mullah Omar. Those parts of the country that are not captured by the Taliban are ruled by different factions that, at least nominally, remain loyal to the government of Burhanuddin Rabbani, recognized by most states and international organizations as the legitimate authority of Afghanistan. The country was considered a revolutionary republic from April 1978 to April 1992. According to the 1987 constitution, the highest legislative body was proclaimed a bicameral National Assembly, consisting of a House of Representatives and a Senate, whose members were partly elected and partly appointed by the president. The parliamentarians, along with senior officials and leaders from various communities and sectors of the population, formed the Great Jirga, which had the power to determine who would become Afghanistan's president for a seven-year term and to amend the constitution. Executive power was exercised by the president with the help of the cabinet of ministers.
Political parties and movements. The support of the Taliban movement was the students of theological schools-madrassas from rural areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan. It originated in the southeastern part of Afghanistan in the summer of 1994 among the Durrani Pashtuns, but then became more widespread. In 1998 there were approx. 110 thousand Taliban, including people from the Ghilzai and other eastern Pashtun tribes, former members of the Khalq faction of the PDPA, Pakistani youth and warlords who joined the Taliban. Ethnically, the region is characterized by a predominance of Pashtuns. Several parties opposed to the Taliban formed a fragile Northern Alliance. The most authoritative among them are the Tajik Jamiati Islami ("Islamic Society") organization of Burhanuddin Rabbani and Ahmad Shah Massoud, the Uzbek Jumbush-e-Milli militia led by Rashid Dostum, and Hezbi-Wahdat, or the Hazara Islamic Unity Party of Afghanistan, led by Abdul Karim Khalili. The organization of Rabbani and Massoud arose on the basis of one of the seven mujahideen parties, which had a residence in the Pakistani city of Peshawar in the 1980s. Many of these parties still exist, at least nominally. Hezbi-Wahdat, designed to protect the interests of the Hazaras, emerged in 1989 through the merger of many Shiite political groups based in the Iranian capital Tehran in the 1980s. From April 1978 to April 1992, the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan ruled the country. Created in 1965, it adhered to Marxist-Leninist ideology, and in 1967 it split into rival factions Khalq ("People") and Parcham ("Banner"). In 1976 they united again, but the split between the more radical Khalqists and the relatively moderate, pro-Soviet oriented Parchists was not overcome. Ethnic and social heterogeneity had an impact: Khalq had a strong position in the Pashto-speaking mountainous regions of eastern Afghanistan, and Parcham among the Farsi-speaking urban intelligentsia. After the PDPA seized power, Taraki and Amin, both Khalqists, began to purge the leadership of the party opposition. With the assassination of Amin in December 1979 and the entry of Soviet troops into Afghanistan, the situation changed fundamentally: Karmal and Najibullah belonged to the Parchists. In 1988, the PDPA had 205 thousand members, but it relied on the more massive organization of the National Front (NF). The national and tribal associations that were part of it supported the government, and the PDPA was the dominant force. In 1987, it was allowed to form other political parties, provided that they join the NF. In the ranks of the latter in 1987 there were approx. 800 thousand people. Currently, its activities have ceased. In 1978-1992, dozens of armed partisan formations waged an active struggle against the Kabul authorities. Their fragmentation reflected the deep regional and ethnic differentiation of the country, differences between Sunnis and Shiites, and ideological contradictions between moderate and extremist Islamists. In May 1985, three traditional and four fundamentalist factions, whose residences were in Peshawar, created a united front called the Islamic Unity of the Afghan Mujahideen and in February 1989 announced the formation of an interim government in exile. However, the commonality of views was manifested in only one thing - a negative attitude towards the PDPA and the USSR. Attempts by opposition forces entering various coalitions to reach a lasting agreement collapsed with the fall of Najibullah's regime in April 1992. Opposing guerrilla formations received military and monetary assistance from the United States and Saudi Arabia, as well as from China, Iran and Egypt. The flow of weapons was channeled through Pakistan's Army Intelligence Service. Afghanistan's judicial system operated on the principles set out in the 1987 constitution, but was modified under the Taliban. The "religious police" under the Directorate for the Promotion of Piety and Counteraction to Vices patrols the streets and monitors the implementation of social regulations prescribed to the population by the Taliban movement. Cases before Taliban judges are decided based on local interpretations of Islamic law, with traditional Muslim punishments applied (for example, cutting off the hand of thieves). The Taliban's armed forces are approximately estimated at 110 thousand fighters. Fundamentalist opposition forces in the north are divided into three factions. Before the successful Taliban offensive in northern Afghanistan in the early fall of 1998, Tajik troops under the leadership of Ahmad Shah Massoud included 60 thousand, Uzbek troops under the command of General Dostum - 65 thousand, and the Hezbi-Wahdat party, led by Abdul Karim Khalili, - 50 thousand people. In 1979, the Afghan army consisted of approximately 110 thousand soldiers. A significant part of them deserted over the next two years and even joined the ranks of the Mujahideen, which created a threat to the very existence of the official government. The USSR, which supplied the Afghan government forces with weapons and ammunition and provided military advisers, at the end of 1979 sent a military contingent of more than 130 thousand to this country. Human. They were finally withdrawn from Afghanistan in February 1989. The army units subordinate to the Kabul authorities in 1988 numbered 50 thousand military personnel, in addition to aviation units with a personnel of 5 thousand, as well as security and police officers numbering more than 200 thousand people. During this period, at least 130 thousand Mujahideen fought in resistance units in different parts of the country.
International relations. Before the Second World War, British influence predominated, but shortly before the outbreak, Germany, Italy and Japan began trade negotiations with Afghanistan and proposed a number of development programs. The penetration of the Axis powers was stopped in 1941 thanks to the joint political pressure of Great Britain and the USSR. During World War II, Afghanistan maintained a policy of neutrality. In those years, diplomatic relations were established with the USA and China, and in 1946 relations with the USSR noticeably improved. The border between both countries was established in the middle of the Amu Darya channel, and Afghanistan received the right to use the waters of this river for irrigation needs. In 1946 Afghanistan joined the UN. In July 1947, as Britain prepared to withdraw from India, the Afghan government proposed that the people of the North West Frontier Province, once controlled by the Afghan authorities, be allowed to decide for themselves whether to become part of Afghanistan or Pakistan, or to form an independent state. . The Afghan side stated that the eastern borders of Afghanistan, established in 1893 (the so-called “Durand Line”), were never truly a state border, but rather served as a dividing zone, the task of which was to maintain law and order. Some tribes in northwestern Pakistan continued to seek independence or autonomy, and border incidents arose that marred Afghan-Pakistani relations, and the situation almost reached war in 1955. That year, the Afghan government spoke in favor of the formation of an independent state of Pashtunistan, which was to include a significant part of the territory of the then West Pakistan. This proposal was supported by the USSR. After World War II, Afghanistan did not join any of the blocs. However, when in 1978 the country experienced revolutionary events, a friendship treaty was signed with the USSR. At first, only weapons were supplied from the USSR to the Afghan authorities to fight the Islamist rebels. However, this did not lead to the desired results, and advisers were sent from the USSR, and then Soviet troops were brought in in December 1979. The government in Kabul became dependent on the USSR, which provided it with $36-48 billion in military aid from 1978 to the early 1990s. Meanwhile, the rebels established contacts with Pakistan and the United States, and also received widespread support from Saudi Arabia, China and a number of other states, which together provided the Mujahideen with weapons and other military equipment worth $6-12 billion. Thus, in the 1980s, the civil war turned Afghanistan into an arena of superpower rivalry. In the 1990s, this war was fueled, at least in part, from outside. Diplomatic recognition of the Taliban in 1997 came only from Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. The Rabbani government expelled from Kabul is recognized as legitimate by most states and the UN. Rabbani and other political forces in northern Afghanistan enjoy favorable treatment from Russia, Iran, India, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. After Iranian diplomats were killed in Mazar-e-Sharif captured by the Taliban in August 1998, Iran concentrated its military units numbering approx. 200 thousand people along the border with Afghanistan. In August 1998, US warplanes launched guided missile attacks on training camps believed to be funded by Arab extremist Osama Bin Laden.
ECONOMY
Agriculture forms the backbone of Afghanistan's economy. Approximately 12% of its territory is arable, another 1% is dedicated to permanent crops and 9% is used as permanent pasture. In the 1980s, the irrigated area was approximately 2.6 million hectares. They are irrigated primarily by ditches fed by rivers and springs, as well as by underground drainage galleries with observation wells (kariz in Pashto, or qanats in Farsi). In the 1980s and 1990s, military actions caused great damage irrigation facilities, and cultivating fields has become a dangerous activity due to the millions of mines scattered throughout the countryside. Most of the cultivated land belongs to small peasant farms. Mineral fertilizers are rarely used; half of the arable land is fallow for a year or more to prevent soil depletion. Close relationships developed between nomads and landowners. The villagers allow the herds of nomads to graze the stubble, since the animals fertilize the fields with manure; however, two decades of war have disrupted these traditional contacts. Main agricultural areas. Given the significant differences in topography, climate and soils, eight agricultural regions can be distinguished. Wheat is actively grown in all regions of the country. Peasants cultivate grain crops at altitudes up to 2700 m. Crops change with increasing altitude: the leading role passes from rice to corn, then to wheat and even higher to barley. The most productive lands are located on the plain north of the Hindu Kush, where the tributaries of the Amu Darya have formed wide and fertile valleys, on the plateau in Kabulistan, where the Kabul, Logar, Sarobi and Laghman valleys stand out, in the central part of the country - Hazarajat, as well as in the valleys of Gerirud (near Herat) and Helmand.
Agricultural crops. Arable land in Afghanistan is devoted mainly to grain crops. The main one is wheat. Corn, rice and barley are also important. Other cultivated crops include sugar beet, cotton, oilseeds and sugar cane. All kinds of fruit crops are grown in the gardens: apricots, peaches, pears, plums, cherries, pomegranates and citrus fruits. Several varieties of grapes, different varieties of melons, almonds and walnuts are common. Fresh and dry fruits, raisins and nuts are exported. Agricultural production declined markedly in the 1980s as many peasants fled the countryside to escape the dangers of guerrilla warfare. In the 1980s and 1990s, opium poppy became the leading cash crop of Afghanistan, which became the world's main supplier of opium (1,230 tons in 1996).
Animal husbandry. Sheep are kept for meat, milk, wool and sheepskin. The Karakul breed of sheep, bred in northern Afghanistan, produces the famous Karakul smushki. Goats, horses, cattle and camels are also bred.
Forestry. Forests are concentrated primarily in the eastern provinces of Afghanistan. Pine, Himalayan cedar, oak, olive and nut trees grow there. Afghanistan has a chronic shortage of timber, but some of it is exported because it is often easier to float down rivers to Pakistan than to export it to other parts of the country.
Mining industry. A large gas basin, explored in the north, has been developed with the help of the USSR since 1967. In the 1980s, natural gas in large quantities transported to the USSR. Coal deposits are also being exploited. Oil, also discovered in the northern regions, is not mined, as is iron ore, large reserves of which have been discovered west of Kabul. To the southeast of Fayzabad in Badakhshan there is the only deposit of high-quality lapis lazuli in the world.
Manufacturing industry. Until the 1930s, industry in Afghanistan remained at a low level of development. After 1932 private Afghan national bank, or Bank-i-Melli, began construction of a number of industrial facilities. These included cotton gins in the northern regions, a cotton factory in Puli Khumri, a sugar factory in Baghlan and a wool weaving factory in Kandahar. In a series of five-year plans beginning in 1956, the emphasis was on stimulating primarily the public rather than the private sector. Hydroelectric power stations were built or upgraded at Sarobi, Puli Khumri, Naglu, Darunta, Mahipara and other places. Built cement factories in Jabal us Siraj and Puli Khumri. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, many new branches of industrial production emerged, including primary processing of raisins and the production of canned meat, textile processing, and the manufacture of pharmaceuticals. Tourism has become an important source of foreign exchange, with more than 100,000 foreigners visiting Afghanistan in 1978. The civil war that broke out after the 1978 revolution interrupted the progress of industrialization and blocked the flow of tourists. After 20 years of war, virtually all industries were destroyed. In 1998, the country's entire economy, except agriculture, depended on transit trade. The construction of a gas pipeline from Turkmenistan through western Afghanistan to Pakistan was frozen at the end of 1998 due to the unstable political situation in Afghanistan.
Transport and communications. There are only 25 km of railway tracks in the country and almost no rivers suitable for navigation. The road network exceeded 18,750 km, of which 2,800 km had hard surface. However, due to military operations, the condition of these roads has deteriorated greatly, and road repair work is almost never carried out. In winter and spring, some roads become impassable. In many areas, camels and donkeys remain the most important means of transport. An important ring highway has become important, starting in Kabul, running north through the Salang Pass tunnel to Khulm (Tashkurgan), then turning west to Mazar-i-Sharif, then on to Meymaneh and Herat, before heading southeast to Kandahar and finally northeast to Kabul. The country's main roads connect to Pakistan's transport network at Torkham, located directly at the Khyber Pass, and at Chaman in Pakistan's Balochistan; another highway runs from Herat to Iran. Goods from Russia, the Central Asian republics and those delivered in transit through their territory from European countries travel by rail to the state border in Termez, where the highway to Herat and one of the four ports on the Amu Darya begins. Crossing the river is carried out on ferries and barges pulled by tugs. A trolleybus service has been organized in the capital of the country. Available international airports in Kabul and Kandahar. 30 airfields were built to service local lines. In Afghanistan in 1998 there were 1.8 million radios. In 1978, a color television center was created in Kabul with the help of Japan. State radio and television broadcasting was conducted in the 1980s in Dari, Pashto and ten other languages. The Taliban banned television broadcasts as contrary to the tenets of Islam and, having captured Kabul in 1996, began destroying televisions. The telephone network is low-power: in 1996 there were 31.2 thousand subscribers, and the number of cell and satellite phones is growing.
Foreign trade. Afghanistan until recently had limited trade relations with other states. At the same time, imports constantly exceeded exports. Even before the entry of Soviet troops in 1979, the USSR was the main trading partner, a trend that intensified further in the 1980s. The main exports are heroin, natural gas and dried fruits, as well as carpets, fresh fruits, wool, cotton and astrakhan skins. The country is forced to import wide circle industrial goods, including cars, petroleum products and textiles. When the economy collapsed due to war in the 1980s and peasants began fleeing villages, agricultural production fell sharply and dependence on external food supplies increased accordingly. Wheat, rice, vegetable oils, sugar and dairy products were delivered to Afghanistan from abroad. The war and the collapse of the USSR in 1991 predetermined the extreme instability of Afghanistan's foreign trade. In 1998, goods from Turkmenistan and Pakistan were transported in transit through the country.
Money circulation and banking system. The currency in the country is the Afghani, equal to 100 pulas. The Central Bank of Afghanistan regulates monetary circulation. From 1992 to 1998, the government that established control over the northern part of Afghanistan and was based in Mazar-i-Sharif issued its own banknotes. All banks were nationalized in 1975. There are no foreign banks in the country.
Public finances. The Taliban government receives current revenue primarily from indirect taxes, especially import duties and sales taxes, income taxes, incl. "heroin", as well as outside help. Forces hostile to the Taliban are also counting on similar assistance. Both sides spend these funds mainly to meet the direct and indirect costs associated with the ongoing armed conflict.
SOCIETY AND LIFESTYLE OF THE POPULATION
Social structure. Until 1973, members of the royal clan (Durrani Pashtuns) traditionally occupied the top rung of the social hierarchy. The main line was formed primarily by the descendants of Dust Muhammad and his half-brother and rival Sultan Muhammad, who dominated the political arena since 1826. The next most important layer consisted of high-ranking officials close to the regime, religious leaders, leaders of influential tribes, senior officers, and wealthy merchants. This amorphous group was supported by a social environment with growing weight in society: young administrators who were educated abroad and who, thanks to their knowledge and personal merit, managed to qualify for positions in the cabinet. Below were shopkeepers, doctors, petty traders, village clerics (mullahs), provincial officials and other local officials. At the foot of the pyramid there were ordinary peasants and nomadic herders. In the 1980s and 1990s, amid a protracted civil war, the social status of individuals and groups began to depend directly or indirectly on their relationships with armed groups. Soldiers, officials, tribal leaders, mullahs - all those who supported the April Revolution of 1978 received access to Soviet weapons and money. Their opponents who opposed the revolutionary coup could count (regardless of whether they remained in Afghanistan itself or took refuge in refugee camps in Pakistan) on military and financial assistance from the United States and Saudi Arabia to various rebel groups. With the fall of Najibullah's government in 1992, the fighting between these factions did not stop, and they continue to receive help from abroad.
The influence of religion. Islam remains a powerful force in Afghanistan, where almost the entire population adheres to the Muslim faith. Approximately 84% of the residents are Sunni Hanafi. However, among the Hazaras there are many Shiites, and there is also an Ismaili community. There are a number of large Sufi orders operating in the country - Chishtiyya, Naqshbandiyya and Qadiriyya.
The status of women. In the past, women in Afghanistan did not participate in public life. Attempts to change the situation “from above”, made before World War II, met with strong resistance. In 1959, the government called for a voluntary abolition of the veil in cities. The energetic efforts of the Marxist leadership to further pursue the path of emancipation became one of the reasons for mass unrest in conservative circles of the population. In areas where the Taliban have gained the upper hand, strict control has been established over women's compliance with traditional norms of behavior. In Afghanistan, girls' schools have been closed, and women are being forced to refuse to work outside the home and are required to wear veils when going out. The "women's issue" poses a serious obstacle to the Taliban's attempts to achieve official recognition from Western states.
Social Security. After World War II, noticeable positive changes occurred in medical care population. Hospitals and clinics were built in many cities, and the emphasis shifted from preventive medicine—campaigns against malaria, smallpox, and typhus—to curative medicine. However, the healthcare system collapsed due to the fighting, and modern Afghanistan has one of the highest child mortality rates in the world (15.6 per 1000 inhabitants), and the average life expectancy remains extremely low (45 years).
Dwellings. The population of Afghanistan lives mainly in large families in villages. The predominant houses are rectangular in plan with flat roofs, built of mud brick and coated with clay. The estate is surrounded by a wall. Stone buildings are also being erected in the high mountains, and modern buildings have appeared in the main cities. Nomads carry tents and yurts with them.
Nutrition of the population. Common dishes include pilaf with meat or vegetables, fried meat (kebab), flour products (ashak, or manti) and unleavened flatbreads baked in traditional tandoor ovens. Vegetables - tomatoes, potatoes, peas, carrots and cucumbers - are present in significant quantities in the diet, especially since the majority of residents cannot afford to regularly consume meat. Green or black tea, fermented milk products, fresh and dried fruits and nuts complement the daily diet.
Cloth. The main elements of the costume of almost all ethnic communities of Afghanistan are a long, knee-length shirt and wide trousers (kamis) tightly belted with a sash. Over the top, men wear a jacket or a robe covering their trousers. The nature of the headdress, such as a turban, often reflects the belonging of men to a particular national group and geographical area. Many people are growing a beard, especially since the Taliban banned shaving.
Family customs. The extended family is the basis of life, and kinship relationships provide the background for the manifestation of social, economic and political activity. Marriages, often between cousins, are usually arranged by the eldest women in their families. The set of procedures for matchmaking and engagement includes agreement on the bride price, dowry and arrangement of the wedding feast. Divorces are rare.
CULTURE
Public education. Most notable feature cultural life Afghanistan in the 20th century. was the expansion of the network of educational institutions. Previously, they were limited to traditional village schools (maktabs), where local mullahs taught in accordance with the established canons of Islam. Modern primary and secondary schools, based on Western models, emerged particularly rapidly in the 1970s. At the same time, Kabul University, founded in 1932, noticeably strengthened. For many years the wars destroyed the established education system in Afghanistan. In 1990, 44% of men and 14% of women were considered literate.
Literature and art. In February 1979, the Afghan Academy of Sciences (AHA) was founded, modeled after the USSR Academy of Sciences. It included the Afghan Academy of Language and Literature "Pashto Tolyna", the Historical Society and related research institutions. Most publications from 1978-1992 were of a propaganda nature, speaking out in defense of the ruling regime. Large prose works are rare in Afghan literature. fiction but poetry has reached high level development. The country's main book depositories are the Kabul Public Library and the Kabul University Library. National Museum in the capital has a rich collection of archaeological and ethnographic exhibits - from the Paleolithic to the Muslim era. Particularly valuable were materials from the primitive, ancient Greek and Buddhist periods. However, in 1993 the museum fell into the fighting zone, and in the next two years over 90% of the collections were looted. Folk music accompanies singing and dancing and also acts as an independent art form. String (dombra), wind (flute and surna) and percussion (drum) instruments are popular.
Press and mass culture. The main printed organ of the Taliban movement is Sharia (The Path to Allah). Opposition organizations, including emigrant ones, have their own publications locally. During the years of PDPA rule, several government-controlled daily newspapers were published with a total circulation of approx. 95 thousand copies. Among them, the leading ones were the "Voice of the Saur [[April 1978]] Revolution", published in Dari, "Anis" ("Interlocutor") and "Khiwad" ("Fatherland") - both in Dari and Pashto, as well as "Kabul New Times" on English. Also published, under the supervision of administrative departments, was the women's weekly Zhvandun and a number of provincial newspapers, mostly weekly. Ministries, faculties of Kabul University and institutions such as banks published their periodicals once a month or quarterly. In 1979 all publishing houses were nationalized. The official Taliban radio, Voice of Sharia, broadcasts news, religious programs and educational programs in local languages. Loudspeakers in large cities convey information to large sections of the population. The television station, built in Kabul with the help of the Japanese, was put into operation in 1978 and was primarily engaged in broadcasting propaganda and religious nature. The punitive actions of the Taliban movement have a negative impact on popular culture. Popular music was banned, many audio cassettes were destroyed, as well as various types of video equipment. Music was also banished from weddings and festive events, and in 1996 cinemas were closed.
Sports and holidays. The Taliban initially banned sports but later eased restrictions. Afghans are fond of football, field hockey, volleyball and especially pakhlavani, a form of classical wrestling carried out according to local rules. Buzkashi, practiced primarily in the north, is a game in which teams of riders fight to carry the carcass of a calf over a line. In areas south of Kabul, a local version of the equestrian competition is common. Gambling practiced by all groups of the population, and almost every Afghan is familiar with chess. Kite fighting is popular among teenagers. National holidays- Victory Day of the Muslim People (April 28), Martyrs' Day (May 4) and Independence Day (August 19). Islamic festivals are numerous. Among them are Ramadan (the month of fasting) and Eid-ul-Fitr, associated with the end of Ramadan. Navruz (March 21 - New Year and the first day of spring), according to custom, is celebrated with general noisy fun.
STORY
The history of Afghanistan was largely determined by its geographical location and surface structure. Situated between the plains of Central Asia in the north and the fertile lands of India and Iran in the south and west, Afghanistan found itself at the crossroads of military campaigns and invasions. The fate of the country was also influenced by the features of the mountain ranges of the Hindu Kush, Pamir and Himalaya systems: they directed successive streams of conquerors rushing to northwestern India, the Gangetic Plain and other important areas of South Asia. During this process, some peoples interrupted the migration movement and settled in Afghanistan. The foothill plains in the north of the country may be among those areas of the world where the first domestication of plants and animals occurred. Archaeological studies indicate that the history of primitive man in Afghanistan dates back to the Middle Paleolithic, judging by the finds of cultural monuments, and continues until the middle of the 1st millennium BC.
Early historical period. The name "Afghanistan" appeared only in the mid-18th century. Modern Afghan scholars view this country as ancient Ariana. The first reliable mention of these lands refers to several provinces of the ancient Persian Achaemenid state, founded by Cyrus the Great in the mid-6th century. BC Alexander the Great defeated this power during his campaign in India in 327 BC. He captured the province of Bactria, founded the city of Alexandria-Ariorum there, near present-day Herat, and married the Bactrian princess Roxana. After his death, the first Seleucids and the rulers of the Greco-Bactrian kingdom successfully ruled over Bactria, after which they were replaced by the Parthians. Subsequently, this area was subjugated by the Yuezhi tribes during their migration from Central Asia to the south in the 2nd century. BC, who created a vast kingdom ruled by the Kushan dynasty and flourished in the 1st century. AD The Kushan kingdom established trade relations with Rome, and his missionaries spread Buddhism to China. The northern Kushana province of Gandhara became famous for the creation of a remarkable style of sculpture, in which Buddhist subjects were executed using the canons of Hellenistic art. Western and northern regions This kingdom was first conquered by the Persian rulers of the Sassanid dynasty, and then, in the 7th and 8th centuries, by Muslim Arabs, although Islam could not finally establish itself among the local population for several more centuries. During this period, different parts of Afghanistan fell under the rule of different dynasties and rulers, including the Samanids (819-1005) and Safarids (867-1495). In the 10th century the strengthening of the Turkic peoples led to the formation of the Ghaznavid Empire (962-1186) with its capital in Ghazni. This state extended from the shores Arabian Sea to Central Asia and from India almost to the Persian Gulf. Mahmud Ghazni (997-1030) was an experienced ruler, and under him Ghazni became a center of education. The dynasty was overthrown in 1148 by the Ghurids, who ruled until 1202. In the 13th century. Mongol troops under the leadership of Genghis Khan and in the 14th century. The Turko-Mongols, led by Tamerlane, invaded from the north and, causing enormous damage, captured Persia, part of India and the main agricultural areas of Afghanistan. Architecture and art flourished during the Timurid reign (1369-1506). A descendant of Tamerlane, Babur made Kabul the capital of his state, from where it was moved to Delhi in 1526 for the convenience of managing the vast Mughal empire. Shahs from the Safavid dynasty (1526-1707) entered into a struggle with them for control of Afghanistan. In 1738, after the Ghilzai Pashtuns overthrew the Persian rulers and came to power, the Persian military leader Nadir Shah took control of Kandahar. After his assassination in 1747, the young Pashtun Ahmad Khan was elected head of an independent Afghan state by the tribal nobility. Having declared himself Shah, he took the title Dur-i-Durrani ("pearl of pearls") and made Kandahar the capital of his state, which included most of the Indus basin.
"Big Game" After the death of Ahmad Shah in 1773, the Afghan state faced considerable difficulties. In 1776, Kabul became the capital of the state. While England and France competed for influence in the Persian Gulf and Russia advanced south, the Sikh leader Ranjit Singh captured Punjab and Sindh, and Persian troops temporarily captured Herat. In 1837, a British mission arrived in Kabul with the aim of preventing Persian aggression and strengthening Russian influence in the country. Emir Dust Muhammad, the founder of a dynasty that ruled Afghanistan for a century, initially favored the British, but they refused to help him recapture Peshawar, which his half-brother Sultan Muhammad had given to the Sikhs in 1834. In 1839, British troops invaded Afghanistan and a war broke out. I am the Anglo-Afghan War. Dust Muhammad was restored to the throne in 1842. He remained neutral during the Sepoy Mutiny in India in 1857-1858. In 1873, under the rule of Dust Muhammad's son Sher Ali Khan, Russia recognized the Amu Darya as the southern border of its sphere of influence and sent a mission to Kabul. The English advance to the north was stopped at the Khyber Pass, and the 2nd Anglo-Afghan War began. It ended in 1879 with the conclusion of the Treaty of Gandamak, according to which this pass and the Kurram, Pishin and Sibi districts ceded to Great Britain, which also received the right to control the foreign policy of Afghanistan. The murder of a newly arrived English resident in Kabul once again revived mutual suspicions between the two countries. British troops moved to Kabul and Kandahar, and in 1880 Great Britain recognized Abdur Rahman, the nephew of Sher Ali Khan, as emir. Abdurrahman, nicknamed the "iron emir", established his rule over Kandahar and Herat in 1881, Hazarajat in the 1880s, Afghan Turkestan in 1888 and Kafiristan in 1895. Abdurrahman combined firmness with domestic policy with friendly but uncompromising relations with Russia and British India. The northern borders of Afghanistan were determined as a result of the work of the Anglo-Russian demarcation commission in 1885, and in the Pamirs - by an agreement in 1895. Similarly, in 1893 the so-called. Durand's agreement established the southern and eastern borders of Afghanistan - at the junction with British India, although, as in the case of the agreement reached between Afghanistan and Persia thanks to McMahon's mission on the division of the Helmand drainage in Sistan, disputed sections of the state border remained. In the east, the position of the border also subsequently caused discord between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Satisfied with the fruits of its policy in north-west India, Britain supported Abdur Rahman in his attempts to consolidate the state after resolving fundamental border differences with Persia, Russia and India. After the death of Abdurrahman in 1901, the throne was inherited by Habibullah, who continued his father’s policies aimed at strengthening the prestige of the dynasty. In line with this policy, Habibullah visited British India to become familiar with the British strategy for using the resource potential of the colony. During the First World War, the emir adhered to a policy of strict neutrality despite internal opposition and external pressure. On February 20, 1919, three months after the victory of the Entente countries, he was killed. Habibullah was succeeded by his third son Amanullah, who came to power with the help of the army. To strengthen his authority and unite the conflicting factions, Amanullah declared the end of British control over foreign policy and sent troops across the Indian border during the short 3rd Anglo-Afghan War (spring 1919). The preliminary peace treaty signed in Rawalpindi recognized Afghanistan's independence in all areas, including foreign policy. In 1925 Russian influence increased again. After the incident in Urtatugay (Yangi-Kala), when Soviet troops ousted the Afghan garrison from there, the controversial situation was resolved by signing a non-aggression pact in August 1926. Its content included the premise that new document should in no way conflict with the friendship treaty concluded in February 1921 between Russia and Afghanistan, when both sides recognized the existing borders and pledged to respect each other’s sovereignty. The Treaty on Neutrality and Mutual Non-Aggression between the USSR and Afghanistan (Paghman Pact) of 1926 also declared mutual renunciation of aggression against a neighboring state and non-interference in its internal affairs. The 1927 agreement provided for the organization of air traffic between Kabul and Tashkent.
Modernization of the country. In 1926 Amanullah took the title of king. Upon returning from a trip to Europe in 1928, he tried to speed up the Westernization of Afghanistan. The seclusion of women was abolished, a group of girls were sent to study in Turkish schools; Contacts between mullahs and military units were prohibited. The active implementation of these measures caused discontent among the clergy. The opposition of the clergy and the negative attitude of the population to Western innovations resulted in the revolution of 1928 and led to Amanullah's abdication of the throne and his expulsion from the country in 1929. The Tajik adventurer Bachaya Sakao ("son of the water-carrier") defeated the troops sent against him and took Kabul by storm. Although Amanullah, before leaving the capital with his family, proclaimed his brother Inayatullah as his successor, Bachayi Sakao took control of the situation in the country, taking the name Habibullah Ghazi and proclaiming himself emir. However, General Nadir Khan, a relative of the ruling royal family, received the support of the Pashtun tribes of Wazirs and Mohmands and, together with his enterprising brothers, captured Kabul, after which Habibullah Ghazi was executed. In October 1929, Nadir Khan was enthroned under the name of Nadir Shah. Great Britain recognized the new monarch, providing him with weapons and money in exchange for comparative peace on the border. Nadir Shah carried out reforms less decisively than Amanullah. The mutinies in the army, inspired by agitators from Punjab, Bengal and the USSR, were severely suppressed. New roads were being built and trade was flourishing. In November 1933, Nadir Shah unexpectedly died at the hands of an assassin. Nadir Shah's heir was his son Muhammad Zahir Shah, who relied on his father's brothers to lead the country. One of them, Muhammad Hashim, served as prime minister until 1947, and the other, who replaced him, Mahmud Shah, headed the government until 1953. Then Muhammad Daoud, Nadir Shah's nephew, became prime minister. He intensified efforts to modernize Afghanistan and relied on economic and especially military assistance from the USSR. Muhammad Daun granted some ministerial positions to relatively young Afghans who had received professional education abroad, but power remained in the hands of the royal family. Meanwhile, relations with Pakistan deteriorated over the question of the political future of the Pathan tribes. In March 1963, the king dismissed Daud to stop the spread of Soviet influence and normalize relations with Pakistan. In 1964, the country adopted a constitution, which provided for the election of the lower house and the partial election of members of the upper house of parliament. In the summer of 1965, the first national elections took place. However, the government refused to legalize political parties, fearing the activation of nationalist and extremist leftist organizations. The Afghan armed forces depended on the USSR for material supplies and training. In July 1973, Muhammad Daoud carried out a coup and Afghanistan was declared a republic. The constitution adopted in 1977 declared the introduction of a one-party system of government in the country. Daoud, who became president, put forward ambitious plans for economic development, but his autocratic government was met with opposition from both left-wing intellectuals and the army, and the right-wing tribal elite, who did not want increased control from the central authorities. The leading organization on the left flank of the political spectrum was the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA), founded in 1965. In 1967 it split into the pro-Soviet Parcham faction and the more radical Khalq faction, but both united in 1976 in their opposition to the Daoud regime .
War in Afghanistan. In April 1978, after Daoud attacked the PDPA, the extreme left wing of the army and military pilots overthrew his regime. Daoud, along with his family and senior dignitaries, was killed. President of Afghanistan, proclaimed democratic republic, became the leader of the PDPA Nur Muhammad Taraki. In the summer, Taraki and his deputy Hafizullah Amin, who were part of the Khalq faction, began to free themselves from prominent members of the Parcham faction who were in the previous government. Taraki put forward a program of revolutionary change, including land reform, eradication of illiteracy and the emancipation of women. At the end of 1978, these steps inspired Islamic fundamentalists and tribal nobility to revolt. By the summer of 1979, right-wing forces already controlled a significant part of the country’s rural areas. In September Taraki was deposed and killed. He was replaced by Amin, who took vigorous action to suppress the rebels and resisted Soviet attempts to force him to pursue more moderate policies. However, the position of the Kabul authorities continued to deteriorate. On December 25, 1979, Soviet troops invaded Afghanistan and quickly took control of Kabul and other important cities. Amin was killed on December 27, and Babrak Karmal, leader of the Parcham faction in the PDPA, was proclaimed president of the country. Karmal refused repressive policies Amin's regime and promised to carry out social and economic reforms, taking into account the norms of Islam and the customs of the country. However, he failed to pacify the rebels from the right camp, and the government continued to depend on the support of the USSR. The presence of Soviet troops made Karmal's regime unpopular among Afghan nationalists. In subsequent years, military clashes in Afghanistan caused serious demographic and economic shocks. OK. 4 million refugees migrated to Pakistan and another 2 million to Iran. At least 2 million peasants poured into Kabul and other cities. Almost 2 million Afghans were killed, not counting 2 million wounded and other casualties. The Mujahideen militia included dozens of different associations - from tribal groups to enthusiastic adherents of the revolution in Iran. Most opponents of the regime had bases located in Pakistan, but some of them operated from bases in Iran. The US administration, through the CIA, spent over $3 billion on supplies of weapons and ammunition for Afghan partisans in 1980-1988. Saudi Arabia provided approximately the same amount. China, Iran and Egypt also provided military assistance or provided training facilities for the rebels. In the spring of 1985, the USSR intensified efforts to “normalize” the situation in Afghanistan. The number of Soviet troops in this country in 1986 was increased to 150 thousand people, approx. There were 50 thousand fighters in the Afghan army. They were opposed by approximately 130 thousand armed rebels. The Soviet military contingent was equipped with modern weapons and used tanks and bombers against the partisans, but they had the support of the local population and in the difficult situation of mountainous areas could act more effectively than regular units. Since September 1986, the United States has provided the partisans with stingers, which were capable of shooting down Soviet helicopters. Najibullah Ahmadzai, a member of the Parcham faction, known as the head of the Afghan security service, replaced Karmal in the leadership of the PDPA in May 1986, who also lost the post of president of the country in November. Najibullah called for national accord in early 1987, but the rebels' reaction to this proposal was negative. Elected in 1985 Secretary General CPSU M.S. Gorbachev decided to stop interfering in the affairs of Afghanistan. In April 1988, Afghanistan, Pakistan, the USSR and the USA signed an agreement to end foreign military intervention in Afghanistan. The contingent of the Soviet armed forces was withdrawn from the country from May 1988 to February 1989, but the supply of weapons by the superpowers did not stop. Najibullah scheduled elections to the National Assembly for April 1988, reserving some seats for the rebels if they wished to join the government. However, they decided to continue fighting and in February 1989 created a government in exile in Pakistan. In Kabul, Najibullah's power lasted until April 1992. Leading mujahideen groups created governing bodies in the provinces, but immediately began fighting each other for local leadership. In June, Burhanuddin Rabbani was elected president of the country. For the next four years, an alliance of unstable members remained on his side. political forces. An equally unstable hostile coalition surrounded the capital and began shelling it. The UN tried to negotiate a ceasefire. In the meantime, demobilized foreign fighters returned to their homeland - Algeria, Pakistan and Egypt, where they began promoting the ideas of Muslim fundamentalism. Subsequently, some of them were accused of participating in terrorist acts. In November 1994, the Taliban captured the country's second largest city, Kandahar. In early 1995, they defeated the powerful Hezb-i-Islami militia, the main support of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, and a month later they began to threaten Kabul, but temporarily retreated under pressure from government troops. In September 1995, the Taliban captured Herat, an important center in the north-west of the country. A year later, after numerous successful attacks, the Taliban entered Kabul, and the opportunity arose to extend their power throughout Afghanistan. The joint offensive of the united detachments of Uzbek and Tajik field commanders stopped the further advance of the Taliban detachments in October 1996. In May 1997, the latter managed, however, to capture Mazar-i-Sharif and penetrate further to the north, but the counter-offensive of the Hazara, Tajik and Uzbek formations forced the Taliban to retreat. In August 1998, after a successful summer campaign, they reoccupied Mazar-i-Sharif, and in September 1998 they entered the Hazara capital of Bamiyan. However, the armed forces of the Northern Alliance managed to recapture part of the lost territory at the end of 1998. As a result, although the Taliban controlled 75-90% of the entire territory of the country at the beginning of 1999, one can foresee in the near future a continuation of the war in Afghanistan between ethnic communities that will defend their lands.
LITERATURE
Pulyarkin V.A. Afghanistan. Economic geography. M., 1964 Gubar Mir Ghulam Muhammad. Afghanistan on the path of history. M., 1987 Afghanistan today. Directory. Dushanbe, 1988 Afghanistan: problems of war and peace. M., 1996
Collier's Encyclopedia. - Open Society. 2000 .
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Brief information
The first written mention of Afghanistan dates back to the 6th century BC. e. It is clear that in fact the history of this country goes back many centuries. To this day, in Afghanistan you can meet the descendants of the Greeks who came there with Alexander the Great. In this ancient country, despite numerous wars, many unique attractions have been preserved. In addition, there are excellent conditions for mountaineering and rock climbing. Unfortunately, due to the political situation, Afghanistan remains closed to foreign tourists.
Geography of Afghanistan
Afghanistan is located at the crossroads of South, Central and West Asia. In the south and east, Afghanistan borders with Pakistan and China (in the east), in the west - with Iran, in the north - with Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. There is no access to the sea. The total area of this country is 647,500 square meters. km., and the total length of the state border is 5,529 km.
Most of Afghanistan is mountainous, but there are valleys, steppes and deserts. The Hindu Kush mountain system stretches from northeast to southwest. The highest point in the country is Mount Noshak, whose height reaches 7,492 meters.
In the north of Afghanistan there is the Amu Darya River. Other large Afghan rivers are Harirud, Helmand, Farakhrud and Khashrud.
Capital
The capital of Afghanistan is Kabul, which is now home to about 700 thousand people. According to archaeological data, an urban settlement on the site of modern Kabul existed already in the 2nd century AD.
Official language of Afghanistan
Afghanistan has two official languages, Pashto and Dari (Farsi), both belonging to the Iranian group of the Indo-European language family.
Religion
Almost all residents of Afghanistan profess Islam, the vast majority of them are Sunnis, and about 15% are Shiites.
Government structure of Afghanistan
According to the current Constitution of 2004, Afghanistan is an Islamic republic in which Islam is the state religion. The head of the country is the President, elected for 5 years.
The bicameral parliament in Afghanistan is called the National Assembly, it consists of two chambers - the House of Elders (102 people) and the House of the People (250 deputies).
To make particularly important decisions (for example, to approve the Constitution), the Council of Elders “Great Assembly” gathers in Afghanistan. The history of the “Great Meetings” goes back centuries and is lost somewhere in the 15th century.
Climate and weather
Most of Afghanistan has a subarctic mountain climate (winters are dry and cold). The rest of Afghanistan has a desert and semi-desert climate. The mountains and valleys along the border with Pakistan are exposed to monsoons during the summer. Indian Ocean. In summer the air temperature reaches +49C, and in winter - -9C. Most precipitation falls between October and April. In the mountains, the average annual precipitation is 1,000 mm, and in deserts and semi-deserts - 100 mm.
Rivers and lakes
In the north of Afghanistan flows the Amu Darya River, the tributaries of which are lost in the Hindu Kush. In general, many Afghan rivers are replenished by water flows from the mountains. Other large Afghan rivers are the Harirud (flowing from the central part of the country to the west, forming the border with Iran there), Helmand, Farakhrud, Kabul and Khashrud. By the way, the Kabul River crosses the border with Pakistan and then flows into the Indus River.
Afghan lakes are small in size. Of these, lakes Zarkol (bordering Tajikistan), Shiveh in Badakhshan and salt lake Istadeh-ye Moqor, located south of Ghazni.
Afghan culture
Afghanistan is made up of different ethical groups. Therefore, the culture of this country is very diverse.
One of the most important holidays for Afghans is Nowruz, but this is understandable, because... they are mostly Muslim (some experts argue that Nowruz is not a Muslim holiday). In general, Afghans celebrate all the main Islamic holidays - Mawlid-an-Nabi, Eid al-Ada and Eid al-Fitr (we have already mentioned Navruz).
Many Afghan holidays are domestic in nature (they are celebrated with family).
Kitchen
Afghanistan is home to Pashtuns, Tajiks and Uzbeks. This means that Afghan cuisine is a fusion of the culinary traditions of these three peoples. In addition, Indian influence is evident in Afghan cuisine. It was from India that spices (saffron, coriander, cardamom and black pepper) came to Afghanistan. Afghans prefer dishes that are not too spicy and not too hot.
The most popular dishes among Afghans are Qabli Pulao (boiled rice with carrots, raisins and lamb), Kabab (lamb kebab), Qorma (meat with vegetables and fruits), Mantu dumplings, Shorma soup. By the way, Afghans love to eat Qorma with Chalow rice. There are three types of bread in Afghanistan - Naan, Obi Naan and Lavash.
An integral part of the Afghan diet is fresh and dried fruits (grapes, apricots, melons, plums, pomegranates, various berries).
Traditional non-alcoholic drinks - kefir, whey, tea.
Sights of Afghanistan
In ancient times, the territory of modern Afghanistan was part of some of the most ancient states in the world. The ancient Greeks, led by Alexander the Great, reached these lands (and conquered them). Unfortunately, due to numerous wars, many Afghan historical and cultural monuments have already been irretrievably lost. However, this country still has unique attractions. The Top 10 most interesting Afghan attractions, in our opinion, may include the following:
- Wazir Akbar Khan Mosque in Kabul
- Sherpur Mosque in Kabul
- Ghazni Fortress
- Mausoleum of Timur Shah in Kabul
- Fort in Nuristan
- Puli Khishti Mosque in Kabul
- Tomb of Ahmad Shah Masood in Panjshir
- Mausoleum of Emir Abdurrahman in Kabul
- Ruins of the Takhti-Pul mosque in Balkh
- Palace of Emir Habibullah near Kabul
Cities and resorts
The most big cities in Afghanistan - Herat, Kandahar, Mazar-i-Sharif, Jalalabad, Kutznduz and, of course, the capital - Kabul.
Afghanistan has excellent conditions for mountaineering and rock climbing. In the northeast of the country there is Mount Nushak, which is part of mountain system Hindu Kush. Many climbers dream of conquering this peak, but due to the political situation this is not yet possible.
Several years ago, the Afghan authorities opened the Abi-Wakhan mountain route, which runs through the territory of the picturesque gorge of the same name. Once upon a time, a section of this route was part of the Great Silk Road. However, tourists are not in a hurry to come to Afghanistan yet.
Souvenirs/shopping
From Afghanistan, foreigners usually bring handicrafts, carpets, Afghan sheepskin coats, national men's clothing, knives, etc.
Office hours
Banks and shops in Afghanistan are open from Monday to Thursday (some are also open on Fridays). Stores in different regions Afghanistan have their own working hours.
