Afganskai︠a︡ voĭna Stalina

For the USSR the Afghan war broke out not only in 1979, when the soviet troops came into Afghanistan, but 60 years earlier. Lenin already called that country a "key to Central Asia". Trotsky claimed that the way of the Red cavalry lies through India and Afghanistan. And Stalin did not spare forces or means for protection of the soviet interest in the region. Battle for Afghanistan was a great secret war, which involved not only the USSR, but Britain, the Third Reich and the USA, too. It lasted during the XXth century and still has not come to the end.