Finissage - Afghanistan, Graveyard of Empires: The Soviet War

September 17, 2017, 6:00 p.m.

Afghanistan, Graveyard of Empires: The Soviet War exhibition

Curatorial tour by András Mink, Historian, Vera and Donald Blinken Open Society Archives

English language tour by Zammis Schein (Sándor Mesterházy), Private Collector

Galeria Centralis, Vera and Donald Blinken Open Society Archives

1051 Budapest, Arany János utca 32.

The Soviet intervention in Afghanistan unleashed the last major international armed struggle of the Cold War period. Retrospectively, it seems paradoxical since Afghanistan had never been a central area of the Cold War before this conflict broke out. The Soviet leadership was initially reluctant to intervene and indeed, it proved to be a fatal decision in every way. It brought a bloody war to Afghanistan with an appalling toll of human life and great suffering. The moral, political, financial and military strain also contributed to a great extent to the collapse of the Soviet empire. In addition, the Soviet intervention reduced the Afghan state to chaos, and the disastrous global consequences of this state failure are still unresolved.