A War of Liberation
The Soviet people were told that in fact this action was about the liberation of the Afghan communists. Soviet people were used to this type of reasoning from earlier actions in Vietnam, Nicaragua, Cuba and Eastern Europe. In fact many of these actions were a source of pride for Soviet citizens. Under Soviet ideology it was imperative to defend and proliferate any exsisting communist state. This reasoning worked well until the information of Soviet atrocites came to light even within USSR borders.
A Battle Against Islamic Extremism
In the face of rising intensity of the conflict and news of Soviet attrocities, the government began to portray the war as a war against Islamic fundamentalism. This was a perfect tactic for two basic reasons. First of all, by saying that the Afghans were Islamic fundamentalists, the Soviet government was excusing the attrocities that were committed by Soviet soldiers in Afghanistan. The reasoning for this being that, if the soldiers are fighting a fundamentalist foe that is employing extreme measures, the Soviet soldiers should not be blamed for answering in kind. The second reason takes us back to Soviet ideology. Atheism was one of the base teachings of Soviet communism. Therefore, the fundamentally religious Afghans were "wrong" and should be saved from their own ignorance. This is an interesting twist on history, as the reason that most invaders gave for ivasion was to bring religion to a "godless" people. These reasons are not as groundless as they may seem. In fact the Soviet government did have real fear of having an extremist government directly on the Soviet border. Having such a country on the border would bring further instability to an already ethnically tense group of republics (Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Georgia, Turkmenistan, etc.) Therefore, by invading Afghanistan, and creating a stable communist block, the USSR would have buffer zone from the changing Middle East (Pakistan and Iran).
Geopolitical Reasons
1) By creating a stable communist government in Afghanistan, the USSR hoped to gain access to the Indian Ocean through friendly India. Russia desperately needed a warm weather port that opened onto a major ocean. This would provide year-round access to important trade routes and it would also increase the USSR's naval presence.
2) Control of Afghanistan would open easier trade with India and its huge population, as well as trade with the Middle East. By creating this huge trading block, the USSR would rival the trading power of the Western block countries.
3) Afghanistan is also known to contain a number of natural resources, (natural gas, uranium, iron ore, and copper) that the Soviets would have loved to have gained control over.
The previous reasons seem imperialistic as well as anit Marxsist-Leninist ideology, which is correct due to the fact that the USSR was indeed an imperialistic government despite its proclaimed ideology.
Use of Soviet Forces
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A large part of maintaining a super-power
status is demonstrating military might as well as the willingness to use
this power. Afghanistan seemed to be the perfect place to demonstrate Soviet
might. Prior to the time of the Afghanistan invasion, the USSR had not
been directly involved in any large scale military action for quite some
time. The Soviets thought that a small scale engagement in Afghanistan,
could be used as a prooving ground for a new generation of soldiers and
military equipment. They
were unaware of the fact that this would be no small scale engagment, nor
would it prove the compitence of either Soviet soldiers, nor that of USSR
military equipment.
After it became obvious that the invasion
of Afghanistan would not be an easy endeavor, the Soivets could not pull
out their forces, due to the early losses of Soviet soldiers. Pulling out
without accomplishing the set goals would seem like a waste of the already
lost lives.
