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WAR IS FINISHED! - Poster from Soviet occupied Afghanistan. |
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In
the 1980's the U.S. government trained, financed,
and armed the Mujahideen Islamic Guerillas of Afghanistan
to resist the Soviet invasion of their homeland. Today that
training and those sophisticated weapons have come back
to haunt the United States in what is being called "blow-back."
While
the CIA was busy training the forerunners of today's
hated Taliban, others were waging a different
type of warfare. Vincanzo Sparagna and Savik Shuster
were two journalists working for the monthly Italian magazine,
Frigidaire. In 1984 the mischievous pair decided
to have a bit of fun at the expense of the Soviet occupiers
of Afghanistan. Sparagna
and Shuster printed a mock version of the official
Red Army newspaper, "Red Star", and distributed
it in Afghanistan right under the very noses of the Soviet
occupation troops!
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Working
clandestinely for three months, the journalists pulled together
a team that would create the Russian language parody edition
of Red Star. Russian writer Natalia Gorbanievskaia
wrote the text, and an artist was commissioned to provide
the central Illustration that appeared on the paper's cover
(shown above). That drawing portrayed a rugged Soviet soldier
kneeling in the snow of Afghanistan, breaking his Kalashnikov
rifle over his knee, while yelling:"THE WAR IS FINISHED!
LET'S GO HOME!"
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The
real Red Star journal was flown into the Afghan
capitol of Kabul each morning from the Soviet Union,
and then distributed by plane to Soviet garrisons all over
the occupied country. Read daily by Soviet troops, the publication
kept soldiers in touch with news from the frontlines as
well as on the homefront. After
printing over 7,000 copies of their parody broadsheet, Sparagna
and Shuster then spent some time along the Afghan border
in nearby Peshawar, Pakistan. They wanted to make
arrangements for the distribution of their newspaper in
all of the Soviet occupied zones of Afghanistan.
They
made contact with the soldiers of the Islamic National
Front, The Islamic Party, and Hezbi Islami,
whose commander, Abdul Khak, assured them safe passage
into zones he controlled. It was agreed that Hezbi Islami
soldiers would post and distribute the broadsheets (pictured
above), while Sparagna and Shuster would photograph the
efforts. Mujahideen soldiers would go into battle with their
rocket propelled grenades and Kalashnikov rifles... but
they would also be armed with a strange new weapon... bundles
of fake Red Army newspapers! Assistance was also offered
by the many young people in Kabul who operated in the clandestine
resistance.
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Excerpts
from the fake paper read: "The extraordinary
special edition of Red Star that you have in your hands
is absolutely without precedent. Until today this newspaper
was completely written and directed by the Communist Party.
Today, it is a group of many soldiers, coming from all the
principal garrisons of the Soviet Union which has written
these pages. Brothers! Soldiers! The news which comes to
us from Afghanistan and all the areas of the Soviet Union
fills us with joy. The war of invasion is finished! There's
unexpected peace in Afghanistan! The government of Babrak
Karmal is in exile. Soviet and Mujahideen troops are fraternizing!
Comrades, our true enemy finally sleeps! Destroy your weapons
and let us return home. The war is finished!"
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The
Soviet occupiers fought hard during the day, but were obliged
to live in their garrisons, tanks, and fortified compounds
at night when the Mujahideen fighters would come out of
hiding. While Soviet troops were holed-up in their bunkers
during the evenings, Hezbi Islami had free reign to post
the broadsheets. Since the movement of Soviet troops was
fairly restricted because of guerilla activity... the papers
were posted where Red Army soldiers were sure to see them...
that is, around government buildings, close to well traveled
roads, even near guard posts and machine gun nests. Time
and again, Soviet perimeters were penetrated by those willing
to post the parody newspapers... a risky operation to say
the least.
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While
only a parody, the broadside expressed the desires of many
Soviet soldiers... enough of massacres, bombings, and endless
killings, let's go home. Not only that, but some
Afghan troops who had fought for the Soviet puppet government
of Babrak Karmal began to defect... and they carried
copies of the parody poster as they surrendered to resistance
fighters (pictured at left).
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Sparagna
and Shuster claimed their "prank" was their project
and theirs alone. We may never know if the pair were truly
independent or on the payroll of some intelligence agency
out to undermine the Soviets... but one thing is certain,
their parody Red Star newspaper had a tremendous effect
upon history. The paper was printed in Russian for distribution
in Afghanistan, but it was also distributed in the former
Soviet Union itself. Magazine articles on the parody paper
appeared in France (Actuel) Austria (Wiener)
Italy (Current, Frigidare) and Spain (Interviu).
It's
amazing how events are woven into our lives. Back in 1984
I acquired a copy of the French magazine ACTUEL (the
source material for this essay), never dreaming that the
Soviet empire would be broken on the craggy mountains of
Afghanistan, or that one day U.S. troops would attempt to
do what Soviet troops couldn't. My faded old copy of Actuel
has been sitting in a storage box since 1984. As U.S. bombs
began falling on Afghanistan and American troops occupied
the country... my memory was jarred and I searched for that
long forgotten storage box. Pulling out that ragged magazine
and staring at the art of the Soviet soldier breaking his
automatic rifle, I thought out loud... "Somebody tell
me this war will be different."
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