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the guerrilla resistance exposed its weaknesses as
a superpower and contributed to the growing
disenchantment with the government in the
final decade of Soviet power. Close to 50,000
Soviet soldiers were killed in the war that lasted
a decade, until the Soviet Union fully withdrew
its troops in February 1989. The Soviets contin-
ued to support the Communist government led
by Najibullah, but it was a losing battle. In 1992,
the Mujahideen entered the capital city, Kabul,
and established an Islamic state. Four years later,
as the victorious guerrilla coalition fragmented, a
more radical Islamic group known as the Taliban
seized power in Kabul, which it held until 2001.
Throughout the 1990s Russia continued to sup-
port regional chiefs or warlords in the northern
parts of Afghanistan in opposition to Islamic
governments.
sack) traveled through the Don and Kuban
regions from April to July 1920. Several agit-
steamers operated during these years, the most
notable being the
Krasnaia Zvezda
(Red Star),
which sailed with Lenin's wife, Nadezhda
KRUP
-
SKAYA
, on board along the
VOLGA
and Kama
Rivers from July 1919 to the fall of 1921. Of all
the activities the agit-trains performed, the show-
ing of agitation films (
agitki
) to a largely illiterate
population probably had the most impact. Over 2
million people attended the cinema screenings
shown on board. At a time of weak links between
the center and provinces, these trains and steam-
ers proved immensely valuable in bringing news
of Soviet power to the countryside, strengthen-
ing local party organs, and mobilizing people and
material aid for the fronts.
Aitmatov, Chingiz Torekulovich
(1928-
“agit-trains”
Common name (Russian,
agitpoezd
) for the agita-
tion trains—there were also agitation steamers—
widely used by the
BOLSHEVIKS
for organizational
and propaganda work during the Russian civil
war. In czarist times trains with religious infor-
mation were dispatched to the countryside, but it
was the Bolsheviks who developed their propa-
ganda and creative potential to a far greater
degree. Most trains and steamers were equipped
with a bookshop, printing press, meeting room,
and film projector. They also had a radio trans-
mitter-receiver to receive the latest information
from
MOSCOW
. The first agit-train, named after V.
I.
LENIN
, left Moscow toward
KAZAN
in August
1918, and later traveled to Ukraine, Belorussia,
and Lithuania. Other trains with prominent
Soviet officials on board followed. The
October
Revolution,
with the future Soviet president
Mikhail Kalinin on board, made over 12 trips to
central Russia, Ukraine, the northern Caucasus,
and Siberia in 1919-20. The
Krasnyi Vostok
(Red
East) operated in Turkestan in March 1920, the
Sovetskii Kavkaz
(Soviet Caucasus) worked in the
northern Caucasus and Azerbaijan from July to
October 1920, and the
Krasnyi Kazak
(Red Cos-
)
writer
A bilingual writer, writing in his native Kirgiz
(Kyrgyz) and Russian, Aitmatov first established
his reputation in the
BREZHNEV
era and played an
important liberalizing role in the literary politics
of the
GORBACHEV
years. Born in the mountain
village of Sheker in Kirgizia, Aitmatov com-
pleted only six years of school before becoming
secretary of his village's soviet and a tax collector
at the age of 14. He graduated in 1953 from vet-
erinary school and worked on an experimental
farm, but literature was already pulling him in
another direction. He first published in 1952,
became first secretary of the Union of Kyrgyz
writers in 1964, and was elected to the Kyrgyz
Academy of Sciences in 1974. He achieved
Soviet and international prominence through
his story
Dzamilia
in 1958, which chronicles the
struggle of a Kyrgyz woman to choose her hus-
band herself rather than follow tradition and
have him presented to her. His collection of
short stories,
Tales of the Mountains and Steppes
(1962), introduced local myths and values. He
was elected deputy to the USSR Supreme Soviet
in 1966. The following year he was elected to
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