Releases Amin’s womenfolk 104
Replaces Babrak Karmal 143, 275
Requests Soviet military support 296
Seeks asylum with UN 301
Tells military advisers to leave 301
Worried about divergence of interests with Soviets 285
Writes bitterly to Shevardnadze 299
Nargez, Afghan wife of Andrei Olenin 260
National Reconciliation, policy of Najibullah government 53, 143, 241, 275–6, 279, 299
Nekrasov Vyacheslav, youth adviser 166–8, 171, 285
Nikiforov Sergei, soldier 172, 254
Oerlikon, Swiss anti-aircraft gun 203
Ogarkov General Nikolai, Soviet Chief of General Staff 1977–84 48, 55, 74–5, 77, 80, 229
Okhrimiuk Yevgeni, adviser kidnapped and murdered 160
Okudzhava Bulat, popular Soviet singer 192
Olenin Aleksei, Russian convert to Islam 259–60
Olney Warren, Union Army 1, 180
Olympic boycott 113
Operation
Operation
Operation
Operational Group of the Ministry of Defence 84–5, 88, 141, 185, 243
Orenburg, Russian city 20–23
Orgyadro, local government cadre 222
Ostrovenko Yevgeni, Russian ambassador, Kabul 1992 301–2
Otradnoe, Russian village 260
Oxus River
Paghman, Afghan town 34
Pakistan 232, 281, 296
Paktia, Afghan province 53, 183
Pandjeh oasis, sparks Anglo-Russian crisis 27
Pandsher Valley
Civilian population returns 187
Description 216
Soviet operations in 142, 215, 217
Lion of Pandsher 184
Panjshiri, Afghan Communist politician 95
Parcham, faction in Afghan Communist party 31, 38, 40, 42–3, 53, 60, 275
Partition of India, 1947 24
Pashanin, Soviet soldier captured by mujahedin 211–12
Pastukhov Boris, Soviet ambassador, Kabul 1989–91 304
Paul I, Russian Tsar 19
Pavlovski General Ivan, leads mission to Afghanistan, 1979 55
Payman S, Afghan Interior Minister 101
Peck Rory, British journalist 258
People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan 17, 30, 37
Perovski General Vasili, governor of Orenburg 1833–42 21–2
Pershing II missiles 47, 78
Peshawar—Afghan city annexed by Sikhs in 1834 24
Peter the Great—sends expedition to Khiva 18
Petrovski General Vasili, abortive campaign against Khiva 1839 22
Petrushenko Colonel Nikolai, critic of Gorbachev 309
Pipeline 207
Pitirim Metropolitan, critic of Gorbachev 317
Plassey, British victory 1757 19
Plastun Vladimir, expert on Afghanistan, criticises war 245
Poklonnaya Gora war memorial 324, 326
Pol Pot, Cambodian despot 44
Politburo (Afghan) 40
Politburo (Soviet) 47, 50, 52
Abandons attempt to build socialism in Afghanistan 278
Committee on Afghanistan 60, 272
Considers Geneva negotiations 281
Decides on invasion 77
Discusses Herat Rising 7, 45
Discusses withdrawal 270, 277, 279
Pleas to spare Taraki ignored 69
Preliminary decisions to send troops 76
Rejects Najibullah’s call for an air strike 296
Tries to keep war secret 235
Ponomarev, head of Communist Party International Department 52, 74, 171, 173, 181, 199, 211
Member of Committee on Afghanistan 60
Potemkin Prince Grigori (1739–91), Catherine the Great’s adviser and lover 19
PPZh, ‘field service wife’ 158
Primakov Yevgeni (1929–), Russian politician 29, 303
Prokhanov Alexander, Soviet writer 129, 231
Propaganda
Civilian casualty figures often exaggerated 331
Soviet propaganda 242–3
West exploits fate of Soviet deserters 259
Western propaganda 112, 234, 259, 332
PTSD, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder 319
Public attitudes to the war
More information available under Gorbachev 245
Pul-i Charkhi prison 39–40, 44, 67, 76, 104, 227, 275
Pul-i Khumri logistics base 205
Pushtu language 13, 101, 151, 153
Pushtun ethnic group 13–14, 201, 276
Pushtunistan 28
Putin Vladimir (1952–), Russian President 312, 318, 324