Soviets and Taliban simply "emboldened people further". After the defeat of the Taliban in 2001, the valley was promoted from a district to a province. It's one of Afghanistan's smallest.

The wars were in the future — but they weren't very far off. When the Soviets invaded less than two decades later, it would hasten Afghanistan's path towards becoming a very different country.

The war has not reached the Wakhan Corridor since the Soviets left 30 years ago. The Wakhi and Kyrgyz who know of the outside world fear that the Taliban may soon try to move in.

The Soviet intervention underscored Afghanistan’s strategic importance as the fulcrum of great power politics. Pakistan ...

The Soviets have said that their last soldiers will be out of Afghanistan within a week. Report shows canon being fired and Soviet aircraft. Soviet troops on tanks. A group of civilians queuing ...