Successive wars for control over Afghanistan, beginning with the Great Game of the 19th century and continuing with the Soviet invasion and the U.S.-led war against the Taliban, have left behind a landscape that is both stark and striking. Rostyslav Khotin of RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service recently traveled to Afghanistan to see what clues the Kremlin's 1979-89 occupation might hold for Ukraine's own conflict with Russia.
Afghanistan: Life In A Historical Battlefield
![The Afghan capital Kabul viewed from a neighboring hilltop. ](https://gdb.rferl.org/4b0c31c6-638d-4b31-8e01-2d892c70a0ce_w1024_q10_s.jpg)
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The Afghan capital Kabul viewed from a neighboring hilltop.
![The tomb of Afghan King Nadir Shah, who was assassinated in 1933. The renovated shrine stands on Maranjan Hill overlooking eastern Kabul. A NATO surveillance airship can be seen just overhead.](https://gdb.rferl.org/f03b3fa0-88fb-422b-8824-96219242039e_w1024_q10_s.jpg)
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The tomb of Afghan King Nadir Shah, who was assassinated in 1933. The renovated shrine stands on Maranjan Hill overlooking eastern Kabul. A NATO surveillance airship can be seen just overhead.
![An Afghan boy herding a flock of sheep. ](https://gdb.rferl.org/2ed2bfaf-4aa3-43eb-88c0-a5b3004147ff_w1024_q10_s.jpg)
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An Afghan boy herding a flock of sheep.
![Public portraits of former mujahedin fighters remain a common fixture in Kabul. Here, Mohammad Fahid, Burhanuddin Rabbani, and Ahmad Shah Masud. ](https://gdb.rferl.org/f1833074-45d4-4c0e-8f78-61019fd217c9_w1024_q10_s.jpg)
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Public portraits of former mujahedin fighters remain a common fixture in Kabul. Here, Mohammad Fahid, Burhanuddin Rabbani, and Ahmad Shah Masud.
![Women wearing all-encompassing burqas are seen mainly in Afghan villages and poor city outskirts. ](https://gdb.rferl.org/92cb8c37-fe56-4292-b4bf-baac2f2583ec_w1024_q10_s.jpg)
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Women wearing all-encompassing burqas are seen mainly in Afghan villages and poor city outskirts.
![Toilet paper, alcohol-free beer and Pop Tarts -- some of the products up for sale at Kabul's Bush Bazaar, formerly known as the Brezhnev Bazaar during the Soviet occupation. ](https://gdb.rferl.org/96ed5403-56a6-4025-ae58-4fe3293b4caf_w1024_q10_s.jpg)
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Toilet paper, alcohol-free beer and Pop Tarts -- some of the products up for sale at Kabul's Bush Bazaar, formerly known as the Brezhnev Bazaar during the Soviet occupation.
![A typical Afghan village, where houses are built on hilltops from stone, clay, or concrete. ](https://gdb.rferl.org/7b7b6665-7ee9-48a3-84bf-bc3bb5f8f913_w1024_q10_s.jpg)
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A typical Afghan village, where houses are built on hilltops from stone, clay, or concrete.
![Some of Afghanistan's earliest European explorers described Kabul as "paradise" because of the sound of birds singing in local gardens. Here, an Afghan man selling finches at a market. ](https://gdb.rferl.org/aefb62d3-5079-4ae3-b3a7-9281e303a345_w1024_q10_s.jpg)
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Some of Afghanistan's earliest European explorers described Kabul as "paradise" because of the sound of birds singing in local gardens. Here, an Afghan man selling finches at a market.
![A U.S. military vehicle outside Bagram Air Base. ](https://gdb.rferl.org/0131341e-a7c2-4d85-9ab0-abd9f5f25fca_w1024_q10_s.jpg)
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A U.S. military vehicle outside Bagram Air Base.
![Afghanistan remains littered with the hulls of Soviet tanks destroyed by mujahedin fighters during the 1979-89 occupation. ](https://gdb.rferl.org/31fef03b-b3e1-4702-867d-3546ba040b2d_w1024_q10_s.jpg)
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Afghanistan remains littered with the hulls of Soviet tanks destroyed by mujahedin fighters during the 1979-89 occupation.