No they didn't. The lost only in the narratives of Western propagandists.

Of course the Western MSM will happily tell you the story of how the cunning and brave Fedyaeen (spelling?) Went full "starwars rebels" and waged this masterful irregular war against the Russian Juggernaut ultimately driving them out of Afghanistan with their tails between their legs like rebel heros. All while happily omitting that these Muslim fighters were CIA-organized, Military Industrial Complex Equipped, and Osama Bin Laden led. And more on that later...

Thing is the Russian did their usual Juggernaut, and pushed the Fedyaeen out of all the territory they were interested in, in the region. They they merrily built a series of Red Army bases to then consolidate their holdings. Thing was the formal government of Afghanistan (well before they were crazy Taliban), then a Russian ally, then demanded they leave. The Russians told them that "those crazy Arabs in the hills will kill you. But no the formal government insisted. So they voluntarily left, back to the their bases. They then merrily sipped vodka and watched as the Arabs led by the CIA "asset" OBL ripped Afghanistan apart, killed the entire government, then most of the population, and turned the country into a lawless hellscape that was a perfect terrorist hiding ground.

The Russians held those bases until the collapse of the Soviet Union. At no point were they ever militarily driven out of land the Red Army captured. Even during the war, The Soviets handily won every engagement, and never gave up a mile of ground. Sure they had a few helicopters get shot down, some takes blown up. But these are Russians, if they had somehow lost 50% of their fighting force, they wouldn't have even slowed down. They would have just shown up with thousands more tanks rushed off factories around Moscow, and just kept advancing. Remember the Russians never had, and honesty still don't have, an MIC. The built their military hardware at-cost, and every bit of it was designed to get MOST function per ruble spent. Sure every single piece was only "good enough" but they would have 10 for every 1 their enemies build. So they could pump out 10,000 tanks like the US would build 10,000 cars, they only real difference being the tanks took a bit more steel. Sure Command economies have their many, many problems...but one of the big, big benefits is the ability to pump out eye-wateringly huge counts of military hardware for pennes in comparison to what the West spends with their Capitalism for-profit MIC. So deapite what a CNN "documentary" might tell you, the Fedyaeen amounted to being mosquito bites to the Russian bear at most.

AS for Osama, we all know what he would end up doing after the Union collapsed. Its very worthwhile to note that during the Afghan War he 100% was a CIA asset in the region and worked closely with the agency. He was after all the US's key to attempting to proxy war in the region. Its almost absurd to think he ever stopped being one. And honestly seeing HOW bigly his actions benefited the Military Industrial Complex, its not hard to think he was an "asset" all the way up until his demise.

Ans lastly this war DIDN'T contribute to the collapse of the Union, at least not directly. The Union "collapsed" because as I mentioned Gorbachev got into a political fight with hard-line Soviets inside the USSR's government, and ultimately passed a resolution to disband the USSR after a coup attempt came within like 10 minutes of successfully killing him, taking over the Union and tripling down on the Cold War. He was quoted as saying that he did with full intent because he knew they would succeed, and thus straight killed the USSR so they couldn't have it.

No they didn't. The lost only in the narratives of Western propagandists.

Of course the Western MSM will happily tell you the story of how the cunning and brave Fedyaeen (spelling?) Went full "starwars rebels" and waged this masterful irregular war against the Russian Juggernaut ultimately driving them out of Afghanistan with their tails between their legs like rebel heros. All while happily omitting that these Muslim fighters were CIA-organized, Military Industrial Complex Equipped, and Osama Bin Laden led. And more on that later...

Thing is the Russian did their usual Juggernaut, and pushed the Fedyaeen out of all the territory they were interested in, in the region. They they merrily built a series of Red Army bases to then consolidate their holdings. Thing was the formal government of Afghanistan (well before they were crazy Taliban), then a Russian ally, then demanded they leave. The Russians told them that "those crazy Arabs in the hills will kill you. But no the formal government insisted. So they voluntarily left, back to the their bases. They then merrily sipped vodka and watched as the Arabs led by the CIA "asset" OBL ripped Afghanistan apart, killed the entire government, then most of the population, and turned the country into a lawless hellscape that was a perfect terrorist hiding ground.

The Russians held those bases until the collapse of the Soviet Union. At no point were they ever militarily driven out of land the Red Army captured. Even during the war, The Soviets handily won every engagement, and never gave up a mile of ground. Sure they had a few helicopters get shot down, some takes blown up. But these are Russians, if they had somehow lost 50% of their fighting force, they wouldn't have even slowed down. They would have just shown up with thousands more tanks rushed off factories around Moscow, and just kept advancing. Remember the Russians never had, and honesty still don't have, an MIC. The built their military hardware at-cost, and every bit of it was designed to get MOST function per ruble spent. Sure every single piece was only "good enough" but they would have 10 for every 1 their enemies build. So they could pump out 10,000 tanks like the US would build 10,000 cars, they only real difference being the tanks took a bit more steel. Sure Command economies have their many, many problems...but one of the big, big benefits is the ability to pump out eye-wateringly huge counts of military hardware for pennes in comparison to what the West spends with their Capitalism for-profit MIC. So deapite what a CNN "documentary" might tell you, the Fedyaeen amounted to being mosquito bites to the Russian bear at most.

AS for Osma, we all know what he would end up doing after the Union collapsed. Its very wothwhile to note that during the Afghan War he 100% was a CIA asset in the region and worked closely with the agency. Its almost absurd to think he ever stopped being one. And honestly seeing HOW bigly his actions benefited the Military Industrial Complex, its not hard to think he was an "asset" all the way up until his demise.