The Badaber uprising (26–27 April 1985, Badaber,

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

) was an armed rebellion by

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

and Afghan

prisoners of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of war for a ...

who were being held at the Badaber fortress near

Peshawar Peshawar is the capital and List of cities in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa by population, largest city of the Administrative units of Pakistan, Pakistani province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. It is the sixth most populous city of Pakistan, with a district p ...

. The prisoners fought the

Afghan Mujahideen The Afghan ''mujahideen'' (; ; ) were Islamist militant groups that fought against the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan and the Soviet Union during the Soviet–Afghan War and the subsequent Afghan Civil War (1989–1992), First Afghan Ci ...

of the Jamiat-e Islami party (who were supported by the Pakistani XI Corps and American CIA advisors) in an attempt to escape.

Background

The Badaber fortress, 24 km south of

, was a military training centre of the Afghan

Mujahideen ''Mujahideen'', or ''Mujahidin'' (), is the plural form of ''mujahid'' (), an Arabic term that broadly refers to people who engage in ''jihad'' (), interpreted in a jurisprudence of Islam as the fight on behalf of God, religion or the commun ...

who opposed Soviet presence in Afghanistan. The Mujahideen were trained by military instructors from the United States ( Operation Cyclone) and Pakistan. The fortress was controlled by the Tajik-dominated Jamiat-e Islami party.

Burhanuddin Rabbani Burhānuddīn Rabbānī (; 20 September 1940 – 20 September 2011) was an Afghanistan, Afghan politician and teacher who served as the sixth president of Afghanistan from 1992 to 1996, and again from November to December 2001 (in exile from 199 ...

was the party leader and self-declared president of Afghanistan. The military commander of the fortress was

Ahmad Shah Massoud Ahmad Shāh Massoud (2 September 19539 September 2001) was an Afghan militant leader and politician. He was a guerrilla commander during the resistance against the Soviet occupation during the Soviet–Afghan War from 1979 to 1989. In the 19 ...

. In 1983 and 1984, Soviet and

Democratic Republic of Afghanistan The Democratic Republic of Afghanistan, later known as the Republic of Afghanistan, was the Afghan state between History of Afghanistan (1978–1992), 1978 and 1992. It was bordered by Pakistan to the east and south, by Iran to the west, by the ...

(DRA) prisoners were brought to the fortress from holding cells ('' zindans''). The prisoners were forced to perform hard labour, for example, quarrying and loading ordnance. In 1985, 12 Soviet ('' shuravi'') and 40 Afghan prisoners were held at the Badaber fortress.Shkurlatov R
"АРХИВ: Последнее па Пешаварского вальса."
''Bratishka '', July 2006. Pahmutov S
"Бадабера: неизвестный подвиг".
''Фонд "Русская Цивилизация"'', 25 April 2005. Elistratov I
"Восстание в Бадабере: в поисках истины."
''Smolensk'', July 2007.

Uprising

On 26 April 1985, at about 6 pm, only two of seventy Mujahideen guards were on duty. The others were gathered at the drill square for evening prayers ('' namaz''). In an uprising, prisoners entered the fortress armory, took weapons and ammunition, and tried to escape. Some may have tried to capture the fortress' radio center to report their location. However, the head guard, Haist Gol, raised the alarm and prevented the escape of the prisoners. The prisoners did seize key locations within the fortress. Afghan Mujahideen, Pakistani infantry and tank units, and artillery forces of the XI Corps blockaded the fortress. Several attempts to recapture the fortress were repelled by the prisoners. At 9 pm,

, arrived at the base and negotiated with the prisoners. He suggested they surrender and their lives would be spared. The prisoners demanded a meeting with the Soviet and Afghan

ambassador An ambassador is an official envoy, especially a high-ranking diplomat who represents a state and is usually accredited to another sovereign state or to an international organization as the resident representative of their own government or so ...

s to Pakistan and representatives from the

International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement The organized International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is a Humanitarianism, humanitarian movement with approximately 16million volunteering, volunteers, members, and staff worldwide. It was founded to protect human life and health, to ...

. The prisoners threatened to ignite the armory if their demands were not met. Rabbani rejected the prisoners' demands and fighting continued. On 27 April 1985 at around 8am, Rabbani's bodyguard was wounded by rockets fired by the prisoners. Rabbani prepared to attack the fortress using rockets (

9K51 Grad The BM-21 "Grad" () is a Self-propelled artillery, self-propelled 122 mm multiple rocket launcher designed in the Soviet Union. The system and the M-21OF rocket were first developed in the early 1960s, and saw their first combat use in Marc ...

), tanks, and

Pakistan Air Force The Pakistan Air Force (PAF) (; ) is the aerial warfare branch of the Pakistan Armed Forces, tasked primarily with the aerial defence of Pakistan, with a secondary role of providing air support to the Pakistan Army and Pakistan Navy when re ...

helicopters. The uprising ended when the fortress was destroyed by an explosion. It is believed that the explosion was caused by the POWs themselves, destroying a large cache of weapons. Any survivors of the explosion were dragged to the walls and killed.Andryuhin V
"Восстание поверженных."
Новое дело. Accessed 8 September 2009. Kirichenko E
"Восставшие в аду Бадабера."
'' Trud Newspaper''. Accessed 3 May 2007.

Casualties

The identities of the prisoners are uncertain, including all 40 of the Afghan casualties. One was Nikolay Saminj, a Soviet forces junior sergeant, who was posthumously awarded Kazakhstan's Order of Valor, 3rd degree on 12 December 2003."Герои Бадабера."
''

Moskovskij Komsomolets ''Moskovskij Komsomolets'' (''MK''; ) is a Moscow-based daily newspaper with a circulation approaching one million, covering general news. Founded in 1919, it is famed for its topical reporting on Russian politics and society. History The news ...

''. Accessed 27 April 2005. Pryanikov V
"Неоконченная война."
''Казахстанская Правда''. Accessed 19 February 2004. Another was Alexandr Zverkovich, a Soviet forces private, who was posthumously memorialised on the 10th anniversary of the withdrawal of the Soviet Army from Afghanistan.Kirichenko E
"Восставшие в аду Бадабера."
'' Trud''. Accessed 10 May 2007. Malishevkiy N. ''РЭСПУБЛІКА''. Accessed 3 June 2006. "Рядовой Зверкович поднял восстание в Пакистане."
''Komsomolskaya Pravda v Belorussii''. Accessed 26 April 2007. According to Russian sources, between 100 and 120 Afghan Mujahideen were killed, between 40 and 90 regular Pakistani military. The Badaber fortress, its armory and its ordnance (including three 9K51 Grad multiple rocket launchers, thousands of shells and rockets, approximately forty cannons, mortars, 2 million rounds of ammunition and machine guns), and its chancellery, including a list of the prisoners, were destroyed. Soviet satellite data from 28 April 1985 showed an 80 m crater at the site.

Aftermath

On 29 April 1985,

Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq (12 August 192417 August 1988) was a Pakistani military officer and statesman who served as the sixth president of Pakistan from 1978 until Death of Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, his death in an airplane crash in 1988. He also se ...

, the President of Pakistan, classified all information related to the uprising.

Gulbuddin Hekmatyar Gulbuddin Hekmatyar (born 1 August 1949) is an Afghan politician, and former mujahideen leader and drug trafficker. He is the founder and current leader of the Hezb-e-Islami Gulbuddin political party, so called after Mohammad Yunus Khalis spl ...

, the head of the Hezbi Islami, said:

Do not capture ''shuravi'' (Persian term for the word "Soviet") soldiers in the future, but annihilate them at the taking place.

Yousaf Mohammad, a colonel in the Pakistani

Inter-Services Intelligence The Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) is the premier Pakistani Intelligence community, intelligence agency of Pakistan. It is responsible for gathering, processing, and analyzing any information from around the world that is deemed relevant t ...

service said:

he incidentcould quickly get out of hand, or lead to international confrontation.Pleshkevich V
"Yousaf Mohammad. Badaber."
Art of War website. Details of the uprising were suppressed in Pakistan until 1992 when six names of participants in the uprising were handed to Alexander Rutskoy by
Shahryar Khan Shahryar Mohammad Khan (; 29 March 1934 – 23 March 2024) was a Pakistani career diplomat who became Foreign Secretary of Pakistan in 1990, and remained so until his retirement from service in 1994. He later served as United Nations Special Re ...
, the deputy minister of foreign affairs of Pakistan.

On 9 May 1985, a representative of the International Red Cross visiting the Soviet Embassy in

Islamabad Islamabad (; , ; ) is the capital city of Pakistan. It is the country's tenth-most populous city with a population of over 1.1 million and is federally administered by the Pakistani government as part of the Islamabad Capital Territory. Bu ...

, confirmed the uprising had occurred.Виноградов B
"Афганистан: 10 лет глазами СМИ".
RSVA.com On 11 May 1985, Vitaly Smirnov, the Soviet ambassador, issued a warning to

. He said:

The Soviet side holds full responsibility for what had happened iththe Government of Pakistan and expects that it will make appropriate conclusions about the effects posed by tscomplicity in the aggression against the DRA and thereby against the Soviet Union.

On 16 May 1985, the DRA's permanent representative to the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...

sent a letter concerning this incident to the

United Nations Secretary-General The secretary-general of the United Nations (UNSG or UNSECGEN) is the chief administrative officer of the United Nations and head of the United Nations Secretariat, one of the United Nations System#Six principal organs, six principal organs of ...

, which was circulated as an official document of the General Assembly and the Security Council. On 10 April 1988, the Ojhri Camp, an ammunition depot near Islamabad, was destroyed, killing 93 and injuring around 1,100 people. The cause of destruction of Ojhri Camp is disputed with some reports suggesting that Soviet Union was responsible for the destruction of the camp. On 17 August 1988, President Zia-ul-Haq's plane crashed in an incident that Pakistan suggested was caused by the Soviet

KGB The Committee for State Security (, ), abbreviated as KGB (, ; ) was the main security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 to 1991. It was the direct successor of preceding Soviet secret police agencies including the Cheka, Joint State Polit ...

secret services and Afghan

KhAD The ''Khadamat-e Aetla'at-e Dawlati'' (Pashto/ literally "State Intelligence Agency", also known as "State Information Services" or "Committee of State Security"), better known by the acronym KhAD, was the agency in charge of internal security, ...

.Burki S. "The 1985 Badaber Uprising," Strategy and Tactics Volume 265, November–December 2010. In 2002, the Warriors-Internationalists Affairs Committee sent three names of uprising participants, Igor Vaskov, Nikolai Dudkin and Sergei Levchishin to Sergei Ivanov, the defense minister of Russia. However he said there is no basis to proceed with the application for the award.

POWs

This is a partial list of Soviet POWs: *Aleksandr Alekseevich Matveev, taliban nickname Abdulo (1963,

Altai Krai Altai Krai (, ) is a federal subject of Russia (a krai). It borders, clockwise from the west, Kazakhstan ( East Kazakhstan Region, Abai Region and Pavlodar Region), Novosibirsk and Kemerovo, and the Altai Republic. The krai's administrative ce ...

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

), private first class. *Nikolai Iosifovich Dudkin (1961, village Volchiha, Russia) *Ravil Saifutidonov (village Bolshoi Sars, Russia). *Igor Vaskov *Sergei Levchishin *Sergei Korshenko *Alexandr Zverkovich *Nikolai Samin', intended to immigrate to France. *Nikolai Ivanovich Shevchenko (Abdurahman) (1956; village Dmitrievka,

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

), driver, initiated the revolt. *Kanat (from Kazakh SSR), lost his mind in this prison. *2 other unknown Soviet soldiers, possibly Vladimir Ivanovich Shipeev (1963;

Cheboksary Cheboksary is the capital city of Chuvashia, Russia. It is a port on the Volga River. Geography The city is located in the Volga Upland region and stands on the shore of the Cheboksary Reservoir. Its area is .Resolution #2083 The satellite city ...

, Russia) and Ivan Belekchi. *Nasyrjon K. Rustamov (still alive and lives in Uzbekistan). *Mihail Aramovich Varvaryan, nickname Islamutdin (1960; village Ararat,

Armenia Armenia, officially the Republic of Armenia, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of West Asia. It is a part of the Caucasus region and is bordered by Turkey to the west, Georgia (country), Georgia to the north and Azerbaijan to ...

), private. Deserted to Mujahideen in Bagram, probably alive and was complicit with Rabbani forces. *40 soldiers of DRA armed forces and Sarandoy.

In popular culture

The Russian–Kazakh movie, '' Peshavar Waltz'' (1994) was loosely based on this uprising. '' Крепость Бадабер'' (Fortress Badaber) 2018 movie. A song was written about the incident titled "Mountains of Peshawar" by the Blue Berets about the valiance and the honor the Soviet soldiers showed in their failed uprising.

Background

Uprising

Casualties

Aftermath

POWs

In popular culture

See also

References

Further reading