Soviets take Afghanistan

Let's say all the circumstances needed for the USSR to take over Afghanistan occur, and the Mujahideen is crushed. What would be the consequences?
 
How brutally are the Muj crushed? How quickly? What are the Soviet casualties like? Did they have to go into Pakistan? Maybe give the USSR a few more years before they collapse but ultimately I doubt it'll help it survive in the long term.
 
Well, they were, by and large, in control of the country almost as much as the Coalition is today at some points.

Notably, they couldn't deal with Muj tenacity and the mounting casualties (nor did they have as extensive a measure of control from the air).

The question is HOW do they "crush" the Muj?

This could have large consequences. "Afghan" soldiers brought with them a lot of disillusionment, criminality, drug addictions and a sense of displacement/not belonging, and the impact they had on Soviet society was profound. It made its way to the kitchen tables, the arts and the media, and Russia was still recovering from it in the 90s (before Chechnya happened). It took any remaining appetite for armed control and war in general right out of the Soviet people.

Had the victory been more decisive, who knows?
 
It's not like they'd be able to control Afghanistan though, look how poor the Yanks are doing right now and you get the picture.

Well, if here you can assume they used bioweapons or tactical nukes to bust the opposition (diminished US influence and some modification of Soviet doctrine would be necessary, but whatever), I'm sure they'd have something resembling order. ;)
 
The Soviets weren't trying to take over the country. They were just supporting the pro Soviet government, which actualy outlasted the Soviet Union by a year.
 
Notably, they couldn't deal with Muj tenacity and the mounting casualties (nor did they have as extensive a measure of control from the air).

define "control from the air". After initial shock of Stingers was overcome and countermeasures developed planes could operate more or less as before. What Stingers did was severly limit helicopter operations in general and vertical maneuvre in particular, later of great importance in A'stan.

If Muj are crushed before Stingers become available (mid-1980s, by which time Soviets decided to withdraw anyway) then this doesn't become an issue. Weapons would be sent but since Muj would be seen as lost cause probalby not much, mostly to produce casualties but not nearly enough to do serious damage

If Muj are crushed in few years then DRA could develop as Soviets planed, and be more stable after SU collapses. Then it strugles on until Pakistan decides to increase influence and back one group (either Taliban (if they develop), Taliban-like or some where they have most influence and has most chance of winning). DRA falls by late 1990s and becomes Pakistan's ally but faces low-level fighting for next years with various groups backed by various Stans decide to express their opposition with guns

11. September 2001 is a sunny day in New York and Washington
 
Maybe have a more successful Kabul pro-soviet government, maybe more 'nation building' is successful which eats the support of the Muj in the hills, cherry pick whatever counter-insurgency programs you like from around the world up until that point, such as Strategic Villages etc.

Maybe Abdul Rashid Dostum doesn't switch sides in 1992 which delays the taking of Kabul?
 
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