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"If we unite, we can defeat the Soviets. If we divide, we will all perish."

Ahmad Shah Massoud was born in the Panjshir Valley in 1953 and studied engineering at Kabul Polytechnic before the communist coup drove him to armed resistance. His military genius transformed the Panjshir Valley into an impenetrable fortress — nine successive Soviet offensives were repelled through a combination of intimate knowledge of terrain, disciplined fighters, and innovative guerrilla tactics. He became the most celebrated Mujahideen commander of the war and one of history's great guerrilla leaders.

"Behind me, there is not a single Soviet soldier. Our nine-year presence in Afghanistan is over."

Boris Vsevolodovich Gromov was born in Saratov in 1943 and rose through the Soviet military ranks to command the 40th Army — the main Soviet force in Afghanistan — from 1987 to 1989. A professional soldier of considerable ability, Gromov oversaw the war's final phase and the massive Operation Magistral before supervising the phased withdrawal mandated by the Geneva Accords. He brought the last Soviet soldier out of Afghanistan in February 1989.

"We did not fight the Soviets to replace them with the Americans."

Gulbuddin Hekmatyar was born in Imam Sahib district in 1949 and became politically active as an Islamist student at Kabul University, where he reportedly ordered the acid-throwing attack on unveiled women. He fled to Pakistan in 1974 and built Hezb-e-Islami into the most powerful Mujahideen political party, receiving the largest share of CIA and ISI funding throughout the war — hundreds of millions of dollars in weapons and cash. Despite this, his forces were widely regarded as among the least effective fighters against the Soviets.

"We must not allow Afghanistan to fall into the imperialist camp. It will be over in three to four weeks."

Dmitry Fyodorovich Ustinov was born in Samara in 1908 and was one of the USSR's most powerful figures — a veteran weapons administrator who had managed Soviet arms production since World War II and served as Defence Minister from 1976. In December 1979, he was the primary architect of the decision to invade Afghanistan, persuading a reluctant and ailing Brezhnev that Soviet forces could quickly stabilize the situation. He reportedly told the Politburo it would be over in weeks.

"Afghanistan is a bleeding wound. We cannot keep the contingent of our forces in Afghanistan much longer."

Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev was born in Privolnoye, Stavropol Krai in 1931 and rose through Soviet Communist Party ranks to become General Secretary in March 1985 — inheriting both a stagnating economy and a grinding war in Afghanistan that had already killed thousands of Soviet soldiers. He quickly concluded the war was unwinnable and began pushing for withdrawal, calling Afghanistan a 'bleeding wound.' His glasnost and perestroika policies, partly driven by the need to reduce military spending, fundamentally transformed the Soviet Union.

"These things happened. They were glorious and they changed the world. And then we f***ed up the endgame."

Charles Nesbitt Wilson was born in Trinity, Texas in 1933 and served in the U.S. Navy before becoming a Texas state legislator and then a U.S. Congressman in 1973. A hard-drinking, flamboyant Democrat with a seat on the House Appropriations Committee's defense subcommittee, Wilson became consumed by the Afghan cause after visiting a Pakistani refugee camp in 1980. He used his congressional influence to push CIA Afghan funding from $5 million to over $500 million per year — the largest covert operation in CIA history.

"We fought for Islam and freedom. The Soviets could not defeat us because we fought on our own soil."

Ismail Khan was born around 1946 in Shindand district of Herat Province and served as an officer in the Afghan Army before the Soviet invasion. In March 1979, months before the Soviet invasion, he led a famous uprising of the Herat garrison against the communist DRA government — the first major military revolt of the war. He escaped into the countryside and built a powerful Mujahideen force that dominated western Afghanistan throughout the Soviet occupation.

"If fundamentalism comes to Afghanistan, war will continue for many years. Afghanistan will turn into a center of world smuggling for narcotic drugs. Afghanistan will be turned into a center for terrorism."

Mohammad Najibullah was born in Gardez in 1947 and joined the communist People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan as a young man. He rose to lead the KHAD — Afghanistan's brutal KGB-modeled secret police — where he earned the nickname 'The Ox' for both his physical size and his mercilessness. He became President in 1987 as the Soviets began preparing to withdraw, tasked with keeping the communist government alive without Soviet combat troops.

"We, alongside the Mujahideen, bled Russia for ten years until it went bankrupt and was forced to withdraw. So we shall continue the same policy of making America bleed until it becomes bankrupt."

Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was born in Riyadh in 1957, the son of a Yemeni-born construction billionaire who had built close ties to the Saudi royal family. He grew up wealthy, educated, and deeply religious, influenced by Islamist currents at King Abdul Aziz University in Jeddah. When the Soviets invaded Afghanistan, bin Laden traveled to Pakistan in 1979 and then Afghanistan to join the jihad. He used his family's wealth and connections to fund the Arab volunteers who flooded into the Mujahideen cause.