"Stirlitz is a mujahid, Sukhov is a libertine!": how Afghans watched Soviet cinema

George Z. during his trip to Afghanistan conducted a survey among Afghans educated in the Soviet Union. When they returned home, they "for cultural purposes" tried to introduce their relatives from the province to classic Soviet films. The result, as they say, completely exceeded all expectations.

"Gosha is a bad Muslim"

Vereshchagin would become a "shahid"

Goebbels: "Salam aleikum, Hitler!"

Vyacheslav Nekrasov, director of the Russian Center for Science and Culture in Kabul, who has worked as an adviser in Afghanistan since 1982 and survived 70 (!) long business trips to this difficult country, remembers well the love of Afghans for Soviet cinema.

"Did the Standartenfuhrer eat pork?"

By the way, it was films about the Great Patriotic War that always aroused great interest in Afghanistan.

Now Indian cinema is mostly popular in Afghanistan, but Soviet films on cassettes (many Afghans still use old VHS video recorders) are still in great demand in the street markets of Kabul.