Former Soviet soldier is now caretaker of mujahideen museum in Afghanistan
Bakhretdin Khakimov fought for the Red Army. He now looks after a museum dedicated to its defeat.
telligence of the Soviet army, which occupied the country for 10 years after invading in 1979.
Around 1985 he was injured in battle and suffered a serious head wound. He says he owes his life to his Afghan enemies who found him and treated him.
When he woke from a coma, most of his comrades were dead or had fled. He was alone among the Afghan fighters.
Thirty years on, he has converted to Islam and remade his life among the mujahideen.
“I came to Afghanistan because of my duty in military services — I was voluntarily fighting against former Afghan mujahideen,” Abdullah recalls.
“I stayed in Afghanistan because Afghans are very kind and hospitable people.
“They have spent all their lives serving me, they have huge respect for me, and they love me very much.” Sayed Abdul Wahab Qattali, a former mujahideen fighter and now the museum’s director, took Abdullah under his wing as he was recovering from his wounds.
“He got me married, gave me a house, gave me a salary, now I am deputy of this museum,” Abdullah explained, saying he regards Russia as a foreign country now.
Abdullah was included — under his former name Khakimov — on a list of 417 soldiers missing in Afghanistan that Moscow handed over to Kabul in 2011.
But while Abdullah has got in touch with his family, who live in Russia and Uzbekistan, he does not want to rejoin them.
He says he remembers “a little” Russian, but Dari is his main language now.
“I am Afghan now. When I die I will be buried here in this museum, here I am serving and will be buried here when I die,” he said proudly.
The garden of the museum is home to various bits of military hardware adorned with the Soviet red star, captured by the mujahideen or abandoned in the withdrawal -- a fighter jet, tanks and helicopters, artillery pieces.
Inside the museum, Qattali proudly shows off battle scenes recreated in plaster — mujahideen launching an attack on a column of Soviet tanks or defending a village from Red Army bombardment.
Once a fighter, now a prosperous businessman, Qattali is very attached to his protégé Abdullah.
“We have a responsibility to take care of him, he is part of our museum, we feel very proud to have him with us,” Qattali said as a deafening recording of a bombardment echoed around the exhibition halls.
The mujahideen commander Ismail Khan, still a powerful figure in Herat, described Abdullah as “a brother”.
“Many times his family asked him to come back to Moscow but he refused to go, and we will not let him leave Afghanistan,” the old warlord said.
In the living room of his modest house in the town, next door to his patron Qattali’s, Abdullah reclines on cushions.
“I feel very ashamed because I damaged this country, caused losses to people,” he said.