Kazbek Hudalov

Казбек Ахтемирович Худалов, an Ossetian born in 1959,[1] was a Soviet soldier who was initially reported to have been captured during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, but was later revealed to have been a "notorious traitor" and one of the highest ranked Soviets who defected to fight with the Mujahideen repelling the occupation.[2][3][4]

Service in the Soviet Army

A native of Vladikavkaz in North Ossetia–Alania,[5] Hudalov graduated from the Ordzhenikidze Command School,[3] and the military academy in Almaty.[6]

He joined the Soviet Army on 1 September 1977 and was deployed to Afghanistan in August 1983.[7]

He was a lieutenant in the Soviet Army[6] and was listed as "captured" by Mujahideen in Parwan on 16 September 1984[1] after he went to search for a subordinate and never returned.[8] However, by early 1985 it was clear that he had defected and was fighting with the insurgents.[2]

Defection to the Mujahideen

Hudalov defected from the Soviet army to join the Mujahideen and surrounded himself with a group of approximately a dozen similar deserters of largely Tajik descent.[3] The group focused its attacks on the 40th Army and Democratic Republic of Afghanistan outposts, frequently dressing in Soviet military uniforms to approach targets.[3]

In autumn 1988, Hudalov was believed to be operating around Bagram, but as the group moved towards the Panjshir mountains, it ceased to visibly operate.[3]

Citations
  1. "Афганистан. 1979 - 1989: пропавшие без вести" [Afghanistan. 1979 - 1989: missing]. Комсомольская Правда (in Russian). 13 February 2009. Retrieved 25 April 2021.
  2. "Afghanistan: Lost Soldiers", Le Magazine, 14 November 1985.
  3. Artyom Borovik (1992). Hidden War: A Russian Journalist's Account of the Soviet War in Afghanistan. Grove/Atlantic, Inc. p. 226. ISBN 0-87113-283-4.
  4. "Soviet Conscripts who defected to Mujahidin", The Sunday Times, 30 November 2002.
    - "Дезертиры из Советской Армии в Афганистане" [Deserters from the Soviet Army in Afghanistan]. 5 June 2008. Archived from the original on 25 March 2012.
  5. http://www.novayagazeta.ru/file/pdf/spisok.pdf
  6. L'Actualite, Volume 11, 1986. Page 17
  7. "ВОЕННОСЛУЖАЩИЕ, БЕЗ ВЕСТИ ПРОПАВШИЕ В АФГАНИСТАНЕ" (in Russian). Archived from the original on 25 March 2012. Retrieved 14 June 2011.
  8. "Information on Shootdowns".
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