<P> The Soviet -- Afghan War lasted over nine years , from December 1979 to February 1989 . Insurgent groups known collectively as the mujahideen , as well as smaller Maoist groups , fought a guerrilla war against the Soviet Army and the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan government , mostly in the rural countryside . The mujahideen groups were backed primarily by the United States , Saudi Arabia , and Pakistan , making it a Cold War proxy war . Between 562,000 and 2,000,000 civilians were killed and millions of Afghans fled the country as refugees , mostly to Pakistan and Iran . </P>
who helped the afghanis fight against the soviet union in their war of the 1980s
the United States Saudi Arabia Pakistan