[Anthony_Scott]

Originally Posted by [QUOTE

The extreme major of Red Army soldiers serving in Afghanistan volunteered.

Unlikely, except perhaps for SPETZNAZ units. Recall the Soviet military was a conscript force in it's majority and it would be unthinkable for men to volunteer to return to the war zone.

What about counter-revolution? What about Hungary in 1956? What about Nazi insurgency in 1944?

Both invasions of Hungary and Czechoslovakia were considered "internal affairs" of the Warsaw Pact, and at any rate were "classic" operations, ie a permissive country with extant communist infrastructure and the local resistance was doomed from the start.
Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warsaw_...Czechoslovakia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hungari...lution_of_1956

The abortive Nazi resistance of 1945-1946 were handled with great efficiency and ruthlessness by the occupation forces of the allies and also suffered from not having the support of the German people. One would suppose 12 years of Nazi brutality was enough.

In addition, the Soviet divisions did fight in Hungary, Vietnam, parts of Africa, etc.

Soviets did fight in Vietnam, Korea and others places, but not as divisions or in major force generally.[/quote]

Indeed, Soviet aviators did fly combat missions over Korea during the war in the 1950's, although they were forbidden to speak Russian and had orders not to be taken alive. During the stress of combat against USAF Sabres the pilots would quite naturally forget the former and use Russian freely.

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MiG_Alley
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikoyan-Gurevich_MiG-15

In Vietnam Soviet troops numbered some 3,000 and the Soviets provided material, including the SA-2 that shot down USAF B-52 bombers. Their role in combat is unknown, although it is known that during the Son Tay raid that some Soviet advisers may have been killed but that has never been determined with any certainty.

Source:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnam_War#Soviet_Union
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Ivory_Coast

Soviet operations in Africa were the Ogaden War, involvement in Angola, and operations during the Congo Crisis of 1962, although personnel deployments were nowhere near those seen in the above mentioned Hungarian and Czech operations. Socialist interventions in Africa were largely proxy affairs, with Cuba providing the bulk of the land forces.

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogaden_War
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mozambican_Civil_War
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angolan_Civil_War
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_African_Border_War
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congo_Crisis
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_War_(1985–1991)

During the Cold War, if you said you were socialist or communist and hated the USA then the Soviets would support you, which is why Afghanistan is such a one-off. The US pretty much dropped Afghanistan after the Soviet withdrawal, with Pakistan being left
with the job of relocating the refugees.