Ever had to think about why in the former Soviet republics the concept of "Cargo 200" is used for soldiers who died in military conflicts? There are many versions of this. However, as is often the case, there really is no "romance" around the history of the emergence of the tradition.
In fact, the concept of “Cargo 200”, which has stuck to the national language, is relatively young. It appeared only during the war in Afghanistan and stuck mainly because the Afghan war had a strong traumatic impact on Soviet society. The Soviet Union "engaged" Afghanistan for a long time, trying to turn it into its military and economic outpost in the region. Although the troops were introduced only in 1979 at the request of the leadership of the DRA, the economic presence of the USSR has been growing in Afghanistan since the second half of the 1960s.
It will be said without exaggeration that the USSR tried to keep Afghanistan, engaged in its "civilization", investing huge funds in the development of yesterday's feudal, and in some places even tribal, in fact pre-state countries. Cities developed, the Band-e Sardeh dam was built, which significantly improved the situation with agriculture in the region, many power plants, the Salang tunnel was drilled, which was of great value for the transport communication of the whole of Afghanistan. And this is not a complete list.
However, during the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan, there was what is called "a lot of dirt." De facto, the party leadership of the USSR, de facto decomposed from within, at the time of 1989 betrayed both the leadership of the DRA and its own military. Ideas began to be cultivated in society that the Soviet army did not "perform international duty" or did not help a friendly political regime, but "was engaged in incomprehensible what" for 10 years. All this was superimposed on not the smallest losses of 14.4 thousand SA fighters, almost 600 KGB officers and 28 employees of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs.
And considering that the ideological ground of the entire Afghan epic was actually knocked out from under the people's feet, the outcome of the war had an exceptionally traumatic effect on Soviet society. The situation was aggravated by the fact that the fulfillment of international duty did not fit well with the Soviet society, which survived the Great Patriotic War, precisely with the concept of a patriotic war - for a just cause.
In all this context, "Cargo 200" has become a household name and a gloomy symbol. The Afghan war, unlike the Patriotic War, was devoid of any heroic pathos (in the best possible sense), it was thoroughly saturated with drama and cynicism. No one in Soviet society liked the coffins coming home with 20-year-old guys fighting in the view of the layman for no reason. And when there is no powerful ideological foundation, along with the tragedy there always comes an exceptionally cynical attitude, which becomes for people something like a form of psychological protection.
As for the name itself, there really is no secret here. "Cargo 200" - this is just the designation of a baggage ticket issued for the transportation of a coffin with a body by plane. It is important to remember that the communication of the Soviet army from Afghanistan with the "mainland" was carried out mainly by air. Baggage ticket number corresponds to the maximum weight of the transported cargo. Actually, the “200th” weighs so much, because in addition to the mass of the average man of 70-120 kg, the mass of the man himself is taken into account. aspen coffin, galvanized steel sheathing and a wooden box in which a coffin “sewn” into zinc is placed with dead.
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The system of such designations was established only in 1984, at the height of the Afghan war. Guidelines for the clearance of military transport contains many indexes. Their designations were for all categories of material cargo, dead people and wounded. In 1988, the rule of a 200-kilogram coffin for transportation was extended not only to the SA, but also to the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs. By the way, there was one gloomy coincidence with the “cargo 200”. The order to introduce the already mentioned manual for the registration of military transportation also received the number 200. However, this is just a coincidence. The infamous name still comes from the maximum mass of the mournful load.
If you want to know even more interesting things, then you should read about monument to a Soviet soldier in Afghanistan: why the Mujahideen did not touch him and the Afghans care.
Source: https://novate.ru/blogs/260322/62520/