He went to Afghanistan to fight the Red Army. It was the right fight alongside brave people. He saw Soviet crimes - whole villages murdered, women raped, children with their hands torn off by bomb blasts. He talked about it in Poland, Europe and America
In the old photos you can see an aged, balding man with a very gray beard and mustache and an audacious twinkle in his eye. Sometimes he is wearing a pakol, a camel's wool beret, very popular in Afghanistan, and sometimes in his hand - equally common in this country - a Kalashnikov machine gun.

- He was often asked how many Russians he killed. He replied that, as in the war, the bullets flew in both directions ... - remembered Bożena Jasiak, during the communist period, an animator of the publishing house Biblioteka Wolnej Myśli operating in secret, then head of the underground printing company in Lesser Poland, Solidarity. And also the life companion of Jacek Winkler, who, on the side of the mujahideen, folk fighters, engaged in the fight against the Soviets occupying Afghanistan. The comrade-in-arms of Ahmad Shah Masud, the Tajik commander hailed as the Lion of Panchshir, from the name of a valley in northeastern Afghanistan where he created a bastion inaccessible to the Soviet Army.

Few of her souvenirs were left of Winkler. The scarf he wore in Afghanistan, a pile of photos taken in France and Poland, as well as six yellowed copies of the "Afghan Bulletin" from 1986–1989, in which he presented the crimes of the Soviets committed under the Hindu Kush. Because propaganda in Poland was communist - Afghans allegedly welcomed the liberators with a smile ...

Soviet Crimes

The worst thing he saw in Afghanistan was the village where the Soviets had murdered everyone. They cut off their heads and played with shifting them - they fitted a woman's body with a male one and vice versa. He also saw the invaders entering the village in search of men of recruiting age. They raped women, cut their bellies when they were pregnant, and then threw unprotected grenades into their huts. It was in the Chardara district. A total of 630 people were killed. He also remembered the "toys" that the Soviets threw from the sky - and then ripped off the hands and feet of the children, or shook them to death.
He did not talk about it left and right, although he willingly shared his knowledge about Soviet crimes in Afghanistan. He brought a lot of photos from there.

- They did not allow him to see Masud right away, they did not immediately hand over the weapon. It took a long time to accept him - says Bożena Jasiak. - I went there to fight the Red Army. I fought because it was the right fight alongside brave people. I love them for their style, courage and cordiality, although I must admit that they are not easy-going. The fact that they welcomed me was a great honor _ - he said in 2001 during the opening of the exhibition "Afghanistan on fire" at the Museum of the History of Photography in Krakow. Though they were not interested in learning to climb, they adopted him as their own, giving him the name of Adham Khan, the honorary title of their leader. And he spoke of the mujahideen: "This time they have the honor of fighting for our freedom and yours." They accepted that he had a cross around his neck; they claimed that Christian faith like Islam is based on the Book. He accepted lice, dirt and hunger.

Being at Masud's side for a total of seven months, Winkler wrote to a friend in France: "I haven't completely overthrew the Bolsheviks yet, but I'm on the right track."

Commander Masud was the son of an officer in the Afghan royal army, he did not accept the power imposed by the Soviets. He holed up in the Panczszir Valley (Five Lions Valley) near Kabul and for several years he proved to the Soviet Army that there was little he could do in such a difficult terrain. Its small unit at first (20 people) grew to such an extent that it was able to repel a dozen or so Soviet offensives. The partisans were favored by the terrain - the valley was long and wide, surrounded by high peaks. They attacked the Soviet columns with grenade launchers, there was a regular exchange of fire, after which they disappeared in unknown where. Effectively paralyzing attempts to transport Soviet equipment through the tunnel under the Salang Pass.

But Masud did not look at the Soviets with hatred, he predicted that after the war his country would trade with the USSR, because they were neighbors.

In memory of Winkler and Masud

Bogdan Klich, later Minister of National Defense and Senator, and then a member of the opposition "Freedom and Peace" Movement, met Jacek Winkler in his apartment in Paris. It was 1987. For several days they discussed long into the night over wine. These were very nutritious conversations.

- His heart was beating with the Polish and Afghan rhythm. It seems to me that he believed that what is happening in Afghanistan has a far-reaching impact on the Polish future. And he was right. The departure of the Red Army from Afghanistan was a prelude to the departure of the Red Army from Eastern Europe - says Bogdan Klich.

Therefore, when in 2008 Polish soldiers - as part of the ISAF forces - took responsibility for the Afghan province of Ghazni, Klich decided to name their main base after Jacek Winkler. With time, the memorial plaque of the legendary commander Masud - killed on September 9, 2001 in Tachara, on the order of the leader of Al-Qaeda, Osama bin Laden - was hung in his mausoleum in the Panchehr valley. In Polish, English and Dari it reads: "To the hero of my youth". - The local population, especially the Tajiks, did not hide their emotions. Among them were bearded, gray-haired old men, Masud's comrades-in-arms, those who took an armed stance against the invaders. I saw tears in their eyes and they also shed tears - recalls Bogdan Klich.

The plaque devoted to Masud still hangs in the valley, the one in memory of Jacek Winkler, after our army left Afghanistan, was transferred to the National Museum in Krakow. The monument was erected for him a few years ago in Milanówek.

(Source: https://dziennikpolski24.pl/jacek-winkler-wojowal-z-sowietami-u-boku-slawnego-lwa-panczsziru/ar/3853305)

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