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Moscow’s ‘Little Kabul’

The Russian capital is home to a large Afghan community centered around the Soviet-era Sevastopol Hotel. Some 8,000 Afghans live in and around the complex, which has been transformed into a shopping and business center dominated by Afghan bazaars, butcher shops, and restaurants.

About 150,000 Afghans live in Russia, and around a third reside in Moscow. Most fled Afghanistan in the wake of the Soviet withdrawal that ended in 1989 and the brutal civil war of the 1990s. Russia hosts the third-largest overseas Afghan community, after Pakistan and Iran.
Abdul Karim Tukhi is the manager of Block 3 of the Sevastopol Hotel. The father of three moved to Moscow in 1991, months before the collapse of the communist Afghan government. Tukhi, who studied in Moscow in the 1980s, was a commander in the Afghan army. “It wasn’t safe to stay, especially for me, because I was part of the [communist] government. So we had to leave. I came to Russia at a time when many Afghans from the military and government were moving here.”
5 Abdul Karim Tukhi is the manager of Block 3 of the Sevastopol Hotel. The father of three moved to Moscow in 1991, months before the collapse of the communist Afghan government. Tukhi, who studied in Moscow in the 1980s, was a commander in the Afghan army. “It wasn’t safe to stay, especially for me, because I was part of the [communist] government. So we had to leave. I came to Russia at a time when many Afghans from the military and government were moving here.”
The Center for the Afghan Diaspora
6 The Center for the Afghan Diaspora
Ghulam Jalal is the head of the Center for the Afghan Diaspora, an organization that finds work for Afghans in Russia and preserves their culture and languages. Jalal, a former commander in the Afghan army, left Kabul and arrived in Moscow in 1992 at the onset of the civil war. “I had to leave. The government had collapsed and there was anarchy in the country. I went to Afghanistan recently, but it’s not the country I remember. The old Afghanistan has been destroyed. It only exists in my mind.”
7 Ghulam Jalal is the head of the Center for the Afghan Diaspora, an organization that finds work for Afghans in Russia and preserves their culture and languages. Jalal, a former commander in the Afghan army, left Kabul and arrived in Moscow in 1992 at the onset of the civil war. “I had to leave. The government had collapsed and there was anarchy in the country. I went to Afghanistan recently, but it’s not the country I remember. The old Afghanistan has been destroyed. It only exists in my mind.”
A poster for a concert at the Sevastopol Hotel
8 A poster for a concert at the Sevastopol Hotel

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