More than four decades on, they're a fixture in Pakistan's fields and its culture. Indeed, it was at around that time - the late '70s and the early '80s - that smugglers began bringing Belarusian tractors into Pakistan, says Pervaiz Amir, an agricultural economist and farmer.Īmir says the demand in Pakistan for Belorusian tractors was so great, smugglers even shipped in tractor spare parts on "donkey back and camel back." "They were trafficked out of Afghanistan and sold in other countries," Tahir says. The Soviets invaded Afghanistan in 1979 at the invitation of its allies in Kabul, and as that country plunged deeper into conflict, the tractors were seized as booty by the mujahedeen, the name used to refer to many of the anti-Soviet Afghan forces. The tractors were so versatile that they were deployed in roadwork, agriculture and even defense. The Soviets introduced these tractors to Afghanistan in the 1970s, as Moscow tried to shore up support for the pro-Communist government in Kabul, recalls Mohammad Tahir, an employee of the Afghan ministry of agriculture at the time. The tractors' trip to Pakistan starts decades ago to the country's west. ![]() These Soviet-designed vehicles are now an integral part of farming in rural Pakistan, where they've made many landowners rich. Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko even gave Russia's Vladimir Putin a tractor for his 70th birthday last October. These cheery, cherry-red beasts are known as "Russian tractors," which geographically, is close - they're from Russia's neighbor to the west, Belarus, which has been a global powerhouse of tractor production since Soviet days. DHOUL RANJHA, Pakistan - There's a cache of Pakistani songs that celebrate the enormous tractors that are ubiquitous throughout the country, like this boppy tune by musician Mehboob Hussain Naaz, "I plough my field with my Russi tractor and then I meet you, my beloved."
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