Analysis of information sources in references of the Wikipedia article "جنگ داخلی افغانستان (۱۹۲۹–۱۹۲۸)" in Persian language version.
In 1929 Stalin sent 1,000 Red Army soldiers into Afghanistan disguised as Afghan soldiers to operate jointly with some of Khan's loyalists, according to Lyakhovsky's book and a 1999 article in Rodina by Pavel Aptekar. The joint Soviet-Afghan unit took Mazar-i-Sharif in April 1929, but Stalin then had to recall his troops after learning that Khan had fled to India.