The 3 Hoot Uprising began on February 22, 1980 in Kabul, Afghanistan, amid the occupation by Soviet-backed forces. Civilians and local dissidents rose up in protest against mass arrests by the communist government and Soviet security services; one trigger was the murder of Lieutenant Alexander Vovk, a Soviet Komsomol instructor, which sparked wide‐scale unrest. The uprising involved thousands of protesters, resulted in dozens of fatalities, and led to over 5,000 arrests. The government’s crackdown was swift and harsh; many civilian deaths and injuries occurred in and around the protests. This event was significant as a demonstration of popular resistance to the Soviet presence and communist regime in Afghanistan, and is remembered as a major moment of civil unrest during the Soviet–Afghan War.
