Gone native: The Soviet conscript who became an Afghan family man

Facing prison, beatings and the wrath of a Soviet colonel, Sergei Krasnoperov said he had no choice but to abandon his post and surrender to the enemy. It was the second time in a year the young conscript had been caught selling army supplies to the Afghans and he knew the punishment would be severe.

“If I hadn’t escaped they would have put me and about six other people in prison. I had to escape and join the mujahideen, then all the blame was on me. I climbed into the hills and found some educated fighters. They welcomed me and I joined them.”

It was 1984 and Russia was in the midst of a bitter guerilla war against Islamist insurgents.

More than a quarter of a century later, Private Krasnoperov is known as Noor Mohammad. He learned the local language, converted to Islam, married an Afghan woman, and he lives in Chagcharan, in Afghanistan’s remote central highlands, just a few miles from his old base.

They have six children, aged three to 16. Mr Mohammad works part-time for the local electricity department, repairs lorry parts and owns a 30 per cent share in a local tractor.

“Life is not good in Afghanistan, but I have to stay here because I have a wife and children,” he said.

General Boris Gromov, the commander of the Russian Army, claimed there was “not a single Soviet officer or soldier left behind” when he completed the Soviet withdrawal by walking over a bridge to Turkmenistan in 1989. “Our nine-year stay ends with this,” he said.

But at least four other former soldiers, like Mr Mohammad, stayed and built new lives in Afghanistan. Two were captured, one fled abuse and one said he quit over Soviet atrocities.

Kasymjon Ermatov had a secondary school named in his honour after he was presumed killed in 1986 – but he turned up 18 years later on a visit to Pakistan, where he was arrested on suspicion of terrorism.

Another man, Nikolai Bistrov, took the name Islamuddin and worked as a bodyguard to the Northern Alliance commander Ahmad Shah Massoud. He has reportedly since returned to Russia with his Afghan wife.

Mr Mohammad, 46, said he fought with the insurgents in Chagcharan against his old Russian comrades.

“When I joined the mujahideen I wanted to show them what I could do,” he said. “Tanks and helicopters were harassing us a lot, so I fixed their machine guns when they jammed and I repaired the artillery as well. We hit many helicopters … after a while they stopped coming.”

Apart from his eyes, Mr Mohammad looks Afghan. He wears a plain white skull cap and has a greying beard, his face is tanned and weathered. Even the salopettes he wears – grubby blue with a bright pink waistband – were appropriate attire for an Afghan metalworker.

Originally from Korgan, 1,000 miles east of Moscow, Mr Mohammad has seen his mother only once since he defected. She visited him in Afghanistan in the 1990s, but he said he speaks to her and his only brother by telephone.

Under the Taleban regime, Mr Mohammad said they were treated well, because the regime’s leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, admired the Russians for converting to Islam.

However, since 2001, he said security had deteriorated and he predicted the government would fall when Nato leaves.

“The warlords control this area, and they have made deals with the Taleban,” he said.

Peter Jouvenal, a veteran British journalist who helped repatriate some of the Russians left behind in the 1990s, said there were 310 men officially classified as missing in action.