Latest / Collapsing Empires Stories
The prisoner count that couldn't be tracked unmasked a vanished nation
A single prison held 27,000 people in Afghanistan - an official number with no trials, no bodies, and a nation unraveling around it.
The prisoner count that couldn't be tracked unmasked a vanished nation
In this episode, we follow the arc of Afghanistan from the Saur Revolution through Soviet invasion, civil war, and the rise of the Taliban, centered on the baffling record of Pul-e-Charkhi prison. What does a single unexplained number tell us about power, violence, and a country remade by decades of conflict?
Person: Ahmad Shah Massoud
Event: Saur Revolution (April 1978)
Location…
The skinny
The skinny isn't ready yet — notes appear once the transcript is processed.