I was just wondering about this. Aside from studying it in school, I also watch a lot of documentaries and read books on the Vietnam War as I find the topic of modern guerrilla warfare and how it was effective interesting. However, I don't know much about the the Soviet Union's excursion into Afghanistan. I know that like Vietnam, enemies of the conventional army (US/USSR) were guerrilla fighters (Viet Cong/Mujahideen), and the conventional armies suffered casualties before pulling out with barely any effect (to their benefit, anyway). My question is, do Russians see the invasion of Afghanistan the same way as Americans see the Vietnam war? Do they sympathise with the soldiers for facing a hidden enemy in a hostile environment? Do they question why they went to Afghanistan in the first place?
There are similarities, there are differences. But yes, you did have some similar cultural phenomena back in the USSR during the time. Remember that this was also taking place in the late USSR, when things had opened up quite a bit. It is considered one of the many contributing factors to the fall of the Soviet Union.
(US officials explicitly wanted Afghanistan to be the USSR's "Vietnam," as an aside.)
One of my favorite documentaries on this is CNN's Cold War, which had an episode on the Afghan war from a number of points of view, including those of Soviet citizens and soldiers. It was made in the late 1990s, before 9/11 happened, so while it somewhat foreshadows "maybe this is all not going to end up well" it is far less about that sort of thing than you would imagine a documentary being today. CNN, Cold War, Episode 20, "Soldiers of God." Extremely well done, with interviews from many of those who were involved in it, who are remarkably candid (again, post-Cold War, pre-9/11). Worth the 45 minutes.