The Road to Afghanistan - George Washington University

could not be delayed. Vladimir Alexandrovich Kryuchkov was an experienced bureaucrat, andnever made any decisions in the heat of the moment. He considered himself, with good reason, tobe a true soldier of the party, who was mobilized by the party to serve in the intelligencecommunity. Some old dogs from Yasenevo could not make peace with his prominence in theirclosed community. They called Kryuchkov a stranger, a party bureaucrat, a dilettante behind hisback. Kryuchkov knew all that from reports that he had received, but who said that an intelligenceagency should be headed by James Bond? Let those old dogs mind their own business of recruitingagents, conducting clandestine operations, stealing secrets, and gathering compromisingmaterials. He would do his part. Counterintelligence in the modern world, Kryuchkov wasconvinced, was the single most important instrument at the disposal of high politics, which meantthat it had to be led not by a military man, but by a politician—someone with a party background.In today’s situation in Afghanistan, even the communists at the Central Committee weretrying to figure out what to make of such an unexpected “gift.” The diplomats in the ForeignMinistry must be in frenzy. But it was clear that all of the dirty work would be tasked to the FirstDirectorate, not only because its people played a prominent role in the events, but also becauseKryuchkov sensed that what happened in Afghanistan would not disappear soon. Afghandevelopments reflected systemic clashes of different people, different groups, different ideologies,countries, and political systems.Kryuchkov had become head of the First KGB Directorate three years earlier. To be moreprecise, he had entered the spacious office of the director on the second floor of the modern glassand concrete building three years and four months earlier. Until then, he had spent three years asa deputy: first Sakharovsky’s deputy, then Mortin’s deputy. Wasn’t that experience enough forsomeone who had a great capacity for learning? Sakharovsky and Mortin were very experienced109