The Road to Afghanistan - George Washington University

children, and myself—and for the sake of what?”Yura responded, “Stay close to us and nobody will ever hurt you. You are a citizen of thegreatest country in the world.”As Yura drove back home, he thought that what happened that night was a spectacle, a play,and that every actor had played the role well.***On Saturday, closer to lunch, the correspondent of TASS, Alexei Petrov, came into thecommon room of the KGB Residency with a victorious smile. He looked happy and flushed,perhaps demonstrating evidence of a recent shot or two with some of the newly minted leaders ofthe country. Petrov nonchalantly dropped a list of the new government appointments of theDemocratic Republic of Afghanistan on the desk of the analyst Volodya Khotyaev.“Volodya, write a cable relaying the final list of the cabinet. This list will be published todayor tomorrow. Then I need to take it to the ambassador.”Volodya read the text. Everybody else quit what they were doing and started to look at thelist over Volodya’s shoulder.“Alexei, you can pat yourself on the back. The awards that you received were not fornothing. Look—you spent so much energy trying to unite the party when it seemed hopeless. Andyou might have just united it! It’s a just list—a very balanced and fair distribution of positions.”And then he read aloud:• Nur Muhammad Taraki—Chairman of the Revolutionary Council of the DemocraticParty of Afghanistan (D.R.A.), Prime Minister• Karmal Babrak—Deputy Chairman of the Revolutionary Council, First Deputy Prime134