The Road to Afghanistan - George Washington University

“Yes guys, this list is extraordinary. I won’t attempt to pretend that I am not truly happyand proud. You all witnessed what it took. I spent so much time trying to convince Tarakan * andKarmash ** how important it would be to unify the party, and they paid me zero attention. If I triedto put any pressure on them, they would immediately complain about it to Ponomaryov. The mostridiculous thing about this was that it was me who had to deliver their complaints to the CPSUCentral Committee. Thankfully, Vilior wrote addendums to those complaints, explaining that itwas not my fault that Karmal and Taraki had no interest in unifying their factions.”“So what are you so happy about now?” asked Bubnov.“Why not? People who are close to me just became the leaders of the country!”“Don’t you understand that this isn’t necessarily good for you? In a couple of weeks, if notearlier, nobody will allow you to come close to them. They themselves will hardly want to knowwho you are. They will have contacts on the level of the ambassador, or even higher Moscowofficials. So, who are you going to be working with? With nafars? *** Or with your servant Guliam?”“Maybe now he will get appointed an adviser to the leadership and will become a Lawrenceof Arabia!” someone joked.Petrov paid no attention to the joke, but realized the truth in what Victor had said. Hesaddened, and lit a cigarette.“However, you got an important award. To be awarded the Order of the Red Banner inpeacetime is a great achievement,” said Yura Kitaev.“Nobody has given me that order yet,” replied Petrov.Orlov-Morozov read the cable brought by Khotyaev with a blank look on his face. Having* Taraki’s nickname in Russian, literally “cockroach”** Karmal’s nickname*** Pejorative indicating those belonging to the lower cast (e.g., servants, guards)136