The Road to Afghanistan - George Washington University

“The PDPA is the first party in the history of Afghanistan that reflects the interests of theworking class and all working people,” said Ulyanovsky. “The main goal of the revolution is toprovide a transfer of power from bureaucratic, trade, and land-owners’ circles to the new nationaldemocratic government, which represents the broader interests of the masses, including mid-leveland small national bourgeoisie. Perhaps you, as a political officer, would think of it as bizarre,strange, and almost a blasphemy, but the national bourgeoisie in such countries is capable ofplaying a progressive role. However, you will see for yourself when you start working that theparty pays a lot of attention to the participation of the working class in the revolutionarymovement. There are about 300,000 workers—proletarians—in the country, which is a significantforce.“As to the revolution that took place on April 27, it started with a bloodless state coupd’etat that was carried out by PDPA members. But political revolution in Afghanistan issimultaneously social. It cannot limit itself to the replacement of one ruling regime by another one,while preserving the main property rights. In this sense, our—and from now on your— friendswill have to do a lot of work. Very soon you will see for yourself how backwards this country is,how many problems must be resolved there.”He then proceeded to discuss the situation inside the PDPA, explaining the factionalconflicts and the difficulties that Soviet comrades had in prodding Afghan comrades towardsunification. He described the leaders: Taraki, Karmal, Amin.“From the outside, the current situation within the PDPA seems favorable. It has been ayear since the Khalqis and Parchamis stopped fighting each other, but regrettably,” RostislavAlexandrovich remarked with sadness, “in reality everything is much more complicated. I’m afraidthat now, once the euphoria from the quick victory passes, those contradictions will flare up with143