The Road to Afghanistan - George Washington University

In June, having received another memorandum from Moscow laced with anxietyabout the situation in Afghanistan, and including a set of recommendations for the Afghanleadership, Puzanov and Safronchuk scheduled a meeting with Taraki and Amin. The twolistened to the customary advice very calmly (“maintain collegiality in leadership, create aclear and effective system of local organs of power, do not break the law, do not allow massrepressions, attract religious authority to your side.”)However, when Safronchuk and Puzanov moved on to the issue of expanding thesocial base for the new regime and uniting all the healthy forces, Amin snapped: “Now,again, you’ll be telling us that we must create some national front. I categorically disagree.Our party is the national front. We will never share our political power with anybody. Firstof all, it was just us who carried out the great revolution. Nobody helped us in that fight.Secondly, it’s us and only us who reflect the core interests of all strata of Afghan society.There can be no other organizations besides the PDPA here in Afghanistan.”Puzanov, as usual, preferred to remain silent. Safronchuk, with a genial smile on hisface, attempted to object: “Please understand, this is not about yet another formalorganization. This is about political unification of all democratic and progressive forces inthe country. Isn’t this a timely issue for Afghanistan today?”“There is nobody with whom we can unite,” objected Amin forcefully. “InAfghanistan there have never been other organizations that promote progress andsocialism. You, Comrade Safronchuk, are new here. After you have lived here for some timeand start to understand this country better, it will become clear to you that more thanninety percent of the population supports our party and the revolutionary reforms.”“What about the unrest occurring in different parts of the country?” asked427