The Road to Afghanistan - George Washington University

officers took a seven-month-long course at the base in Balashikha, and as a rule, uponcompletion they went back to their previous jobs. However, the Center entered their namesin a special database. That special contingent of the PGU from then on had to live in a stateof permanent alert and readiness to be deployed covertly to different countries. Therewould be a number of different tasks on their plate, from working with local agents todestroying strategically important sites of a potential enemy, such as strategicheadquarters, missile bases, and lines of communication.Kurilov found the curriculum interesting. Like most of his fellow trainees, he didn’tbelieve that they would ever have to use the skills that they were learning. He didn’t thinkthat war would ever break out, that he would have to plant explosives to derail trains,eliminate guards, or lead an assault. But skepticism was secondary to the truly manlytraining that he received. He had to learn self defense, master cold steel weaponry, doparachute jumping, scuba diving, plant explosives, and master camouflage. Valery wassmart enough to understand that his professional duty after completion of the course wasto become a kamikaze. But he did not mind, as he did not think that a real war would everhappen, and considered the training to be a real adventure, for which he was grateful.Kurilov was one of the few who thought that there would be no war. Those whoorganized the training in Balashikha, who nurtured and supervised the program with greatcare, thought differently. Andropov himself, as well as his generals in Headquarters “S”(covert intelligence) paid special attention to the curriculum. A highly experienced, veteransaboteur, Colonel Boyarinov, was appointed to oversee the course. Boyarinov keptmeticulous research on foreign covert saboteur activities, which included Soviet and allknown foreign experience. The most experienced specialists in the recruitment of agents,456