The Road to Afghanistan - George Washington University

Glotov and Alexander Dolmatov were appointed as his deputies. During the night of July 4,an airplane with Zenit members on board took off from the Chkalovsky airdrome in thesuburbs of Moscow. Afghanistan was its destination.Upon arrival in Kabul, the newly arrived commandos settled in an empty school ofthe Soviet embassy. They lined up in front of Lieutenant Colonel Bakhturin, who wasintroduced as a security officer at the Soviet embassy. Bakhturin, short and stocky,outfitted in a black leather jacket, strictly inspected the elite group of commandos, and veryunexpectedly issued a warning to those who would dare to have affairs with unmarriedyoung women at the embassy: “In case of such a transgression, you will be kicked out ofAfghanistan and out of the KGB,” he said by way of a promise to the commandos, in place ofa greeting.Another surprise arrived from Ambassador Puzanov’s wife, who was called “mama”at the embassy—a nickname that implied a mix of fear and respect. She prohibited Zenitcommandos from using the embassy pool, shopping at the commissary, and socializingwith diplomats, their wives, and children. “Mama” treated the new arrivals as a lower caste.That bothered Kurilov. “How is this possible?” he thought. “We arrived here to providesecurity for the embassy and the whole Soviet colony. We will be risking our lives toprotect them, while they think of us as some substandard creatures.”Much of the new foreign life appeared strikingly different from what they hadexpected while still in Moscow. At first, the elite commandos of the special forces wereordered to guard the territory of the embassy—a mundane task. They walked along theperimeter as ordinary soldiers, served at guard booths, and accompanied senioradministrators and officers on their trips into Kabul. There was nothing heroic about those458