The Road to Afghanistan - George Washington University

workers, avant-garde peasants, and intelligentsia to the party ranks. New party memberswere departing for the fronts of the civil war…That was the way to solve the problem ofstrengthening and expanding the party ranks, while at the same time fighting the counterrevolution.”“This is all correct,” nodded Taraki, thinking, “Where should we get those bestworkers and avant-garde peasants?”“Intensification of political and educational activities among the population is veryimportant,” Brezhnev continued reading. “By the way, here is a question, Comrade Taraki.Soviet Communist Party advisers assist secretaries of provincial PDPA committees in asmany as eleven of your country’s provinces. Many of those secretaries combine their PDPAappointments with positions as provincial governors. It would be more appropriate toseparate official government positions from PDPA appointments.“Because of your country’s specific conditions, the issue of clarifying the PDPA’s andthe government’s stance toward religion for the broad masses is of particularimportance…Selection and placement of military, PDPA and government cadres arebecoming particularly important in the conditions of the continuing struggle againstcounter-revolution. I also am aware of your bitter experiences caused by the treachery ofsome army officers and violations of the party norms by government and party officials insome provinces.”“Thank you, Leonid Ilyich,” Taraki said, agreeing with the criticism. “I will speakabout this issue later. I would like to ask you, if it is possible, to send the translation of yourremarks to me via the Soviet ambassador. I’ve been taking notes, but would like to have thefull text in order to study it more attentively.”502