The Road to Afghanistan - George Washington University

“Listen to me attentively, and don’t ask any questions,” said General Oshurkov onthe other end of the line. “Your daughter appealed to the Central Committee of the CPSUrequesting to meet with you, her father. Her request is being granted. You should leave forMoscow immediately. Is everything clear?”“Nothing is clear!” exclaimed Zaplatin in astonishment. “What does anything have todo with my daughter? What’s wrong with her?”“I warned you—no questions.”“But the Aeroflot flight for Moscow has already left. There won’t be another for twodays.”“This is none of your concern. You will arrive at Bagram Airbase by 18:00. A planehas been chartered to pick you up.”Completely dumbfounded and tormented by fear for his daughter, Zaplatin putdown the heavy telephone receiver and went to the embassy, wondering if they might haveadditional information for him. Ambassador Tabeyev received the general sympathetically,but said that he hadn’t received any information regarding his daughter. So what mighthave happened? Knowing his daughter well, Vasily Petrovich could hardly entertain thethought of her going to the Central Committee with any request. Besides, he wasn’t such animportant person that the Soviet leadership would send a special plane to retrieve him.What was behind this sudden concern about some general whose daughter wished tospeak with him? Something seemed amiss. He placed another call to Oshurkov from theambassador’s office.“Is my daughter alive? What’s the matter with her?”“She is alive. Don’t ask any more questions. You will find everything out in Moscow.”643