The Road to Afghanistan - George Washington University

Before the vote for the candidates to the Central Committee commenced, it wasdecided that each delegate should briefly introduce himself. Shah Wali, when speaking,asked the assembly to take note that he represented the bourgeoisie class and wastherefore liable to make mistakes. Nur Ahmad Nur admitted that his father was aprominent feudal lord with a personal army, thirty thousand men strong. While thecongress “delegates” were internalizing that information, Nur Ahmad Nur promised thatthe men, loyal to his father, would from now on serve the party.Babrak, despite his pseudonym “Karmal,” looked no more proletarian than anyoneelse in the assembly. Everyone knew that his father was the governor-general of the Paktiaprovince. But they also knew more important things. Karmal had been leadingrevolutionary youth from an early age. He organized many anti-governmentdemonstrations for which he had been expelled from the university and spent time inprison. And what could one say about Taraki? He was born into a family of Pashtunpeasants who had come from a nomadic tribe. His parents died when he was a child and hewas adopted by an English couple that lived in British India. Taraki, like the majority of theparticipants of the congress, had never worked in the field or with any sort of machineryand could under no circumstances be considered part of the working class. He was a writer,journalist, a bureaucrat in the Ministry of Information and Culture, a press attaché for theAfghan embassy in Washington, an interpreter for the American embassy in Kabul, butneither a peasant nor a worker.Deep in his heart, Babrak Karmal was very eager to become the new party leader,but he knew well that his revolutionary experience would not impress the delegates likethat of Taraki, who had joined the progressive movement Vish Zalmiyan (“Awakened67