The Road to Afghanistan - George Washington University

deputy resident gave Valery an indifferent look over his reading glasses before gesturing for himto take a seat across from Vladimir. Having finished editing the text of a cable, he handed thesheets to Valery and asked him to go over it.Valery Starostin had a special status at the Kabul KGB Residency. Before becoming anintelligence officer, he graduated from the Oriental Department of Leningrad State University andinterned in Afghanistan, where, working as an interpreter, he had made some significantconnections among the Afghan intellectuals. When he joined the KGB, he had to become a memberof the Communist Party. However, for a long time his admission application was rejected—eitherhe couldn’t remember some decisions made during the last Central Committee plenary session orat the meeting of the local Communist Party plenary session, or recommendations given to him by“senior comrades” were not correctly stamped. The KGB officers who were not members of theCommunist Party could not work abroad. That was why Starostin spent almost four years at theCenter. His way to fight the imperialist enemy was to use the sharpest weapon available to a KGBofficer—an awl. He was tasked with compiling and sewing up dossiers. There was a Makarovhandgun and many dossiers in his safe. There were dossiers for all of the active Soviet agents inAfghanistan and materials related to those who were targeted for recruitment by KGB officers.They were thick information files. There were personnel files for every operative of the Kabul KGBResidency, along with other supporting materials. The young officer had to study that archive ingreat detail, and had to prepare the Center’s recommendations related to Soviet intelligenceactivities in Afghanistan. Having reported the recommendations to his superiors, Valery used anawl, a huge needle, and a thick thread to attach the documents to relevant dossiers. Starostinenjoyed digging through the old files. The archived reports of residents from the twenties andthirties, written in pencil on rice paper, inspired awe in him.92