The Road to Afghanistan - George Washington University

analyst’s intentions.***The morning of Saturday, April 29, started for Vladimir Alexandrovich Kryuchkov with hisexercise routine. The director of the First Directorate of the KGB of the USSR was a pedant whonever changed his rules and rituals. A vigorous morning exercise routine was one of those rituals.He developed the routine himself and did it no matter the setting, at his office dacha in Yasenevoor in his Moscow apartment. He would nonchalantly perform his exercise in some ambassadorialresidence or at the beach of a KGB sanatorium. The underlings knew of their chief’s habit and grewto respect it.It was Saturday, but even on his days off, Kryuchkov did not slack. He got up at 6 a.m. asusual, put on his training attire, and spent an hour exercising vigorously outside his dacha. Thenhe showered, had a simple breakfast, and took off for work. He insisted on walking to his office. Itwasn’t far—not more than a kilometer. He had to walk through a fenced compound that wasadjacent to the building complex housing Foreign Intelligence. As befitting a secret organization,the complex was located in an area not likely to be frequented by strangers, a forest beyond theOuter Ring Road. The Foreign Intelligence headquarters had moved there seven years earlier. Thecompound was surrounded by a special defense system. A metallic plaque with the vague title“Scientific Center for Research” was attached to the main gate. Whoever thought up that title musthave had some sense of humor. However, very few strangers would dare to approach the maingate on foot or by car in order to see the surprising plaque, because the turn off from Ring Roadtowards the nest of “scientists” was blocked. Soviet people at that time were disciplined, andrespected such warnings signs. They say that only once had this prohibition been violated—by anelk, hunting for sweet grass growing outside of the compound. He managed to penetrate the106