The Road to Afghanistan - George Washington University

should ask your colleagues to be more sympathetic to our struggle. Think of your revolution—howmany enemies did you have? And how mercilessly, and over how long a time did your leadershiphave to purge them from the party ranks? Doesn’t our campaign against the opportunists insideour party remind you of your own struggle with the Mensheviks? We have simply taken yourlessons to heart.”“Still, Comrade Taraki,” softly responded the ambassador, “I would like to pass along arequest from the Soviet leadership to show some humanity to those whom you have arrested andallow them to live.”The Afghan leader stood up and paced across his office with his chest thrust forward.“We treat the opinion of our Soviet comrades with great respect,” he said. “Your words arelaw for us. But remember Lenin’s words, that one should be merciless to the enemies of therevolution. Remember that in order to achieve the full victory of the October Revolution, you hadto eliminate millions of enemies. I agree—repression is an extraordinarily sharp weapon. But thewhole history of your country has taught us that we should not hesitate to use this weapondecisively.”At the embassy, Puzanov wrote a cable to the Center: “In our opinion, the actions of theleadership of the PDPA are leading to the cementing of revolutionary authority, strengthening therole of the party in all spheres of Afghan society, foremost in the Afghan military forces. As to thearrest of Minister of Defense Abdul Qadir, according to our observations he was a politicallyimmature person, inclined to adventurism and lacking perspective.”***On August 2, “Comrade Vladimirov,” the code name of Vladimir Kryuchkov, arrived inKabul on a covert mission. He was accompanied by Colonel Bogdanov, who would become the first202