The Road to Afghanistan - George Washington University

“I also believe that the Afghans, as most people, do not care which power exists intheir country. They don’t care so long as this power doesn’t reach into their wallets or theirhomes to impose a particular way of family life. When this happens, people will develop astrong dissatisfaction that may evolve into dangerous action.”“On this item, Valery, I agree with you, and I spoke to Taraki about this last night.”“What was his response?”“Taraki thinks that the adoption of Decree Number Seven should demonstrate to theAfghans, and the whole world, the progressive nature of their revolution. I also think thatthe results of this decree may be very difficult to control. This is why its nature is moredeclarative and propagandist than practical.”“This is exactly the case,” responded Starostin thoughtfully. “There will be zeropractical results, but the enemies of the revolution will receive an excellent opportunity toexploit this document in their propaganda.”Then Dvoryankov and Starostin elaborated the lengthy text of Decree Number Eightand began to ponder its contents. It was a decree on land reform. It introduced a generallimit on the size of land ownership for one family. The size of land that could be owned wasthirty djeribs (six hectares) for the first category (such as orchards, vineyards, and fertileland that yields two harvests per year) or an equivalent amount of land of other categories.Anything that the family owned beyond this limit was to be expropriated withoutcompensation. Landless peasants, agricultural workers, and nomads without anypossessions would receive land free of charge if they agreed to work on that landthemselves.283