The Road to Afghanistan - George Washington University

preparation of explosives, area studies, and expert snipers were among the faculty atBalashikha. Besides being taught the routine curriculum, the trainees receivedpsychological training, where they adopted a particular self-perception that made them feelas if they were superior to others and knew no obstacles to achieving their goals.Half a year into the program, in early June, the trainees could tell through thebehavior of their faculty that something had changed. Class topics were switched to onesthat were slightly uncharacteristic for the training of saboteurs. Suddenly they were beingtrained to free hostages, to capture and defend strategic sites. Then some high-level officialarrived from the PGU. Having skipped any introduction, he informed the trainees that theircohort would become a special detachment, which would be deployed in Afghanistan. Theirtask was to provide for the security of Soviet citizens in Afghanistan, to help Afghan specialservices fight the rebels, and to fulfill any other tasks that might arise. The high officialsalso said that the detachment would be formed on a volunteer basis, and that nobodywould be forced to join.Again, Kurilov did not ponder the news for very long. His colleagues did not rejectthe offer either. The young men, most of whom had never been abroad, were tempted bythe opportunity to experience life in another country. They didn’t think of the potentialrisks that their deployment in Afghanistan might entail, as they only had a very vague ideaabout life in Afghanistan and knew almost nothing about the situation there.By early July, a detachment of thirty-eight men with the code name “Zenit” wasready for action. For the first time in many years, a special detachment of KGB, which wasequipped with its own means of communication, weapons, and other special devices, wasbeing deployed abroad. Grigory Boyarinov was appointed the commander of Zenit. Vasily457