The Road to Afghanistan - George Washington University

was surprised to find out that not all of them admired Hafizullah Amin, the leading hero ofthe revolution. Moreover, some of them simply hated him. Once, a student whispered intoKurilov’s ear at a convenient moment, “Tell your people not to believe Amin. He is anenemy. He is a real fascist. He wants to kill Taraki.” Kurilov was shocked to hear that. TheAfghan continued, “We have information that he is preparing Taraki’s assassination at theairport.”This time it seemed to be important enough information to share with his superiors.When Dolmatov learned about this, he drove Valery to the embassy to talk to thecommander of Zenit. Boyarinov dialed an internal number and talked to somebody. “Goupstairs to the second floor. You will see a deputy resident. Report everything to him,” heinstructed Kurilov.Orlov-Morozov listened to the report. When Kurilov passed him the notebook withthe data that he had collected, Orlov-Morozov was surprised.“Did you receive an assignment in Moscow to develop local counterintelligenceoperatives?” he asked, making long pauses between words.“No, it was my own initiative.” Kurilov suddenly realized that he had donesomething wrong. “At the moment, I am a special services operative, but my profession iscounterintelligence. This is why I decided that it would be useful to learn more about theoperatives of foreign special services. Who knows, perhaps this could be of use someday.”“Who else is informed about this initiative of yours?“Commander of the detachment, Boyarinov. I got his permission to do it.”“Alright,” said Orlov-Morozov, softening up. “Leave your notebook with us. Continuethe work that you started. But be careful! Come to the embassy to write down your462