Michael Dobbs: Down with Big Brother

Chernenko had a favorite catchphrase—“everything’s fine, everything’s fine”—which he repeated endlessly. Occasionally this got him in trouble with his patron. One day, as he sat in his office, Brezhnev complained that he had been unable to sleep at all the previous night. Chernenko, who also suffered from insomnia, was barely awake at the time. “ Vsyo khorosho, ” he murmured, scarcely aware of what was happening around him. “Everything’s fine.”

“What’s fine about that?” roared Brezhnev. “I can’t sleep, and you go on with your ‘Everything’s fine.’ ”

“Ohhh,” sputtered Chernenko, by now wide-awake, “that’s not fine.” 31

THE GENERAL STAFF had serious doubts about the proposed invasion. Afghanistan’s rugged terrain and warrior traditions had created enormous problems for both tsarist Russia and the British Empire. The generals’ concerns were shared by Foreign Ministry officials, who feared the international repercussions of a Soviet move into Afghanistan. But Ustinov and Andropov were convinced that a massive show of force would intimidate the opposition and restore order in the country. What they had in mind was a short, sharp operation, somewhat like the invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968. Protected and encouraged by the Soviet army, “healthy forces” would regain control of the Afghan party from the usurper, Amin. The presence of Soviet troops in the capital, Kabul, and other garrison towns would permit the Afghan army to suppress the antigovernment insurgency. Under no circumstances would Soviet soldiers be allowed to take part in combat operations against the mujahedin. The actual fighting would be done by Afghans. 32

When the chiefs of the General Staff expressed skepticism about this plan, Ustinov summoned the dissenters to his office. He had two marsnals and a general stand at attention in front of his desk, beneath the portrait of Lenin. “Are generals now making policy in the Soviet Union?” he demanded angrily. “Your task is to plan specific operations and to carry out your orders.” 33The implied accusation of Bonapartism—regarded as a mortal sin by Soviet Communists—was enough to bring the dissenters into line. The generals saluted smartly and got to work.

Once the foreign policy troika had taken a decision to use force in Afghanistan, the only man capable of blocking the invasion was the gensek himself. But Brezhnev was distressed by the gruesome fate that had befallen Taraki, just a few days after their public embrace, and regarded Amin’s refusal to accept Soviet advice as a personal affront. “What will they say in other countries?” he had asked his aides, in a characteristic fit of emotion. “Is it possible to believe the word of Brezhnev if all his assurances of support and protection remain mere words?” 34

The decision to invade had been endorsed by the Politburo on the evening of December 12. One by one, the twelve senior members of the leadership had joined Brezhnev in scrawling their names across the Central Committee resolution NR 176/125, approving a series of “measures” to be taken in country “A.” 35The measures were so secret that they could not be committed to paper. To prevent a possible leak via the Politburo typist, Chernenko wrote out the resolution by hand.

There were two stages to the operation. With Amin’s agreement, three divisions of Soviet troops would be dispatched to Afghanistan with the ostensible purpose of “saving the revolution.” They would then proceed to the second stage, the forcible removal of Amin and the installation of a more compliant Afghan leader. Soviet military planners envisaged Operation Storm as a gesture of “fraternal assistance” and invasion rolled into one. 36

While the inner Politburo met at Brezhnev’s dacha on December 26, a fleet of four hundred Soviet transport planes was already pouring into Kabul’s Bagram Airport. A plane landed every three or four minutes, discharge troops and armored vehicles, and fly away for more without turning off its engines. 37The operation was supervised by Ustinov, Andropov, and Gromyko, who reported the results to Brezhnev.

Convinced it was his duty to preserve the empire that had been put together with so much blood, the general secretary gave the order for Operation Storm to proceed. The following day Chernenko dictated a memorandum recording that the general secretary “approved the plan of action for the immediate future, as outlined by the comrades.” 38Shortly afterward Brezhnev was heard to boast that “it will all be over in three to four weeks.” 39

Many years later, when a search was made of the archives for the political decision that led to the bloody events of December 27, these two notes drafted by Chernenko were all that could be found. By that time the men who had taken the fateful decision to invade Afghanistan were long dead, and the Soviet Union itself was no more.

HAFIZULLAH AMIN WAS CONVINCED that the Red Army was coming to his rescue. His personal envoy had just returned from Moscow with news that the Soviet Union was at last ready to provide Afghanistan with “fraternal assistance.” The Kremlin had accepted his explanation for the overthrow and murder of Taraki, the original “Great Leader” of the Afghan revolution. Soon Amin’s hold on power would be secure.

There had been some difficult moments. Over the past few weeks Communists loyal to Taraki had begun a campaign to assassinate members of the new regime. At the beginning of December they had succeeded in lightly wounding Amin and killing his nephew. Anti-Communist rebels had advanced to within a few miles of the capital, cutting the main north-south highway. For security reasons Amin had moved out of the House of the People in downtown Kabul a week earlier. His new residence was a monstrous three-story fortress, the Dār-ol-Amān Palace, built by a former Afghan king. Located at the base of the Hindu Kush mountains, seven miles southwest of Kabul, the palace was defended by an Afghan infantry brigade. Tanks guarded the only approach road, a winding serpentine.

Amin had some doubts about the loyalty of his own troops but trusted his Soviet advisers completely. He knew the Soviet leaders were angry with him for killing Taraki but reasoned that they would support the winning side. Confident that he was the victor in the Afghan fratricide, Amin gratefully accepted Soviet offers of “protection.” He allowed a battalion of elite troops from Soviet Central Asia—the so-called Muslim battalion—to take up positions near his palace. 40Soviet advisers had intimate knowledge of his security arrangements. Frightened that Afghan cooks might try to poison him, Amin had even gone to the length of employing two cooks from the Soviet republic of Uzbekistan.

On December 27 Amin entertained government ministers at lunch. He wanted to show them his new residence and boast about his Soviet connections. “The Soviet divisions are already on their way. Everything is going fine,” he assured his guests, referring to the thousands of Soviet troops already pouring into Bagram Airport. “I am in constant contact with Comrade Gromyko. We are discussing how to inform the world about the decision to grant us Soviet assistance.” 41

At the end of the lunch everybody at the table fell violently ill. Amin, together with many of his guests, lost consciousness. Soviet and Afghan doctors were summoned. Although this was obviously a case of mass food poisoning, it did not occur to anyone to suspect the Soviet kitchen staff.

The doctors were greeted by a tableau of wretchedness. All over the palace—in the hallways, on the staircases, in waiting rooms—prominent Afghans were lying in unnatural poses. Some were still unconscious. Some were doubled up, clutching their stomachs. Some were screaming with pain. The Soviet military doctors, who were not informed about the plot to overthrow the Afghan leader, were ushered into an upstairs room where Amin was lying on a bed, dressed only in a pair of shorts. His pulse was weak. His jaw was hanging down, and his eyes were rolling. The doctors pumped his stomach, injected him with antidotes for food poisoning, and attached drips to his veins. Suddenly his eyelids began fluttering. The “Brave Commander” was pulling through.