family was already living. Karmal was dazed. He obsequiously
begged Gorbachev to change his mind, promising to perform his
duties in a more correct and active way. But Gorbachev was inex-
orable, because he did not believe any more that Karmal could find
a way out of the deadlock which had in fact been created by the
Soviet Union itself’ (Dobrynin, 1995: 443). On 5 May 1986,
Karmal was removed from the position of General Secretary of the
PDPA Central Committee, ostensibly on health grounds. With this,
the first phase of the Soviet–Afghan War came to an end.
The Karmal Period, 1979–1986 107