removed from the Central Committee on 17 October 1987. The
biggest purge of all came in October 1988. Saleh Muhammad
Zeray and Abdul Zuhur Razmjo were removed from the Politburo,
and shortly after, Gulabzoi was abruptly despatched to Moscow as
Afghan Ambassador. The nature of Najibullah’s problem was set
out very clearly in a speech he gave on 18 October 1987, which
deserves to be quoted at some length:
The enemies of party unity are ready to hoist the so-called revo-
lutionary banners and accuse the PDPA Central Committee and
its leadership of waiving the party’s strategic policy in the inter-
ests of counter-revolutionaries. The enemies of party unity stub-
bornly resist the restructuring of party work. The enemies of
party unity spread the spirit of defeat and disillusion, rumour
and gossip, and they damage the authority and credibility of the
PDPA leadership. The enemies of party unity prevent the expan-
sion of the social bases of the revolution and the creation of
coalition forms of administration and the multi-party system.
The enemies of party unity create obstacles on the way of the
party’s policy for the eradication of mistakes and false calcul-
ations emanating from the wrong leap forwards to bring about
social and economic transformation. The enemies of party unity
openly assist in diminishing party authority and credibility
among the people and in strengthening the positions of our ideo-
logical opponents
(BBC Summary of World BroadcastsFE/8707/C/18, 24 October
1987).The vocabulary in this passage is so typical of Marxist-Leninist
rhetoric that one wonders whether Soviet advisers penned it, but it
undoubtedly reflected Najibullah’s real views of his opponents.
Glasnost’ and Afghanistan
One striking result of glasnost’ was the appearance in the Soviet
press and electronic media of more information about the situation
The Najibullah-Gorbachev Period 1986–1989 119