and prompted figures such as Ponomarev’s right-hand man for the
Third World, R. A. Ul’ianovskii, to assert that there was ‘no coun-
try that would not be ripe for socialism’ (Kornienko, 1993: 108).
But fourth, the Soviet leadership had little understanding of the
likely Afghan reaction. Hungary and Czechoslovakia were poor
precedents, since their social and political structures differed rad-
ically from those in Afghanistan. By the time the Soviets invaded
Afghanistan, the peoples of Afghanistan were on the verge of
being thoroughly aroused, and it was this challenge with which
Soviet strategy and tactics were to prove inadequate to cope.
36 The Afghanistan Wars