>From Workers Vanguard October 12th issue. Reprinting, "Afghanistan
and the Left: The Russian Question Point Blank, " in Spartacist,
#29, Summer 1980. "The difference between Soviet Central Asia
and Afghanistan is to be measured not in decades but, in centuries.
While Afghanistan is over 90% illiterate neighboring Soviet Uzbekistan
probably has a higher literacy rate than Jimmy Carter's Georgia.
The average life expectancy in Uzbekistan
is 70 compared to 40 in Afghanistan. A major reason for this
that in Uzbekistan there is a one doctor for every 380 people
and in Afghanistan there is one doctor for every 20,000! All
social and economic comparisons show the same thing..."
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I ya otvechayu tak: It may be from Workers Vanguard, but it's also true. The Communists enjoyed popular support in Afghan cities, because they were in favor of modernisation, industrialisation and the educating of girls. The muj were a rural phenomenon. It should serve as an indication of the extent of their unpopularity that it took them several years to take Kabul from the Najibooli government even after the USSR withdrew.
Chris Doss The Russia Journal