ABSTRACT
The Soviets' efforts to attract traditional leaders in the countryside or to play the game of classical tribal feuds, in order to eradicate support for the mujahedin, are not part of sovietization. The Soviets have had a two-sided policy, which has enabled them to stress alternatively one or the other side. The Communist party is not officially reckoned as such by the Soviet Union, but its statutes, organization, and ideology are exactly the same as those of the Communist party of the Soviet Union. The Soviets put a great emphasis on the adoption of Soviet-like institutions by their allies. The sovietization of the institution in Afghanistan may be a technical success, but the effect of the formal transformation on the minds of the Afghans appears to be minimal. The Soviet way of life is presented not so much as a political or ideological choice but as the only legitimate modernizing achievement.
