The Stranglers - Vladimir and the Beast lyrics

Thank you, my fatherland For helping me to be totally reintegrated and normalised Only in the world's greatest socialist democracy could one hope to be forgiven for losing temporary sight of the aims and goals of the of the Marxist/Leninist revolution Two years it took me to be cured of my illness Being still a relatively young and fit man I was still in search of fulfilment The memory of Olger, Sergey and my two children Motivated me to seek an occupation That would both repay my debt to my great party And obviously help the way to international socialism I was still unable to resume my lectureship at the sub-nucleonic particle physics And therefore volunteered to help our Afghan comrades In their great struggle for liberation I was readily accepted Into a motorized maintenance unit It was not long before I realised that our support For the liberation struggle of our comrades in Afghanistan Was not viewed at all together unanimously by the local population In fact, we were not allowed outside of the barracks unless we were in large armoured groups During our brief stay in Afghanistan We had discovered some of the very few pleasures open to visitors to this desolate place A local concoction called "hashish" was being increasingly used by our troops And many of the helicopter gunship and tank crews, moreover Would smoke large chillums and joints before embarking on missions around the mountains, surrounding Kabul Every week comrades who had fallen into the hands of the rebels would be found in various states of dismemberment around the camp Those unlucky enough to be still alive Were sent from rehabilitation to the German democratic republics Since this would prevent any undue alarm by our loved ones back home The wisdom of this policy is evidence of our leaders' great care for their people Apart from hashish there was not much to divert or endure the cold mountain nights And increasingly there were signs of the troops acquiring the illness of which I had previously been cured And therefore, my attention was focused more on looking at the few animals that were kept within the military compound. As is often the case between human beings and animals A close bond of affection can develop And I became increasingly close to a camel I named Dimitri Ah, dear Dimitri No one can really understand the relationship between a man and his camel As was the case with the army doctors and my superiors Who sent me to convalesce in the German Democratic Republic.