Death and state funeral of Leonid Brezhnev him, twenty minutes before the deposition of the coffin he was asked by the Kremlin custodian Semyon Shornikov to lower the coffin simultaneously with the chime of bells. The funeral was attended by 32 heads of state, 15 heads of government, 14 foreign ministers and four princes. Among the foreign dignitaries to attend the funeral were President and General Secretary Heng Samrin of Kampuchea, Prime Minister Pierre Mauroy of France, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi of India, President Babrak Karmal of Afghanistan, President Fidel Castro of Cuba, Foreign Minister Huang Hua of China, Yasser Arafat of the Palestine Liberation Organization, First
Babrak Karmal as an English and German translator, before quitting and leaving for military training. Karmal graduated from the College of Law and Political Science in 1960, and in 1961, he found work as an employee in the Compilation and Translation Department of the Ministry of Education. From 1961 to 1963 he worked in the Ministry of Planning. When his mother died, Karmal left with his maternal aunt to live somewhere else. His father disowned him because of his leftist views. Karmal was involved in much debauchery, which was controversial in the mostly conservative Afghan society. Imprisoned from 1953 to 1956, Karmal