The story
On April 27 and 28, 1978 officers loyal to the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan, a communist party, seized the presidential palace in Kabul. They killed President Mohammad Daoud Khan and most of his family. The coup is called the Saur Revolution, after the Afghan month of Saur, and it created the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan, led by Nur Muhammad Taraki.
Daoud had overthrown his cousin, King Zahir Shah, in 1973 and ruled as president, but he had begun to turn away from his communist allies, and in April 1978 he arrested party leaders after a large funeral demonstration for a murdered party figure. The jailed Hafizullah Amin passed word to sympathetic officers, who struck first. The party was split into the Khalq faction, led by Taraki and Amin, and the Parcham faction, led by Babrak Karmal. The new rulers decreed land reform, cancelled peasants' debts, banned bride price and promoted girls' education, often by force. In the villages, where landowners and clergy were strong, these changes were seen as an attack on religion and custom, and rebellion spread through 1979. Historians generally hold that the Soviet Union was surprised by the coup, though it soon backed the regime. Amin deposed and killed Taraki in 1979, and the Soviets invaded in December 1979, killing Amin.
Why it mattered
- It ended the relative stability Afghanistan had known since the 1930s and began more than four decades of war.
- The rural rebellion against the reforms became the mujahideen resistance supported by Pakistan, the United States and Saudi Arabia.
- It led directly to the Soviet invasion of December 1979.
- Refugee flows to Pakistan and Iran began, and they remained among the world's largest for decades.
Sources
- People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan Britannica
- Communist Coup in Kabul Wilson Center
Drafted by AI (Claude) from the sources above and checked against them by AI; no historian has reviewed this page. Spot a mistake? Suggest a correction. How pages are made
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