The Revolution

In 1973 Daud – a cousin of the king and a Pashtun in political orientation – came to power through a palace coup, with the active support of Parcham and the army, and officially ended the monarchy. Daud had close relations with the Soviet Union. In the beginning of the Daud regime the communists enjoyed freedom of activity. But after the reunification of the PDPA in 1977 and their growing influence in the civil and military bureaucracy, they became a threat to the regime.

On 18 April 1978 trade unionist and leader of Parcham, Mir Akbar Khyber, was mysteriously assassinated. Thousands of people gathered at his funeral in Kabul. Mir Akbar Khyber’s death and funeral were a warning to the regime. And this, the life-or-death struggle between the regime and the PDPA intensified. Ten days later on 28 April 1978, the PDPA took state power in a coup, this time led by the Khalq faction.

It is interesting that neither faction of the PDPA had any perspective and were not expecting a revolution in the near future in Afghanistan. The same was true of the Soviet Union. The revolution was a surprise for the Soviet bureaucracy. The revolution was provoked by the Daud regime’s suppression of the PDPA. It became a simple question of survival for the PDPA. After Mir Akbar Khyber’s assassination, the purge against the communists was sped up. The regime arrested party members, including party leader Nur Muhammad Tarakey at midnight on 26 April. This was a fatal move by the Daud regime.

Next morning a pre-planned operation, specifically designed for use in case of such an event, was initiated by the PDPA. Around 250 tanks and armoured vehicles took part in the coup, and officers who were members of the party took charge of both ground and air forces. By 5:30pm, power was in the hands of the rebels. The arrested party leader was released from jail as a victor. Radio Kabul, as well as Bigram and Kabul airports, were under their control. That evening they announced the victory of the revolution on Radio Kabul.

The Saur Revolution (Saur being the name of the Afghan calendar month in which the revolution occurred) in Afghanistan was not like that in Russia during the Bolshevik Revolution of October 1917, where power was taken by a mass uprising of workers and peasants led by Lenin.

Finding themselves in power after the collapse of the previous rotten regime, the officers, opposed by imperialism and the feudal classes, could only find support amongst the small working class and the impoverished working masses. They found a suitable model in the Soviet Union, and thus received aid from them.

The People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan

The Party was founded on 1 January 1965 in the house of Party leader Nur Muhammed Tarakai. The aim of the party was described in these words:

“We know that we are struggling for some classes against some classes and that we are going to build such a society on the basis of social principles in the interest of the toilers which is void of individual exploitation.” (Address to the first congress of the PDPA).

But soon after its foundation, the party faced a split in 1967 mainly on the question of opposition to the king.

The two main groups that emerged, named after their respective papers – though both followed the theoretical lines of the Soviet Union – was the Parcham (The Flag) oriented more towards nationalism. Its base was mainly within the urban middle classes and their work was more concentrated in the armed forces. On the other hand, the focus of the Khalq (The People) faction was on class lines and its base was in the urban working class and rural poor.

There exists a popular myth even among some lefts that the PDPA didn't have any mass base at all. But serious Afghan historians do not agree with that position, and they are of the opinion that the PDPA had mass support even in rural Afghanistan. Apart from that, there is evidence that the PDPA had succeeded in establishing study circles even in the Pashtun region across the border in Pakistan.

The PDPA inherited a country in grim conditions. The social problems were deep and wide. It was one of the poorest countries in the world. Illiteracy was astonishingly high, affecting 95 percent of the population.

The countryside was socially backward, with tribal codes of conduct mixed with a distorted form of Islam. the challenges of the current condotions of Afghanistan would prove to be too much for the PDPA to hanble combine with the US supporting and funding a counter-revolution made up by islamist groups, the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan would end up collapsing to Mujahideen forces in 1992, two years after their Soviet allies collapse.

• Time line of Afghanistan (1919-1996) :sit-back-and-enjoy:

• Afghan Saur Revolution 1978: what it achieved, how it was crushed :chad-trotsky: (trot site)

• Revolutionary Afghanistan :USSR:

• The Revolution in Afghanistan :hammer-sickle:

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More Arithmetical nuts to crack

(E) Use four 9s to make 20.

(F) Express 20 with plus signs and 1, 3, 5, and 7, using each digit three times.

(G) The sum of two numbers formed with plus signs and the digits 1, 3, 5, 7, and 9 equals the sum of two numbers formed with plus signs and the digits 2, 4, 6, and 8. Find these numbers, Using each digit only once, and not using improper fractions.

Tomorrow will finish up this long problem so in mean time hope everyone has fun :soviet-heart: and please dm @Wmill the answers.

This Friday we are gonna have a Monty Python Double Feature first with Monty Python and the Holy Grail :praise-it: which tell the story of King Arthur and his Knights in their quest to find the Holy Grail.

And finaly with Life of Brian :biggus-dickus: in which a common man is believed to be the messiah and he is forced to lead a religious movement

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