| Saur Revolution | |||||||
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Outside the Palace Gate (Arg) in Kabul, the day after Saur revolution on April 28, 1978 |
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| Belligerents | |||||||
| Daoud's Republic | Revolutionary Military Units PDPA |
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| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Mohammed Daoud Khan † Abdul Qadir Nuristani |
Mohammad Aslam Watanjar Abdul Qadir Dagarwal Nur Muhammad Taraki Hafizullah Amin Babrak Karmal |
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The Saur Revolution (Persian: انقلاب ثور) (also written Sawr Revolution) is the name given to the Communist People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) takeover of political power from the government of Afghanistan on 28 April 1978. The word 'Saur', i.e. Taurus, refers to the Dari name of the second month of the Persian calendar, the month in which the uprising took place.[1]
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Under the secular government of Mohammed Daoud Khan, factionalism and rivalry developed in the ruling PDPA, with two main factions developing, Parcham and Khalqi. In 1978 a prominent member of the Parcham, Mir Akbar Khyber, was killed. Although the government issued a statement deploring the assassination, Nur Mohammad Taraki of the PDPA charged that the government itself was responsible, a belief that was shared by much of the Kabul intelligentsia. PDPA leaders apparently feared that Daoud was planning to exterminate them all.
During the funeral ceremonies for Khyber a protest against the government occurred and shortly thereafter most of the leaders of PDPA, including Babrak Karmal, were arrested by the government. Hafizullah Amin, however, was put under house arrest. This gave him a chance to order an uprising, one that had been slowly coalescing for more than two years.[2] Amin, without having the authority, instructed the Khalqi army officers to overthrow the government.
The government of President Mohammad Daoud Khan came to a violent end in the early morning hours of April 28, 1978, when military units loyal to the Khalq faction of the PDPA stormed the palace in the heart of Kabul. The coup was strategically planned to begin Thursday, April 27, because it was the day before Friday, the Muslim day of worship, and most military commanders and government workers were off duty. With the help of a few airplanes of Afghanistan's military air force which were mainly Soviet made MiG-21 and SU-7s, the insurgent troops overcame the resistance of the Presidential Guard and killed Daoud and most members of his family.
According to an eyewitness, the first signs of the impending coup in Kabul, about noon on April 27, were reports of a tank column headed toward the city, smoke of unknown origin near the Ministry of Defense, and armed men, some in military uniform and others not, guarding Pashtunistan Circle, a major intersection. The first shots heard were near the Ministry of Interior in the New City (Shari Nau) section of Kabul where a company of policemen apparently confronted an advancing tank column. From there the fighting spread to other areas of the city. Later, that afternoon, the first fighter planes, SU-7s, came in low and firing rockets at the national palace in the center of the city. In early evening came an announcement on government-owned Radio Afghanistan that the "khalq" (people) were overthrowing the Daoud regime. The use of the word "khalq," and its traditional association with the Communists in Afghanistan, made clear that the PDPA was leading the coup -- and also that the rebels had captured the radio station.[3]
The aerial attacks on the palace intensified about midnight as six SU-7s made repeated rocket attacks, lighting up the city. The next morning, April 28, the city was mostly quiet, although the sound of gunfire could still be heard on the southern side of the city. As the people of Kabul ventured out of their homes they realized that the rebels were in complete control of the city and learned that President Daoud and his brother Naim had been killed early that morning. A group of soldiers had surrounded the heavily-damaged palace and demanded their surrender. Instead, Daoud and Naim, pistols in hand, charged at the soldiers, and were killed in a hail of bullets.[4]
The PDPA, divided between the Khalq and Parcham, succeeded the Daoud regime with a new government under the leadership of Nur Muhammad Taraki of the Khalq faction. In Kabul, the initial cabinet appeared to be carefully constructed to alternate ranking positions between Khalqis and Parchamis. Taraki (Khalqi) was Prime Minister, Karmal (Parchami) was senior Deputy Prime Minister, and Hafizullah Amin (Khalqi) was foreign minister. The unity, however, between Khalq and Parcham lasted only briefly. Taraki and Amin in early July relieved most of the Parchamis from their government positions. Karmal was sent abroad as Ambassador to Czechoslovakia. In August 1978, Taraki and Amin uncovered a "plot" and executed or imprisoned several cabinet members, including the military hero of the Saur Revolution, General Abdul Qadir Dagarwal. In September 1979, it was Taraki's turn to become a victim of the Revolution. Amin overthrew and executed him.[5]
Once in power, the PDPA implemented a socialist agenda. It moved to promote state atheism[6] and suppress the Islamic faith and carried out an ill-conceived land reform, which was resented by virtually all Afghans.[7] It changed the national flag from traditional Islamic green color to a near-copy of the red flag of the Soviet Union, a provocative affront to the people of this conservative Islamic country.[8] The PDPA also imprisoned, tortured or murdered thousands of members of the traditional elite, the religious establishment, and the intelligentsia.[7] It prohibited usury, without having in place any alternative for peasants who relied on the traditional, if exploitative, credit system in the countryside. That led to an agricultural crisis and a fall in agricultural production.[9];[10] The PDPA made a number of statements on women's rights, declaring equality of the sexes and introduced women to political life. A prominent example was Anahita Ratebzad, who was a major Marxist leader and a member of the Revolutionary Council. Ratebzad wrote the famous May 28, 1978 New Kabul Times editorial, which declared: "Privileges which women, by right, must have are equal education, job security, health services, and free time to rear a healthy generation for building the future of the country ... Educating and enlightening women is now the subject of close government attention."[11]
The dependence upon and adherence to the Soviet Union by the PDPA government soon became apparent to the world. The American Embassy in Kabul cabled Washington announcing ”what the British first, and later the Americans, tried to prevent for a hundred years has happened: the Russian Bear has moved south of the Hindu Kush.”[12]
Afghan opposition to the PDPA government became particularly pronounced after the Soviet Union invaded and occupied the country in late December 1979. The Soviets feared that the PDPA government was in danger of being toppled by opposition mujahideen forces and resented the independence shown by President Hafizullah Amin. Amin was killed or executed by the Soviets, reportedly on December 28, 1979.[13] Most of the government's new policies clashed directly with the traditional Afghan understanding of Islam, making religion one of the only forces capable of unifying the tribally and ethnically divided population against the unpopular new government, and ushering in the the advent of Islamist participation in Afghan politics.[14]
As the internal chaos and opposition by the Afghan people to the PDPA government increased, the U.S. saw the situation as a prime opportunity to weaken the Soviet Union, and the move essentially signaled the end of the détente era initiated by former President Richard Nixon. In 1978 the United States began training insurgents and directing propaganda broadcasts into Afghanistan from Pakistan.[15] Then, in early 1979, U.S. foreign service officers began meeting insurgent leaders to determine their needs.[16] According to the then National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski, CIA aid to the insurgents within Afghanistan was approved in July 1979, six months before the Soviet Invasion.[17] Brzezinski said that aid to the insurgents, begun under the Carter administration with the intention of provoking Soviet intervention, was significantly boosted under the Reagan administration, which was committed to actively rolling back Soviet influence in the Third World.
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