The Democratic Republic of Afghanistan.

[Andy Bowden]

Does anyone have info on the DRA which existed from 1978-1992, led by the Communist PDPA? I heard that the 1978 overthrow of the Monarchy in Afghanistan and the PDPA were quite popular at the start - was this a lie, or did unpopularity with the PDPA come about with the Soviet military prescence in Afghanistan?

Thanks in advance. :)

[Morpheus]

Its popularity ebbed and flowed. Sometimes popular, sometimes unpopular. The Republic came into being as a result of a coup by leftist military officers, rather than a popular uprising or anything, establishing what amounted to a military dictatorship using Marxist rhetoric to cover its ass. It was a very top down thing, more of a leftist modernizing/industrializing effort than even a typical Stalinist revolution (and far from anything resembling Communism). That said, it was probably the best government Afghanistan has ever had, even though it was deeply flawed. They decreed equality for women, reduced the hold of religious superstition on the country, improved health care, improved education, started to build up industry - everything you'd expect from left-leaning modernizers. The Republic faced opposition from ultra-reactionary supporters of the old semi-feudal order, especially rural landlords & clerics, who eventually launched uprisings & rebellions against the government. Power within the government repeatedly shifted between different factions & leaders until eventually a really brutal tyrannical guy, whose name I can't remember, came to power. His extreme repression drove lots of people into the arms of the reactionaries, who launched a full scale guerilla war. The situation in Afghanistan began to collapse and it started to look like the reactionaries would take over. To stop this, the Afghan government requested the Soviets to send troops to help suppress the Islamic insurgents. The USSR sent the troops in, and also had its troops kill the ultra-repressive tyrant everyone hated and installed a leader more to their liking. The old leader was so unpopular there were parades in the streets thanking the USSR for liberating them. The Republic never officially declared itself a Marxist-Leninist state, either. It tried to portray itself as a left nationalist regime. When the USSR invaded there were actually many in the Politburo who were wary of invading because they thought Afghanistan wasn't ready for socialism, but they did it anyway because they didn't was a pro-US fundamentalist state right on their border. Not good for national security.

[Severian]

Originally posted by [email protected] 24 2005, 02:09 PM
Power within the government repeatedly shifted between different factions & leaders until eventually a really brutal tyrannical guy, whose name I can't remember, came to power.
Hafizullah Amin. Of the Khalq faction; the other faction of the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan was the Parcham faction. To a degree they were based on different nationalities.


The Republic never officially declared itself a Marxist-Leninist state, either. It tried to portray itself as a left nationalist regime.

Which it was, really; there's no contradiction between the bourgeois character of the regime and having a Moscow-oriented CP in charge. As you said, "They decreed equality for women, reduced the hold of religious superstition on the country, improved health care, improved education, started to build up industry - everything you'd expect from left-leaning modernizers."

The main problem was, they tried to do it by fiat. They started with a relatively narrow base of support, and overall tended to go downhill from there, since they didn't show much consideration or flexibility towards potential supporters.

But in Kabul they may have been initially popular; there were some sizable demonstrations leading up to the coup, including 15,000 at a funeral for a PDPA leader murdered by the Daud regime.