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Democratic Republic of Afghanistan

The Democratic Republic of Afghanistan (DRA),[a] renamed the Republic of Afghanistan[b] in 1987, was the Afghan state during the one-party rule of the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) from 1978 to 1992. It relied heavily on assistance from the Soviet Union for most of its existence, especially during the Soviet–Afghan War.

This article is about the state that existed from 1978 to 1992. For other uses, see Afghanistan (disambiguation).

Democratic Republic of Afghanistan
(1978–1987)
د افغانستان ډموکراتيک جمهوريت (Pashto)
جمهوری دموکراتیک افغانستان (Dari)

Republic of Afghanistan
(1987–1992)
د افغانستان جمهوريت (Pashto)
جمهوری افغانستان (Dari)

Satellite state of the Soviet Union[1][2] (until 1991)

Revolutionary Council
(1978–1987)
National Assembly
(from 1987)

House of Elders
(1988–1992)

House of the People
(1988–1992)

27–28 April 1978

30 April 1978

27 December 1979

29/30 November 1987

15 February 1989

28 April 1992

15,900,000[6]

Increase 0.316
low

93

The PDPA came to power through the Saur Revolution, which ousted the regime of the unelected autocrat Mohammed Daoud Khan; he was succeeded by Nur Muhammad Taraki as the head of state and government on 30 April 1978.[7] Taraki and Hafizullah Amin, the organizer of the Saur Revolution, introduced several contentious reforms during their rule, such as land and marriage reforms and an enforced policy of de-Islamization alongside the promotion of socialism.[8] Amin also added on the reforms introduced by Khan, such as universal education and equal rights for women.[9] Soon after taking power, a power struggle began between the hardline Khalq faction led by Taraki and Amin, and the moderate Parcham faction led by Babrak Karmal. The Khalqists emerged victorious and the bulk of the Parchamites were subsequently purged from the PDPA, while the most prominent Parcham leaders were exiled to the Eastern Bloc and the Soviet Union.


After the Khalq–Parcham struggle, another power struggle arose between Taraki and Amin within the Khalq faction, in which Amin gained the upper hand and later had Taraki killed on his orders. Due to earlier reforms, Amin's rule proved unpopular within both Afghanistan and the Soviet Union. A Soviet intervention supported by the Afghan government had begun in December 1979, and on 27 December, Amin was assassinated by Soviet military forces; Karmal became the leader of Afghanistan in his place. The Karmal era, which lasted from 1979 to 1986, was marked by the height of the Soviet–Afghan War, in which Soviet and Afghan government forces fought against the Afghan mujahideen in order to consolidate control over Afghanistan. The war resulted in a large number of civilian casualties as well as the creation of millions of refugees who fled into Pakistan and Iran. The Fundamental Principles, a constitution, was introduced by the government in April 1980, and several non-PDPA members were allowed into government as part of its policy of broadening its support base. However, Karmal's policies failed to bring peace to the war-ravaged country, and in 1986, he was succeeded as PDPA General Secretary by Mohammad Najibullah.


Najibullah pursued a policy of National Reconciliation with the opposition: a new Afghan constitution was introduced in 1987 and democratic elections were held in 1988 (which were boycotted by the mujahideen). After the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan in 1988–1989, the government faced increasing resistance. 1990 proved to be a year of change in Afghan politics as another constitution was introduced that stated Afghanistan's nature as an Islamic republic, and the PDPA was transformed into the Watan Party, which continues to exist. On the military front, the government proved capable of defeating the armed opposition in open battle, as demonstrated in the Battle of Jalalabad. However, with an aggressive armed opposition and internal difficulties such as a failed coup attempt by the Khalq faction in 1990 coupled with the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Najibullah government collapsed in April 1992. The collapse of Najibullah's government triggered another civil war that led to the rise of the Taliban and their eventual takeover of most of Afghanistan by 1996.


Geographically, it was bordered by the Soviet Union (Tajik, Turkmen and Uzbek SSRs) to the north, China (Xinjiang) to the east, Pakistan to the south and Iran to the west.

Politics[edit]

Political system[edit]

The People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan described the Saur Revolution as a democratic revolution signifying "a victory of the honourable working people of Afghanistan" and the "manifestation of the real will and interests of workers, peasants and toilers."[66] While the idea of moving Afghanistan toward socialism was proclaimed, completing the task was seen as an arduous road. Thus, Afghanistan's foreign minister commented that Afghanistan was a democratic but not yet socialist republic, while a member of the Politburo of the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan predicted that "Afghanistan will not see socialism in my lifetime" in an interview with a British journalist in 1981.[67]


Afghanistan was considered by the Soviet Union as a state with a socialist orientation.[68] The Soviets, in mid-1979, initially proclaimed Afghanistan as not merely a progressive ally, but a fully fledged member of the socialist community of nations. In contrast, later Soviet rhetoric invariably referred to the Saur Revolution as a democratic turn, but stopped short of recognizing a socialist society.[69]


Under Hafizullah Amin, a commission working on a new constitution was established. There were 65 members of this commission, and they came from all walks of life.[70] Due to his death, his constitution was never finished. In April 1980, under Babrak Karmal, the Fundamental Principles of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan were made law.[71] The constitution was devoid of any references to socialism or communism, and instead laid emphasis on independence, Islam and liberal democracy.[72] Religion was to be respected, the exception being when religion threatened the security of society. The Fundamental Principles were, in many ways, similar to Mohammad Daoud Khan's 1977 constitution. While official ideology was de-emphasized, the PDPA did not lose its monopoly on power, and the Revolutionary Council continued to be ruled through its Presidium, the majority of Presidium members were from the PDPA Politburo. The Karmal government was "a new evolutionary phase of the great Saur Revolution."[73] The Fundamental Principles was not implemented in practice, and it was replaced by the 1987 constitution[74] in a loya jirga under Muhammad Najibullah but did not have support of opposition parties.[75] Islamic principles were embedded in the 1987 constitution. For instance, Article 2 of the constitution stated that Islam was the state religion, and Article 73 stated that the head of state had to be born into a Muslim Afghan family. In 1990, the 1987 constitution was amended to state that Afghanistan was an Islamic republic, and the last references to communism were removed.[76] Article 1 of the amended constitution said that Afghanistan was an "independent, unitary and Islamic state."[77]


The 1987 constitution liberalized the political landscape in areas under government control. Political parties could be established as long as they opposed colonialism, imperialism, neo-colonialism, Zionism, racial discrimination, apartheid and fascism. The Revolutionary Council was abolished, and replaced by the National Assembly of Afghanistan, a democratically elected parliament.[78] The government announced its willingness to share power, and form a coalition government. The new parliament was bicameral, and consisted of a Senate (Sena) and a House of Representatives (Wolesi Jirga). The president was to be indirectly elected to a 7-year term.[79] A parliamentary election was held in 1988. The PDPA won 46 seats in the House of Representatives and controlled the government with support from the National Front, which won 45 seats, and from various newly recognized left-wing parties, which had won a total of 24 seats. Although the election was boycotted by the Mujahideen, the government left 50 of the 234 seats in the House of Representatives, as well as a small number of seats in the Senate, vacant in the hope that the guerillas would end their armed struggle and participate in the government. The only armed opposition party to make peace with the government was Hizbollah, a small Shi'a party not to be confused with the bigger party in Iran.[78]


The Council of Ministers was the Afghan cabinet, and its chairman was the head of government. It was the most important government body in PDPA Afghanistan, and it ran the governmental ministries.[80] The Council of Ministers was responsible to the Presidium of the Revolutionary Council, and after the adoption of the 1987 constitution, to the President and House of Representatives. There seems to have been a deliberate power-sharing between the two bodies; few Presidium members were ministers.[81] It was the PDPA (perhaps with the involvement of the Soviets) which appointed and decided the membership of the Council of Ministers.[82] An Afghan dissident who had previously worked in the office of the Chairman of the Council of Ministers reported that all topics up for discussion in the Council of Ministers had to be approved by the Soviets.[83] Under Karmal, the Khalqist's were purged and replaced by the Parcham majority in the Council of Ministers. Of the 24 members of the Council of Ministers under Karmal's chairmanship, only four were Khalqists.[84]

"", a political term used to describe Soviet influence during the Cold War

Soviet Empire

the Ruling party of the DRA

People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan

the Stalinist faction of the PDPA

Khalq

the Islamic Socialist faction of the PDPA

Parcham

The Constitution of the DRA as of April 20, 1980

Fundamental Principals of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan

Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan

Afghan Civil War (1989-1992)

List of Vice Presidents of Afghanistan (1978-1992)

by Lieutenant Colonel Denny R. Nelson

Soviet Air Power: Tactics and Weapons Used in Afghanistan

from the Peter Krogh Foreign Affairs Digital Archives

Video on Afghan-Soviet War

Library of Congress Country Study — Afghanistan

Soviet Documents

Online Afghan Calendar with Historical dates

on YouTube

Red Army in Afghanistan