Editing Soviet–Afghan War (section)

==== "Red Terror" of the revolutionary government ====
{{See also|Adolph Dubs|l1=Kidnapping and assassination of U.S. Ambassador Adolph Dubs}}
{{quote box|"We only need one million people to make the revolution. It doesn't matter what happens to the rest. We need the land, not the people."
| source = — Announcement from [[Khalq]]ist radio-broadcast after the [[Saur Revolution|1978 April coup]]  in Afghanistan<ref>{{Cite book|last=Klass|first=Rosanne|chapter=4: Genocide in Afghanistan 1978–1992| year=2017| title=The Widening Circle of Genocide: Genocide – A Critical Bibliographic Review Volume 3 |editor-last=W. Charny|editor-first=Israel |publisher=Routledge|location=New York |isbn= 978-1-56000-172-0 |lccn= 93-46257| page=132 }}</ref>
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After the revolution, Taraki assumed the leadership, prime ministership and general secretaryship of the PDPA. As before in the party, the government never referred to itself as "[[communist]]".<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.psa.ac.uk/sites/default/files/conference/papers/2015/PSA%202015%20-%20Paper%20-%20Darren%20Atkinson%20-%20Otago.pdf |title=From Communism to Nationalism? The Trajectory of "Post-Communist" Ideology in Afghanistan |last=Atkinson |first=Darren |website=psa.ac.uk |access-date=12 November 2021 }}</ref> The government was divided along factional lines, with Taraki and Deputy Prime Minister [[Hafizullah Amin]] of the Khalq faction pitted against Parcham leaders such as Babrak Karmal. Though the new regime promptly allied itself to the Soviet Union, many Soviet diplomats believed that the Khalqi plans to transform Afghanistan would provoke a rebellion from the general population, which was socially and religiously conservative.{{sfn|Brogan|1989|pp=119–120}} Immediately after coming to power, the Khalqis began to persecute the Parchamis, not the least because the Soviet Union favored the Parchami faction whose "go slow" plans were felt to be better suited for Afghanistan, thereby leading the Khalqis to eliminate their rivals so the Soviets would have no other choice but to back them.{{sfn|Brogan|1989|pp=120–121}} Within the PDPA, conflicts resulted in [[exile]]s, [[purge]]s and executions of Parcham members.<ref name="lcweb2">[http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd/cstdy:@field(DOCID+af0087) ''The April 1978 Coup d'état and the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan'' – Library of congress country studies](Retrieved 4 February 2007)</ref> The Khalq state executed between 10,000 and 27,000 people, mostly at [[Pul-e-Charkhi prison]], prior to the Soviet intervention.{{sfn|Kaplan|2008|p=115}}<ref name="autogenerated2006">{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4756480.stm |title=Kabul's prison of death |work=BBC News |date=27 February 2006}}</ref> Political scientist [[Olivier Roy (political scientist)|Olivier Roy]] estimated between 50,000 and 100,000 people disappeared during the Taraki–Amin period:<ref>{{cite book |last=Roy |first=Olivier |author-link=Olivier Roy (political scientist) |date=1990 |title=Islam and Resistance in Afghanistan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m3OfC1ZRq38C&pg=PA95 |location=New York |publisher=Cambridge University Press |edition=2nd |pages=95–96 |isbn=978-0-521-39700-1}}</ref>

{{blockquote|text=There is only one leading force in the country – Hafizullah Amin. In the Politburo, everybody fears Amin.|author=PDPA Politburo member [[Nur Ahmad Nur]] to Soviet Ambassador [[Alexander Puzanov]], June 1978<ref name="nsarchive2.gwu.edu">{{cite web |url=https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/carterbrezhnev/docs_intervention_in_afghanistan_and_the_fall_of_detente/fall_of_detente_chron.pdf |title=The Intervention in Afghanistan and the Fall of Detente: A Chronology |website=nsarchive2.gwu.edu |access-date=12 November 2021 }}</ref>}}
During its first 18 months of rule, the PDPA applied a Soviet-style program of modernizing reforms, many of which were viewed by conservatives as opposing Islam.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.onwar.com/aced/chrono/c1900s/yr75/fafghan1978.htm|title=Afghanistan Marxist Coup 1978|publisher=Onwar.com|access-date=28 July 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111108112152/http://www.onwar.com/aced/chrono/c1900s/yr75/fafghan1978.htm|archive-date=8 November 2011|url-status=dead}}</ref> Decrees setting forth changes in marriage customs and [[land reform]] were not received well by a population deeply immersed in tradition and Islam, particularly by the powerful landowners harmed economically by the abolition of [[usury]] (although usury is prohibited in Islam) and the cancellation of farmers' debts. The new government also enhanced women's rights, sought a rapid eradication of [[illiteracy]] and promoted Afghanistan's ethnic minorities, although these programs appear to have had an effect only in the urban areas.{{sfn|Amstutz|1994|p=315}} By mid-1978, a rebellion started, with rebels attacking the local military [[garrison]] in the [[Nuristan Province|Nuristan]] region of eastern Afghanistan and soon civil war spread throughout the country. In September 1979, Deputy Prime Minister Hafizullah Amin seized power, arresting and killing Taraki. More than two months of instability overwhelmed Amin's regime as he moved against his opponents in the PDPA and the growing rebellion.