Background To Soviet Involvment In Afghanistan Flashcards
When and who overthrew the government in Afghanistan ?
27 April 1978
The peoples Democratic Party of Afghanistan, a communist party, overthrew the Afghan government
Who became president on the revolutionary council and prime minister ?
Nur Muhammad Taraki, secretary general of the PDPA became president and prime minister
What did the PDPA impose in its first 18 months ?
Communist style reform program
Additionally thousands of the traditional elite were imprisoned, tortured or murdered
Who replaces Takari ?
Hafizullah Amin seized power from Taraki
There was continued instability in the country due to Islamophobic laws
What did thousands of Afghans do ?
Thousands of Afghan Muslims joined the Mujahideen
What was the mujahideen?
A guerrilla movements which proclaimed to be on a holy mission for Allah
What did the Mujahideen want to do ?
What did they do
Overthrow the Amin government
They declared a Jihad- a holy war- against the supporters of Amin
Why did the Amin government become dependent on Soviet military equipment ?
The Soviet military assistance program which begun in 1978 was increased and Amins regime was dependent on the arms supplied by the Soviet Union
What did Amin want to do ?
Did not wish to become to reliant on the Soviet Union and wanted to improve links with the USA
What was Brezhnev concerned about ?
The growing power and spread of Islamic fundamentalism and wanted to show the 30 million Muslims in the Soviet Union that there would be no changes to the way the Soviet Union was run
What did the Soviet Union see fundamentalism as ?
A great threat to the soviet system
