130-635: The Saur Revolution or Sowr Revolution ( Pashto : د ثور انقلاب ; Dari : إنقلاب ثور ), also known as the April Revolution or the April Coup , was staged on 27–28 April 1978 ( ۷ ثور , lit. ' 7th Saur ' ) by the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) and overthrew Afghan president Mohammad Daoud Khan , who had himself taken power in the 1973 Afghan coup d'état and established an autocratic one-party system in
260-575: A legal resident gathered intelligence while based at the Soviet embassy or consulate, and, if caught, was protected from prosecution by diplomatic immunity . At worst, the compromised spy was either returned to the Soviet Union or was declared persona non grata and expelled by the government of the target country. The illegal resident spied, unprotected by diplomatic immunity, and worked independently of Soviet diplomatic and trade missions, ( cf.
390-453: A royal decree of Zahir Shah formally granted Pashto the status of an official language, with full rights to use in all aspects of government and education – despite the fact that the ethnically Pashtun royal family and bureaucrats mostly spoke Persian. Thus Pashto became a national language , a symbol for Pashtun nationalism . The constitutional assembly reaffirmed the status of Pashto as an official language in 1964 when Afghan Persian
520-707: A "popular revolution" if the Soviets stood behind the coup. Political scientist William Maley has noted that while the Soviets were not directly involved, rising tensions with Daoud may have prompted them to refrain from taking steps to prevent an Afghan communist coup. State Department analysts told U.S. President Jimmy Carter that direct Soviet involvement in the coup was unlikely: "Although they had probably become somewhat disillusioned with President Daoud, we do not think they would have tried to take over this important non-aligned country." One year before Lieutenant General Shahnawaz Tanai ’s death, in 2021, he admitted that
650-587: A 30-year contract with him soon after. The centre then realized that it was better for them to deal with a more competent agent, which at the time was Babrak Karmal , who later accused Taraki of taking bribes and even of having secretly contacted the United States embassy in Kabul. On that, the centre again refused to listen and instructed him to take a position in the Kabul residency by 1974. On 30 April 1978, Taraki, despite being cut off from any support, led
780-536: A USSR-born illegal spy was elaborate, using the life of either: The agent then substantiated his or her false-identity by living in a foreign country, before emigrating to the target country. For example, the KGB would send a US-bound illegal resident via the Soviet embassy in Ottawa , Canada . Tradecraft included stealing and photographing documents, code-names, contacts, targets, and dead letter boxes , and working as
910-534: A chance to order an uprising, one that had been slowly coalescing for more than two years. Amin, without having the authority, instructed the Khalqist army officers to overthrow the government. The KGB , having been informed of the coup two days earlier by Mohammed Rafie and Sayed Mohammad Gulabzoy , accused the Iranian SAVAK of tricking PDPA supporters into starting a rebellion. Preliminary steps for
1040-464: A civilian government under the leadership of Nur Muhammad Taraki of the Khalq faction was formed, with the 455th Commando Battalion and 242nd Parachute Battalion being merged to create the 26th Airborne Regiment. In Kabul, the initial cabinet appeared to be carefully constructed to alternate ranking positions between Khalqists and Parchamites. Taraki (a Khalqist) was Prime Minister , Karmal (a Parchamite)
1170-792: A device). Post-7th century borrowings came primarily from Persian and Hindi-Urdu , with Arabic words being borrowed through Persian, but sometimes directly. Modern speech borrows words from English, French , and German . However, a remarkably large number of words are unique to Pashto. Here is an exemplary list of Pure Pashto and borrowings: naṛә́i jahān dunyā tod/táwda garm aṛtyā́ ḍarurah híla umid də...pə aṛá bāra bolә́la qasidah KGB The Committee for State Security ( Russian : Комитет государственной безопасности , romanized : Komitet gosudarstvennoy bezopasnosti , IPA: [kəmʲɪˈtʲed ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)əj bʲɪzɐˈpasnəsʲtʲɪ] ), abbreviated as KGB (Russian: КГБ ; listen )
1300-519: A healthy generation for building the future of the country ... Educating and enlightening women is now the subject of close government attention." Women were already guaranteed freedoms under the 1964 Constitution , but the PDPA went further by declaring full equality. "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.” — Announcement from Khalqist radio-broadcast after
1430-549: A letter accusing the Reagan administration of plotting to overthrow President Zia and his regime. The letter also mentioned that after Mujib was assassinated the United States contacted Khondaker Mostaq Ahmad to replace him as a short-term President. When the election happened in the end of 1979, the KGB made sure that the Bangladesh Nationalist Party would win. The party received 207 out of 300 seats, but
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#17327651010101560-509: A moderate approach and reforms were not strongly felt; however from late October the PDPA launched drastic reforms that struck the socioeconomic tribal structure of rural Afghanistan. In a "disastrous symbolic move", it changed the national flag from the traditional black, red and Islamic green color to a near-copy of the red flag of the Soviet Union, a provocative affront to the people of the conservative country. It prohibited usury , without having in place any alternative for peasants who relied on
1690-509: A new party called BAKSAL and created a one-party state. Three years later, the KGB in that region increased from 90 to 200, and by 1979 printed more than 100 newspaper articles. In these articles, the KGB officials accused Ziaur Rahman , popularly known as "Zia", and his regime of having ties with the United States. In August 1979, the KGB accused some officers who were arrested in Dhaka in an overthrow attempt, and by October, Andropov approved
1820-499: A pistol at the soldiers. The soldiers responded by killing both Daoud and Naim. In addition, the Defense Minister of Daoud's cabinet Ghulam Haidar Rasuli , Interior Minister Abdul Qadir Nuristani , and Vice President Sayyid Abdullah were also killed. Other family members and close relatives of Daoud that included women and children were also killed at the presidential palace, who Daoud had earlier ordered to be brought to
1950-658: A plot and executed or imprisoned several cabinet members, even imprisoning General Abdul Qadir , the military leader of the Saur Revolution until the Soviet invasion and subsequent change in leadership in late 1979. In September 1979, it was Taraki's turn to become a victim of the Revolution, as Amin overthrew and executed him. In private conversations, Taraki told the Soviet ambassador Alexander Puzanov that Afghanistan would follow Marxism–Leninism . The Soviet Union
2080-665: A promoter of the wealth and antiquity of Afghanistan's Pashto culture." From the 16th century, Pashto poetry become very popular among the Pashtuns. Some of those who wrote in Pashto are Bayazid Pir Roshan (a major inventor of the Pashto alphabet ), Khushal Khan Khattak , Rahman Baba , Nazo Tokhi , and Ahmad Shah Durrani , founder of the modern state of Afghanistan or the Durrani Empire . The Pashtun literary tradition grew in
2210-522: A variety very similar to it, while others have attempted to place it closer to Bactrian . However, neither position is universally agreed upon. What scholars do agree on is the fact that Pashto is an Eastern Iranian language sharing characteristics with Eastern Middle Iranian languages such as Bactrian, Khwarezmian and Sogdian . Compare with other Eastern Iranian Languages and Old Avestan : Zə tā winə́m /ɐz dɐ wənən/ Az bū tū dzunim Strabo , who lived between 64 BC and 24 CE, explains that
2340-495: A vicious crackdown across the country; arresting, torturing and killing tens of thousands of people, implementing a strategy of "killing the population into submission". When Soviet diplomat Alexander Puzhanov requested him to not kill two fighters affiliated with the Parcham , Taraki responded: " Lenin taught us to be merciless towards the enemies of the revolution, and millions of people had to be eliminated in order to secure
2470-418: A way to put Karmal back in. They brought him and three other ministers secretly to Moscow during which time they discussed how to put him back in power. The decision was to fly him back to Bagram by 13 December. Four days later, Amin's nephew, Asadullah, was taken to Moscow by the KGB for acute food poisoning treatment. On 19 November 1979, the KGB had a meeting on which they discussed Operation Cascade, which
2600-421: Is "one of the primary markers of ethnic identity" amongst Pashtuns. A national language of Afghanistan , Pashto is primarily spoken in the east, south, and southwest, but also in some northern and western parts of the country. The exact number of speakers is unavailable, but different estimates show that Pashto is the mother tongue of 45–60% of the total population of Afghanistan . In Pakistan , Pashto
2730-585: Is an Eastern Iranian language in the Indo-European language family , natively spoken in northwestern Pakistan and southern and eastern Afghanistan . It has official status in Afghanistan and the Pakistani province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa . It is known in historical Persian literature as Afghani ( افغانی , Afghāni ). Spoken as a native language mostly by ethnic Pashtuns , it is one of
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#17327651010102860-550: Is spoken by 15% of its population, mainly in the northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and northern districts of Balochistan province. It is also spoken in parts of Mianwali and Attock districts of the Punjab province , areas of Gilgit-Baltistan and in Islamabad . Pashto speakers are found in other major cities of Pakistan, most notably Karachi , Sindh, which may have the largest Pashtun population of any city in
2990-564: Is taught poorly in schools in Pakistan. Moreover, in government schools material is not provided for in the Pashto dialect of that locality, Pashto being a dialectically rich language. Further, researchers have observed that Pashtun students are unable to fully comprehend educational material in Urdu. Professor Tariq Rahman states: "The government of Pakistan, faced with irredentist claims from Afghanistan on its territory, also discouraged
3120-632: Is the Dari-language name for the second month of the Solar Hijri calendar , during which the events took place. The uprising was ordered by PDPA member Hafizullah Amin , who would become a significant figure in the revolutionary Afghan government. At a press conference in New York in June 1978, Amin claimed that the event was not a coup d'état , but rather a "popular revolution" carried out by
3250-506: The Afghan Armed Forces . The viciousness and severity of the Khalqist red terror campaign disturbed the Soviet government, which was attempting to turn Afghanistan into a Soviet satellite state under Taraki. In response to Soviet disagreements with the radicalism of the Khalq, Hafizullah Amin , general secretary of the PDPA , stated: "Comrade Stalin showed us how to build socialism in a backward country." The majority of
3380-461: The Afghan Army ’s 11th Division who refused to accept the coup, with the death toll nearing 1000 people. The commander of the 11th Division was eventually shot dead. The aerial attacks on the palace intensified about midnight as six Su-7s made repeated rocket attacks, lighting up the city. The next morning, 28 April, Kabul was mostly quiet, although the sound of gunfire could still be heard on
3510-713: The December 1979 Soviet invasion "as most people in the West suppose", that "ignited" the mujahidin revolt against the Kabul authorities and prompted the refugee exodus to Pakistan. According to scholar Gilles Dorronsoro, it was the violence of the state rather than its reforms that caused the uprisings. The communists violently imposed PDPA policies across the villages of Afghanistan, perpetrating mass rapes of Afghan women, killing religious clerics and village chiefs, looting houses, stealing food supplies and torturing captives. According to an Afghan “kill list” translated into English by
3640-1103: The Federal Security Agency of the RSFSR (AFB), the Inter-Republican Security Service (MSB), the Central Intelligence Service (TsSR), and the Committee for the Protection of the State Border (KOGG). In 1993, the KGB was succeeded overall by the Federal Counterintelligence Service (FSK) of Russia (itself a direct successor to the AFB), which in-turn was succeeded by the Federal Security Service of
3770-643: The Federal Security Service (FSB). Following the 1991–1992 South Ossetia War , the self-proclaimed Republic of South Ossetia established its own KGB, keeping the unreformed name. In addition, Belarus established its successor to the KGB of the Byelorussian SSR in 1991, the Belarusian KGB , keeping the unreformed name. Restructuring in the MVD following the fall of Beria in June 1953 resulted in
3900-683: The Moscow Narodny Bank Limited to finance the acquisition, and an intermediary, Singaporean businessman Amos Dawe, as the frontman. On 2 February 1973, the Politburo , which was led by Yuri Andropov at the time, demanded that KGB members influence Bangladesh (which was then newly formed) where Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was scheduled to win parliamentary elections. During that time, the Soviet secret service tried hard to ensure support for his party and his allies and even predicted an easy victory for him. In June 1975, Mujib formed
4030-485: The People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA), Mohammed Daoud Khan had taken power in the 1973 Afghan coup d'état by overthrowing the monarchy ruled by his first cousin, King Mohammed Zahir Shah , and had established the first Republic of Afghanistan . Since then, there has been reports of multiple coup attempts against Daoud’s government in September 1973, August 1974, and December 1976. According to some of
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4160-827: The Polish United Workers' Party (PZPR). Despite its accurate forecast of crisis, the PZPR hindered the KGB's destroying the nascent Solidarity-backed political movement, fearing explosive civil violence if they imposed the KGB-recommended martial law. Aided by their Polish counterpart, the Security Service (Służba Bezpieczeństwa—SB), the KGB successfully infiltrated spies to Solidarity and the Catholic Church, and in Operation X co-ordinated
4290-564: The West German intelligence service . In the 1960s, acting upon the information of KGB defector Anatoliy Golitsyn , the CIA counter-intelligence chief James Jesus Angleton believed KGB had moles in two key places—the counter-intelligence section of CIA and the FBI's counter-intelligence department—through whom they would know of, and control, US counter-espionage to protect the moles and hamper
4420-603: The declaration of martial law with Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski and the Polish Communist Party; however, the vacillating, conciliatory Polish approach blunted KGB effectiveness—and Solidarity then fatally weakened the Communist Polish government in 1989. Nadezhin saw that China threatened the USSR by claiming a historic right to regions under the USSR's control. China also wanted to displace the USSR as
4550-613: The non-official cover CIA officer). In its early history, the KGB valued illegal spies more than legal spies, because illegal spies infiltrated their targets with greater ease. The KGB residency executed four types of espionage: (i) political, (ii) economic, (iii) military-strategic, and (iv) disinformation , effected with "active measures" (PR Line), counter-intelligence and security (KR Line), and scientific–technological intelligence (X Line); quotidian duties included SIGINT (RP Line) and illegal support (N Line). The KGB classified its spies as: The false-identity (or legend ) assumed by
4680-724: The republics of the Soviet Union aside from the Russian SFSR , where the KGB was headquartered, with many associated ministries, state committees and state commissions. The agency was a military service governed by army laws and regulations, in the same fashion as the Soviet Army or the MVD Internal Troops . While most of the KGB archives remain classified, two online documentary sources are available. Its main functions were foreign intelligence , counter-intelligence, operative-investigative activities, guarding
4810-467: The "will of the people" against Daoud's government. The Saur Revolution involved heavy fighting throughout Afghanistan and resulted in the deaths of as many as 2,000 military personnel and civilians combined; it remains a significant event in Afghanistan's history as it marked the beginning of decades of continuous conflict in the country. With the support and assistance of minority political party
4940-608: The 1930s, a movement began to take hold to promote Pashto as a language of government, administration, and art with the establishment of a Pashto Society Pashto Anjuman in 1931 and the inauguration of the Kabul University in 1932 as well as the formation of the Pashto Academy (Pashto Tolana) in 1937. Muhammad Na'im Khan, the minister of education between 1938 and 1946, inaugurated the formal policy of promoting Pashto as Afghanistan's national language, leading to
5070-670: The 1978 April coup in Afghanistan Following the April coup, Khalqists also introduced severe repression of a kind previously unknown in Afghanistan. Khalqist chief Taraki was a hardline Leninist who advocated the implementation of a campaign modelled after the Bolshevik " Red Terror " to impose Marxist policies in Afghanistan. Influenced by the practices of the Russian Bolsheviks , the PDPA regime launched
5200-825: The 8th century, and they use the writings found in Pata Khazana . Pə́ṭa Xazāná ( پټه خزانه ) is a Pashto manuscript claimed to be written by Mohammad Hotak under the patronage of the Pashtun emperor Hussain Hotak in Kandahar ; containing an anthology of Pashto poets. However, its authenticity is disputed by scholars such as David Neil MacKenzie and Lucia Serena Loi. Nile Green comments in this regard: "In 1944, Habibi claimed to have discovered an eighteenth-century manuscript anthology containing much older biographies and verses of Pashto poets that stretched back as far as
5330-606: The Afghan-controlled KGB intelligence service throughout the nation which were under the command of Ahmad Shah Paiya and had received all the training they need in the Soviet Union. By May 1982, the Ministry of Internal Affairs was set up in Afghanistan under the command of KHAD. In 1983, Boris Voskoboynikov became the next head of the KGB while Leonid Kostromin became his Deputy Minister. The KGB dissolved on December 3, 1991. Its immediate successor agencies were
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5460-571: The Arg in the center of the city. In the early evening, an announcement was broadcast on government-owned Radio Afghanistan that the Khalq were overthrowing the Daoud government. 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. The Presidential Guard, present at
5590-655: The Arg, additionally thought that they were fighting against Islamists, not the PDPA. At approximately 10:30am, an echelon of tanks moved towards the Afghan Air Force Headquarters, being directed there by Nazar Mohammad and Sayed Mohammad Gulabzoy from the Air Force Gendarmerie Base, firing at the headquarters. The Kabul International Airport Security Division Commander 2nd Lieutenant Khan Jan Maqbal, being caught off guard as they were performing Attan , hurriedly gathered
5720-705: The August 1991 Soviet coup d'état in an attempt to depose President Mikhail Gorbachev . The failed coup d'état and the collapse of the USSR heralded the end of the KGB on 3 December 1991. The KGB's modern day successors are the FSB ( Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation ) and the SVR ( Foreign Intelligence Service ). The GRU (Foreign military intelligence service of the Soviet Union) recruited
5850-679: The Hungarian revolt, KGB chairman Ivan Serov personally supervised the post-invasion "normalization" of the country. Consequently, the KGB monitored the satellite state populations for occurrences of "harmful attitudes" and "hostile acts"; yet, stopping the Prague Spring, deposing a nationalist Communist government, was its greatest achievement. The KGB prepared the Red Army's route by infiltrating Czechoslovakia with many illegal residents disguised as Western tourists. They were to gain
5980-703: The KGB's structure, completely separate from the Soviet armed forces - the Border Troops , the Governmental Signals Troops (which in addition to providing communications between the central government and the lower administrative levels, also provided the communications between the General Staff and the military districts), the Special Service Troops (which provided EW , ELINT, SIGINT and cryptography) as well as
6110-478: The KGB). Brezhnev sacked Shelepin's successor and protégé, Vladimir Semichastny (in office: 1961–1967) as KGB Chairman and reassigned him to a sinecure in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic . Shelepin found himself demoted from the chairman of the Committee of Party and State Control in 1965 to Trade Union Council chairman (in office 1967–1975). In the 1980s, the Soviet Union glasnost provoked KGB Chairman Vladimir Kryuchkov (in office: 1988–1991) to lead
6240-404: The Khalqist regime violently imposed its socialist programme and was brutal in its repression of opposition, arresting many without charge. The regime alienated a wide variety of people, including tribal and clan leaders, Islamists, Maoists, Western-educated teachers, and traditional religious leaders, all becoming victims of the Khalqists. Discontent fomented amongst the people of Afghanistan, and
6370-409: The Ministry of Interior in the downtown Shahr-e Naw 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. As it started raining, PDPA defectors in the Afghan Air Force were unable to take part in the coup. Later that afternoon, the first fighter planes, Sukhoi Su-7s , came in low and fired rockets at
6500-509: The Netherlands Prosecution Service, the Khalq regime arrested and executed Afghan citizens accused of being Maoist , being a member of Afghanistan’s Maoist movement Shola-e Javid , expressing support for Ruhollah Khomeini , purchasing arms and munition, being part of the Afghan Social Democratic Party ( Afghan Mellat Party which was banned after the Saur Revolution, being part of Settam-e-Melli , fuelling sectarianism , distributing pamphlets, creating anti-government propaganda and deserting from
6630-430: The PDPA charged that the government was responsible, a belief that was shared by much of the Kabul intelligentsia. PDPA leaders apparently feared that Daoud was planning to eliminate them. 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. Hafizullah Amin was put under house arrest, which gave him
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#17327651010106760-405: The PDPA government for more than nine years until the final withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan in 1989. Robert D. Kaplan described the Khalqist red terror campaign as "the first instance of organized nationwide repression in Afghanistan's modern history". In 1991, PDPA member Babrak Karmal , who headed the Parcham faction and served as president after the Soviet invasion, denounced
6890-402: The PDPA received a fake request from Taraki concerning health issues among the party members. On that, the centre accused him of "terrorist" activities and expelled him from the party. The following day General Boris Ivanov, who was behind the mission in Kabul along with General Lev Gorelov and Deputy Defense Minister Ivan Pavlovsky, visited Amin to congratulate him on his election to power. On
7020-441: The PDPA’s leaders, the party had begun plotting a possible coup attempt as early as 1976. President Daoud was convinced that closer ties and military support from the Soviet Union would allow Afghanistan to take control of Pashtun lands in northwest Pakistan . However, Daoud, who was ostensibly committed to a policy of non-alignment , became uneasy over Soviet attempts to dictate Afghanistan's foreign policy, and relations between
7150-409: The Pashto Movement and eventually allowed its use in peripheral domains only after the Pakhtun elite had been co-opted by the ruling elite...Thus, even though there is still an active desire among some Pakhtun activists to use Pashto in the domains of power, it is more of a symbol of Pakhtun identity than one of nationalism." Robert Nicols states: "In the end, national language policy, especially in
7280-499: The Pathan community in the city of Kolkata , often nicknamed the Kabuliwala ("people of Kabul "). Pashtun diaspora communities in other countries around the world speak Pashto, especially the sizable communities in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia . Pashto is one of the two official languages of Afghanistan, along with Dari Persian . Since the early 18th century, the monarchs of Afghanistan have been ethnic Pashtuns (except for Habibullāh Kalakāni in 1929). Persian,
7410-419: The Red Army's invasion. The KGB's Czech success in the 1960s was matched with the failed suppression of the Solidarity labour movement in 1980s Poland. The KGB had forecast political instability consequent to the election of Archbishop of Kraków Karol Wojtyla as the first Polish Pope, John Paul II, whom they had categorised as "subversive" because of his anti-Communist sermons against the one-party régime of
7540-566: The Roosevelt Government—to identify the Soviet spies Duggan, White, and others—he was ignored. Hence, during the Second World War (1939–45)—at the Tehran (1943), Yalta (1945), and Potsdam (1945) conferences—Big Three Ally Joseph Stalin of the USSR, was better informed about the war affairs of his US and UK allies than they were about his. Soviet espionage was at its most successful in collecting scientific and technological intelligence about advances in jet propulsion , radar and encryption , which impressed Moscow, but stealing atomic secrets
7670-534: The Russian Federation (FSB). The Committee for State Security was a militarized organization adhering to military discipline and regulations. Its operational personnel held army style ranks, except for the maritime branch of the Border troops, which held navy style ranks. The KGB consisted of two main components - organs and troops. The organs included the services directly involved in the committee's main roles - intelligence, counter-intelligence, military counter-intelligence etc. The troops included military units within
7800-473: The Saur Revolution: "It was the greatest crime against the people of Afghanistan. Parcham's leaders were against armed actions because the country was not ready for a revolution... I knew that people would not support us if we decided to keep power without such support." Pashto language Pashto ( / ˈ p ʌ ʃ t oʊ / PUH -shto , / ˈ p æ ʃ t oʊ / PASH -toe ; پښتو , Pəx̌tó , [pəʂˈto, pʊxˈto, pəʃˈto, pəçˈto] )
7930-428: The Second Red Scare (1947–57) and the crisis in the CPUSA hampered recruitment. The last major illegal resident, Rudolf Abel (Vilyam Genrikhovich Fisher/"Willie" Vilyam Fishers), was betrayed by his assistant, Reino Häyhänen , in 1957. Recruitment then emphasised mercenary agents, an approach especially successful in scientific and technical espionage, since private industry practised lax internal security, unlike
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#17327651010108060-432: The Society's annual meeting in 1927. In 1955, Pashtun intellectuals including Abdul Qadir formed the Pashto Academy Peshawar on the model of Pashto Tolana formed in Afghanistan. In 1974, the Department of Pashto was established in the University of Balochistan for the promotion of Pashto. In Pakistan, Pashto is the first language around of 15% of its population (per the 1998 census). However, Urdu and English are
8190-414: The Spetsnaz of the KGB (the Kremlin Regiment , Alpha Group , Vympel , etc.). At the time of the Soviet Union's collapse in 1991 the KGB had the following structure: The Soviet Union was a federal state, consisting of 15 constituent Soviet Socialist Republics, each with its own government closely resembling the central government of the USSR. The republican affiliation offices almost completely duplicated
8320-506: The US Government. One notable KGB success occurred in 1967, with the walk-in recruitment of US Navy Chief Warrant Officer John Anthony Walker . Over eighteen years, Walker enabled Soviet Intelligence to decipher some one million US Navy messages, and track the US Navy. In the late Cold War, the KGB was successful with intelligence coups in the cases of the mercenary walk-in recruits FBI counterspy Robert Hanssen (1979–2001) and CIA Soviet Division officer Aldrich Ames (1985–1994). It
8450-529: The Zia regime did not last long, falling on 29 May 1981 when after numerous escapes, Zia was assassinated in Chittagong . The KGB started infiltrating Afghanistan as early as 27 April 1978. During that time, the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) was planning the overthrow of President Mohammed Daoud Khan . Under the leadership of Major General Sayed Mohammad Gulabzoy and Muhammad Rafi – code named Mammad and Niruz respectively – the Soviet secret service learned of
8580-478: The airfield, accusing them of “opposing the coup”. Anthony Hyman , a British writer, has recorded the deaths of 30 officers as a result of the killings. In truth, Azimi states that these killings were not performed due to opposition to the coup, but rather due to personal disputes or bloodlust. Additionally, Azimi claimed that Western estimates on casualties during the coup were exacerbated, claiming only 40 people might’ve died all together. As resistance waned,
8710-401: The backdrop to weakening Pashtun power following Mughal rule: Khushal Khan Khattak used Pashto poetry to rally for Pashtun unity and Pir Bayazid as an expedient means to spread his message to the Pashtun masses. For instance Khushal Khattak laments in : "The Afghans (Pashtuns) are far superior to the Mughals at the sword, Were but the Afghans, in intellect, a little discreet. If
8840-422: The campaign included landowners, religious clerics, Islamists, political dissidents, intellectuals, former bureacrats of the Republic of Afghanistan , and any alleged critics of PDPA regime's ruthless policies. Alongside the killing of most of Daoud's family during the coup, other members of the former Barakzai dynasty were jailed. All royal property were seized, members were deprived of Afghan citizenship , and
8970-475: The citizens who were captured by the PDPA regime were labelled by the communists as Ikhwanites , with others being early members of the mujahideen . Army officers, soldiers and commandos who were involved in or had connections to the Bala Hissar uprising were also arrested or executed by the Khalq. One Afghan citizen was even arrested for having a white flag with the words “ Allahu Akbar ” on it. Others were arrested/executed for various coup attempt plots such as
9100-539: The commission and publication of Pashto textbooks. The Pashto Tolana was later incorporated into the Academy of Sciences Afghanistan in line with Soviet model following the Saur Revolution in 1978. Although officially supporting the use of Pashto, the Afghan elite regarded Persian as a "sophisticated language and a symbol of cultured upbringing". King Zahir Shah (reigning 1933–1973) thus followed suit after his father Nadir Khan had decreed in 1933 that officials were to study and utilize both Persian and Pashto. In 1936
9230-445: The country. Daoud and most of his family were executed at the Arg in the capital city of Kabul by Khalqi military officers , after which his supporters were also purged and killed. The successful PDPA uprising resulted in the creation of a socialist Afghan government that was closely aligned with the Soviet Union , with Nur Muhammad Taraki serving as the PDPA's General Secretary of the Revolutionary Council. Saur or Sowr
9360-474: The coup came in April, when a tank commander under Daoud warned of intelligence suggesting an attack on Kabul in the near future, specifically 27 April. On the commander's recommendation, tanks were positioned around the Arg , the presidential palace. On the 27th, the tanks turned their guns on the palace. The tank commander who made the request had, in secret, defected to the Khalq beforehand. In order to distract
9490-541: The coup was done without Soviet assistance in the documentary “ Afghanistan : The Wounded Land ”. In 1997, during his residency in Tashkent , General Nabi Azimi additionally admitted the same thing and attempted to debunk claims of Soviet involvement in the coup, notably from Ahmad Shah Massoud ’s brother and various Afghan writers. Saur Revolution is [the] continuation of [the] Great October Revolution — Hafizullah Amin , quoted on October 7, 1978 The revolution
9620-751: The coup which later became known as Saur Revolution , and became the country's leader, with Hafizullah Amin as vice-chairman of the Council of Ministers and vice-chairman of the Revolutionary Council . On 5 December 1978, Taraki compared the Saur Revolution to the Russian Revolution , which struck Vladimir Kryuchkov , the FCD chief of that time. On 27 March 1979, after losing the city of Herat in an uprising , Amin became
9750-464: The current state of knowledge as of 2024) they were not involved in the planning and the Soviet leadership was surprised by the events. According to Deputy Foreign Minister Georgy Korniyenko , the Soviet leadership was informed about the coup through a statement by the Reuters news agency. The Soviet news agency TASS used the term "military coup" in its report, which would most likely have been called
9880-437: The detection and capture of other Communist spies. Moreover, KGB counter-intelligence vetted foreign intelligence sources, so that the moles might "officially" approve an anti-CIA double agent as trustworthy. In retrospect, the captures of the moles Aldrich Ames and Robert Hanssen proved that Angleton, though ignored as over-aggressive, was correct, despite the fact that it cost him his job at CIA, which he left in 1975. In
10010-410: The different tribes would but support each other, Kings would have to bow down in prostration before them" Pashto is a subject–object–verb (SOV) language with split ergativity . In Pashto, this means that the verb agrees with the subject in transitive and intransitive sentences in non-past, non-completed clauses, but when a completed action is reported in any of the past tenses, the verb agrees with
10140-755: The diplomats Laurence Duggan and Michael Whitney Straight in the State Department, the statistician Harry Dexter White in the Treasury Department , the economist Lauchlin Currie (an FDR advisor), and the "Silvermaster Group", headed by statistician Greg Silvermaster , in the Farm Security Administration and the Board of Economic Warfare. Moreover, when Whittaker Chambers , formerly Alger Hiss's courier, approached
10270-443: The eighth century. It was an extraordinary claim, implying as it did that the history of Pashto literature reached back further in time than Persian, thus supplanting the hold of Persian over the medieval Afghan past. Although it was later convincingly discredited through formal linguistic analysis, Habibi's publication of the text under the title Pata Khazana ('Hidden Treasure') would (in Afghanistan at least) establish his reputation as
10400-560: The equality of the sexes. 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–Leninist leader and a member of the Revolutionary Council. Ratebzad wrote the famous 28 May 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
10530-542: The fabrication of a letter in which he stated that Muhammad Ghulam Tawab , an Air Vice-Marshal at the time, was the main plotter, which led the Bangladesh, Indian and Sri Lankan press to believe that he was an American spy. Under Andropov's command, Service A, a KGB division, falsified the information in a letter to Moudud Ahmed in which it said that he was supported by the American government and by 1981 even sent
10660-451: The field of education in the NWFP, had constructed a type of three tiered language hierarchy. Pashto lagged far behind Urdu and English in prestige or development in almost every domain of political or economic power..." Although Pashto used as a medium of instruction in schools for Pashtun students results in better understanding and comprehension for students when compared to using Urdu, still
10790-703: The first anti-government revolts began in Kunar Province , in October 1978. With regime brutality only increasing, and several uprisings the following year (most notably that in Herat ) leaving most provinces in the country under guerilla control, Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in December 1979, citing the Brezhnev Doctrine as basis of its military invasion. Insurgent groups fought Soviet troops and
10920-510: The flow of money to the exiled King Mohammed Zahir Shah and his wife Humaira Begum in Italy were halted. The Khalqists compiled a list of royal people to be executed after the coup. Prince Ali Abdul Seraj , a great-grandson of the 19th century emir Abdur Rahman Khan , was on the list and managed to flee Afghanistan with his wife and child while disguised as a hippie , joining a bus full of British and Australian hashish smokers. For months,
11050-511: The formation of the KGB under Ivan Serov in March 1954. Secretary Leonid Brezhnev overthrew Premier Nikita Khrushchev in 1964. Brezhnev (in power: 1964–1982) was concerned about ambitious spy-chiefs – the communist party had managed Serov's successor, the ambitious KGB Chairman, Aleksandr Shelepin (in office: 1958–1961), but Shelepin carried out Brezhnev's palace coup d'état against Khrushchev in 1964 (despite Shelepin not then being in
11180-399: The government of Pakistan has only introduced Pashto at the primary levels in state-run schools. Taimur Khan remarks: "the dominant Urdu language squeezes and denies any space for Pashto language in the official and formal capacity. In this contact zone, Pashto language exists but in a subordinate and unofficial capacity". Some linguists have argued that Pashto is descended from Avestan or
11310-513: The government of the Republic of Afghanistan , PDPA sympathizers within the Afghan Armed Forces planted weapons and undetonated explosives in certain areas and tipped security forces to their locations, blaming Islamist groups. This was done in order to distract the government from the PDPA ’s activities and to shift the government’s attention towards the leftist’s ideological enemies, leading to
11440-450: The history of Afghanistan, the last remnants of monarchy, tyranny, despotism and power of the dynasty of the tyrant Nader Khan has ended and all powers of the state are in the hands of the people of Afghanistan. There was speculation that the Soviet Union was behind the coup, but no convincing evidence to support this ever appeared. Soviet military advisors in Kabul had been informed about the coup several hours before it began, but (based on
11570-539: The ideological agent Julian Wadleigh , who became a State Department diplomat in 1936. The NKVD 's first US operation was establishing the legal residency of Boris Bazarov and the illegal residency of Iskhak Akhmerov in 1934. Throughout, the Communist Party USA (CPUSA) and its General Secretary Earl Browder , helped NKVD recruit Americans, working in government, business, and industry. Other important, low-level and high-level ideological agents were
11700-402: The imminent uprising. Two days after the uprising, Nur Muhammad Taraki , leader of the PDPA, issued a notice of concern to the Soviet ambassador Alexander Puzanov and the resident of Kabul -based KGB embassy Viliov Osadchy that they could have staged a coup three days earlier hence the warning. On that, both Puzanov and Osadchy dismissed Taraki's complaint and reported it to Moscow, which broke
11830-490: The leader of the international socialist movement. The KGB wanted to infiltrate the Chinese security services with "a sufficient number of agents". Top agents also believed that the KGB needed to do more to ensure the protection of the USSR from Chinese spies. According to declassified documents, the KGB aggressively recruited former German (mostly Abwehr ) intelligence officers after the war. The KGB used them to penetrate
11960-555: The leadership of the Afghan Army —consisting of Defence Minister Ghulam Haidar Rasuli , Brigadier General Abdul Ali Wardak and Lieutenant General Abdul Aziz—left Tajbeg Palace , the headquarters of the 1st Central Corps, and hid in the house of a gardener who reported their location to the PDPA rebels. In the morning, they were arrested and summarily executed in Pul-e-Charkhi prison . Lastly, at 11:30pm, armored units were dispatched to Jalalabad to fight loyalist officers of
12090-462: The life of Gulabzoy and Watanjar and send them to Tashkent from Bagram Airfield by giving them fake passports. With that and a sealed container in which an almost breathless Sarwari was laying, they came to Tashkent on 19 September. During the continued investigation in Tashkent, the three were put under surveillance in one of the rooms for as long as four weeks where they were investigated for
12220-617: The literary language of the royal court, was more widely used in government institutions, while the Pashtun tribes spoke Pashto as their native tongue . King Amanullah Khan began promoting Pashto during his reign (1926–1929) as a marker of ethnic identity and as a symbol of "official nationalism" leading Afghanistan to independence after the defeat of the British Empire in the Third Anglo-Afghan War in 1919. In
12350-707: The mid-1970s, the KGB tried to secretly buy three banks in northern California to gain access to high-technology secrets. Their efforts were thwarted by the CIA. The banks were Peninsula National Bank in Burlingame, the First National Bank of Fresno, and the Tahoe National Bank in South Lake Tahoe. These banks had made numerous loans to advanced technology companies and had many of their officers and directors as clients. The KGB used
12480-483: The native elements of the lexicon are related to other Eastern Iranian languages . As noted by Josef Elfenbein, "Loanwords have been traced in Pashto as far back as the third century B.C., and include words from Greek and probably Old Persian". For instance, Georg Morgenstierne notes the Pashto word مېچن mečә́n i.e. a hand-mill as being derived from the Ancient Greek word μηχανή ( mēkhanḗ , i.e.
12610-557: The next Prime Minister , and by 27 July became Minister of Defense as well. The centre though was concerned of his powers since the same month he issued them a complaint about lack of funds and demanded US$ 400,000,000. Furthermore, it was discovered that Amin had a master's degree from Columbia University , and that he preferred to communicate in English instead of Russian. Unfortunately for Moscow's intelligence services, Amin succeeded Taraki and by 16 September Radio Kabul announced that
12740-541: The numbers of other military chiefs. A minute later, the telephone stopped working, as the 4th and 15th Tank Brigades began firing at the Arg. 50 armored vehicles belonging to the 4th Tank Brigade entered the city under the orders of then-Senior Captain Aslam Watanjar , and at the same time, Abdul Qadir took control of the MiG-21-equipped 322nd Air Regiment. The first BMP-1 , used by the PDPA in their coup,
12870-625: The operation, including the Interior Ministry building, the Internal Security ( KHAD ) building, and the General Staff building ( Darul Aman Palace ). Out of the 54 KGB operators that assaulted the palace, 5 were killed in action, including Colonel Grigori Boyarinov, and 32 were wounded. Alpha Group veterans call this operation one of the most successful in the group's history. In June 1981, there were 370 members in
13000-461: The palace from their homes in the city for their safety as soon as he was informed of the emergence of a crisis situation in Kabul earlier that day. One theory additionally suggests that Daoud Khan told his son, Wais Daoud, to kill his wife, children and sister to avoid being taken alive by the PDPA. The coup marked the end of power of the Barakzai dynasty after 152 years. For the first time in
13130-465: The possessed in the genitive construction, and adjectives come before the nouns they modify. Unlike most other Indo-Iranian languages, Pashto uses all three types of adpositions —prepositions, postpositions, and circumpositions. *The retroflex rhotic or lateral, tends to be a lateral flap [ 𝼈 ] at the beginning of a syllable or other prosodic unit, and a regular flap [ ɽ ] or approximant [ ɻ ] elsewhere. In Pashto, most of
13260-473: The reliability of their claims by the KGB. Soon after, they were satisfied with the results and sent them to Bulgaria for a secret retreat. On 9 October, the Soviet secret service had a meeting in which Bogdanov, Gorelov, Pavlonsky and Puzanov were the main chiefs who were discussing what to do with Amin who was very harsh at the meeting. After the two-hour meeting they began to worry that Amin would establish an Islamic republic in Afghanistan and decided to seek
13390-426: The rural regions. As soon as PDPA began imposing its socio-economic agenda, anti-communist revolts erupted across the countryside. Between April 1978 and the assassination of Taraki in October 1979, Khalqists murdered more than 50,000 Afghans during their campaign of "red terror". During this period, more than 27,000 people were killed by the Khalqist regime in the notorious Pul-e-Charkhi prison alone. Those killed in
13520-411: The same day the KGB decided to imprison Sayed Gulabzoy as well as Mohammad Aslam Watanjar and Assadullah Sarwari but while in captivity and under an investigation all three denied the allegation that the current Minister of Defence was an American secret agent. The denial of claims was passed on to Yuri Andropov and Leonid Brezhnev , who as the main chiefs of the KGB proposed operation Raduga to save
13650-499: The security unit to fire at the tanks, as the Khalqist tank crews fired shells towards the unit, killing Maqbal as surviving members of security unit were scattered. The tank crew eventually gained control of the headquarters, engaging in the unjust executions of officers. As Abdul Qadir landed in Bagram Airfield by helicopter, Daoud Taroon also engaged in the impartial killings of officers who just happened to be present at
13780-436: 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. After a day of fighting, an army lieutenant of the 444th Commando Brigade named Imamuddin entered the palace with a unit of soldiers to arrest Daoud. The president refused to go with them and fired
13910-455: The sprawling Pul-i-Charki prison six miles east of Kabul. Many of the victims were village mullahs and headmen who were obstructing the modernization and secularization of the intensely religious Afghan countryside. By Western standards, this was a salutary idea in the abstract. But it was carried out in such a violent way that it alarmed even the Soviets. Kaplan stated that it was the Saur Revolution and its harsh land reform program, rather than
14040-766: The state border of the USSR, guarding the leadership of the Central Committee of the Communist Party and the Soviet Government , organization and security of government communications as well as combating nationalist , dissident , religious and anti-Soviet activities. On 3 December 1991, the KGB was officially dissolved. It was succeeded in Russia by the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) and what would later become
14170-445: The structural organization of the main KGB. The Chairman of the KGB , First Deputy Chairmen (1–2), Deputy Chairmen (4–6). Its policy Collegium comprised a chairman, deputy chairmen, directorate chiefs, and republican KGB chairmen. A Time magazine article in 1983, reported that the KGB was the world's most effective information-gathering organization. It operated legal and illegal espionage residencies in target countries where
14300-444: The subject if it is intransitive, but with the object if it is transitive. Verbs are inflected for present, simple past, past progressive, present perfect, and past perfect tenses. There is also an inflection for the subjunctive mood . Nouns and adjectives are inflected for two genders (masculine and feminine), two numbers (singular and plural), and four cases (direct, oblique, ablative, and vocative). The possessor precedes
14430-441: The time of Abdul Rahman Khan , and probably not even then". The soldiers' knock on the door in the middle of the night, so common in many Arab and African countries, was little known in Afghanistan, where a central government simply lacked the power to enforce its will outside of Kabul. Taraki's coup changed all that. Between April 1978 and the Soviet invasion of December 1979, Afghan communists executed 27,000 political prisoners at
14560-535: The traditional, if exploitative, credit system in the countryside. That led to an agricultural crisis and a fall in agricultural production. Such reforms were abruptly introduced and enforced, without preliminary pilots. Land reform was criticized by one journalist as "confiscating land in a haphazard manner that enraged everyone, benefited no one, and reduced food production," and the "first instance of organized, nationwide repression in Afghanistan's modern history." The PDPA, an advocate of equal rights for women, declared
14690-550: The tribes inhabiting the lands west of the Indus River were part of Ariana . This was around the time when the area inhabited by the Pashtuns was governed by the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom . From the 3rd century CE onward, they are mostly referred to by the name Afghan ( Abgan ). Abdul Hai Habibi believed that the earliest modern Pashto work dates back to Amir Kror Suri of the early Ghurid period in
14820-584: The trust of and spy upon the most outspoken proponents of Alexander Dubček 's new government. They were to plant subversive evidence, justifying the USSR's invasion, that right-wing groups—aided by Western intelligence agencies—were going to depose the Communist government of Czechoslovakia. Finally, the KGB prepared hardline , pro-USSR members of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ), such as Alois Indra and Vasiľ Škultéty, to assume power after
14950-528: The two countries deteriorated. Under the secular government of Daoud, factionalism and rivalry developed in the PDPA, with two main factions being the Parcham and Khalq factions. On 17 April 1978, a prominent member of the Parcham, Mir Akbar Khyber , was murdered. Although the government issued a statement deploring the assassination and claiming Gulbuddin Hekmatyar responsible, Nur Mohammad Taraki of
15080-486: The two official languages of Afghanistan alongside Dari , and it is the second-largest provincial language of Pakistan , spoken mainly in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the northern districts of Balochistan . Likewise, it is the primary language of the Pashtun diaspora around the world. The total number of Pashto-speakers is at least 40 million, although some estimates place it as high as 60 million. Pashto
15210-411: The two official languages of Pakistan. Pashto has no official status at the federal level. On a provincial level, Pashto is the regional language of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and north Balochistan . Yet, the primary medium of education in government schools in Pakistan is Urdu. The lack of importance given to Pashto and its neglect has caused growing resentment amongst Pashtuns. It is noted that Pashto
15340-484: The victory of the October Revolution ." According to journalist and CNAS member Robert D. Kaplan , while Afghanistan had historically been extremely poor and underdeveloped, it was a "civilized" country that "had never known very much political repression" until 1978. Political scientist Barnett Rubin wrote, "Khalq used mass arrests, torture, and secret executions on a scale Afghanistan had not seen since
15470-556: The weakening of any Islamist organizations in Afghanistan. On the early morning of the day of the coup, Daoud had just gotten ready when one of his office members informed him of a “riot” that was taking place in one of the military garrisons in Kabul . Daoud hurried to his office and asked his secretary to get hold of the phone number of the Chief of Staff , which could not be done after ten minutes of effort and additional attempts of finding
15600-711: The world. Other communities of Pashto speakers are found in India , Tajikistan , and northeastern Iran (primarily in South Khorasan Province to the east of Qaen , near the Afghan border). In India most ethnic Pashtun (Pathan) peoples speak the geographically native Hindi-Urdu language rather than Pashto, but there are small numbers of Pashto speakers, such as the Sheen Khalai in Rajasthan , and
15730-421: The “ Rasul Jan ” plot, the “ J. Maiwand ” plot, the “ 14 Assad 1358 ” plot and the “ 22.7.1979 ” plot which were foiled by the Khalq. Some Afghan citizens managed to avoid being executed due to a pledge or for proving their innocence. The Khalq also executed those accused of being spies for Pakistan . A main component of the PDPA program was land confiscation and distribution; which was fiercely opposed in
15860-693: Was Cold War policy for the KGB of the Soviet Union and the secret services of the satellite states to extensively monitor public and private opinion, internal subversion and possible revolutionary plots in the Soviet Bloc . In supporting those Communist governments, the KGB was instrumental in crushing the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 and the Prague Spring of " Socialism with a Human Face " in Czechoslovakia, 1968. During
15990-493: Was destroyed by the Republican Guard Brigade using an RPG-7 , infront of the Arg. According to an eyewitness, the first signs of the impending coup in Kabul, at about noon on 27 April, 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, guarding Ariana Circle, a major intersection. The first shots heard were near
16120-557: Was initially welcomed by many people in Kabul , who were dissatisfied with the Daoud government. Shortly after the coup, the American Embassy in Kabul told Washington : “The Russians have finally won the great game”. Before the civilian government was established, Afghan Air Force colonel Abdul Qadir and the PDPA Revolutionary Council led the country for three days from 27 April 1978. Eventually,
16250-622: Was launched earlier that year. The operation carried out bombings with the help of GRU and FCD . On 27 December, the centre received news that KGB Special Forces Alpha and Zenith Group, supported by the 154th OSN GRU, also known as Muslim battalion and paratroopers from the 345th Independent Guards Airborne Regiment stormed the Tajbeg Palace and killed Amin and his 100–150 personal guards. His 11-year-old son died due to shrapnel wounds. The Soviets installed Karmal as Amin's successor. Several other government buildings were seized during
16380-634: Was officially renamed to Dari . The lyrics of the national anthem of Afghanistan are in Pashto. In British India , prior to the creation of Pakistan by the British government, the 1920s saw the blossoming of Pashto language in the then NWFP : Abdul Ghafar Khan in 1921 established the Anjuman-e- Islah al-Afaghina (Society for the Reformation of Afghans) to promote Pashto as an extension of Pashtun culture; around 80,000 people attended
16510-555: Was senior Deputy Prime Minister, and Hafizullah Amin (a Khalqist) was foreign minister. The unity between Khalq and Parcham was only brief: Amin and General Mohammad Aslam Watanjar conveyed in a meeting that the revolution was the work of Khalq and that Parcham had no part of it. Taraki and Amin in early July relieved most of the Parchamites from their government positions. Karmal was sent abroad as Ambassador to Czechoslovakia . In August 1978, Taraki and Amin claimed to have uncovered
16640-468: Was the PDPA's model for modernizing Afghanistan and Taraki and Karmal were Soviet agents since the 1950s. The PDPA's party constitution leaked in 1978 explicitly mentioned Marxism–Leninism as the future of Afghanistan and by the end of 1978, Amin declared the Saur revolution as the "continuation of [the] Great October Revolution ", leaving no doubts about the PDPA's orientation. At first the new government had
16770-644: Was the capstone of NKVD espionage against Anglo–American science and technology. To wit, British Manhattan Project team physicist Klaus Fuchs (GRU 1941) was the main agent of the Rosenberg spy ring. In 1944, the New York City residency infiltrated top secret Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico by recruiting Theodore Hall , a 19-year-old Harvard physicist. The KGB failed to rebuild most of its US illegal resident networks. The aftermath of
16900-556: Was the main security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 to 1991. It was the direct successor of preceding Soviet secret police agencies including the Cheka , OGPU , and NKVD . Attached to the Council of Ministers , it was the chief government agency of "union-republican jurisdiction", carrying out internal security, foreign intelligence , counter-intelligence and secret police functions. Similar agencies operated in each of
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