Democratic Republic of Afghanistan

Details

Organization Timeline

Afghanistan and the USSR sign a Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation

📅 5 December 1978

The treaty deepened bilateral cooperation under President Taraki. It preceded the Soviet military intervention by a year and should not be confused with an open-ended authorization for the 1979...

Amin consolidates power after a failed attempt to remove him

📅 14 September 1979

Afghan President Nur Muhammad Taraki was critically injured in an internal power struggle, and Hafizullah Amin consolidated control. The episode reflects factional conflict within Afghanistan’s ruling...

Soviet air and ground deployments into Afghanistan expand

📅 24 December 1979

Soviet forces began a large-scale deployment into Afghanistan in late December. Moscow described the move as assistance requested by Kabul; it escalated an Afghan conflict into a foreign...

Soviet forces seize key sites and Amin is killed

📅 27 December 1979

Soviet forces assaulted government sites in Kabul, killed Hafizullah Amin, and installed Babrak Karmal. The intervention intensified resistance and displacement; Afghans were political actors, not a...

Najibullah takes leadership of the PDPA

📅 4 May 1986

Mohammad Najibullah became general secretary of the PDPA and began promoting a policy of national reconciliation as Soviet leaders sought an exit. Afghan political factions remained divided and...

Soviet troop withdrawal is completed

📅 15 February 1989

The final Soviet troops crossed out of Afghanistan under the Geneva timetable. The withdrawal ended the direct Soviet military occupation, but did not end the Afghan war: the Kabul government,...

Najibullah agrees to leave office

📅 16 April 1992

After the Soviet Union dissolved and external support to Kabul contracted, President Najibullah agreed to step aside under a UN-backed transition plan. The plan collapsed amid armed factional...