afghanistanofficials referred to each other as ‘comrades’, and the media and official
communications were full of Marxist–Leninist jargon. When the new
national flag was unfurled in October 1978, its background was completely
red and a socialist-realist wheat sheaf replaced the monarchical wreath.
In the same month Hafiz Allah ’Amin, in an article commemorating the
Bolshevik Revolution, declared that ‘the Saur Revolution is [a] continu-
ation of [the] Great October Revolution’. As for President Nur Muhammad
Taraki, he became the focus of a Stalinist personality cult, with state organs
referring to him as the Great Leader. When Taraki’s official biography was
published it glorified his humble background, while his modest house in
Kabul’s Sher Shah Mina was turned into a shrine. 32
A few weeks after taking power Taraki began to issue a series of decrees
designed to revolutionize Afghan social life along Marxist–Leninist lines,
just as those of Amir ’Aman Allah Khan had run roughshod over the trad-
itional values of Afghans and the conservatism of rural communities. The
decrees outlawed polygamy, costly dowries, usury and girau – an ancient
system under which land or property was temporarily mortgaged to a third
party in exchange for cash – and cancelled debts more than five years old
without compensation. Another decree inaugurated an aggressive land
redistribution policy, which included the confiscation of the estates of
Muhammadzais and wealthy, absentee landlords, dividing the land into
30 jerib (6-hectare) blocks that were distributed to landless peasants and
nomads. Workers’ collectives and cooperatives were established, and a liter-
acy drive instituted to ‘educate’ illiterate peasants and impart Communist
Postal stamps issued by pdpa governments unashamedly flaunted their Communist
credentials. From left to right: April 1979, a stamp to celebrate the first anniversary of the
Saur Revolution shows the new red flag with its modified ‘Shrine and Sheaf ’ motif flying
from the Presidential palace; November 1985, stamp commemorating the anniversary of
Lenin’s death and finally this 1985 issue, commemorating the seventh anniversary of the Saur
Revolution, shows Afghan and Soviet soldiers united in their fight against the mujahidin.