The bloody military coup of Haft Sawr which happened on April 27, 1978, is an important event in the history of Afghanistan. After toppling Dawood Khan Government, the People’s Democratic Party comes to power which was considered as a pro-Soviet ideological organization. In regard to the nature of Haft Sawr, it seems that the coup was largely rooted in economic and cultural infiltration of Soviet Union in Afghanistan.  On one hand, a large number of economic projects were supported by the Soviet Union because of economic dependencies of the country. On the other hand, the theories of Russian communism were injected into the country. At that time, the theory of reformist Marxism, social democracy, and other new thoughts such as “Open Society and Its Enemies” had not been across the country. Therefore, Russian Communism was a dominant theory in Afghanistan. The People’s Democratic Party was considered as ideological supporters of the Soviet Union. The political elites such as Babrak Karmal, Tarahki, Amin, Najib, Mirakbar Khyber, Dastgir Panjshiri … and other leaders of the People’s Democratic Party were serious supporters of the Soviet Union defending the interests of the Soviet Union in Kabul, and also advocated tensions between Afghanistan and neighboring countries such as Pakistan and Iran.
Although the People’s Democratic Party took the power with so many enchanting mottos, they recorded the most dreadful behavior and catastrophic violence in the contemporary history of Afghanistan. Their coup victory began with killing of the president, Mohammad Dawood Khan, and his 30 family members and then continued with oppression and torture of innocent people. The People’s Democratic Party commenced arresting a large number of people in the country. They arrested all those who were involved in political activities, including intellectuals, university professors, teachers, students, and even peasants and businessmen. Based on historic narratives, The People’s Democratic Party used the most oppressive method of torturing and killing the people. It is said that they forced the victims to confess that they were affiliated with opposition groups. Also, they shot the arrestees in front of others to pose psychological torture frightening others to confess that they were affiliated with opposition groups.
Anyway, there is a vast consensus that Haft Sawr military coup was the beginning of war and destruction in Afghanistan which has not ended yet. Now, what is more important in this chapter of history, is how to learn lessons from the past for the future? No nation can find a way to the future unless using the light of the past for the future. Given the aforementioned violence and its ultimate failure, the first important lesson we should learn is the superiority of logic power over violent power. Although thousands of elites were collectively killed during the people’s Democratic Party and Soviet Union regime, finally they failed to reach their goals. Unfortunately, the current insurgent groups use a similar method which was applied by the people’s Democratic Party and Soviet Union regime. In fact, there is no big difference between target killing of today and collective shooting and horrible torturing of the Democratic Party. Therefore, the Taliban of today and their supporters should choose a logical method instead of its violent methods in the country.
The next lesson that we must learn from Haft Sawr and its following events is national unity. Although the people’s Democratic Party and then the Soviet Union aggression victimized a large number of people in Afghanistan, the people of Afghanistan broke the waist of the Soviet Union and their supporters in the country after they got united. In fact, the people of Afghanistan defeated a superpower with their modern facilities and agents in the country. Undoubtedly, there were different factors behind the defeat of the Soviet Union in the country, but Afghans resistance and unity were at the center of this success and victory.
ww Therefore, the unity of Afghan people was the secret of this great victory. Although the Soviet Union army and their puppet government used the cruelest methods against Afghan people, finally the people of Afghanistan bravely kick them out of the country with their strong faith, unity, and commitment to their land and culture. The history of Afghanistan has a similar experience under the popular leadership of great King Amanullah Khan Ghazi when Afghans untidily stood against British power. Although Amanullah Khan Ghazi entered an unequal war with British power, the national personality of Amanullah Khan had united the whole people against the superpower of time to leave the country. Given this experience and political sociology of the country, the enemies of Afghanistan are aware that Afghanistan is the graveyard of emperors and Afghan people are undefeatable if they get united.
Therefore, they use any sinister tools and ways to divide the people of Afghanistan into ethnic, religious, and language groups.
The last but not least, we also should learn from the past history that our economic dependencies together with the infiltration of the fifth column in the government body have been the most serious weakness of the past political systems. Based on historical narratives, the Soviet Union Regime had widely expanded its infiltration through the people’s Democratic Party in the government but the Dawood Khan government was silent because of the economic dependencies to the Soviet Union. As a result, the supporters of the Soviet Union widely infiltrated key ministries such as the Ministry of defense and the ministry of interior affairs. Finally, the government of Dawood Khan was overthrown by the same group.