Babrak Karmal

3rd General Secretary of the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (1929–1996)

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Lived 1929–1996, aged 67

Wikipedia
51 languages
Cross-language footprint
Era
1929–1996
Aged 67
Awards
1
recognised work

Summary

Updated 2026-06-11

He arrived in Kabul on Soviet tanks in December 1979, installed after Moscow's troops killed his predecessor. For seven years Babrak Karmal led Afghanistan as the face of an occupation he couldn't justify and reforms that bought him no loyalty, trapped between a rebellion that never stopped and patrons in the Kremlin who eventually decided he'd failed.

Biography

About

Born Sultan Hussein in 1929, Karmal was introduced to Marxism during imprisonment and became a founding member of the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan, leading its Parcham faction after the 1967 split. He served in parliament, helped Mohammad Daoud Khan take power in 1973, then participated in the 1978 Saur Revolution that brought the PDPA to power. When the rival Khalq faction turned on the Parchamites months later, Karmal was exiled to Prague and lived in the forests under Czechoslovak protection, hiding from Afghan assassins. The KGB brought him to Moscow in late 1979; in December S…

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