Thread by @KakarFoundation

40 yrs ago today #SovietUnion invaded #Afg. Prof. Hassan Kakar’s book “The Soviet Invasion and the Afghan Response 1989-92”, pub. by Univ of CA Press, describes da events based on first hand sources. @KakarFoundation will present extracts of da book during coming days as below:

At half past six on the evening of Thursday, 27 December 1979, an explosion occurred in the central part of the general communications system in the city of Kabul. Three days before, the minister of communications of the Soviet Union had been a guest of honor of Afghanistan.

He had been given the chance to see the hub of the communications system for a reason. The purpose of the host government was to obtain technical assistance from the Soviet Union. But the purpose of the minister was to pinpoint the center of the system in order to paralyze...

the whole communications network later, when the Soviet invasion began.
After darkness set in, about five thousand Soviet soldiers, who had been landing during the past three days at the International Airport of Kabul headed toward Tapa-e-Tajbeg palace, where Hafizullah Amin,

president of the Revolutionary Council...had transferred his seat from the city palace on 19 December 1979. The new palace had originally been the seat of the reformist King Amanullah (1919-29). Before Amin became the head of state, the Khalqi government had spent more than

one billion afghanis (approximately $20 million) to repair the palace and make it a suitable seat for his predecessor, Nur Mohammad Taraki. President Amin moved into it at the urging of his Soviet advisers. He also wanted to be away from the old palace, which reminded him of the

many bloody events that had taken place there. But Tapa-e-Tajbeg, situated on a mound two miles south of the city, could easily be attacked should the Soviet Union decide to do so. That evening, the Soviet military units in Kabul carried out such an order. #KakarFoundation