Taraki, Nur Muhammad

Born in 1917 in Mukur; died Oct. 9, 1979, in Kabul (assassinated by counterrevolutionaries). Afghan state and political figure; writer.

Taraki became involved in sociopolitical activity in the late 1940’s. In the 1950’s he headed the political group The Awakened Youth, which stood for the democratization of the country’s social life. In 1977 he was elected general secretary of the Central Committee of the People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan (organized in 1965). After the victory of the antifeudal and national-democratic revolution in Afghanistan in April 1978, Taraki became chairman of the republic’s Revolutionary Council and prime minister of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan (until March 1979).

Taraki wrote socially oriented short stories, sketches, and novellas of everyday life in Pashto that realistically depicted the hard life of the Afghan peasants, artisans, and workers. His novellas Bang’s Wanderings (1958), Spin (1958), and Alone (1962) contributed to the development of realism in Afghan literature.