The Soviet strategy in Afghanistan has always aimed at controlling the state apparatus rather than encouraging a popular revolution. The belated creation of the communist party was perceived as a means of pressure on the state. The party was set up around 1965 by members of the lay intelligentsia and officers trained in the USSR. Behind the debutes dividing the party into the khalqi and the parcham factions there are, in addition to tactical differences, divergences linked with the social and tribal origins of these two factions. Most importantly, beyond thé ideological débutes thé functioning of thé party follows thé tribal pattern : that does not mean that the tribalism of Afghan society persists in the party, but that the party's factions are structured according to the modes of tribalism and clientelism, indenpendently of the sociological origins of their members.
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Olivier Roy (1986) studied this question.