KABUL -- April 27 is a day of bitter memories for Afghans, for on that day a quarter-century ago was launched the communist revolution which was to plunge the country into 23 years of bloodshed and misery, AFP reported.

Five years earlier king Zahir Shah had been overthrown in a coup by his cousin General Mohammad Daoud. Daoud declared Afghanistan a republic while Zahir Shah was in Italy, where the deposed monarch was to remain in exile for three decades.

Daoud's policies, however, antagonized the Soviet Union and alienated Afghan communists who, led by Hafizullah Amin and Nur Mohammad Taraki, plotted his overthrow.

As dawn broke on April 27, 1978, dozens of tanks rolled into the city. One of the military coup leaders took charge of Bagram Air Base and launched air strikes on the royal palace, where Daoud and his supporters were holding out.

Daoud and most of his family along with another 2,000 people died in the fighting, which became known as the Saur revolution after the Afghan month in which it took place.

Intended to usher in a Marxist utopia, the coup in fact unleashed more than two decades of war and suffering.

"Well before the year was out, however, it emerged in its true colors, not only as overtly communist, but also as unremittingly brutal and determined to revolutionize Afghan society from the roots up, by terror if necessary," said former British diplomat Sir Martin Ewans in his history of Afghanistan.

In a pattern that was to become all too familiar, the now ruling communist party was divided into factions and mass arrests and torture the following year led to revolts across the country.

Meanwhile Taraki's Khalq faction initiated a reign of terror against his opponents in the Parcham faction. But even within the Khalq faction there were rifts and Taraki himself was assassinated.

When prime minister Amin, who had led the 1978 coup, declared himself president the bloodletting started in earnest.

Moscow was watching these events unfold with growing unease.

Finally, on the night of December 24, 1979 the first Soviet troops landed at Kabul airport. Three days later they attacked Kabul and Amin was killed during the fighting.

The following day Red Army tanks in Soviet Central Asia crossed the Amu Darya river and rolled into northern Afghanistan. Babrak Karmal of the Parcham faction was installed as a puppet president.

While earlier unrest had given rise to the nascent mujahedin movement in the Hindu Kush mountains, the Godless invaders drew down the full fury of the "holy warriors" in an unrelenting war.

The bloody 10-year Soviet occupation resulted in the deaths of an estimated one million Afghans while nearly 20 percent of the population fled into exile in neighboring Iran and Pakistan.

When the last Soviet troops left in 1989, Najibullah, who had replaced Karmal as president, managed to hang on to power until April 28, 1992, when mujahedin forces captured Kabul.

Mujahedin leader Burhanuddin Rabbani was proclaimed president but mujahedin factions continued to fight. Civil war erupted following a power struggle between Rabbani and prime minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar.

From the chaos of civil war the Taleban militia emerged to seize Kabul in 1996 and was initially welcomed as a respite from relentless conflict. But providing sanctuary to Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was the downfall of the Taleban as it was toppled by a U.S.-led coalition following the September 11, 2001 attacks masterminded by their "guest."

Ironically, a quarter-century after the communist saur revolution all the major players are dead, but 70 years after assuming the throne of the Durrani dynasty the former king is back in his palace.

"After years of personal sacrifice and national tragedy, the day has arrived for the courageous and freedom-loving people of Afghanistan to choose a future based on Islamic and democratic values," Zahir Shah said on Saturday as the country prepared to draw up a new Constitution.

Afghanistan has experienced monarchy, a republic, Soviet-style Marxism and the rule of the Taleban militia but there are few clues as to what style of government will be chosen by October.

But as Vice-President Nematullah Shahrani pointed out, after 23 years of war Afghans are very resilient people. "I hope that we will be successful."