Muhammad Daoud (1909-1978) was one of the most famous and still revered Afghan politicians of the late monarchical period, an authoritarian reformer and Pashtun nationalist. In 1973. he carried out a republican coup and became the first president of the country, in 1978 he was killed in a new coup by supporters of the left - wing radical group-the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan. The rise of M. Daoud occurred both as a result of his desire for supreme power, and as a result of the attempt of the Yahyahel clan, to which he belonged, to resolve the problems that arose after the first and unsuccessful experiment of political liberalization of Afghanistan in the late 1940s and early 1950s. However, this experiment created the possibility of a new format of "partisanship" for Afghanistan."the political process. In the first post-war decade, there were also shifts in the country's political elite, which largely determined the balance of power in the following decades. Keywords: Afghanistan, Muhammad Daoud, clan oligarchy, political opposition, (proto -) parties, "Vish Zalmian", National Democratic Party, liberal experiment. AFGHANISTAN AFTER WORLD WAR II. POLICY OF THE SHAH MAHMUD GOVERNMENT Afghanistan, without even taking a direct part in World War II, emerged economically weakened, led by the oligarchic Yahyahel clan, which was dominated for many years by Prime Minister Hashim Khan. His despotic regime no longer satisfied not only the nascent opposition, but also new groups within the ruling camp itself, especially the so - called young ones, among whom the informal leadership belonged to the cousin of King Zahir Shah, Muhammad Daoud.1The study was conducted with the financial support of the Russian Foundation for Scientific Research (project N08-01-335a). 1 Muhammad Dawud (1909-1978) was the eldest son of Muhammad Aziz Khan, brother of King Nadir Shah. He studied at the Lycee Amania, then lived and studied in France. Since 1932 - Major General and commander o ... Read more