Coup successful On 12 September 1974, Emperor Haile Selassie was deposed by the Coordinating Committee of the Armed Forces, Police, and Territorial Army, a Soviet-backed military junta that consequently ruled Ethiopia as the Derg until 28 May 1991.

The land – which was the most essential mode of production – had been amassed by the church (over 25%), Emperor Haile Selassie and his family (20%), the feudal lords (30%) and the state (18%), leaving a mere 7% to the roughly 23 million Ethiopian peasants.

[1] Haile Selassie faced severe backlash and a negative public reputation, largely because of overtaxing in Gojjam starting in 1930, the famine of Wollo and Tigray in 1958, and autocratic land seizure.

[6] On 23 November, the Massacre of the Sixty took place, in which 60 officials of Haile Selassie government, including two former prime ministers, were executed by firing squad in Kerchele Prison.

The execution was heard over Ethiopian Radio in the next day; the council also included General Aman Andom, one of the leaders of the coup, and Haile Selassie's grandson, Admiral Iskinder Desta.

Further executed people at this time included roughly 200 former cabinet ministers, government officials, provincial governors, and judges who were held in the cellars of the National Palace awaiting trial on charges of corruption and maladministration.