South Yemen (1967–1990)

People's Democratic Republic of Yemen

When Britain left the port of Aden in 1967, the successor state took a hard left turn — becoming the Arab world's only Marxist republic before uniting with North Yemen on 22 May 1990.

South Yemen was the only avowedly Marxist–Leninist state ever established in the Arab world — its closest allies were East Berlin and Havana, not its neighbours.