Khalq strongman who engineered the Saur Revolution and fell to Soviet guns three months after seizing power
Amin ordered his adjutant to warn the Soviet advisers of the attack. The adjutant replied, 'It is the Soviets who are shooting.' Amin snatched an ashtray and hurled it at him, shouting, 'You're lying! That cannot be!'
Amin was the de facto number two of the PDPA's Khalq faction and the military architect of the April 1978 Saur Revolution. Drawn to Marxism while studying in the United States, he returned to Afghanistan and built a network of officers that made the coup possible, then climbed from deputy premier through foreign and defense ministries to become the regime's true strongman. In September 1979 he deposed and executed his mentor Nur Muhammad Taraki and seized the party leadership and all top state posts, but his brutal purges and the spreading insurgency convinced the Kremlin he was uncontrollable. On 27 December 1979 KGB special forces stormed the Tajbeg Palace and killed him, opening the Soviet-Afghan War.
Career Timeline
- 1957–1965Studies at Columbia and Wisconsin, drawn to Marxism
- 1966Joins PDPA, sides with Khalq faction
- 1969Elected sole Khalq MP
- 1973–1978Party military organizer, builds officer network
- 1978.04Directs the Saur Revolution
- 1978–1979DPM → FM → PM → concurrent Defense Minister
- 1979.09Deposes Taraki, becomes General Secretary and head of state
- 1979.12.27Killed by Soviet special forces in Operation Storm-333