The RSFSR premier who opposed the Crimea transfer and silently let Kim Il Sung consolidate one-man rule
After Kim Il Sung insisted on staying premier, Puzanov wrote: "I got the impression that Kim Il-sung himself also does not want to quit the premier's office. I offered no opinion on the subject."
A peasant's son who rose through state control agencies, Puzanov was tapped by Stalin in 1952 as RSFSR premier and candidate member of the CPSU CC Presidium. Dropped from the Presidium after Stalin's death and demoted in 1956 for opposing Khrushchev's Crimea transfer to Ukraine, he turned to diplomacy, serving as ambassador to North Korea, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, and Afghanistan. In Pyongyang his failure to press collective-leadership demands on Kim Il Sung helped Kim consolidate one-man rule. In Kabul his dispatches portraying Hafizullah Amin as a tyrant swayed Moscow toward military intervention, and he was recalled on the eve of the Soviet invasion.
Career Timeline
- 1924Chairman of Kandaurovo village soviet, deputy chairman of Puchezh volost executive committee
- 1930Graduated Plyos Agricultural Technical School; agronomist, Sereda district land department
- 1931–1933Deputy director, Ivanovo Oblast suburban farm trust
- 1934–1940Staff, Soviet Control Commission under USSR Sovnarkom
- 1940–1943Chief controller, USSR People's Commissariat of State Control
- 1943–1944Deputy People's Commissar of State Control, USSR
- 1944–1946Chairman, Kuibyshev Oblast Executive Committee
- 1946–1952First Secretary, Kuibyshev Oblast and City Party Committee
- 1952–1956Chairman, RSFSR Council of Ministers (Premier)
- 1952–1953Candidate member, CPSU CC Presidium (Politburo)
- 1956–1957First Deputy Chairman, RSFSR Council of Ministers
- 1957–1962Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the DPRK
- 1962–1967Soviet Ambassador to Yugoslavia
- 1967–1972Soviet Ambassador to Bulgaria
- 1972–1979Soviet Ambassador to Afghanistan
- 1979–1980Staff, central apparatus of USSR Ministry of Foreign Affairs
- 1980Retired on pension
Related historical events
Ambassador to Afghanistan and the Soviet Intervention
Posted to Kabul in 1972, Puzanov spent seven years witnessing the most convulsive period in modern Afghan history. The monarchy fell in the 1973 coup, and the April 1978 Saur Revolution brought the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) to power. Puzanov cultivated close ties with the 'Gang of Four' in Nur Muhammad Taraki's regime (Aslam Watanjar, Sayed Mohammad Gulabzoy, Sherjan Mazdoryar, and Assadullah Sarwari) whom he was eager to use against Hafizullah Amin.
By summer 1979 the Taraki-Amin power struggle reached a breaking point. The Gang of Four plotted to assassinate Amin, but Sarwari's nephew Aziz Akbari, not knowing it was a secret mission, confided the plan to the Soviet embassy. The embassy warned Amin, saving his life. On 14 September, Amin headed to the Arg presidential palace where Taraki, Puzanov, and Soviet deputy defense minister Pavlovsky were waiting. Puzanov personally persuaded Amin to make the visit. Inside the palace, bodyguards opened fire; police chief Tarun was killed but Amin escaped wounded. He mobilized the army, arrested Taraki, and the Gang of Four took refuge at the Soviet embassy.
Moscow tried but failed to save Taraki, then signaled Amin it was his choice what to do with the deposed leader. On 9 October, Taraki was suffocated with pillows. Puzanov privately assessed Amin as 'clever, energetic, and exceptionally hard-working,' yet his dispatches to Moscow portraying Amin as a tyrant helped sway the Politburo toward military intervention. In November 1979 a cable signed by Gromyko informed Puzanov he was being recalled 'in view of your repeated requests': a request Puzanov insisted he never made. He flew out on 21 November, on the eve of the Soviet invasion. His replacement was part of the final preparation for war.