Hafizullah Amin

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Lore & Background

Hafizullah Amin was born to a Kharoti Ghilzai Pashtun family in the Qazi Khel village in Paghman on 1 August 1929. His father, a civil servant, died in 1937 when he was 8. Thanks to his brother Abdullah, a primary school teacher, Amin was able to attend both primary and secondary school, which in turn allowed him to attend Kabul University. After studying mathematics there, he also graduated from the Darul Mualimeen Teachers College in Kabul, and became a teacher. Amin later became vice-principal of the Darul Mualimeen College, and then principal of the prestigious Avesina High School. In 1957, Amin left Afghanistan for Columbia University in New York City, where he earned an MA in education. It was at Columbia that Amin became attracted to Marxism, and in 1958 he became a member of the university's Socialist Progressive Club. When he returned to Afghanistan, Amin became a teacher at Kabul University, and later, for the second time, the principal of Avesina High School. During this period Amin became acquainted with Nur Muhammad Taraki, a communist. Around this time, Amin quit his position as principal of Avesina High School to become principal of the Darul Mualimeen College. It is alleged that Amin became radicalised during his second stay in the United States in 1962, when he enrolled in a work-study group at the University of Wisconsin. Amin studied in the doctoral programme at the Teachers College of Columbia University, but started to neglect his studies in favor of politics and in 1963 he became head of the Afghan students' association at the college. The association was funded by the Asia Foundation, known to be a CIA pass-through group, or front. When he returned to Afghanistan in the mid-1960s, he supposedly flew first to Moscow where he met the Afghan ambassador to the Soviet Union, his old friend Ali Ahmad Popel, a previous Afghan Minister of Education. During his short stay, Amin became even more radicalised. According to others, Nabi Misdaq for instance, Amin did not return by way of Moscow, but rather West Germany and Lebanon.

Reader's Guide

Hafizullah Amin's significance lies in his central role in the Saur Revolution and his brief, brutal rule that precipitated Soviet intervention. As the main organizer of the April 1978 Saur Revolution, which overthrew the government of Mohammad Daoud Khan, Amin helped form a pro-Soviet state based on socialist ideals. Being second in chief of the Democratic Republic, Amin soon became the regime's strongman, the main architect of the state's programs including mass persecution of those deemed counter-revolutionary. A growing personal struggle with General Secretary Taraki eventually led to Amin wrestling power away then successfully deposing him and later ordering his execution; on 16 September 1979, Amin named himself Chairman of the Council of Ministers (head of government), Chairman of the Revolutionary Council (head of state), and General Secretary of the PDPA Central Committee (supreme leader). His government failed to solve the problem of the population revolting against the regime as the situation rapidly worsened and army desertions and defections continued. He tried to change things with friendly overtures to the United States, although his reputation in Washington was severely tarnished by his role in the assassination of U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan Adolph Dubs. Many Afghans, especially those from rural areas, held Amin responsible for the regime's harshest measures, such as ordering thousands of executions. Thousands of people disappeared without a trace during his time in office. The Soviet Union under Leonid Brezhnev was dissatisfied with and mistrusted Amin after he conducted a series of purges against the Parcham; they intervened in Afghanistan, invoking the 1978 Twenty-Year Treaty of Friendship between Afghanistan and the Soviet Union. Soviet operatives assassinated Amin at the Tajbeg Palace on 27 December 1979 as part of Operation Storm-333, kickstarting the decade-long Soviet–Afghan War.

Did You Know?

• Amin was the only Khalqist elected to parliament in the 1969 parliamentary election.
• He earned an MA in education from Columbia University in New York City in 1957.
• Amin became head of the Afghan students' association at Columbia's Teachers College in 1963, which was funded by the Asia Foundation, known to be a CIA pass-through group.
• He ordered the execution of Nur Muhammad Taraki after deposing him in September 1979.
• Soviet operatives assassinated Amin at the Tajbeg Palace on 27 December 1979 as part of Operation Storm-333.