The Top Leader of Afghanistan or also Effective Leader was an informal term for the most important political figure of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan/Republic of Afghanistan, the top leader was not necessarily Chairman of the Presidium of the Revolutionary Council/President or Prime Minister but most of the time the General Secretary of the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan/Homeland Party. As the DRA adopted leninist policies like democratic centralism, the PDPA had a monopoly on powerAmtstutz, J. Bruce (1994b). Afghanistan: Past and Present. p. 152. Diane Publishing. and with it the supreme political power was in the hands of the Politburo from 1979 on, besides that the Revolutionary Council, was per constitution the supreme state power, due this, it's get described as a "rubber-stamp body".
List Portrait Name Term of office Party(Faction) Head of State Head of Government References Took office Left office Time in office1 Nur Muhammad Taraki 30 April 1978 27 March 1979 People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (Khalq) Himself Himself2 Nur Muhammad TarakiandHafizullah Amin 27 March 1979 14 September 1979 People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (Khalq) Nur Muhammad Taraki Hafizullah Amin3 Hafizullah Amin 14 September 1979 27 December 1979 People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (Khalq) Himself Himself4 Babrak Karmal 27 December 1979 4 May 1986 People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (Parcham) Himself HimselfSultan Ali Keshtmand5 Mohammad Najibullah Ahmadzai 4 May 1986 16 April 1992 People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (Parcham)Homeland Party Babrak KarmalHaji Mohammad ChamkaniHimselfSultan Ali KeshtmandMohammad Hasan SharqSultan Ali KeshtmandFazal Haq KhaliqyarNone None; Military junta de facto controls the Republic of Afghanistan ( – )
Timeline
See also Paramount leader De facto leader of the GDR List of leaders of the Soviet Union List of de facto leaders of the Polish People's Republic List of de facto rulers of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic
Notes
References
Bibliography Kalinovsky, Artemy (2011). A Long Goodbye: The Soviet Withdrawal from Afghanistan. Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-05866-8.