Nabiyev, Rakhmon Nabiyevich

▪ 1994

      Tajik political leader (b. Oct. 5, 1930, Shaykhburhan, Khujand rayon (sector), Tajik S.S.R., U.S.S.R.—d. April 10-11, 1993, Khujand, Tajikistan), was a devout member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) and twice (1982-85, 1991-92) head of a Tajik Communist government. Nabiyev was educated at the Tashkent Institute of Irrigation and Mechanized Agriculture and worked as an agricultural engineer in Khujand until he joined the CPSU in 1960. Thereafter he held government posts in agriculture, in the Central Committee of the Tajik Communist Party, and in the Tajikistan Council of Ministers. As Communist Party boss, he ruled the republic from April 1982 until December 1985, when he was ousted from power in a series of sweeping reforms by Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. Nabiyev made a political comeback during the breakup of the Soviet Union and was elected president of independent Tajikistan in November 1991. However, he failed to prevent civil war between his hard-line Communist supporters and a coalition of pro-democratic and pro-Islamic insurgents. He was forced to resign at gunpoint in September 1992, and when the Communists regained control two months later, he was not restored to office.

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