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Tajikistan
Creation of Tajikistan
After establishing communist rule throughout formerly tsarist
Central Asia in 1924, the Soviet government redrew internal political
borders, eliminating the major units into which the region had
been divided. The Soviet rationale was that this reorganization
fulfilled local inhabitants' nationalist aspirations and would
undercut support for the Basmachis. However, the new boundaries
still left national groups fragmented, and nationalist aspirations
in Central Asia did not prove as threatening as depicted in communist
propaganda.
One of the new states created in Central Asia in 1924 was Uzbekistan,
which had the status of a Soviet socialist republic. Tajikistan
was created as an autonomous Soviet socialist republic within
Uzbekistan. The new autonomous republic included what had been
eastern Bukhoro and had a population of about 740,000, out of
a total population of nearly 5 million in Uzbekistan as a whole.
Its capital was established in Dushanbe, which had been a village
of 3,000 in 1920. In 1929 Tajikistan was detached from Uzbekistan
and given full status as a Soviet socialist republic. At that
time, the territory that is now northern Tajikistan was added
to the new republic. Even with the additional territory, Tajikistan
remained the smallest Central Asian republic.
With the creation of a republic defined in national terms came
the creation of institutions that, at least in form, were likewise
national. The first Tajik-language newspaper in Soviet Tajikistan
began publication in 1926. New educational institutions also began
operation about the same time. The first state schools, available
to both children and adults and designed to provide a basic education,
opened in 1926. The central government also trained a small number
of Tajiks for public office, either by putting them through courses
offered by government departments or by sending them to schools
in Uzbekistan.
From 1921 to 1927, during the New Economic Policy (NEP--see
Glossary) Soviet agricultural policy promoted the expansion of
cotton cultivation in Central Asia. By the end of the NEP, the
extent of cotton cultivation had increased dramatically, but yield
did not match prerevolutionary levels. At the same time, the cultivation
of rice, a staple food of the region, declined considerably.
Data as of March 1996
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