Dushanbe

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Душанбе
Dushanbe

Coat of arms

Location

Location of Dushanbe in Tajikistan

Government

Country

Tajikistan

Mayor

Mahmadsaid Ubaydulloyev

Geographical characteristics

Area
- City

100 km²

Population
- City (2004)
- Density

524,000
5240/km²

Coordinates

38°32′12″N, 68°46′48″E

Elevation

2706 m

Time zone
- Summer (DST)

GMT (UTC+5)
GMT (UTC+5)

Other Information

Website: www.dushanbe.tj

Dushanbe (Tajik: Душанбе, Dushanbe; formerly Dyushambe or Stalinabad), population 562,000 people (2000 census), is the capital of Tajikistan. The name is derived from the Persian word for "Monday" (du "two" + shamba or shanbe "day", lit. "day two") and refers to the fact that it was a popular Monday marketplace.

1 History
2 Economy
3 Buildings and attractions
4 Sister cities
5 See also
6 Notes
7 External links

[edit] History

Although archaeological remnants dating to the 5th century BC have been discovered in the area, there is little to suggest that Dushanbe was more than a small village until around 80 years ago. In 1920, the last Emir of Bukhara briefly took refuge in Dushanbe after being overthrown by the Bolshevik revolution. He fled to Afghanistan after the Red Army conquered the area the next year. The city was briefly captured by Enver Pasha and his basmachi fighters in 1922 and served as the headquarters for Ibrahim Bek, a Tajik leader who fought the Bolsheviks.

A statue of Vladimir Lenin still stands in Dushanbe.

With the Red Army victory and coming of the railroad from 1929, the city became the capital of the Tajik Soviet Socialist Republic. Up until this time the city was named "Dyushambe", but in 1929 it was renamed "Stalinabad", after Joseph Stalin; as part of Nikita Khrushchev's de-Stalinization initiative, the city was renamed "Dushanbe" in 1961. The Soviets transformed the area into a center for cotton and silk production, and relocated tens of thousands of people to the city from around the Soviet Union. The population also increased with thousands of ethnic Tajiks migrating to Tajikistan following the transfer of Bukhara and Samarkand to the Uzbek SSR. A peaceful and relatively prosperous city under Soviet rule, Dushanbe was home to a university and the Tajik Academy of Sciences. Severe rioting occurred in 1990, after it was rumored that Moscow planned to relocate tens of thousands of Armenian refugees to Tajikistan, which spurred local nationalist sentiment.

The city was badly damaged as a result of the Civil War in Tajikistan (1992–1997) that sprang up in the nation shortly after its independence.

[edit] Economy

Coal, lead, and arsenic are mined nearby in the city of Nurek and Khulyab, where the population suffers due to the exorbitant radiation emitted by the uranium deposits in the neighboring mountains. A leading cotton textile center, Dushanbe also produces silk, machinery, electrical appliances, clothing, leather goods, tractor parts, and foodstuffs. "Dushanbe is a clean green European style city with broad tree-lined avenues lending it an air of faded prosperity."