Region of Republican Subordination

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Coordinates: 39°0′N, 70°0′E

Region of Republican Subordination
Country Tajikistan
Capital Vahdat
Area 28,400 km² (10,965 sq mi)
Population 1,531,300 (2006)
ISO 3166-2 TJ-RR

Region of Republican Subordination (Tajik: Ноҳияҳои тобеи ҷумҳурӣ, Russian: Raiony respublikanskogo podchineniya – RRP), (formerly known as Karotegin Province) is a region in Tajikistan, consisting of 13 districts which are directly under the central rule. Karotegin is the historic name of the Rasht Valley and a historic political region in pre-Soviet Central Asia that is today part of Tajikistan. The Karotegin region was also named Garm, though Garm is also the name of a city and the Garmi ethnic group. Karotegin frequently appears in its alternative spellings Karategin and Karateghin in literature from the 1990s and earlier.

Contents

[edit] History

Karotegin was an independent region in Central Asia for many centuries. The native princes, who claimed to be descended from Alexander the Great, were independent until 1868, although their allegiance was claimed in an ineffective way by Kokand. The Emirate of Bukhara took advantage of internal political feuds and conquered the region, along with Darvaz, in 1877. [1]

The Karotegin consisted of a highland district bounded on the north by Samarkand and Khokand, on the east by Ferghana, on the south by Darvaz, and on the west by Hissar and other Bokharian provinces. Traditionally rough woolen cloth and mohair were woven by the natives, who also made excellent firearms and other weapons. Gold was mined in various places and there were salt-pits in the mountains. The chief town, Garm, situated on a hill on the right bank of the Vakhsh River, was a place of some 2,000 inhabitants, as of 1911. The population was about 60,000 (1911); five-sixths Tajik, the rest Kyrgyz, who reside in what is today the Jirgatol district of Tajikistan. Historically it was difficult for the people of the Karotegin to communicate with neighboring lands except during the summer, from May to September. [1]

[edit] Districts

The 13 districts are listed below roughly in their order of occurrence from west to east within the band forming the Region of Republican Subordination. The order of the districts and the district names are based on two consistent sources: an administrative map of Tajikistan[2] and a statistical yearbook showing the breakdown of RRP into districts[3].

[edit] Geography

The plateau is traversed by the Vakhsh River, a right-hand tributary of the Amu Darya. On the northern border run the Gissar and Zeravshan mountains, and on the southern border the Darvaz range 7,600 meters (24,900 ft) . The area is 28,400 square kilometers (10,965 sq mi). The winter climate is extremely severe; snow begins to fall in October and it is May before it disappears. During the warmer months, however, the mountainsides are richly clothed with the foliage of maple, mountain ash, apple, pear and walnut trees; the orchards furnish, not only apples and pears, but peaches, cherries, mulberries and apricots. Both cattle and horses are of a small and hardy breed. [1]

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition
  2. ^ Republic of Tajikistan, map showing administrative division as of January 1, 2004, "Tojjikoinot" Cartographic Press, Dushanbe
  3. ^ Agriculture of Tajikistan, Statistical Yearbook, State Statistical Committee of Tajikistan, Dushanbe, 2007