Tajik Soviet Socialist Republic along a waterway. After Stalin's death in March 1953, Stalinabad, was renamed to "Dushanbe" on 10 November 1961 as part of the De-Stalinization program. In February 1990, tensions between the Tajiks and Armenians squared off in the republic's capital Dushanbe. 26 people died and 565 more were injured and the Soviet troops put down the riots. Both Yaqub Salimov, the Interior Minister and the youth activists were convicted for the participation in the riots. Later on 24 August 1990, Tajik SSR declared its sovereignty over Soviet laws. By 1991, Tajikistan participated in a referendum in March as part of the
Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic as the Balta district (where the capital was located), which had only 2.52% Moldavians. The official capital was proclaimed the "temporarily occupied city of Kishinev". Meanwhile, a provisional capital was established in Balta and moved to Tiraspol in 1929, where it remained until the MASSR was integrated into the newly created Moldavian SSR in 1940. MASSR had a mixed Ukrainian (46%) and Moldavian (32%) population, which was estimated at 545,500. Its area was and included 11 "raions" on the left bank of Dniester. According to the 1926 Soviet census, the Republic had a population of 572,339, of which: Despite this