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
Donets-Krivoy Rog Soviet Republic of the neighbouring Ukrainian People's Republic, which included the Donbass, Kharkov, Yekaterinoslav, and part of the Kherson Governorates. In the beginning, the republic's capital was the city of Kharkov, but later with the retreat of the Red Guard it was moved to Luhansk. The Soviet government of Russia supported it as the existence of the state set an anarchy in the region. The newly created government challenged the authority of the General Secretariat of Ukraine and the People's Secretariat. Some of the commissars held positions as secretaries in another Bolshevik government in Ukraine, the People's Secretariat. The Republic was disbanded