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
North Caucasian Soviet Republic Central Executive Committee abolished the republic. North Caucasian Soviet Republic North Caucasian Soviet Republic (, "Severo-Kavkazskaya Sovetskaya Respublika") (July 7–December, 1918) was a territory in the North Caucasus established to consolidate Soviet power during the Russian Civil War. A republic of the Russian SFSR, it was created by merging the Kuban-Black Sea Soviet Republic, the Stavropol Soviet Republic, and the Terek Soviet Republic. Its capital was Yekaterinodar; however, on August 17, 1918 Yekaterinodar was taken by Denikin's Volunteer Army, and the capital was moved to Pyatigorsk. By the end of 1918, when the majority of the republic's territory was captured