Ismaili Centre, Dushanbe Ismaili Centre, Dushanbe The Ismaili Centre, Dushanbe is one of six such centres world-wide and is an Ismaili jamatkhana. It was the fifth purpose-built Ismaili Centre, and the first in Central Asia. Dushanbe is the capital of Tajikistan, a country characterised by an unusually extensive Ismaili population: the region of Badakhshan, which spills over northeastern Afghanistan, eastern Tajikistan and North Pakistan, is the only part of the world where Ismailis make up the majority of the population. Under Soviet rule, the religion was discouraged, but since 1991 has increased its public prominence, and the Personal Representative of the Ismaili imamate
Soviet republic (system of government) republics were short-lived communist revolutionary governments that were established in what had been the Russian Empire after the October Revolution and under its influence. These states included some such as the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic and the Latvian Socialist Soviet Republic which won independence from Russia during the civil war period. Others such as the Ukrainian Soviet Republic and the Socialist Soviet Republic of Byelorussia later became union republics of the Soviet Union and are now independent states. Still others such as the Kuban Soviet Republic and the Bukharan People's Soviet Republic were absorbed into other polities and no longer