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 Soviet Socialist Republic Baltic states, Armenia and Georgia boycotted the union-wide preservation vote with 98.72% in favor without any official sanction. On May 23, 1991, the Moldavian parliament changed the name of the republic to the Republic of Moldova. Gagauzia declared independence as a republic on August 19, 1991. Moldova then seceded from the Soviet Union and became an independent sovereign state on August 27, 1991, after the failed coup in Moscow. After that period, on August 22, 1991 at 12:15 pm Kishinev time, the statue of Vladimir Lenin was toppled by protesters in the Moldavian capital. Independence was quickly followed by civil