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
Islam in the Soviet Union Islam in the Soviet Union The Soviet Union (USSR) was a federation made up of 15 socialist republics, and existed from 1922 until its dissolution in 1991. Six of the 15 republics had a Muslim majority: Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kirghizia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. There was also a large Muslim population in the Volga-Ural region and in the northern Caucasus region of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. A large number of Tatar Muslims also lived in Siberia and other regions. In forming the USSR, the Bolsheviks wanted to include as much territory of the former Russian Empire as possible. This