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
Independence Day (Tajikistan) second session of the Supreme Soviet of the Tajik SSR adopted the Declaration "On the Sovereignty of the Tajik SSR." But this sovereignty was declared while the Soviet Union still existed. Despite this, the Declaration was the first document to on the path to the real independence of Tajikistan. It declared that "the Tajik SSR in the territory independently solve all political, economic, social and cultural issues, in addition to the issues that Tajikistan voluntarily transfers the competence of the USSR". According to the former Minister of Justice of the Republic of Tajikistan H. Hamidov, "Declaration was the first document