Tajik Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic Tajik ASSR was in Dyushambe (today's Dushanbe). In October 1929, under the initiative of Shirinsho Shotemur, the Tajik ASSR was transformed into a full-fledged Soviet Socialist Republic and became Tajik SSR, which additionally absorbed the Khujand region (today's Sughd Province in northern Tajikistan) from Uzbek SSR. The capital Dyushambe was renamed Stalinabad in honor of Joseph Stalin. Tajik Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic The Tajik Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (Tajik ASSR) () was an autonomous republic within the Uzbek SSR in the Soviet Union. It was created in October 1924 by a series of legal acts that partitioned the three existing
Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic as Soviet Uzbekistan. Beginning 20 June 1990, the Uzbek SSR adopted the Declaration of State Sovereignty within its borders. Islam Karimov became the republic's inaugural president. On 31 August 1991, the Uzbek SSR was renamed the Republic of Uzbekistan and declared independence three months before the Soviet Union's dissolution on 26 December 1991. Uzbekistan was bordered by Kazakhstan to the north; Tajikistan to the southeast; Kirghizia to the northeast; Afghanistan to the south; and Turkmenistan to the southwest. The name, Uzbekistan, literally means "Home of the Free", taken from an amalgamation of "uz" (Turkic: "self"), "bek" (Turkic: "master", "bey in