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
Flag of Tajikistan similar to the Soviet Union design but with the addition of a white and a green stripe. This flag also contains the red-white-green color order where the white stripe is larger than the green, which is currently used in the national flag. As a Soviet republic, the red symbolized the workers' revolution, the white symbolized cotton, and the green symbolized agriculture. The Soviet era flag was two-sided. Its backside was a mirror of the obverse face without the hammer, sickle, and star. Following independence on September 9, 1991, Tajikistan adopted its first post-independence flag by removing the Soviet symbolism from