Historical Features of the Tajik Society in Soviet period

Abstract

The article analyzes the features of the Tajik society in Soviet period. Modern Tajik identity began to take shape only at the beginning of the XX-th century with the publication in 1912 of the first Tajik newspaper “Bukhoroi Sharif” (“Holy Bukhara”). Among the peculiarities of the Tajik society in Soviet period, we attributed the lack of experience of independent state existence; low level of national self-consciousness of the population because the Tajik identity was separated from the general Muslim and general Persian only in the 1920-s; gratitude to the Soviet authorities for the revival of Tajik statehood, firstly in the format of Tajik national autonomy, and since 1929 – the Tajik SSR; the actual lack of experience in the life of the people under the capitalist system; the Communist Party of Tajikistan, represented by the national party elite, which constructed a new Tajik identity, became the political bearer of Tajik national identity; Russian language’s gradual acquisition of the status of the language of interethnic communication in Tajikistan and replacement of Tajik-Uzbek bilingualism of Tajiks by Tajik-Russian; the subordination of Tajik culture to Soviet imperial culture, which eventually fostered in Tajik society a complimentary attitude towards the USSR and Russia in general and sincere political loyalty to them; expansion of multinational and socio-professional segmentation of Tajik society in which the indigenous population was mainly employed in agriculture, trade, culture and education, and visitors took leading positions in industry, design offices, research institutions; complex geographical configuration of the state, underdeveloped state and economic structures of the country led to the territorial isolation and disunity of Tajik society, as well as the formation of regional clans - Khujand, Kulyab, Garm and Pamir.