Tajik Soviet Socialist Republic replaces Tajik Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic
The Tajik Soviet Socialist Republic, also commonly known as Soviet Tajikistan, the Tajik SSR, or simply Tajikistan, was one of the constituent republics of the Soviet Union which existed from 1929 to 1991 located in Central Asia.
The Tajik Republic was created on 5 December 1929 as a national entity for the Tajik people within the Soviet Union. It succeeded the Tajik Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (Tajik SSR), which had been created on 14 October 1924 as a part of the predominantly Turkic Uzbek SSR in the process of national delimitation in Soviet Central Asia.  On 24 August 1990, the Tajik SSR declared sovereignty in its borders. The republic was renamed the Republic of Tajikistan on 31 August 1991 and declared its independence from the disintegrating Soviet Union on 9 September 1991; thus modern Tajikistan is its direct legal successor state.
Geographically, at 143,100 km2 (55,300 sq mi), it was bordered by Afghanistan to the south, China to the east, Pakistan to the south, separated by the narrow Wakhan Corridor, as well as internally by fellow Soviet republics of Uzbekistan to the west, Kyrgyzstan to the north. Notably, the Tajik SSR was the only republic of the Soviet Union to be separated from the Russian SFSR by more than one other republic.History
One of the new states created in the process of national delimitation of Soviet Central Asia in October 1924 was the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic – Uzbek SSR or Soviet Uzbekistan.  Soviet Tajikistan was created at the same time within the predominantly Turkic Uzbek SSR as an Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (Tajik ASSR) – one rank below a Soviet Socialist Republic in USSR geopolitical hierarchy.  The new autonomous republic included what had been eastern Bukhara and had a population of about 740,000, out of a total population of nearly 5 million in the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic as a whole. Its capital was established in Dyushambe, which had been a village of 3,000 in 1920.  In December 1929, Tajik ASSR was detached from the Uzbek SSR and given full status as a Soviet Socialist Republic –  Tajik Socialist Soviet Republic.  At that time, its capital was renamed Stalinabad, after Joseph Stalin, and the territory that is now northern Tajikistan (Sughd Province) was added to the new republic.  Even with the additional territory, the Tajik SSR remained the smallest Central Asian republic. On 5 December 1936, it was renamed the Tajik Soviet Socialist Republic.
With the creation of a Tajik republic defined in national terms came the creation of institutions that, at least in form, were likewise national.  The first Tajik-language newspaper in Soviet Tajikistan began publication in 1926.  New educational institutions also began operation at about the same time.  The first state schools, available to both children and adults and designed to provide basic education, opened in 1926.  The central government also trained a small number of Tajiks for public office, either by putting them through courses offered by government departments or by sending them to schools in the Uzbek SSR.
Under Soviet rule, Tajikistan experienced some economic and social progress. However, living standards in the republic were still among the lowest in the Union. Most people still lived in rural qishlaqs, settlements that were composed of 200 to 700 one-family houses built along a waterway.
After Stalin's death in March 1953, Stalinabad was renamed Dushanbe on 10 November 1961 as part of the De-Stalinization program.
In February 1990, riots occurred in the republic's capital Dushanbe. 26 people died and 565 more were injured and the Soviet troops put down the riots. Yaqub Salimov, a future Interior Minister, and some youth activists were convicted for 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 attempt to preserve the union with a turnout of 96.85%. However, this did not happen when hardliners took control of Moscow during the next three days in August. After the failure of the coup, the Tajik SSR was renamed the Republic of Tajikistan on 31 August 1991. On 9 September 1991, Tajikistan seceded from the Soviet Union months before the country itself ceased to exist on 26 December 1991. Conflicts after independence caused a civil war throughout the country over the next six years.