The Pamir Mountains are a range of mountains between Central Asia and South Asia . They are located at a junction with other notable mountains, namely the Tian Shan , Karakoram , Kunlun , Hindu Kush and the Himalaya mountain ranges. They are among the world's highest mountains .
128-751: Much of the Pamir Mountains lie in the Gorno-Badakhshan region of Tajikistan . Spanning the border parts of four countries, to the south, they border the Hindu Kush mountains along Afghanistan 's Wakhan Corridor in Badakhshan Province , Chitral and Gilgit-Baltistan regions of Pakistan . To the north, they join the Tian Shan mountains along the Alay Valley of Kyrgyzstan . To the east, they extend to
256-651: A renewed federation , an attempted coup against Gorbachev by hardline communists prompted the largest republics—Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus—to secede. On December 26, Gorbachev officially recognized the dissolution of the Soviet Union . Boris Yeltsin , the leader of the RSFSR, oversaw its reconstitution into the Russian Federation , which became the Soviet Union's successor state; all other republics emerged as fully independent post-Soviet states . During its existence,
384-580: A closer relationship with France and Britain. In 1939, half a year after the Munich Agreement , the USSR attempted to form an anti-Nazi alliance with France and Britain. Adolf Hitler proposed a better deal, which would give the USSR control over much of Eastern Europe through the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact . In September, Germany invaded Poland, and the USSR also invaded later that month, resulting in
512-461: A flat plateau or U-shaped valley surrounded by mountains. It forms when a glacier or ice field melts leaving a rocky plain. A pamir lasts until erosion forms soil and cuts down normal valleys. This type of terrain is found in the east and north of the Wakhan , and the east and south of Gorno-Badakhshan, as opposed to the valleys and gorges of the west. Pamirs are used for summer pasture. The Great Pamir
640-479: A key marker of mobilization. La'al-e Badakhsan joined the United Tajik Opposition in 1997. Because of that, they were subsequently targeted by the popular front , which constituted the later government and then excluded from the political sphere of independent Tajikistan. The Gorno-Badakhshan government later backed down from its calls for independence. After the disintegration of the Soviet Union,
768-592: A new profitable market. In the late 1920s and early 1930s, Stalin ordered Marxist-Leninist parties across the world to strongly oppose non-Marxist political parties, labour unions or other organizations on the left, which they labelled social fascists . In the usage of the Soviet Union, and of the Comintern and its affiliated parties in this period, the epithet fascist was used to describe capitalist society in general and virtually any anti-Soviet or anti-Stalinist activity or opinion. Stalin reversed himself in 1934 with
896-623: A number of non-Russians including Ney Elias , George Littledale , the Earl of Dunmore , Wilhelm Filchner and Lord Curzon who was probably the first to reach the Wakhan source of the Oxus River . In 1891 the Russians informed Francis Younghusband that he was on their territory and later escorted a Lieutenant Davidson out of the area ('Pamir Incident'). In 1892 a battalion of Russians under Mikhail Ionov entered
1024-469: A union of equals, in practice the Soviet Union was dominated by Russians . The domination was so absolute that for most of its existence, the country was commonly (but incorrectly) referred to as 'Russia'. While the Russian SFSR was technically only one republic within the larger union, it was by far the largest (both in terms of population and area), most powerful, and most highly developed. The Russian SFSR
1152-678: Is an autonomous region in eastern Tajikistan , in the Pamir Mountains . It makes up nearly forty-five percent of the country's land area but only two percent of its population. The official English name of the autonomous region is the Badakhshan Mountainous Autonomous Region. The name Badakhshan (from Russian : Бадахшан ; Tajik : Бадахшон ) is derived from the Sasanian title bēdaxš or badaxš . "Gorno-Badakhshan" literally means "mountainous Badakhshan" and
1280-515: Is around Lake Zorkul . The Little Pamir is east of this in the far east of Wakhan. The Taghdumbash Pamir is between Tashkurgan and the Wakhan west of the Karakoram Highway . The Alichur Pamir is around Yashil Kul on the Gunt River . The Sarez Pamir is around the town of Murghab, Tajikistan . The Khargush Pamir is south of Lake Karakul . There are several others. The Pamir River is in
1408-673: Is derived from the Russian name of the autonomous region, Gorno-Badakhshanskaya avtonomnaya oblast (literally Gorno-Badakshan autonomous oblast ). The Russian abbreviation "GBAO" is also commonly used in English-language publications by national and international bodies such as the government of Tajikistan and the United Nations . Borders and political authority in the Western Pamir had always been contested by imperial powers. Between
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#17328374103271536-554: Is estimated at 226,900. The largest city in Gorno-Badakhshan is Khorog , with a population of 30,300 (2019 est. ); Murghob is the second largest, with about 4,000 residents. According to the State Statistical Committee of Tajikistan, most inhabitants of Gorno-Badakhshan identify as Pamiris . The remainder of the population perceive themselves as either Kyrgyz or of other nationalities. Most people living in
1664-627: Is his background, his education , his profession . These are the questions that will determine the fate of the accused. That is the meaning and essence of the Red Terror ." During his rule, Stalin always made the final policy decisions. Otherwise, Soviet foreign policy was set by the commission on the Foreign Policy of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union , or by
1792-486: Is mined, all forests have been destroyed by contamination, while the northern and other parts of Russia have been affected by emissions. During the 1990s, people in the West were also interested in the radioactive hazards of nuclear facilities, decommissioned nuclear submarines , and the processing of nuclear waste or spent nuclear fuel . It was also known in the early 1990s that the USSR had transported radioactive material to
1920-602: Is named after the wild onions growing in the region; In the Dungan dialect of Mandarin , it is written Памир / Цунлин in the Cyrillic alphabet , and in Xiao'erjing it is written پَامِعَر / ڞوْلٍْ . The name "Pamir" is used more commonly in Modern Chinese and loaned as 帕米尔 / 帕米爾 Pàmǐ'ěr . According to Middleton and Thomas, "pamir" is also a geological term. A pamir is
2048-458: Is the highest location where bandy has been played. Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics ( USSR ), commonly known as the Soviet Union , was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. During its existence, it was the largest country by area , extending across eleven time zones and sharing borders with twelve countries , and
2176-505: Is the isolated region's main supply route. The Great Silk Road crossed a number of Pamir Mountain ranges. In December 2009, the New York Times featured articles on the possibilities for tourism in the Pamir area of Tajikistan. 2013 proved to be the most successful year ever for tourism in the region and tourism development continues to be the fastest growing economic sector. Historically,
2304-403: Is widespread. Still, there are also Sunnis Muslims in Gorno-Badakhshan. The Tablighi Jama’at , a fundamentalist Sunni missionary movement conducted da'wa in the 2000s. The government banned and persecuted this movement among others as part of their wider campaign against non-state Islam. The Pamiris are increasingly being marginalilzed in linguistic and religious terms, as they deviate from
2432-812: Is with the Districts of Republican Subordination (DRP) and the tip of its southwestern finger ( Darvoz District ) borders Khatlon Region . The highest elevations in the region are in the Pamir Mountains (notably Mount Imeon ), nicknamed "the roof of the world" by locals. Three of the five 7,000 meter summits in Central Asia are located here, including Ismoil Somoni Peak (formerly Communism Peak, and, before that, Stalin Peak; 7,495 m), Ibn Sina Peak (formerly Lenin Peak, and still known by that name on its Kyrgyz flank; 7,134 m), and Peak Ozodi (formerly Korzhenevskoi Peak, 7,105 m). The population living in Gorno-Badakhshan as of 2019
2560-628: The Barents Sea and Kara Sea , which was later confirmed by the Russian parliament. The crash of the K-141 Kursk submarine in 2000 in the west further raised concerns. In the past, there were accidents involving submarines K-19 , K-8 , a K-129 , K-27 , K-219 and K-278 Komsomolets . There were three power hierarchies in the Soviet Union: the legislature represented by the Supreme Soviet of
2688-510: The British empire in 1896 denominated their shared border through the Pamir, which resulted in the creation of the Wakhan corridor , other regional powers like China and Afghanistan , but also the ruling elites of Badakhshan, Bukhara, Kashgaria and Kashmir equally worked for expending their influence in the Pamir. So, the Sarykol range has been demarked de facto as Eastern border in 1894 between
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#17328374103272816-661: The Era of Stagnation , was marked by economic decline, political corruption, and a rigid gerontocracy . Despite efforts to maintain the Soviet Union's superpower status, the economy struggled due to its centralized nature, technological backwardness, and inefficiencies. The vast military expenditures and burdens of maintaining the Eastern Bloc, further strained the Soviet economy. In the 1980s, Mikhail Gorbachev 's policies of Glasnost (openness) and Perestroika (restructuring) aimed to revitalize
2944-548: The Georgian Affair of 1922, Lenin called for the Russian SFSR and other national Soviet republics to form a greater union which he initially named as the Union of Soviet Republics of Europe and Asia (Russian: Союз Советских Республик Европы и Азии , romanized : Soyuz Sovyetskikh Respublik Evropy i Azii ). Joseph Stalin initially resisted Lenin's proposal but ultimately accepted it, and with Lenin's agreement he changed
3072-729: The Land Forces , the Air Force , the Navy , Joint State Political Directorate (OGPU) and the Internal Troops . The OGPU later became independent and in 1934 joined the NKVD secret police, and so its internal troops were under the joint leadership of the defense and internal commissariats. After World War II, Strategic Missile Forces (1959), Air Defense Forces (1948) and National Civil Defense Forces (1970) were formed, which ranked first, third, and sixth in
3200-518: The Moscow State Institute of International Relations . The Marxist-Leninist leadership of the Soviet Union intensely debated foreign policy issues and changed directions several times. Even after Stalin assumed dictatorial control in the late 1920s, there were debates, and he frequently changed positions. During the country's early period, it was assumed that Communist revolutions would break out soon in every major industrial country, and it
3328-761: The Popular Front program that called on all Marxist parties to join with all anti-Fascist political, labour, and organizational forces that were opposed to fascism , especially of the Nazi variety. The rapid growth of power in Nazi Germany encouraged both Paris and Moscow to form a military alliance, and the Franco-Soviet Treaty of Mutual Assistance was signed in May 1935. A firm believer in collective security, Stalin's foreign minister Maxim Litvinov worked very hard to form
3456-564: The Procurator General and the Council of Ministers (known before 1946 as the Council of People's Commissars ), headed by the Chairman (Premier) and managing an enormous bureaucracy responsible for the administration of the economy and society. State and party structures of the constituent republics largely emulated the structure of the central institutions, although the Russian SFSR, unlike
3584-505: The Qing empire and the Russian empire . This imperial history still has relevance nowadays as it determined contemporary southeastern borders of the present-day autonomous region. The Tajikistani Badakhshan as distinctive polity with its contemporary Western borders and the Russian designation GBAO was created as autonomous republic in 1925. Later in 1929, this was changed to autonomous oblast , of
3712-537: The Russian Civil War , the Soviet Union quickly became a one-party state under the Communist Party . Its early years under Lenin were marked by the implementation of socialist policies and the New Economic Policy (NEP), which allowed for market-oriented reforms. The rise of Joseph Stalin in the late 1920s ushered in an era of intense centralization and totalitarianism. Stalin's rule was characterized by
3840-622: The Russian Empire , the State Council , which functioned from 1810 to 1917, was referred to as a Council of Ministers. The Soviets as workers' councils first appeared during the 1905 Russian Revolution . Although they were quickly suppressed by the Imperial army, after the February Revolution of 1917 , workers' and soldiers' Soviets emerged throughout the country and shared power with
3968-802: The Russian Provisional Government . The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin , demanded that all power be transferred to the Soviets, and gained support from the workers and soldiers. After the October Revolution , in which the Bolsheviks seized power from the Provisional Government in the name of the Soviets, Lenin proclaimed the formation of the Russian Socialist Federal Soviet Republic (RSFSR). During
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4096-545: The Tajik Soviet Socialist Republic (Tajik SSR). The Soviet Orientalists' obsession with categorization of peoples led to the fixation of among others the identity category of Pamiris, or 'Mountain Tajiks' in the Soviet ethnogenesis. During the Soviet Union years, a lot of resources had been allocated to Gorno Badakhshan as borderland of the Soviet Union, for instance through privileged access to higher education and
4224-590: The Tajikistani Civil War broke out in 1992, the local government in Gorno-Badakhshan declared independence from Tajikistan. Many politically active Pamiris later joined the democratic political movement La’al-e Badakhshan during the Tajik Civil war, which demanded autonomy and democratic rule for the region. Regionalism was an important structuring factor in the Tajik Civil war, so that the Ismaili identity became
4352-616: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), saying that it was "overly juridical" and potentially infringed on national sovereignty. The Soviet Union later signed legally-binding human rights documents, such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in 1973 (and the 1966 International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights ), but they were neither widely known or accessible to people living under Communist rule, nor were they taken seriously by
4480-611: The Vanj River valley, became extinct in the 19th century. There is a sizable population of Kyrgyz speakers in the Murghab district . Russian and Tajik are also widely spoken throughout Gorno-Badakhshan. Many Eastern-Iranian languages spoken in Gorno-Badakhshan are on the endangered list of the UNESCO. The majority religion in Gorno-Badakhshan is Ismaili Shi'ite and adherence to the Aga Khan
4608-624: The Western Bloc during the Cold War . This period saw the USSR engage in an arms race, the Space Race , and proxy wars around the globe. The post-Stalin leadership, particularly under Nikita Khrushchev , initiated a de-Stalinization process, leading to a period of liberalization and relative openness known as the Khrushchev Thaw . However, the subsequent era under Leonid Brezhnev , referred to as
4736-401: The first probe to land on another planet . In 1985, the last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev , sought to reform the country through his policies of glasnost and perestroika . In 1989, various countries of the Warsaw Pact overthrew their Soviet-backed regimes , and nationalist and separatist movements erupted across the Soviet Union. In 1991, amid efforts to preserve the country as
4864-442: The general secretary (First Secretary from 1953 to 1966), the de facto highest office in the Soviet Union. Depending on the degree of power consolidation, it was either the Politburo as a collective body or the General Secretary, who always was one of the Politburo members, that effectively led the party and the country (except for the period of the highly personalized authority of Stalin, exercised directly through his position in
4992-485: The right to food , the right to work , and the right to education . The Soviet conception of human rights was very different from international law . According to Soviet legal theory , "it is the government who is the beneficiary of human rights which are to be asserted against the individual". The Soviet state was considered as the source of human rights. Therefore, the Soviet legal system considered law an arm of politics and it also considered courts agencies of
5120-413: The system of appointments . All senior government officials and most deputies of the Supreme Soviet were members of the CPSU. Of the party heads themselves, Stalin (1941–1953) and Khrushchev (1958–1964) were Premiers. Upon the forced retirement of Khrushchev, the party leader was prohibited from this kind of double membership, but the later General Secretaries for at least some part of their tenure occupied
5248-433: The third-most populous country . An overall successor to the Russian Empire , it was nominally organized as a federal union of national republics , the largest and most populous of which was the Russian SFSR . In practice, its government and economy were highly centralized . As a one-party state governed by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union , it was a flagship communist state . Its capital and largest city
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5376-464: The 17th and 19th century, several semi-self governing statelets, including Darwaz , Shughnun-Rushan and Wakhan , ruled over the territories that are today a part of Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region in Tajikistan and Badakhshan Province in Afghanistan . In the late 19th century, the emirates of Kokand and then Bukhara held political authority over the region until the Western Pamir was colonized by Russia , completed in 1896. Although Russia and
5504-481: The 1920s, it refused to rubber stamp proposals from the party and Council of Ministers. In 1990, Gorbachev introduced and assumed the position of the President of the Soviet Union , concentrated power in his executive office, independent of the party, and subordinated the government, now renamed the Cabinet of Ministers of the USSR , to himself. Tensions grew between the Union-wide authorities under Gorbachev, reformists led in Russia by Boris Yeltsin and controlling
5632-401: The 20th century, these mountains have been the setting for the Tajikistan Civil War , border disputes between China and the Soviet Union , establishment of military bases by the US, Russia, and India, and renewed interest in trade development and resource exploration. The Chinese government says it has resolved most of the disputes it had with Central Asian countries. Some researchers identify
5760-475: The 77 km (48 mi) long Fedchenko Glacier , the longest in the former USSR and the longest glacier outside the polar regions . Approximately 12,500 km (ca. 10%) of the Pamirs are glaciated. Glaciers in the Southern Pamirs are retreating rapidly. Ten percent of annual runoff is supposed to originate from retreating glaciers in the Southern Pamirs. In the North-Western Pamirs, glaciers have almost stable mass balances . Covered in snow during most of
5888-447: The Afghan border. Even though connectivity is promoted in Gorno-Badakhshan, as the "Golden gate of Tajikistan" local traders largely do not profit from the rise of trade. Instead logistic companies and elites from Dushanbe dominate the long-distance trade, as the Pamiris are increasingly excluded from central posts and have to obtain visas from Dushanbe to travel to China, which is very costly. In June 2022, after local protesters blocking
6016-405: The British and Russians agreed to an Afghan frontier along the Panj River. From 1871 to around 1893 several Russian military-scientific expeditions mapped out most of the Pamirs ( Alexei Pavlovich Fedchenko , Nikolai Severtzov , Captain Dmitry Putyata and others. Later came Nikolai Korzhenevskiy ). Several local groups asked for Russian protection from Afghan raiders. The Russians were followed by
6144-411: The Communist authorities. Under Joseph Stalin , the death penalty was extended to adolescents as young as 12 years old in 1935. Sergei Kovalev recalled "the famous article 125 of the Constitution which enumerated all basic civil and political rights" in the Soviet Union. But when he and other prisoners attempted to use this as a legal basis for their abuse complaints, their prosecutor's argument
6272-420: The Council of Ministers rather than the Politburo after 1941). They were not controlled by the general party membership, as the key principle of the party organization was democratic centralism , demanding strict subordination to higher bodies, and elections went uncontested, endorsing the candidates proposed from above. The Communist Party maintained its dominance over the state mainly through its control over
6400-403: The Eastern Pamirs, China's Kongur Tagh is the highest at 7,649 m (25,095 ft). Among the significant peaks of the Pamir Mountains are the following: Remark : The summits of the Kongur and Muztagata Group are in some sources counted as part of the Kunlun , which would make Pik Ismoil Somoni the highest summit of the Pamir. There are many glaciers in the Pamir Mountains, including
6528-471: The Ismaili development organization AKDN delivered supplies to Gorno-Badakhshan from Kyrgyzstan, which prevented the starvation of the population during the civil war. While the AKDN itself frames this engagement as temporary measure, many of the inhabitants demand a permanent presence of humanitarian aid. Many see it as continuation from the provisioning of goods during the Soviet times. This shared experience of Soviet and Ismaili development aid together with
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#17328374103276656-403: The Latin alphabet: SSSR ) is the abbreviation of the Russian-language cognate of USSR, as written in Cyrillic letters . The Soviets used this abbreviation so frequently that audiences worldwide became familiar with its meaning. After this, the most common Russian initialization is Союз ССР (transliteration: Soyuz SSR ) which essentially translates to Union of SSRs in English. In addition,
6784-426: The Pamir Mountains were considered a strategic trade route between Kashgar and Kokand on the Northern Silk Road , a prehistoric trackway, and have been subject to numerous territorial conquests. The Northern Silk Road (about 2,600 km (1,616 mi) in length) connected the ancient Chinese capital Chang'an with Kashgar over the Pamir Mountains towards the west, and from there continued to ancient Parthia . In
6912-400: The Pamir are multilingual, as different languages are used in different situations. Gorno-Badakhshan is home to a number of distinct languages and dialects of the Pamir languages group. The Pamiri language speakers represented in Gorno-Badakshan are speakers of Shughni , Rushani , Wakhi , Ishkashimi , Sarikoli , Bartangi , Khufi , Yazgulyam , and Oroshani . Vanji , formerly spoken in
7040-426: The Pamirs with the Mount Meru or Sumeru. The Mount Meru is the sacred five-peaked mountain of Buddhist and Jain , and is considered to be the center of all the physical , metaphysical and spiritual universes. Gorno-Badakhshan 38°0′N 73°0′E / 38.000°N 73.000°E / 38.000; 73.000 Gorno-Badakhshan , officially the Badakhshan Mountainous Autonomous Region ,
7168-481: The Politburo after the deaths of Lenin and Stalin, as well as after Khrushchev's dismissal, itself due to a decision by both the Politburo and the Central Committee. All leaders of the Communist Party before Gorbachev died in office, except Georgy Malenkov and Khrushchev, both dismissed from the party leadership amid internal struggle within the party. Between 1988 and 1990, facing considerable opposition, Mikhail Gorbachev enacted reforms shifting power away from
7296-399: The Russian short form name Советский Союз (transliteration: Sovyetsky Soyuz , which literally means Soviet Union ) is also commonly used, but only in its unabbreviated form. Since the start of the Great Patriotic War at the latest, abbreviating the Russian name of the Soviet Union as СС has been taboo, the reason being that СС as a Russian Cyrillic abbreviation is associated with
7424-450: The Soviet Union and turned into SSRs, which was not recognized by most of the international community and was considered an illegal occupation . After the Soviet invasion of Finland , the Karelo-Finnish SSR was formed on annexed territory as a Union Republic in March 1940 and then incorporated into Russia as the Karelian ASSR in 1956. Between July 1956 and September 1991, there were 15 union republics (see map below). While nominally
7552-500: The Soviet Union in 1922. Following Lenin's death in 1924, Joseph Stalin came to power, inaugurating rapid industrialization and forced collectivization that led to significant economic growth but contributed to a famine between 1930 and 1933 that killed millions. The Soviet forced labour camp system of the Gulag was expanded. During the late 1930s, Stalin's government conducted the Great Purge to remove opponents, resulting in mass death, imprisonment, and deportation. In 1939,
7680-425: The Soviet Union , the government represented by the Council of Ministers , and the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), the only legal party and the final policymaker in the country. At the top of the Communist Party was the Central Committee , elected at Party Congresses and Conferences. In turn, the Central Committee voted for a Politburo (called the Presidium between 1952 and 1966), Secretariat and
7808-452: The Soviet Union produced many significant social and technological achievements and innovations . It had the world's second-largest economy and largest standing military. An NPT-designated state , it wielded the largest arsenal of nuclear weapons in the world . As an Allied nation, it was a founding member of the United Nations as well as one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council . Before its dissolution,
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#17328374103277936-414: The Soviet Union undertook a campaign of de-Stalinization under Nikita Khrushchev , which saw reversals and rejections of Stalinist policies. This campaign caused tensions with Communist China . During the 1950s, the Soviet Union expanded its efforts in space exploration and took a lead in the Space Race with the first artificial satellite , the first human spaceflight , the first space station , and
8064-411: The Soviet Union was the world's largest country, a status that is retained by the Russian Federation . Covering a sixth of Earth's land surface, its size was comparable to that of North America . Two other successor states, Kazakhstan and Ukraine , rank among the top 10 countries by land area, and the largest country entirely in Europe, respectively. The European portion accounted for a quarter of
8192-417: The Soviet Union's priorities changed. Despite previous conflict with the United Kingdom , Vyacheslav Molotov dropped his post war border demands. The Cold War was a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc , which began following World War II in 1945. The term cold war is used because there
8320-464: The Soviet system but instead accelerated its unraveling. Nationalist movements gained momentum across the Soviet republics , and the control of the Communist Party weakened. The failed coup attempt in August 1991 against Gorbachev by hardline communists hastened the end of the Soviet Union , which formally dissolved on December 26, 1991, ending nearly seven decades of Soviet rule. With an area of 22,402,200 square kilometres (8,649,500 sq mi),
8448-426: The Tajik military and militants loyal to the former warlord Tolib Ayombekov , after Ayombekov was accused of murdering a Tajik general. On 18 May 2022, around 200 anti-government demonstrators, led by Mamadboqir Mamadboqirov , blocked a road in Rushon which led to the regional capital Khorog . The violent clashes between Tajiikistani military and the GBAO population in 2012, 2014, 2018, 2021 and in 2022 are peaks in
8576-408: The USSR and Nazi Germany signed a nonaggression pact , but in 1941, Germany invaded the Soviet Union in the largest land invasion in history, opening the Eastern Front of World War II . The Soviets played a decisive role in defeating the Axis powers , suffering an estimated 27 million casualties , which accounted for most Allied losses. In the aftermath of the war , the Soviet Union consolidated
8704-430: The USSR from the United States . The country's highest mountain was Communism Peak (now Ismoil Somoni Peak ) in Tajikistan , at 7,495 metres (24,590 ft). The USSR also included most of the world's largest lakes; the Caspian Sea (shared with Iran ), and Lake Baikal , the world's largest (by volume) and deepest freshwater lake that is also an internal body of water in Russia. Neighbouring countries were aware of
8832-638: The USSR was one of the world's two superpowers through its hegemony in Eastern Europe, global diplomatic and ideological influence (particularly in the Global South ), military and economic strengths, and scientific accomplishments. The word soviet is derived from the Russian word sovet (Russian: совет ), meaning 'council', 'assembly', 'advice', ultimately deriving from the proto-Slavic verbal stem of * vět-iti ('to inform'), related to Slavic věst ('news'), English wise . The word sovietnik means 'councillor'. Some organizations in Russian history were called council (Russian: совет ). In
8960-430: The USSR. Moscow eventually stopped threatening other states, and instead worked to open peaceful relationships in terms of trade, and diplomatic recognition. The United Kingdom dismissed the warnings of Winston Churchill and a few others about a continuing Marxist-Leninist threat, and opened trade relations and de facto diplomatic recognition in 1922. There was hope for a settlement of the pre-war Tsarist debts, but it
9088-402: The Wakhan River. There are various Arab and Chinese reports. Marco Polo may have travelled along the Panj River . In 1602 Bento de Goes travelled from Kabul to Yarkand and left a meager report on the Pamirs. In 1838 Lieutenant John Wood reached the headwaters of the Pamir River . From about 1868 to 1880, a number of Indians in the British service secretly explored the Panj area. In 1873
9216-491: The accident were unknown, 4,000 new cases of thyroid cancer which resulted from the accident's contamination were reported at the time of the accident, but this led to a relatively low number of deaths (WHO data, 2005). Another major radioactive accident was the Kyshtym disaster . The Kola Peninsula was one of the places with major problems. Around the industrial cities of Monchegorsk and Norilsk , where nickel , for example,
9344-521: The area and camped near the present Murghab . In 1893 they built a proper fort there ( Pamirskiy Post ). In 1895 their base was moved to Khorog facing the Afghans. In 1928 the last blank areas around the Fedchenko Glacier were mapped by a German-Soviet expedition under Willi Rickmer Rickmers. In the early 1980s, a deposit of gemstone -quality clinohumite was discovered in the Pamir Mountains. It
9472-494: The ceding of land belonging to Kuhistani Badakhshan in 2011 to China by some, especially in Gorno-Badakhshan was perceived as territorial loss and sparked anxieties about further encroachments of the Chinese state. A number of violent clashes and demonstrations have occurred in the region since the end of the civil war, with major incidences of civil unrest in 2012, 2014, 2018, 2021, and 2022. Clashes erupted on 24 July 2012 between
9600-525: The construction of infrastructure like the Pamir highway in 1935, which is still remembered nowadays as a time of modernity. Therefore, people from the Pamirs used to have facilitated upwards mobility and access to political offices in the Tajik SSR . In scholarly discourse, this is regarded as a measure to safeguard loyalty to state socialism of the subjects at the strategically important Soviet 'frontier'. When
9728-429: The country was limited. The state restricted rights of citizens to private property . According to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights , human rights are the "basic rights and freedoms to which all humans are entitled." including the right to life and liberty , freedom of expression , and equality before the law ; and social, cultural and economic rights, including the right to participate in culture ,
9856-589: The country's area and was the cultural and economic center. The eastern part in Asia extended to the Pacific Ocean to the east and Afghanistan to the south, and, except some areas in Central Asia , was much less populous. It spanned over 10,000 kilometres (6,200 mi) east to west across 11 time zones , and over 7,200 kilometres (4,500 mi) north to south. It had five climate zones: tundra , taiga , steppes , desert and mountains . The USSR, like Russia , had
9984-590: The duty of the Russian Bolsheviks to protect what they had in Russia, and avoid military confrontations that might destroy their bridgehead. Russia was now a pariah state, along with Germany. The two came to terms in 1922 with the Treaty of Rapallo that settled long-standing grievances. At the same time, the two countries secretly set up training programs for the illegal German army and air force operations at hidden camps in
10112-472: The eastern half of the province and is mostly a desolate plateau with high mountains on the west. The districts of Gorno-Badakhshan are: Gorno-Badakhshan covers the entire eastern part of Tajikistan and borders China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region to the east, Afghanistan's Badakhshan Province to the south, and Kyrgyzstan's Osh Region to the north. Within Tajikistan, Gorno-Badakhshan's western border
10240-594: The entire Pamir Mountains . However, the government of the Republic of China (ROC) based in Taipei does not recognize this treaty and continues to claim the territory, as reflected in its official maps. Whereas the government of Tajikistan celebrates the ceding of land as diplomatic victory, many Tajikistani scholars, opposition and parts of the population contest the existence of a 'dispute' altogether, seeing Badakhshan's territory in its entirety belonging to Tajikistan. Instead,
10368-637: The forced collectivization of agriculture , rapid industrialization , and the Great Purge , which eliminated perceived enemies of the state. The Soviet Union played a crucial role in the Allied victory in World War II , but at a tremendous human cost, with millions of Soviet citizens perishing in the conflict. The Soviet Union emerged as one of the world's two superpowers, leading the Eastern Bloc in opposition to
10496-742: The founding republics who signed the Treaty on the Creation of the USSR in December 1922. In 1924, during the national delimitation in Central Asia, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan were formed from parts of Russia's Turkestan ASSR and two Soviet dependencies, the Khorezm and Bukharan PSPs . In 1929, Tajikistan was split off from the Uzbekistan SSR. With the constitution of 1936, the Transcaucasian SFSR
10624-414: The glacier snowline (ELA) as altitude limit between glacier nourishing area and ablation zone, was about 820 to 1250 metres lower than it is today. Under the condition of comparable proportions of precipitation there results from this a glacial depression of temperature of at least 5 to 7.5 °C. Coal is mined in the west, though sheep herding in upper meadowlands is the primary source of income for
10752-539: The government. Extensive extrajudicial powers were given to the Soviet secret police agencies . In practice, the Soviet government significantly curbed the rule of law , civil liberties , protection of law and guarantees of property , which were considered as examples of "bourgeois morality" by Soviet law theorists such as Andrey Vyshinsky . The USSR and other countries in the Soviet Bloc had abstained from affirming
10880-510: The high levels of pollution in the Soviet Union but after the dissolution of the Soviet Union it was discovered that its environmental problems were greater than what the Soviet authorities admitted. The Soviet Union was the world's second largest producer of harmful emissions. In 1988, total emissions in the Soviet Union were about 79% of those in the United States. But since the Soviet GNP
11008-507: The highest bodies of the party and making the Supreme Soviet less dependent on them. The Congress of People's Deputies was established, the majority of whose members were directly elected in competitive elections held in March 1989, the first in Soviet history. The Congress now elected the Supreme Soviet, which became a full-time parliament, and much stronger than before. For the first time since
11136-644: The infamous Schutzstaffel of Nazi Germany , as SS is in English. In English-language media, the state was referred to as the Soviet Union or the USSR. The Russian SFSR dominated the Soviet Union to such an extent that, for most of the Soviet Union's existence, it was colloquially, but incorrectly, referred to as Russia . The history of the Soviet Union began with the ideals of the Bolshevik Revolution and ended in dissolution amidst economic collapse and political disintegration. Established in 1922 following
11264-586: The late 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, including the creation of new state commissions and committees. It gained additional powers relating to the approval of the Five-Year Plans and the government budget . The Supreme Soviet elected a Presidium (successor of the Central Executive Committee ) to wield its power between plenary sessions, ordinarily held twice a year, and appointed the Supreme Court ,
11392-542: The late 1970s and early 1980s. The constitution , which was promulgated in 1924 , 1936 and 1977 , did not limit state power. No formal separation of powers existed between the Party, Supreme Soviet and Council of Ministers that represented executive and legislative branches of the government. The system was governed less by statute than by informal conventions, and no settled mechanism of leadership succession existed. Bitter and at times deadly power struggles took place in
11520-490: The many inhabitants of Gorno Badakhshan who do not speak Tajik to access state services. Facing this marginalization Pamiris express their distinctive identity against western Tajiks along secterian lines, even though there is considerable difference in ethnicity, religion and language amongst themselves. The First Secretary of the Gorno–Badakhshan Regional Committee of the Communist Party of Tajikistan
11648-521: The mostly ceremonial position of Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet , the nominal head of state . The institutions at lower levels were overseen and at times supplanted by primary party organizations . However, in practice the degree of control the party was able to exercise over the state bureaucracy, particularly after the death of Stalin, was far from total, with the bureaucracy pursuing different interests that were at times in conflict with
11776-410: The name to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), although all republics began as socialist soviet and did not change to the other order until 1936 . In addition, in the regional languages of several republics, the word council or conciliar in the respective language was only quite late changed to an adaptation of the Russian soviet and never in others, e.g. Ukrainian SSR . СССР (in
11904-588: The neglect and crackdown by the Tajik state led to people perceiving themselves as Pamiri rather than Tajik. In 2011, Tajikistan ratified a 1999 treaty to cede 1,000 km (390 sq mi) of land in the Pamir Mountains to the People's Republic of China (PRC), from the Chinese state perspective ending a 130-year-old border dispute and China's claims to over 28,000 km (11,000 sq mi) of Tajik territory. At other instances Chinese scholars claimed control over
12032-417: The newly elected Supreme Soviet of the Russian SFSR , and communist hardliners. On 19–21 August 1991, a group of hardliners staged a coup attempt . The coup failed, and the State Council of the Soviet Union became the highest organ of state power 'in the period of transition'. Gorbachev resigned as General Secretary, only remaining President for the final months of the existence of the USSR. The judiciary
12160-672: The north-east through the Gez valley up to c.1850 m asl (meters above sea level) and thus as far as to the margin of the Tarim basin. This outlet glacier received inflow from the Kaiayayilak glacier from the Kongur north flank. From the north-adjacent Kara Bak Tor (Chakragil, c. 6800 or 6694 m) massif, the Oytag valley glacier in the same exposition flowed also down up to c. 1850 m asl. At glacial times
12288-603: The official Soviet system of importance (ground forces were second, Air Force fourth, and Navy fifth). The army had the greatest political influence. In 1989, there served two million soldiers divided between 150 motorized and 52 armored divisions. Until the early 1960s, the Soviet navy was a rather small military branch, but after the Caribbean crisis , under the leadership of Sergei Gorshkov , it expanded significantly. It became known for battlecruisers and submarines. In 1989, there served 500 000 men. The Soviet Air Force focused on
12416-543: The other constituent republics, for most of its history had no republican branch of the CPSU, being ruled directly by the union-wide party until 1990. Local authorities were organized likewise into party committees , local Soviets and executive committees . While the state system was nominally federal, the party was unitary. The state security police (the KGB and its predecessor agencies ) played an important role in Soviet politics. It
12544-560: The partition of Poland. In response, Britain and France declared war on Germany, marking the beginning of World War II . Up until his death in 1953, Joseph Stalin controlled all foreign relations of the Soviet Union during the interwar period . Despite the increasing build-up of Germany 's war machine and the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War , the Soviet Union did not cooperate with any other nation, choosing to follow its own path. However, after Operation Barbarossa ,
12672-529: The party's highest body the Politburo . Operations were handled by the separate Ministry of Foreign Affairs . It was known as the People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs (or Narkomindel), until 1946. The most influential spokesmen were Georgy Chicherin (1872–1936), Maxim Litvinov (1876–1951), Vyacheslav Molotov (1890–1986), Andrey Vyshinsky (1883–1954) and Andrei Gromyko (1909–1989). Intellectuals were based in
12800-454: The party, nor was the party itself monolithic from top to bottom, although factions were officially banned . The Supreme Soviet (successor of the Congress of Soviets ) was nominally the highest state body for most of the Soviet history, at first acting as a rubber stamp institution, approving and implementing all decisions made by the party. However, its powers and functions were extended in
12928-903: The range that includes China 's Kongur Tagh , in the "Eastern Pamirs", separated by the Yarkand valley from the Kunlun Mountains . Since the Victorian era , they have been known as the " Roof of the World ", presumably a translation from Persian . The Pamir region is home to several different cultures, peoples and languages. In some of these languages, the Pamir Mountains are referred by different names. In Indo-European languages , they are called: In Turkic languages , they are called: In Chinese , they are referred as "Onion Range" ( simplified Chinese : 葱岭 ; traditional Chinese : 蔥嶺 ; pinyin : Cōnglǐng ; Wade–Giles : Ts'ung-ling ), which
13056-563: The region. The lapis lazuli found in Egyptian tombs is thought to come from the Pamir area in Badakhshan province of Afghanistan. About 138 BCE Zhang Qian reached the Fergana Valley northwest of the Pamirs. Ptolemy vaguely describes a trade route through the area. From about 600 CE, Buddhist pilgrims travelled on both sides of the Pamirs to reach India from China. In 747 a Tang army was on
13184-549: The road were imprisoned, some even killed, a Chinese company started the modernization of a Pamir highway section at the cost of US$ 200 million. In 2019, the European Union and Germany , in coordination with Tajikistan, committed 37 million euros to finance the construction of an 11 MW run-of-the-river hydro power plant along the Shokhdara river. The project is intended to also supply energy to Badakhshan, Afghanistan. Khorog
13312-578: The routes Khorog–Osh and Khorog–Dushanbe are both segments of the Pamir Highway . A third road was constructed through the Kulma Pass in 2004 by China in order to connect Khorog to Tashkurgan . Gorno-Badakhshan is separated from the Pakistani territories of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit Baltistan by the narrow, but nearly impassable, Wakhan Corridor . Another road leads from Khorog to Wakhan and across
13440-451: The situation as 'ethnic cleansing'. Genocide watch is stressing the polarization and the persecution of Pamiris through the government. Darvoz District is the western "beak" of the province. West-central Gorno-Badakhshan is mostly a series of east–west mountain ranges separated by valleys of rivers that flow into the Panj . The districts correspond to the river valleys. Murghob District occupies
13568-468: The south-west of the Pamirs. The three highest mountains in the Pamirs core are Ismoil Somoni Peak (known from 1932 to 1962 as Stalin Peak, and from 1962 to 1998 as Communism Peak), 7,495 m (24,590 ft); Ibn Sina Peak (still unofficially known as Lenin Peak), 7,134 m (23,406 ft); and Peak Korzhenevskaya ( Russian : Пик Корженевской , Pik Korzhenevskoi ), 7,105 m (23,310 ft). In
13696-412: The steady militarization of the region. Spectators assess these actions by the government as strategy to gain full political control over the formerly autonomous Gorno-Badakhshan, as well as over the informal opium trade, culminating in the assassination of several influential local leaders. This violates the Tajik peace accord. In May 2022, Tajik government forces killed 40 civilians protesting against
13824-469: The struggle for dominance was expressed via indirect means such as psychological warfare , propaganda campaigns, espionage , far-reaching embargoes , rivalry at sports events and technological competitions such as the Space Race . Constitutionally, the USSR was a federation of constituent Union Republics, which were either unitary states, such as Ukraine or Byelorussia (SSRs), or federations, such as Russia or Transcaucasia (SFSRs), all four being
13952-678: The territory occupied by the Red Army , forming satellite states , and undertook rapid economic development which cemented its status as a superpower . Geopolitical tensions with the US led to the Cold War . The American-led Western Bloc coalesced into NATO in 1949, prompting the Soviet Union to form its own military alliance, the Warsaw Pact , in 1955. Neither side engaged in direct military confrontation, and instead fought on an ideological basis and through proxy wars . In 1953, following Stalin's death ,
14080-510: The torture and murdering of the youth representative Gulbiddin Ziyobekov. The Tajik interior ministry stated that the protestors attempted to "destabilise the social and political situation" in the region. Many of the protestors, but also journalists and human rights activists were detained in the subsequent cover-up. Additionally, the government seized properties and kidnapped even oppositional Pamiris abroad. Some human rights activists describe
14208-492: The truth". Human rights in the Soviet Union were severely limited. The Soviet Union was a totalitarian state from 1927 until 1953 and a one-party state until 1990. Freedom of speech was suppressed and dissent was punished. Independent political activities were not tolerated, whether these involved participation in free labour unions , private corporations , independent churches or opposition political parties . The freedom of movement within and especially outside
14336-401: The vision for nationhood of the Tajik state. In 2009 the year of I'mam Hanafi Islam was celebrated, but a majority of Pamiris are followers of Ismaili Shia Islam . Subsequently, religious institutions had to be reregistered leaving all institution ousted not fitting the state's religious beliefs. The 2010 law on language requires all documents to be made in Tajik. This creates difficulties for
14464-569: The western margin of the Tarim Basin an east–west extension of c. 200 km. Its north–south extension from King Ata Tagh up to the northwest Kunlun foothills amounts to c.170 km. Whilst the up to 21 km long current valley glaciers are restricted to mountain massifs exceeding 5600 m in height, during the last glacial period the glacier ice covered the high plateau with its set-up highland relief, continuing west of Mustagh Ata and Kongur. From this glacier area an outlet glacier has flowed down to
14592-403: The world's longest border , measuring over 60,000 kilometres (37,000 mi), or 1 + 1 ⁄ 2 circumferences of Earth. Two-thirds of it was a coastline . The country bordered Afghanistan , the People's Republic of China , Czechoslovakia , Finland , Hungary , Iran , Mongolia , North Korea , Norway , Poland , Romania , and Turkey from 1945 to 1991. The Bering Strait separated
14720-455: The year, the Pamirs have long and bitterly cold winters , and short, cool summers , which equals an ET (tundra climate) according to Köppen climate classification ( EF above the snow line). Annual precipitation is about 130 mm (5 in), which supports grasslands but few trees . The East-Pamir, in the centre of which the massifs of Mustagh Ata (7620 m) and Kongur Tagh (Qungur Shan, 7578, 7628 or 7830 m) are situated, shows from
14848-562: Was Moscow . The Soviet Union's roots lay in the October Revolution of 1917. The new government, led by Vladimir Lenin , established the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR), the world's first constitutionally socialist state . The revolution was not accepted by all within the Russian Republic , resulting in the Russian Civil War . The RSFSR and its subordinate republics were merged into
14976-524: Was also the industrial center of the Soviet Union. Historian Matthew White wrote that it was an open secret that the country's federal structure was 'window dressing' for Russian dominance. For that reason, the people of the USSR were usually called 'Russians', not 'Soviets', since 'everyone knew who really ran the show'. Under the Military Law of September 1925, the Soviet Armed Forces consisted of
15104-528: Was carried out within the terms of the Soviet Civil Code. Some Soviet legal scholars even said that "criminal repression" may be applied in the absence of guilt. Martin Latsis , chief of Soviet Ukraine 's secret police explained: "Do not look in the file of incriminating evidence to see whether or not the accused rose up against the Soviets with arms or words. Ask him instead to which class he belongs, what
15232-404: Was dissolved, resulting in its constituent republics of Armenia , Georgia and Azerbaijan being elevated to Union Republics, while Kazakhstan and Kirghizia were split off from the Russian SFSR, resulting in the same status. In August 1940, Moldavia was formed from parts of Ukraine and Soviet-occupied Bessarabia , and Ukrainian SSR. Estonia , Latvia and Lithuania were also annexed by
15360-480: Was instrumental in the Red Terror and Great Purge , but was brought under strict party control after Stalin's death. Under Yuri Andropov , the KGB engaged in the suppression of political dissent and maintained an extensive network of informers, reasserting itself as a political actor to some extent independent of the party-state structure, culminating in the anti-corruption campaign targeting high-ranking party officials in
15488-424: Was no large-scale fighting directly between the two superpowers , but they each supported major regional conflicts known as proxy wars . The conflict was based around the ideological and geopolitical struggle for global influence by these two superpowers, following their temporary alliance and victory against Nazi Germany in 1945. Aside from the nuclear arsenal development and conventional military deployment,
15616-450: Was not independent of the other branches of government. The Supreme Court supervised the lower courts ( People's Court ) and applied the law as established by the constitution or as interpreted by the Supreme Soviet. The Constitutional Oversight Committee reviewed the constitutionality of laws and acts. The Soviet Union used the inquisitorial system of Roman law , where the judge, procurator , and defence attorney collaborate to "establish
15744-459: Was only 54% of that of the United States, this means that the Soviet Union generated 1.5 times more pollution than the United States per unit of GNP. The Soviet Chernobyl disaster in 1986 was the first major accident at a civilian nuclear power plant . Unparalleled in the world, it resulted in a large number of radioactive isotopes being released into the atmosphere. Radioactive doses were scattered relatively far. Although long-term effects of
15872-477: Was repeatedly postponed. Formal recognition came when the new Labour Party came to power in 1924. All the other countries followed suit in opening trade relations. Henry Ford opened large-scale business relations with the Soviets in the late 1920s, hoping that it would lead to long-term peace. Finally, in 1933, the United States officially recognized the USSR, a decision backed by the public opinion and especially by US business interests that expected an opening of
16000-537: Was that "the Constitution was written not for you, but for American Negroes, so that they know how happy the lives of Soviet citizens are". Crime was determined not as the infraction of law, instead, it was determined as any action which could threaten the Soviet state and society. For example, a desire to make a profit could be interpreted as a counter-revolutionary activity punishable by death. The liquidation and deportation of millions of peasants in 1928–31
16128-636: Was the Russian responsibility to assist them. The Comintern was the weapon of choice. A few revolutions did break out, but they were quickly suppressed (the longest lasting one was in Hungary)—the Hungarian Soviet Republic —lasted only from 21 March 1919 to 1 August 1919. The Russian Bolsheviks were in no position to give any help. By 1921, Lenin, Trotsky, and Stalin realized that capitalism had stabilized itself in Europe and there would not be any widespread revolutions anytime soon. It became
16256-421: Was the highest position in the region during the Soviet era. The chairman of the Badakhshan Mountainous Autonomous Region is the head of the regional government. They are appointed by the president of Tajikistan . During the 20th century, the Soviet modernity project to establish roads connections in the Pamir led to the communities becoming part of a transit district between Osh, Khorog and Dushanbe. Nowadays,
16384-700: Was the only such deposit known until the discovery of gem-quality material in the Taymyr region of Siberia , in 2000. The earliest known evidence of human cannabis use was found in tombs at the Jirzankal Cemetery. The Pamir Highway , the world's second highest international road, runs from Dushanbe in Tajikistan to Osh in Kyrgyzstan through the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Province , and
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