DUSHANBE, May 27, 2016, Asia-Plus – Tajikistan’s state-run publishing house
Irfon
has published the collection of articles and letters by prominent Tajik politician and statesman Shirinsho Shotemur who made a major contribution to the early history of Soviet Tajikistan.
Tajik journalist Qurbon Alamshoyev, who has prepared these materials for publication, says the collection includes articles, letters, speeches, appeals and telegrams by Shirinsho Shotemur as well as photographs and documents telling the life and work of this prominent Tajik politician and statesman.
Shirinsho Shotemur, known Tajik Soviet statesman, was born in the village of Porshnev, GBAO’s Shugnan district on December 1, 1899.
From 1914 to 1918 he worked at a factory in Tashkent. In 1921 he began pursuing a political career and was sent back to the Pamirs as a member of the political-military team. From 1923 to 1924 he worked as an instructor of the national minorities department of Tajikistan”s Communist Party Central Committee. At the same time he headed the Tajik communist section.
During his lifetime Shirinsho Shotemur held many leading positions in the Tajik government and in the communist party. In 1937 Shotemur was charged with participation in an anti-Soviet nationalistic organization and arrested in Moscow. Later the same year the Military board of the Supreme Court of the USSR sentenced Shotemur to death. He was executed on October 27, 1937. Shirinsho Shotemur was buried at the Donskoy cemetery in Moscow. In 1956 Shotemur was posthumously rehabilitated by Military board of the Supreme Court of the USSR.
Shirinsho Shotemur was one of the main initiators of establishing the Tajik Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic within the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic in 1924. As of 1927 Shotemur was the Tajik ASSR”s representative in the Uzbek SSR. Shirinsho Shotemur actively pursued a series of questions about the expansion of borders of the autonomous republic. Great effort was made so that Khujand and its surrounding regions became part of present-day Tajikistan in 1929. The same year he initiated the exit of Tajikistan from the Uzbek SSR and the establishment of the new Tajik Soviet Socialist Republic. Many Soviet historians believe that his initiatives to separate Tajikistan from the Uzbek SSR caused his rivals to falsify charges against Shotemur, which led to his death sentence.
Shirinsho Shotemur was awarded with prestigious state awards during his lifetime, as well as posthumously, including awards from the Republic of Tajikistan in 1999 and 2006.
