Khujand

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Khujand
Хуҷанд
Basic data
State : TajikistanTajikistan Tajikistan
Province : Sughd
Coordinates : 40 ° 17 '  N , 69 ° 38'  E Coordinates: 40 ° 16 '55 "  N , 69 ° 37' 30"  E
Height : 340  m
Residents : 172,700
Khujand (Tajikistan)
Khujand
Khujand
Central Punjjanbe Square

Khujand ( Tajik Хуҷанд ; Uzbek Xoʻjand ; Persian خجند or خجنده, DMG Ḫuǧand (a) ; English translation Khujand (a) ) is the second largest city in Tajikistan and the capital of the northern province of Sughd with around 172,700 inhabitants . Until 1939 the city was called Ходжент, Khodschent , from 1939 to 1992 Ленинобод, Leninobod ( Russian Ленинабад , Leninabad ). It is located on the Syr Darya River in the Fergana Valley .

location

Khujand lies at an altitude of 340 meters in a plain on the Syr Darya and forms the western gate of the Ferghana valley. This area, divided between Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan , is geographically and historically more connected to a unit than the Tajik part with the rest of the country south of the Turkestan chain . Until the road between Dushanbe and Khujand, which ran over a 3580 meter high pass in the Turkestan chain, was completed in 1935 , there was no direct connection between the central and northern parts of the country. Before 2012, the pass road was not passable in winter, an exchange of food and other merchandise had to be avoided in that time. The nearest town on this route to the southwest, Istaravshan , is 78 kilometers away; 21 kilometers further on, behind Schahriston, the climb begins through a narrowing valley.

A few kilometers east of the city, the Syr Darya is dammed into Lake Kairakkum . To the east the A376 transferred Ghafurov (eleven kilometers) on the south shore of the reservoir along the 79 km distant city Konibodom just before the border with Uzbekistan. Khujand is about 20 kilometers from the Kyrgyz border, but the nearest border crossing to Kyrgyzstan is 100 kilometers east between Isfara and Batken . The road connection to Tashkent in the north crosses the border in Oybek (60 kilometers northwest of Khujand near the village of Buston). There is a road from Khujand on the north side of the reservoir through sparsely populated dry area. After a few kilometers, a side road branches off to the north, on which the small town of Istiqlol (formerly Taboschar ) is reached after 37 kilometers .

history

Alexander the Great founded in May 329 BC A first settlement under the name Alexandria Eschatê ("the most distant Alexandria"), although there is no clear evidence that this was in today's urban area. Nonetheless, the 2500 year anniversary of the city's foundation was celebrated in 1986. Khujand has long been an important trading hub along the Silk Road . The city went through a checkered history of belonging. For a long time part of the Persian Empire was she by the Arabs in the 8th century under Qutayba ibn Muslim conquered and then belonged to the caliphate of the Umayyads and Abbasids . Later, Khujanda was under the rule of the Iranian Samanids and especially the Turkish Qarachanids , before it fell to the Khorezm Shahs in the 13th century and was destroyed shortly afterwards by the Mongols .

In the course of the Russian conquest of Central Asia , the region was annexed to Russia as early as 1866 , while southern Tajikistan still (nominally) remained with the Emirate of Bukhara . That is why industrialization began earlier here and that is why the Soviets had more support here.

After the October Revolution, around 14,000 city dwellers died in the Khujand massacre in February 1918 . In the course of the transformation of the Russian state into the USSR , the city first fell to Uzbekistan in 1924 . In 1929 Khujand became part of the Tajik SSR .

In 1932 the silk combine was opened. From the 1940s to the 1990s, the north of Tajikistan around Khujand was one of the major centers of Soviet uranium mining and processing. The consequences can still be seen today in the danger to the population and the environment from radioactive substances in the vicinity of the old locations.

In the 1950s, the Kairakkum reservoir was built near Khujand , the largest reservoir in Tajikistan by area. During this time, the construction of large housing estates began, and for the first time the right bank of the Syr Darya was included. In 1966, the city planner Wsevolod Weselovskij created a zoning plan which envisaged the gradual replacement of the old town with multi-storey apartment blocks.

View of the right bank of the Syr Darya, 2009

During the Soviet period there were two Gulag corrective labor camps in Khujand (Leninabad) . The ITL of KOMBINATS NO. 6 existed from February 1945 to September 1946. Up to 2,300 people were imprisoned in the camp who were employed in the construction and subsequent operation of the combine for uranium ore mining and processing. The ITL of BAUS 665 existed from December 1947 to April 1953. The maximum number of inmates was 7,200 people who were employed in civil, housing and road construction as well as for construction work for the nuclear industry.

The film Luna Papa , which was released in 1999, was shot largely in and around Khujand. Among other things, the village in which the action begins was built south of the reservoir especially for the film. In addition, it was filmed in the center and in the Arbob Palace a few kilometers outside the city.

present

Today the city is primarily a center of textile production, and silk processing stands out in particular.

The most important axis is Lenin Street with its representative city facades, behind which, however, winding old town streets often begin. The street begins at the train station, which is 15 km outside, leads through the wholesale bazaar and past the now disused silk combine to the historic center with the main mosque and bazaar. It crosses the Syr Darja, through the large residential complexes and ends at the university campus on the hills in front of the city.

A major problem is the city's transport links: it is surrounded on three sides by Uzbekistan, and to the south, towards Dushanbe, the Turkestan and Seravshan Mountains rise. The 3,500 m high passes are often inaccessible in winter, when the region is cut off from the rest of the country and prices rise extraordinarily. The operation of the pass road was entrusted to a private company, the use is very expensive.

The state transport networks went bankrupt after the collapse of the USSR. Local traffic is now handled by privately operated mini-buses, marshrutkas .

education

Ghafurov University in Khujand

Khujand is the seat of several universities. The most famous of these is the Khujand State University , as well as the Institute of Mining and Metallurgy of Tajikistan ( Tajik Донишкадаи кӯҳию металургии Тоҷикистон ), etc.

Town twinning

sons and daughters of the town

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ https://www.laender-analysen.de/zentralasien/pdf/ZentralasienAnalysen42.pdf , accessed on October 8, 2019
  2. ↑ https://www.laender-analysen.de/zentralasien/pdf/ZentralasienAnalysen42.pdf , accessed on October 8, 2019
  3. ↑ Heuel-Fabianek, B., Schläger, M. (2010): The legacy of uranium extraction in Tajikistan , in: StrahlenschutzPRAXIS 4/2010, pp. 53–59 .
  4. ↑ https://www.laender-analysen.de/zentralasien/pdf/ZentralasienAnalysen42.pdf , accessed on October 8, 2019
  5. ↑ ITL OF COMBINATION NO. 6 on the GULAG website of Memorial Deutschland e. V.
  6. ↑ BAU 665 UND ITL in the GULAG internet portal of Memorial Deutschland e. V.
  7. ↑ http://www.reiseweltatlas.de/wiki/Chudschand_Geschichte-1674.html
  8. ↑ https://www.laender-analysen.de/zentralasien/pdf/ZentralasienAnalysen42.pdf , accessed on October 8, 2019
  9. ↑ https://www.laender-analysen.de/zentralasien/pdf/ZentralasienAnalysen42.pdf , accessed on October 8, 2019
  10. ↑ Vladimir: Sister Cities

Web links

Commons : Khujand  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files