Russia has transferred the symbolic remains of several founding figures of modern Tajikistan to Tajik authorities nearly 90 years after the men were executed during Joseph Stalin’s purges in the Soviet Union.
The remains — consisting of soil taken from burial sites in Moscow — were formally handed over to a Tajik delegation led by Foreign Minister Sirojiddin Muhriddin during an official ceremony attended by Mikhail Shvydkoy, a Russian presidential envoy for cultural cooperation.
According to the Tajik news outlet Asia-Plus, Muhriddin said the soil from the graves of Nusratullo Makhsum, Shirinsho Shotemur and Nisor Muhammad would be transferred to Dushanbe and incorporated into a memorial honoring the men.
The three figures played central roles in the establishment of Soviet Tajikistan during the early years of the Soviet Union and are widely regarded in Tajikistan as among the founders of the modern state.
Makhsum, who was later awarded the title “Hero of Tajikistan,” was the first leader of the territory that eventually became present-day Tajikistan.
The men were executed in Moscow in 1937 during Stalin’s political purges after being accused of political crimes. Soviet authorities later revisited their cases during the 1950s and 1960s and formally rehabilitated them.
Tajik media reported that containers carrying soil from the burial sites arrived in Dushanbe on May 19 and were received in a ceremony attended by President Emomali Rahmon.
The remains had been buried in mass graves at Moscow’s Donskoye Cemetery, where many victims of Stalin-era executions were interred.
Makhsum is considered one of the principal architects of Soviet Tajik statehood in Central Asia. Born in 1881 in the Rasht region, then part of the Emirate of Bukhara, he later worked in cotton factories in Russian Turkestan, where historians say he became exposed to revolutionary movements during the final decades of the Russian Empire.
He participated in labor protests during the Russian Revolution of 1905-1907 before returning to his native region.
Following the Bolshevik takeover of Bukhara in 1920, Makhsum joined Soviet political structures in what was then known as Eastern Bukhara and held a series of administrative and revolutionary positions.
When the Tajik Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was established in 1924 within Soviet Uzbekistan, Makhsum became its leader. Tajikistan later became a full Soviet republic in 1929, with Makhsum remaining in office until 1933.
Tajik historians have often described his role in the formation of modern Tajik statehood as historically significant, portraying the Soviet-era republic as the first Tajik-led political entity in the region since the fall of the Samanid dynasty nearly a millennium earlier.
