Tajikistan's Soviet monuments quietly disappearing

From Tajikistan's capital city, Dushanbe, to remote districts and villages, authorities are busy removing Soviet-era statues, replacing some with monuments celebrating the Tajik nation.

The removal of monuments has attracted little attention -- unlike in Estonia, where the recent relocation of a Soviet war memorial from the center of the capital, Tallinn, provoked violent protests and diplomatic furor. But in contrast to the Estonia, World War II memorials in Tajikistan have been left untouched.

In the southern Tajik city of Kulob, authorities have decided to remove statues of two Red Army commanders, Efim Shatalov and Nikolay Tomin. Those two Russian generals came to Tajikistan in the 1920s to fight locals and foreigners who opposed the creation of a Soviet government in the region.

Ahmad Ibrohimov, a Kulob resident and an informed observer of social affairs, commented..."The statues of Tomin, Shatalov, and many others have been removed because they have run their historical courses...This is not vandalism or breaking the law -- but, incidentally, it should not be seen as any kind of heroic act, either."