The Tajiks who speak an Aryan language and are of Iranian origin, number nearly 1,500,000. They are so habituated to agriculture that in some barren ravines they plant barley in dirt brought up in baskets. Tajikstan (55,545 sq. mi.) extends from the subtropical gardens of the Fergana oasis (see USBEK S.S.R.) up the sides of the lofty Pamirs to the border of Afghanistan. The highest mountain of the Soviet Union is there; it has been climbed, measured as 24,590 ft, and named 'Mt. Stalin'; the next highest is Mt. Lenin.
In the lower part of the country, along the streams live most of the population, raising rice, long-staple cotton, fruit and nuts. Tractors and collective farming have been introduced. The capital, Stalinabad, is a new town whose young trees give little shade. The republic has valuable deposits of lead, zinc, silver, arsenic, and some coal and oil. There is a silk-mill, a clothing factory and a hydroelectric plant. In the mountainous parts of the country the airlines are patronized by peasants and frontier guards.
Before the revolution, it was unusual to find a Tajik who could read. Now they have their compulsory schools, a few traveling theatrical companies and they can even obtain Tajik translations of Pushkin, Tolstoy, Hugo and Flaubert.
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