Perestroika in the Periphery: Tajikistan

Fifteen independent states emerged out of the rubble of the Soviet Union. Yet, our dominant narrative of collapse—perestroika to the August coup—primarily focuses on events in Moscow. And that story tends to be one of democratization and liberalization. But what of peripheral republics like Tajikistan? How were Gorbachev’s reforms implemented far from the center? How did they shape Tajikistan’s final years as a Soviet republic and its initial years as an independent state? This live interview with Isaac Scarborough (Institute for History at Leiden University) will take a close look at Tajikistan in the 1980s and how reform tore the nation’s social fabric and ignited a five-year civil war