ABSTRACT
Tajikistan is a small, mountainous country situated on the border of the former Soviet empire and the present Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). Bordering on China, India, and Afghanistan in the south and Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan in the north, the republic's geographic position has created a wealth of problems that only became more acute in the period of perestroika and after the acquisition of independence. The war in Tajikistan one of the deadliest and most intractable conflicts on the territory of the former Soviet Union (FSU). With estimates ranging from 30,000 to 50,000 dead, more people died in this conflict than in all of the other conflicts in the FSU combined prior to the outbreak of war in Chechnya. As a result of the national state divisions established in 1924, the Tajik Autonomous Soviet Republic (TASR) was formed as a constituent part of the Soviet Socialist Republic of Uzbekistan.
