P rominent t ajik f igures of the

Iraj Bashiri

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

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Iranian, and Azerbaijani dances. He is also credited with contributing to

the establishment of the Aini Theater for Opera and Ballet, as well as

the Tajik Philharmonic Orchestra.

Valamatzoda won the Soviet Union State Prize in 1949, the Rudaki

State Prize in 1975, and became a People's Artist of the Soviet Union in

1976. He garnered the Order of Lenin, three Orders of the Red Banner

of Labor, and other medals.

Valijon, Samad

Tajik intellectual Samad Valijon was born in 1936 in the Vorukh

village of Isfara in northern Tajikistan.

Valijon graduated from the Konibodom Pedagogical Institute in

1956, and from the Khujand Pedagogical Institute with a degree in Per-

sian language & literature in 1961. Until 1976, when he received his

doctorate degree, he taught at that institute. His research centered on an

understanding of the relationship among Tajikistan and the other Soviet

republics and was carried out at the Rudaki Research Institute of the

Academy of Sciences of Tajikistan. His contributions include "Paivand-

hoi Adabi Chun 'Omilhoi Muhimmi Inkishofi Adabiyyot" ("Literary

Connection an Important Means of Discovering Literature," 1975);

"Masoili Ravobiti Adabii Khalqhoi Tojik va Ozari dar Sadai Nuzda"

("Problems of Literary Connections Between the Tajiks and the Azeris

in the 19

th

 Century," 1975); "Tushai Hamdili" ("The Benefits of Being

Sympathetic," 1989); "Az Qa'ri Khazar to Avji Zuhal" ("From the

Depths of the Caspian to the Heights of Saturn," 1992); and "Firdowsi

dar Qafqoz" ("Firdowsi in the Caucasus," 1994).