P rominent t ajik f igures of the

Prominent Tajik Figures of the Twentieth Century

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

159

Latifi, Otakhon

Tajik politician and journalist Otakhon Latifi was born in Panjakent

in 1936. He joined the CPSU in 1956.

Latifi graduated from the Faculty of Journalism of Leninabad State

University in 1963. Thereafter, he worked for Irfon Publishers and

served as Editor for Komsomolets Tadzhikistana and Komsomoli Toji-

kiston. From 1964 to 1973, he was a special reporter for Komsomol-

skaia Pravda in Central Asia and Kazakhstan. In 1973, he became

Pravda's special reporter in Tajikistan.

Latifi joined the Communist Party in 1956 and left the party in the

latter part of the 1980s after he became an advocate of Gorbachev's

perestroika (openness). Between 1989 and 1991, he was Tajikistan's

Vice-Premier. As a founder of the Rastokhez Movement, after the defeat

of the Opposition in 1993, he fled to Moscow and stayed away from

Tajikistan for the next four years.

Latifi played a major role in the United Tajik Opposition, and re-

turned to Dushanbe after the Government and the Opposition signed a

peace accord in Moscow.

Latifi's contributions include Tiramohi Zarrin (The Golden Summer,

1974) and Ruzgori Sohibdilon  (The Days of the Wise, 1985) , which he

wrote with the cooperation of A. Rabiev.

Latifi received the Badge of Honor and the Honorary Order of the

Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of Tajikistan.

 

He was assassinated in September, 1998.