P rominent t ajik f igures of the

Uljaboev, Tursun

Tajik politician Tursun Uljaboev was born into a family of farmers

in the village of Quruq of Khujand on May 1, 1916. He received his

early education in his birthplace and in Oqteppa.

Uljaboev graduated from the Nov Technical School in 1935. From

1936 to 1947, he served in various leadership positions, including the

First Secretary of the Komsomol Committee of the Nov region, and

First Secretary of the Ittifoqi Leninii Komunistii Javononi Tojikiston

(Union of Tajik Youths for Lenin). It was in this latter position that

Uljaboev was recognized as a talented young man capable of holding

high office. Uljaboev was sent to Moscow for advanced training at the

Central Committee of the Great Communist Party (Bolshevik) in 1947.

From 1950 to 1961, he worked at various Party and governmental posi-

tions, including the Director of the Central Committee of the Commu-

nist Party, and First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Commu-

nist Party of Tajikistan. The talent spotters had not been wrong.

Uljaboev became one of the most astute politicians and reformers of his

time. His reforms, however, were directed more towards bettering the

lives of the Tajiks and elevating their social and political status than

Moscow allowed.

In April 1961, at the prompting of the 7th Plenum of the Central

Committee of the Communist Party, Uljaboev was removed from the

Party and was not rehabilitated until 1979. Between 1961 and his death

in 1988, the Communist Party of Tajikistan sent Uljaboev to three far-

off kolkhozes. First he was sent to Kulab as the Director of the Metin-

Tukai Kolkhoz of Maskav. Then he was sent to Qarotegin to serve in the

animal husbandry efforts being undertaken at Gharm, and finally to

Vakhsh to oversee agricultural projects in Kuybishev.

Uljaboev joined the Union of Journalists of the Soviet Union in

1957. He died on May 31, 1988.