prepared by
Iraj Bashiri
copyright 2000
The ancient history of Gorno-Badakhshan dates back to the time of the Sakas when clan heads ruled the region according to a patriarchal system. Thereafter, the Hephthalites, Samanids, Mongols, and Timurids ruled in Badakhshan as they did in the rest of Central Asia. The last Central Asian rulers of Gorno-Badakhshan were the Manghits who defeated the Astarkhanids in their bid for power.
In 1883, incited by the British, the Afghans and the Chinese invaded Gorno-Badakhshan and the Pamirs, respectively. Their invasion put an end to the Russo-British treaty of 1872-73 that had established the Panj as the border. Afghanistan occupied the Gorno-Badakhshan river valleys and the Chinese took over the Pamirs. Before long, Chinese oppression prompted the Pamiris to seek assistance from Russia. In fact, they formally requested that the Pamirs be recognized as a part of Russia. Russia, however, did not accept the offer. Instead it commissioned B. Grombchevskii to visit the Pamirs and file a status report. Grombchevskii's report was instrumental in the shaping of Russian policy in the Pamirs. He reported that in addition to internal strife resulting in the flight of the indigenous people to Turkistan and the Emirate of Bukhara, a nest of British spies was engaged in clandestine activities detrimental to the long-term interests of Russia.
To ensure security for the inhabitants and to create incentive for them to stay in their homeland an adequate number of troops was dispatched to the region; and to stem the tide of British involvement in Badakhshani and Central Asian affairs, permanent security check points were established. By 1894, the Afghans were defeated and pushed back beyond the Panj. In 1895, the Panj was accepted as the dividing line between Britain and Imperial Russia, the super powers of the time. The land to the north (or right) of the Panj River was entrusted to the Amir of Bukhara (Abdulahad), a vassal of Russia. The southern regions of Gorno-Badakhshan (to the left of Panj, including the Tajik capital of Faizabad) became a permanent part of Afghanistan.
Soviet rule was introduced into the region in 1920 and, by 1923, the Gorno-Badakhshan and Pamir combined formed an autonomous region in Turkistan SRR. They became an autonomous oblast' in Tajikistan SRR in 1925.
The early inhabitants of the region were agriculturists and livestock breeders. The industry of the region consisted of carpet-weaving, felt-making, and other such non-technical undertakeings. The mineral resources known at the time were silver, lapis-lazuli, and ruby. At the present, the people of Gorno-Badakhshan are primarily agriculturists and those of the Pamir region are primarily livestock breeders. The industry of the region is centered on hydroelectric power generators at Khorog, Qal'a-i Khumb, Vanj, and Aqsu.
Gorno-Badakhshan is well-known for its diversity of languages. Although every Badakhshani knows Tajiki and to a degree Russian, each valley speaks its own regional language--Shughnani, Yazghulami, Ishkashimi, and Vakhi.
The major factories of the region produce food stuffs--meat, milk, bread--and building materials. The mineral resources of the region include salt, gold, mountain crystal (bulur-i kuhi), precious stones, abraq, asbestos, and others.
Khorog
The city of Khorog (Khorugh, in Tajiki), is the administrative center of the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous oblast of the Republic of Tajikistan. It is located in the southwestern region of the oblast, some 2000m (6560 ft) above sea level. Straddling the Gunt (Ghund, in Tajiki) River, where Gunt flows into the Panj. Khorog is linked by highway to Osh (470 Km) and Dushanbe (527 km) and by air to Dushanbe. The air trip, however, cannot be taken on any day. It requires a nice sunny day. To enter Khorog, the plane must negotiate a narrow valley. While crossing the valley, at times, it seems, the wings brush against the snow to the sides.
In addition, the plane ride (45 minutes altogether) often becomes dangerous, especially when the Badakhshanis do not pay attention to capacity and fill the isles with cargo and passengers. In 1993, a plane crashed simply because it was too heavy to take off and because armed Badakhshanis wanted their people moved out of Khorog.
Even though the Pamirs are known as the home of the world's largest glaciers, the climate of Khorog is warm in the summer months (22 C in June) and mild in winter (-7C in January). The average annual rainfall in the region is 263 mm.
One of the oldest settlements in the Pamirs, Khorog was originally a complex of two villages which, in 1925, became the center of the oblast. Rapidly growing, by 1932, Khorog had gained enough prestige to be given city status. At the present, the city has a population of 22,000, a number of plants for the production of milk, meat, and bread and several factories for the manufacture of such basic necessities as shoes and building materials. It also has a university, radio and television station (1977), a number of theaters and movie houses, a library, and a museum. Two major Soviet-built scientific centers: the Pamirs Biological Station and the Pamirs Botanical Gardens are located within a short distance from the city center.
In addition to the State Hotel, there are also several government dachas in which one can stay; their standards of comfort and cleanliness vary but their prices are reasonable.
Khorog's main street continues to be called Lenin. In fact, the city is one of a few towns (Bishkek, for instance) in the former Soviet Union that have not toppled the statue of the revolutionary leader from their city center. Could it be because of the nearby Lenin Hydroelectric station which provides the city with energy?
In recent years, Khorog has been the site of perennial conflict among various groups of Tajiks. Militant Muslim fighters are deployed from Khorog into Tajikistan's Vanj and Tavil Dara areas. Using the Osh highway, and the long stretch of unguarded Kyrgyz-Tajikistan border, similar groups are now operating in southern Kyrgyzstan and in the Ferghana Valley of Uzbekistan.
The wars in the region, since the early 1980s, have been funded by profits gained from the production of opium in the highlands. Large amounts of opium produced in Afghanistan, due to a lack of effective prevention, are brought to Khorog and, from there, distributed into the former republics of the former Soviet Union and beyond. Lack of jobs, too, plays into the hands of opium traffickers making Khorog, in spite of its natural beauty, an unwelcome tourist attraction.
Included in the Soviet Union on January 12, 1925, Gorno-Badakhshan has a population of 119,000 inhabitants (1977). Along with its capital city of Kharogh in the Shughnan rayon, Gorno-Badakhshan consists of the following six rayons: Vanj, Ishkashim, Murghab, Rushan, and Qal'a-i Khumb. The majority of the population (91.5%) is Tajik. There are also large Kyrgyz and Russian communities in the oblast.