‘Made in Tajikistan’: Nationbuilding in the Third Millennium

Collapse of the USSR resulted in emergence of national states within the borders of the former Soviet republics. New national elites needed to establish their right to create meanings. Legitimation of power started simultaneously with construction of a national style, lost during the Soviet period. The article is about methods of the national style construction in modern Tajikistan and accents that helped the political elite of this state gradually overcome the cultural heritage of the disintegrated Soviet state. Based on examples, the author shows how the national style is gradually vested in architectural and language policy, defines symbolic politics and produces new cultural standards and forms. The author supposes that political elite of modern Tajikistan has no other way for political legitimization but to address national motives and various subjects that underline the heroic historical past of the state. National self identification means focusing on the centrality of Tajik culture, which is an objective in itself. The author concludes that every independent state has the right to preserve and developits culture and modern Tajikistan is no exception. In the cultural space of modern Tajikistan national symbols gradually replace the Soviet heritage. Political elite of the modern state must emphasize its own achievements in state building process. Construction of the national style makes development of Tajik culture a priority.

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