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.