Tajikistan

 
Pronunciation: /təˌdʒiːkɪˈstɑːn, -ˈstan/
(also Tadzhikistan)
  • a mountainous republic in central Asia, north of Afghanistan; population 7,349,100 (est. 2009); languages, Tajik (official), Russian; capital, Dushanbe.

The region was conquered by the Mongols in the 13th century and absorbed into the Russian empire during the 1880s and 1890s. From 1929 Tajikistan formed a constituent republic of the Soviet Union; it became an independent republic within the Commonwealth of Independent States in 1991