TAJIKISTAN - 51.15 %

In the Republic of Tajikistan assessed archives in 2019 are: the Central State Archive of the Republic of Tajikistan and the Film-Photo-Audio Archive of the Republic of Tajikistan.

It was unable to assess the Regime Archive in this country, because according to the available information and respondents’ narratives:

1. The archive of KGB Tajikistan SSR was destroyed during the first days of the Tajik civil war – on May 10, 1992, when a crowd of thousands of people approached the building of KGB Tajikistan demanding a meeting with President Nabiev – they believed that he is hiding inside the premises. As soon as the crowd surrounded the building and started to take down a barbed-wire barricade threatening to storm the first floor. The KGB security forces fired on the crowd causing tens of dead and wounded. According to the respondents, over the next few days, the KGB leadership expected a new large-scale storm of the building. In this situation, colonel R.Tursunov, Tajik KGB Chairman ordered to burn the archive to prevent falling the secret documents to the hands of the opposition. The KGB officers placed the entire files into a pool located in the KGB building yard. According to the respondents, the archives were burning almost three days. 

2. Since that time, the official narrative declares that the Tajik KGB does not have any archives and all existing documents/files dated the period since May 1992.

3. However, according to a local journalist, in the late ’90s, general S. Zuhurov, chairman of the Tajik GKNB (State commission of national security, former KGB) has brought a copy of archives from Tashkent – although according to him this made up only a part of archives destroyed during the civil war.

4. There is no reliable information on whether this information is trustworthy or not. As was mentioned above the KGB officials publicly deny any documents or files dated Soviet times. If any documents dating from the Soviet period left nobody except the KGB internal staff is allowed to get access to them. officially, this archive does not exist.

5. Thus, nowadays, the files related to the Soviet repressions’ periods are located in two archives now- the first on Centrals Archives and the second one is the Archives of the Communist Party of Tajikistan. However, since 2016 the CPT archives are officially turned transferred to the Central Archives.
   
   Reference: Memoirs of General Saidmair Zuhurov, former KGB Chairman, “Противостояние” (Confrontation).