KHUJAND, September 20, 2011, Asia-Plus  -- The Khujand mayor’s office intends to gather all dismantled Communist-era monuments in one place.

The Khujand main directorate for city improvement and housing and communal services says the dismantled monuments will be placed in Khujand’s Victory Park.

We will recall that authorities in northern dismantled what is believed to be the largest Lenin monument in Central Asia on May 30 this year.

The statue of the Bolshevik revolutionary leader was taken down from the central square in Khujand and was recently placed in Victory Park.  A memorial to Ismoili Somoni, the founder of Tajik statehood, was erected in its place.

The statue is 12 meters tall and the pedestal is another 12 meters high, making it one of the largest monuments to Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin.  It was erected in 1974, when Khujand was called Leninabad.

In Soviet times Khujand was called Leninabad and Sughd was called Leninabad province.  After a referendum in 1990 Khujand reverted to its historic name; Sughd followed suit in 2001.

The source says the dismantled monuments to Felix Dzerzhinsky and Joura Zokir as well as some other dismantled Communist-era monuments will also be placed in Victory Park.