DUSHANBE, April 22, 2014, Asia-Plus -- Residents of border villages of Khoja Alo and Chorkuh in the Tajik district of Isfara and Samarqandak and Aktatyr in the Kyrgyz district of Batken organized a joint subbotnik (volunteer work) on April 21 to jointly clean a 5-kilometer irrigation canal.

“The canal originates at the Tajik village of Khoja Alo and ends at the Kyrgyz village of Samarqandak and more than 3,000 nationals of Tajikistan and some 100 nationals of Kyrgyzstan participated in that subbotnik,” an official source at the administration of the Tajik northern Sughd province told Asia-Plus in an interview. 

Subbotnik (from Russian ‘subbota’ for Saturday) is a day of volunteer work following the October Revolution.  The tradition is continued in modern Russia and some other former Soviet Republics.  Subbotniks are mostly organized for cleaning the streets of garbage, fixing public amenities, collecting recyclable material, and other community services.