Once upon a time the Samanids, Persian merchants whose descendents are the Tajikistani, ruled over an empire encompassing such major cities as Bukhara and Samarkand. It was a period noted for economic expansion, public education, and general prosperity. Alas, that was 1,000 years ago. By the time the Soviets took over the Tajik had been reduced to a minority people living in the mountains. The Republic of Tajikistan was the poorest in the Soviet Union... but even that was several steps up for much of Tajikistan's population. The Soviets brought hydroelectricity, immunizations, schools and factories, and were even reasonably tolerant of the population's continuing devotion to Islam.

But, as with the Samanid Dynasty, all things must end.

Since the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union, Tajikistan has been in a more or less continuous state of civil war. At present the "official" Tajikistani government, led by Imomali Rakhmonov, is propped up by 25,000 Russian troops. The rest is a crapshoot between the United Tajik Opposition, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, and local warlords and Afghan drug dealers. (A good bit of the world's heroin makes its way from the Afghan poppy fields through Tajikistan). All sides have been guilty of hostage-taking, the burning of villages, rape, summary executions, and similar atrocities.

Tajikistan's population is approximately 25% Uzbek; the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan has several bases in Tajikistan. They recently changed their name to the "Islamic Movement of Turkestan," to better reflect their goals – an Islamic state encompassing much of Central Asia and including a fair bit of China. Needless to say, this does not go over well with the Russians, with the Chinese, or with many of the Tajiks. The UTO and IMT have been known to shoot at each other when not shooting at infidels.

One of the few things Tajikistan has to export is hydroelectricity, but even this has been threatened by drought and by the well-publicized fall of the Aral Sea. Pesticides and environmental pollution are as much a problem here as in many of the other former Soviet Republics; there are regular outbreaks of typhoid and dysentary, particularly among the rural population.

Uzbekistan and Russia currently provide much of the human aid which Tajikistan needs to avert famine, although they are becoming increasingly impatient with the terrorist activity and lawlessness continuing to emanate from this area. An invasion by either of these countries, or by China, in an effort to "restore order" could well happen: it is difficult to predict what effect this would have on future events.