After getting some lunch and settling into Khujand, we went out touring on our bus. I was confused heading for our first stop because I could not understand exactly where we were going. Normally, I don’t worry about things like that much, but as we drove, I didn’t like the looks of where we were going. We seemed to have veered from the central part of Khujand towards some old or remote section of the city. It seemed odd and a bit eerie to me.

The first photo didn’t seem too bad but unfinished buildings and graffiti made me wonder.

As we drove on, in the second photo, it just seemed more industrial and off the beaten path, so I wondered some more about what we were going to see.

Eventually, we made a big turn off a road and onto this back road that you see in the third photo. We came off the road at the back of this photo, driving towards where I took this photo.

Turning around from the third photo, we drove around the corner that you see in the fourth photo and my wonder grew.

Finally, we walked a short distance past a grazing cow and some unkempt walkways with weeds over-growing them, to get to the last photo. It’s a statue of Lenin.

For background, Khujand used to be named Leninabad, under Russia. Lenin’s statue was erected in 1974. Russia is still a nearby neighbor and a trading partner. The second largest political party today in Tajikistan is the communist party. So in the middle of the night back in 2011, the Lenin statue was moved from its former place (next post) to its retirement placement. I’ll grant you, he does have some roses around him, but….