Specifically, city planners are eyeing up the Rohat teahouse — a tourist destination — two theatres, the former presidential administration and the current parliament building for demolition. All of the buildings lie on prime real estate in the city centre and were built during the early Soviet period.

Nurali Saidzoda, deputy head of architecture and construction committee, told Tajik media last week that the buildings selected for demolition are not unique.

“If you had seen the blueprints of what will be built in their places, you would say the same,” he said.

The Tajik authorities appear to have something of a fad for large construction projects and grandiose design. Over the past few years they have built the biggest library, biggest teahouse, and biggest mosque in the region.

But not everybody was happy. Grassroots activism is rare in Tajikistan but, even so, hundreds of people signed an online petition calling for the demolition to be scrapped.

Fotima, an old woman walking in central Dushanbe, said she was concerned about the future of the city.

“The buildings to be demolished carry the spirit of the city. The city will not be as the same as I remember it anymore,” she said.

Abdulfattoh Shafiev, a Dushanbe- based analyst, said the demolition plans was linked to business.

“Demolition of old Stalinist buildings in the Tajik capital is completely unrelated to any ideology and is simply a business idea to build new and bigger skyscrapers in the most valuable part of Dushanbe, down- town,” he said.