DUSHANBE, October 7, 2014, Asia-Plus -- Dushanbe Mayor Mahmadsaid Ubaidulloyev held a meeting on October 6 to discuss preparations for the 90th anniversary of declaring Dushanbe the capital city of Tajikistan.

“Speaking at the meeting, the mayor ordered senior representatives of the city administration to take adequate measures to ensure preparation for the city subbotnik that will take place on October 11,” Shavkat Saidov, a spokesman for the Dushanbe mayor’s office, told Asia-Plus in an interview.

Subbotnik is a day of volunteer work.  The tradition is continued in modern Tajikistan 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.

The spokesman further added that the mayor had also made changes to a plan of events dedicated to the capital city’s jubilee.  “Days of Saint Petersburg are expected to take place in Dushanbe from November 7-8 and the Saint Petersburg governor Georgy Poltavchenko will attend this event,” Saidov stressed.

Georgy Poltavchenko (born on February 24, 1953, in Baku, Azerbaijan SSR, Soviet Union (today Azerbaijan)) was the Russian Presidential Envoy to the Central Federal District.  He was assigned acting governor of Saint Petersburg in August 2011.

He studied at Leningrad Aviation Instrument-Making Institute.  After graduation he worked at Leninets Research and Production Association and at a district Komsomol (Young Communists'' League) committee in Leningrad. He began service in the KGB in 1979.  From 1980–1990, he occupied various posts in the KGB, ultimately becoming chief of department, Vyborg directorate, regional department of KGB in Leningrad and the Leningrad region.  Poltavchenko was deputy of the Leningrad Regional Council from 1990–1993, deputy of Leningrad Regional Council. He was then chief of St. Petersburg directorate, Federal Tax Police from 1993–1999.  He ran for the Leningrad city council unsuccessfully in 1998.  From 1999–2000, he was plenipotentiary representative of the Russian President in Leningrad region.