Writer's blog, supplemental.

The country of Trajikistan,
Or "Trajeekastan" / "Tragicastan"

A short story about a country you never heard of.
......
I dunno how many people are familiar with an obscure country nestled high up into mountain ranges most westerners regard as almost mythic and so seemingly devoid of "valuable resources" it was called the "Tibet of the Soviet Union".
I'm talking to you about a country some of us have been talking and researching lately. Trajeekastan.
You've never heard of it, I know. It doesn't even have a Wiki' I know.
But for our Monday night GG write in has been doing some research into little known once CIS countries and it's a subject that creeps into conversation too.
Did you know; Trajeekastan or Trajiikistan depending on who does the translation doesn't exist on any modern maps? In fact strictly speaking it hasn't existed since sometime after the end of The Great War, or WWII in the claims of it's former citizens.
It's mostly what you'd expect in the way of a once entirely ag-preindustrial nation living up inside of mountains high enough to kill most people, with two flavors of weather ( Hot and dry *humid near the water / insanely cold and dry winter ), mountain ridges rising like the serrations on a steak knife dividing steep gorges and valleys helping keep people insular and safe for most of history, A place which Alexander the Great and the Great Khan were basically to have said "No one who has anything lives up there" and simply marched on after planting a flag, a sign post and a note saying.
"We came, we saw nothing of merit and we claimed it as our own in abstentia" ( paraphrase and artistic license. ) Several million people living largely untouched by time, politics or the diseases which ravaged the lands far below them. It wasn't until the advent of aviation that real proof of the nation existed, it had been mapped ( badly ) by Russian explorers skirting it's lower edges or a hand full of times they traveled up "The main road".
As done by "The Russian Marco Pollo" did in the 1860s, stayed for two years before returning with rare presents of gem stones and art which were said to be for "The Great King of all the lands below the mountain"
*It was supposed this would have been the Khan's orders, and no one ever came to collect them until Russians with guns and "modern technology" arrived.
Anyhow from the 1860s until the Red Revolution of 1917-1921 it was just a spot on a map in some Russian Land Minister's office which wasn't worth the cost of investigating. The early Soviet governments sent several emissaries, small military detachments but given the lack of strategic or political importance it was never pursued seriously.
Sometimes it was joked to be a sort of "Russian Shangrula" where defectors and peasants fleeing the chaos would simply hike up to the mountains and join the peaceful villages. But if you've seen a map you realize this would usually mean thousands of miles through the country they were trying to escape.
Popular folk songs, and fairy tales are likely to blame for this being spread but it became a part of the cultural story and is still widely regarded as fact in school books and third party history texts in former Czar/ Soviet historians. Now sometime in the 50s or 60s the Soviet development planners realized they'd had a blank spot on the map. Fearing it would become a secret staging site for anti-communist government or revolutionaries they dispatched several Tupolev Bear aircraft equipped with photo recon pods to photograph the country in question. It is said that none of the photos survived because the warehouse where they were stored were among the many areas that simply self destructed after the collapse of the Soviet union it was abandoned and either electrical issues caused a fire or people sleeping in the buildings set fire to things, but I digress.
Anyway After they established there were no military targets of value, a hand full of stone and earthwork forts near the lower regions water / road access to the world below; the Soviets sent a battalion level of airborne assault experts who parachuting in before dawn and secured the country in mere hours. There was no real government for them to deal with, just a series of small farmer collectives and a complex web of family-tribal alliances which held everyone in a complex network of peace through family ties.
After the disbelief is handled, the Polit offices dispatched people to properly introduce these "poor, simple and backward people". After that the Russians did what Western nations have done to assure that there will not be a united people to move against them in the future. They drew borders right through farms, families and geographically homogeneous areas. Rewrote history to reflect their desires and attempted to obliterate the entire history, ethnic identity, and any other relics of what came before.
Which is probably why most of us have never heard of this poor little nation.
There are people who still live there, though many after six decades of "Modernization" have had their identifying features and traditions wiped out and watered down into the melting pot of the Russian-Soviet soup. There were always some who seemed to stay just ahead of the Soviets, Sheppards and semi-nomadic people living just above where Gaz jeeps could reach. They've started to come down from the hills after the Soviets imploded and in some cases resettled traditional lands, but after three generations have lived with different national borders there are very low odds they'll ever have a nation of their own again.
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After hearing Joanne talk about "Tragicastan" I thought it bore investigation and a little more story telling. Fun story, due to someone carrying over the Myth of the Russian Octopus headed Water God they have a myth about a very contrarian Spirit / diety who is an arguing-complaining being that questions and denounces anyone who approaches the Lake(s?) at night or tries to cross deep water after day ends. His name translates to the "The boneless water spider (Octopus ? ) who does not believe you/ "Nopetupuss" .
*Fun facts.

(This was something I did while working on my CF breathing treatments, took about 30min )