Abstract. Islamism is one of the factors influencing development of political situation in var-ious countries of the Islamic world; it goes through the periods of initiation, development, stagnation and decline. The history of the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan (IRPT), its existence and activities presents objective proofs of these dialectics. The article analyzes formation and development of Islamism in Tajikistan through a political discourse from the 1970s up to 2015, describes objective and subjective factors that influenced activities of the IRPT as an official political institution, as well as the reasons of the party’s decline and cessa-tion of political activities.