From 1924 to 1991 Uzbekistan was a union republic within the USSR. The period is complex and contradictory: on the one hand industry, education and health care developed, illiteracy was eliminated and new cities were built; on the other there were repression, forced collectivisation, the destruction of the national intelligentsia, the cotton monopoly and the Aral Sea disaster. Although the republic was formally “sovereign”, the key decisions were taken in Moscow. Studying this period helps us understand the historical significance of independence. Exams ask about dates, policies and their consequences, the contribution to the Second World War and source analysis.
§1. The 1920s–1930s: “socialist reconstruction”
On 27 October 1924 the Uzbek SSR was created; its capital was Samarkand, then Tashkent from 1930.
Land and water reform (1925–1929): the land of the rich and the clergy was confiscated and shared out among poor peasants; waqf land was abolished.
Collectivisation (from 1929): private farms were forced into collective farms (kolkhozes); “kulaks” (better-off peasants) lost their property and were deported with their families; cotton-sowing targets were raised sharply.
Industrialisation: the Tashkent agricultural machinery plant (Tashselmash), the Chirchiq electrochemical works and the Tashkent textile combine; skilled workers were mostly brought from the centre.
1927 — “Hujum”: the campaign to “liberate” women from the paranja (veil); carried out by force, it cost many women their lives
Education: a campaign against illiteracy, new schools and higher institutions; the script was changed twice — to Latin in 1929 and to Cyrillic in 1940.
Anti-religious policy: mosques and madrasas were closed and clergy persecuted.
Cause and effect: forced collectivisation and cotton targets → traditional farming destroyed → famine and discontent, and a revival of the independence movement.
§2. Repression
Repression began in the 1920s and peaked in 1937–1938 (the “Great Terror”).
Victims included Fitrat, Cholpon, Abdulla Qodiriy (1938), Fayzulla Khojaev and Akmal Ikramov (1938), as well as thousands of teachers, peasants and clergy; the charges were “nationalism”, “enemy of the people” and “espionage”.
Sentences were often passed by extrajudicial “troikas”; confessions were extracted under torture.
Consequences: the national intelligentsia was wiped out and a climate of fear took hold.
After Stalin’s death (1953) and the denunciation of the personality cult in 1956 many were rehabilitated; full rehabilitation came after independence.
§3. The Second World War (1941–1945)
More than 1.9 million people from Uzbekistan went to the front; over 500,000 were killed or went missing.
More than 300 received the title Hero of the Soviet Union; Sobir Rahimov was the first Uzbek general.
Over 100 factories and hundreds of thousands of people, including many children, were evacuated to the republic.
The Shomahmudov family of Tashkent adopted 14 orphans during the war — a symbol of the people’s compassion.
Cotton, food, clothing and weapons were produced for the front; women and teenagers replaced men in factories and fields.
Major construction projects before and after the war: the Great Fergana Canal (1939, built quickly by mass voluntary labour, “hashar”) and the Farhad hydroelectric station.
1941–1945 — Uzbekistan sent more than 1.9 million people to the front and became a major home-front base
§4. The post-war period (1945–1985)
A one-sided economy: Uzbekistan was the Union’s cotton and raw-material base; most of its cotton was processed in other republics.
The cotton monopoly: cotton land was greatly expanded and fertilisers and defoliants heavily used → salinised soil, water shortages and worsening public health.
The Aral Sea disaster: excessive withdrawal of Amu Darya and Syr Darya water for irrigation made the Aral Sea shrink dramatically — one of the worst ecological disasters of the 20th century.
Deposits of gas (Gazli), gold (Muruntau) and uranium were developed.
Under Sharof Rashidov (First Secretary of the republic’s Communist Party in 1959–1983) construction expanded and cotton targets rose sharply.
26 April 1966 — the Tashkent earthquake; the city was rebuilt and a metro opened in 1977
§5. Perestroika and the eve of independence (1985–1991)
The “cotton affair” (1983–1989): Moscow investigators prosecuted thousands; many innocent people suffered, which fuelled national resentment.
Perestroika (from 1985, M. Gorbachev) brought glasnost, economic crisis and growing national movements.
The Fergana tragedy (June 1989) — an interethnic clash.
21 October 1989 — Uzbek was given the status of state language
24 March 1990 — the post of President of the Uzbek SSR was established (I. A. Karimov); 20 June 1990 — the Declaration of Independence
On 31 August 1991 Uzbekistan’s independence was proclaimed.
§6. Assessing the Soviet period
Achievements: universal literacy, higher education and science (the Academy of Sciences, 1943), industry and energy, a health-care network, and women’s entry into education and work.
Negative sides: no political freedom, repression, restrictions on national culture and religion, a raw-material economy and ecological disasters.
How to assess it: weigh gains against losses on the evidence, ask “in whose interest?” and take the context of the time into account.
A historiographical contrast: Soviet textbooks portrayed the period only positively, as “the road to a bright future”, and kept silent about repression and the Aral Sea; since independence the archives have opened and the losses are being fully studied. An objective historian shows both sides on the evidence.
Legacy: factories, roads and the education system built in the Soviet era passed to independent Uzbekistan, along with a raw-material economy and ecological problems that had to be overcome.
Worked example
Chronology: “Order: Hujum; the Tashkent earthquake; the Declaration of Independence; the execution of Abdulla Qodiriy; the building of the Great Fergana Canal.”
Hujum — 1927.
Qodiriy — 1938.
Great Fergana Canal — 1939.
Earthquake — 1966.
Declaration — 1990.
Answer: 1927 → 1938 → 1939 → 1966 → 1990.
Worked example
Cause and effect: “Identify the causes of the Aral Sea disaster.”
Union central planning turned Uzbekistan into a raw-cotton base.
Cotton land expanded and most of the Amu Darya and Syr Darya water was taken for irrigation.
The inflow to the sea fell sharply; the sea dried up and salt and toxic dust spread.
Answer: the cotton monopoly and excessive water withdrawal were the main cause of the Aral Sea disaster.
Worked example
Source analysis: “During the war we adopted fourteen orphans of different nationalities” (paraphrasing recollections of a Tashkent blacksmith’s family). Who is meant, and what does it show?
The war years, Tashkent and 14 orphans point to the Shomahmudov family (Shoahmad and Bahri Shomahmudov).
The source is a recollection (oral history), a primary source.
It shows the Uzbek people’s compassion towards children evacuated during the war.
Answer: the Shomahmudov family; a symbol of the people’s tolerance and humanity.
Check yourself
From what year did collectivisation begin?
In what year did the Hujum campaign begin?
How many orphans did the Shomahmudov family adopt?
On what date was the Tashkent earthquake?
What was the main cause of the Aral Sea disaster?
On what date was the Declaration of Independence adopted?
In what year did Uzbek switch to the Cyrillic script?
Who was the first Uzbek general?
Common mistakes
Limiting repression to 1937 (it began in the 1920s).
Dating the Declaration of Independence to 1991 (it was adopted on 20 June 1990).
Swapping the dates of the switch to Latin and Cyrillic (Latin — 1929, Cyrillic — 1940).
Judging the Soviet period as wholly good or wholly bad.
Taking Tashkent to be the Uzbek SSR’s first capital (Samarkand until 1930).