The Soviet Union shaped modern Uzbekistan more than any other single force except Islam itself.
Creation of the republic (1924): - The Bolsheviks divided Central Asia along ethnic-linguistic lines. - The Uzbek SSR was created from parts of the Bukharan People's Republic, Khivan Republic, and Turkestan ASSR. - Borders were drawn to prevent any single republic from becoming too powerful (divide-and-rule).
Key Soviet legacies:
- Cotton monoculture: the Soviet plan turned Uzbekistan into the world's 5th-largest cotton producer. Millions of hectares of steppe were irrigated by diverting the Amu Darya and Syr Darya — causing the Aral Sea catastrophe.
- Literacy and education: pre-Soviet literacy was under 5%; by 1970 it was 99%. Universal schooling, universities, research institutes.
- Infrastructure: Tashkent metro (1977), railway network, electrification, hospitals.
- Religious suppression: mosques and madrasas closed en masse (only Mir-i-Arab in Bukhara remained open). Sufi orders went underground. Arabic script replaced first by Latin (1928) then Cyrillic (1940).
- 1966 Tashkent earthquake: destroyed much of the old city. The USSR rebuilt Tashkent as a modern Soviet showcase — the current city's wide boulevards and apartment blocks date from this reconstruction.
- Art: the Savitsky Museum in Nukus preserves Soviet-era banned avant-garde art smuggled from Moscow.
Independence (1991): - Declared 1 September 1991. - Islam Karimov (Communist Party boss) became first president. - Gradual transition to market economy (slow, state-directed). - Return of Latin script (phased, still ongoing). - Restoration of Islamic monuments as national heritage.
Uzbekistan in photos
A short visual companion to this entry — photographs from our Uzbekistan travel archive.
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