Sharaf Rashidov and the international dimensions of Soviet Uzbekistan

ABSTRACT

During the Cold War, Sharaf Rashidov became a representative of the Soviet anti-imperialist agenda, a key interlocutor with Third World leaders and a promoter of Uzbekistan as a modern and emancipated model of political, economic, social and cultural development for newly independent countries emerging from decolonization. Tashkent hosted important meetings among Soviet and Asian leaders, along with international festivals of cinema and literature, which attracted hundreds of Asian, African and Latin American intellectuals, writers, poets, journalists, trade unionists and athletes. Moreover, Uzbekistan came to symbolize the self-proclaimed compatibility between communism and Islam, offering a façade of religious freedom, tolerance and tradition combined with Bolshevik progress. The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan discredited this narrative – and Uzbekistan and (posthumously) Rashidov were humiliated in the Cotton Affair – pointing to the impact as well as the limits of Uzbek internationalism.

KEYWORDS:

• Uzbekistan
• Sharaf Rashidov
• Cold War
• decolonization
• Third World
• Islam

Acknowledgements

This research was conducted during periods at the Institute of history of the Academy of Sciences of Uzbekistan (FATi) in 2015 and at the International Centre for the History and Sociology of World War II and Its Consequences at the National Research University – Higher School of Economics (HSE) in Moscow in 2017–2019. The author is very grateful to the anonymous reviewers for their time, valuable comments and comprehensive recommendations. He is also grateful to Andrea Graziosi, Oleg Khlevniuk, Marlene Laruelle, Adriano Roccucci and Simon P. Watmough for their helpful feedback on earlier versions of this work. He extends his gratitude as well to Ravshan Abdullaev and the faculty of FATi, Natalya and Sergey of AVPRF, the archivists of RGANI and the workers of the Monumental Museum Sh. Rashidov in Jizzak for their useful support.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

ORCID

Riccardo Mario Cucciolla http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5948-5311

Notes

1 A banner in the Monumental Museum Sh. Rashidov in Jizzak reports that the Uzbek leader visited Afghanistan (1956, 1983), Algeria (1963, 1964, 1972, 1981), Angola (1980), Argentina (1971), Austria (1969), Brazil (1971), Bulgaria (1975), Burma (1955, 1956), Canada (1962), Ceylon (1965), Chile (1971), China (1955, 1956), Cuba (1962, 1966), Czechoslovakia (1976), Egypt (1957), Finland (1954), France (1959, 1967), Guinea (1959, 1967), India (1956, 1975), Indonesia (1955, 1965), Iraq (1973), Ireland (1962), Italy (1964), North Korea (1972), Lebanon (1973), Mali (1964), Mongolia (1955, 1956), Mozambique (1981), Pakistan (1956), Senegal (1971), Vietnam (1955, 1956, 1976), Yugoslavia (1963) and Zimbabwe (1980).

2 From 30 March to 2 April 1956, Mikoyan led the Soviet delegation to Burma. This trip was followed by the Khrushchev–Bulganin tour of India, Burma and Afghanistan in November. Arkhiv Vneshnei Politiki Rossiiskoi Federatsii (Foreign Policy Archives of the Russian Federation, AVPRF), f. 73, op. 10, p. 7, d. 9, ll. 5-7. In April 1957, the Soviet delegation led by Voroshilov stopped in Burma during a trip from Beijing to Jakarta (AVPRF, f. 073, op. 11, p. 20, d. 7, l. 6) and consolidated special contacts with their Burmese counterparts. In November 1957 a Burmese delegation visited Uzbekistan and toured its electric power plants, kolkhozes and textile factories (AVPRF, f. 73, op. 10, p. 7, d. 9, l. 83).

3 A similar welcome was given the Soviet delegation in China on 18 June 1957, when Rashidov joined a meeting of 100,000 people at the Syanuntan stadium (AVPRF, f. 100, op. 44, p. 176, d. 17, ll. 2-3, 22).

4 The report of the 21–24 May 1957 trip to Vietnam is at AVPRF, f. 78, op. 12, p. 8, d. 8, ll. 6-39.

5 The report of the 26–30 May 1957 trip to Mongolia is at AVPRF, f. 0111, op. 38, p. 249, d. 17, ll. 7-51.

6 Rossiiskii Gosudarstvennyi Arkhiv Noveishei Istorii (Russian State Archive of Contemporary History, RGANI), f. 3, op. 21, d. 41, ll. 79-80.

7 RGANI, f. 3, op. 21, d. 41, ll. 80-82.

8 RGANI, f. 3, op. 21, d. 41, l. 83.

9 Similarly, in July 1967 the French President Georges Pompidou spent an official visit in Samarkand and Tashkent. AVPRF, f. 136, op. 51, p. 108, d. 10, ll. 85-86.

10 On 10 June 1962, Rashidov informed the presidium CC CPSU of his trip to Cuba, the economic issues discussed and negotiations for the defense of the island (RGANI, f. 3, op. 18, d. 63, ll. 1-2 & d. 74, l. 2; Fursenko 2015b, 283, 311, 381–384).

11 Among the official gifts Rashidov received from Castro was an embalmed crocodile, a typical example of ‘kitsch diplomacy’. It is now on display at the Monumental Museum, Sh. Rashidov, in Jizzak.

12 Pravda Vostoka, 11 May 1963, 1–2.

13 RGANI, f. 52, op. 1, d. 546, l. 162.

14 Pravda, 12 September 1983, 4.

15 On 26 February 1959, Khrushchev presented Uzbekistan to the Iraqi delegates as an example of development of cotton, corn and cereal agriculture and agrarian reform (Fursenko 2015b, 837, 841), and in December 1969 a Syrian Ba’ath delegation visited Tashkent (Bennigsen 1989, 32, 41, 143–144; Myer 2002, 56).

16 Kirasirova (2018, 65) recalls that ‘of the 110 foreign delegations that visited the city in 1956, 64 came from the so-called “foreign East” [and] the number of sites “accessible to foreigners” grew from 50 in 1953 to over 300 in 1956’.

17 Rashidov led a Soviet delegation to India from 27 January to 3 February 1975 and gave a speech at the 10th Congress of the Communist Party of India, insisting on ‘peace, cooperation and brotherhood’ between the Soviet and Indian peoples. On this occasion, he met the Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and President Ahmed (AVPRF, f. 90, op. 37, p. 81, d. 7, ll. 50, 54. See also Pravda Vostoka, 17693, 25, 30 January 1975, 2).

18 Pravda Vostoka, 12 October 1982, 1–3.

19 In 1946 in Uzbekistan there were only 77 registered mosques attended by some 200,000–300,000 worshipers. In 1964, 49 holy places were reportedly operating in Uzbekistan, a number that by 1966 grew to 105 (of these, 30 operated regularly, 38 during festivals and 37 were non-functioning), while many others had been abandoned in the 1920s to 1930s but not destroyed. In 1973, the number of unregistered clergy in Uzbekistan was 564 (Ro’i 2000, 66, 73, 91, 95, 295, 380).

20 After 1979, Rashidov’s cautious attitude also became more conciliatory towards Islam and restored some old traditions and customs, albeit in a new, Sovietized framework. Hence, in 1981 ‘Rashidov explained that the ancient spring holiday navruz was being rehabilitated as a public event to be used for the harvest’ (Gleason 1986, 148).

21 Pravda Vostoka, 28 April 1983, 1.

22 Even the interlocutors were carefully selected from above, following the typical criteria of divide et impera that since the 1930s had disengaged national representatives from their natural (per linguistic, religious and cultural proximity) interlocutors to avoid solidarity and the formation of dangerous connections. Tajikistan was better connected with sub-Saharan Africa than Iran, and Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan were more closely linked with India and the Maghreb than the Turkic world. This was done to avoid the dangers of Pan-Turkism.