People of the Revolution and the USSR

Activity(set)
Any Political and party leadership 4 Government and administration 2 Legislature and state representation 1 Monarchs and royalty 1 Military command 1 Security, intelligence and policing 1 Social movements and organizing 1
Affiliation

Most people

Any Uzbekistan state institutionsstate 1 Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks 1 Soviet Unionstate 1

All 3 affiliations

Soviet Union

Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks 1 Soviet Unionstate 1

Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan state institutionsstate 1
Position
Any Marxism and communism 2
Citizenship
Any Soviet Union 1 Uzbekistan 1
Background(set)
Any Russia 40 Hungary 38 France 24 Germany 21 United States 20 Finland 10 Belarus 9 Poland 9 Ukraine 8 Lithuania 7 China 6 Czechia 6 Estonia 6 Armenia 5 Latvia 5 Spain 5 Congo - Brazzaville 4 Greece 4 Moldova 4 Benin 3 Georgia 3 Japan 3 United Kingdom 3 Vietnam 3 Afghanistan 2 Albania 2 Croatia 2 Cuba 2 Ethiopia 2 Italy 2 Laos 2 Madagascar 2 Romania 2 Serbia 2 Somalia 2 Turkmenistan 2 Uzbekistan 2 Yemen 2 Angola 1 Austria 1 Azerbaijan 1 Bulgaria 1 Burkina Faso 1 Cambodia 1 Chile 1 Democratic People's Republic of Korea 1 DR Congo 1 Egypt 1 Ghana 1 Grenada 1 India 1 Iran 1 Kazakhstan 1 Korea 1 Kyrgyzstan 1 Mongolia 1 Mozambique 1 South Korea 1 Tanzania 1
Era
Any

People of the Soviet Union

The revolutionary generation1917–1940 1 The last generation1985–1991 1
Government and administration Background: Uzbekistan Clear all

Faizulla Gubaidullayevich Khodzhayev

Файзулла Губайдуллаевич Ходжаев
Soviet Union Soviet communism Soviet Union Uzbekistan 1896–1938 ✕ Executed

Son of a Bukharan merchant who rose from the Jadid reform movement to become the first head of government of Soviet Uzbekistan

Russian diplomat Alexander Barmine recalled: "Fayzulla Khodzhayev, called the 'Lenin of the Uzbeks,' was small, wiry, and full of consuming energy, in spite of the malaria which often gave his face a greenish tinge. He enjoyed life, and could laugh gaily beneath a crushing load of work. He knew his people, was a great orator, and was much loved."

Born to a wealthy merchant family in Bukhara, Khodzhayev was sent to Moscow at age 11 and confronted the gap between traditional society and modern Europe. He joined the Jadid movement in 1916, co-founded the Young Bukharan Party, and after a failed 1918 coup against the Emir, fled to Tashkent under a death sentence. In 1920 he became Chairman of the Council of People's Nazirs of the Bukharan PSR, and in 1924 the first Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the Uzbek SSR, leading Central Asia's national delimitation and integration into the USSR. He opposed Stalin's cotton monoculture drive, lost influence, and was arrested in 1937, sentenced to death at the Third Moscow Trial.

Career timeline
  • 1916Joined the Jadid movement, co-founded the Young Bukharan Party, member of its underground Central Committee
  • 1918Failed coup against the Emir; fled to Tashkent; sentenced to death in absentia
  • 1919–1920Organized the Bureau of Revolutionary Young Bukharans in Tashkent; edited Uchqun
  • 1920–1924Chairman, Council of People's Nazirs, Bukharan People's Soviet Republic
  • 1924–1937Chairman, Council of People's Commissars of the Uzbek SSR (first)
  • 1925–1937Chairman of the CEC of the USSR from the Uzbek SSR
  • 1937–1938Dismissed and arrested; sentenced to death at the Third Moscow Trial; executed 15 March 1938

Islam Abduganiyevich Karimov

Islom Abdugʻaniyevich Karimov
Uzbekistan state institutions Marxism and communism Uzbekistan Uzbek 1938–2016 ○ Natural causes

An authoritarian state-builder who made sovereignty his political principle

Uzbekistan voted to remain in the Union in 1991, yet Karimov declared independence later that same year.

Islam Karimov was a politician who moved from economic administration in the Soviet system to become Uzbekistan’s first president. During the negotiations over the Union’s future, he placed Uzbekistan’s sovereignty and freedom of choice above preserving a common Soviet state, and after independence made that principle central to state-building. His government pursued industrial capacity and political consolidation, but hardened into authoritarian rule that restricted opposition and the press and responded harshly to Islamist movements and mass protest. Karimov is therefore remembered both as the founder of a sovereign post-Soviet Central Asian state and as a ruler who sacrificed political pluralism to preserve it.

Career timeline
  • 1960–1966Mechanical engineer in Tashkent machinery and aircraft production
  • 1966–1983Economic official in the Uzbek SSR State Planning Committee
  • 1983–1986Minister of Finance of the Uzbek SSR
  • 1986Chairman of the Uzbek SSR State Planning Committee and deputy chairman of its Council of Ministers
  • 1986–1989First secretary of the Communist Party committee in Kashkadarya Region
  • 1989–1991First secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Uzbekistan
  • 1990–1991President of the Uzbek SSR
  • 1991–2016First President of Uzbekistan
  • 1991–1996Chairman of the People’s Democratic Party of Uzbekistan