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.
Activities and affiliations
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
The Soviet Politburo
- Full member 1990.07–1991.08
served until the party ban of 1991.11
Related historical events
- 1991The Novo-Ogaryovo Process and the New Union TreatyOpponent of keeping the name 'Soviet Union'Attended the 9+1 meeting and the preparatory committee, opposing the retention of the name 'Soviet Union'.
- 1991The August Coup and the Collapse of the USSRPresident who backed dissolution and joined the CISIn 1991 he backed the Belovezha Accords and signed the Alma-Ata Declaration, joining the new Commonwealth of Independent States.
The independence transition and the start of single-party rule
At the March 1991 referendum on whether the Soviet Union should continue to exist, Karimov campaigned among Uzbekistan's population for remaining in the Union, and the republic returned 93.7 percent in favour on a 95.4 percent turnout. Yet on 31 August of that year, ten days after the failed coup in Moscow, he became the second Central Asian leader to declare his republic's independence, after Kyrgyzstan, and the Supreme Soviet of Uzbekistan adopted the corresponding law. On 14 September the Communist Party of Uzbekistan, which he headed, announced its withdrawal from the CPSU; the founding congress of the People's Democratic Party of Uzbekistan on 1 November elected him party chairman even though he took no part in its proceedings. When the Supreme Soviet adopted the presidential election law on 18 November, the 29 December contest was held on an alternative basis: Karimov took 86 percent of the vote, against 12.3 percent for Muhammad Salih of the Erk Democratic Party. On 13 December he joined other Central Asian leaders in supporting the Belovezha Accords that dissolved the USSR, and eight days later signed the Alma-Ata Declaration, joining the new Commonwealth of Independent States. From 1992 he, like other post-Soviet leaders, introduced a new constitution and direct presidential elections while continuing to serve out the term conferred by the Supreme Soviet in 1990. In March 1995 a referendum extended his term to 2000, and in June 1996 he resigned both the chairmanship and the membership of the People's Democratic Party, presenting himself as a president standing above parties. The forms of independence and the actual concentration of power were built together in this period.