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