Russian and Soviet rule

Though the geographic isolation of Central Asia slowed the southward advance of Russian forces, Bukhara was invaded in 1868 and Khiva in 1873; both khanates became Russian protectorates. An uprising in Kokand was crushed in 1875 and the khanate formally annexed the following year, completing the Russian conquest of Uzbek territory; the region became part of the Russian province of Turkistan.

Subdued by tsarist Russian weaponry and colonial administrators, Central Asians at the turn of the 20th century diverged along two cultural and social orientations. The old intelligentsia and clergy of Bukhara and Khiva generally persisted on their antiquated course, resisting the modernization of educational, religious, economic, and governmental institutions. Simultaneously, a small but vigorous expression of dissent emerged in the form of an active reform movement. Reformers were centred in Samarkand but were also present in Bukhara, Tashkent, and Fergana. Jadids, as the reformers called themselves, were inspired and assisted by Crimean Tatar reformers such as Ismail Gasprinski (Ismail Bey Gaspirali). The Jadids enjoyed sporadic protection by tsarist governors in Turkistan, and they were able to prepare numbers of young urban intellectuals for moderate change in their society and culture. Modernization also came to Turkistan with the advent of the telegraph, telephone, and press; railroads reached Samarkand and Tashkent by 1905.

The Russian Revolution of 1917 brought instability and conflict to Turkistan. Muslims convoked a National Congress in Kokand and established an autonomous government under Mustafa Chokayev, which was liquidated in February 1918 by Red Army forces sent from Tashkent. This action provoked a prolonged resistance movement known as the Basmachi (Qorbashi) Revolt. Slavic and European troops and colonists controlling Tashkent successfully moved to depose the emir of Bukhara and the khan of Khiva in 1920. New leaders initially came from the ranks of the Jadids, but, by the end of 1921, communist-dominated politicians held power in both old capitals.

In 1924–25, politicians directed by the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) redrew the Central Asian map according to a monoethnic principle for each major entity and its people. Karakalpakstan and Uzbekistan arose overnight as ethnically designated territories within the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R.), which had been established in December 1922. The authorities soon granted Uzbekistan the formal status of constituent republic of the U.S.S.R. Karakalpakstan was transferred to the Uzbek S.S.R. in 1936, though it retained autonomous status. Uzbeks remained a minority in the capital city of Tashkent and were underrepresented in the Soviet bureaucracy and administration. Uzbeks quickly learned that real political authority was held by the Communist Party of Uzbekistan (CPUz), the republic’s branch of the central Communist Party. The core membership of the CPUz, and for decades its majority, consisted of Slavs and others from outside Central Asia who made all important local decisions except those reserved to the Soviet centre.

The trauma introduced in Uzbekistan by the communist political purges of the 1930s exacted heavy casualties, especially among Uzbekistan’s relatively small class of intelligentsia and leaders. World War II (1939–45) brought further emphatic cultural changes as the Soviet authorities moved thousands of Russian, Polish, and Jewish managers, intellectuals, and cultural figures to the towns and villages of Uzbekistan. The death of the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin in 1953 helped free Uzbek institutions from some of the negative pressures of his era. In 1954–55 Tashkent was again opened to noncommunist visitors from the West after decades of isolation, and Uzbekistan slowly regained direct contact with the outside world. Uzbeks rose to high levels in Soviet politics; Nuritdin A. Muhitdinov, Sharaf R. Rashidov, and Yadgar S. Nasriddinova made Uzbeks visible in the U.S.S.R., serving actively in Soviet diplomacy and foreign affairs.

Despite the easing of some controls on the press and on assembly initiated during the 1980s by the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, the communist leadership of Uzbekistan continued its firm control over the republic. In August 1991, CPUz chiefs led by Islam Karimov supported the Russian coup attempt against Gorbachev. After the coup failed, Uzbekistan moved quickly to declare independence from the U.S.S.R. The communists—the only experienced politicians in the republic—retained mastery over the new country, and Karimov easily won the 1991 presidential election.

Like much of Central Asia, Uzbekistan persistently ignored democracy in its practical politics if not in its statements of principle. Opposition parties were prohibited from participating in elections, and democratic activists were kidnapped or attacked. Karimov was reelected in 2000 in a ballot that was generally viewed as fraudulent. The government’s human rights record drew international criticism.

Independent Uzbekistan

In the early years of independence, Uzbekistan adopted symbols of sovereignty such as a new constitution, currency, national anthem, and flag. The degree of diversity in Uzbekistan’s population diminished, as many people, including Jews, Crimean Tatars, Germans, Greeks, Meskhetian Turks, and Slavs, became apprehensive of Uzbek ethnocentrism and began emigrating. Islamic militants attempted to gain a foothold in the country, leading to an outbreak of violence and persecution of many practicing Muslims. Uzbekistan supported the U.S. government’s campaign in Afghanistan, allowing U.S. forces to use an Uzbek air base beginning in 2001.

Karimov’s pursuit of stability at the expense of political and human rights culminated in tragedy in May 2005, when military forces opened fire on a large group of protesters who had gathered in the city of Andijon. Rights groups estimated that anywhere from 700 to 1,500 civilians died in the massacre, while the government maintained that the military had been responding to a large-scale jailbreak and that the only fatalities were 187 terrorists. The incident drew international condemnation—and some sanctions from the European Union and the United States—but Uzbekistan’s repressive status quo remained intact.

Uzbekistan also faced international criticism for its state-run mobilization of forced labour for the cotton industry, which yearly saw about a million children and adults coerced into harvesting cotton, often under abusive conditions and for little or no pay. Uzbekistan took some steps in 2012 to reduce its reliance on child labour, but the practice of drafting hundreds of thousands of nonvoluntary cotton pickers continued, and government agents continued their harassment and intimidation of the system’s critics inside Uzbekistan.

Karimov began his third decade in power amid rumours of poor health and with no official successor in place. There were reports of power struggles within the circle of Uzbekistan’s governmental and commercial elite. One such struggle burst into public view in 2014 when Karimov’s daughter Gulnara Karimova—a possible successor and one of the most recognizable personages in the country, as a result of her forays into business, pop music, and fashion—abruptly fell out of favour and was placed under indefinite house arrest after being implicated in a Swiss corruption investigation and reportedly feuding with other members of the Karimov family.

In September 2016 Karimov died, leaving the long-serving prime minister Shavkat Mirziyoyev as interim president. Mirziyoyev won a full term as president in December, with nearly 90 percent of the vote in an election in which he faced only token opposition. Mirziyoyev’s first moves in office appeared to be aimed at staving off political challenges and consolidating power. He dismissed powerful government officials, shuffled others around, and projected the air of a populist reformer.

Mirziyoyev made some efforts to open the economy and improve Uzbekistan’s sometimes tense relations with the international community. His policies lifted many barriers to trade, allowed the currency to float, and courted foreign investment. He showed at least nominal concern for human rights issues, releasing political prisoners and tolerating some public protests. He reached out to the country’s neighbours as well, most notably Tajikistan. Under Mirziyoyev, Uzbekistan reversed its harsh opposition to the construction of the hydroelectric Rogun Dam. An Uzbek delegation attended the dam’s inauguration in 2018, just years after Karimov had threatened war over its construction (out of fear that it would divert water from Uzbekistan). But despite Mirziyoyev’s reforms, many observers noted continued authoritarian behaviour and suggested that the reforms were motivated primarily by economic, rather than civic, development.