The Independence of Uzbekistan Was Good for the Uzbeks Even Though They Have Basically the Same System of Government as in the Soviet Union
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It is in the nature of things for people of countries under some forced union of a unifying power to become content or to have a higher standard of living when their country acquires its independence. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was one of these unifying powers, which influenced several regions to unite as Soviet Socialist Republics (SSRs), in 1922, under the same government. Uzbekistan was a land divided by khanates when it became an SSR. Joining the USSR actually helped Uzbekistan; the Soviets built roads, schools, and modern houses, and expanded industry. Some things that the Soviet rule caused, however, were not as beneficial to Uzbekistan; ethnic violence became very strong, and the environment was compromised when the land was over-fertilized, and the river water over-irrigated. Uzbekistan was one of the first countries to claim independence from the USSR, in late August of 1991, and later joined the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), in early 1992, which is essentially like the USSR except the countries within it are independent and ruled by their own governments. UzbekistanЎ¦s independence was indeed to the advantage of the Uzbeks, even though the present form of government is essentially the same as the previous one.
UzbekistanЎ¦s current government is a republic only in name; in essence, there is authoritarian presidential rule, with little power outside the executive branch. The government of Uzbekistan, under Soviet rule, was very oppressive and was forced upon the Uzbek people. For example, The Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) was the only legal party allowed in Uzbekistan, and other SSRs, until as late as 1990. (Pryce-Jones, 482) Uzbeks were underrepresented in the higher levels of the Communist Party-ruled countries, and they were even more underrepresented in the central levels of the party in Moscow. The Soviets ran their government so that the peopleЎ¦s will was not needed to have a fair representation of them. What ended up happening, then, was that the Soviet government would arrange for an Uzbek, who was loyal to them, to become the representative for the Uzbeks of Uzbekistan within the Soviet Union. The Communists did things just to make sure that the people in the USSR all trusted them. Ў§The CPSUЎ¦s national campaign to clean up corruption widely publicized the misdeeds of the Uzbek SSRЎ¦s political officials in the preceding period, [involving inflating cotton production figures and diverting payments from the Soviet UnionЎ¦s central government].ЎЁ (Pryce-Jones, 487) [This national campaign having happened right before the fall of the USSR, around 1990, the corruption mentioned is most likely that of the Uzbek officials holding their positions at the time.] In 1992, however, Uzbekistan drafted a new constitution, as an independent republic. This document, replacing the soviet constitution, Ў§declare[d] Uzbekistan to be a secular and democratic republic and guarantee[d] basic human rights.ЎЁ (Fierman, main page) Now, a president would be directly elected to a five-year term as the head of state, but not for more than two consecutive terms. This law was broken through a referendum in 1997, which extended current president Islom KarimovЎ¦s term to 2000, when he was reelected again. (CIA, main page) This new kind of government allowed the country to join in any organizations or treaty-related alliances it willed.
The dissolution of the USSR, in December of 1991, and the grouping of the CIS, completed by early 1992, helped to take away ethnic violence that sprouted when the peoples of different SSRs clashed. During WWII, many industries were relocated from vulnerable areas at the Euro-USSR front, to the Uzbek SSR; these industries were followed by a massive influx of Russians and others. This influx led to many later ethnic violence problems. Also during the war, the Ў§Soviet authorities relocated entire ethnic groups from other parts of the [USSR] to the Uzbek [SSR] and elsewhere in Central Asia. Stalin suspected these groups of being in collaboration with the Axis powers against the USSR.ЎЁ (Kenez, 256-7) StalinЎ¦s idea of putting people suspected of collaborating with the Axis Powers in Uzbekistan shows just how much the Soviet government really cared for the individual SSRs, like Uzbekistan, and their people.
Uzbek society was altered in major ways during the Soviet period; Islam, the traditional religion of the region, became a crucial point in the 1920s for the antireligious drives of Communist zealots. Most mosques were closed, and religious schools became antireligious museums. Uzbeks who were deemed nationalist, who often happened to be practicing Muslims, were targeted for imprisonment and in many cases, execution, during Soviet leader Joseph StalinЎ¦s Great Purge of the 1930s, which extended throughout all levels of Soviet society. (Smith 188) StalinЎ¦s hateful