Charaf Rachidov

Charaf Rachidovitch Rachidov (Uzbek: ШарофРашидовичРашидов or Sharof Rashidovich Rashidov ) (November 6th 1917 - October 31st 1983) - a Soviet politician Uzbek, first secretary of the Communist party of RSS of Ouzbékistan of March 1959 at October 1983, writer (Price Lénine of literature).

Business of cotton

A phenomenon which largely worked the history of the Ouzbékistan in years 60-80 was the intensive development of the culture of the Coton, ordered by Moscow within the framework of the specialization of the Soviet republics. The mediatized objective of the Soviet planners was to produce 6 million tons of the “white gold” Uzbek. This unrestrained development, with a race with the outputs under the conditions of the deficit of the irrigated grounds available had a catastrophic impact on the ecology of the area: the disproportionate use of artificial fertilizers and Exfoliant S.A. poisoned the grounds and water, while the accelerated drainage of the resources of the rivers Amou-Daria and Syr-Daria for the goal of the irrigation led to the draining of the Mer of Aral where they are thrown, its surface was decreased by half in 40 years.

Under the pressure of Moscow to produce even more cotton, the Uzbek leaders developed a corrupted system of falsifications of the statistics. Charaf Rachidov, its entourage, as well as the son-in-law of Léonid Brejnev, were implied in the business of imaginary cotton (several hundreds of thousands of tons) what got gold profits with the budget of the Uzbek State, like in the pockets of main concerns; End 1983, at the time when the vastest fraud of the history of the Soviet Union was uncovered, Rachidov dies of an heart attack (one also speaks about the suicide). The Soviet press, supplied with the investigations of federal judges Gdlian and Ivanov, broke out then against Uzbek the “clans”, introduced as dangerous a guilty Mafia to have gangrené all the company (one spoke about a " Maffia of the coton" or " Maffia ouzbek"). The readers attentive with these revelations as resounding as unusual did not fail to trace a parallel between the “business of the cotton”, which marked a rapid degradation of the relations between Moscow and the Soviet Moslem elites, and the gears of the war of Afghanistan, whose Iouri Andropov was one of the most enthusiastic promoters.

In spite of the extent of the “business of cotton” and the will of the current Uzbek capacity to put under silence its Soviet past, Rachidov is appreciated officially as a leader who invested much in the development of the republic (several architectural whole of scale was set up with Tachkent under its reign, as well as the subway) and which could obtain from Moscow a certain autonomy by a subtle play of influences and a use of the failures of the Soviet apparatus to the profit of Ouzbékistan. A monument was set up to him in the downtown area of Tachkent to beginning of the year 90.

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