Inomjon Usmonxo‘jayev

Inomjon Buzrukovich Usmonxo‘jayev (in Cyrillic Uzbek: Иномжон Бузрукович Усмонхўжаев ; in Russian: Инамджан Бузрукович Усманходжаев "Inamdzhan Buzrukovich Usmankhodzhayev") (born on 21 May 1930) served as the eleventh General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Uzbek SSR. Usmonxo‘jayev became General Secretary following the disastrous "Cotton Scandal."

The Cotton Scandal

Usmonxo‘jayev succeeded Sharof Rashidov, who had been General Secretary since the 1950s. As orders from Moscow to grow more and more and more cotton spiraled in, the Uzbek government responded by reporting miraculous growth in land irrigated and harvested, and record improvements in production and efficiency. Today it would seem that most of these records were falsified. Uzbek leadership used these exaggerated figures to transfer substantial amounts of wealth from central Soviet funds into Uzbekistan. During the decade following the death of Rashidov, Moscow attempted to regain the central control over the Uzbek SSR that had weakened in the previous decade. In 1986, it was announced that almost the entire party and government leadership of the republic had conspired in falsifying cotton production figures. A massive purge (only one minister survived the purge) of the Uzbek leadership was carried out, with prosecutors brought in from Moscow, leading to widespread arrests, executions, and suicides. It may never be know how high the corruption extended, as Brezhnev’s own son-in-law, Yuri Churbanov was implicated in the affair. In the Soviet Union, Uzbekistan became synonymous with corruption even though such corruption was widespread throughout the USSR. It would seem that central government had singled Uzbeks out unfairly in order to move attention away from the rest of the corruption; in the 1980s, this resentment led to a strengthening of Uzbek nationalism.

Usmonxo‘jayev's term

It was while Usmonxo‘jayev was General Secretary that satellite images showed that the Uzbek government's reports were false. Usmonxo‘jayev held his position throughout the scandal, serving as a puppet of Moscow as the Central Committee tried to strengthen its grip in Uzbekistan. Usmonxo‘jayev was General Secretary from 3 November 1983 until 12 January 1988. His replacement was Rafiq Nishonov.

References

[http://www.worldstatesmen.org/Uzbekistan.html World Statesmen - Uzbekistan]