Repression of intellectuals and the cult of personality

After the war the wave of repression was aimed mainly at figures of science and culture. On 1 September 1950 the bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Uzbekistan examined the work of the Academy of Sciences and condemned a number of scholars, including Abdusamad Boboxo‘jayev, Vohid Zohidov, Olim Aminov and Olim Usmonov. At a plenum of the Central Committee in February 1952 the first secretary Amin Niyozov’s report accused a group of intellectuals of nationalism; their works and the reading of the epic “Alpomish” were banned. According to the textbook, 12 creative figures (Said Ahmad, Shukrullo, Mirzakalon Ismoiliy, Shuhrat, Maqsud Shayxzoda and others) were arrested in 1951 and sentenced to 25 years, and were cleared and returned in 1955. Joseph Stalin died on 5 March 1953; on 25 February 1956, at a closed session of the 20th Congress of the CPSU, Nikita Khrushchev delivered a report on the cult of personality and its consequences. The textbook says about 40,000 people were rehabilitated in Uzbekistan, but that this was done within party ideology and selectively; first secretaries were Amin Niyozov (1950–1955), Nuriddin Muhitdinov (1955–1957) and Sobir Kamolov (December 1957–March 1959).