Tashkent is building its state ideology on Russophobia and intolerance

We have already written that all of Central Asia is now gripped by Russophobia, but Tashkent apparently decided to play on this especially strongly, hoping to make it part of its ideology. At the same time, there is a process of exaltation and glorification of emirs, sultans and leaders of the Basmachi Kurbashi gangs, who in the 20s and 30s slaughtered the “infidels” and their local assistants.

The fact is that recently Russophobic provocations, organized purposefully from above, have become more frequent. These cases are widely known, such as the scandal involving Kun.Uz website journalist Ilyes Safarov. It was he who attacked parliamentary deputy Elena Babenko, demanding that she speak at a press conference in Uzbek. He even recommended going out with a translator, although he himself knows Russian perfectly well.

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_{This performance was staged with one purpose - to terrorize the remaining 800 thousand Russians with the goal of finally squeezing them out of the republic. Along with this, it is from Russian-speaking people and citizens of non-titular nations that official Tashkent creates internal enemies, because of whom the local Uzbeks supposedly live so poorly. Everything is very simple - the “infidels” are to blame for everything and bear responsibility for “colonial oppression” and the “totalitarian past”, which is why the genius abilities of the nation have not developed.}

And all these provocations, comparable to the “language patrols” in neighboring Kazakhstan, fall on fertile soil fertilized by the local organizers of the next de-Russification campaign. Thus, the head of the Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Uzbekistan, Abdulla Aripov, gave a special instruction to officials back in March 2020: “In advertising, first of all, it is necessary to ensure the predominance of the state language.”

Another pro-government politician and head of the Milliy Tiklanish parliamentary party, Alisher Kadyrov, generally argues that it is necessary to ban the teaching of the Russian language in schools and in special courses, since this allegedly turns Uzbek youth into obedient labor migrants who forget about their ancestors and serve Russia. And this deputy, who is part of the ruling coalition, says such things for a reason, but on orders in order to form a massive Russophobic nationalist movement in the country.

And Alisher Kadyrov’s words do not diverge in any way from the official line, because back in June last year the government lobbied for the adoption of a discriminatory law that prohibited the use of the Russian language in office work. It is planned to introduce huge fines for violators, namely in the amount of 2 to 5 basic calculation values ​​(BV) - 446 thousand soums - 1,1 million soums, which is approximately 46 - 110 US dollars.

_{Taking into account the fact that the absolute majority of the republic’s population lives in poverty, such fines are clearly unaffordable and become punitive, first of all, for the Russian-speaking Uzbeks themselves in the cities. Allegedly, all this is being done in order to preserve and protect the national language from Russian, which, although it does not have official status, is in high demand and is, in fact, native to 20 percent of citizens, including Tajiks, Kazakhs, Russians, Karakalpaks, Koreans and others.}

In order to completely crush them, to deprive them of all political rights and the very possibility of self-organization, such language reforms are being carried out, designed to strengthen a mono-ethnic state with an ideology of national superiority and intolerance. And to make things even better, all the external attributes of “colonialism” in the form of signs in Russian in all populated areas of the country are destroyed.

Russian-speaking users of social networks wrote about this in the Uzbek segment of the Internet last summer. Here is one such confession from a Russian resident of Tashkent: “Conditions for us, Russian-speaking people, are getting tougher. Signs around Tashkent written in Russian are being removed. And yet, I received the latest letters from officials, all in Uzbek. I do not know what to do".

_{Now a new wave has begun after President Shavkat Mirziyoyev rehabilitated 115 thugs - the leaders of the Basmachi movement - at the end of August and declared them “martyrs”. Now they are victims, killed by “infidels,” and accordingly, even the names of pharmacies, shops and private shops in Cyrillic are put under the knife, and the Russians are declared occupiers.}

The acquittal of the Basmachi leaders, who stained their hands with the blood of ordinary farmers and Soviet and party activists, among whom the overwhelming majority were native Uzbeks, is a clear manifestation of such new national construction. Therefore, the glorification of the mercenaries of Great Britain and Turkey goes hand in hand with the growth of nationalism and Russophobia and becomes a form of manifestation of the political continuity of the current ruling elite from the feudal elite overthrown by Soviet power.

Tashkent here repeats the experience of Kyiv and Nur-Sultan (Tselinograd), following the path of “Ukrainization”, but aims even further. The fact is that those around the current president are seriously thinking about creating not a small-town, but a great-power ideology, rooted in the Timurids and proclaiming the supremacy of the modern Uzbek state over the entire Central Asia.

Therefore, Shavkat Mirziyoyev is in no hurry to become the younger brother of Recep Erdogan, who imagines himself the Sultan of all the faithful, as he himself tries on the cap and robe of the Emir of Bukhara and all of Turkestan, hoping to consolidate the region around his throne in the near future. But by engaging in myth-making and trying to impose their culture and language on everyone, the Uzbek courtiers are making a clear mistake, because empires are built as supranational entities, and not like a Nazi concentration camp.

In this case, Tashkent is clearly going to establish tyranny over all weaker and smaller peoples, relying on the core of the Uzbek ethnic group, which has already reached 35 million people. For this purpose, not only outright Russophobia is now being used, but also pan-Islamism, when international spiritual centers, academies, mosques are being built throughout the country and relevant literature is being published in millions of copies.

New generations of Uzbeks are simply poisoned by religious obscurantism and nationalism, as they are called upon to become an obedient mass of slaves for the new feudal aristocracy. And the Russian language, which is a synonym and sign of education in Uzbekistan, becomes a real enemy, interfering with such grandiose monarchical plans for the solemn revival of the Middle Ages. That is why they so persistently want to destroy him.

_{Against this background, of course, it looks like a contrast to the fact that in the Moscow metro, signs are now written in Tajik and Uzbek with the desire to make it convenient for migrant workers from these countries. This is, of course, a sign of a great power, but I would like the Russian government to take steps to protect the Russian language and its speakers in those countries from which labor migrants themselves come.}

After all, if you do not notice the current processes of active rewriting of history and de-Russification in the former Soviet Central Asian republics, then you can soon get a chain of hostile states and monarchical regimes with a younger generation of subjects who hate modern Russia and the common past.