Uzbekisation or Uzbekization is the process of forcing or inducing an Uzbek identity on people or cultural heritage through a variety of administrative means. The term refers to the specific forms of indigenization ( ''korenizacija'') that took place in Uzbekistan during the process of national delimitation in Central Asia in the 1920s and early 1930s. Because of assimilation pressures that began in 1924 with the creation of

Uzbek SSR The Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic (, ), also known as Soviet Uzbekistan, the Uzbek SSR, UzSSR, or simply Uzbekistan and rarely Uzbekia, was a union republic of the Soviet Union. It was governed by the Uzbek branch of the Soviet Communist P ...

, ethnic Tajiks often chose to identify themselves as Uzbeks in population census forms and preferred to be registered as Uzbek in their passports to avoid leaving the republic for the less developed agricultural and mountainous Tajikistan. While official Uzbek statistics place the total Tajik population in Uzbekistan at about 5%,CIA World Factbook: Uzbekistan
(1996 est.) subjective expert estimates suggest that the Tajiks may account for as much as 25%-30% of the total population of the country.

Richard Foltz Richard Foltz is a Canadian historian who specializes in the history of Iranian civilization — sometimes referred to as " Greater Iran". He has also been active in the areas of environmental ethics and animal rights. Biography Foltz is a ful ...

, "The Tajiks of Uzbekistan", ''Central Asian Survey'', 15(2), 213-216 (1996). After the

dissolution of the Soviet Union The Soviet Union was formally dissolved as a sovereign state and subject of international law on 26 December 1991 by Declaration No. 142-N of the Soviet of the Republics of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union. Declaration No. 142-Н of ...

, the term "Uzbekization" has been applied to the processes in

Uzbekistan , image_flag = Flag of Uzbekistan.svg , image_coat = Emblem of Uzbekistan.svg , symbol_type = Emblem of Uzbekistan, Emblem , national_anthem = "State Anthem of Uzbekistan, State Anthem of the Republ ...

that reverse the results of Sovietization and

Russification Russification (), Russianisation or Russianization, is a form of cultural assimilation in which non-Russians adopt Russian culture and Russian language either voluntarily or as a result of a deliberate state policy. Russification was at times ...

. Among these are restoring the importance of

Uzbek language Uzbek is a Karluk Turkic language spoken by Uzbeks. It is the official and national language of Uzbekistan and formally succeeded Chagatai, an earlier Karluk language endonymically called or , as the literary language of Uzbekistan in the 19 ...

, which replaced the Russian language in obligatory education, promotion of Uzbek tradition and culture.

References

Cultural assimilation Culture of Uzbekistan Ethnic Tajik people {{cultural-assimilation-stub

See also

References