“Uzbeks - They are the weak link in the great chain of socialism”
“Uzbeks - They are the weak link in the great chain of socialism”
That sounds like either Lenin or Stalin. Years ago I wrote my master’s thesis about ethnicity in the Russian & Soviet military. In 1916 the Russian army ran so short of conscripts that they began drafting Central Asians. This resulted in the Karshi Draft Riots of 1916 where thousands of Uzbeks were killed resisting conscription.
The U.S. base in Uzbekistan was the old Soviet airbase Karshi-Khanabad, near where these riots took place nearly a century before.
And speaking of the weak link, one of the KBR secretaries boasted to me that she admired Stalin & wished that UZ was still part of the Soviet Union! In fact, most of the Uzbek young people had some nostalgia for communism. I think it was the wannabe factor - acting Russian was their way of appearing modern & connected with the world.