On 26 April 1966, Tashkent was still sleeping peacefully when at 5:22 a.m. the ground was shaken by a strongest earthquake of more than 8 by the Richter scale.
ACCORDING TO SEISMOLOGISTS, THE DESTRUCTIVE UNDERGROUND FORCE WAS COLOSSAL, AND THE ONLY THING THAT SAVED THE ANCIENT CITY FROM COMPLETE DESTRUCTION WAS THAT THE EPICENTRE WAS RELATIVELY CLOSE TO THE SURFACE – FROM 3 TO 8 KILOMETERS DEEP.
In Tashkent, an area of 10 square kilometres in the city centre was particularly damaged, but mostly old adobe houses were destroyed by the earthquake, so the death rate was very low.
According to the official commission, about 79,000 families in Tashkent were left without a roof over their heads. The total number of destroyed buildings was 37,395, including 35,000 residential houses (about 92,000 flats).
RASHIDOV IMMEDIATELY CALLED MOSCOW AND REPORTED THE ACCIDENT TO BREZHNEV, WHO DECIDED TO FLY TO TASHKENT RIGHT AT THE MOMENT.
These are the recollections of the famous seismographer Professor Ulomov: "An hour after the earthquake, because the telephone connection in the city was completely damaged, a car was sent for me, driven by a police major. I was not taken to prison, but to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Uzbekistan for a meeting with Sharaf Rashidov, Leonid Brezhnev and Alexey Kosygin, who had already arrived from Moscow. I started reporting the situation... Brezhnev was the first to interrupt me, asking me to show on a city map the place where we were then, in relation to the epicentre of the earthquake. I showed it. Suddenly, shouts and much noise from below, outside the windows of the Central Committee building, reached our ears. Brezhnev asked if it was an earthquake shock. I said no. A football match between the national teams of Belarus and Uzbekistan was not cancelled. Then he said jokingly: 'Well, Sharaf Rashidovich, you haven't had any earthquake. They are just scoring goals...' But the next moment a real shock of 4 by the Richter scale took place, to which Brezhnev continued saying: "Now I have to take a sleeping bag and go to sleep somewhere under a tree...' Then I noticed that Brezhnev very often turned to Kosygin, asking his opinion." Thanks to Kosygin, he supported Rashidov's request to allow the construction of an underground in Tashkent and specified the volume of resources the Soviet republics would be able to supply for the restoration of Tashkent. Another favourable circumstance for Tashkent was a proposal to refuse from the adobe city, but avoid replacing it with temporary structures, which, according to Brezhnev, "had the potential to become permanent..."
According to many later Uzbek historians, Rashidov showed much resourcefulness and patience in that situation. He had long dreamed of starting the reconstruction of Tashkent and especially its centre, but there was no money for large-scale construction in the republic's budget. Meanwhile, Moscow refused.
SO THE CAPITAL OF UZBEKISTAN ACTUALLY TURNED INTO AN ALL-UNION CONSTRUCTION SITE. TASHKENT RESIDENTS, WHO DURING THE SECOND WORLD WAR RECEIVED THOUSANDS OF EVACUEES FROM UKRAINE, BELARUS AND RUSSIA, FELT THE FRATERNAL HELP FROM ALL THE SOVIET REPUBLICS 20 YEARS LATER. MEANWHILE, CONSTRUCTION TEAMS FROM ALL OVER THE SOVIET UNION ARRIVED IN THE CITY EVERY DAY.
Children from Tashkent, apart from Artek, were sent to pioneer (children's) camps in 94 regions of the USSR. So, on 12 June, 395 children were sent to Kyiv by planes, 244 children were sent to Baku on 15 June and 240 children on each of 21 and 22 June, 349 children were sent to Odessa on 4 July and so on.
In general, the 1966 earthquake turned out to be the litmus test, which showed how competent and enthusiastic were the authorities of Uzbekistan. All the construction was to be carried out according to a Glavmosstroy programme at the expense of the Moscow City Executive Committee and other Moscow developers (with a total cost of 56.1 million roubles).
Meanwhile, other regions assumed similar obligations. Thus, the RSFSR undertook to build 330,000 square meters of housing in Tashkent (in monetary terms, the Russian Federation would spend more on the restoration of Tashkent than all the other regions: 174.7 million roubles for the construction activities and 1.106 million roubles would be transferred to the Aid Fund). An aid fund was established to receive the citizens' personal and collective donations. This helped to relocate many families from tents to renovated apartments before the onset of cold weather.
