POLITICIAN AND DIPLOMAT (1965 - 1970). Uzbekistan Culture
Uzbekistan continued to play an important role in the Soviet Union's foreign and cultural policy aimed at Asia and Africa. The republic became an active participant and player in this field in the early 1950s, and by the end of the next decade was already a recognised authority. Sharaf Rashidov, who visited almost all Asian countries and established personal contacts with most of their leaders, played a huge role in this. In the autumn of 1968, with the personal participation of Sharaf Rashidov, another bridge was thrown connecting the countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America: the first International Film Festival was organised in Tashkent. That was an important event for the country from both the cultural and international aspects, which further consolidated the authority and strengthened the ties of friendship between Uzbekistan and the "third world" countries. The festival was a great success. It helped create an objective picture of the development of progressive cinema on the three continents.
UZBEK LITERATURE PLAYED AN IMPORTANT ROLE IN THE MULTINATIONAL SOVIET CULTURE. FOR EXAMPLE, ONE OF THE MOST POPULAR THICK MAGAZINES READ BY THE SOVIET INTELLIGENTSIA WAS ZVEZDA VOSTOKA (STAR OF THE EAST) PUBLISHED IN TASHKENT. THAT WAS WHAT THE WRITER USTIMENKO SAID ABOUT IT: “UZBEK LITERATURE AT THAT TIME WAS BY NO MEANS PROVINCIAL. IT WAS MOSCOW MAGAZINES WHICH COULD NOT AFFORD ANY LITERARY LIBERTY WERE IN FACT PROVINCIAL AT THAT TIME. AND ZVEZDA VOSTOKA ACTUALLY COULD”.
One of the most interesting issues of the magazine, published after the tragic 1966 earthquake, was a big sensation in the country.
THAT YEAR, MANY FAMOUS WRITERS AND POETS DECIDED TO SUBMIT THEIR WORKS FOR PUBLICATION IN THE NEXT ISSUE OF ZVEZDA VOSTOKA. THEY PLANNED TO TRANSFER THEIR HONORARIA FROM THE PUBLICATION TO THE TASHKENT RESTORATION FUND. AND SO THEY DID.
The number turned out to be very interesting. It was very hard to get it. Because it contained not only the semi-disgraced Voznesensky, Akhmadulina, Yevtushenko and others, but also the literary works by Mikhail Bulgakov, Osip Mandelstam and Isaac Babel, which had been suppressed for many years before that...
Among the authors that were regularly published in the magazine at that time were the writer Tatiana Sergeevna Yesenina, the famous poet's daughter, and Vulis, literary critic who made the first attempt to rescue the novel The Master and Margarita from oblivion. There is one curious fact: when Rashidov was on a business trip in Moscow in the same year, a number of famous writers who were friends with him asked him to bring them the very rare issue of Zvezda Vostoka on his next visit, saying they couldn't get it in Moscow.
