Khrushchev's thaw also manifested itself in domestic politics: in February 1956, Khrushchev's theses were first heard at the 20th Congress of the CPSU, disclosing the cult of Joseph Stalin.
Sharaf Rashidov supported the new political course of the party and immediately made proposals to review the cases of the repressed in Uzbekistan. And after returning from diplomatic trips to South-East Asia and the Middle East, Sharaf Rashidov, in a note to the Bureau of the CP Central Committee, made statements that were quite liberal for the Soviet times. Firstly, he made a convincing criticism of the disrespectful attitude to the feelings of believers in the republic, and secondly, he gave reasons why people should honour their histories and turn to literary classics for inspiration.
SHARAF RASHIDOV'S NOTE HAD AN IMMEDIATE EFFECT. AND THIS IS ANOTHER AMAZING FACT FROM THE HISTORY OF THE USSR – EVEN THE ARDENT ATHEIST N. S. KHRUSHCHEV DID NOT TAKE SHARAF RASHIDOV'S ASPIRATIONS AS NATIONALISM AND ISLAMISATION.
The Bureau of the Central Committee of the CP of Uzbekistan considered the note and made a number of decisions on his proposals. Among them were:
Publication of a collection of essays on the life of Muslims in Uzbekistan and an illustrated guide to religious places of the republic in several languages (Uzbek, Arabic, Farsi and Urdu);
Improvement of the quality of radio broadcasts for the countries of the foreign East in order to show freedom of religion in the USSR;
An instruction for the Institute of Oriental Studies under the Academy of Sciences of the Uzbek SSR and the Oriental Faculty of the Central Asian State University to study all materials published in the foreign press regarding the situation in Soviet Central Asia, and informing the leadership of the republic about these materials;
An instruction to the Ministry of Culture of the Uzbek SSR to ensure the sending of letters and articles to foreign Muslim journals by the leaders of the Religious Administration of Muslims of Central Asia and Kazakhstan exposing slander about the lack of freedom of religion in Uzbekistan;
Resumption of the publication of an illustrated magazine – the body of the Religious Administration of the Muslims of Central Asia and Kazakhstan – with the intention to make most of its copies to be distributed abroad;
Permission given to the Religious Administration to open a theological school in Tashkent for 30 students through reduction of the number of students in the Mirarab madrasah in Bukhara in 1956;
Permission to the Religious Administration to build a country-type hotel in Tashkent for receiving foreign delegations of believers;
Permission to transfer some mosques and mazars under the jurisdiction of the Architectural Department to the Religious Administration.
All these events are reflected in the literary works of Sharaf Rashidov. In 1958, he published the novel Stronger than the Storm, whose notable feature is an organic combination of poetry and journalism, where the author personally assesses people, events and phenomena.
In the late 1950s, Sharaf Rashidov wrote two oriental legends praising beauty, love, courage, and freedom and telling about the eternal confrontation of good and evil: The Kashmir Song was about the struggle of the Indian people for their liberation from colonial oppression and The Book of Two Hearts about the love between a dancer and a young singer, published in 1956. Good and evil, hatred and love, loyalty and betrayal are reflected in an elegant metaphorical form inspired by the poetics of folklore, a fairy tale that always denies evil and praises the nobility and sublime impulses of the soul.
