PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC (1950 - 1959). VIRGIN LAND AND NEW CITIES IN THE GOLODNAYA STEPPE
NEW PRODUCTION PLANS
The election of Sharaf Rashidov the First secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Uzbek SSR was marked by new production plans for Uzbekistan. In 1956, on the industrial base prepared during the war, Uzbekistan managed to achieve new records: 70% of the total volume of cotton in the USSR, 50% of silk cocoons and 35% of karakul were produced in the republic; gas and cement production doubled. For these successes, Uzbekistan was awarded the second Order of Lenin; almost 16,000 collective farmers, machine operators and party members were awarded orders and medals – this was the largest awarding of the excellent workers of Uzbekistan throughout the history of the republic.
In the same 1956, in August, a resolution was adopted by the Central Committee of the CPSU "On irrigation and development of 300,000 hectares of virgin land in the Golodnaya Steppe in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan". Sharaf Rashidov always considered this region a huge opportunity for the development of agriculture, so he supported the party's directive and implemented it in the best way, calling the young people who cultivated the virgin land real heroes.
