G. I. ZHELTOVA. HISTORIOGRAPHY OF THE SOCIALIST AND COMMUNIST CONSTRUCTION OF SOVIET UZBEKISTAN (1930-1970). TASHKENT. "FAN". 1981. 184 P.

October 1984 marked the 60th anniversary of the formation of the Uzbek SSR. Understanding the significance of the event, Soviet historians began to prepare for it in advance. Collectively, they produced a considerable number of works designed to show the main stages of the socialist transformation of the national economy of the republic, the laws and specifics of its development, first under the dictatorship of the proletariat, and then within the framework of the national state. The importance and relevance of creating this kind of literature is all the greater because intensive work is currently underway on a new edition of the CPSU Program, which should summarize the historical experience of building mature socialism in the USSR and show it as an integral result of the conscious creativity of all the peoples of our multinational country.

Under these conditions, the publication of historiographical studies that deepen and concretize the existing ideas about the ascent of Soviet society to its current heights, as well as about the development of historical science itself, which covers this pioneering feat, is of particular interest. The category of such studies includes with good reason the new monograph of Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor G. I. Zheltova (Tashkent Pedagogical Institute), which logically continues the previous book of the author, which analyzes similar literature devoted to the socialist transformations in the UZSSR in the period of the 20-30s1 .

This time, the author focuses not only on the key problems of the transition period, when there was a struggle to build the foundations of socialism, to transform NEP Russia into a socialist Russia, but also carefully examines the works of social scientists describing the subsequent course of socialist construction in Uzbekistan. The monograph mainly analyzes works showing the industrial progress of the republic and the growth of the working class, the victory of the collective - farm system and its subsequent development, the implementation of the tasks of the cultural revolution in the Uzbek SSR, and the Leninist solution of the national question.

In general, the book presents literature published over the past half-century and covers the most important areas of economic, social and cultural life of the largest republic of the Soviet East for all the years of its existence. This allows us to speak about the originality of the author's idea, because such studies on the materials of the UzSSR have not yet been conducted, and about the scale of the analytical work done by G. I. Zheltova.

The structure of the monograph, the main content of which is presented in three chapters, is quite reasonably predetermined by the tasks outlined in the introduction: to consider Lenin's provisions on the ways of socialist construction in Central Asia, and then to comprehensively analyze the literature published from the mid-30s to the end of the 50s and in the next two decades. In each of the chapters, scientific products are considered problem-chronologically. With this approach to literature, some repetitions are inevitable, but they overlap with quite obvious advantages, thanks to which the reader sees how, in what conditions, the study of a particular issue was born in Uzbekistan, which ensured the expansion of the subject and the circle of researchers, what are the currently achieved milestones and urgent tasks. At the same time, this approach reinforces the existing idea of the progressive development of historical thought in Uzbekistan, its connection with the movement of historical science in the USSR. It reveals not only the commonality of the most important trends (which is quite natural), but also a certain specificity in the development of historical science in the republic. The latter is largely due to the training of local personnel, whose contingent increased especially rapidly in the 60s-70s, and the creation of new scientific centers.

1 Zheltova G. I. Socialist construction in Uzbekistan. Historiographical sketch. Tashkent, 1975.

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the growing interest of researchers in in-depth and multidimensional coverage of the non-capitalist path of development, the desire of historians to show the international significance of the Soviet experience of the rapid elimination of the age-old backwardness of the Uzbek people.

Of greatest interest is the last chapter of the monograph, which deals with the works published at the present stage of development of Soviet society. The 60 - year path taken by the republic within the framework of the USSR is more correctly called the historical leap made by Uzbekistan in the social movement as a result of the Great October Revolution and the victory of socialism. The concept of developed socialism developed by the Communist Party broadened the horizons of researchers, opened up additional opportunities for them to cover each of the passed stages and create generalizing books on the history of the working class of the republic, the intelligentsia, the socio-economic development of the Uzbek SSR, etc.

Having fairly focused on explaining the course of events studied in the literature, showing the growing scale that characterizes the progress of historical thought in the republic, the author in the last chapter shifts the focus to clarifying not only what has been achieved, but also to analyzing the conditions that determine the future of historians of Uzbekistan. With this in mind, the monograph formulates the tasks of the forthcoming study of the problems of industrialization, socialist reconstruction of agriculture, and the development of the agro-industrial complex. The book is quite specific about what cultural historians, researchers studying the history of national policy implementation in the republic, etc. will have to do.

With due logic, the tasks of creating complex generalizing works that cover issues of industrial progress in Uzbekistan, agricultural transformations, and cultural construction within the framework of a single study are singled out in a separate group. However, it should be noted that in this case the content of the monograph is much richer than the author's recommendations. An analysis of books and articles published in the 70s makes it necessary to move away, for example, from the traditional coverage of the history of the working class mainly based on the materials of its industrial group. The agricultural sector has changed its face, with a sharp increase in the number of state farms, RTSS, and agricultural and industrial associations. The service of everyday life takes on unprecedented proportions. All this requires not only expanding the approach to the previously outlined topics, but also setting up concrete historical studies on the transformation of the working class into the majority of the working people, on the significance of this process for changes in the social structure of the population and in the life of the republic as a whole.

The issue of studying the impact of scientific and technological progress on the socio-economic and cultural development of Uzbekistan is on the agenda. So far, this is mainly done by philosophers, sociologists, and economists in the republic. The author describes their works, notes the advantages and disadvantages. It would be even more useful if historians also received similar considerations. The number of such examples can be increased, which indicates the need for more complete use of predictive functions of historiographic research.

G. I. Zheltova did not set out in her monograph the task of linking the development of the historiography of the socialist construction of Uzbekistan with the problems developed in other Central Asian republics and Kazakhstan. But with all its content, the book brings researchers to the need to conduct a comparative analysis of the development of issues considered in this book, with their coverage in the literature of other Central Asian republics and Kazakhstan. This once again proves that the reviewed monograph reflects the progressive movement of historical science in Uzbekistan, an organic and integral part of the historical science of the USSR.

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