Sharof Rashidov
Sharof Rashidovich Rashidov (Uzbek Cyrillic: Шароф Рашидович Рашидов; Russian: Шараф Рашидович Рашидов "Sharaf Rashidovich Rashidov"; – 31 October 1983) was a Communist Party leader in the Uzbek SSR and a CPSU Central Committee Politburo candidate member between 1961 and 1983. Born the day before the Russian Revolution to a poor peasant family in Jizzakh, Uzbekistan, Sharaf Rashidov worked as a teacher, journalist and editor for a Samarkand newspaper. He returned home in 1942 with wounds suffered on the German front in World War II. He became head of the Uzbekistan Writers Union in 1949, and was elected to the  post of Chairman of the Praesidium of the Uzbek Supreme Soviet in 1950. In 1959, he became First Secretary of the Uzbek Communist Party, a post he held to his death in 1983. In the Soviet Union his name became synonymous with corruption, nepotism and the Great Cotton Scandal of the late Brezhnev period. With orders from Moscow to grow increasing quantities of cotton, the Uzbek government responded by reporting miraculous growth in land irrigated and harvested, and record improvements in production and efficiency. The Uzbek leadership used these exaggerated figures to transfer substantial amounts of wealth from central Soviet  funds into Uzbekistan. Rashidov died on 31 October 1983 in Ellikqala District, Karakalpak ASSR, Uzbek SSR. Immediately after his death, rumors spread that he had realized he was about to be disgraced and thus committed suicide. However, this has never been confirmed. After Uzbekistan's independence, Rashidov's image was rehabilitated by Uzbek President Islam Karimov as a symbol of national strength against detrimental Soviet central planning.