Sharaf Rashidov

born Oct. 24 (Nov. 6), 1917, in Dzhizak, now in the Uzbek SSR. Soviet party and state figure; Uzbek writer. Twice Hero of Socialist Labor (1974 and 1977). Member of the Communist Party since 1939.

The son of a peasant, Rashidov graduated from the department of philology of the Uzbek State University in Samarkand in 1941. In 1948 he graduated from the correspondence division of the Higher Party School of the Central Committee of the ACP(B). He became a secondary-school teacher in 1935, after graduating from the Dzhizak Pedagogical Technicum. From 1937 to 1941 he was chief secretary, deputy editor in chief, and editor of the Samarkand oblast newspaper Lenin Yuli (The Leninist Way). In 1941 and 1942 he was in the Soviet Army and fought in the Great Patriotic War. In 1943 and 1944 he was editor of Lenin Yuli.

From 1944 to 1947, Rashidov was secretary of the Samarkand oblast committee of the CP(B) of Uzbekistan. From 1947 to 1949 he was editor in chief of the republic newspaper Kzïl Uzbekiston. In 1949 and 1950 he was chairman of the governing board of the Union of Writers of Uzbekistan. Between 1950 and 1959 he was chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Uzbekistan SSR and deputy chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. In March 1959 he became first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Uzbekistan. He was a delegate to the Nineteenth through Twenty-fourth Congresses of the CPSU.

In 1956, Rashidov became a candidate member of the Central Committee of the CPSU, and in 1961 a full member. In 1961 he became a candidate member of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU, and in April 1966 a candidate member of the committee’s Politburo. Rashidov was a deputy to the third through ninth convocations of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. He became a member of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR in 1970.

Rashidov’s first book of verse, My Anger, was published in 1945. The novella The Victors (1951) depicts the people’s efforts to develop the virgin lands. The same theme is given fuller treatment in the novel Stronger Than the Storm (1958). The novel The Mighty Wave (1964) is devoted to the heroism of the Soviet people on the home front during the Great Patriotic War. Rashidov’s romantic novella Song of Kashmir (1956) reflects the Indian people’s fight for liberation. In 1950, Rashidov published a collection of publicist articles, The Verdict of History, and in 1967, the book Banner of Friendship. His critical articles deal with contemporary Soviet literature. Rashidov was awarded seven Orders of Lenin, four other orders, and several medals.