Editing Uzbeks (section)

==== Soviet Union ====
{{further|Amersfoort concentration camp|German mistreatment of Soviet prisoners of war|Islam in the Netherlands#The Second World War|Soviet Central Asia}}
In the 1940s, [[Nazi Germany]] invaded the Soviet Union. In response, many Central Asians, including Uzbeks or [[Samarkand]]ites, were sent to [[Battle of Smolensk (1941)|fight the Germans]] in the area of [[Smolensk]]. However, a number of them, including [[Hatam Kadirov]] and [[Zair Muratov]], were captured, transported to the Netherlands, where they were abused and killed. Their bodies were buried in [[Rusthof cemetery]] near [[Amersfoort]]. For some time, these 101 victims were not identified, apart from the fact that they were Soviets, until an investigation by journalist [[Remco Reiding]]. Their plight was also studied by Uzbek historian Bahodir Uzakov of [[Gouda, South Holland]]. Witness [[Henk Broekhuizen]] said that, despite having seeing them once as a teenager, he would recall the soldiers' faces, whenever he closed his eyes.<ref name=Soldat>[http://www.soldat.ru/search/f_glory/soldiers.html "Soviet Field of Glory"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170508112359/http://www.soldat.ru/search/f_glory/soldiers.html |date=2017-05-08 }} {{in lang|ru}}</ref><ref name="BBC2017CentralAsians">{{cite news |author=Rustam Qobil |publisher=BBC |title=Why were 101 Uzbeks killed in the Netherlands in 1942? |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-39849088 |date=2017-05-09 |access-date=2017-05-09 |archive-date=2020-03-30 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200330201803/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-39849088 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Moscow's control over Uzbekistan weakened in the 1970s as Uzbek party leader [[Sharaf Rashidov]] brought many cronies and relatives into positions of power. In the mid-1980s, Moscow attempted to regain control by again purging the entire Uzbek party leadership. However, this move increased {{ill|Uzbek nationalism|ru|Узбекский национализм}}, which had long resented Soviet policies such as the imposition of cotton monoculture and the suppression of [[Islam]]ic traditions. In the late 1980s, the liberalized atmosphere of the Soviet Union under Mikhail S. Gorbachev (in power 1985–91) fostered political opposition groups and open (albeit limited) opposition to Soviet policy in Uzbekistan. In 1989, a series of violent ethnic clashes, involving Uzbeks, brought the appointment of ethnic Uzbek outsider [[Islam Karimov]] as Communist Party chief.{{citation needed|date=May 2017}}