# Evacuation to Tashkent (1941–1942)

URL: https://allhistories.com/uzbekistan/timeline/1941-evacuation-to-tashkent
Location: Tashkent
Themes: World War II, Evacuation

After Nazi Germany invaded the USSR in 1941 the Soviet government moved factories from western Russia and Ukraine to Tashkent. Evacuees pushed the city's population to well over a million. Russians and Ukrainians later made up more than half of the residents. Central Asia became a major rear base, and Tashkent became one of the Soviet Union's largest cities. Evacuation was a response to the rapid German advance, since industrial plants were dismantled and shipped east by rail with their workers. Uzbekistan offered space, a railway network and a labour pool far from the front. Evacuated scientists, writers, artists and film studios also moved to Tashkent, which became a major cultural and scientific centre. The wave greatly increased the city's industry and its Slavic population, changing its character. Local families took in many evacuees, including orphaned children. Food and housing were scarce, and the republic also supplied soldiers and goods to the front. The enlargement helped Tashkent become the fourth-largest city in the Soviet Union by 1991. At this point in the timeline (1941), the Uzbek SSR, a republic of the USSR, was led by Usman Yusupov, first secretary of the Communist Party of Uzbekistan (27 September 1937 – 7 April 1950), while Abdudzhabar Abdurakhmanov, chairman of the Council of People's Commissars (23 July 1938 – 15 March 1946) headed the government.

## Why it matters
The wartime evacuation turned Tashkent into an industrial and cultural hub and permanently altered the ethnic makeup of Uzbekistan's capital.

Ruler at the Time: [Usman Yusupov](https://allhistories.com/uzbekistan/rulers/usman-yusupov)

## Sources
- [Wikipedia — Tashkent](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tashkent)
- [Wikipedia — Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uzbek_Soviet_Socialist_Republic)