Attractions of Khiva Ichan-Kala

Minor Mosque, Tashkent

The Minor mosque is one of new sights of Tashkent located in the new part of the city, not far from the UzExpoCentre and Hotel International. It was opened on 1 October 2014, on the eve of the Eid holiday, and has become one of the favorite places of city residents for evening strolls. Minor mosque is located on the embankment of the Ankhor channel and is surrounded by a landscaped area.
Construction of the mosque began in the summer of 2013 and was done in the best traditions of the eastern architecture. At the same time, Minor mosque differs from old brick mosques with its white marble finishing. It shines under the clear sky and its turquoise dome seems to be vanishing in the sky. Its capacity is more than 2400 people. Minor mosque is divided to the open front part with terraces, and big round hall with gold plated mihrab (a semicircular niche in the wall of a mosque that indicates the qibla (the direction of the Kaaba in Mecca and the direction Muslims should face when praying), adorned with writings from Koran.
New sight does not have a long history yet, but once you are in Tashkent, don’t miss your chance to have a look at Minor mosque in all its white marbled glory.

Shastri Monument, Tashkent

For most of the residents of Tashkent Shastri is a city landmark, however for any Indian, Shastri is a great figure belonging to the same level of political figures as Mahatma Gandhi and Javaharlal Nehru. Today there is a monument in the central part of the city on the crossroad dedicated to the person who had greatly contributed to the development of India and who had left a track in the history of not only India, but also Tashkent.
Lal Bahadur Shastri was born on 2 October 1904 in the family of civil servants. Thanks to belonging to the caste of Kayatskha, he had started his education at the age of 4. However, in his later years of form 7 at school, Lal Bahadur stopped using his non-obligatory last name “Varma”, thus refusing his caste origin. Few years later, in January of 1921 while studying in the 10th form, young Lal Bahadur attended a meeting with the participation of Mahatma Ghandi and was so much inspired with his challenge that made a decision to leave the state school and join the movement of nonviolent resistance. He was then firstly arrested and put into prison, later released though as he was still a minor. That same year there was opened a private University of Indian National Congress where Lal Bahadur was one of the first students and in 1925 became a bachelor in philosophy and ethics receiving a title “shastri” translated from Hindi as “scholar”. This is how his title became the part of his name.
After graduation, Shastri turns into an activist of the movement for Independence of India, and in the period of 1925-1946, he was arrested and put into prison where he spent 9 years in total. After independence was announced, Lal Bahadur was appointed the Minister of Internal Affairs in his home town. Later he worked in the position of the Minister of Railways and Transport of the entire India. And finally in year 1964, after the death of Javaharlal Nehru, the majority of the party of Indian National Congress made him the Prime-Minister of the country.
Shastri as a Prime-Minister tried to come to a compromise and withhold from severe reforms. His government faced economic crisis and food shortage, but he tried to find the key to the heart of his people and did a lot to make their lives better. First of all, he decided to fight hunger – new technologies were introduced in agriculture and economic conditions for farmers began to get better. Shastri addressed his nation with an urge to voluntarily give up one meal a week so that the food is saved and the majority of the country supported him: on Monday evening almost all restaurants and cafes in India were closed. He motivated the country to maximize the cultivation of food grains by planting himself wheat instead of lawn, at his official residence in New Delhi. It was during his two-year rule when the structure of the future agricultural corporations was formed.
In August-September 1965, Indo-Pak War took place. Even though they managed to get truce, the situation in the region was still tense. During this period, on 19 October, Shastri delivered his speech in Allahabad and said a phrase that have become a slogan of the Indian people for following years “Jai Jai Jawan Kishan” translated as “Hail the soldier, Hail the Farmer”. However, in order to completely end the resistance between India and Pakistan, the USSR called the two parties to start negotiations in Tashkent in January 1966. After a few days of hard discussions of general political dissents, on 10 January the Prime-Minister of India Shastri and the President of Pakistan Ayub Khan signed Tashkent declaration that served as a stop of war and beginning of the establishment of trade-economic relations between the sides.
That evening the diplomats of India, Pakistan and USSR celebrated the signature of the historic document. Later by 01.00 hrs local time, Shastri felt unwell and an hour later died from a heart attack. The personal assistant of Lal Bahadur remembered later that the Prime-Minister was feeling fine and was about to go to bed, but suddenly stood up and said “Mother, mother” in Hindi and fell. In the morning, the funeral train in Tashkent went until the airport and one of those people who carried the coffin was his former opponent – the president of Pakistan Mukhammed Ayub Khan.
During the short term as a Prime-Minister Shastri managed to firm the position of India on international arena, and was the first citizen of the country who was posthumously awarded the highest order “Bharat Ratna”. The memorial “Vidjai Gat” was opened in Deli in the memory of Shastri and 10 years later, in 1976, in Tashkent where his life path ended, the monument, work of an Uzbek sculptor Yakov Shapiro was unveiled. The monument is done in the shape of a bust on the base made from pink granite. Today it is practically visited by all guests from India. Besides, there is an Indian Cultural Center named after Shastri working in Tashkent, as well as a school teaching Hindi.
NOTE: If you order a taxi and ask to take you to the address of “Shastri” – you will not be taken to the monument, but to the crossroad where there was once an auto station named after Shastri. If you wish to get to the monument, it is better to tell the driver “C-1, old zoo, Shastri monument”. Also, there is a German Church near the monument.

St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, Tashkent

The St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral is the oldest Orthodox Church in Tashkent survived to our time. Built in 1902-1905 on money from the fisc and city it is situated in the Botkin Cemetery territory. A considerable contribution to the construction of the Temple was made by Nikolai Ivanov, a Commercial Consultant who lived nearby the Botkin Cemetery and who enjoyed deep respect of the Turkestan bishopric. N. Ivanov altaraged in favor of the Orthodox Church many times. His funds, in particular were used for construction of a golden iconostasis for the St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral.
The construction of the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral was carried out by Engineer F.V. Smirnov under the project of L. Burmeister, and the office of consecration was served by protopope Konstantin Bogoroditsky. The Church was visited by 20 - 30 parishioners on weekdays and over 200 believers on holy days. In the post-revolutionary period the Church played an important role in the life of the Orthodox confession of Uzbekistan. A part of churchmen began working for the Soviet system, the others were against it. Thus in the 1920-s the Temple was seized by regenerates - disciples of a new Christian movement, formed after the February Revolution of 1917. The Orthodox parishioners had to have divine services near a chapel built in honor of Our Lady “Everybody mourning in joy”. After the War the temple was returned to Orthodox Church.
For the period of its existence the Church survived the earthquake of 1966 and fire, which split the church building crosswise. However the building did not collapse and later was restored. The church interior is decorated with fresco depicting community of Saints, angels and archangels as well as with many icons in gold plated frames. Nowadays the look of the temple does not differ much from the original one, only the façade was painted in dark blue-and-white color, lined with marble anew and also steel grids appeared there. For several years the post of the Dean of the Church has been held by Nikolai Rybchinsky.

The Old City, Tashkent