Global True Lithuania Encyclopedia of Lithuanian heritage worldwide

Uzbekistan

While Uzbekistan and Lithuania are very far from each other, for many decades both countries were ruled by Russia – first Russian Empire, then Soviet Union – leading to visible traces of Lithuanians in the Uzbek capital Tashkent.

Lithuanian memorial and district in Tashkent

The most visible among these is the Lithuanian Monument in Chilanzar 24 district. It commemorates the Lithuanian contribution to the enormous campaign rebuilding the city of Tashkent after the 1966 April 26th earthquake that levelled most of its old buildings, leaving 300 000 people homeless.

An apartment block near the Lithuanian memorial

At the time, both Uzbekistan and Lithuania were ruled by the Soviet Union, just as were many other nations. Tashkent was Soviet Union’s 4th largest city and once it was levelled, entire trains full of workers and building materials were dispatched from all over the union in order to restore the city. Workers from different nations built their own buildings and districts, using their materials. As Soviet modernist apartment block designs were used rather than any traditional ethnic designs, it is impossible to easily distinguish districts built by Russians, Lithuanians, Latvians, Belarusians, Azeris, Kazakhs, Turkmens, Armenians, Georgians, or Ukrainians today.

However, each group of rebuilders was allowed to leave its sign. Lithuanian “sign” is the most unique. Most other groups simply wrote their own messages or symbols on some façade of a building in “their” district – e.g. some cities left inscriptions such as “From Kiev to Tashkent”, while Latvians left a coat of arms of Soviet Riga. Lithuanians, on the other hand, managed to build an entire small monument in one of the courtyards.

Lithuanian Monument in Tashkent

The monument is inscribed in three languages – Russian, Uzbek, and Lithuanian. This was something especially unique in the Soviet Union, as, typically, no Lithuanian inscriptions were allowed in the parts of the Soviet Union outside Lithuania itself, with all such inscriptions being either only in Russian, or in Russian and the local language (in this case, Uzbek). Indeed, the other “national signs” of Tashkent rebuilding era are either wordless or Russian-only. The main Earthquake memorial also is inscribed solely in Russian, lacking even an Uzbek inscription.

The inscription on the memorial reads: “A present of the Lithuanian SSR to the Uzbek nation. Built by the Lithuanian SSR construction directorate collective 1966-1967. Director F. Kudriavcev, Lead engineer J. Jurgelionis, construction director G. Tiškus”.

Close-up of the Lithuanian plaque

The buildings that surround Lithuanian memorial. They are regular Soviet-styled apartment blocks with small apartments inside. Compared to those in Lithuania, some of them have unique details, such as panjar panels, shading the interiors from the Uzbek summer heat. Over the time, some of the balconies were bricked up by the Uzbeks, a popular way to expand living space by "annexing" the balcony.

While most of the newly-built buildings were used to house the Uzbeks who lost their housing in the earthquake, many were also given to the rebuilders, some of whom stayed in Uzbekistan.

Monument with an apartment building behind it

Uzbekistan became independent in 1991 and by 2000s there were some 1500 Lithuanians living there (~500 in Tashkent), albeit the young generations typically spoke no Lithuanian as, beyond the inscription on the memorial, Lithuanian language was not allowed to be used for schooling or cultural activities in the Soviet Uzbekistan.

The Lithuanian memorial of Tashkent is little known in Lithuania itself, likely due to its “controversial” message as, even if for its builders 1966, building a Lithuanian-language sign in Uzbekistan must have felt as a great achievement, the memorial still mentions the “Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic”, an entity established by the Soviet occupational regime in Lithuania.

Lithuanian-established churches in Uzbekistan

Lithuania first came under the rule of the Russian Empire in 1795, while Tashkent area was conquered in 1865, putting both countries under a single government for the first time. Some Lithuanians reached Uzbekistan before World War 1, as soldiers, missionaries, or adventurers.

Lithuanian who left most traces was priest Justinas Pranaitis, credited for the construction of Tashkent’s Sacred Heart of Jesus Cathedral. While his grave there was destroyed by the Soviets, he is well mentioned in the cathedral construction stories on the plaques near its entrance and inside the building.

Sacred Heart of Jesus Cathedral of Tashkent

While Russian Empire was Russian-Orthodox-Majority and Uzbekistan was Islamic-majority, by the 19th century, Russians ruled considerable Catholic-majority lands, among them Lithuania. Due to internal movement within the empire, Catholic communities appeared all over the empire’s main cities, followed by priests who served them. One such priest was Lithuanian Pranaitis, who organized the construction of Central Asia’s first Roman Catholic churches in Fergana, Tashkent, and Samarkand. He constructed a temporary chapel in 1905-1907 and began construction of the current church in 1912, but it slowed down considerably due to World War 1 and ceased in 1917 with Pranaitis’s death.

Plaque describing the church's history

Pranaitis collected donations for the church long before the inception of its construction in 1912. Interestingly, Pranaitis’s 1904 pamphlet seeking for such donations was the first-ever Lithuanian language publication printed legally in the Russian Empire after the Russian Empire ban on Lithuanian language was lifted (the ban existed in 1864-1904).

While Russian Empire may have discriminated Catholics, this was nothing in comparison to what came ~1920 when the Empire was deposed by the communists. The atheist Soviet Union closed down churches. Tashkent’s incomplete church was taken over in 1924, closed in 1935, and later used for various secular means, including as a warehouse.

Pranaitis's photo inside the church

Only after the independence of Uzbekistan was the church returned to the Roman Catholics (in 1992) and finally completed (in 2000). Now, it is a cathedral. It is still commonly referred to as the “Polish church”, as, even though Pranaitis himself was a Lithuanian, Poles were the largest Catholic community of the 1910s Tashkent. A memorial to the 1942 Polish detainees was constructed nearby. The plaque near the entrance that lists Catholic communities of the old Tashkent lists Poles first but Lithuanians second, as they were the second-largest Catholic ethnic group in the empire. According to the plaque, Tashkent had 2300 Catholics in 1912 and by 1897 there were 11000 Catholics in the larger area.

Disused church during the Soviet rule (as shown in the images inside the church)

Today, the Mass here is celebrated in Russian, English, and Korean.