Alexandrovsky Square (also known as Alexandrovsky Garden), formerly located at the intersection of several major Tashkent thoroughfares, housed the remains of the 14 Turkestan Commissars executed during the Osipov Uprising in January 1919. Renamed Kafanov Square during the Soviet era, it became the burial site of M.P. Kafanov, Chairman of the Central Control Commission of the Communist Party of Uzbekistan, in 1923. Later, Yuldash Akhunbabayev, first Chairman of the Presidium of the Central Exe.. Read more »cutive Committee of Uzbekistan and Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Uzbek SSR; Sabir Rakhimov, the first Uzbek general; Hamid Alimjan, a renowned Uzbek poet; and A.L. Brodsky, one of the founders and rector of Tashkent State University, were also buried there. A memorial and stele marked the graves. In the 1970s, the Museum of Arts of Uzbekistan was built on part of the square, and the section with the graves became known as "Communards Square." An eternal flame was lit at the commissars' burial site in 1962. In 2000, their obelisk was dismantled, and their remains were reburied in Tashkent's communist cemetery. The square was subsequently redesigned and now features a monument to the Uzbek Soviet poetess Zulfiya. The original 1970s memorial included a 20-meter stainless steel bayonet replacing an earlier brick one, four granite stelae resembling lowered banners, and an eternal flame.
Uzbekistan
