Inomjon Usmankhodzhayev

Inamjan Buzrukovich Usmankhodzhayev (Uzbek: Inomjon Usmonxo'jayev) was born in 1930 in Fergana to Buzrukhodzha Usmankhodzhayev, a state and party official from the Rishtan District of the Fergana Region (sources give 21 or 22 May). In 1955 he graduated from the architecture faculty of the Central Asian Polytechnic Institute, worked as an engineer, construction site chief at the Ferganavodstroy trust and chief architect of Margilan, and joined the CPSU in 1958.

From 1962 he was chairman of the Fergana city executive committee, secretary of the Syrdarya regional party committee and a staff member of the CPSU Central Committee. In 1972–1974 he chaired the Namangan regional executive committee, and in 1974–1978 he was first secretary of the Andijan regional party committee. In 1978–1983 he was Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Uzbek SSR (and in 1979–1983 a deputy chairman of the USSR Supreme Soviet Presidium).

From 3 November 1983 to 12 January 1988 he was First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Uzbekistan, succeeding Sharof Rashidov; in 1981–1988 he was a member of the CPSU Central Committee, a deputy of the USSR Supreme Soviet of the 10th and 11th convocations and a member of its Presidium.

During perestroika he was accused of corruption in the «cotton case»; he was relieved of his post on 12 January 1988 «in connection with his retirement», removed from the USSR Supreme Soviet Presidium in May 1988 and from the CPSU Central Committee in November, sentenced to 12 years in prison on 27 December 1989, released in 1990, and stripped of his awards on 16 May 1990. On 18 November 2016 the Supreme Court of Uzbekistan fully rehabilitated him.

He spent his last years in Fergana in his father's house with his sons and grandsons and died in Fergana in March 2017 (sources give 16 or 17 March); he is buried in the cemetery of Pandigon village, Rishtan District.