Rafiq Nishonov

Rafiq Nishonovich Nishonov was born on 15 January 1926 in Gazalkent (now Bo'stonliq District, Tashkent Region). From 1942 he worked on the Chirchik collective farm, in 1943 he became secretary of the Gazalkent village council's executive committee, and in 1945–1950 he served in the Soviet Army; he joined the CPSU in 1949. In 1959 he graduated from the Tashkent Evening Pedagogical Institute as a history teacher and in 1969 received the degree of Candidate of Historical Sciences.

He rose through Komsomol and party posts in Tashkent: from 1950 head of a department of the Oktyabrsky district Komsomol committee, from 1959 first secretary of the Oktyabrsky district party committee, in 1962 chairman of the Tashkent city executive committee, and from 1963 secretary and bureau member of the Uzbek party's Central Committee.

He was Soviet ambassador to Sri Lanka and the Maldives in 1970–1978 and to Jordan in 1978–1985. In 1985–1986 he was Foreign Minister of the Uzbek SSR, and in 1986–1988 Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Uzbek SSR (in 1987–1988 also a deputy chairman of the USSR Supreme Soviet Presidium).

From 12 January 1988 to June 1989 he was First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Uzbekistan; he was succeeded by Islam Karimov. In 1989–1991 he was Chairman of the Soviet of Nationalities of the USSR Supreme Soviet and a People's Deputy of the USSR. In September 1991 he became an adviser to Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, and retired in November.

In 2012 he published the memoir «Trees Turn Green Before Snowstorms» and from 2013 sat on the council of the Association of Russian Diplomats. He died in Geneva on 11 January 2023, aged 96, and is buried in the Muslim cemetery there.