Uzbek or Uzbeg Republic

UZBEK or UZBEG REPUBLIC, an administrative unit of Russian Central Asia, created in 1924. Area 186,251 sq. kilo.; pop. (1933) 5,044,30o. Afghanistan lies to the south, the Turkmen S.S.R. to the west, Kazakstan to the north, and the Kirghiz S.S.R. and the Tajik S.S.R. to the east. It includes the oasis of Khwarezm, Khorezm or Khiva, Samarkand and most of the for mer Khanate of Bokhara, with the Ferghana valley. Tajikistan, as an A.S.S.R., and the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Area were until 1929 included in the Uzbek S.S.R.

Physical

region is an ancient centre of oasis cultivation dependent on irrigation from glacier fed streams •Nhich are fullest at the time of the melting snows and are thus peculiarly favourable to agriculture. Its life depends on the Syr Darya, Amu Darya and Zarafshan rivers, on the spongy loess soil, and on the clear sunshine and heat of summer which combine to give rich harvests of grain and fruit to the cultivator. The climate is continental, with little rain or cloud, and with in tense bright sunshine in the six summer months. Extremes of temperature range between C and C or more, the con trast being greatest in the plains and least in the hill regions. The severe winter prevents the growth of perennials, but annuals flourish in the summer heat. Rainfall is always inadequate, but varies greatly from year to year.

The Zarafshan feeds the oases of Samarkand and Bokhara, the former getting the first and freshest supplies. It rises in a glacier in the Alai mountains of the Tadzhik A.S.S.R. and flows through a longitudinal valley with the Turkistan range to the north and the Hissar range to the south, its total length being 400 m. and its average gradient 2I feet per mile. Formerly it reached the Amu Darya, probably near Charjui, but now 12 m. of sand, the Sundukli desert which connects the Kyzyl Kum from the north, and the Trans-Caspian Kara Kum from the south, intervene and the river is lost in the creeping wind-blown sands which are slowly advancing on the little town of Kara Kul, the last settlement de pendent on the "gold-stfewer," as the Zarafshan is called.

The Kara Darya and the Naryn in the north-east unite near Namangan to form the Syr Darya and upon them depends the Ferghana valley with Andijan, Marghelan, Ferghana, Khokand and Khojent. Tashkent lies to the north on the Chirchik tributary

of the Syr Darya. A short portion of the Amu Darya forms the southern boundary of Uzbekistan and receives the right bank Surkhan tributary; the river then flows north-west through the Turkmen S.S.R. until it re-enters Uzbekistan and feeds the oasis of Khiva (q.v.) now suffering from difficulties caused by the in creasing desiccation of the region and from the perpetual eastward shift of the river on its course to the Aral sea. Formerly the river entered the Caspian by the Sary-kamysh depression and the oasis was then much more prosperous. Desert everywhere encroaches on the oases; in the north-east the famine steppe or Bak-pak-dala, with its salty dark grey clay soils, approaches close to Khojent. The Kara Darya and Naryn bring down vast quantities of sand which is deposited near their banks and especially on the banks of the Syr Darya, in the region where it cuts its way through the Khojent-Ajar ridge.

Under the influence of the south-westerly winds this vast ex panse of sand everywhere steadily encroaches on cultivated lands. In the north-west the Kyzyl Kum is advancing towards the Kamimikh district, and the oasis of Khiva lies between the Kyzyl Kum and the Kara Kum deserts. Even in the fertile Ferghana valley there are stretches of rubble and stony, as well as of sandy, desert. The whole area is undergoing geological change ; rivers have changed their courses and lakes their outlines, while in some cases they have dried up altogether. Traces of dried-up lakes and of river beds which were the main arteries of prosperous regions within the period of written history, are evident. Bokhara and Khiva owe part of their decay to this gradual desiccation. Earth quakesoccur, more especially on the line from Khojent to Vyernyi (Alma-Ata) in the Kazakstan A.S.S.R. In some regions, especially in the Urta Chul district between the western slopes of the Hissar range and the Amu Darya, there is stony steppe land, and steppe surrounds some of the oases and thus lessens the advance of sand.