Өзбек КСР Туының Тарихы мен Мағынасы

Flag of the U. S. S. R. republic of Uzbekistan

The flag of the Uzbek SSR was adopted by the Uzbek SSR on 29 August 1952. The red represents the "revolutionary struggle of the working masses", the hammer and sickle represents the peasants' and workers' union, and the red star is the symbol of the communist party. There is no official explanation for the symbolic meanings of other elements. However, in some material the white stripes represent cotton, the blue band represents Amu Darya and irrigation in general. Before that, from 9 January 1926, the flag was about the same, but with the country's name in Uzbek, Russian and Tajik. The first flag was hoisted on 22 July 1925 and was red, with the country's name in Arabic and the Cyrillic characters УзССР in the top left corner in gold. Between 1931 and 1937, the flag was very similar, but with the Uzbek abbreviation OzSSC, and its Russian equivalent: "УзССР." Between 14 February 1937 and the adoption of the flag in the 1940s, the flag was the same, but with the Uzbek country's name in Latin characters: "OZBEKISTAN SSR." In 1940, the flag was red with the country's name in both Uzbek (Ўзбекистон ССР, Oʻzbekiston SSR) and Russian (Узбекская ССР, Uzbekskaya SSR) languages in gold in the top left corner. The last Uzbek SSR was adopted on 29 August 1952. Although the flag is visually identical to the Soviet flag, the red panel has a light blue (azure) down the middle of the whole flag length. At the edges of the light blue stripes are narrow white. The blue stripe with white edges is 1/5 (one fifth) of the flag width. The specification amendments were accepted on 27 September 1974 and 30 June 1981. On 31 August 1991, the Uzbek SSR was renamed to the Republic of Uzbekistan and the flag remained in use until 18 November 1991.

From 1934, the spelling of the initial letters in the name of the republic in the Uzbek language and in the translation of the word "socialist" has changed. The change resulted in the initial name of the republic "Өzвekistan Ьҫtьmaьь Şoralar Ҫymhyrijәti (ӨZ.Ь.Ş.Ç)" to "Ozвekistan Sotsialistik Sovet Ҫumhurijәti (OZ. S. S.Ҫ)".

From 1935, the translation of the word "republic" into the Uzbek language has changed. This change resulted in the change of the name of the republic : from "Ozвekistan Sotsialistik Sovet Ҫumhurijәti (OZ. S. S.Ҫ)" to "Ozвekistan Sotsialistik Sovet Respublikasi (OZ. S. S. R)"

On 23 July 1938, the constitution of the Uzbek SSR was amended. The name of the country in Uzbek "Ozʙekistan SSR" was changed into "Ozʙekstan SSR".

On May 8, 1940, the 3rd session of the Supreme Soviet of the Uzbek SSR adopted a law on transition to the alphabet on the basis of Cyrillic alphabet. On January 16, 1941, by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Uzbek SSR, the text of the inscription on the state flag of the Uzbek SSR was translated into Russian alphabet.

There was no official explanation of the symbolism of the flag. In various publications, white stripes represents the cotton growing fields, and the blue bar represents the Amudarya river and irrigation in Uzbekistan. Another source describes the blue bar as the symbol of Pan Turkism, as seen in the flag of the Turkic Council, although Uzbekistan was against Pan Turkism in the USSR.

A search for a national flag began soon after, with a contest being held to determine the new design. More than 200 submissions were made, and a commission was formed in order to evaluate these suggestions coming from a variety of stakeholders. The winning design was adopted on 18 November 1991, after being selected at an extraordinary session of the Uzbek Supreme Soviet. In doing so, Uzbekistan became the first of the newly independent republics in Central Asia to choose a new flag. Pertaining to its tricolour combination of horizontal stripes of blue, white and green colour, it is similar to the flags of Lesotho, an enclaved country within the border of South Africa, and Puntland, a Somali federal state at the tip of the Horn.