Uzbek Language and its Orthography: A Micro History

The creation of a standardized Uzbek language is owed in great part to the Russian Revolution of 1917. When the Bolsheviks took control of Russia, Uzbek populations were living in the regions of Russian Turkestan, the Emirate of Bukhara, the Khanate of Khiva and in Afghanistan, yet they were essentially illiterate and, the language had minimal orthographic structure. Schooling was limited to religious education in the regions and instruction was in Arabic and Turkic. Higher-educated Uzbeks attended school outside the regions or attended local Russian schools developed during the Tsarist period. As a result, Russian language was placed above local dialects as all civil administration was carried out in Russian.