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This large square, on three sides lined by wide multiple-lane city arterial roads, is called Khalklar Dustligi (Peoples’ Friendship). The word combination ‘Peoples’ Friendship’ is not a buzz phrase for Uzbekistani people. Not once did the Uzbeks help other peoples during hardships they experiences. This is what the monument to the blacksmith Shomakhmudov in the center of the square reminds of. During World War II his family adopted 14 children of various nationalities. These children lost their parents on the war fronts and in the occupied territories. In this Uzbek family they got not only shelter and food but also parental kindness and love. After having got education, some of them left their home. But they always considered the blacksmith and his wife their father and mother. The Shomakhmudovs were not an exception in Uzbekistan. The republic became home to thousands of the civilians that fled the horrors of war, thousands of the wounded servicemen.
Behind the Monument stands Peoples’ Friendship Palace. It is Uzbekistan’s largest cinema and concert hall, which can seat the audience of 6000. Its interiors are richly decorated with wood and gunch-stucco carvings, mosaic and ceramic panels, tapestries, marble and labradorite. The hall of the palace has excellent acoustic qualities; it is equipped with an 8-language simultaneous translation and up-to-date sound and recording systems. Various musical festivals and shows can be held in the hall; foreign and Uzbek stars variety performances are regularly arranged on the Palace’s stage.
The Square is encircled by impressive high-rise office and apartment buildings, with Interbank Centre being the most outstanding construction. From here there starts Khalklar Dustligi Street, one of the youngest and busiest Tashkent arteries. Over a thousand years ago it was one of the Silk Road sections connecting Samarkand and Tashkent. The caravans that did not reach the town’s gate before sunset had to stay overnight in a suburban settlement. For years this area was occupied by little adobe houses and gardens. In 1966 along the new road there arose tent camps of the builders who came from the various parts of the Soviet Union to reconstruct Tashkent after the earthquake. That was why the square and the street were given the name ‘Peoples’ Friendship’.
The alley and flowerbeds that surround Peoples’ Friendship Palace come close to the Alisher Navoi National Park where on a natural elevation there was built a monument to the great Uzbek poet – Alisher Navoi. The bronze statue of the poet stands under a blue ribbed dome supported by eight pillars. The statue shows the poet with a walking stick in his right hand, as if he is leading the way for the generations to come. Nizameddin Mir Alisher, nicknamed “Navoi” for his mellifluous poems, lived in the second half of the 15th century. He was an outstanding statesman and philosopher. But it was his gazel and rubaee poems that made him world-famous and immortal. Alisher Navoi was the first in Movarounnahr who started to write poems not only in Farsi –the then official language of the court circle – but also in Turkic, thus founding the Uzbek literary language.
At the foot of the monument you can read the following Navoi’s prophetic lines:
Remember, peoples of the world, that enmity is bad.
Live with each other in concord! It is the best to let!
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