Nizami Pedagogical Institute

In May 1939, the chronicles of Tashkent's new construction projects gave just two lines to the pedagogical institute's academic building: it was being built on Pedagogical Street and would be one of the largest buildings in the city. A year and a half later, it was already mentioned among completed structures, alongside the Rodina cinema and the Railwaymen's Palace. The project was designed by the brothers A. and E. Zhmuyda. Books on Tashkent architecture date the building to 1938, but in the spring of 1939 construction was still underway, and the institute has been operating in it since 1940. The building stands before a public square and faces it with a concave facade. A pediment is supported by three-story-high colossal order columns, and the walls feature heavy rustication. On the sides of the wide staircase stand huge sculptural groups: people of various nationalities, as they were seen in those years, walking toward their studies, holding objects of the life and learning of that era. Architectural historian Shukur Askarov found all of this executed in an "overwhelming spirit," yet called the sculptures touching. The institute was conceived not as a standalone structure, but as the main building of a new square. According to the master plans of 1938-1939, Tashkent's squares were formed from large four- and five-story buildings, and opposite the institute in 1938, similarly tall residential buildings for the Textile Combine were erected (architect M. Besprozvanny). By the 1950s, an entire educational center with dormitories had taken shape at the corner of Pedagogical and Khmelnitsky streets, and Kirov Park connected it with the combine's quarters.

Rakat makhalla was famous for its craftsmen: potters, blacksmiths, and woodcarvers. In the Faizamatov family, the women embroidered suzani and sewed black and white skullcaps, for which middlemen paid pennies. The youngest daughter-in-law, Zulfiya, after the revolution, learned to read and write at literacy courses, graduated from the workers' faculty, and became one of the first Tashkent female teachers, although her mother-in-law said it would be better if she gave birth to children. When her eldest daughter Shukura was getting married, Zulfiya extracted a promise from her son-in-law, a fifth-year student at the pedagogical institute, that he would help his wife finish her studies. Shukura had to study in the building that was built on the site of her own makhalla. The residents of Rakat were given land plots nearby and monetary loans, so between classes Shukura ran home to feed her baby. There were already three children growing up in the family then. She received her diploma, and the Faizamatov teacher dynasty continued. The building also remembers another student. In 1942, Lena Stempkovskaya did not betray a military secret to the enemy and chose death. She was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, and by 1986, a memorial plaque with her name hung on the institute.