A building in Bukhara, Uzbekistan. Ethnic Tajiks are traditionally concentrated in the cities of Bukhara and Samarkand, but are present in all regions of Uzbekistan. Credit: Steve Swerdlow More ...

TASHKENT -- Sergei grew up in Namangan, the eastern Uzbek city where Islamic traditions persisted despite decades of atheist Soviet rule. As a young communist in high school in the 1980s, Sergei ...

which Stalin divided among Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. The valley remains an ethnic patchwork, and minority enclaves, like that of the Uzbeks in Osh, have been scenes for violence.

Apart from 29 million Uzbeks living in Uzbekistan, there are almost 3 million ethnic Uzbeks in neighboring Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan, and another 2 to 4 million ethnic ...