A Soviet-era monument to an Uzbek family that adopted 15 children of different ethnicities during World War II will be returned to its original place in central Tashkent.
The city administration said on April 24 that the monument to Shoahmad and Bahri Shomahmudov, who adopted orphans evacuated to Tashkent in the 1940s from the former Soviet Union's western regions during the war, will be back on the square in front of the Independence Palace in the near future.
"The monument that has been considered a symbol of the people's friendship will reinforce Tashkent's beauty again and will strengthen the unity and friendship of all ethnic groups living as one family in the city," it said in a statement.
The Shomahmudovs adopted 15 children of Russian, Kazakh, Belarusian, Moldovan, Latvian, Jewish, and Tatar origin.
The monument was erected in 1982 and removed from the center of Uzbekistan's capital in 2008.
On May 9 last year, the monument was moved to the newly opened Friendship Park in Tashkent.
