Hopping Aboard The Sharof Rashidov Train

Maybe the highlight at the Sharof Rashidovich Rashidov Museum in Jizzakh, Uzbekistan is a curious train car out back. It's Rashidov's own rolling party bus, a way to get around in luxury and comfort. A quick tour inside gives a good impression of how to travel in First Secretary style.

The train car. What can green do for you?

Support staff. Burly bodyguards and naughty nurses. You never know what you'll need.

The kitchen, cooking with gas. And a cute record player. Suck it, bluetooth.

Support staff bunking. Four beds, one radio, true diplomacy in station selection. Conductor bed, bright uniform.

Dining, meeting room. TV for boredom reduction. "These five year plan reports are putting me to sleep, can't we watch the latest episode of Tashkent Vice?"

The Sharof Rashidovich Rashidov Museum In Jizzakh, Uzbekistan

Kind of a Presidential library without all those dusty books. Rashidov was the long serving First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Uzbekistan from 1959 until his death in 1983. He balanced the development of his home country with appeasing the big bosses in Moscow. Lots of triumphs and a cotton scandal in the biography.

Jizzakh, Rashidov's hometown, has a museum for their favorite comrade son. Not much depth on display, more like honorary gifts. The legend lives.

Big, one room gallery. Photos, swag, repeat.

Powerful painting. Rashidov in casual medal Monday, overlooking the metropolis of Tashkent. The Tashkent Metro is open! In Uzbekistan, anyone and anything important gets a commemorative orange vase. Well earned, the metro is lovely.

The gift that, thankfully, does not keep giving. A taxidermy crocodile from a dictator pal, Fidel Castro.

Space age stuff is cool, especially during its hip, 1950's-1970's heyday. Another vase and some heavy paperweights. Lots to hold down.

Picking cotton with the boys. Evidently, not enough cotton was actually picked. The scandal unfolded as a scheme to try and meet Moscow quotas. Cotton counts were inflated, environmental disasters implemented and Rashidov's family pocketed proceeds.