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Clubgoers hit the dance floor at a disco in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, in the 1970s. Ostinato Records hide caption

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Ostinato Records

Central Asian Soviet-era pop music anthology dislays the region's vast diversity

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17-year-old Aysulu walks along the dried riverbed of the Amu Darya, near her home in Nukus, Uzbekistan. Claire Harbage/NPR hide caption

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Claire Harbage/NPR

When Water Turns to Sand

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China's President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin pose during their trilateral meeting with Mongolia on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, on Thursday. Alexandr Demyanchuk/Sputnik/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

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Alexandr Demyanchuk/Sputnik/AFP via Getty Images

Over half a million Soviet troops served in Afghanistan between 1979 and 1989. Among the first deployed was Rustam Khodzhayev, seen posing here (front row, first from the left) with his special operations unit in 1981. Khodzhayev family hide caption

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Khodzhayev family

We Asked Vets Of The Soviet-Afghan War To Judge The U.S. Exit. Here's What They Said

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