The earthquake caused massive destruction to Tashkent, destroying most of the buildings in the city, killing between 15 and 200 people and leaving between 200,000 and 300,000 homeless.

Following the disaster, most of the historic parts of Tashkent had been destroyed and the city was rebuilt, based on Soviet architectural styles.

[8] The earthquake occurred at 05:23[9][10] at the very shallow (and therefore more destructive) depth of 3–8 kilometers (1.9–5.0 mi)[10] with its epicentre in the centre of the city.

[26] In the immediate aftermath of the disaster, senior Soviet figures, including CPSU Chairman Leonid Brezhnev, flew to Tashkent to supervise the recovery efforts.

[28] The new Tashkent contained architectural styles found in other Soviet cities[14] such as wide boulevards[28] and large apartment block complexes.