KIRGIZİSTAN’DAKİ ÜRKÜN KATLİAMI VE TÖLÖGÖN KASIMBEKOV’UN KIRGIN ROMANINA YANSIMALARI
URKUN MASSACRE IN KYRGYZSTAN AND ITS REFLECTIONS UPON THE NOVEL OF KIRGIN BY TÖLÖGÖN KASIMBEKOV

Summary/Abstract: Taking place in the dark pages of Turkistan’s history, the rebellion and deportation of Kyrgyz Turks having no chance to live in their lands invaded by Russians is known as Urkun massacre. The Tsarist regime took hold of Turkistan with a colonial mindset, populated the Russian villagers here in this region who it brought there from the Russian territory to ‘Russify’ this land and extorted the livestock and lands from the local people, and it would eventually get them to the uprising point. The rebellion started early in small groups but later spreaded over a large area. The Russians bloodily suppressed the revolt and slaughtered all the people including women and children. A great majority of individuals froze to death or fell a prey to wild beasts during their escape towards China. These events in which hundred thousands of people are dead are mentioned in his novel of Kırgın by Tölogön Kasımbekov renowned as the founder of Kyrgyz historical novelism. Featured by his mixing facts and fictions, Kasımbekov narrates the Urkun massacre in the form of documentary novel, using the novel characters that he selected from the archive documents and real life. This study aims to describe the reasons for and the consequences of the Urkun massacre and the colonial mentality of Russians, as well as to examine its reflections upon the novel of Kırgın.

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