Kültür Devriminden “Büyük Terör” e: Çön Taş’taki Siyasi Katliam
From the Cultural Revolution to the “Great Purge”: Political Massacre in Chong-Tash

Summary/Abstract: In the history of the Soviet Union, the years 1937-1938 coincide with the years of the “Great Purge”(Большой террор), accompanied by Joseph Stalin’s regime and the defamation campaigns that came along with it. The “Great Purge” was a repression campaign carried out by the socialist government seeking to embed its ideology, and aimed supposedly at thwarting all counter-revolutionary activity in the country by consolidating its legitimacy, eliminating political adversaries, imposing a cultural revolution and socio-economic reforms, and concealing the failures of said reforms. In 1937-1938, the repression peaked and engulfed all social groups that had witnessed the relevant Soviet historical process, including many political leaders, intellectuals, ideologues, soldiers and common folk who were deemed nationalists and had adopted the Soviet ideology. The “Great Purge” extended to Kyrgyzstan just as it did to all territories of the USSR Republics, pursuant to NKVD Order No. 00447 “About repression of former kulaks, criminals, and other anti-Soviet elements”. Poets, writers, journalists, clerics, ideologues, politicians,and educated people of all classes got their share of repression. 137 proficient intellectuals working to facilitate a socialist nationalist identity specifically for Kyrgyzstan were murdered as Turkists, Turanists,Islamists, public enemies, and spies. The identities and fates of these people were only uncovered years later with the discovery of a mass grave on Chong-Tash hill, 20 kilometers southeast of Bishkek.The study examines the causes and aims of the “Great Purge”, as well as the driving forces that triggered this event, and considers how the “Great Purge”, carried out deliberately and decisively by the government as a planned act, extended to Kyrgyzstan and fostered the political massacre in Chong-Tash. The background of the “Great Purge” and the socio-cultural groundwork, which prepared the Chong-Tash massacre, have been evaluated in relation to findings and explications reached through an analysis of written documents.

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