Despite the fact that the ethnonym “Kyrgyz” is one of the most ancient known to mankind, in recent centuries its use in the Russian language (exoethnonym) has had a very peculiar history, and the discussion continues to this day.
I suggest you familiarize yourself with a very interesting and important correspondence on this topic between the leaders of our republic Abdykadyr Orozbekov and Bayaly Isakeev with Moscow. The documents were obtained from GARF – the State Archives of the Russian Federation. Photos of the documents and their texts are posted in the PART 2. Before introducing you to the documents, I will briefly outline the essence of this correspondence, the fate of the participants and the issue itself.
The text is quite long, but it is still worth reading to the end!
PART 1
After the collapse of the USSR and the acquisition of independence, the Kyrgyz began to use the ethnonym KYRGYZ in the Russian language and even included this ethnonym (and toponym) in the Constitution of the country.
In accordance with this, in the English version, the name changed from Kirghiz (in old dictionaries) to Kyrgyz (in all new dictionaries and publications). At the same time, the French (Kirghize) and the Spanish (Kirguistán) retained in their language the translation of the word from Russian, and not from Kyrgyz.
Russian media still use the ethnonym “Kyrgyz”, usually justifying it by the fact that in the Russian language grammar is regulated by Russian institutions, and accordingly, the Russian version of the ethnonym (exoethnonym) should be determined there, for example, by the Pushkin Institute of the Russian Language. However, it should be noted that to this day, the Russian language retains the official status in the Constitution of the Kyrgyz Republic in addition to the state Kyrgyz language, and accordingly, Kyrgyzstan, in my opinion, has the right to determine the language norm in the Russian language for this word. If it does not have the right, then, perhaps, the status of the language in the republic should be changed.
FIRST, BACKGROUND
During the period of the existence of the Kyrgyz as part of the colony of the Russian Empire – Russian Turkestan or the Turkestan military governor-generalship – the Kyrgyz and Kazakhs were called “Kirghiz”. In the monarchy, the term “state language” was not used, but Russian was de facto such, being the language of office work of the Russian Empire. Therefore, although the peoples themselves used the endoethnonym (self-designation) “Kyrgyz” and “Kazak”, in official questionnaires, publications, documents, both were called “KIRGIZ”. In Russian literature and the press, particularly knowledgeable authors used the words “Kirghiz-Kaisaks” or “Kirghiz-Kazakhs” in relation to the people who are now called Kazakhs in Russian, and “Kara-Kirghiz” or “wild-stone Kirghiz” in relation to those who call themselves “Kirghiz”.
After the fall of the monarchy in 1917, the Turkestan ASSR was formed on the ruins of the Turkestan Governorate-General of the Russian Empire as part of the Russian Federation (1918-1924). Accordingly, both peoples – the Kyrgyz and Kazakhs – officially continued to be called “Kirghiz” in Russian.
Inside the Turkestan ASSR, as during the times of the Turkestan Governorate-General, our ancestors the Kyrgyz and Kazakhs lived among other peoples. However, the northern part of the Kazakhs lived outside of Turkestan – directly in the Russian Federation, where, trying to gain independence, they created the Alash Autonomy (1917-1920), and then in place of Alash, the Kirghiz ASSR was created (1920-1924) with its capital in Orenburg, which should correctly be called the Kazakh ASSR. In 1924, after the demarcation and abolition of Turkestan, as is known, we, the Kyrgyz, gained our autonomy in the form of the Kara-Kirghiz Autonomous Region (October 1924 – May 1925), and the Kazakhs of Turkestan united with the northern Kazakhs under the common name of the Kirghiz ASSR. In other words, the confusion with ethnonyms and toponyms continued…
Finally, in May 1925, Kyrgyzstan began to be called the Kirghiz Autonomous Region without the prefix “kara”, and the former Kirghiz ASSR (now Kazakhstan) became the Kazakh ASSR (by the way, the ethnonym “kazak” was then approved in Russian without the letter “kh”, with the letter “k”). At this historical moment, FOR THE FIRST TIME IN ABOUT 200 YEARS, the confusion with the official demarcation of two fraternal, but separate peoples was eliminated!
Further, our republic within the USSR was called the Kirghiz ASSR (1926-1936), Kirghiz SSR (1936-1991). But even here the name of the republic in the state language of the USSR – Russian (according to Soviet documents – the language of “interethnic communication”, and de facto – the language of office work throughout the Union and in the republic itself, that is, the state language) sounded like Kirghizia, Kirghiz…
WHAT DID THE KYRGYZ PEOPLE THEMSELVES THINK ABOUT THE NAME “KYRGYZSTAN” IN THE SOVIET ERA?
In Soviet times, all office work in the republic was conducted in Russian. Even if the residents of a remote corner of the Kirghiz ASSR/SSR did not speak it, all forms, appeals to government agencies, the police, the court, health care agencies, applications for employment, and entries in work books were filled out in Russian. Education in universities was conducted in Russian (with the exception of V.Mayakovsky National Women Pedagogical Institute). And even when particularly zealous activists began to artificially introduce words from Russian into the Kyrgyz language (for example, into the names of printed media), such as “pravda” or “rodina”, which exist in any language, including Kyrgyz, this was accepted without loud criticism. The names and surnames of Kyrgyz in documents issued in the Kirghiz SSR were written in a manner unnatural for their sound and meaning in the original, and have remained so to this day. For example, Yusup instead of Jusup, Urazbek instead of Orozbek, Dzhoomart instead of Joomart, Tologon jr Tulegen instead of Tөlөgon, etc. Many perceived this state of affairs as a given, which may or may not be liked, but it exists. However, the educated part of Kyrgyz society and its representatives in power did not consider such a position in relation to the official, most commonly used republican toponym and ethnonym to be unshakable. After all, every day it was necessary to write and sign documents concerning the “Kirghiz”, the “Kirghiz” republic…
In 1936, on the eve of the adoption of the new Constitution of the USSR (and, accordingly, the new constitutions of the republics of the Union), and the transition of our republic from the status of autonomous to union, which was to be recorded in the new basic law, the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee of the Kirghiz ASSR, headed by its chairman Abdykadyr Orozbekov, wrote an appeal to the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR.
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In this appeal of October 27, 1936, A. Orozbekov reported that the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee of the Kirghiz SSR considered it necessary to convey the name of the people and all derivative words in Russian through the word “Kyrgyz” rather than “Kirghiz” and asked the Central Executive Committee of the USSR to issue a special resolution on this.
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The reason given in the letter is the coincidence with the obscene verb “Kirghiz” in the Kyrgyz language, as well as the discrepancy with the Kyrgyz pronunciation. Note that “Kirghiz” is a singular imperative verb in the imperative form meaning “bring in; make someone enter, make someone drive in.” In an expanded sentence, it has a completely normal meaning, but when used out of context, in isolation, the verb becomes ambiguous. In the letter of Abdykadyr Orozbekov in support of replacing the word “KYRGYZ” with the variant “KYRGYZ” in the Russian language, the following arguments are given:
- The word “kyrgyz” was used in Russian texts by specialists in Turkology and researchers, and in the case of using the word “kyrgyz” they indicated in brackets: (correctly – kyrgyz). This issue was repeatedly raised earlier by the famous Russian Turkologist, academician A.N. Samoylovich.
- In the practice of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR, there was already a precedent for replacement: the toponym “Tiflis” was officially replaced with “Tbilisi”, which more closely corresponds to the Georgian word, the toponym “Batum” was replaced with “Batumi”
- The specifics of the Russian language quite allow writing and pronouncing “kyrgyz”.
Modern opponents of the use of the word “kyrgyz” in the Russian language usually appeal to the fact that the endoethnonym often differs from the exoethnonym. For example, the Kyrgyz also say in Kyrgyz Orusiya, not Rossiya, and the Russians call the capital of France Parizh, not Pari, or say Germania, not Deutschland, Anglia, not England. They add to this that the way an exoethnonym will sound in a particular language should be determined by native speakers, in this case, Russians. In my opinion, Orozbekov, who signed the letter on behalf of the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee of the Kyrgyz ASSR, anticipating such arguments, quite worthily and convincingly opposes this point of view.
In the message, the replacement of the term is characterized not just as a desirable step, but as a necessary step, and the request, accordingly, consists in giving this change an official and legitimate status. The letter is written very logically, consistently, reasonably and without any “water”. Respectfully, but without bowing and scraping before the supreme leadership (they knew how to do it!).
ANSWER FROM THE USSR COUNCIL OF NATIONALITIES TO THE APPEAL FROM THE REPUBLIC
The USSR Central Executive Committee forwarded the letter for consideration to the Council of Nationalities – to Alexander Isakovich Khatskevich, member of the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee and secretary of the Council of Nationalities of the Central Executive Committee. A year before the letter – in 1935 – he was appointed to these positions, having arrived from Belarus, where he held high positions, including dealing with issues of “Belarusianization”. A.I. Khatskevich, through the deputy head of the secretariat P. Libakh, on November 10, 1936 sent a request to the Academy of Sciences to receive a professional opinion on the validity of replacing the word “Kirghiz” with the word “Kyrgyz”. P. Libakh sent written requests to speed up the process of preparing the opinion, apparently in view of the imminent opening of the VIII All-Union Extraordinary Congress of Soviets, which was to adopt a new Constitution of the USSR. Finally, on November 22, that is, three days before the start of the congress, which took place from November 25 to December 5, 1936, the Conclusion of the Department of Social Sciences (UN) of the USSR Academy of Sciences was sent to A.I. Khatskevich
The response to Khatskevich from the UN of the USSR Academy of Sciences was prepared by Alexander Konstantinovich Borovkov, Scientific Secretary of the Central Asian Cabinet, a well-known linguist-Turkologist, a specialist in the Uzbek language, originally from Tashkent, who moved to Leningrad in the late 1920s to work at the Institute of Oriental Studies. A cover letter from the academician-secretary of the USSR Academy of Sciences, the famous philosopher Abram Moiseevich Deborin, was attached to the response.
This Conclusion contained confirmation that the Kyrgyz are a people known from ancient sources, and the proposed national name “Kyrgyz” is closer to the real pronunciation. The document stated that in both Russian and Western European scientific transcriptions the word is rendered exactly as proposed (Kyrgyz), although 
“according to tradition” (apparently in everyday life in Russia) the name “Kyrgyz” has become established. The proposed pronunciation does not contradict Russian phonetics. The USSR Academy of Sciences recommended adopting the word “Kyrgyz”.
The document is marked in red pencil, probably by A.I. Khatskevich: Tal, Stavsky, Tulepov. All three people who needed to be informed were leaders in the press.
Having received the scientists’ conclusion, Aleksandr Isakovich sent a request on December 2, 1936, to the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR to include the issue on the agenda of the next meeting and attached a draft resolution of the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR approving the replacement of the word “Kirghiz” with the word “Kyrgyz”.
The congress that was adopting the new constitution had already begun by that time, the final date was scheduled for December 5
ACTIONS OF THE CENTRAL EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE OF THE USSR ON THE ISSUE OF REPLACING THE ETHNONYM
It would seem that the matter should now be resolved positively, albeit at the last minute. However, the issue was not resolved before the end of the congress. Despite the expressed will of the highest bodies of the republic itself, the presence of scientific justification, as well as the consent of the leaders of the leading political institutions, in particular the Council of Nationalities, the replacement did not take place at this stage. On December 5, 1936, the Congress adopted a new Constitution of the USSR, in Chapter II “State Structure”, Article 13: “The USSR is a union state formed on the basis of a voluntary unification of equal Soviet socialist republics: – … the Kirghiz Soviet Socialist Republic.”
The last on the list is the eleventh, our republic under the old name.
It is unknown which of the members of the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee did not want to include the issue in the agenda of the meetings before the end of the congress. However, no clarity was provided, in the republic itself they continued to wait for a specific decision, and also worked on preparing a new republican constitution in accordance with the changed status – the transition from autonomous to union.
At the end of December, Ivan Alekseevich Akulov, Secretary of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR, returned the Conclusion of the Academy of Sciences to Academician Deborin, who had previously signed the cover letter, with the order to give “an exhaustive conclusion on this issue.” I.A. Akulov, a native of St. Petersburg, before the aforementioned position became the first prosecutor of the USSR (1933-1935), the boss and predecessor of the infamous Andrei Vyshinsky in this post, and during his stormy biography even managed to head the Kirghiz ASSR (which is actually Kazakh) for one year (1920-21).
On February 21, 1937, Academician-Secretary of the UN of the USSR Academy of Sciences Deborin gave an opinion to the Secretary of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR I. Akulov:
“… we consider the replacement correct from the point of view of the Kyrgyz language and acceptable from the point of view of Russian … the form – “Kyrgyz” with the adjective “Kyrgyz” should, in our opinion, be adopted for the Russian language and thereby eliminate the unnecessary, not caused by the peculiarities of the Russian language, distortion in the spelling and pronunciation of the name of one of the fraternal peoples of the USSR – the Kyrgyz people.” Having received this conclusion from the academician and being forced to agree with the substitution, I. Akulov, on behalf of the “Party Group of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) Presidium of the Central Executive Committee,” sent a letter to I. Stalin on March 9, 1937, asking to replace the name “Kirghiz” with the form “Kyrgyz.” The letter, to which a draft of the corresponding resolution was attached, states:
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“… the Party Group of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) Presidium of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR considers it necessary to satisfy the request of the Central Executive Committee of the Kirghiz USSR and henceforth establish the spelling “Kyrgyz” instead of “Kirghiz” in the Russian language.
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This is still unknown in the republic. At that time, preparations were in full swing for the adoption of a new constitution for the Kirghiz SSR. On March 11, 1937, the Special Commission presented the draft at a meeting of the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee of the Kirghiz SSR (now a union republic, not an autonomous republic), which fully approved it. The project was published for public discussion in the newspaper “Kyzyl Kyrgyzstan” on March 12, 1937.
The Chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars of the Kirghiz SSR Bayaly Dikambaevich Isakeyev was a member of the Special Commission for the development of a draft of the new constitution, and was the chairman of the subcommittee for the organization of central government bodies. On March 13, 1937, with an interval of 5 minutes, he sent two urgent telegrams to Moscow:
One – to Yakov Arkadyevich Yakovlev, head of the Agricultural Department of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks), with a request to sanction the inclusion of the name “Kyrgyz” in the Russian text of the constitution of the republic . Obviously, Isakeyev knew this figure, associated with agriculture, through the Council of People’s Commissars. Just a month before the correspondence, in October 1936, Yakovlev became the first deputy. chairman of the Party Control Committee under the Central CommitteeThe All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks). The second one was sent to the Chairman of the Council of Nationalities I.A. Khatskevich with a request to speed up the resolution of the issue.
Obviously, the leadership of the republic hoped to have time to introduce an amendment to the name of the people and the republic itself into the final version of the constitution of the Kirghiz SSR.
On the same day, Khatskevich responded to Isakeev, assuring that the issue would be considered in the coming days… Both the handwritten text of this response from Khatskevich and the telegram itself have been preserved.
On March 17, I. Polovinkin, an employee of Yakovlev’s office, on his instructions sent Isakeev’s telegram to I. Akulov, who, as we know, had already passed the documents on to I. Stalin for consideration.
Continuing the correspondence, on March 23, 1937, I. Akulov informed Bayaly Isakeev: “I am responding to your telegram to Yakovlev. The issue of the name Kirghiz is being resolved. We cannot sanction it, period, SHARKS”
On March 24, 1937, the issue of “Kyzyl Kyrgyzstan” was published with the text of the new Constitution of the Kirghiz SSR with the previous name, and it was also prescribed to indicate the Kyrgyz and Russian versions on the flag and coat of arms, the latter in the form of the Kirghiz SSR.
FURTHER DEVELOPMENT OF EVENTS
And now is the time to understand what happened to all the participants of the correspondence in the same 1937 after the publication of the new Constitution of the USSR of 1936 and the Constitution of the Kirghiz SSR of 1938. Below is a list of the participants of the correspondence, both the main ones and those who were only mentioned in it or to whom a copy of the document was sent. The list indicates the positions at the time of the correspondence and provides facts about the subsequent fate of the participant.
As we can see, already a few months after the appeal of the party group of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR, signed by I. Akulov in March 1937 to I. Stalin, by August-September 1937, there was no one left to continue the discussion of the issue with the “leader” and to achieve a final decision, fixed by the Resolution, to replace the ethnonym “Kirghiz” with “Kyrgyz”.
1. Abdykadyr Orozbekov (Abdukadyr Urazbekov) – Chairman of the Central Executive Committee of the Kirghiz ASSR and the Kirghiz SSR
Arrested in September 1937. Never returned from prison. Died in prison, apparently from torture, in May 1938. According to another version, he was shot near the village of Tash-Debe near the city of Frunze (Bishkek
2. Bayaly Isakeev – Chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars of the Kirghiz SSR
Arrested on September 10, 1937. In accordance with the “list of persons subject to trial by the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR for the Kirghiz SSR” under the 1st category, approved on September 12, 1938, he was shot in November 1938, 30 km from the city of Frunze (Bishkek). He rests in the Ata-Beyit Memorial Complex.
3. Samoylovich Aleksandr Nikolaevich – Director of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the USSR Academy of Sciences, a prominent Russian and world Turkologist, a student of V.V. Radlov
Arrested in September 1937. Accused of espionage for Japan, the creation of a “counterrevolutionary bourgeois-nationalist organization” that fought for the “separation of national outskirts from the USSR and their subordination to the influence of Japanese imperialism.” Shot in February 1938. Buried in the area of the village of Butovo or the state farm “Kommunarka”
4. Khatskevich Aleksandr Isakovich – since 1935 a candidate for membership in the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR and Secretary of the Council of Nationalities of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR
In 1937, he was arrested as an “enemy of the people” and transported to Minsk, allegedly for an investigation into underground anti-Soviet activities. On November 24, 1937, the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR sentenced Khatskevich A.I. was sentenced to death by firing squad and confiscation of all property. The sentence was carried out. His wife was also arrested and tried as a member of the traitor’s family. She spent eight years in the camps of Mordovia and near Arkhangelsk
5. Deborin Abram Moiseevich – Academician-Secretary of the Department of Social Sciences of the USSR Academy of Sciences, a famous philosopher.
Experienced repression – removal from the leadership of the institutes of philosophy, then history, restrictions on the publication of works, accused of “militant Menshevism”, cosmopolitanism, but was not arrested.
6. Borovkov Alexander Konstantinovich – in 1935-1936 a research fellow at the Institute of Speech Culture. From 1934, scientific secretary.
From 1938, senior research fellow and head of the Central Asian Cabinet of the Institute of Speech Culture of the USSR Academy of Sciences. In 1939-1945, deputy director of the Uzbek FAN USSR – Academy of Sciences of the Uzbek SSR. He died on November 15, 1962 in Leningrad
7. Akulov Ivan Alekseevich – from 1935, secretary and member of the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR. Before that, from 1933 to 1935, the Prosecutor of the USSR (his deputy and successor was Andrei Vyshinsky).
Arrested on July 23, 1937, sentenced to death on October 29, 1937 by the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR, chaired by V. Ulrikh, on charges of participating in a counterrevolutionary military conspiracy. The sentence was carried out the next day, October 30, 1937
8. Yakovlev Yakov Arkadyevich – from 1934, head of the agricultural department of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks). From October 1936, 1st deputy. chairman of the Party Control Committee under the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks).
Arrested on October 12, 1937. His wife, Sofya Sokolovskaya (the director of Mosfilm), was arrested with him. He was executed on July 29, 1938, by the verdict of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on July 29, 1938, on charges of participating in a counter-revolutionary terrorist organization.
9. Tal, Boris Markovich – Head of the Printing and Publishing Department of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks); editor and member of the editorial board of the “Izvestia” newspaper, the Bolshevik Press and Bolshevik magazines, and the “Za Industrializatsii” newspaper.
He was arrested on November 27, 1937, without a warrant. He was accused of participating in an anti-Soviet counter-revolutionary terrorist organization. He was tortured during interrogation. Tal’s name was included in Stalin’s execution list, dated April 19, 1938. He was formally sentenced at a meeting of the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR on September 17, 1938, and executed on the same day. Burial place — special NKVD facility “Kommunarka” near Moscow.
10. Stavsky (Kirpichnikov) Vladimir Petrovich – writer, journalist, editor
Fought in the Great Patriotic War. Died on November 14, 1943 during a sortie beyond the neutral zone together with sniper Klavdiya Ivanova near Nevel. Buried in Velikiye Luki
11. Tulepov Mirasbek Nurgalievich – head of the scientific press sector, Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks), press and publishing department.
Arrested on August 22, 1937. Shot under the sentence to capital punishment from February 25, 1938
12. Polovinkin Ivan Matveevich – assistant to the deputy of the agricultural department of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks),
Arrested on October 20, 1937. Sentenced by the Supreme Collegium of the Supreme Court (VKVS) of the USSR on February 8, 1938 on charges of participating in a counter-revolutionary terrorist organization, executed on the same day. Buried in Moscow, at the Kommunarka firing range
13. Kulvarskaya (Raskina) Nina Mikhailovna – employee of the USSR Institute of Oriental Studies
Died in 1953
14. P. Libakh – fate unknown
15. Khutantsev – fate unknown
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