The Ata Beyit Memorial Complex () is a memorial site and cemetery near

Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan Bishkek ( ky, Бишкек), ), formerly Pishpek and Frunze, is the capital and largest city of Kyrgyzstan. Bishkek is also the administrative centre of the Chüy Region. The region surrounds the city, although the city itself is not part of t ...

. Located in Chong-Tash, Ata Beyit, meaning "Grave of our Fathers" in the

Kyrgyz language Kyrgyz (; autonym: , tr. ''Kyrgyz tili'', ) is a Turkic language of the Kipchak branch spoken in Central Asia. Kyrgyz is the official language of Kyrgyzstan and a significant minority language in the Kizilsu Kyrgyz Autonomous Prefecture i ...

, is currently the site of many notable burials.

History

Located 30 kilometres from the capital, it was built in 2000 on the initiative of the first

President of Kyrgyzstan The president of Kyrgyzstan, officially the president of the Kyrgyz Republic (russian: Президент Киргизской Республики; ky, Кыргыз Республикасынын Президенти), is the head of state an ...

Askar Akayev Askar Akayevich Akayev ( ky, Аскар Акаевич (Акай уулу) Акаев, translit=Askar Akayevich (Akay Uulu) Akayev ; ; born 10 November 1944) is a Kyrgyz politician who served as President of Kyrgyzstan from 1990 until being ov ...

in memory of the victims of the repressions in the village by Soviet authorities. When Kyrgyzstan was then known as the

Kirghiz Soviet Socialist Republic The Kirghiz Soviet Socialist Republic (Kirghiz SSR; ky, Кыргыз Советтик Социалисттик Республикасы, Kyrgyz Sovettik Sotsialisttik Respublikasy, ky, Кыргыз ССР, Kyrgyz SSR, russian: Киргизск ...

in 1938, Chong-Tash was the site of executions carried out against

Central Asia Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes the former ...

n nationalist movements by the

NKVD The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (russian: Наро́дный комиссариа́т вну́тренних дел, Naródnyy komissariát vnútrennikh del, ), abbreviated NKVD ( ), was the interior ministry of the Soviet Union. ...

(

secret police Secret police (or political police) are intelligence, security or police agencies that engage in covert operations against a government's political, religious, or social opponents and dissidents. Secret police organizations are characteristic of a ...

) during the

Great Purge The Great Purge or the Great Terror (russian: Большой террор), also known as the Year of '37 (russian: 37-й год, translit=Tridtsat sedmoi god, label=none) and the Yezhovshchina ('period of Yezhov'), was Soviet General Secreta ...

ordered by

Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secreta ...

, the

Soviet leader During its 69-year history, the Soviet Union usually had a '' de facto'' leader who would not necessarily be head of state but would lead while holding an office such as premier or general secretary. Under the 1977 Constitution, the chairman ...

.Regina Khelimskaya (1994), "Tayna Chon-Tasha", Bishkek: Ilim, Alan J. DeYoung, Madeleine Reeves, Galina K. Valyayeva (2006) "Surviving the Transition?: Case Studies of Schools and Schooling",
p. 66
/ref> The killings remained largely covered up by the Committee for State Security of the Kyrgyz SSR until the site was rediscovered in 1991 and its caretaker (who had been sworn to secrecy by the

KGB The KGB (russian: links=no, lit=Committee for State Security, Комитет государственной безопасности (КГБ), a=ru-KGB.ogg, p=kəmʲɪˈtʲet ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)əj bʲɪzɐˈpasnəsʲtʲɪ, Komitet gosud ...

) revealed the location of the grave to his daughter following the

dissolution of the USSR The dissolution of the Soviet Union, also negatively connoted as rus, Разва́л Сове́тского Сою́за, r=Razvál Sovétskogo Soyúza, ''Ruining of the Soviet Union''. was the process of internal disintegration within the Sov ...

. On 30 August 1991, a state sponsored mourning ceremony for the remains some of the victims was held. The following day, the independence and sovereignty of Kyrgyzstan was proclaimed. Ata-Beyit Memorial near Bishkek 03-2016 img02

Ata-Beyit Memorial near Bishkek 03-2016 img02

The bodies were then dug up and collectively interred at Ata Beyit 9 years later in the presence of President Akayev, other Kyrgyz/foreign dignitaries, and relatives of the dead. On the right side of the museum is a memorial plaque which has the engraved names all 137 victims. During the

Days of History and Commemoration of Ancestors A day is the time period of a full rotation of the Earth with respect to the Sun. On average, this is 24 hours, 1440 minutes, or 86,400 seconds. In everyday life, the word "day" often refers to a solar day, which is the length between two so ...

holiday on November 7–8, a procession to the memorial is held where the

lays a wreath to honour the victims. One of the more notable people buried at Ata Beyit, Kyrgyz and Soviet writer

Chinghiz Aitmatov Chinghiz Torekulovich Aitmatov (as transliterated from Russian; ky, Чыңгыз Төрөкулович Айтматов, translit=Chynggyz Törökulovich Aytmatov; 12 December 1928 – 10 June 2008) was a Kyrgyz author who wrote mainly in Russi ...

(buried in June 2008), was one of the founding organizers of the complex. He was buried alongside his father Törökul, who died circa 1938 in the

Stalinist repressions Stalinist repressions is a period in Soviet history during the Stalin era. Examples include: * Anti-cosmopolitan campaign (late 1948) * Dekulakization (1929–1933) * Doctor's Plot (1951–1953) * Great Purge (1936–1938), the most usual meaning * ...

. Victims of the

Kyrgyz Revolution of 2010 The Kyrgyz Revolution of 2010, also known as the Second Kyrgyz Revolution, the Melon Revolution, the April Events ( ''Aprel okuyasy'') or officially as the People's April Revolution, began in April 2010 with the ousting of Kyrgyz president K ...

were also buried here. In 2016, a monument to the 1916 ''Urkun'' was installed in the cemetery in a shape of a horizontal sculpture of a Tunduk ("Тундук") with a circular apex a traditional

yurt A yurt (from the Turkic languages) or ger ( Mongolian) is a portable, round tent covered and insulated with skins or felt and traditionally used as a dwelling by several distinct nomadic groups in the steppes and mountains of Central Asia ...

References

{{reflist Monuments and memorials in Bishkek 2000 sculptures Cemeteries in Kyrgyzstan