Süymönkul Chokmorov ( ky, Сүймөнкул Чокморов, before 2000: ky, Чоң-Таш, Chong-Tash, russian: Чон-Таш;

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national id ...

translation: "Big Rock") is a small village ('' kishlak'') in

Chüy Region Chüy Region ( ky, Чүй облусу, Chüy oblusu; russian: Чуйская область, Chuyskaya oblast) is the northernmost region (''oblast'') of the Kyrgyz Republic. This region surrounds the national capital of Kyrgyzstan, Bishkek. It ...

Kyrgyzstan Kyrgyzstan,, pronounced or the Kyrgyz Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Asia. Kyrgyzstan is bordered by Kazakhstan to the north, Uzbekistan to the west, Tajikistan to the south, and the People's Republic of China to the ea ...

, located just south of the capital

Bishkek 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 ...

. It is part of the

Alamüdün District Alamüdün ( ky, Аламүдүн району) is a district of Chüy Region in northern Kyrgyzstan. Its area is , and its resident population was 188,484 in 2021. Its administrative seat is Lebedinovka. The district surrounds Bishkek, but does ...

. Its population was 729 in 2021. It is a

ski resort A ski resort is a resort developed for skiing, snowboarding, and other winter sports. In Europe, most ski resorts are towns or villages in or adjacent to a ski area – a mountainous area with pistes (ski trails) and a ski lift system. In N ...

and tourist area, and also the site of an

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. ...

execution. In 2000, it was renamed "Süymönkul Chokmorov" after the actor and artist

Suimenkul Chokmorov Suimenkul Chokmorov ( ky, Сүймөнкул Чокморов, Süymönqul Çoqmorov; russian: Суйменкул Чокморов; 9 November 1939 – 26 September 1992) was a Kyrgyz film actor born in Chong-Tash village, Kirghiz SSR (now Kyrgy ...

.Law 21 January 2000 No. 33
/ref> The settlement was established in the 1930s when the local

nomad A nomad is a member of a community without fixed habitation who regularly moves to and from the same areas. Such groups include hunter-gatherers, pastoral nomads (owning livestock), tinkers and trader nomads. In the twentieth century, the po ...

ic people were forced to settle.

Natives of Chong-Tash

* Sopubek Begaliev, economist and politician. *

, actor and artist

Memorial of Soviet repressions

In 1938, when Kyrgyzstan was part of the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

, Chong-Tash was the site of

execution Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...

by the Soviet

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 ...

, NKVD, as part of 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 ...

in the Soviet Union.Regina Khelimskaya (1994), "Tayna Chon-Tasha", Bishkek: Ilim, 137 people – politicians, teachers, scientists and other professional and intellectuals from all over Kyrgyzstan – were secretly taken from the Bishkek (then Frunze) prison, shot to death, and their bodies dumped into a brick oven at a mountain NKVD location near the village. This was part of

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 ...

's crackdown of nationalist movements in

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 ...

.Alan J. DeYoung, Madeleine Reeves, Galina K. Valyayeva (2006) "Surviving the Transition?: Case Studies of Schools and Schooling",
p. 66
/ref> One of those killed was Törökul Aitmatov, father of the Kyrgyz author

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 ...

. The site was discovered in 1991 after Kyrgyzstan gained its

independence Independence is a condition of a person, nation, country, or state in which residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory. The opposite of independence is the s ...

. The caretaker of the site had been sworn to secrecy by the NKVD (and, later, the KGB), but on his deathbed he told his daughter the location of the grave, who then told the Kyrgyz authorities. The bodies were then dug up and interred at a memorial site just outside the village called " Ata Beyit" ("Grave of our Fathers"). Former president

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 ...

, other Kyrgyz dignitaries, and relatives of the dead participated in the reburial.

References

External links

'Secrets of the Dead' article on Chong-Tash massacre, Page 16
{{Alamüdün places Political repression in the Soviet Union Ski areas and resorts in Kyrgyzstan Populated places in Chüy Region