On the anniversary of the December events of 1986, Bulat Abilov, a businessman, published a post raising questions about the causes and benefits of those events, as well as those who made the decisions. He shared memories of a conversation with Mikhail Gorbachev in 2000, the first and only president of the USSR, as reported by Orda.kz.
In his recollections, Abilov mentions the removal of Dinmukhamed Kunayev from office and the subsequent events:
“We remember how, on Moscow's orders, without discussions with society, Kolbin became the new head of the republic — a person who had no relation to Kazakhstan. And the next day, students went out to the square. For all these years, I have been tormented by the main question: who made the decision to send in the troops? Whose names are behind this order?”
Bulat recounts how in January 2000 in Switzerland, he accidentally met Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev.
“He invited me to his place. I asked him a question about the December events that troubled many Kazakhs. I was curious about how he was informed about the situation in Almaty and who made the decision to send in troops to suppress the protests. Gorbachev, smiling, replied: ‘Young man, Bulat, there was no video communication back then. Kolbin, the new person in place, could not provide a full report. However, Nazarbayev constantly reported that the situation was getting out of control and that local forces were unable to cope, insisting on sending in troops. We acted at the request of the local leadership — Kolbin and Nazarbayev asked me to send in the troops.’”
Abilov notes that witnesses to those events are still alive, but there is still no political or historical assessment of these events:
“We do not know our history, we have not even reflected on recent events. We are afraid to reflect on them,” he concluded.
The words of a man who dedicated many years to revealing the truth about Zheltoksan confirm that December 1986 remains a blank spot in the history of Kazakhstan.
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This is Arken Uak, a Zheltoksan participant, whom we mentioned on the "Respublika" portal on December 13, 2013, when we found his video interview on social media. When it was recorded is hard to say, perhaps for another Independence Day. But it never aired because it contains terrible and shocking stories about those days.
For those who may not remember this person: in 1987, Arken Uak, a lecturer at the Almaty Architectural and Construction Institute, was sentenced to 8 years for participating in the December 1986 events on charges of organizing mass riots. He was released in 1991 and rehabilitated in 1994.
In 2000, his book about the December 1986 events in Almaty was published in Moscow, but almost the entire print run disappeared on its way to Kazakhstan. Nevertheless, Arken Uak did not give up and wrote a sequel to the book.
His second work titled "Genocide" was published after his death, but the print run was also under the control of the special services.
Why did this happen? His books are based on unpublished materials from the special commission of the Supreme Soviet of the Kazakh SSR, which investigated the December 1986 events.
That is why his interview, likely one of the last and never published, caught our attention. We offer you its transcript.
No one asked Kunayev to stay
Arken Uak shares his memories candidly.
— There was nothing to lose; we had already lost everything. It was a matter of life and death: to be or not to be? You see, 40% did not know the language. How could one become so Russified?! It was necessary to either restore the rights of the Kazakh language so that the people would not lose their culture or die, he says.
— I am telling what I have never told anyone. On December 16 or 17, Abdigapar, an instructor at the Central Committee, called me. He reported that there was a war in the square, people were being beaten. I had a neighbor, an eye doctor. His only daughter went to the square. She told her mother that she would go there. They came to me in tears and said that people were being killed there. I got in my car and drove to the square. I saw people running away, being beaten. Among the crowd, I accidentally saw the neighbor's daughter, grabbed her, and took her home, Uak recalls those tragic days.
He also debunks one of the myths about Zheltoksan:
— During the investigations, it was revealed that there were political demands on the posters. But no one asked for Kunayev to be restored. He was not needed by anyone. This lackey, the satrap of the Communist Party, was just like Nazarbayev. They were ready to betray their parents, not to mention the people. But the people were ready for these events; everything had been building up. Every day there were insulting attitudes. Two Kazakhs on a bus speak in Kazakh, and they are shouted at: “Hey, speak Russian!” All this built up and exploded at one moment.
They wanted to shoot, but they imprisoned
He also spoke about his fate after the events:
— Do you think Kolbin felt sorry for us? The KGB army was sent to find out who the organizer was. They only found me. I felt that I was being watched when two came and said: “We want to invite you to the KGB for a conversation.” I agreed, and until two in the morning, they tortured me, asking who the organizer was. They said: “You will be shot, and no one will know.”
— A commission was created under the leadership of the deputy head of the criminal department of the KGB, Murzalin. Now he is an alcoholic, living in the Mamyr-1 microdistrict. I wanted to talk to him, but he is always drunk. This Murzalin told me: “Well, Uak, you will be shot anyway. Come on, tell me how it was?” I replied: “I don’t know anything.” And he: “But you were in the square?” I replied: “I wasn’t.” And so it went every day, Uak shares.
— I knew I would be convicted while sitting in the KGB; I learned the Criminal Code. I knew I would be caught not for political reasons but for a criminal case, says the Zheltoksan participant. — And that’s how it turned out. A case was opened for theft of 280 rubles, as if I had stolen tiles from students meant for the dormitory. The witness at the trial said that white tiles were missing, but I only had green ones at home. But I was still sentenced to 8 years in prison and 5 years of deprivation of the right to engage in teaching activities.
When the zone is better than freedom
The years spent in prison he recalls with irony.
— I ended up in Kolyma. One from Kazakhstan was there, in the Talye area. At the stage, we were not given beds, and we all got lice. When we arrived in Magadan, we were given clean beds and a room. Then we reached Talye. At night, some convict ran in and asked: “Who is Uak?” I responded. It turned out that while I was walking for three months, the rumor about me had already spread; everyone knew my story. He said: “You will go to the third squad; you won't work for a whole month. You will be the head of the BPK! This is the bath-laundry complex.” So I managed the bath, Uak laughs.
An interesting story about how they tried to forcibly pardon him reminds of modern realities.
— In the summer of 1989, my boss called me and said: “Uak, congratulations, you are free.” I asked: “How?” He replied: “I received a call from Magadan; there is a request for a pardon.” I refused: “I don’t want such freedom!”
Why, the reader may wonder. It’s simple.
— What is a pardon? It is an admission of guilt; after that, you have no right to complain; no one will accept your statement because you confessed. I am not a fool like that Askarov. Askarov received a pardon and then wrote to the Supreme Soviet to be acquitted. I was summoned many times, but I refused. And after a while, the judge, now a member of the Supreme Court, the head of the department, Raimbaev, called my wife and offered her: “Write a statement; we will push you through.” My wife wrote me a letter, and I refused. But she wrote a statement in her name. I was summoned again: here, your wife is asking, and so on. At that time, the chairman of the Supreme Court was my countryman from Arkalyk; we were neighbors. Apparently, he wanted to help, but I refused the pardon.
People were taken away in trucks to the fields
In a conversation with the journalist, Uak continues to share his revelations:
— I had one task — to get out alive to continue the struggle, and I am fighting. I send a statement to the Supreme Court and copies of documents based on which Nazarbayev can be prosecuted under Article 160 “Genocide.”
— Earlier, I could not do this because neither in the Soviet Union nor in Kazakhstan did this article exist. But in September of this year, under pressure from the public and international organizations, this article was adopted. Now I am preparing the material and filing a lawsuit. Of course, the case will not be considered; I will be rejected. But I will take the case to the international court, says Uak.
— Genocide is divided into two types. Destruction or beating, inflicting serious bodily harm to one member or the entire group is considered genocide. The second is the sale of our children abroad — also genocide. There is also the article “rudimentary genocide.” This means that genocide can continue for 50-100 years, and regardless of the statute of limitations, a person can be held criminally liable, regardless of whether they were a leader or not. Do you understand? — he asks.
— He was the secretary of the Central Committee, then in the government implemented the policy of the Soviet Union. He was also the chairman of the government. I have a document signed by the first deputy minister of internal affairs. He writes that the authorities thought that on the 17th, the people would not come out, but the people came out on the 18th. All police stations were filled; they did not know what to do with the people and began loading them into trucks, taking them to the fields and throwing them out naked. In the evening, in the dark, they wanted to deal with everyone. So there was an order. And the headquarters was led by Nazarbayev.
— This deputy minister writes how all this was planned. To appoint three squads, surround the people, and beat them. Whoever manages to escape will run away; the rest will be beaten. The chairman of the Council of Ministers — Nazarbayev was present at this decision, says the deputy minister. Here, look in the book. The journalist who wrote about this was convicted, but they do not touch me. Why don’t they touch me? Everyone says, you raised all this and are writing a second book, shares Uak.
He fought for the truth about the Zheltoksan events until his last day.
— I wrote on one site about all his crimes; he sold everything! We have nothing left. The industry is completely sold off; in Ust-Kamenogorsk, no enterprise belongs to Kazakhstan. To whom was the Ermakovsky ferroalloy plant sold, and what about the chrome plant, which ranks first in the world in chrome production? I am not even talking about oil; you know about it. We have nothing in Kazakhstan; everything is sold. How did he do it? For bribes, or maybe they are paying a percentage?
— Have you read his (Nazarbayev's) book? He writes that after finishing school, he came as an applicant to the chemistry department but did not pass the competition. If he did not pass, then he should go to the army, but he decided to go to Komsomol construction sites. Then he successfully married Sara because her relative was a significant figure who promoted him and made him a communist, he recalled the biography of the first president.
— There is a civil conscience that does not allow me to be a communist, but I have not disappeared. Each of us has a civil conscience; one should not be a scoundrel, says the elderly man.
— As long as Nazarbayev is in power, nothing will change, but I will fight to the end. The truth is on my side. I am not guilty that he included Article 160 (on genocide) in the Criminal Code. According to it, I will sue him. I would have done this long ago, but in December last year, I had a stroke and still cannot recover. My speech has returned, my memory has returned, but I have problems with my legs — I cannot walk and go outside, but I continue the struggle. I need nothing; I am 73 years old; I will die today or tomorrow. But I have documents that Nazarbayev destroyed. How I collected them does not matter, but I have the factual materials. I do this for history…
…Arken Uak passed away in 2003.
