Toktobolot Abdumomunov
Toktobolot Abdumomunov
Our hotel in Bishkek, the Silk Road Lodge, is to be found on Abdumomunova Street. This is not one of the main streets in the city center, running from East to West it passes a number of the city’s landmarks, including the Kyrgyz Drama Theater that also carries his name.
For the record: Until 1992 it was known as Kirov Street, (after Sergei Kirov, the Bolshevik revolutionary whose assasination in 1934 led to the “great purge” in which such characters as Kamenev and Zinoviev were arrested … although many suspect that it was Stalin who ordered the murder). Shortly aft6er independence it was renamed in honour of Toktobolot Abdumomunov, a famous Kyrgyz writer was born on 15th August 1922 in the village of Dzhany Alish in the Kemin region and who had recently died, in 1989.
In 1938 he completed a course of study at the Medical Technical School in Frunze, (as Bishkek was then called). He entered the Medical Institute the next year but, due to illness, had to leave and went to work as a Medical Assistant in the Alai district in the south of country – now, a part of the Osh oblast.
From 1941 to 1959 he worked as a proof reader, translator, journalist, and as an editor in the state publishing house and served on the republican the radio committee, as well as serving for a time as a manager in Moscow.
His first writings were published in 1945. His portfolio included stories, plays (including the award winning “Love and Hope” and “Conscience does not forgive“) and works for children. His first play, “Sandy slope”, about the life and work of oil explorers was staged in the in the Kyrgyz Drama Theater in 1947. Other plays were staged in theaters throughout the republic and also across the Soviet Union. As well as a number of plays, he also wrote the screenplay for the 1958 film, “Far in the Mountains”.
He wrote in both Kyrgyz and Russian. . His topical works, (such as the plays Narrow Ravine and Atabek’s Daughter and a dramatic novella, Conscience Won’t Allow It), played a significant role in shaping postwar drama in the USSR. He depicted the life and activities of Toktogul Satylganov in the play Love and Hope (1966).
Over the years he also picked up a number of awards such as the title of Honoured Worker of Arts of the Kyrgyz Soviet Socialist Republic, (1972); National Writer of Kyrgyzia, (1986); the Toktogul Satylganov Award; the Labour Red Banner, (three times); Friendship of the people, and several other medals and certificates of honour.
He joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1959 and served as secretary of the Union of Writers and also on the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Kirgizia, as well as on the Supreme Soviet of the USSR.
Bishkek