November 7: CAFMI vs. Holidays of Communism

November 7 used to be the greatest holiday dedicated to celebrating the anniversary of the Socialist October Revolution. It is still being celebrated by Kyrgyz communists.

November 7 is also one of the most terrible dates in Kyrgyz history. On November 7, 1937 138 people were killed in the purges in Ata-Beyit (fathers’ cemetery). Thousands of Kyrgyzstan’s intellectual and political elite were imprisoned and many were killed. They were accused of being “nationalist reactionaries” and “pro-capitalist.” Among those who were executed were progressive members of Kyrgyz society, including the father of Chingiz Aitmatov, who was later to attain fame as a great writer.

Kyrgyzstan’s Communist party and the Party of Communists both celebrate the October Revolution every year. They consider the Soviet Union and its system as good for everyone. According to them, it kept people safe from “predatory capitalists.” Today, the weather made us truly happy. It was heavily raining, and the Communists could not celebrate their bloody holiday outside.

We freedom-fighters from Kyrgyzstan were not just happy about the weather. We decided to commemorate a day that showed the true face of Communism: November 7, 1937. Our friends from the organization Kylym Shamy (the Light of the Century) arranged a trip to Ata-Beyit. The Central Asian Free Market Institute’s team joined the event to pay our respects to those who were murdered or oppressed by the Communists.

Here we share some pictures we made from this trip: