Turar Ryskulovich Ryskulov
Турар Рыскулович Рыскулов
The Kazakh Bolshevik strategist who argued for a unified Turkestan against Stalin's national delimitation
In June 1923, Stalin accused Ryskulov of 'pan-Turkism.' From the floor, Ryskulov retorted: "Just months ago, Comrade Stalin, you praised Sultan-Galiev as a devoted communist. Reversing that now is sheer political convenience."
Kazakh Bolshevik revolutionary and a pivotal leader of the Turkestan ASSR. He argued that the Turkic-speaking peoples of Central Asia constituted a single historical nation and opposed Stalin's national delimitation; at the June 1923 IV Conference he openly rebutted Stalin's accusation of 'pan-Turkism.' As RSFSR deputy Sovnarkom chairman (1926–1937), he drove the Turkestan–Siberian Railway and Karaganda industrial complex. During the 1932–1933 Kazakh famine, he wrote directly to Stalin documenting the mass starvation from forced collectivisation and secured food relief. Executed 1938, rehabilitated 1956.
Career timeline
- 1910–1914Merke Russo-Kazakh boarding school; graduated from Pishpek Agricultural School
- 1916–1917Took part in the Central Asian national liberation uprising, arrested; studied at Tashkent Teachers' Seminary; founded the 'Bukhara' Revolutionary Union of Kazakh Youth
- 1919Chairman, Muslim Bureau of the Turkestan Communist Party
- 1920.01–08Chairman, CEC of Turkestan ASSR
- 1920.09Delegate, Baku Congress of the Peoples of the East; elected to the Council of Action
- 1921–1922RSFSR Narkomnats plenipotentiary in Azerbaijan → Deputy People's Commissar for Nationalities
- 1922–1924Chairman, Sovnarkom of Turkestan ASSR; advocated a unified Turkestan, openly debated Stalin in 1923
- 1924–1925Comintern plenipotentiary to the Mongolian People's Republic
- 1926–1937Deputy Chairman, RSFSR Sovnarkom; drove Turkestan–Siberian Railway and Karaganda industrialisation, intervened during 1932–1933 Kazakh famine