KYRGYZSTAN: The burial of writer and statesman Chingiz Aitmatov, a writer who helped bring about Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev's Perestroika

Record ID: 611641

  • Title: KYRGYZSTAN: The burial of writer and statesman Chingiz Aitmatov, a writer who helped bring about Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev's Perestroika
  • Date: 17th June 2008
  • Summary: (CEEF) BISHKEK, KYRGYZSTAN (RECENT - JUNE 14, 2008) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF CROWD QUEUING TO PAY LAST RESPECTS MOURNERS CARRYING WREATH EXTERIOR OF STATE PHILHARMONIC HALL BUILDING WHERE BODY IS LYING IN STATE MOURNERS WALKING UP PHILHARMONIC HALL STAIRS MOURNERS WALKING PAST CHINGIZ AITMATOV'S OPEN COFFIN GUARDS STANDING AT AITMATOV'S COFFIN AITMATOV FAMILY MEMBERS KYRGYZ
  • Embargoed: 2nd July 2008 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Kyrgyzstan
  • Country: Kyrgyzstan
  • Topics: Disasters / Accidents / Natural catastrophes
  • Reuters ID: LVA6TKO5BCOMTLG0B0B4YR4U2292
  • Story Text: Over 20,000 mourners paid their respects to Kyrgyz writer and statesman Chingiz Aitmatov, on Saturday (June 14), as the country buried the intellectual who helped bring about Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev's Perestroika.
    Aitmatov, who died in Germany on Tuesday at the age of 79, lay in state for several hours in Bishkek's State Philharmonic Hall before being buried next to his father in a memorial complex 20 km from the capital.
    Kyrgyzstan declared Saturday a day of national mourning. Men, women and children queued for three hours in temperatures nearing 40 degrees Celsius to file past Aitmatov's open coffin, draped in the red-and-yellow flag of the Central Asian nation.
    Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev said Aitmatov had left a "deep impression" on world and national culture.

    "Chingiz Aitmatov's death is a heavy blow for world culture, for modern literature and public works. Chingiz Aitmatov knew how to unify his contemporaries spiritually. He managed to reconcile people and lead them to unity. He carried the heavy burden of spiritual leadership with incredible patience and diligence," he said.
    Many of the mourners then joined the funeral procession on foot.
    Teacher Vera Malneva was one of those who'd come to show her respects.

    "I think it will take some time before we understand what has happened. I thought our Philharmonic Hall was huge with a huge space in it, but now with Aitmatov in it it has become so little, so cramped, because he is such a great person. Even in death he has his own greatness," she said.
    Born in a tiny Kyrgyz village in 1928, Aitmatov won a number of literary awards during the Soviet era and also became a senior Soviet and Kyrgyz diplomat.
    Among his best known works were "Jamilia", "The Day Lasts More Than a Hundred Years" and "The White Steamer". His novels often interwove popular myths and folktales to create allegorical themes populated with down-to-earth characters.
    Aitmatov's father was a victim of one of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin's purges. He was executed in 1938 as an "enemy of the people"
    after being found guilty of "bourgeois nationalism".
    Aitmatov's wish was to be buried next to his father at the Ata-Beyit memorial complex, where victims of Stalin's purges are commemorated.
    Aitmatov's career as a diplomat began after he embraced Gorbachev's "perestroika" campaign of new political thinking in the mid-1980s.
    In the dying days of the Soviet Union, Gorbachev appointed Aitmatov Soviet ambassador to Belgium, Holland and Luxembourg.
    After the Soviet Union's demise in 1991, Aitmatov served as Kyrgyzstan's envoy to the Benelux, France, NATO and UNESCO.
    Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Saturday, that though Chingiz Aitmatov was no longer with them, his wise words would always remain alive.
    The Ataturk Culture, Language and History High Agency of Turkey set up a special committee earlier this year to nominate Aitmatov, of Turkic descent, for the Nobel prize for literature.
    His native Kyrgyzstan had declared 2008 "The Year of Aitmatov".
    Last month the writer was rushed to a German clinic with acute kidney failure.
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