Usubaliev, Turdakun Usubalievich
(b. 1919), Kyrgyz politician. Turdakun Usubalievich Usubaliev led the Kyrgyzstan Soviet Socialist Republic from 1961 to 1985 as the first secretary of the Communist Party. Born in Naryn (a remote eastern province of the republic) in 1919, he spent his entire career in the Communist Party apparatus, becoming one of the republic's most influential politicians for almost three decades in the late Soviet era. From 1955 to 1956 he worked as editor of the leading national newspaper, Sovettyk Kyrgyzstan, and later held various party posts before assuming leadership in the republic. He viewed Soviet policy (reflected in his writing) as an important mode of modernization of a traditional "backward" country and measured it purely in the terms of economic development and state-led industrialization. These views largely shaped Kyrgyzstan's political and economic setting in the 1960s and 1970s.
Usubaliev belonged to the cohort of Central Asian leaders who were most loyal to the Soviet political system and to Moscow's leadership. As Kyrgyzstan's leader he contributed to the vigorous implementation of the policies of Russification and "internationalism." However, it was his success in attracting huge investment in the industrialization of the republic that won him nationwide recognition and respect.
In 1985, with the introduction of Gorbachev's policy of glasnost, Usubaliev was forced to leave his post and was charged with patronage, corruption, and mismanagement; however, these accusations have never been brought to court. Turdakun Usubaliev remains one of the most popular politicians in post-Soviet Kyrgyzstan and a prolific writer (mainly memoirs). In 1992 he returned to the political arena as a member of the Jogorku Kenesh (Parliament), supporting moderate nationalism and remaining highly critical of the Westernization of Kyrgyz society.
Further Reading
Huskey, Eugene. (1995) "The Rise of Contested Politics in
Central Asia: Elections in Kyrgyzstan, 1989–90." Europe-Asia Studies 47, 5 (July): 813–834. Usubaliev, T. U. (1995) Epokha, sozidanie, sud'by (Epoch,
Creation, Destinies). 2 vols. Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan: Izdatelstvo Sham.
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