Arrest of K. Tynystanov and E. D. Polivanov

The scientists did not have the opportunity to participate in expeditions either. On August 1, 1937, both professors were arrested, and three days later, on August 3, 1937, an order was issued by the institute:

Ҥ 1. K. Tynystanova, as someone who has not justified the trust and has not provided scientific output to the Institute for several years, is to be dismissed from work as of August 1 of this year.

Ҥ 2. E. D. Polivanov, as someone who has not justified the trust and is disrupting the implementation of the production plan, is to be dismissed from work as of this date.

§ 3. The collections of the Institute of Language and Literature — ‘Issues of Orthography of the Kyrgyz Language’, ‘Issues of Orthography of the Dungan Language’, the work of I. Batmanov ‘Parts of Speech in the Kyrgyz Language’, published under the editorship of Polivanov, are to be withdrawn from circulation.

§ 4. The work of E. D. Polivanov ‘Principles of Terminology of the Dungan Language’ is to be withdrawn from the collection.

§ 5. The work of Yan-Shan-Sin ‘Gansu and Shansi Dialects’, which is in the typesetting stage, is to be suspended until further review.”

By the party decision of August 1, 1937, all works of Tynystanova, both published and in manuscript, were withdrawn from circulation. The same fate befell the scientific legacy of Polivanov. The most productive scientists were absurdly accused of disrupting research plans and dismissed from their positions. Shortly thereafter, they were labeled as "Trotskyists," "nationalists," "pan-Turkists," in general — "enemies of the people," and all conceivable and inconceivable crimes were attributed to them. Ideology intrusively invaded life, in all its spheres, including science..

Half a month later, from the podium of a meeting of the active workers of public education, held in Frunze on August 16, 1937, it was confidently stated:
“Tynystanova and Polivanov,” said N. D. Cherkasov, the then Deputy People's Commissar of Education of the Kyrgyz SSR, who himself later went through the hell of repression, in his report, “in their works promoted a counter-revolutionary nationalist line, polluted the Kyrgyz and Dungan languages... Polivanov — a representative of the Indo-European school, pursued a racial line, a fascist, Hitlerite line in the language issue... Another figure — Tynystanova, an ally of Polivanov, a nationalist, pursued the line of Abdrakhmanov, Aliev, promoted a pan-Turkist feudal line.”

Need specific examples, evidence? Here you go: immediately, a person who knows no language other than their native one begins to accuse recognized linguists. They claim that for the word "connection" in the Dungan language there is its own term, while Polivanov supposedly offers a distorted word that literally means "back and forth."

The word "Frunze" means "Frunze" in all languages, while Tynystanova supposedly suggests the Kyrgyz version — "Pruize," "Paris" — "Parich." And similar linguistic "refutations."

“All this work,” it was said at the meeting, “was conducted in the presence of the leaders of the Institute of Language and Literature, Valitov and Batmanov, and these people could not timely uncover them, only began to do so now, and even then with difficulty, and un-Bolshevistly.”

The circumstances weighed heavily on the former colleagues of the scientists, but even under these conditions, to their credit, they did not show particular zeal, which would later be “counted” against them when accusing them of all sins. A party decision was needed. And it soon followed:

“This gang of nationalists and Trotskyists did not allow loyal party and Soviet power young scientific workers — Kyrgyz and Dungan — to work in the Institute, distorted the Kyrgyz language, did not allow the penetration of Soviet international terms into the Kyrgyz language and distorted them, engaged in subversive work in the field of alphabet and orthography, sabotaged the publication of scientific works of the institute, including terminological dictionaries, marinated in the institute's cabinets a huge wealth of folklore material, tried to destroy it by distributing it to private individuals, as a result of which this material was not returned to the Institute,” — excerpts from the decision dated September 4, 1937, signed by the first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of Kyrgyzstan, Ammosov, who himself was unjustly repressed and shot as an "enemy of the people" two months later.

Works of Professor Polivanov