Years of Study in Verny
At his father's insistence, from 1904 to 1911, Abdykerim studied at the Vernensky Men's Gymnasium — a privileged educational institution of European type. The only similar gymnasium in all of Turkestan was located in Tashkent; later, they were opened in Bishkek and Aulie-Ata. Applicants for admission were required to know prayers, be able to read and write in Russian, and perform arithmetic operations within a thousand. Mandatory subjects at the gymnasium included religious studies, Russian, German, French, and Latin languages, literature, history, ethics, geography, natural science, mathematics, handwriting, and others. In ethics classes, gymnasium students were lectured on the good deeds of rulers. However, for Abdykerim, who was raised on the example of his own famous ancestors, their experience was no less important than any theories.
Students from other cities lived in a special boarding house for Kyrgyz, in an environment suitable for the chosen few. Fifteen boys from Bishkek studied at the gymnasium, including seven Kyrgyz. Kozhomurat Sarykulakov excelled in his studies, graduating with a silver medal. At the request of the gymnasium director, he first enrolled at Kyiv University and then transferred to the law faculty of Kazan University. As the son of impoverished parents, he received a state scholarship. Illness and revolution prevented Kozhomurat from completing his education. After returning home, he became the organizer and leader of the sokja "Bukhara" ("The Poor"), but in 1918 he died unexpectedly from illness. The names of many graduates of the Vernensky Gymnasium later entered national history.
Among them were Mikhail Frunze, Mukhamedzhan Tynyshpaev, Uraz Jandosov, Bekhodzha Kachkynbaev, Abdykerim Sydykov, and others. At the gymnasium, Abdykerim was not an exemplary student. He was averse to vanity and tried not to stand out. However, he was full of a thirst for knowledge of the unknown in the infinite world. Most importantly, studying at the gymnasium facilitated his understanding of himself, strengthened his will, enriched his nature, and helped him determine the sequence of actions on his chosen path. The gymnasium lifted the young man from a "semi-barbaric" state and brought him closer to the spiritual values of European civilization.
The years of study in Verny coincided with a period of broad democratization and modernization in Russia, its transformation into an enlightened liberal constitutional monarchy. The imperial government increasingly involved local peoples in governance through city dumas and zemstvo administrations. Deputies of indigenous nationalities from Semirechye sat in the State Duma (for example, Kazakhs Alihan Bukeikhanov and Mukhamedzhan Tynyshpaev, and a Kyrgyz from the Prijssykul region, Kydyr Baisariev). Books in the Kyrgyz language began to be published, Russian newspapers appeared in Kyrgyzstan, and railways from Jalal-Abad to Tashkent and Tashkent to Bishkek were planned and constructed. Electricity and telephones appeared in Bishkek, and under the guidance of engineer V. Vasilyev, large-scale construction of irrigation facilities and a hydroelectric station on the Chu River unfolded.
After the gymnasium, Abdykerim enrolled in the veterinary faculty of Kazan University. Soon, due to illness, he was forced to leave his studies and return home. We know nothing about the impressions the young man gained during his short time at the university, but they must have played a significant role in the life of the future leader of the Kyrgyz nation.
In Bishkek, Abdykerim engaged in beekeeping at his grandfather's apiary, rejecting the prospect of, by family tradition, becoming an entrepreneur or a volost administrator. He preferred the measured and calm life of a native ruler to the position of a modest civil servant in the county administration. The fact that he studied in Verny and Kazan suggests that Abdykerim's parents initially prepared him for a different fate.
It is likely that he was instilled with the belief that a high political mission would also fall to him, as it once did for his famous ancestors. This can be interpreted as mysticism. However, according to biographers, W. Churchill and General de Gaulle were also predicted a special role in history during their childhood. This is a very important point for understanding the intentions and actions of the future national leader.
On November 16, 1912, A. Sydykov submitted a request to the head of the Pishpek administration, Putintsev: "I wish to enlist in Your Majesty's military service in the military-people's administration. I ask to be appointed as a verbal translator for the Pishpek County Administration." He was accepted only after a reliability check and a statement dated January 10, 1913, in which he swore an oath and gave his word not to join any secret societies. In it, he promised: "I swear before the Quran and the power of God that I want and must obey His Imperial Majesty, the Most Merciful Great Sovereign of All Russia, without sparing my life to the last drop of blood. I kiss the words of the Quran. Amen. A. Sydykov." The oath was certified by the seal of the mullah of the Pishpek city mosque, Mukhamed Yakub Abdrakhmanov.
It is no secret that A. Sydykov served honestly and with dignity. Numerous recommendations for awards and promotions testify to this. In December 1914, he was awarded a jubilee medal in connection with the 300th anniversary of the Romanov dynasty. On February 14, 1915, Putintsev again petitioned the dual governor of Semirechye for the award of a small silver medal to translator A. Sydykov "for the labors incurred due to the circumstances of the war." In September 1916, he was nominated for the Order of Saint Stanislaus III degree with a bow and sword "for the competent transmission of orders from Lieutenant Colonel Rymshovich during the battle to repel the attack of the insurgents." The colonizers, who adhered to the principle of "divide and rule," practiced the distribution of awards to sow discord among the ranks of the insurgents and instill distrust among them, and this sometimes happened in life.
In the administration, A. Sydykov rose to the civil rank of college registrar, which corresponded to the military rank of second lieutenant. His name was listed among five officers of the Pishpek County. Subsequently, these facts from A. Sydykov's life were repeatedly used to portray him as an enemy of his own people. This opinion persisted for decades as a result of the voluntary or involuntary efforts of many historians. But the main moral responsibility lies with those "improvers of history" who, even during the perestroika years, continued to convince people of the existence of the "enemy Sydykov." They find it difficult to understand that, acting in accordance with the noble code of honor, he valued his oath and honor more than life itself. He was alien to the values that were actively instilled in society by Soviet ideology, and to the morality that closely resembled that which fascist ideologist M. Bormann sought to impose instead of Christian moral commandments, in order to free the German nation from moral responsibility for crimes against humanity.
To conclude this matter, it should be noted that no party investigation later confirmed A. Sydykov's involvement in the suppression of the uprising by the Kyrgyz against colonial oppression in 1916, not even an investigation conducted within the Cheka-OGPU-NKVD system.
Formation of Abdykerim's Personality