With the victory of the October Socialist Revolution of 1917 in Russia and its outskirts, including Turkestan, transformations began that were associated with the construction of a new life. The decisions of the II Congress of Soviets of the country, held in January 1924 in Moscow, played an important role in their implementation. The Congress adopted the first Constitution of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. It emphasized that the new union state would be a worthy culmination of the foundations of peaceful coexistence and brotherly cooperation among peoples laid down in 1917. After this Congress, major measures began to be implemented in the country in the area of state restructuring.
A significant place among such activities was occupied by national-state delimitation in Central Asia. The XII All-Turkestan Congress of Soviets in January 1924, followed by the VIII Congress of the Communist Party of Turkestan in May of the same year, recognized the creation of national-territorial formations as timely and necessary. The Politburo of the Central Committee of the RCP(b) adopted a resolution in June 1924 "On the National Delimitation of the Republics of Central Asia." As a result, alongside national-territorial associations of the Uzbek, Tajik, and Turkmen peoples, the Kyrgyz Autonomous Region was created as part of the RSFSR. The integration of the Kyrgyz working people into the international struggle of the workers of Russia for a new life had historical significance for their future fate.
Over time, Kyrgyz Soviet statehood strengthened, political enlightenment and education of the working masses intensified, and the level of mass work of local party, Soviet, Komsomol, trade union, and other public organizations increased. In such conditions, the creation of a newspaper in the native language of the Kyrgyz became an urgent necessity. Its significance grew also because, by that time, the Kyrgyz did not have their own written language; therefore, the newspaper was to play a special role not only as an ideological organ but also as an organ of enlightenment for the working masses.
Until 1924, all agitation-propaganda and cultural-mass work among the working Kyrgyz was conducted orally using Russian central and local press, as well as newspapers and magazines published in Tashkent, Almaty, and Kazan in Kazakh, Uzbek, and Tatar languages. Therefore, the leadership of the Kyrgyz Autonomous Region made the decision to create a newspaper in the Kyrgyz language called "Erkin-Too" ("Free Mountains").
At the time of preparing the first issue of "Erkin-Too" the editorial staff had not yet been formed, as there were no journalists with specialized training and experience among the Kyrgyz at that time. Under these conditions, several initial issues of "Erkin-Too" were created by the efforts of the apparatus of the Kyrgyz regional committee of the party with the involvement of Kyrgyz students studying at the Communist University of the Toilers of the East and at the Kazakh-Kyrgyz Institute of Enlightenment in Tashkent. Among them were one of the founders of Kyrgyz journalism and literature Aaly Tokombaev, who published his poem "The Time of October Has Come" in the first issue of the Kyrgyz newspaper, and Kuseyin Karasaev, who later became an outstanding linguist.
It was decided to print the newspaper in Arabic script, the only script known at that time to the few Kyrgyz who could read.
The release of the first national newspaper was perceived by the working people of the region with optimism, as a great joyful holiday. From the very first days of its existence, the newspaper "Erkin-Too" openly and decisively entered the struggle for the interests of the Kyrgyz poor and laborers. Its activity program at that time was characterized in an appeal to readers published in the first issue of the newspaper: "Erkin-Too"... will be a mirror of the life of Kyrgyz laborers and the poor, it will become their support, expressing their opinions and aspirations. All workers have the right to write to this newspaper. No letter, no complaint will go unanswered."
In the early days, the team producing the newspaper was small. Besides the editor O. Aliev - a responsible worker of the Kyrgyz regional committee of the RCP(b), it also included S. Karachev - the responsible secretary, K. Karasaev, M. Salikhov, M. Akmatov - literary staff, and proofreaders.
Until December 1924, "Erkin-Too" was published in Tashkent, where the organizational bureau of the Kyrgyz regional committee of the party was located at that time. Six issues of the newspaper were released in Tashkent. In December, the Kyrgyz regional committee of the party, along with the newspaper, relocated to the city of Pishpek. Necessary materials, fonts, and machines were allocated from the Tashkent printing house, which became the basis for creating a printing base in Kyrgyzstan.
In a difficult situation, the Kyrgyz newspaper began its life in Pishpek. The lack of qualified journalistic personnel and experience in newspaper work was felt. However, the popularity of the newspaper among readers turned out to be significant, especially as it increased when the first party and Komsomol cadres were prepared in Kyrgyzstan, journalists among young Kyrgyz who showed literary abilities; these working and peasant correspondents completed courses organized at the editorial office. It should be noted that the newspaper "Erkin-Too" contributed to the elimination of illiteracy among a significant part of the Kyrgyz population. Here is how the arrival of the newspaper "Erkin-Too" in a distant aiyl is described by the national writer of Kyrgyzstan Tugelbai Sydykbekov:
"And here the newspaper came to the mountains. The first newspaper in the Kyrgyz language.
- The newspaper has come in the native language of the Kyrgyz! Men and women, gather around the school. A representative will speak. Let’s listen to what the newspaper says. It will tell us the news from faraway Moscow. Gather, the newspaper has come to the aiyl.
- The Soviet power has brought us a newspaper in our native language. Let’s go to the meeting! - the poor urged each other.
There were many people near the school. The meeting began:
- Dear comrades, friends, and relatives! - the chairman of the ailsovet said loudly. - I want to say first of all that the laborers and the poor, wearing tattered coats and chokois, will not be able to read our first newspaper if they do not attend literacy classes. Our newspaper is called "Erkin-Too." Come on, comrades, I ask you to open and look at the first Kyrgyz newspaper.
About ten copies of the newspaper lay on the bench. People who approached took them, the newspaper pages rustled. Even those who could not read happily took the newspaper and looked at it carefully ..."
In 1926, a group of Kyrgyz writers united around the newspaper "Erkin-Too," which later formed the literary association "Kyzyl-Uchkun" ("Red Spark"), which included A. Tokombaev, J. Turusbekov, K. Bayalinov, M. Elebaev, J. Jamgyrchiev, K. Malikov, and others.
The popularity of the newspaper and its influence on the masses grew significantly when it began to be printed in the Latin alphabet, and later in the Russian alphabet. The newspaper itself was the first propagandist and advocate for the introduction of these alphabets.
The newspaper gradually became an indispensable assistant to party and Soviet organizations in all their multifaceted activities. It fought for labor discipline, economy, against bureaucratism and red tape, for industrial development, land management, and the uplift of agriculture, actively addressed issues of culture, education, and the upbringing of the masses, and promoted the first achievements of creators of literature and art in Kyrgyzstan.
Considering the expansion of the newspaper's activities and its transformation from a peasant to a nationwide publication, the Kyrgyz regional committee of the party issued a resolution on August 29, 1927, to rename "Erkin-Too" to "Kyzyl Kyrgyzstan." Under this name, the first Kyrgyz national newspaper was published until 1956, when it was renamed "Sovettik Kyrgyzstan." Since 1991, this newspaper has been published under the name "Kyrgyz Tuusu."
"The newspaper 'Erkin-Too,'" - wrote its former scribe and proofreader, who later became an honorary academician-linguist, Kuseyin Karasaev, - played the role of both a university and an academy, and cultural and educational institutions."
From the first issue to the present day, this newspaper has gone through a glorious path as a people's propagandist, organizer, and agitator for a new life, enlightenment and culture, creative and constructive labor for the happiness and well-being of people. The role of the newspaper in Kyrgyzstan - one of the former backward outskirts of Russia, where during the years of Soviet power illiteracy was eliminated, significant economic and cultural development was achieved, and considerable successes were ensured in science, education, medical care, and the material well-being of people, where highly developed industry and construction organizations were created, and mechanized agriculture was established - is immense. Even today, in conditions of independence, "Kyrgyz Tuusu" does much to shape and develop openness and freedom of speech, democratic transformations in all spheres of our society. Of course, in the context of market relations, the editorial team of this newspaper faces considerable difficulties, primarily of a financial nature. Nevertheless, it manages to survive in fierce competitive struggles in the media market and continue its noble traditions of more than 80 years in serving its homeland and people.
