Museum of Kozhomkul

Hero Kaba Uulu Kozhomkul: What Do We Know About Him?

Hero Kaba Uulu Kozhomkul was born in 1888. He died at the age of 68. Through his noble deeds and remarkable sports achievements, Kozhomkul immortalized himself for centuries. “Not knowing the past means not seeing the future,” goes the ancient Kyrgyz proverb.

The son of a poor man. In his youth, he worked as a laborer for the wealthy. He was among the first chairmen of collective farms in the Kokomerensky rural council of Kyrgyzstan. For 20 years, he led a collective farm in the Suusamyr Valley. He was a strong manager. He made significant contributions to the development of farms in the Suusamyr Valley in the Chui region and built a school in the collective farm named “8 March.”

Around the name of this man, so many legends have formed that it is already difficult to separate truth from fiction. However, these legends are so resilient and popular that almost everyone who crosses over Tui-Ashu and enters the Suusamyr Valley will surely hear about the strongman Kozhomkul.

Kozhomkul at the beginning of the last century was just beginning to gain his mighty strength. But the fame of him had already spread throughout the Suusamyr Valley. The tall and strong young man easily laid healthy men on their backs. Fewer and fewer people wanted to compete with Kozhomkul in an honest duel. And then suddenly, the budding wrestler received an invitation from Toktogul. The local wealthy man was organizing a grand feast for some occasion. And what kind of celebration would it be without wrestling matches?

Kozhomkul walked to Toktogul on foot for several days. He spent the nights hiding from the wind in the gorges. He ate what kind people offered him on the way. And one day, gathering his courage, he entered the yurt of a well-known manap in the area. The rich man looked at the young man who entered and, in surprise, could not utter a word, then quickly stood up and was the first to greet the guest warmly.

The quarrelsome wife of the manap then began to scold her husband for bowing to a “snotty beggar.”

- “Did you not see the glowing lion behind him?” — the rich man replied, barely regaining his composure.

Perhaps this was just a legend. Or maybe it was true. What do we know about the powers of the heavens? In any case, all Suusamyr people believe in this story. And it is true, did not Kozhomkul embody the strength and nobility of a lion?

Those performances in Toktogul brought Kozhomkul immense fame. He defeated several well-known strongmen and received a prize from the wealthy man — 50 sheep and several mares. This gift, the young hero immediately distributed to the poor people of Toktogul.

Now, no one can say for certain how many wrestling matches Kozhomkul participated in. But one thing is known: by the end of the 1920s, he had no equal throughout Kyrgyzstan.

Kozhomkul's Fame: Feats

One of the duels — with the Kazakh hero Cholok Balban — stands out in particular. Much has been written about this duel. The Kyrgyz man won against Cholok Balban in the 23rd minute of the match. But few know that at first, Kozhomkul did not want to meet his opponent. No, he was never afraid. It was just that by that time, Kozhomkul already held the position of chairman of the volost council and, being a naturally disciplined person, thought it was unbecoming for him to appear in public, to undress before them, and to engage in games. But Kozhomkul was persuaded by his superiors. They spoke of the need to stand up for the honor of the republic. And Kozhomkul accepted Balban's offer.

Later, he and Cholok became close friends. The Kazakh even once invited Kozhomkul to fight Ivan Poddubny. But here, the Kyrgyz hero was adamant. “Where would I go, why? — he said. — And what about work, family?”

Many stories have been told about the strength of Kozhomkul. But there is one that probably no one knows. It happened in the 1930s. The people of Suusamyr gathered for their everyday affairs in the Chui Valley. They mounted their horses — and off they went. But on the Teo-Ashuu pass, a huge stone the size of a large yurt fell onto the mountain path. The Suusamyr people pondered: what to do? And then they remembered Kozhomkul. He arrived and asked to dig a pit next to this boulder. The people struggled to fulfill their fellow countryman's request. The pit turned out, to put it mildly, to be quite impressive in size.

Then Kozhomkul got to work. He sat on the ground, leaned his back against the mountain's base, and began to push the boulder into the pit with his legs. The massive stone wobbled, then slowly, inch by inch, began to slide into the pit. The joyful Suusamyr people began to hug Kozhomkul. And blood started to flow from his nose.

Kozhomkul welcomed the Soviet power with joy. He had suffered greatly working for the wealthy and the manaps. The hero was not afraid of work, but he could not tolerate the mockery of the exploiters. For 20 years, Kozhomkul was the chairman of the collective farm in the Suusamyr Valley. People were drawn to him, willingly obeyed, even though he never raised his voice at them. Over time, he became a strong manager.

In the troubled year of 1937, he also faced difficulties. The NKVD officers forced Kozhomkul to write a denunciation against the chairman of the neighboring collective farm. Naturally, the hero refused, for which he soon ended up in prison. Two soldiers came for him. Kozhomkul grabbed both by the collar, lifted them, and shook them for a long time, then said: “Get lost. Take me away.” Kozhomkul spent about a year in the Jumgal prison, and there his words were listened to not only by the prisoners but also by the guards. After his release, Kozhomkul did not become embittered, nor did he stop believing in Soviet power, which earned him even greater respect among his fellow villagers.

During the war years, he became a true savior for his fellow countrymen. Kozhomkul was an excellent hunter, and almost every day his faithful wife Akmadai prepared game for the poorest Suusamyr people. And how many people did Kozhomkul save from prison! If a poor peasant woman stole a bucket of wheat to bake flatbreads for her hungry children, she would immediately be caught by “well-wishers” and reported, but Kozhomkul always stood up for the desperate people. He compensated for the stolen goods from his own means. In extreme cases, he made them work it off. And the relative born on the eve of Victory was named Tynchtykbek by Kozhomkul himself. This name means “peace,” “calm.”

The love of the Suusamyr people for Kozhomkul truly knew no bounds. One day they decided to find him... a second wife. The thing is, the faithful companion of Kozhomkul, Akmadai, was a delicate, fragile woman. And people wanted to see in the descendants of their noble fellow countryman the same heroes as he was. So they found him a tall, large girl from a neighboring village, the daughter of the renowned strongman Toooke. Several times, people came to Kozhomkul with this idea, but he always remained silent or changed the subject. Finally, the Suusamyr people understood: Kozhomkul was not the kind of person to betray his first and only love.

He especially loved children, whether they were his own or others'. In the village, he knew all the boys and girls. And those who studied well in school, he urged to enroll in the institute. Even during Kozhomkul's lifetime, teachers from these places began to come to the village.

Unfortunately, Kozhomkul himself was a barely literate person. True, he could read and write, but he could not compose an official document correctly. Once, a comical incident happened to him: he lost the state seal. But his natural resourcefulness quickly came to the hero's aid. On some application, instead of a stamp, he left a print of his thumb. In the district committee, they immediately understood: this is Kozhomkul's finger. And they accepted the application without any objections.

There are many versions about the illness and cause of Kozhomkul's death. We, the Suusamyr people, adhere to our own. The elders told us that once an insect fell into Kozhomkul's plate, and after that, his stomach began to hurt. Even the doctors in Frunze could not help him, and he did not stay long in the city hospital. He felt a strong pull to go home. Perhaps he sensed his imminent end...

Physical Data of the Hero Kozhomkul

Height — 197 cm (according to other sources - 230 cm).
Weight — 164 kg (according to other sources - 203 kg).
Shoe size — 52.
Hand length — 26 cm.
Width of the thumb — 4 cm.

In Kozhomkul's native village, there is a small museum where you can see photographs and the hero's clothing. Three people can easily fit into the hero's robe. Here are also stored huge boulders that the strongman lifted. The weight of the smallest of them is 620 kg. Not far from his native village, named in his honor, journalists saw a huge stone weighing over 600 kg, which Kozhomkul lifted and placed on the grave of one of the local leaders named Tiyta Uulu Chargynbek in 1924. Next to the stone stands a mausoleum for this official. It resembles a yurt and is made of wood and clay.

The mausoleum is like a mausoleum, but the stone next to it weighs half a ton. Kozhomkul brought it here and helped build this mausoleum — a relative of his had died.

They were molding this mausoleum from clay, and suddenly (it seems they miscalculated) the freshly laid walls of the tombstone began to collapse. Kozhomkul arrived in time — he stood up tall and, pressing his huge palms against the collapsing walls, straightened them. The mausoleum was built, people left, and on the inner wall of the mausoleum remained the impressions — dents from the hero's palms. Something large, giant-like always captures a person's imagination, and he wants to stand on tiptoe — to reach out, to compare himself with the giant. If only to make sure — “how many times smaller...”. Inside the mausoleum, Kozhomkul left four prints of his enormous hands in the clay. But, unfortunately, only one of these prints has survived here, and another is kept in the museum. As the Suusamyr people tell, two prints fell out and broke in 1992 when Suusamyr became the epicenter of a strong earthquake with a magnitude of 12.

Not far from the settlement, there is a stone weighing 700 kg, which he lifted and carried to the grave of a local leader.

It is also said that he carried a horse on his shoulders for a distance of 100 m.

Karakol, a small village on the banks of the river of the same name.

On the eastern outskirts of the village lies the grave of Kozhomkul's mother, on which he placed a huge stone weighing 160 kg. He brought this stone on his shoulders from the floodplain of the river, which is several kilometers away.

The Sports Palace in Bishkek (on Togolok Moldo Street) is named in his honor.