Aktoko: Poveste

Aktoko: A Tale (Актоко: Повесть) by Temirbek Zholdubaev is a historical novella set in the Chüy Valley during the turbulent years surrounding the 1916 Urkun, the uprising and mass displacement of the Kyrgyz people under the Russian Empire.

At the heart of the story is Aktoko, a Russian woman who marries a Kyrgyz man and becomes part of a Kyrgyz community. As violence and repression spread through the region, she finds herself caught between two communities and strives to protect the people around her. Through her story, Zholdubaev explores the human consequences of historical upheaval, as well as questions of coexistence, loyalty, courage, and shared humanity.

The novella draws on historical and archival material as well as real-life events. Later literary scholarship notes that the character of Aktoko was based on Zholdubaev’s maternal grandmother, giving the work a deeply personal dimension alongside its historical subject.

First published in Bishkek in 2015, Aktoko is an early prose work by Zholdubaev and forms part of the Kyrgyz literary engagement with the history and memory of the 1916 Urkun.