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Sulayka (Asanbayeva) Arpachieva, who is Kyrgyz, was born in 1951 in the village of Jeti Oguz, on the south shore of Lake Issyk-Kul, in Kyrgyzstan. Her family raised opium for a collective farm. Karagul Arpachiyev, who is also Kyrgyz, was born in 1951 in the village of Konurolon, in the Tomsk district of Issyk-Kul oblast [province], in Kyrgyzstan. They were married in 1973. Dovlet Hojamuradov and Gulzara Hayytmuradova interviewed them in the city of Karakol, on March 15, 2009.

Mrs. Sulayka (Asanbayeva) Arpachieva

I had four sisters and four brothers. We lost two of them recently. Our parents are also not with us in this world any more. My father went to World War II in 1941 an returned injured in 1944. After his return, our family was enlarged by another son.

Our family planted, raised, and gathered opium. [1] Starting in May, we would work in the fields, weeding. The collective farm gave people sections of opium fields to weed. So our summer vacations were spent in the fields, weeding. It wasn’t until the sixth grade that we were allowed to cut the opium. The opium needs to be cut before sunrise, when the weather is still cool. So we would take our equipment and go to the fields at 4 a.m. We would cut the opium and turn it in to the collective farm and the farm would pay us. We would spend the money for our clothing and school supplies in September.

I was in high school in the 1960s. During my school years, we would spend a lot of time in our village’s library. We loved to read books by Kyrgyz writers like Togulbay Sadyrbekov, Timirkul Umetaliyev, and Chingis Aitmatov. Their books are about the lives and fates of Kyrgyz people. We didn’t read classics by authors like [Alexandre] Dumas as much, because we could understand only a little Russian. [2]

There was only one club [community center] in the village and we would watch movies there occasionally. The movies were usually Kyrgyz films or films about WWII. We hated the idea of anything German because of what we saw in the movies. Now our perceptions about Germans have changed. Now we think differently. We had a lot of Germans living in our village. Also, there were Tatars Uyghurs, Uzbeks, [Meskhetian] Turks, and Dungans – they all lived with us in peace. We adopted their cultures and dishes and they adopted ours.

We don’t remember the period of Stalin, for we were small then. We remember the periods of Khrushchev and Brezhnev better. We baked bread from moldy barley and corn during Khrushchev’s rule. That bread was not as healthy as the regular bread from wheat. In those times, ideology was strong, but there was no wheat. People were calmed with the promises that everything was going to get better soon. Also, people lacked sugar and other things, but they survived.

During the Brezhnev period, conditions got better. We had flour and sugar in the stores, but there still were products which were scarce. In the schools we read Brezhnev’s writings, like Malaya Zemlya [Small World], where he said “If there is bread then there is song.” We had no foreign products in those years. Later, we found out that it was in the government’s interest to sell us its own products. For example, Soviet cars were not in demand, because of competition. We didn’t import foreign goods – we only exported.

In our free time, we would go the movies. The cinemas had long lines and were full of young people all the time. There were only two cinemas in Karakol: one was named Mir and the other, Issyk-Kul. Now everyone has DVD players and there are no lines at the cinemas.

I think the government made a big mistake by suppressing religion. We were exposed to atheistic values starting in school. The traditions like fasting during Orozo Ait [Ramadan] were not acceptable. Only older people would fast and almost no one prayed. Now even young people fast and pray. Nevertheless, people held onto rituals like circumcisions and weddings. But still, we had incidents when people in high positions could not come to the funerals of their parents.

The influence of the Party on its members was strong. When our grandmother passed away we were going to hold a traditional Kyrgyz funeral, but when the Third Secretary of the Regional Government found out, our uncle told us we had to simplify the event, which meant not doing it according to Kyrgyz traditions. Lots of people lost their positions because of religion. That was one of the failures of the Soviet government. This frustrated people; it was very hard.

In addition, it was decided that the Russians would get all the top positions. The youth objected and many young people were injured or even killed during the protest. I think that those kinds of events eroded the government’s legitimacy. And then certain actions were taken, like the separation of the Baltic states from the Soviet Union.

In 1968, my parents decided that I should continue my education by studying at the Mayakovskiy Institute [now Arabayeva University in Bishkek]. I didn’t pass the exams, though, and returned home crying. Back then, it was no acceptable for young people not to have jobs, so my parents sent me to Karakol to study to be an accountant. The next year, I received my accounting certificate. My parents decided that I should get a higher education so I applied to the Karakol Pedagogical Institute and was accepted into the Department of Mathematics and that’s where I met my future husband. Our student years were fun and interesting. We got stipends of 28 rubles [a month], which was enough for food and clothing and we lived in the dormitory. I finished the first year with all 5s [As].

During our university years, for entertainment, we would go to the movies. But we would only go after exams, because we couldn’t afford to spend too much because we were on our own and our parents weren’t able to support us financially. There weren’t any really rich people during the Soviet era. Everyone was equal back then. If someone had a second car, he would be asked where he had found the money for it. Those who spent more than others were caught and locked up in jail.

Later, I got the Lenin stipend, which was 90 rubles. Still, we would not go to the restaurants except on special occasions. We ate in cafeterias. We did everything ourselves in those days. These days, students get good grades in the universities by paying [bribing], not by studying hard. There was no bribing when we were in the university. Now education has lost the quality it used to have. Although the city schools do offer some sort of education, the village schools provide only a low level of education – almost no education – since there is a shortage of teachers in rural areas.

We got married after we graduated from the university. The authorities told people where to work back then. So I was sent to the Aksuy rayon [county] and my husband was sent to Osh province. Since we were married, we appealed to the ministry, asking it to send us both to the same place: Aksuy. I started teaching and reached the “high category” of teachers at that school.

Women only got a month of vacation when they were pregnant back then. So, after I gave birth, my husband’s younger brother helped me take care of the kids. Everyday, I would feed the kids and then go to my job and my brother-in-law would take care of them.

My youngest daughter was born in 1985 and that was the year when the authorities banned the practice of putting kids in beshiks [cradles]. It was found that it was unhealthy. There were nurses who went house to house and made sure that people were not using cradles. So, for the first time, we had to buy a baby carriage.

Mr. Karagul Arpachiyev

My father was not an educated person. He worked on a collective farm. My mother died when I was 6 years old and my younger brother was 2 and my sister was 9 months. So our childhood was very hard. Our grandmother took care of us. The 50s and 60s were difficult periods for everyone, since the post-war reconstruction was still going on. People suffered materially and socially.

Our father was only able to bring us up with the help of our grandmother. We did chores everyday –

we prepared firewood and fed livestock – so we never had time to play with our peers. I also took care of my younger siblings. Our grandmother would come and take care of us, helping my father, who worked in on the collective farm. My father was busy with irrigation, harvesting, and other chores of that kind.

Each province had its own agricultural specialization. For instance, Osh was busy with cotton and tobacco. Talas was known for potatoes, wheat, and beans. Chui grew corn, squash, wheat, and rye. Issykul focused on fruits like apples of different types, cherry-plums, cherries, and so on. One good thing about agriculture in the Soviet era was the way they tried to preserve the productivity of our arable lands. Nowadays, this is a problem because of privatization.

We did well in school. Our childhood had a big influence on that. We were brought up with a hardworking attitude. The challenges we experienced in our childhood boosted our desire to study seriously. We moved toward our goals persistently and never left anything unfinished. So all of my siblings took their studies seriously and did well in school.

Our father married another woman. So we had another eight siblings in our family. So that made 11 of us. Overall, I grew up in a good family, where everyone got a higher education and now holds a respectable job.

The good life we area all living did come easily. We faced challenges when our parents passed away, before our younger brothers were properly established. So it fell on the eldest siblings to finish the job that our parents had not been able to finish: marrying our brothers and helping them financially until they could stand on their own. With their efforts and our help, we got over those challenges. We had a shortage of food and clothing. Nevertheless, we were able to take care of our brothers and gave them a good start in life. We were able to do that without any help from anyone in our village.

My wife and I started studying at the in Pedagogical Institute in Karakol [Kyrgyzstan] in 1969. We studied in the Department of Mathematics and that’s where we met. We graduated in 1973 and then got married. Then we went to the village of Tepke in the Aksuy region. That’s when the second chapter of our lives began. That chapter was all about our family and my challenges fulfilling my responsibilities to my family. Raising my children and giving them opportunities in life was my primary responsibility and I have accomplished it so far.

When we had children, we moved to Karakol. I think it was the right decision, because the city provided better educational opportunities for my children. To give our children good educations was one of our primary responsibilities as parents. Once we moved, I started working at the Pedagogical Institute and my wife was able to get a job at the Toktogul Lyceum. We worked at the Institute and the Lyceum until we retired.

In this stage of my life, I do not regret the problems I faced throughout my life. This kind of life gave me good experiences and made me strong enough to face any challenge. My life path was a good lesson and it was motivation for my children to help each other in the future. When I was a child, I wished that someone would help us take care of our siblings so that I could have some fun playing with my peers. This taught me to help people.

Although we were just teachers, we were able to take care of our children. There is a custom among Kyrgyz people of inviting the family of the bride and giving them presents. My wife and I were able to afford to do that on our own. Now our children are independent and doing well. So I think we deserve to enjoy our senior years.