1931.14 Кишлачные Зарисовки - Kishlak1 (Village) Sketches
by Leonid Solovyov
Organizer Arzi-Bibi
The gunfire in Fergana died down, the Basmachi gangs dispersed. The villages grew quiet.
Yangi-Kishlak began to live peacefully. The Basmachi used to be quite violent there. Young farmers from the neighbouring village of Tyulemen joined the Basmachi, and those from Yangi-Kishlak joined the police.
For this reason, the Tyulemen people disliked the residents of Yanga-Kishlak, and after each raid they left 5-6 corpses there.
And when they stationed police in Yangi-Kishlak, things got tough for the Tyulen residents. They'd attack, and the police would fight them off. You’d see two or three left standing.
When the accursed time had passed, they counted the dead. It turned out that there were 16 people killed in Yangi-Kishlak, and 7 in Tyulemen.
The breadwinners are in the land. The poor widows are crying. They're straining themselves with hard work. They have to get things done in the field and at home. Children, sheep, cauldrons, the field. The women are completely exhausted. And no one is helping them.
Everything went to hell, and soon the women would have had to go out into the world if Arzi-bibi, the wife of the murdered Illik-Bashi Rahman, had not started a new business.
Not far from Yangi-Kishlak is the village of Kairagach. It was abandoned long ago by the farmers who fled to the city to escape the Basmachi and famine. It stands empty. The tents are falling apart, and the cultivated land is overgrown.
One day, Arzi-bibi was passing by the village and lost in thought.
Then she walked three more times, and one fine day she set out to visit all the widows.
The women were agitated. They were whispering, walking around, and gathering in groups.
The men are amazed. What are the women up to?
A week passed, then two, and suddenly the village was struck by a surprise: widows were moving to Kairagach...
The women sold their last possessions and bought three horses, plus they had two. The Omachi were left behind by their husbands. It happened in the spring. The women began working in shifts.
The women sowed cotton. The cotton grew well. They harvested it. The old owners found out about this, came, and started driving out the widows.
“Get out of here. Our land.”
The women became worried and scared. What should they do?
The former Kairagach women traders were completely driven out, but one day Arzi-bibi says:
“I'm going to the city!”
Two days later she arrived with a document so big that the traders immediately turned their tails between their legs.
A month later, Arzi-bibi said to the others:
"There are six Basmachi widows in Tyulemen. It's not their fault their husbands were Basmachi. Let's take them in!"
“We'll take it!”
Another 6 people have joined this small commune.
The commune has been in existence for a year and a half now, and things are going well. The women are diligently cultivating the land and producing substantial harvests. They've acquired five more horses and four cows. The commune now has up to 200 sheep.
[600 words]
1What kishlak actually means
- In Turkic languages (Uzbek qishloq, Turkmen gyşlag, Turkish kışlak), the root qış means winter.
- A kishlak is traditionally the winter settlement of nomadic or semi‑nomadic groups.
- The opposite term is yaylaq — the summer pasture.
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