Cholponbai (; ) is a novel by Soviet writer Fedor Samokhin, published in 1958 by the Kyrgyz State Publishing House and the "Molodaya Gvardiya". It is dedicated to the Hero of the Soviet Union Cholponbai Tuleberdiev, describing his life, the evolution of life views and the growth of self-awareness, starting from childhood. The plot is divided into three chapters: "Schooldays", "Harsh Time" and "The Don steppes on fire", each of which leads the main character to perform a feat. The story also raises topics such as friendship of peoples, women's rights issues, the struggle against patriarchy, cruel methods of parenting and outdated customs.
To write a story based on historical facts, the writer visited the hero's homeland, traveled to the places of battles in which he took part, worked in archives, met personally, and also got acquainted by correspondence with his friends and associates. In critical articles, the novel was called the author's main achievement, the newspaper "Sovetskaya Kultura" attributed it to works that "adorn the multicolored carpet of Kyrgyz literature," and the magazine "Literary Kyrgyzstan" put it on a par with works that are "more widely and comprehensively developed in content, style and aesthetics." In 1982, the novel was republished by the Kyrgyz state educational and pedagogical publishing house "Mektep", in 2019 it was digitized by the Osh Regional Library named T. Satylganov, and in 2020 it was included in the section with materials from the Ministry of Education and Science of Kyrgyzstan for schools of the republic. Fragments were translated into Kyrgyz. Located in the department of rare and especially valuable publications of the National Library of the Kyrgyz Republic.
Fedor Samokhin continued the theme of Cholponbai Tuleberdiev's feat in the essay "Krov'yu serdttsa", which the Belarusian writer Vasil Bykaŭ included in his collection of proze works "Molodye geroi Velikoi Otechestvennoi voiny", published in the series "Zhizn' zamechatel'nyh lyudei". In the preface to the collection, Bykov attributed this essay to works "in which everything is not equal," but they are "strong first of all with their genuine sincerity, the desire to convey to posterity the courageous and bright features of young heroes".
Plot Chapter 1. "School days" On the first pages of the story, Cholponbai appears to readers as a seventeen-year-old boy. He, participating in district horse races, takes first place and is awarded an Honorary district diploma with a pocket watch. The victory did not turn his head — Cholponbai understood that he still had to study and work a lot to win the respect of the people and become a support for his family. After the competition, Cholponbai returns home to the Telman village, where the reader can get to know his family. The head of the family Tuleberdy Tarakulov died after a long illness in 1935, six years ago. Only Surake's mother remained, who raised five children. They lived poorly, but by the forty-first year there was prosperity in the Surake's house. In the "squat adobe house" of the Tuleberdievs, the celebration of the victory of Cholponbai began, but a friend of the late father, Dulat, comes with the news that war has begun in Europe. Surake's mother was "horrified" and compares the events with basmachism, she is afraid to remember, although it was a long time ago: "There is no need for war… I remember how the Basmachi mocked people." Everyone present in the house understands that something inevitable and menacing is coming.
The novel also shows the school of the main character. It has a whole gallery of his teachers and classmates. Cholponbai himself appears to readers as a modest and even somewhat shy young man, persistent in his studies, thoughtful and responsive to his classmates. He is ready to help all laggards, but sometimes the desire to help a friend out of trouble leads him to serious mistakes. For example, the story describes a scene when Cholponbai helps his school friend Sagymbek out of trouble. Sagymbek, being fond of horses, starts studying. His father Duishembi comes to the village from the pasture, to whom the son must report on his successes. To avoid punishment, Sagymbek asks Cholponbai, an excellent student, to give him his notebooks. Cholponbai, realizing that he is doing wrong, still helps out a classmate. Later, Cholponbai himself gets into a bad situation because of this. This case did him good: he realized that it was necessary to help a classmate not by hiding his shortcomings, but on the contrary, they should be openly and honestly criticized. Sagymbek runs away from home to his uncle Umar out of shame. Cholponbai finds him and puts up with him. Uncle Umar tells the children about his meeting and conversation with the poet Toktogul Satylganov in the year when kolkhozes were created and the bai "raged".
Before graduating from school, Cholponbai passes his first exam — an essay on native literature. After reading out the essay by the teacher Sultan-ake, Cholponbai chooses "The creative activity of poet Toktogul Satylganov". "The day of the fifteenth of June, one thousand nine hundred and forty-first year was the last day at school," Cholponbai is given a certificate of completion of seven years, and the young man enters adulthood. He decides to enter the pedagogical college in Frunze, but doubts that he will pass the exams. To this, the director of the school Kazybek Abdykerimovich answers Cholponbai that he should not worry, since he was not a lagging student. Waking up early the next morning, Cholponbai goes to Tutkuch's stable, where he meets Gul'nara and greets her at the duval. But the girl is silent and leaves. On the same day, their second meeting takes place at the Kara-Bura River. Cholponbai helps the girl climb the wall of the stone fortress of Kyzyl-Orda, which overlooks the valley. There, holding hands, they spend time, but Gulnara remembers about her father's lunch and runs away. Cholponbai is sure that he does not want to marry her, "He likes Gulnara — and only".
Chapter 2. "Harsh time" "On a clear June morning of the forty-first year, everything was as usual in the Telman village," Cholponbai and Ashimbek, together with other kolkhoz people, leave for the mountains for haymaking. They finish work late, everyone works without rest: "Not only people, but also horses were exhausted from the heat." The guys go to wait out the heat to the Kara-Bura River, and the postman Sagyn rushes past them, who informs everyone that Adolf Hitler is starting a war. On that day, Cholponbai's brother Tokosh goes to the front. Cholponbai has a vague idea about the war: he knows about it only from movies, from books he has read and from the stories of Tutkuch, as he "bullied" the Basmachi in the Chatkal valley. The postman Sagyn often brings news about the death of fellow villagers, about the seizure of towns and villages by fascists who "furiously rush deep into their native country". Meanwhile, Cholponbai goes to the house of Sharshen, Gul'nara's father. The girl shuns him, runs away into the house. The reason for this behavior was that Gul'nara, against her will, was married to a jigit from Kirovka. So she becomes the bride of her late sister's husband. Sagymbek insists that Cholponbai should convince Gulnara not to live according to the old customs.
Upon returning home, Cholponbai is waiting for joyful news — a letter from Tokosh arrives. He reports that some of them are heading to the city of Kalinin. "Don't worry about me, I'm not the only one, we'll go beat the fascists soon," the letter ends with these words. After a weight—lifting contest (Cholponbai lifts two and a half bags of wheat there — one hundred and fifty kilograms) and a competition for drinking kumis in thirty-three sips in one breath, Sagymbek searches for Cholponbai and reports that Gul'nara does not love her fiancé. The next evening, he goes to Gul'nara with the intention of persuading her father Sharshen. Cholponbai tells him that Gulnara should not marry an old man: "It's not fair, Sharshen-aka, to deprive a girl of her right to choose," tries to convince him not to follow outdated customs.
Autumn is coming. The Sovinformburo reports are broadcast. When the trees shed their yellow leaves, sad news comes to the Telman village: the fascists have approached Moscow. It is also reported that there are horsemen from Kyrgyzstan near Moscow, among whom there is Duishenkul Shopokov. They are commanded by the military commissar of the Kyrgyz Republic Ivan Panfilov. The news of the heroism of the heroes of the Volokolamsk highway inspired residents with hope, everyone is sure: "The uninvited aliens will flee through the snow-covered fields and forests of the Moscow region, as Napoleon's diverse army once ingloriously fled".
In the early November's morning, the postman Sagyn knocks at the Tuleberdievs' house and takes a triangular envelope from his hands at Dusk, where it is reported that her son Tokosh died a brave death near the village of Ashevsk in the Kalinin Oblast. After that, Cholponbai decides to go to the front, to avenge his brother. He goes to the military enlistment office and demands to be sent to the front. Although the young man was still a few months short of military age, his request was granted — Cholponbai becomes a Red Army soldier. At parting, Gulnara gives Cholponbai a pink handkerchief with the words: "I will wait. Take it".
Chapter 3. "The Don steppes on fire"
After completing three-month courses, Cholponbai gets into a car with the inscription "Frunze—Moscow" on an April's morning. On the fifth day he finds himself in Saratov, and in the evening he sets off again. The journey takes two days, and on the third day there is a long stop at the steppe station. After the march on foot, the companies entered the village, and Cholponbai meets his regiment, which becomes his native. There he meets Ivan Antonov and learns about his family. His grandfather worked in Sormovskaya Sloboda for half a century, Ivan's father, Nikolai Petrovich, worked in Sormovo for many years. The Antonov family "defended Soviet power in the city with arms in their hands," after the Russian Civil War, his father worked permanently at a Krasnoye Sormovo Factory. He gives his only son to study as a locksmith, but he becomes a turner. Soon the war comes and Antonov becomes a Red Army soldier, gets into field camps, a regiment of workers from the city of Gorky is formed there, where Ivan is appointed commander of the department. After the fighting, the six hundred and thirty-sixth rifle regiment is withdrawn from the front line for re-formation and attached to the newly formed Voronezh Front. Ivan Antonov asks platoon commander Yakov Herman to give him Cholponbai to his squad. Then Cholponbai meets Sergo Metroveli, Gayfulla Gillyazitdinov, Vasily Petrov and others. The fighters begin to listen to the lectures of the company commander Gorokhov. However, as Cholponbai admits, he knows few Russian words, and Gillyazitdinov comes to his aid at the request of the commander. He claims that he will be able to explain everything to him, since the Tatar language is similar to Kyrgyz.