In the 1930s, Stalin used the death of his political opponent Kirov as an excuse to purge anybody he disagreed with. My paternal grandfather Seid-Akhmet and his brother-in-law Abdikerym Sadykov were among some of those people. They were both educated Kyrgyz locals who fought for Kyrgyz autonomy within the Communist party. They were both persecuted during Stalin's great purge.
