Memorial and a lady in red.

When I say all will be revealed soon, I do not mean said lady got her kit off and danced frantically for my entertainment, I've never been lucky.

In the early years of the 20th century most of the Kyrgyz tribes, had already voluntarily taken Russian citizenship and joined the Tsarist Russian Empire.

Unusally for the Romanov dynasty - ( let's be honest here Nick 2 was a weak man and hateful towards the population, he was an inbred and a cuckold to his wife, Alix of Hesse his second cousin) - the tsarist government pursued a more humane special policy towards the local indigenous populations of lands they had subjugated welcomed: they were never called up for active military service.

They could legally only be recruited for supporting work away from battles, mainly construction of defensive structures, or for other labour services.

In 1916, when nick 2 himself took command of the army a decree was issued changing all that. This caused great distress and discontent among the Kyrgyz tribes, further fuelled by distrust and growing resentment of the abuse of power of the local rulers. REBELLION

It kicked off, sporadic fighting across the region which became quite serious by mid August when Cossack warriors arrived to brutally quell the uprising

Despite a long and stubborn resistance the Kyrgyz forces were outnumbered
and the rebels rushed to the border to cross into China, to find refuge there.

In the Chinese borderland the Kyrgyz were met not with a friendly welcome, there was a huge amount of robbery, looting and murder. The remaining Kyrgyz sought to return to their homeland; this happened only on the condition that those leaders of the rebellion were handed over to the authorities.

A sad outcome, the Kyrgyz rebellion, against the Russian Empire was brutally suppressed. 4,000 Kyrgyz rebels and 3,000+ Russian civilians and military personnel were killed.

However a further 15,000 to 25,000 Kyrgyz people died (some sources put the losses at closer to 100,000) as a result of the failed attempt to escape to China, both through attacks and violence as well succumbing to the bitter cold, hunger and deprivation.

In 2006 as a memory of this national tragedy a Memorial to the Victims of the 1916 Uprising was erected in the Boom Gorge.

Gulmira Bekmukhambetova, is a local resident and producer of fermented mare's milk which see sells selling to travellers through the gorgefrom a stall close to the girl in red.

The statue erected in the Soviet era is a tribute to an athlete . A discus thrower in motion

Gulmira takes it upon herself to annually change the girl's clothing due to natural deterioration

How sweet is that.