Toktogul was a well-known poet and composer with democratic views even during the Tsarist Russia's colonial era in Southern Kyrgyzstan (1876–1917). On the eve of the revolt led by
Muhammad Ali Madali, the Sufi ishan, Toktogul was harshly criticizing local Kyrgyz lords in Ketmen-Tobe valley. Madali ishan, seeking to rid the area of the Russians and restore the
formerly independent khanate of
Khokand, called for "holy war", and led 2,000 men against Tsarist Russia on 17–18 May 1898 (30–31 May 1898 in the Gregorian calendar). However, his force was blocked outside the city on Andijan by the Russian
20th Line Battalion and defeated. Of those 2,000, 546 were put on trial, and Madali and five of his lieutenants hanged. Most of the sentenced people were Kyrgyz people in the Ferghana valley and mountainous areas in Chatkal, Aksy and Ketmen-Tobe in what is now southern
Kyrgyzstan. Among them was prominent poet-improviser and composer Toktogul, who was jailed by a false accusation by his political foes in the Ketmen-Tobe valley about his alleged participation in the revolt. He returned from
Siberia jail (in the village of Kuitun near the town of
Irkutsk) in 1905. His fame reached a high point in the Soviet era when his works were promoted by the state as a musician of the people and he was known throughout
Kyrgyzstan simply as "Toktogul". This distinction was founded largely on his works in the
pre-revolutionary era which were interpreted as reflecting the
class struggle. Modern interpretations, however, suggest that they had more to do with clan rivalries. Even after the fall of the Soviet Union Toktogul's songs remain popular among Kyrgyz performers, and many streets, parks, schools, and even his home town are named after him. ==Notes==