Jeltoqsan

You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in Kazakh. (December 2019) Click [show] for important translation instructions. View a machine-translated version of the Kazakh article. Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing Kazakh Wikipedia article at [[:kk:Желтоқсан көтерілісі]]; see its history for attribution. You may also add the template {{Translated|kk|Желтоқсан көтерілісі}} to the talk page. For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.

Jeltoqsan Kazakh: Желтоқсан көтерілісі
Part of Revolutions of 1989 and the Dissolution of the Soviet Union
Fragment of the monument to the Independence of Kazakhstan
Date 16–19 December 1986 Location Alma-Ata, Kazakh SSR, Soviet Union Result Protests suppressed; massive casualties after clashes
Belligerents
Kazakh protesters	Soviet Union OMON KGB
Commanders and leaders
No organized leadership	Mikhail Gorbachev Gennady Kolbin
Casualties and losses
168–1,000[1] civilians killed More than 200 injured

The Jeltoqsan (Kazakh: Желтоқсан көтерілісі, romanized: Jeltoqsan köterılısı, lit. 'December uprising'), also spelled Zheltoksan, or December of 1986, were protests that took place in Alma-Ata, Kazakh SSR, in response to CPSU General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev's dismissal of Dinmukhamed Kunaev, the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan and an ethnic Kazakh, and his replacement with Gennady Kolbin, an ethnic Russian from the Russian SFSR.^[1][2]

The events lasted from 16 to 19 December 1986. The protests began in the morning of 17 December, as a student demonstration attracted thousands of participants as they marched through Brezhnev Square (present-day Republic Square) across to the CPK Central Committee building. As a result, internal troops and OMON forces entered the city,^[3] and violence erupted throughout the city.^[4][5][6] In the following days, protests spread to Shymkent, Taldykorgan, and Karaganda. This event was the start of the slow collapse of authoritarian communist rule in Central and Eastern Europe which would later begin in 1989.