Jeltoqsan

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.

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 the result, internal troops and OMON forces entered the city, and violence erupted throughout the city. 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.