ABSTRACT
This article systematically and holistically analyzes Chingiz Aitmatov’s criticism of the Soviet system through the primary relations of comrade Tanabay, the main character of Aitmatov’s (1966) novel Farewell, Gulsary! using a qualitative research method and a hermeneutic approach. The hermeneutic approach enables one to be able to understand the author’s perception of a person in a socialist system and to interpret the changes in people’s attitudes, behaviors, and thoughts based on economic relations using the symbolic expressions in the text. In the novel, the tragedy of the pacer horse Gulsary is brought to the fore and explained in full detail. However, the tragedy of the peasant Tanabai and the people from the kolkhozes [collective farms] is presented implicitly and in fragments. When combining these fragments relating to the people, Farewell, Gulsary! turns into a text with great sociological value. By making a symbolic analysis of the novel, one can see that Aitmatov mainly wanted to tell the tragedy of Tanabai and the people from the kolkhozes. The novel constitutes one of the first examples of an internal literary criticism of the Soviet administration. With this work, Aitmatov crossed the borders of social realism in the Soviet Union and turned to critical realism. In the new society that had been established with the ideals of emancipation and equality, the absences of public spaces, opposition, and intermediary institutions/non-governmental organizations increased the negative impact the ideological state had on family and friendship relations.