Mankurts are unthinking slaves in Chinghiz Aitmatov's novel The Day Lasts More Than a Hundred Years (1980). After the novel was released in the Soviet Union, the word came to refer to people who have lost touch with their ethnic homeland, who have forgotten their kinship. This meaning was retained in Russia and many other post-Soviet states.
Origin According to Aitmatov's fictional legend, mankurts were prisoners of war who were turned into non-autonomous docile servants by exposing camel skin wrapped around their heads to the heat of the sun. These skins dried tight, causing brain damage and figurative zombification. Mankurts did not recognise their name, family, or tribe—"a mankurt did not recognise himself as a human being".Excerpt from: celestial.com.kg
Aitmatov stated that he did not take the idea from tradition but invented it himself.Dmitry Bykov, Лекции по русской литературе XX века. Том 4 (Moscow: Eksmo, 2019), p. 52: «народ этого не выдумал, это выдумал я» 'The people did not invent it, I did.'
Usage In the later years of the Soviet Union the word () entered common parlance as a metaphor for a Soviet citizen affected by the historical distortions and omissions propagated by official teachings.
In the figurative sense, the word mankurt refers to people who have lost touch with their ethnic homeland or who have forgotten their kinship ties. The term is now used in journalism across the former Soviet Union,Элита Татарстана — журнал для первых лиц and related neologisms such as ("mankurtism"), ("mankurtization"), and ("de-mankurtization") were later coined in Russian. "Манкуртизм как форма исторического беспамятства." // Пленарное заседание «Диалог культур и партнёрство цивилизаций: становление глобальной культуры». 2012. — С. 231. In some former Soviet republics, the term has come to refer to those non-Russians who have lost their ethnic heritage due to the Soviet political system.
In 1990, the film Mankurt was released in the Soviet Union,Oliver Leaman (2001). Companion encyclopedia of Middle Eastern and North African film. Taylor & Francis. p. 17. , 9780415187039 based on the legend of the mankurt from Aitmatov's novel.Horton & Brashinsky (1992). pp. 16, 17.P. Rollberg (2009). Historical dictionary of Russian and Soviet cinema. Scarecrow Press. pp. 35, 37, 482. , 9780810860728
See also Brainwashing – systematic coercive persuasion Cultural assimilation – adoption of features of another culture Ghilman – slave-soldiers in the Islamic world Homo Sovieticus – pejorative Soviet epithet for a conformist Malinchism – in Mexico, excessive admiration for the US, Europe and other foreign countries Macaulayism – the introduction of English education to British colonies Pinkerton syndrome – tendency of some Asians to regard white people as superior or more desirable Pitchcapping – form of torture involving injury to the head Rootless cosmopolitan – pejorative Soviet epithet, often applied to Jews Zombie – undead being from Haitian folklore and horror fiction
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