Qairat Nogaibaiuly Rysqulbekov (; 13 March 1966 – 21 May 1988) was a participant in the Jeltoqsan riot of 1986 that took place in Almaty, Kazakhstan. He later died in mysterious circumstances while held by the authorities. He was posthumously awarded the title Hero of Kazakhstan after independence. Early life Rysqulbekov was born the sixth child to a large Kazakh family who lived and worked at the Kokterek collective farm in the Moiynkum District. Before the Jeltoqsan riots, he studied at a boarding school in Novotroitsk where he wrote for a student newspaper and was the leader of a Komsomol group. In addition to becoming a Komsomol secretary, he was active in sports. He graduated from high school in 1983 before applying to the Alma-Ata Architecture and Construction Academy, which he did not immediately attend. He briefly worked herding cattle before entering the military in 1984 and serving for two years, leaving while holding the rank of sergeant in August 1986. Activities at the Alma-Ata Architecture and Construction Academy In autumn 1986 he entered the architecture academy in Alma-Ata that he had applied to in 1984 before serving in the military. His brother Nogaibai Rysqulbekov recalled that while Qairat found his studies at the school difficult he nevertheless remained active in public life. He became a member of the student trade union and the leader of a Komsomol detachment. Every Saturday the freshmen would meet up around a samovar, where they would listen to the radio and play the dombra. Jeltoqsan protests After the start of the Jeltoqsan uprisings on 17 December 1986 the students heard about the protests on the radio but were forbidden by dean and administrators of the school from leaving the academy to join the protests. Nevertheless, Rysqulbekov and a group of other students left the campus for Brezhnev Square and had told his father he was going. After the police attacked protestors with high-pressure water hoses they dispersed but soon a crowd moved to the building of the Writers' Union of Kazakhstan to meet with Olzhas Suleimenov. However, the entrances to the building were barricaded so Rysqulbekov and several other protesters relocated to the Kazakh Pedagogical Institute. In the process, officers of the KGB had managed to photograph Rysqulbekov at the scene of the protests. Arrest and death Rysqulbekov was arrested on 1 January 1987 on the basis of his presence in a photograph taken