Kazakhstan President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev ordered security forces to fire without warning against protesters he called “thugs and terrorists” that need to be “destroyed.” More than 2,000 Russian troops have set up security bunkers on the streets of Almaty, the country’s biggest city. Amid gunshots and explosions, dead bodies lie on major roads. The government has shut down the internet. These protests, which began on January 2, are the largest in the country in recent memory.

But 34 years ago, there was another seismic protest in Almaty. In December 1986, Almaty — then called Alma-Ata — was the site of some of the first large demonstrations protesting communist rule. When Mikhail Gorbachev, then president of the Soviet Union, installed an ethnic Russian with no connection to or knowledge of Kazakhstan to head the Kazakh Soviet Republic, students took to the streets.

Moscow sent in armed forces to violently suppress the crowds. Estimates range widely from 10 to 170 casualties. Over 2,000 people were wounded. The tragedy came to be known as Zheltoksan, which means December in Kazakh.

Then the whole thing was swept under the rug.