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Bishkek is the capital and largest city of Kyrgyzstan. The prehistory of the modern city started as a caravan station on one of the branches of the Silk Road, and in 1825 the Kokand Khanate built a small clay fortress in what they called Pisjpek. The fortress was captured by Russian troops in 1862 during Russia’s expansion in Central Asia, and on that occasion Pisjpek was destroyed.
Russia quickly re-established a garrison on the site, and the population increased with the many Russian farmers who moved here due to the fertile black soil fields. In 1878, Russia founded the city of Pishpek itself, which developed into today’s Bishkek.
Pisjpek developed particularly quickly after the establishment of the Soviet Union, where in 1926 the city became the capital of the newly established Kyrgyz Soviet Republic. On that occasion, the city changed its name to Frunze after Mikhail Frunze, who was a Soviet military officer and politician born in Pisjpek.
During the Soviet years, Frunze was industrialized, and the city was laid out with a right-angled street grid, where wide boulevards and period buildings sprouted up. With the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Kyrgyzstan became independent, and the capital Frunze changed its name to the Kyrgyz Bishkek. Throughout the entire period from 1926 to today, the population has grown, and from approx. 150,000 inhabitants in the middle of the 20th century, today there are well over a million citizens in the city.
Ala-Too Square is one of Bishkek’s big squares in the center of the city. It was built in 1984 on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the establishment of the Kyrgyz Soviet Socialist Republic, and it was inaugurated as Lenin Square, which was the name of Ala-Too Square until the independence of Kyrgyzstan.
You could originally see a large statue of Vladimir Lenin on Lenin Square. Lenin stood here until 2003, when he was moved to a location north of the Kyrgyz State Historical Museum, which can be seen as the modern building on the north side of Ala-Too Square.
In 2011, the current statue of Manas was erected on Lenin’s old square. Manas is the name of a mythological Kyrgyz hero, and the statue was erected on the 20th anniversary of the country’s independence. The large square was built in a period style, and to the south the square is rounded off by a public office building.
Kyrgyz State Historical Museum is Kyrgyzstan’s national museum for the cultural and historical development of the country since ancient times. The museum was established as the first scientific institution in Kyrgyzstan in 1925 with a focus on collecting relevant historical effects.
The museum opened to the public in 1927, and since then its collections have grown considerably into an excellent representation of many cultural-historical themes and events. Among other things, you can see textiles, coins, jewelery and many ethnographic finds in the modern museum building, which was built on the central Ala-Too square in 1984.
The White House is a large building that serves as the official residence of the President of the Kyrgyz Republic and the seat of the country’s parliament. The seven-story modernist-style building was constructed in 1985 for the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Kyrgyz SSR and the Republican Council of Ministers of the Kyrgyz SSR.
In connection with the construction, a number of buildings had to be demolished, and the White House was built with, among other things, a marble facade and a winter garden with exotic birds and plants. On the front of the building was the coat of arms of the Kyrgyz SSR, which was later replaced by the coat of arms of the Kyrgyz Republic. In front of the building, a large bed of red flowers was laid, representing the Kyrgyz-Soviet ties.
M.V. Frunze House Museum is a museum that was established in 1925 in memory of Mikhail Frunze. Frunze was born in Bishkek in 1885 and became a prominent Soviet military officer and politician. Frunze died in 1925 during a hospital stay, and the same year the museum was established in his hometown around the very house where he was born 40 years earlier.
At the museum, you can therefore see the house that Vasilij Frunze built for his family in 1879. But you can also see a large and interesting exhibition that, through countless documents, pictures, effects, etc., depicts Mikhail Frunze’s life and importance during the Russian Civil War and revolution and for the building of the Soviet Union.
Victory Square is a central square in Bishkek, which was built in 1985 to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Soviet Union’s victory over Germany in World War II. There used to be a market place at this location.
On Victory Square stands a large memorial monument with a statue of a woman waiting for her husband to return home from the war. The woman stands under a tynduk, which is taken over a yurt, which has the shape of a funeral wreath held by three ribs of red granite, representing the yurt itself.
The Kyrgyz National Opera and Ballet Theater is a stage that was established as the Frunze Theater in 1937, and five years later the theater got its current name. Planning for a newly built opera house started as early as the 1930s, but the project was delayed due to the outbreak of the Second World War.
The opera house was built after the war as Kyrgyzstan’s first and only opera house, and the theater moved into the beautiful building in 1955, where it still has its seat. During the planning, the opera was also given a prominent place in Bishkek’s town plan, and the building has also graced one of the country’s banknotes.
Kyrgyz National Art Museum is a museum founded in 1935 as the center of Kyrgyz art and culture. In 1974, the museum was set up in the current museum building, which was built in Soviet Burtalism. It was an architecture that was widely used in its day.
The museum’s exhibitions primarily show painting and sculpture collections with Kyrgyz works of art. However, there are also applied arts, graphics etc. in the exhibition, which goes from the Kyrgyz nomadic culture via the Soviet Union to today’s Kyrgyzstan.
Bishkek Circus is one of the Kyrgyz capital’s distinctive buildings in Soviet architecture from the 1970s. The UFO-like circus building was designed and built in 1976 in a period style.
The circus building has hosted many performances since its opening, and there have been many exciting circuses past Bishkek, not least from other parts of the former Soviet Union, where the circus tradition has always been strong.
The Holy Resurrection Cathedral (Свято-Воскресенский собор) is the name of the Russian Orthodox cathedral in Bishkek. Its history started with thoughts of building an Orthodox cathedral in the city in 1943. They arose after previous churches in the city had been demolished or converted to other purposes in the first decades of Soviet rule.
The Orthodox congregation in what was then Frunze was provided with a plot of land with an unfinished building at the end of 1944, and then work began. The church was consecrated in 1947 by the bishop of Tashkent and Central Asia, and much of the decoration had come from churches in the area that had been closed. Over the past decades, the cathedral has been expanded and decorated with, among other things, more frescoes and icons.
The Lenin Monument is a statue of the Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin, which was erected in 1984 on the central Lenin Square in Bishkek. This happened in connection with the construction of the square, which marked the 60th anniversary of the foundation of the Kyrgyz Soviet Socialist Republic.
Lenin Square was the most important in the city, as it was throughout the Soviet Union. With Kyrgyzstan’s independence in 1991, the square changed its name to Ala-Too, and the Lenin monument was moved to the north in 2003, so that the statue can now be seen on the opposite side of the Kyrgyz State Historical Museum than it was originally.
There had also been a Lenin monument in the city before 1984. It had been erected in 1948 as a central monument in Egeparken/Эмен сейил багы as a northern fixed point along the wide boulevard that started from the Bishkek railway station to the north. Today there is a monument to Kurmanjan Datke at this place.
Erkindik Prospect is one of Bishkek’s central streets. Its name means Independence Boulevard, and the street is a beautiful avenue that connects Bishkek Central Station in the south with Oak Park/Эмен сейіл багы in the north. The avenue is approximately 2,300 meters long in total, and in its northern part is Kyrgyzstan’s 0 kilometer mark, which is used as an official distance measurer.
Erkindik Prospect’s history started as a smaller street with two rows of silver poplars. The avenue was laid out in 1883 and was simply called the avenue at the time. In 1904, the poplars were replaced by oak trees, which can still be seen. Over time, the avenue has been named after the youth organization Komsomol and the revolutionary Feliks Dzherzhinsky.
Osh Bazaar is one of the largest markets in Bishkek. It was established in 1983 as one of the traditional markets that could be found all over the Soviet Union. Osh Bazaar was of course distinctive for also being a place for many traditional Kyrgyz goods.
The big market is still like that. During a visit, you can spend a long time exploring and buying both food and many different things for the household. You can also find Kyrgyz national costumes and other local goods and other souvenirs.
Panfilov Park is one of the many green areas in the center of Bishkek. The park was laid out in 1924 and called Stjerneparken, which can clearly be seen in the park’s design. Seen from above, the park was laid out as a five-pointed star in a circle.
In 1942, the park was named after the Soviet general and hero Ivan Panfilov. Two years later, a monument was erected in honor of the general who died during German attacks on the Soviet Union in 1941. Today, there are various activities and amusements in the park.
Bishkek Central Mosque is a large and modern mosque that was built in the center of the Kyrgyz capital from 2012. The mosque was financed by a Turkish state institution and was inaugurated in 2018.
The mosque’s design was not least inspired by old Ottoman buildings, and it was built as one of the largest mosques in Central Asia. In style, the mosque is reminiscent of the Kocatepe Camii in Ankara, Turkey, and it has a total of 30,000 visitors.
Almaty is located in southern Kazakhstan and is the country’s largest city. The modern city’s prehistory was an active trading post on part of the Silk Road, but with more European ship traffic from the 15th-18th centuries there was a decline in trade and thus in the development of the area. In the 1850s, the area became Russian with Russia’s expansion into Central Asia, and to protect the new country, the Verny fortress was built between the rivers Bolshaya and Malenkaya Almatinka. In 1867, Vernyj was expanded and established as the city of Almaty, but it was soon renamed Vernyj again.
Vernyj grew until 1887, when the city was almost completely wiped out by an earthquake. However, Vernyj was rebuilt, and in 1906 there were 27,000 inhabitants, the majority of whom were Russians or from the Ukrainian part of the Russian Empire. In 1918, Soviet rule was established in Verny, which administratively became part of the Turkestan Autonomous Soviet Republic, which had its capital in Tashkent. In 1920, the Kyrgyz Autonomous Soviet Republic was separated from Turkestan with its capital first in Orenburg and later Kyzylorda. In 1921, Vernyj was renamed Alma-Ata, which was one of the city’s old names from the pre-Russian era.
Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan
Overview of Bishkek
Bishkek is the capital and largest city of Kyrgyzstan. The prehistory of the modern city started as a caravan station on one of the branches of the Silk Road, and in 1825 the Kokand Khanate built a small clay fortress in what they called Pisjpek. The fortress was captured by Russian troops in 1862 during Russia’s expansion in Central Asia, and on that occasion Pisjpek was destroyed.
Russia quickly re-established a garrison on the site, and the population increased with the many Russian farmers who moved here due to the fertile black soil fields. In 1878, Russia founded the city of Pishpek itself, which developed into today’s Bishkek.
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The Kyrgyz National Opera and Ballet Theater is a stage that was established as the Frunze Theater in 1937, and five years later the theater got its current name. Planning for a newly built opera house started as early as the 1930s, but the project was delayed due to the outbreak of the Second World War.
The opera house was built after the war as Kyrgyzstan’s first and only opera house, and the theater moved into the beautiful building in 1955, where it still has its seat. During the planning, the opera was also given a prominent place in Bishkek’s town plan, and the building has also graced one of the country’s banknotes.
Kyrgyz National Art Museum is a museum founded in 1935 as the center of Kyrgyz art and culture. In 1974, the museum was set up in the current museum building, which was built in Soviet Burtalism. It was an architecture that was widely used in its day.
The museum’s exhibitions primarily show painting and sculpture collections with Kyrgyz works of art. However, there are also applied arts, graphics etc. in the exhibition, which goes from the Kyrgyz nomadic culture via the Soviet Union to today’s Kyrgyzstan.
Bishkek Circus is one of the Kyrgyz capital’s distinctive buildings in Soviet architecture from the 1970s. The UFO-like circus building was designed and built in 1976 in a period style.
The circus building has hosted many performances since its opening, and there have been many exciting circuses past Bishkek, not least from other parts of the former Soviet Union, where the circus tradition has always been strong.
The Holy Resurrection Cathedral (Свято-Воскресенский собор) is the name of the Russian Orthodox cathedral in Bishkek. Its history started with thoughts of building an Orthodox cathedral in the city in 1943. They arose after previous churches in the city had been demolished or converted to other purposes in the first decades of Soviet rule.
The Orthodox congregation in what was then Frunze was provided with a plot of land with an unfinished building at the end of 1944, and then work began. The church was consecrated in 1947 by the bishop of Tashkent and Central Asia, and much of the decoration had come from churches in the area that had been closed. Over the past decades, the cathedral has been expanded and decorated with, among other things, more frescoes and icons.
The Lenin Monument is a statue of the Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin, which was erected in 1984 on the central Lenin Square in Bishkek. This happened in connection with the construction of the square, which marked the 60th anniversary of the foundation of the Kyrgyz Soviet Socialist Republic.
Lenin Square was the most important in the city, as it was throughout the Soviet Union. With Kyrgyzstan’s independence in 1991, the square changed its name to Ala-Too, and the Lenin monument was moved to the north in 2003, so that the statue can now be seen on the opposite side of the Kyrgyz State Historical Museum than it was originally.
There had also been a Lenin monument in the city before 1984. It had been erected in 1948 as a central monument in Egeparken/Эмен сейил багы as a northern fixed point along the wide boulevard that started from the Bishkek railway station to the north. Today there is a monument to Kurmanjan Datke at this place.
Erkindik Prospect is one of Bishkek’s central streets. Its name means Independence Boulevard, and the street is a beautiful avenue that connects Bishkek Central Station in the south with Oak Park/Эмен сейіл багы in the north. The avenue is approximately 2,300 meters long in total, and in its northern part is Kyrgyzstan’s 0 kilometer mark, which is used as an official distance measurer.
Erkindik Prospect’s history started as a smaller street with two rows of silver poplars. The avenue was laid out in 1883 and was simply called the avenue at the time. In 1904, the poplars were replaced by oak trees, which can still be seen. Over time, the avenue has been named after the youth organization Komsomol and the revolutionary Feliks Dzherzhinsky.
Osh Bazaar is one of the largest markets in Bishkek. It was established in 1983 as one of the traditional markets that could be found all over the Soviet Union. Osh Bazaar was of course distinctive for also being a place for many traditional Kyrgyz goods.
The big market is still like that. During a visit, you can spend a long time exploring and buying both food and many different things for the household. You can also find Kyrgyz national costumes and other local goods and other souvenirs.
Panfilov Park is one of the many green areas in the center of Bishkek. The park was laid out in 1924 and called Stjerneparken, which can clearly be seen in the park’s design. Seen from above, the park was laid out as a five-pointed star in a circle.
In 1942, the park was named after the Soviet general and hero Ivan Panfilov. Two years later, a monument was erected in honor of the general who died during German attacks on the Soviet Union in 1941. Today, there are various activities and amusements in the park.
Bishkek Central Mosque is a large and modern mosque that was built in the center of the Kyrgyz capital from 2012. The mosque was financed by a Turkish state institution and was inaugurated in 2018.
The mosque’s design was not least inspired by old Ottoman buildings, and it was built as one of the largest mosques in Central Asia. In style, the mosque is reminiscent of the Kocatepe Camii in Ankara, Turkey, and it has a total of 30,000 visitors.
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