Postcard from Bishkek

There is a little known monument in one of Bishkek’s less well known parks that was inaugurated on 26th July, 2008: The Good Angel complex in Fuchik Park. During the inauguration ceremony, the then Prime Minister, Igor Chudinov described it as the first monument to philanthropy in Kyrgyzstan. “This is not a monument, this is […]

The second half of the 1990s saw a number of of monuments which portrayed important people in the history of Kyrgyzstan  - although it also saw the unveiling of a monument dedicated to the two hundredth anniversary of Pushkin. There were, for example, monuments erected to the writer Tokombaev (1996), the Avenue of Statesmen (1996), the Ballerina Bibisara […]

A few years ago, a local newspaper, (Public Rating), published a series of articles highlighting seven “unique objects” in Kyrgyzstan which were nominated for inclusion into the UNESCO World Heritage List.The UNESCO list contains over 800 sites which the ‘World Heritage Committee’ considers as having outstanding universal value and are part of the cultural and natural […]

Back in 1983, 18 April was endorsed as The International Day for Monuments and Sites by UNESCO. The aim of this special day is to raise public awareness concerning the diversity of the world’s heritage and the efforts that are required to protect and conserve it, as well as drawing attention to its vulnerability. It […]

I have mentioned, several times, that there used to be a website which stated that “Kyrgyzstan is not particularly well endowed with festivals” … which, in my opinion, is grossly unfair.  They may not always be the best organized affairs, but there are a wide variety of festivals giving visitors the chance to see (and […]

Seventy years ago, 27th January, 1944, saw the end of the great battles of the Second World War … the Siege of Leningrad. It was one of the the longest and most destructive and costly sieges in all human history, (according to some estimates there were as many as one and a half million casualties), […]

Tucked away behind the National Library, in a small square on the corner of Tynystanovna and Funze streets, there is an interesting, albeit anonymous monument. Anonymous, in that it bears no inscription to tell the passers by who the notable worthy is that is depicted rising out of the pink granite plinth. The lack of […]

I see that some enterprising entrepreneur is offering pieces of the recently toppled statue of Lenin in Kiev for sale over the internet: $125 for the hand, $03 for a piece of the arm and $6 for smaller pieces … apparently the price is determined by weight … with an open auction for the head […]

On 28th November, 1820, a young boy was born in the town of Barmen in the Kingdom of Prussia, (today it is known as Wuppertal in Germany), Frederick Engels. Although he was the son of an influential and relatively affluent businessman, (a cotton manufacturer), he developed an interest in revolutionary politics and dropped out of […]

Opposite the Kyrgyz Agrarian Academy, on Mederova Street, (in the Southern part of town,  near the junction with Sovietskaya – nowadays renamed after Baaytik Baatyr,) there is a Statue which has a striking feature – a long flowing handlebar moustache which surmounts a full beard.  It’s a statue of the Biologist Konstantin Scriabin. It faces […]