Postcard from Bishkek

Ivan Vasilyevich Panfilov was born in Petrovsk, Saratovsky oblast in Russia, on the 20th December, 1892 – by the old, Julian, calendar, which Russia used at the time … it was the 1st January 1893 in the rest of the world. Not much seems to be have recorded about his life apart from the fact that he commanded the 316th Rifle […]

The Second World War provided a great shock to the history, development and psychology of the peoples of the Soviet Union. Kyrgyz contingents played a part in defending the motherland – of a population of just over one and a half million, some 363,000 went to fight – and 160,000 were killed. That’s 45% of […]

In Western Europe the Second World War is usually considered to have lasted six years from 1939 to 1945, however, hostilities probably really began with the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1933.  Different combatants entered the war at different times: for the Americans the war began with the bombing of Pearl Harbour on December 7th, […]

May 9th marks the surrender of Nazi Germany to Soviet forces and the end of the Second World War … In the West – May 8th is marked as Victory in Europe (VE) Day and marks the day after the German High command surrendered to the Western Allies.  The Red Army command, however, insisted that […]

The “Krasnaya Gvozdika”, (“Red Carnation”), choir of Second World War and Labour Veterans as established in 1987 in Frunze Officers’ House by members of the veterans’ concert group, “Go time!”, which consisted of10 people and was headed by the honoured artist of Kyrgyz Republic, veteran of Baltic front, Valerii Shakhov.

When I was young I learned that the Second World War started on September 1st, 1939 as the result of the German invasion of Poland.  (For the record, it was a joint invasion by both Germany and the Slovak Republic, a small “puppet” state created in March that year.  The Slovak Republic contributed 50,000 to […]