Postcard from Bishkek

Ozbek Boshkoev (1826-1912) was one of the pre-revolutionary leaders of the Kyrgyz who tried to change the traditional way of life of Kirghiz people.

He was the nephew of Kanai Baatyr  – the leader of the Solto tribe of Kyrgyz in the Chui valley at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries.

Boshkoev was probably greatest representative of the Kirghiz merchant class at the end of the 19th Century – and by all accounts he was a very rich person, one source refers to his wealth as being “the stuff of legends.”  He was an important merchant, his salesmen trading in the cities of the Ferghana Valley and in East Turkestan, carrying goods to Russian cities.

In 1872 he received an gold medal the Governor General of Turkestan for “excellent – assiduous and useful service”.  In 1901, in recognition of “special merits” he received a silver medal as well.  As he approached his eighties he received another award – a medal of the Red Cross, “in memory of participation in activity of a society during the Russian-Japanese war of 1904-1905”.

Written accounts about him are few and far between – but in oral legends he appears as a wise, good-natured and disinterested governor.  For his time, Ozbek was a well educated person, he knew Arabic and had a reputation as a singer. He was friends with Ilya Terentiev, the first Mayor of Bishkek,  and the veterinary, Vasily Frunze, (the father of the Revolutionary general, Mikhail Frunze, after whom the city was named in 1924).  As a supporter of the rapprochement with Russia, and he actively promoted the expansion of Russian influence in the region.

He had three wives, seven sons and three daughters.

Seven kilometers to the south from Bishkek, his mausoleum can be found set amongst the green hills of the Ala Archa valley.  It is built in an original, architectural style, with brick towers.  The dome that once it once boasted has long since collapsed and the condition of the entrance, walls needs some attention.  He commissioned it himself, from Russian architects in Tashkent, forbidding his relatives from spending a lot of money on a “magnificent funeral”, and it was erected before he died. Nearby is another tomb – that of his uncle Kanaev.