Logvinenko
Yakov Nikiforovich Logvinenko was born on 23rd October,1896 in the Poltava province of Ukraine and his family moved to Pishpek in 1912. He was conscripted into the Imperial Army in the First World War and sent to the front. During the war he achieved the rank of corporal – but after the October Revolution he returned back home to Pishpek – where he became the commander of the Pishkek regiment and served in the civil war.
He is best known for his role in defeating the “Belovodsk” counter revolution …. After a New Year’s party on 1st January 1918, a group of Bolsheviks had armed themselves and “arrested” the garrison command, releasing the prisoners held in the local jail. Over the next few months, they established control over the region, but in December they faced a counter-revolution. In the village of Belovodsk, about 30km west of Bishkek, the post office was seized by a curious group of anti-Bolsheviks who managed to take control of large parts of both Pishkek and Djambul regions. Within a week they were marching on Pishkek itself. The battle for the city lasted 8 days, but the defenders (commanded by Logvinenko – who hurried here with reinforcements from Almaty) – managed to overcome the attackers and the counter-revolution was defeated. The soldiers who died in the fight defending the revolution were buried and a memorial erected in Oak Park, near where the Russian Theatre now stands. This incident ended the counter revolution in the North of the country, but during the civil war the Bolsheviks were threatened by the Basmachi movement which even “liberated”, for a time, the Pamir district in the South.
Following this incident, things did not exactly go smoothly for him.
Apparently, in the National Archives, in Bishkek, there isn’t much information about him … but there is an interesting document – a curriculum vitae, written in his own in the autumn of 1921. It is a formal document and it is not clear for what purpose it was written … It is known, however, that he was appointed manager of a central warehouse, in which all a wide range of supplies were kept: food (flour, sugar, rice …); saddles; pillows; nails; buttons; soap … Irregularities came to light as the result on allegations made by the Chief City Accountant 1923. The Manager, (Logvinenko), his deputy and accountant were called to account and dismissed. They were free but had to report daily to the GPU – the secret police of the day – whilst an audit was carried out. It seems that some supplies had been issued without the proper authorization … although the investigating commission seems to have noted that all were duly replaced or paid for in the course of time. Logvinenko appealed to the authorities - claiming that the commission had not be fair. Although the commission’s report and the appeal are in the archives, the result of the appeal is not recorded anywhere, although it seems that Logvinenko was acquitted of any wrongdoing … however, he remained unemployed for some time, and a member of the Communist Party.
In 1924 he was appointed as the supplies manager of the resort at “Arasan”, Issyk Ata. At that time, the resort was reserved for the “elite” – top party members from the region, even from as far away as Tashkent.
Later he became deputy head of the authority managing Financial bodies in the republic. In this role he conceived and implemented the idea of a savings bank – the bank in Bishkek and th republic.
He turned to study and graduated from the Agricultural University in Tashkent, returning to Kyrgyzia, (as it was then known), and in 1933 was appointed as an agricultural specialist in one of the state farms in the Chui valley.
Shortly after starting in his new post, both he and his wife, Anastasia, contracted Typhus – she survived but he didn’t … and he joined the “Martyrs of the Revolution” in their communal grave in Oak Park. His name is the last in the list engraved at the foot of the monument.
One of the main streets in Bishkek is named after him and there is a plaque on a plinth on Toktogula which marks where he once lived.
Bishkek