Postcard from Bishkek

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), […]

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 […]

Last month I posted a postcard dedicated to the Erkindik Monument in the main Ala Too Square –Bishkek’s own Statue of Liberty. At the time, I didn’t know that it was about to be controversially thrust into the limelight by a government decision to tear down the statue and rep[lace it with another dedicated to […]

  Located at the junction of Sovietskaya,  (now called Abdrachmanova Street), and Prospect Chui – between Sovietskaya and Tynystanova – there is a large open space, surrounded on three sides by trees,  that sometimes called Revolution Square.  This is because in the center of the square there is a one of Bishkek’s largest and most […]

On the side of some of the buildings in Bishkek there are memorial plaques commemorating prominent people and historical places or events.

On June 17th, 1885, the French ship Isère sailed into New York harbour with an unusual cargo.  Packed in crates were the parts of a present from the people of France to those of the United States of America, something that was to become a symbol of the United States: The Statue of Liberty.   […]

Some years ago, I wrote an article about Bishkek which began with the words: “Bishkek cannot claim to be one of the major cities of the world, like London, Paris or New York. It is, however, the capital city of Kyrgyzstan and does have a number of important and interesting buildings, monuments, parks, museums, galleries, […]