Postcard from Bishkek

Some years ago I went on a trip and one of the places where stayed was in a homestay.  On the television that particular evening there happened be a performance by one of the leading manaschi … and our hostess, shamefacedly lowered her voice and almost whispering told me a secret … “I don’t really […]

Today would have marked the birthday of an interesting character in Kyrgyzstan’s history: Djumabekov Asankulovovich Asankulov, who served two terms as the head of the KGB in Kyrgyzstan, (from 1967-78 and 1989-1991). The KGB, (Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti – Committee for State Security), was the main security agency for the Soviet Union from 1954 – when it […]

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), […]

Although one source says that the poet and novelist Mukai Elebaev was born in 1905, but other sources suggest that it was on 15th January, 1906 that he first saw the light of day. When I saw the discrepancy, my first thought was that it was simply down, (once again), to the difference resulting from […]

A short time ago I saw an article about the attractions of Central Asia and the traveling along the Great Silk Road.  One of the options it highlighted was Soviet Tourism. I have long felt that here in Kyrgyzstan we don’t make enough of Soviet Heritage when pointing out the attractions of the country  In […]

Back in 1932, on 27th December, the Central Executive Committee and the Council of People’s Commissars of the USSR adopted a resolution “On the establishment of a single passport system to the USSR” and mandatory residency passports (Propiska). That’s the reason why today is considered the professional holiday for the employees of the Passport and Visa […]

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 […]

Abdynasyra Elebesova was born into a poor peasant family in the village of Kairma in the Djumgal valley, on 5th December, 1912.  He was one of four children – with a brother and two sisters. He was to play an important role in the establishment of Soviet power, laying the foundation  of the economy and […]

On the 16th November, 1933, diplomatic relations were established between the United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics … after a fifteen year hiatus. The first official contact between Russia and the American colonies actually occurred in 1698.  Diplomatic relations between the two countries were established in 1807, but in the […]

Tucked away beside the Semetei Youth Center in Bishkek is a small monument, a stele made from a block of red granite, with a plaque bearing a simple message dedicating the monument to the victims of Political Repression. It has been the subject of some minor controversy over the last year or so. One of […]