Bishkek

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"Frunze" redirects here. For other meanings, see Frunze (disambiguation).
Bishkek
Бишкек
City
Kyrgyz transcription(s)
 • ISO 9 biškek
 • BGN/PCGN bishkek
 • ALA-LC bishkek
Ala-Too Square
Flag of Bishkek
Flag		 Coat of arms of Bishkek
Coat of arms
Bishkek is located in Kyrgyzstan
Bishkek
Bishkek
Location in Kyrgyzstan
Coordinates: Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
Country  Kyrgyzstan
Shaar Bishkek[1] (It is, however, the capital of the Chuy Province)
Founded 1825
Raion[2]
Districts
Government
 • Mayor Kubanychbek Kulmatov
Area[3]
 • Total 127 km2 (49 sq mi)
Elevation 800 m (2,600 ft)
Population (2015)[3]
 • Total 937,400
 • Density 7,400/km2 (19,000/sq mi)
Time zone KGT (UTC+6)
Postal code 720000-720085
Area code(s) (+996) 312
Vehicle registration B, E
Website meria.kg (Kyrgyz)(Russian)
Bishkek
Climate chart (explanation)
J F M A M J J A S O N D
 
 
26
 
 
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10
0
 
 
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35
 
 
28
15
 
 
19
 
 
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25
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43
 
 
17
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10
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−5
Average max. and min. temperatures in °C
Precipitation totals in mm
Source: World Meteorological Organization

Bishkek (in Kyrgyz and Russian: Бишкéк), formerly Pishpek and Frunze, is the capital and the largest city of Kyrgyzstan. Bishkek is also the administrative centre of Chuy Province which surrounds the city, even though the city itself is not part of the province but rather a province-level unit of Kyrgyzstan.

According to the post-Soviet ideology, the name is thought to derive from a Kyrgyz word for a churn used to make fermented mare's milk (kumis), the Kyrgyz national drink, which is rather debatable. Founded in 1825 as a Khokand fortress of "Pishpek" to control local caravan routes and to get tribute from Kyrgyz tribes, on 4 September 1860 the fortress was destroyed by Russian forces led by colonel Zimmermann, with approval of the Kyrgyz. In 1868 a Russian settlement was founded on the fortress's spot, adopting its original name - Pishpek, within the General Governorship of Russian Turkestan and its Semirechye Oblast.

In 1925 the Kara-Kirghiz Autonomous Oblast was created in Russian Turkestan, promoting Pishpek as its capital. In 1926 the city was given the name Frunze, after the Bolshevik military leader Mikhail Frunze, who was born here. In 1936 the city of Frunze became the capital of the Kirghiz Soviet Socialist Republic during the final stages of the national delimitation in the Soviet Union.

In 1991, the Kyrgyz parliament changed the capital's name to Bishkek (although without quorum[citation needed]).

Bishkek is situated at about 800 metres (2,600 ft) altitude just off the northern fringe of the Kyrgyz Ala-Too range, an extension of the Tian Shan mountain range, which rises up to 4,855 metres (15,928 ft) and provides a spectacular backdrop to the city. North of the city, a fertile and gently undulating steppe extends far north into neighbouring Kazakhstan. The Chui River drains most of the area. Bishkek is connected to the Turkestan-Siberia Railway by a spur line.

Bishkek is a city of wide boulevards and marble-faced public buildings combined with numerous Soviet-style apartment blocks surrounding interior courtyards and, especially outside the city centre, thousands of smaller privately built houses. It is laid out on a grid pattern, with most streets flanked on both sides by narrow irrigation channels that water the innumerable trees which provide shade in the hot summers.

History

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See also: Timeline of Bishkek

Kokhand Rule

Originally a caravan rest stop (possibly founded by the Sogdians) on one of the branches of the Silk Road through the Tian Shan range, the location was fortified in 1825 by the Uzbek khan of Kokhand with a mud fort. In the last years of Kokhand rule the fortress was led by Atabek, the Datka.

Tsarist Era

In 1860, the fort was conquered and razed by the military forces of colonel Zimmermann when Tsarist Russia annexed the area. Colonel Zimmerman rebuilt the town over the destroyed fort and put field poruchik Titov as a head of new Russian garrison. The site was redeveloped from 1877 onward by the Russian government, which encouraged the settlement of Russian peasants by giving them fertile land to develop.

Soviet Era

Frunze statue near the railway station

In 1926, the city became the capital of the newly established Kirghiz ASSR and was renamed "Frunze" after Mikhail Frunze, Lenin's close associate who was born in Bishkek and played key roles during the revolutions of 1905 and 1917 and during the Russian civil war of the early 1920s.

Independence Era

The early 1990s were tumultuous. In June 1990, a state of emergency was declared following severe ethnic riots in southern Kyrgyzstan which threatened to spread to the capital. The city was renamed Bishkek on 5 February 1991 and Kyrgyzstan achieved independence later that year during the breakup of the Soviet Union. Before independence, the majority of Bishkek's population was ethnic Russians. In 2004, Russians made up approximately 20% of the city's population, and about 7–8% in 2011.[4]

Today, Bishkek is a modern city, with many restaurants and cafes and with many second-hand European and Japanese cars and minibuses crowding its streets. Streets and sidewalks have fallen into disrepair since the 1990s. At the same time Bishkek still preserves its former Soviet feel, with Soviet-period buildings and gardens prevailing over newer structures.

Bishkek is also the country's financial centre, with all of the country's 21 commercial banks keeping headquarters in the city. During the Soviet era, the city was home to a large number of industrial plants, but most have been shut down since 1991 or operate today on a much reduced scale. One of Bishkek's largest employment centres today is Dordoy Bazaar open market, which is one of the major sale place of Chinese goods imported to CIS countries.

Geography

Orientation

Though the city is relatively young, the surrounding area has some sites of interest dating from prehistory, the Greco-Buddhist period, the period of Nestorian influence, the era of the Central Asian khanates, and the Soviet period.

Russian Orthodox cathedral of Holy Resurrection.
National Historical Museum

The central part of the city is primarily built on a rectangular grid plan. The city's main street is the east–west Chui Avenue (Chuy Prospekti), named after the region's main river. In the Soviet era, it was called Lenin Avenue. Along, or within a block or two from it, many of the most important government buildings, universities, the Academy of Sciences compound, and so on, are to be found. The westernmost section of the avenue is known as Deng Xiaoping Avenue.

The main north–south axis is Yusup Abdrakhmanov Street, still commonly referred to by its old name, Sovietskaya Street. Its northern and southern sections are called, respectively, Yelebesov and Baityk Batyr Streets. Several major shopping centres are located along it, and in the north it provides access to Dordoy Bazaar.

Erkindik ("Freedom") Boulevard runs from north to south, from the main railroad station (Bishkek II) south of Chui Avenue to the museum quarter and sculpture park just north of Chui Avenue, and further north toward the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In the past, it was called Dzerzhinsky Boulevard—named after a Communist revolutionary, Felix Dzerzhinsky—and its northern continuation is still called Dzerzhinsky Street.

An important east–west street is Jibek Jolu ('Silk Road'). It runs parallel to Chui Avenue about 2 km (1 mi) north of it, and is part of the main east–west road of Chui Province. Both the Eastern and Western bus terminals are located along Jibek Jolu.

There is a Roman Catholic church located at ul. Vasiljeva 197 (near Rynok Bayat). This is the only Catholic Cathedral in Kyrgyzstan.[5]

City centre

Ala-Too Square, Bishkek's main square
  • State Historical Museum, located in Ala-Too Square, the main city square
  • State Museum of Applied Arts, containing examples of Kyrgyz traditional handicrafts
  • Frunze House Museum
  • Statue of Ivan Panfilov stands in the park near the White House.
  • An equestrian statue of Mikhail Frunze still stands in a large park (Boulevard Erkindik) across from the train station.
  • The train station itself was built in 1946 by German prisoners of war and has survived since then without further renovation or repairs; most of those who built it perished and were buried in unmarked pits near the station.
  • The main government building, the White House, is a huge, seven story marble block and the former headquarters of the Communist Party of the Kirghiz SSR
  • At Ala-Too Square, there is an Independence monument where the changing of the guards may be watched.
  • Osh bazaar, west of the downtown area, is a large, picturesque produce market

Outer neighbourhoods

The Dordoy Bazaar, just inside the bypass highway on the north-eastern edge of the city, is a major retail and wholesale market.

Outside the city

The Kyrgyz Ala-Too mountain range, some 40 kilometres (25 mi) away, provides a spectacular backdrop to the city; the Ala Archa National Park is only a 30 to 45 minutes drive away.

Climate

Bishkek has a humid continental climate (Köppen climate classification Dsa)[6]. Average precipitation is around 440 millimetres (17 in) per year. Average daily high temperatures range from 3 °C (37.4 °F) in January to about 31 °C (87.8 °F) during July.[7] The summer months are dominated by dry periods experiencing the occasional thunderstorm which produces strong gusty winds and rare dust storms. The mountains to the south provide a natural boundary to provide protection from much of the damaging weather along with the smaller chain which runs NW to SE. In the winter months, sparse snow storms and frequent heavy fog are the dominating features. When an inversion sets up, the fog can last for days at a time.

Demographics

Bishkek is the most populated city in Kyrgyzstan. Its population, according to the Population and Housing Census of 2012, was 874,400. From the foundation of the city to the mid-1990s, the ethnic Russians and other peoples of European descent (Ukrainians, Tatars, Germans) was the majority in the city. According to the 1970 Census, the ethnic Kyrgyz were only 12.3%, in the same time the whites were more than 80% of Frunze population. Nowadays, the urbanization and high natural growth of ethnic Kyrgyz and other Asian population, and emigration and low birth rates of Russian and other European population rapidly change Bishkek to predominantly Kyrgyz city. 66% of Bishkek dwellers are now Kyrgyz, and European peoples are less than 20% of population.

Historical populations in Bishkek
Year Pop.
1876 182
1882 2,135
1893 4,857
1897 6,615
1902 9,656
1907 13,752
1913 20,102
1926 36,610
1939 92,783
1970 430,618
1989 616,312
1999 762,300
2008 822,100
2009 832,500
2010 846,500
2011 859,800
2012 874,400
Source:[9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16]

Ecology and environment

Air quality

Emissions of air pollutants in Bishkek amounted to 14,400 tons in 2010.[17] Of all other cities of Kyrgyzstan, the level of air pollution in Bishkek is the highest with occasional exceeding maximum allowable concentrations by several times, especially in the city's center.[18] For example, occasionally formaldehyde concentrations exceed maximum allowable ones by four times.

Responsibility for ambient air quality monitoring in Bishkek lies on Kyrgyz State Agency on Hydrometeorology. In total, there are seven air quality monitoring stations in Bishkek, measuring levels of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, formaldehyde, and ammonia.[17]

Economy

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Dordoy Bazaar

Bishkek uses the Kyrgyzstan currency, the som. The Som's value fluctuates regularly, but averages around 61 som per U.S. Dollar as of February 2015. The economy in Bishkek is primarily agricultural with the mass amounts of fruits, vegetables and livestock providing a co-existing system of bartering in the outlying regions. The streets of Bishkek are regularly lined with produce vendors in a market style venue. In the major portions of downtown there is a more urban cityscape with banks, stores, markets and malls. The most sought after of the goods are the prevalent hand-crafted artisan pieces; these include statues, carvings, paintings and many nature based sculptures.

Government

Local government is administered by the Bishkek Mayor's Office. Askarbek Salymbekov was mayor until his resignation in August 2005, following which his deputy Arstanbek Nogoev took over the mayorship. Nogoev was in turn removed from his position in October 2007 through a decree of President Kurmanbek Bakiyev and replaced by businessman and former first deputy prime minister Daniar Usenov.[19][20][21] In July 2008 former head of the Kyrgyz Railways Nariman Tuleyev was appointed mayor, who was dismissed by the interim government after 7 April 2010. Now interim mayor is Isa Omurkulov, also a former head of the Kyrgyz Railways.[22]

Sports

Bishkek is home to Spartak, the biggest football stadium in Kyrgyzstan and the only one eligible to host international matches.[23] Several Bishkek-based football teams play on this pitch, including six-time Kyrgyzstan League champions, Dordoi-Dynamo.

The city is home to the Bandy Federation of Kyrgyzstan[24] which is a member of the IOC recognized[25] Federation of International Bandy.

Bishkek host the 2014 IIHF Challenge Cup of Asia – Division I.

Education

Educational institutions in Bishkek include:

In addition, the following international schools serve the expatriate community in Bishkek:

Transportation

A typical Bishkek passenger van passes by the East Bus Terminal
The electronic board in the main hall of Bishkek-2, the main train station, shows Bishkek and Moscow time
Bishkek Railway Station

Mass public transport

There is public transportation available, including buses, electric trolley buses, and public vans (known in Russian as marshrutka). The first bus and trolley bus services in Bishkek were introduced in 1934 and 1951 correspondingly.[37]

Taxi cabs can be found throughout the city.

There is no subway in Bishkek, but the city is considering designing and building a light rail system (Russian: Бишкекское лёгкое метро).

Commuter and long-distance buses

There are two main bus stations in Bishkek. The smaller old Eastern Bus Station is primarily the terminal for minibuses to various destinations within or just beyond the eastern suburbs, such as Kant, Tokmok, Kemin, Issyk Ata, or the Korday border crossing.

Long-distance regular bus and minibus services to all parts of the country, as well as to Almaty (the largest city in neighboring Kazakhstan) and Kashgar, China, run mostly from the newer grand Western Bus Station; only a smaller minority of them runs from the Eastern Station.

The Dordoy Bazaar on the north-eastern outskirts of the city also contains makeshift terminals for frequent minibuses to suburban towns in all directions (from Sokuluk in the west to Tokmak in the east) and to some buses taking traders to Kazakhstan and Siberia.

Rail

As of 2007, the Bishkek railway station sees only a few trains a day. It offers a popular three-day train service from Bishkek to Moscow.

There are also long-distance trains that leave for Siberia (Novosibirsk and Novokuznetsk), via Almaty, over the Turksib route, and to Yekaterinburg (Sverdlovsk) in the Urals, via Astana. These services are remarkably slow (over 48 hours to Yekaterinburg), due to long stops at the border and the indirect route (the trains first have to go west for more than a 100 kilometres (62 mi) before they enter the main Turksib line and can continue to the east or north). For example, as of the fall of 2008, train No. 305 Bishkek-Yekaterinburg was scheduled to take 11 hours to reach the Shu junction—a distance of some 269 kilometres (167 mi) by rail, and less than half of that by road.[38]

Air

The city is served by Manas International Airport (IATA code FRU), located approximately 25 kilometres (16 mi) northwest of the city centre, and readily reachable by taxi.

In 2002, the United States obtained the right to use Manas International Airport as an air base for its military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. Russia subsequently (2003) established an air base of its own (Kant Air Base) near Kant some 20 kilometres (12 mi) east of Bishkek. It is based at a facility that used to be home to a major Soviet military pilot training school; one of its students, Hosni Mubarak, later became president of Egypt.

Notable people

In popular culture

In Command & Conquer: Generals, GLA forces held this city, capital of unified Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. They reinforced their forces by railways connected to other areas and locals enraged at the Chinese presence in the area. Black Lotus and her strike team must destroy the bridge and a sports stadium before they are overrun. Due to the nature of the mission, a covert op, they are reduced to minimal.

Sister cities

Sister cities of Bishkek include:

References

  1. ↑ Law on the Status of Bishkek, 16 April 1994, article 2 (Russian). Retrieved on 3 August 2009
  2. ↑ Districts of Bishkek (Russian). Retrieved on 3 August 2009
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Statoids. Statoids. Retrieved on 11 March 2012.
  4. ↑ Residential Real Estate Market in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan: Current Conditions and Prospects[dead link][dead link]
  5. ↑ Catholic Church in Kyrgyzstan. Catholic-kyrgyzstan.org. Retrieved 11 March 2012.
  6. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ Первая всеобщая перепись населения Российской Империи 1897 г. Наличное население в губерниях, уездах, городах Российской Империи (без Финляндии). Семиреченская область - First General Russian Empire Census of 1897. Population in provinces, districts, towns of Russian Empire (without Finland). Semirech'e Province (Demoscope.ru) (Russian)
  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  13. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  14. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  15. ↑ Численность наличного населения городов, поселков городского типа, районов и районных центров СССР по данным переписи на 15 января 1970 года по республикам, краям и областям (кроме РСФСР). Demoscope.ru. Retrieved on 11 March 2012.
  16. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  18. ↑ Web-site of the State Agency on Environment Protection and Forestry: Assessment of Air Pollution. Meteo.ktnet.kg. Retrieved on 11 March 2012.
  19. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  20. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  21. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  22. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  23. ↑ Corporate Japanese companies to renovate Kyrgyzstan football stadium. The-afc.com (9 November 2007). Retrieved on 11 March 2012.
  24. ↑ Federation of International Bandy-About-About FIB-National Federations-Krygyzstan. Internationalbandy.com. Retrieved on 11 March 2012.
  25. ↑ Federation of International Bandy-Olympic. Internationalbandy.com (12 August 2004). Retrieved on 11 March 2012.
  26. ↑ October 2009+01:35:14
  27. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  28. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  29. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  30. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  31. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  32. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  33. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  34. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  35. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  36. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  37. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  38. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  39. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

Since 23 May 1994 Tehran and Bishkek are twinned cities as well.

External links

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