Conferences and Attractions Bishkek

As part of the program of the international conference of journalists at the Kyrgyz National University named after J. Balasagyn, its participants got acquainted with the sights of Bishkek. In the center of the capital of the republic is Ala-Too Square. Here on a high pedestal stands a majestic figure, a bronze sculpture of the hero of the Kyrgyz folk epos - Manas. Nearby, on the flagpole with a height of 45 meters, the state flag of Kyrgyzstan is hoisted. Nearby is the guard of honor and many stop to see how their shift is going. The historical museum, the museum of applied art and other institutions adjoin the central square.

On the other side, across the highway, in front of the «Manas» monument, a monument to Chingiz Aitmatov was erected. “They stand against each other and, as it were, carry on a dialogue, it’s a dialogue about the continuity of the traditions and culture of our people,”- we thus understand, says Salamat Nurbek ulu, 4th year student of Kyrgyz National University, who accompanied me as a city guide.

All residents of the city, especially young people, reverently and respectfully perceive these majestic symbols of their glorious heroes. Manas has been preserved and lives in memory thanks to the thousand-year-old rich oral creativity of the Kyrgyz people, and Chingiz Aitmatov thanks to literary creativity and activity in the modern era, which have gained fame and appreciation throughout the world.

An unusual repository of history and ethnography is the Kyrgyz State Memorial House Museum of M.V. Frunze. The departments of this museum, opened in 1925, have preserved many documents, historical information about the history of the city, its inhabitants, household utensils, clothes and samples of houses of both immigrants and local residents of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Here is the history of the people, the formation of statehood, the development of the economy, the participation of the Kyrgyz in the Second World War and modern life. M. Frunze, a statesman and military leader, was born on February 2, 1885 in Bishkek (then called Pishkek), having received education, he became interested and began to study geography, ethnography of this region, his father was a doctor, their family took care of the local population.

The museum recreated living conditions, rooms, and preserved all the attributes of everyday life and the life of the family in which Mikhail Frunze lived and grew. From 1925, the year of his death, this city until 1991 was called Frunze. The museum guide Nurzhan Kenibaeva told us about all this. Many are attracted by our unique exhibits and the thatched-roof hut, ”she says.“ And one of the visitors, who arrived from a remote area, said that they still have a house with such a roof in the aul.

Guides, employees of museums, exhibition halls in Bishkek always with love and great interest tell about the history of the city, its people and give the names of scientists, researchers, recommend books that reveal in more detail certain periods of history, the sides of the life of the Kyrgyz people.

Fatima Muminova,
Doctor of Philology, Professor of the Department of Social-Political Sciences, UWED