1878: Transfer of the District Administration from Tokmak to Pishpek (Bishkek)

Transfer of the District Administration from Tokmak to Pishpek

There is also information about the strategic significance of Pishpek, noting that in 1854, after the capture of the city of Almaty by the imperial troops, a 19,000-strong military detachment from the Kokand Khanate arrived in Pishpek to block further advances, consisting of 7,000 under the command of Khanat Shah and 12,000 under the command of the Andijan leader Alymbek Datka. They moved towards Almaty. In the battle that took place on October 1, 1860, in Uzun-Agach, the Kokand troops suffered defeat, retreated to Bishkek, and began to fortify it.

To finally rid themselves of the power of the Kokand Khanate, the Kyrgyz of the Chui Valley sought help from the governor of Omsk. On October 13, 1862, a Tsarist detachment arrived from the city of Verny under the command of Colonel G.A. Kalpakovsky, consisting of 1,400 soldiers and officers, with the participation of the detachment of the Kyrgyz leader Baytik Batyr, besieged the Pishpek fortress. After a fierce struggle lasting more than two months, the fortress was taken on December 26, 1862. In 1863, the Kokand Khanate was eliminated in northern Kyrgyzstan. In 1864, a Russian military post was established in Tokmak and Pishpek.

Overall, the Kokand Khanate had to wage war against the superior forces of the imperial army with interruptions for 15 years from the second half of the 19th century. In this fruitless war for the khanate, it lost the lower reaches of the Syr Darya, the valleys of Talas and Chui, and the Tashkent, Kuraman, Urta-Tyubin, and Khojent regions. During the last decade of its existence, the khanate was territorially limited to only Central and Eastern Fergana and became a vassal of Tsarist Russia. In 1876, the Kokand Khanate was dissolved by the Tsarist military administration.

In 1867, Tokmak became the district center of the Chui Valley. In the same year, regular postal communication was established in Pishpek between Tashkent, the center of the Turkestan Governorate.

However, the vicinity of the city of Tokmak had many marshy areas, and during the severe winter floods of the Chui River, the city was inundated. Therefore, on December 3, 1877, the military governor of the Semirechye region petitioned the governor-general of Turkestan to transfer the center of the Chui district in 1878 from Tokmak to Pishpek, arguing that Bishkek had all the prerequisites for a future city, as this area was located at the junction of four postal roads of the Semirechye region from Verny, Karakol, Naryn, and Tashkent, at the intersection of caravan routes from Kashgar, Syr Darya, and Fergana regions.

On April 29, 1878, the district administration was transferred from Tokmak to Pishpek. In May 1878, the district-city institution was also relocated here. Pishpek received city status. A city economic committee was established. The construction plan for Pishpek was approved by the Turkestan governor-general on August 31, 1878. It included the construction of barracks, prisons, a church, Muslim and Orthodox cemeteries, a square for military parades, etc.

From 1878 to 1895, all administrative and economic issues were under the jurisdiction of the district authorities. They were appointed to manage the city until the organization of city "self-government." The district chief was Gryaznev. Pishpek became the administrative and economic center of the district.

Before the organization of "self-government," from 1890, the city elder was Ivan Panteleevich Sapozhnikov. According to preserved documents in the archive, the city elders often changed; from 1896 it was I.F. Terentyev, from 1902 L.D. Pushnikov, from 1905 I.D. Vasilyev, from 1916 I.F. Terentyev, and from 1917 I.D. Vasilyev.

The city was engaged in planning and improvement work, subdividing plots for new residents. Street and square planning was carried out, and places were allocated for housing, government buildings, barracks, as well as for trade, blacksmiths, and craft establishments.

In 1882, land was allocated in the city for 150 Dungan families who had emigrated from western China, which was named "Dungan Freedom." The townspeople engaged in gardening and horticulture, with significant portions involved in agriculture, livestock breeding, and beekeeping.

In the spring of 1879, a gardener from St. Petersburg, A.M. Fetisov, arrived and established a fruit nursery in the area of the Karagach Grove; he cultivated champagne grapes and various fruit tree varieties. By 1881, there were many plants, including Andijan poplar. In 1904, the Karagach Grove covered 80 desyatinas, and the nursery had about 80,000 various trees, nearly 200 varieties of fruit trees and shrubs. The garden occupied about 200 desyatinas, consisting of three sections: decorative, fruit, and vegetable. In 1898, A.M. Fetisov organized the planting of an Oak Park in Bishkek.

The city's population was engaged in trade and transportation. On the market street (now Soviet Street), there were trading rows of large merchants. Annual fairs were held in May and June, attracting merchants and craftsmen from Tashkent, Verny, Jarkent, Tokmak, and Karakol. Wealthy merchants participated in fair trade in Semirechye and Russia. Factories and haberdashery, sugar, tea and wine, kerosene, cast iron, roofing iron, and metal products were supplied from Tashkent and Verny. Local shopkeepers traded these goods. Cultural and educational institutions and medical facilities began to appear in the city. Since 1878, a reception room and pharmacy began operating, and a parish single-class school was opened in 1878, which was transformed into a men's school in 1890, first into a 2-class school, then into a 3-4-class school. In 1892, Mikhail Vasilyevich Frunze (who later became a commander) enrolled there, and in 1884, a women's church-parish school was operating. There were also confessional schools at the mosques where children of Kyrgyz, Tatars, Uzbeks, and Dungans studied. In 1901-1902, "new-method" boys' and girls' schools opened. From 1908, a Russian-native school operated, playing a significant role in teaching the Russian language to the local youth. In 1890, the Kyrgyz School of Horticulture began operating, managed by A.M. Fetisov. One of the tireless medical workers in Pishpek was a Moldovan, military paramedic Vasily Mikhailovich Frunze. During an expedition to Central Asia in the spring of 1894, the orientalist-academic V.V. Bartold visited Pishpek for historical and archaeological research, studying the ancient monuments of the mountainous region, remnants of Kokand fortifications.

Pishpek has been the administrative center of the Chui Valley since 1825