THE FATE OF KOŠČIYNA STREET
The residents of Frunze are well acquainted with Kirov Street. Until the 1980s, participants in demonstrations and parades marched along it to the Central Square in festive columns. In the mornings, city dwellers hurry to work along it, and in the evenings, theater lovers rush to the start of performances.
In recent years, it has transformed. Where old adobe houses once stood, parks have emerged. An eight-story hotel "Kyrgyzstan" with 650 rooms was built, welcoming its first guests on August 23, 1971 (architect E. Pisarskaya). The first floor houses a post office, telegraph, telephone service, hairdresser, café, restaurant, bar, buffets, etc. The floors are connected by five elevators. Surrounding the hotel is a large park. Opposite Dubovy Park is the House of Party Affairs - another park.
The main attraction of the street is the square. It is hard to imagine that the square (previously known as Red Square until 1961) was once a wasteland. The square features two austere yet distinctly different buildings. One is finished with marble chips, while the other shines with the whiteness of its columns and walls in the sun. This square has witnessed many events in the socio-political and cultural life of the republic. It has seen 45 demonstrations on October and May Day, military and sports parades, youth manifestations, and rallies...
...Before the October Revolution and in the early years of Soviet power, like all the streets of Pishpek, it was dirty, built up with adobe houses, and was called Uezdnaya: presumably because the district administration was located there.
The street's landmarks included the two-story beautiful house of the mayor of Pishpek, I. F. Terentyev, and the building of the higher educational institution. Terentyev's house still exists today. For many years, it housed the Kyrgyz regional committee and city committee of the VKP(b), then the Central Committee of the Komsomol of Kyrgyzstan, and several other organizations. In recent years, it served as the reception office of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Kyrgyz SSR. Today, the building is under restoration.
The higher educational institution is famous for being the school attended by the boy Misha Frunze. During the Soviet era, until 1938, it housed a seven-year school known as "Maslennikov's School," named after its director. From 1938 to 1962, it was home to the State Library of the Kyrgyz SSR named after N. G. Chernyshevsky, established in 1934.
In 1924, the street was named Koščiyna. This name pays tribute to the mass international union "Košči," an organization of working peasants in Central Asia. The union, created by the decision of the 5th Congress of the Communist Party of Turkestan (1920), did much to protect the interests of working peasants, freeing them from the influence of the bais, manaps, and clergy. The organizer and leader of the Union in Kyrgyzstan from 1922 to 1928 was one of the active fighters for Soviet power, Djainak Sadaev (1893-1937), who later became a prominent Soviet and party figure in the republic. Here, at the corner of Soviet Street, were located the Pishpek district and regional committees of the "Košči" union.
In 1935, at the request of the public, the street was renamed S. M. Kirov Street, after the outstanding figure of the Communist Party and Soviet state, a comrade of V. I. Lenin, and an active participant in three revolutions, secretary of the Central Committee of the VKP(b).
The first substantial buildings on the street were constructed in the early 1930s. These include a two-story model school, which has housed the Central City Children's Library named after M. V. Frunze since 1968; and a two-story administrative building of "KyrgyzTorg," which now houses the Ministry of Trade and previously hosted a restaurant and grocery store.
In 1936, based on the project of architect Yu. V. Dubov, the building of the House of Government was erected on a vast wasteland. The boldness of the design and its brilliant execution were achieved with full effect. This is largely credited to Hungarian artists Béla Uitz and László Mészáros, and artist O. T. Pavlenko.
On November 5, 1936, the V Extraordinary Congress of the Councils of the Kyrgyz SSR began its work in the meeting hall. 300 delegates of the working people of the republic discussed the draft Constitution of the USSR, and then in March 1937, the Constitution of the Kyrgyz SSR was adopted here. Since 1966, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Kyrgyz SSR, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Committee for People's Control, and the Ministry of Culture of the Kyrgyz SSR have operated here.
In 1933, a park was laid out opposite the House of Government, which became one of the favorite leisure spots for city dwellers. It impresses with its variety of greenery and originally designed flower beds. In a rectangular area of 2 hectares, over 50 species and forms of trees and shrubs are collected - forsythia and barberry, lilac and catalpa, chestnut and ailant, sophora and acacia; in the flower beds - phloxes, daisies, irises, etc. Blue spruces on the Central Alley adorn the park year-round. In 1953, a fountain made of pink granite in an original shape was built in its center, and in 1957, a monument to Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels was unveiled. In recent years, the park has been expanded to Orozbekova Street.
In 1966, a new House of Government was put into operation (architects R. Semerdzhiev and G. Nazaryan, reconstruction by architect E. Pisarsky). The facade of the main entrance building with a granite staircase and eight columns is expressive and compact. Here, until 1984, before moving to a new building on Lenin Avenue, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Kyrgyzstan and the Council of Ministers of the Kyrgyz SSR operated. In 1984, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Kyrgyz SSR, the Central Committee of the Komsomol of Kyrgyzstan moved into this building, and it also houses the cultural fund of Kyrgyzstan, established in 1987. It was planned to place the Union of Writers of Kyrgyzstan in the former building of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet.
In 1986, the Union of Writers moved into the former building of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Kyrgyz SSR. The number of Union members currently stands at about 200. Among them are the Hero of Socialist Labor, laureate of the Lenin and State Prizes of the USSR, People's Writer of the Kyrgyz SSR Ch. Aitmatov, laureates of the State Prize of the Kyrgyz SSR named after Toktogul T. Abdumomunov and A. Toktomushev, People's Poet of the Kyrgyz SSR T. Umetaliev, and many others.
The square has been enlarged. It now stretches to Orozbekova Street, up to the new building of the Kyrgyz Drama Theater.
Opposite the former House of Government, in the park, where for several decades the city fire brigade's property was located, a monument to Labor Glory has been erected. It is a nine-meter-high granite obelisk of dark red color. On its northern side is the coat of arms of the Kyrgyz SSR. Just below, clear grooves create the impression of stripes of the state flag of the republic. On the sides of the monument, symbolizing the fabric of the flag, are two Orders of Lenin and the Order of Friendship of Peoples. At the foot of the monument is a plaque with the inscription: "Erected in the year of the 50th anniversary of the Kyrgyz Soviet Socialist Republic and the Communist Party of Kyrgyzstan. 1974."
In 1938, a three-story administrative building was constructed at the corner of Kirov and Soviet Streets (architects F. P. Steblin and S. X. Sooyan). Before the war, it housed the management of "BChKstroy," then the Frunze regional committee of the party and the regional executive committee. From 1959 to 1969, the Frunze city committee of the party worked in this building. In recent years, it has housed the editorial offices of the republican newspapers "Soviet Kyrgyzstan," "Sovet tik Kyrgyzstan," the Dungan newspaper "Shiyudichi," the city newspaper "Evening Frunze," and "Frunze Shamy," as well as the magazine of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Kyrgyzstan "Communist."
Opposite Dubovy Park, next to the building of the Public Library named after N. G. Chernyshevsky, a circus was built in 1944 during the Great Patriotic War, which lasted until the mid-60s. In 1975, on the site of the demolished buildings, the House of Political Enlightenment was erected, connected by a gallery to the building of the city party committee. A large park was laid out.
Beyond Panfilov Park and Spartak Stadium, the street continues to Belinsky Street. Here it is lined with one-story residential houses.
Losev D. S., Kochkunov A. S. What the Streets Tell
Streets of Bishkek
