FORMER PUSHCHINSKAYA
In the capital, there are three streets named in honor of the Great October Socialist Revolution - Krasnooktabrskaya, 40 Years of October, and 50 Years of October. We will tell you about Krasnooktabrskaya Street, which has its own rather interesting history.
Before the revolution, the street was considered one of the main ones and was named Pushchinskaya, after the name of the Pishpek district chief, Colonel Pushchin. In the year of the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the birth of the great Russian poet A. S. Pushkin in 1899, the Dubovy Park (Oak Park), through which it passed, was named after him. In 1924, the street was renamed Krasnooktabrskaya.
Dubovy Park is an integral and important part of the street. Established in 1890, the park opens onto the street with its eastern, wider side. Before the revolution, and even in the first decades after, it was almost the only public place for the townspeople. In the park, a cinema called "Edison" with 400 seats operated from 1914, which was renamed "Progress" after the revolution. The cinema's mechanic was I. S. Merkun, one of the organizers of the illegal Bolshevik group of Pishpek. Members of the group gathered in his small house next to the cinema.
In 1929, a new building was constructed on the site of the "Progress" cinema, later named "Cholpon," which in 1930 was converted and adapted for performances and shows. It had 900 seats. That same year, a summer cinema "October," later "Udarnik," opened.
In the early 1930s, the Kyrgyz National Theater (Kyrnac Theater) began operating in the cinema building, which then became a musical-drama theater in 1936, a musical theater, and from August 1942, the Kyrgyz State Theater of Opera and Ballet.
In 1955, the Russian Drama Theater named after N. K. Krupskaya, established in 1935, settled in this building. On November 12 of that year, the theater opened its first season with the play "Capital" by Yu. Yanovsky. The author of the play attended the premiere.
Here, in 1932, the first sound film was shown. In this hall, on March 20, 1932, at the Plenary Session of the City Council, the commander of the Turkestan Military District, a participant in the revolution and a hero of the Civil War, member of the Revolutionary Military Council of the USSR, the Central Executive Committee of the USSR, deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, and commander of the 2nd rank Pavel Yefimovich Dybenko delivered a report on the international situation. In July 1933, he participated in the work of the first congress of shock workers of the republic. On November 5, 1932, the solemn opening of the Higher Communist Agricultural School and the Kyrgyz State Pedagogical Institute took place here, in the theater hall.
In the early 1970s, the old theater building underwent a major reconstruction designed by architect A. Albansky. It was rebuilt in a modern style, simply and beautifully. The interior spaces are finished with natural and artificial marble. A wide marble staircase leads to the amphitheater hall, designed for 900 seats. On May 6, 1972, the theater showed its first performance in the new building.
The activities of the Russian Drama Theater are associated with the names of prominent artists such as V. Balaev, L. Vasilieva, K. Guryeva, V. Kazakov, Sh. Shteinberg, K. Lungren, O. Dussan, E. Zhenin, A. Solovyov, K. Yefremova, and others. The current creative team continues the best traditions of the theater.
... On December 31, 1917, a meeting of the city's workers organized by the Bolsheviks under the leadership of A. I. Ivanitsyn, the leader of the Pishpek Bolsheviks, took place in Dubovy Park. At the meeting, a people's militia was formed with about 200 members and the "Society of December 31" (Society of Supporters of Soviet Power) was established. In January 1919, Red Guards who died at the hands of the Belyvodsky rebels were buried in a brotherly grave, and a monument was erected over the grave. Here, in 1933, the commander of the first Pishpek Soviet regiment, Ya. N. Logvinenko, was also buried.
In November 1957, the monument was reconstructed according to the design of architect I. Lyublinsky. It is now an 11-meter high obelisk made of polished red granite, topped with a sickle and hammer framed by a bronze wreath. Decorative cannon barrels, cast in bronze, are installed at all four corners, and the names of the fallen are inscribed on the slabs.
On the western side of the monument to the Red Guards, a memorial to the Frunze residents who died in the Great Patriotic War was opened in 1970 (architect A. Isaev).
Later, on the site of the summer cinema "October" and the dance floor, a fountain made of twenty-five golden bowls was created, surrounded by beautiful flowerbeds and shady trees. Today, it is one of the favorite spots for city dwellers to relax on hot summer days.
Today's visitors to Dubovy Park can admire not only the diversity of its plant world, its fountains, and beautiful alleys but also marvel at the creations of human hands made of granite, marble, stone, and metal. Since September 1984, Dubovy Park has presented itself to the townspeople in a completely new capacity. An open-air park sculpture museum was opened here (since 1989, it has been the State Museum of Sculpture).
The museum's exhibition foundation consists of works by participants of the All-Union Symposium of Sculptors held in Frunze. Among them are sculptures by Yu. Sinkevich "Earth - Our Home," O. Kostkevich "Struggle," V. Troyanovsky "Lullaby," L. Tokmazhyan "Happy Mother," Z. Khabibullin "Interrupted Song," A. Sharshakiev "Fathers Remember," and others. The eastern alleys of the park feature works by sculptors E. Belashov, M. Tsvetkov, Yu. Orekhov, V. Dumanyan, Hungarian master I. Kish, and others, donated to the museum by the Unions of Artists of the USSR and RSFSR, and the Ministry of Culture of the USSR.
The open-air park sculpture is the first museum of its kind in Central Asia. Its collections have been enriched with works by sculptors who participated in the II International Symposium held in 1986 in Frunze.
The works of Soviet masters of artistic plastic became not only a testament to the great talent of their creators but also a vivid demonstration of the international friendship of artists in our country.
In the 1930s, a two-story building at the corner of Krasnooktabrskaya and Kirova streets housed the Kyrgyz Scientific Research Institute of Local Lore, established in November 1928 and transformed in 1932 into the Kyrgyz Scientific Research Institute of Cultural Construction, and the local history museum, founded in 1933.
The main exhibits of the museum consisted of ethnographic materials, a herbarium, stuffed animals, and birds. It should be noted that ethnographer S. M. Abramzon, who later became a prominent scholar in the field of Kyrgyz ethnography, and zoologist D. P. Dementyev, who later became a Doctor of Biological Sciences and a professor at the Kyrgyz Agricultural Institute, contributed significantly to the organization of the museum and the collection of exhibits. The preparator N. Ya. Vasilyev also worked long and fruitfully in the museum.
From 1936, the second floor of this building housed the Kyrgyz Scientific Research Institute of Language, Literature, and History. Nearby, at the corner of Frunze Street, the city "Emergency Medical Service" has been located since the early 1930s.
In the 1970s, all the old houses on the section of the street from Dubovy Park to Frunze Street were demolished, and a square was laid out in their place, and in 1978, a three-story building was erected, which housed the Ministry of Public Education, the Ministry of Higher and Secondary Education of the Kyrgyz SSR, and the Institute for the Improvement of Teachers.
Behind the park, at the corner of Tatarskaya Street (since 1937 - Pushkina), a three-story administrative building was built in the early 1930s, where the "ChuiStroy" trust was located (architect Yu. B. Dubov). After the Great Patriotic War, from 1948 to 1969, the editorial offices of the newspapers "Soviet Kyrgyzstan" and "Kyzyl Kyrgyzstan" (since 1956 - "Sovetitik Kyrgyzstan") operated there, followed by the republican society "Knowledge." This building is notable for the fact that in September - October 1941, the headquarters and political department of the 385th Krichivskaya Red Banner Order of Suvorov Rifle Division, which passed from Moscow to the banks of the Elbe in Germany, were located here. This is mentioned on a memorial plaque affixed to the building in 1966.
Another memorable place. At the corner of Kyiv and Krasnooktabrskaya streets is Secondary School No. 24. In 1941, the headquarters of the 40th Pomeranian Red Banner Order of Suvorov 2nd Class Separate Rifle Brigade was located here, as indicated by a memorial plaque on the school building.
In this school, at different times, two-time Hero of the Soviet Union pilot-stormtrooper T. Ya. Begeldinov, vice-president of the Academy of Sciences of the Uzbek SSR S. Sirazhetdinov, professor, academician of the Academy of Sciences of the Kyrgyz SSR M. Mirrakhimov, People's Artist of the Kyrgyz SSR M. Makmutova, Honored Artist of the Kyrgyz SSR G. Valiulina, poets K. Tyulebaev and M. Muslimov, and many others, now scientists and leaders of the republic's economy, studied.
In the post-war period, many mud houses were demolished, and multi-story residential, administrative, and public buildings were erected in their place. Among them are five-story buildings of the Ministry of Melioration and Water Management and the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the republic.
At the corner of Engels Street, in a one-story mansion specially built for it, was the creative workshop of the People's Artist of the USSR, laureate of the State Prize of the Kyrgyz SSR named after Toktogul Gapar Aitieva. The artist's name is widely known not only in the republic. He is the author of many paintings, sculptural works, including the monument to the people's akyn of Kyrgyzstan Toktogul Satylganov, installed in the square near the A. Maldybaev Opera and Ballet Theater.
G. Aitiev was a corresponding member of the Academy of Arts of the USSR. He painted his first picture "Portrait of My Father" in 1932. Since then, he has created many works, including portraits of artist S. Akylbekov and poet A. Osmonov, paintings "Letter from the Front," "Cotton Harvest," landscapes "In the Valley of Susamyr," "Haymaking in the Mountains," and many others. For the paintings "Shepherds" and "Issyk-Kul - Kyrgyz Sea," he was awarded the State Prize of the Kyrgyz SSR named after Toktogul in 1965.
G. Aitiev led the Union of Artists of Kyrgyzstan for many years and was elected a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the Kyrgyz SSR for the 2nd to 9th convocations. For his significant contributions to the development of visual arts, he was awarded the Orders of Lenin, the October Revolution, two Orders of the Red Banner of Labor, and the Order of the Badge of Honor.
In early 1988, a museum of G. Aitiev was established in the former workshop of the artist. This is the second museum in Kyrgyzstan dedicated to the founders of Kyrgyz visual art. The first was opened in the former house of S. A. Chuykov.
Beyond the railway line, in the axis of Krasnooktabrskaya Street, the "Yug-2" microdistrict was built in 1979. About 15 nine-story residential buildings were constructed, into which hundreds of families of townspeople moved.
Losev D. S., Kochkunov A. S. What the Streets Tell
Streets of Bishkek
