PRAVDY STREET - FORMERLY KUZNECHNAYA
We will begin the story of this street with the remnants of the Kokand fortress of Pishpek, located at its beginning on the eastern side. What did it represent in the late 1920s and early 1930s? According to local residents, it was a quadrangular mound about 15-20 meters high, with a flat top and hills at the corners, with sloping sides.
The length of the sides reached one hundred meters or more. In some places, especially on the western side, the fortress was excavated by the city's residents for construction needs. While gathering clay, residents often found cast-iron cannonballs, stumbled upon human skulls and bones, shards of pottery, etc. There was a wasteland around the fortress. Only on Tashkent Street, and on the left side of Kuznechnaya, stood a few houses.
Right next to the fortress, on the western side, lived 2-3 Chinese families who made raw bricks for the city's residents. The remnants of the fortress long served as building material for the townspeople.
In the early 1930s, the area around the fortress began to be developed. Mud huts appeared. The fortress was gradually destroyed. Houses rose higher and higher and eventually appeared on the flat top of the fortress.
By the late 1930s, this chaotic jumble of dugouts and mud huts received the address "Kuznechnaya Fortress." This name is associated with Kuznechnaya Street, which passed by it.
In May 1962, by the decision of the city executive committee, in honor of the 50th anniversary of the founding of the newspaper "Pravda," Kuznechnaya Street was renamed "Pravdy" Street. Its previous name Kuznechnaya Street was given before the October Revolution due to several forges located on it. In the recent past, at the beginning of the street, opposite the remnants of the fortress, there was a vast wasteland - a marshy area. In the 1920s and 1930s, this place was the city's garbage dump. In 1929, a tobacco factory with a capacity of 65 "boxes" of shag per year was built in the northern part of the wasteland. Today, it is a highly mechanized and automated production facility that produces cigarettes and cigars.
Between Ilyinskaya and Tashkent streets on the right side stood the only two-story house of sausage maker Sorochенко, and on the left was the bathhouse of A. P. Konev. It should be noted that this was a good bathhouse for that time. It had private rooms and communal sections. It was heated with fuel oil, and water was supplied by a manual pump from a well. The bathhouse existed until the Great Patriotic War when it was converted into a residential building. The sausage maker's house later became the base for the Issyk-Kul shipping company.
At the corner of Kuznechnaya and Tokmakskaya (since 1957 - Ivanitsyna) Street, until the end of the 1950s, there stood a fairly good house on a brick foundation. It is known for being the residence of the organizer and leader of the Pishpek Bolsheviks, Alexei Illarionovich Ivanitsyn (1870-1925), a member of the RSDRP since 1903. He was born in Odessa. He conducted revolutionary work in Kerch, Odessa, Nikolaev, Orel, and Kyiv. He was arrested multiple times. In 1916, he was exiled to Pishpek and worked in the mechanical workshops of the Chuy Irrigation System Construction Administration. He continued his revolutionary work.
In 1917, A. I. Ivanitsyn became the head of the Bolshevik organization. From April 1918, he was the chairman of the Pishpek district-city committee of the RCP(b). While holding the position of chairman of the district Soviet of People's Commissars, he carried out significant organizational work to strengthen the organs of Soviet power and to establish the national economy of Pishpek and the district. Subsequently, from 1919, A. I. Ivanitsyn was the organizer of a commune in the Przhevalsky district and worked in the party-Soviet apparatus of Semirechye, in Tashkent. He was elected to the regional party committee. He participated in the work of the VIII Congress of Soviets of the Turkestan ASSR.
In the 1960s and 70s, the appearance of Pravdy Street changed significantly. Behind Ognbaeva Street (until 1974 - Karl Marx), on the left side, next to the jute factory, the buildings of the "Cholpon" shoe factory and the "40 Years of October" sewing factory were constructed between 1958 and 1960. From Ognbaeva Street to Krasnoarmeyskaya, a six-row strip of trees stretched along the factory buildings. In place of the demolished mud huts, below the factory buildings, a grocery store "Yrakhat" was built. The street is paved with asphalt.
In recent years, the entire appearance of Pravdy Street has changed beyond recognition. Beautiful modern multi-story residential buildings and administrative buildings have risen in place of the old structures. Among them stands out a twelve-story large-panel building at the corner of Pravdy and Moscow streets. On the first floor of this building, for the first time in the republic, a "Comfort" store was opened, selling construction and other necessary household goods.
In 1984, according to the project of architects V. Grigoryev, R. Ibragimova, A. Kohanova, and I. Korobitsin, a printing combine - the publishing house of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Kyrgyzstan was built. The building consists of a seventeen-story editorial building facing the city square, and three multi-story production buildings forming a U-shaped courtyard. After the commissioning of all the production capacities of the printing combine, the residents of Frunze and the republic began to receive newspapers and magazines with clear images and good printing quality. Soon, all republican periodical publications will concentrate their editorial offices here, which will undoubtedly have a positive impact on their work and mark a new stage in the development of the printing business in Kyrgyzstan.
At the corner of Pravdy and Bokonbaeva streets, in front of the railway line, beautiful nine-story buildings have risen. These are the first high-rise dormitories for working youth in the republic. Their owners became workers of the production association "Kyrgyzavtomash."
In 1984, in the center of Frunze, between Pravdy and Shopokova streets, a complex of public catering enterprises "Naryn" was commissioned according to the project of architects V. Borovikov and Z. Shembetov. On three floors, there are a lobby with a cloakroom, a bar for 30 seats, a café for 120 seats, a restaurant with a hall for 700 seats, and a room for 60 seats for family celebrations and weddings. This large public catering building has become one of the city's attractions, a place for relaxation for residents and guests of the capital. Here, dishes of national cuisine, as well as Russian, Dungan, and other peoples' cuisines are presented in a wide variety. The building combines features of both national and classical architecture and is successfully integrated into the architectural complex of the area.
Nevertheless, the main attraction of Pravdy Street has become Victory Square. Previously, there was the city Green Market (now there are three large markets in the city: "Osh," "Alamedin," and "Orto-Sai"). Victory Square occupies a total of three and a half hectares. It features an architectural and sculptural composition dedicated to the defenders of the Motherland - the Kyrgyzstanis. Its center is a concrete arch resembling a Kyrgyz yurt, with a sculpture of a mother holding a cup, waiting for her sons to return from a great battle.
In addition to the central composition, there are two more: a sculptural image of two fighters carrying a disassembled machine gun, and a group of fighters with children, ceremoniously returning from war. At the edges of the stairs leading to the arch, six marble slabs are installed, which bear brief inscriptions in Kyrgyz and Russian about the historical significance of the victory of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War, a list of heroes of the Soviet Union and full holders of the Order of Glory of three degrees - Kyrgyzstanis, about the participation of communists and Komsomol members of the republic in the war, and about the feats of workers in the rear. The authors of the monument are T. Sadykov, M. K. Anikushkin, and the architects are V. Lyzenko and V. B. Bukhaev.
The Victory Memorial Complex is a tribute of the deepest respect of the working people of the republic to the memory of those known and nameless heroes who shielded the Motherland from the hated enemy, ensuring today's happy life on our land.
Today, Pravdy Street has become one of the spacious and beautiful thoroughfares of city-wide significance. Bus and trolleybus routes run along it. The wide highway allows for multi-lane traffic. Reconstruction and improvement of the street continue: a negotiation point, telegraph, post office, industrial and grocery stores have been opened.
According to the master plan, in the future, the street will be connected with the Karagach Grove.
Thus, in a short historical period, Pravdy Street, formerly Kuznechnaya, has acquired a completely different appearance, embodying the features of modern industrial development and cultural construction of the city.
Losev D. S., Kochkunov A. S. What the Streets Tell
Streets of Bishkek
