IN MEMORY OF THE POET-FRONTLINE SOLDIER TURUSBEKOV
The street stretches from the railway line to Leningradskaya. There are still many one-story residential houses on it, but gradually the traces of old Pishpek are fading into the past. Whole blocks of old houses are being demolished. Here and there, multi-story buildings are rising.
Especially intensively in recent years, the blocks from the railway line to Kirova Street have been developed. Here, the street is increasingly taking on modern architectural outlines.
On the first floors of the multi-story residential buildings, shops "Okhotnik" and "Bukinist" have opened, a radio workshop is operating, etc. In 1980, a five-story building with 75 apartments was commissioned at the corner of Engels Street. It stands out with its unique architecture. Loggias decorated with ornate grilles give the building a festive and expressive appearance. Other houses are equally interesting.
In 1979, the reconstruction of the roadway of the street was completed. These are the signs of the new.
Before the revolution, and even in the early years of Soviet power, the street was named Alexandrovskaya, after Tsar Alexander II. In the 1920s, it was renamed Western. It retained this name until the 1960s, when it was renamed after Jussup Turusbekov (1910-1943), a prominent Kyrgyz poet and playwright who died at the front during the Great Patriotic War.
Jussup Turusbekov studied at the Tyup Agricultural Technical School. From 1928, he worked at the newspaper "Kyzyl Kyrgyzstan." After graduating from the Kalinin Communist Party School, he worked at the newspaper and at the Kyrgyz State Publishing House. His first poem "Lenin's Path" was published in 1928. He published his first collection of poems in 1932. In 1935, he wrote the play "Ajal Orduna" and, together with K. Malikov and J. Bokonbaev, wrote the libretto for the opera "Aychurek."
His poems reflect the theme of socialist transformations in the life of the Kyrgyz people and the selfless labor of collective farmers.
Despite his short life, he created a number of works that have entered the golden fund of Kyrgyz Soviet literature.
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The history of streets is the history of the city. The city of Frunze, formerly Pishpek, has transformed in a short historical period from a small settlement that grew on the ruins of a fortress into one of the major industrial cities of our country, becoming a center of industry, science, and culture in the mountainous region. It is unlikely that there is another city in our country—capital, whose age barely exceeds one hundred years. The most rapid development of Frunze occurred during the years of Soviet power. Large factories and plants were built, numerous administrative buildings, scientific and cultural institutions were erected, stadiums, artificial lakes, etc., were constructed.
On the site of the former city outskirts, entire micro-districts with a population of thousands have emerged. The city of Frunze is being built not only outward but also upward. Twelve-, sixteen-, and eighteen-story residential buildings or administrative offices have long become familiar to the townspeople.
However, one of the main attractions of any city is its streets. They are, to some extent, a chronicle of the historical and cultural development of the city, a peculiar mirror reflecting the achievements of human intellect and the creations of its hands, embodied in architectural structures, in the design of parks, alleys, squares, sculptural compositions, etc.
The streets of our city, as readers have seen, have changed beyond recognition in a short time. Today, it is hard to recognize Lenin Avenue, Soviet Street, "Pravda," etc.
In place of the old mud huts and dilapidated buildings, new modern houses, administrative buildings have arisen, flowerbeds have been laid out, and parks have been planted. New streets are emerging, and many old ones are being renamed.
However, behind all this lies the labor of our townspeople. Thanks to them, the streets are becoming more beautiful and cleaner.
In our city, as in many cities of the country, each enterprise and institution is assigned an adjacent area, where cleanliness and order must be maintained. During mass Saturday workdays, not only cleaning of the area is carried out, but also preventive work to preserve green spaces, landscaping of streets and avenues, and assistance to builders is provided. Sometimes part of the funds earned during the communist Saturday work goes towards major repairs or the construction of new cultural and domestic facilities. "To our native city - exemplary order!" - this is the motto of the townspeople. Letters published in the newspapers "Evening Frunze," "Frunze Shamy" confirm that many townspeople are concerned about the current state and future of the streets and parks, alleys and squares, and the preservation of historical and cultural monuments of the city.
Indeed, it cannot be said that there are no problems in urban planning and architecture of the city. There are. And these are primarily: the problem of preserving historical and cultural monuments, maintaining and increasing green spaces, improving the architectural decor of the city, raising the culture of streets and avenues, organizing their names thoughtfully, and the planned organization of zones for the mass recreation of the city's workers, etc.
Thus, it cannot fail to evoke a deep sense of sorrow and indignation among true Frunze residents the destruction of more than half of the green spaces in the famous Panfilov Park, the demolition of the stadium, which served as an ice rink for townspeople in winter, and a number of architectural buildings and old structures that have enduring historical and cultural value. Due to the negligence and shortsightedness of the Gorzelkhoz and other relevant organizations responsible for the green attire of our capital, they could not prevent the disease of the trees in the well-known Dzerzhinsky Avenue. As a result of preventive logging, the avenue has turned into a sparse forest.
According to the new general plan for the city's development, significant work awaits in urban planning and architecture of the capital: old streets will be reconstructed, new ones will appear, multi-story buildings and administrative buildings will be constructed, new spaces will be developed both in the steppe and in the foothills of the Kyrgyz Ala-Too, and there will be more memorial and notable places. The day is not far off when the city's population will exceed one million and a new mode of transport will be developed - the construction of a metro will begin.
All this awaits to be accomplished by the young generation of townspeople, the descendants of the glorious sons of our Motherland, whose names are immortalized in the names of streets, avenues, squares, in honor of which memorial plaques and monuments have been erected, and museums have been opened.
The city is now called Bishkek.
Losev D. S., Kochkunov A. S. What the Streets Tell
Streets of Bishkek
