The title translates to "The Village of Kara-Balta."
The Formation of the Settlement as a Future City
The Kokand fortresses were built throughout the Chui Valley. Shish-Debe controlled its entire western part, while Pishpek controlled the eastern part. The burden of supplying military garrisons with food and clothing fell heavily on the Kyrgyz population. Among the Kyrgyz clans, Solto and Bughu, descendants of Jaiyl-Baatyr, who called this land "Jaiyl-Eli," the idea of seeking protection from a strong neighbor - Russia - was maturing. With this mission, the first envoy, Kamchibek Sheralin, was sent to St. Petersburg.
In 1863, an open clash broke out between the Kokand governor Rahmatulla and the head of the Solto clan - Baytik Kanaev. At the request of the latter, Russian troops came to the aid of the rebelling Kyrgyz. The main fortress - Pishpek - fell, and soon the fate of Kokand's oppression was decided. Russian authority was established on the liberated land, and volunteers from the Cossacks began to arrive for permanent residence. Favorable climatic conditions, virgin lands promising high yields, and a 45-year tax exemption for all settlers in the Syr-Darya region attracted foreigners. (At that time, the Kara-Balta settlement was part of the Auliya-Ata district of the Syr-Darya region. The border between the Syr-Darya and Semirechye regions ran along the eastern bank of the Kara-Balta River.)
By 1874, there were more than a hundred Russian settlers in the settlement, but new arrivals continued to come. Now, residents from Ukraine were relocating.
By 1912, the population of the Kara-Balta settlement had increased to two thousand. The settlement consisted of squat adobe houses covered with reeds, surrounded by clay walls.
Small artisanal enterprises with two or three workers developed: water mills, oil presses, shoemakers, tailors, cooperages, and wagon-making workshops.
The formation of the settlement as a future city began in August 1924, when the construction of the Pishpek-Lugovaya railway branch, which passed through it, was completed. Many of our Kara-Balta residents participated in its construction.
In the following years, industrial production began to develop here. Horse-drawn carriages, wheels, agricultural tools, nails, and carpentry products were made. However, the most significant change in the appearance of the settlement, the lives of people, and their cultural and educational standards was the commissioning on March 8, 1933, of a large sugar factory with all auxiliary services, a thermal power station, and a residential settlement. It gave a powerful impetus to the development of beet farming in the area, livestock breeding, and other branches of agriculture aimed at providing food for a large army of workers and raw materials for processing enterprises.
During the war, it supplied sugar to the army, and a glycerin plant was built next to the sugar factory. Glycerin was needed at the front as an anti-icing agent and as a base for rubber production.
At the same time, the construction of a distillery was underway. The first alcohol was produced in 1943. When the need for glycerin diminished, efforts were redirected to the development of alcohol production.
In 1954, with the commissioning of the Sosnovskaya Hydroelectric Power Station, the settlement was electrified.
The sugar factory, transformed into a joint-stock company in 1992, reached its peak power in the following five years. With the participation of foreign investors, "Bakay" switched to producing sugar from Cuban cane raw materials, increased the production of alcohol and vodka products using the latest technologies that gained worldwide recognition, revived the Tokmak glass factory by reorienting part of its workshops to produce glass containers, and the former wine state farm named after Krupskaya, which focused viticulture on producing high-quality wines, opened mini-productions of ice cream, refined cubic sugar, candies, excellent non-alcoholic beverages, increased yeast production, won a tender for sugar supply in foreign currency to the largest consumer - the "Coca-Cola" company, and established the production of its own packaging. All this provided jobs for four thousand people and ensured them decent earnings.
In the spring of 2000, the alcohol production was separated from "Bakay" and became state-owned. However, despite this, "Bakay" continues to demonstrate its ability to operate at a modern level.
Nuzket - the Center of Culture on the Great Silk Road in the VI-VII Centuries
