The Village of Sokuluk

Sokuluk – a large rural settlement

It is the administrative center of the Sokuluk District. This is the largest settlement in the district, even surpassing the nearby city of Shopokov, which is located to the east of Sokuluk. Currently, the boundaries between them are quite conditional. Further east, 20 kilometers away, lies Bishkek. The Bishkek – Tashkent highway and the Bishkek – Lugovaya railway pass through the village.

The village is named after the Sokuluk River, which stretches along its banks. The river flows down from the slopes of the Kyrgyz Range, which rises to the south. The settlement itself lies on a plain. Sokuluk was founded in the mid-19th century after this region was annexed by Tsarist Russia and the formation of the Semirechye Province. Its first settlers were migrants from the European provinces of the empire, and the village was named Novotroitskoye. By the end of the 19th century, Novotroitskoye expanded due to Dungans who arrived here from the western regions of China. Today, they make up only a small portion of the local population. For some time during the Soviet era (until 1957), the village was called Kaganovich. Since 1935, it has been the district center.

The population is about 24,417 residents, making it the largest settlement in the district. The main population of the village consists of Kyrgyz. The residents mainly speak the Kyrgyz language, which is gradually becoming the language of interethnic communication among Kyrgyz, Russians, Dungans, and other nationalities alongside Russian. In the 2000s, many internal migrants from the southern part of Kyrgyzstan moved to the village, which significantly influenced the national composition of the village in favor of the Kyrgyz-speaking population.