The Village of Sosnovka

Sosnovka

Sosnovka village is located in the Jayil district of the Chui region in the northern part of the Kyrgyz Republic. During the Soviet era, the district was named Kalininsky, but after the republic gained sovereignty in 1991, it was renamed Jayil in honor of Jayil-biya, who, according to Kyrgyz genealogical legends, lived in these areas in the late 18th to early 19th century and was the leader of a large ethnic union of northern Kyrgyz – the Solto tribe.

Sosnovka village is situated 20 km from the district center, the city of Kara-Balta, and 58 km from the capital of the republic, Bishkek. Sosnovka is located at an altitude of 1189.6 m above sea level.

The nearest international airport, "Manas," is 90 km away. The area of the village covers 3,514 hectares. According to preserved written sources, Sosnovka village was founded in 1908 on the site of a winter encampment of the Solto tribe, where at that time there were 6-8 yurts. This area was called Tash-Aryk (Stone Ditch). During the Stolypin reforms from 1908 to 1912, peasants and Cossacks began to migrate en masse from the southern and central provinces of the Russian Empire to Turkestan. The migration to the lands of the Solto tribe mainly came from Little Russia (now Ukraine), the Orenburg province, and Stavropol. In 1914, land was specifically divided for new European settlers. A capital surveyor named Nikolai Petrovich Sosnovsky was invited to carry out the land redistribution, and in his honor, the new village was named Sosnovsky, which later became simply Sosnovka.

Another version of the current name of the village comes from the Russian translation of the Tian Shan juniper. In the foothills of Ala-Too, a special species of coniferous trees – juniper – has been growing since ancient times, which is considered a sacred tree among the Kyrgyz. Its dry branches are burned in homes to drive away evil spirits. Archaeologists have found ancient burials in Kyrgyzstan with coffins carved from solid juniper trunks. This coniferous tree is known for its antiseptic and preserving properties. The Kyrgyz still make vessels for preparing kumys from juniper. New settlers used mountain juniper to build their homes and accordingly named their settlement – Sosnovolovka.

From the very beginning, Sosnovka village was planned with consideration for the wind rose. The streets in the village are wide and straight.

The houses are not cramped together. In short, this village is quite unusual by local standards. After the victory of the October Revolution and the establishment of Soviet power in 1918, Sosnovolovka or Sosnovskoe retained its former name, but the main streets were given revolutionary names – October Street, M. Frunze Street, and May 1st Street. Until 1929, its population was mainly engaged in animal husbandry. Many poor villagers worked as laborers on the farms of the middle class.

Soviet History

In the mid-1920s, the first communist party cells began to emerge in the village. During these years, seven poor households united into one collective farm.

They began to jointly carry out plowing work and graze livestock. Gradually, other villagers began to join their communal grazing with their own livestock. In December 1928, a party meeting was held in Sosnovka, where it was decided to create the first commune. On December 16, 1928, communist Zvyaginsev proclaimed the charter of the rural commune named after Nadezhda Krupskaya, a well-known party figure and the wife of the founder of the Soviet state, Vladimir Ulyanov-Lenin. By the fall of 1929, the number of commune members in Sosnovka reached 63 people, including 42 poor households. The first commune members were Russian peasant settlers. By the end of 1929, another 50 households from the village joined the commune. The so-called kulak households offered fierce resistance. The Sosnovka commune faced a severe shortage of educated personnel. To address this, a school for literacy was opened here.

Initially, 24 commune members enrolled in the literacy school, of which 19 were women.

Women showed particular activity and energy. Communard Anna Kharlamova led the literacy school for adults, headed the Women's Council, and created the first kindergarten.

At her initiative, a large apple orchard was planted on the outskirts of the village, which still exists today. Soon after the commune was established, the first artel was created in Sosnovka. In 1933, this artel merged with another artel named after N. Krupskaya to form the collective farm "Progress."

The first Komsomol organization in Sosnovka appeared in 1920. The cell had 14 members, none of whom were Kyrgyz. Various activities were initiated by the Komsomol members to improve the quality of life for villagers. Active housing construction was underway, electricity was being installed, efforts were made to combat illiteracy, a concert brigade was created, village streets were greened, roads were repaired, and more. Most of this work was done by the village youth on a voluntary basis. For a long time, the collective farm did not have its own school, although the number of school-age children reached 700 by 1936. For comparison, there were 180 in 1936. The funds allocated for the construction of the first school were, by the villagers' collective decision, redirected to the construction of the first power station. Children studied in the building of the literacy school for adults, which also served as a school for children. Starting in 1931, education in the Sosnovka school began to be conducted in the Kyrgyz language as well. The first Kyrgyz teacher in the village was Tursunaly Alikeev. In the school, Russian and Kyrgyz children were taught separately in the primary classes, and instruction was conducted in both Russian and Kyrgyz. By 1950, two schools were operating in Sosnovka, which were later merged into one large ten-year secondary school.

A school boarding house for children with tuberculosis was opened here. The exceptionally clean and healing mountain air, which flows into Sosnovka from the high mountain pass Töö-Ashuu with its pristine alpine meadows and glaciers, contributed to the construction of a republican-level boarding school. Unfortunately, this school was closed in 2016.

By 1969, a local outpatient clinic with a maternity ward was opened in Sosnovka.

The medical facility had 50 beds. From that year, a House of Culture has also been operating in Sosnovka. A telephone station was built on the territory of the village administration, which currently serves 200 numbers. In 1949, the construction of a large factory began on the outskirts of the village. By 1970, there were four workshops for sewing headwear, a workshop for sewing outerwear, and a workshop for producing rope. Thus, the typical village began to transform into a small industrial center of light industry in the Chui region. The collective farm named after N. Krupskaya, which included Sosnovka, was one of the economically powerful collective farms in the Kyrgyz Soviet Socialist Republic (Kyrgyz SSR). The ethnic composition of the village was multinational. Before the collapse of the USSR in 1991, representatives of Russian and German nationalities predominated. After Kyrgyzstan gained sovereignty in 1991 and due to the ensuing severe economic situation, Russians and Germans began to leave Sosnovka en masse. Russians moved to the Russian Federation, while ethnic Germans also began to resettle permanently to Germany under the German government's program for late resettlers. As they left, they sold their homes and properties relatively cheaply to their fellow villagers. Local residents and migrants arriving in the economically developed Chui valley from other regions of Kyrgyzstan, mainly from the southern regions of Osh, Jalal-Abad, and Batken, began to buy the houses and plots. Migrants from neighboring Tajikistan, many of whom resettled to Sosnovka and other Kyrgyz villages during the civil war in Tajikistan in the 1990s, also bought and continue to buy houses and plots in Sosnovka. Thus, the first Tajik refugees-migrants appeared in Sosnovka in 1993.

Currently, various public organizations operate in Sosnovka, such as the elders' court, a public prevention center, a law enforcement patrol, and a women's committee. In the dacha area, located below the village in a picturesque gorge by the Kara-Balta River, there is a private children's shelter "Yavna," which accommodates 22 social orphans aged 2 to 19 years. Sosnovka also houses the oldest Orthodox church in Kyrgyzstan. The majority of the village's residents are Kyrgyz, who are Sunni Muslims. A large central mosque has been built for Muslims in Sosnovka, located along the Bishkek-Kara-Balta-Osh-Talas highway, as well as several neighborhood mosques and prayer houses. Most of the religious buildings were constructed with funds raised by the local community and money from foreign sponsors during the post-Soviet period. There are also religious communities in Sosnovka belonging to Protestant sects – Baptists and representatives of the Church of Jesus Christ (also known as the Boston group), which actively operate throughout the republic.

According to statistical data from 2018, provided to me by the Sosnovka village administration, there are officially 5,950 registered residents in Sosnovka. Of these, 5,608 are Kyrgyz, 282 are Russians, 7 are Ukrainians, 9 are Kazakhs, 8 are Uzbeks, 3 are Uighurs, 12 are Koreans, 12 are Tajiks, 12 are Germans, and 4 are Turks.

Employment of the Population

According to administrative documents, the average annual number of employed residents in Sosnovka is 2,351. Of these, 1,635 are engaged in agriculture, including hunting and fishing. Twelve people are civil servants working in the village administration – the rural and settlement administration. In other government institutions, such as kindergartens, secondary schools, boarding schools, police posts, and medical points, 95 people are employed.

Representatives of communal, social, and personal services number 7.

Private domestic services employ 57 people. In the transport sector, 50 people are working.

Six people are engaged in trade, car repairs, and personal items.

Construction employs 407 people. Only 2 people are officially engaged in hotel and restaurant services, while 12 are involved in financial activities. It should be noted that these figures refer to individuals who are officially registered in district and village organizations.

In fact, according to my surveys, the working population in the village is much larger. Work is mainly seasonal. In the summer, people engage in seasonal earnings on rented fields from prosperous villagers or in neighboring villages, engage in seasonal work in other areas of the Chui region, help shepherds care for livestock in the high mountain pastures of Suusamyr, work on construction sites in neighboring Kazakhstan, or go to the Russian Federation for the spring-summer season and return home in winter. Many men from the village work as taxi drivers. Families in Sosnovka are generally large. People here traditionally live three generations in one house.

Most of the houses in the village were built in the late Soviet period. The older generation – pensioners receive a small pension or disability pension, while children and adults receive state benefits. There is also a large category of the population that belongs to socially vulnerable groups. The following official statistics are provided: recipients of benefits for low-income families – 35 people, total pensioners – 473 people, total disabled individuals – 91 people, including disabled children – 18, war and labor veterans – 4, single mothers and fathers – 51, unemployed (officially registered) – 143. Sosnovka, which is considered a large village by Kyrgyz standards, has one kindergarten attended by 234 children. There are 4 educators in it. The village has two general education schools with a total of 1,407 students. The number of teachers is 62. There are family medicine centers in the village, and one group of family doctors.

There is a small medical point with 6 hospital beds. In the healthcare sector, there are 2 doctors and 9 people of the middle medical staff employed. In addition, Sosnovka has one House of Culture, two libraries, and one club, where 4 people work. There is also one stadium, a sports ground, and a gym. Officially, there are 2 qualified teachers and trainers in physical culture and sports.

Economy of the Village

The total area of agricultural land owned by the Sosnovka rural administration is 16,165 hectares. The total area of arable land is 3,514 hectares. Of these, the irrigated area is 1,707 hectares, and the rain-fed area is 851 hectares. Pastures cover 8,031 hectares, and orchards cover 21 hectares. There are 746 hectares leased. Farming and peasant households, including personal ones, account for 156 hectares. There is currently no industry in Sosnovka, although, as mentioned earlier, during the Soviet era, there was a large factory for producing felt for headwear of republican significance in the village.

The buildings of this factory, which closed after the collapse of the USSR in 1991, are practically destroyed. The houses where workers and support staff lived still remain. Some of them are inhabited by today's villagers. A small private sewing workshop operates in the village, owned by the founders of the children's shelter "Yavna." Small shops, kiosks, and stalls selling food and industrial goods can be seen everywhere. There is a bakery, although most villagers bake bread at home. On the outskirts of the village, closer to the mountains along the main road, there are two large gas stations. One of them has a small cafeteria and repair facilities, as well as a car wash. There is also one guest house, a restaurant, and several small cafes located along the Bishkek-Osh highway. There are no tourist information points in the village, although in the summer, thanks to the picturesque mountain landscape, clean alpine air, coolness, excellent fishing, and proximity to alpine pastures, many city dwellers come to rest with their relatives. Many foreign tourists on bicycles can be seen on the highway. Thus, the tourist infrastructure here, as in other nearby villages, is practically undeveloped. Sosnovka is notable for being located on the only strategic highway in the republic that connects the North and the South. Beyond the village begins the large Töö-Ashu gorge, through which a steep serpentine of a wide asphalt road passes through a mountain tunnel and further into the southern regions of the country towards the cities of Osh, Jalal-Abad, Batken, and Talas. The road climbs up to the high alpine meadows of the Suusamyr valley at an altitude of over 3,000 m above sea level. Here, during the summer months, herders from the Chui and Talas valleys graze numerous flocks of sheep and horses. Today, this is the only road between the northern and southern regions of Kyrgyzstan, through which an endless flow of goods from Russia, Kazakhstan, and China passes. One kilometer north of Sosnovka, large areas of the new oil refinery "Jundai," built by the People's Republic of China, are sprawling.
Residents of Sosnovka, as well as those from other nearby villages and the city of Kara-Balta, have high hopes for the economic development of their district and the creation of jobs at the expanding Chinese enterprise. However, currently, the main area of employment for the local population at the Kyrgyz-Chinese enterprise, as the residents of Sosnovka told me, is related to security and logistics – transporting goods and products. However, the Chinese are successfully promoting their project to create jobs for the local population. Local youth are recruited by the Chinese for training related to oil product processing, sent to secondary and higher educational institutions in China to prepare local qualified personnel for the enterprise. In the city of Kara-Balta, faculties and courses for studying the Chinese language and technical subjects related to oil and oil refining are being opened. But a significant downside for the entire district and its residents is the problem of water and air pollution associated with the operation of the large Chinese enterprise. Many residents complain of water poisoning and "heavy air" emanating from emissions into the atmosphere. The environmental issue and organizational frictions that periodically arise between the factory workers' union and its management have become a pressing concern. In order to achieve sustainable economic development, since 2016, the government of the republic has planned to expand and modernize the only road connecting Bishkek and Kara-Balta with a Chinese grant. A branch of this road leads south towards the Töö-Ashu pass and passes through Sosnovka and other villages. The highway between Bishkek and Kara-Balta is also one of the transport arteries of the republic, connecting the regional centers of the north of the country with neighboring Kazakhstan. Thus, Sosnovka village is located at a strategic transport hub connecting the north with the south of the republic, as well as northern Kyrgyzstan with southern Kazakhstan, the border of which is less than 60 km from the village.