Thematic Tours "The Utopian History of Bishkek" in Russian and English

During the thematic excursions "Utopian History of Bishkek," participants will explore Soviet productive utopias and the material traces they left behind — buildings, structures, and frameworks — that shaped the city's appearance. Each excursion will demonstrate how the following significant concepts were realized in a specific place and time: "Proletarian Internationalism," "Science and Technology," "Socialist City."

Excursion "Science and Technology"
Cost: 300 som/person (map as a gift)
Duration: 2 hours
"Science and Technology" is one of the most influential utopias of the last century. The excursion highlights urban objects in Frunze/Bishkek that are determined by the idea of science as a total organizing force. These objects represent examples of how the aspiration for rational management of all spheres of life was reflected in architecture. This aspiration extended to the organization of urban space and scientific activity itself, to construction processes and the arrangement of daily life, and to the creation of typical institutions and practices for disseminating scientific and technical knowledge. Institutions for popularizing science — including through leisure — were supposed to contribute to the formation of a new "well-rounded personality."

Excursion "Science and Technology" + "Proletarian Internationalism"
Cost: 500 som/person (2 maps as a gift)
Duration: 2 hours 30 min.
The goal of the legendary Czechoslovak commune "Intergelpo" ("Mutual Aid" in the artificial language ido, improved from Esperanto), which arrived in Kyrgyzstan in the 1920s on the wave of rising international communist solidarity, was to assist Kyrgyz people in creating industrial production, while the goal of the arriving artists was to aid in symbolic production and the visual establishment of the new republic. In addition to the "Science and Technology" excursion, "Proletarian Internationalism" highlights the results of the activities of internationalist artists (Oksana Pavlenko from Ukraine, Béla Witz and László Mesáros from Hungary), who arrived in Frunze from Moscow in the 1930s.

Excursion "Socialist City"
Cost: 300 som/person (map as a gift)
Duration: 2 hours
One of the first microdistricts in the USSR was the experimental 9th quarter of Moscow's Cheryomushki. It served as a model for urban construction in all Soviet republics for nearly fifty years, including in Kyrgyzstan. Bishkek's microdistrict No. 6 is an example of such construction. Like other microdistricts (No. 3 — No. 11) of the southeastern residential area, No. 6 is a vivid illustration of the achievements of local large-panel housing construction. But most importantly, it is practically an ideal example of a Soviet microdistrict: the principles on which this basic structure of the socialist city was built can be clearly traced through the 6th microdistrict. Despite the fact that the microdistrict has remained a familiar part of the city, the original principles of its construction and functioning have been forgotten, as they contradict capitalist reality. The excursion highlights the main parameters of the microdistrict that operated on a nationwide scale.

You can obtain thematic maps "Utopian History of Bishkek" and the book "Bishkek Utopian" for a recommended donation at the Headquarters.

Excursion "Fragments of a Dream: Monumental Mosaic of the 1960s-1980s"



Cost: 300 som/person (map as a gift)
Duration: 1 hour 30 min.
The excursion includes both characteristic and specific examples of Soviet monumental art, covering almost the entire period of the development of monumentalism in Frunze (from the mid-60s to the mid-80s).

You can purchase the map and postcards of the mosaics "Fragments of a Dream: Monumental Mosaic of the 1960s-1980s" at the Headquarters.