The Railway Station as a Monument of History and Architecture of Bishkek

In the 1930s, important public buildings were erected in Bishkek, shaping the modern appearance of the capital of Kyrgyzstan. Currently, these buildings constitute the historical and architectural heritage of the republic.

A well-known public building in Bishkek, constructed during the Soviet era, is the railway station of Bishkek-N (Frunze). The choice of location in the city center for the railway station has shaped the architectural environment of this area of the capital. The station building closes the perspective of the oldest street in the city - Erkindik Avenue, originally named Boulevard Street. Erkindik Avenue can be called a park street. The first plantings on Boulevard Street were made in the late 19th century. From 1924, the street was called Komsomolskaya, renamed in 1927 to Dzerzhinsky Street, but it was more often referred to as Dzerzhinsky Boulevard. In 1970, it became Dzerzhinsky Avenue. Since 1991, it has been known as Erkindik Avenue.

At the request of the chairman of the government of the Kyrgyz ASSR, J. Abdrakhmanov, to improve the quality of passenger transport from the Pishpek railway station, the USSR People's Commissariat of Transport opened the Frunze passenger station in 1931.

According to the newspaper "Soviet Kyrgyzstan," on May 25, 1931, at 6:45 AM, the first train departed from the Pishpek station towards the newly built Frunze station. Exactly 35 minutes later, a train with passengers departed for Tashkent from the building of the first one-story station at Frunze.

Initially, the Frunze station did not meet the necessary requirements to ensure passenger comfort. At the new station, the well-maintained and illuminated part of the platform was short, so most cars stopped on a slope. Accidents often occurred during passenger boarding and alighting. The platform and the area around the station, as well as the station itself, were dirty, and cleaning was not carried out, leading to a lot of dust being raised by the crowd of passengers and their see-offs.

In 1934, to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the formation of the Kyrgyz ASSR, the republic's government appealed to the USSR People's Commissariat of Transport about the necessity of constructing a new passenger station in Frunze, as well as residential buildings and cultural and domestic buildings at the Frunze and Pishpek stations. By this time, the republic had achieved certain successes in road and railway construction. By 1934, the total length of railways in the republic was 178 km.

However, the republic did not have the funds to build this important public facility. The construction industry in Kyrgyzstan was virtually non-existent: building materials were brought in from neighboring republics, and machinery appeared in the second half of the 1930s. The first group of architects from Moscow, Leningrad, Kharkov, and other cities of the USSR arrived in Kyrgyzstan in 1936.

The design of the railway station building was carried out by a Kharkov design organization under the leadership of architect A. Limar, who developed the designs for several railway stations, including those in Smolensk and Kharkov.

Construction of the new railway station building in Frunze began in 1935 and was completed in 1938. The construction was carried out by the "Sredazstroyput" trust. The chief of construction for the railway station in Frunze was Remizov.

By the decree of the Council of People's Commissars of the Kyrgyz SSR dated April 28, 1938, the station was commissioned. In connection with the completion of construction, the Frunze City Council awarded bonuses to workers who achieved high production indicators. On May 1, 1938, the grand opening of the railway passenger station took place. In the same year, the square in front of the station was paved and then asphalted. A park was laid out next to the square.



The publication "Architecture of Soviet Kyrgyzstan" provides the following description of the station building as an architectural structure: "Symmetrical in volumetric-planning organization, the station building is located on an elevated site. A wide staircase is arranged in the center of the main facade, leading from the station square to the main passenger hall. The basement of the building houses service rooms, storage, and baggage departments. At the center of the entire composition is the main volume of the two-light vestibule, which contains all service rooms, waiting room, restaurant, etc. The vestibule has mezzanines where the passenger service rooms are located. The design of the interiors and facades of the station building is done in a pseudo-classical architectural style."

In terms of architecture, the railway station building, like all public buildings constructed between 1933 and 1941, was characterized by the rationality of functional planning, with restrained use of architectural decor on the building's facade. The main facade of the station with the grand staircase faces the station square. The platform is located on the southern side. Access to the station and exit to the platform and back was provided not only through the building but also via stairs on the right and left sides of the building.

While the architecture of the railway station building was maintained in the strict style of the Stalin era, the interior design of the waiting room featured Kyrgyz folk ornamentation in a creative reinterpretation by artists. The interior design of the new railway station was carried out by Hungarian sculptor Laszlo Meszaros (1905-1945) and artists A.I. Ignatiev, Bogdanov, and Kataevsky.

Laszlo Meszaros (1905-1945) was a Hungarian artist who arrived in Kyrgyzstan in March 1936. He participated in the development of the railway station project and the interior design of the building.

His largest work was expected to be a series of friezes for the meeting hall of the building of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Kyrgyzstan and the Council of Ministers of the Kyrgyz SSR, now the main building of AUCA. The building project was designed by engineer-builder Yu.B. Dubov, and the building was repeatedly redesigned. Construction was completed in 1936. Laszlo Meszaros only created sketches, but they demonstrated his extraordinary creative growth. These sketches were dedicated to the memory of those who died during the uprising of 1916.

In the final version, the walls of the meeting hall in the old House of Government were covered with paintings made by the famous Hungarian artist Bela Uitz with the participation of Laszlo Meszaros and artist Polyakova. The paintings have survived to this day.

Laszlo Meszaros's emigration to the USSR was a deliberate act by the artist. In the early 1930s, he closely associated with progressive literary and artistic circles in Hungary. This connection had a strong influence on the formation of Meszaros's worldview. He participated in an illegal seminar where not only artistic problems were discussed, but also lectures on Marxist topics and current political issues regarding the Soviet Union were read. The speaker was Jozsef Madjar, one of the editors of the magazine "Public Review." From 1932 to 1934, the artist lived in Rome. He completed commissioned works and created a number of creative pieces that were small in size but monumental in expressiveness. Thanks to the group "Socialist Artists," he became connected with the communist movement and the communist party. The works created during these years show a high level of Meszaros's art. Marxist gatherings, discussions, and debates about the Soviet Union led to the artist maturing the idea of moving to the USSR. This was facilitated by conversations about Russia with a friend who had been a prisoner of war in Russia. Only a few close friends and comrades knew about Meszaros's intentions. In May 1935, Meszaros left for Paris according to his documents, but in reality, he went to Moscow, where he met with Bela Kun, the former leader of the Hungarian Soviet Republic, who was living in Moscow at that time.



In March 1936, Meszaros arrived in Frunze, the capital of Kyrgyzstan. In April, his wife and child followed him. Meszaros's wife wrote that the artist "always dreamed of a place where nature and people are still pure and virgin, and the types are remarkable - each like a statue, a square-jawed Mongolian type with a wild look."

The city of Frunze seemed to them a large village, but it charmed them with its low houses, huge poplars along the wide streets, irrigation ditches, and the wonderful panorama of mountain peaks, covered with snow in winter and summer. Based on the volume of the planned works, Meszaros intended to stay in Kyrgyzstan for two years. During this time, he planned to build his little house with a large garden, to return to this unforgettable land from time to time.

Along with L. Meszaros, the well-known Hungarian artist Bela Uitz worked in Frunze. In the early 1930s, artists and architects from Moscow, Leningrad, and Ukraine began arriving in Frunze. In 1934, the Union of Artists was organized, in 1935 an art gallery opened, and in 1938 the Union of Architects was established. The pace of development of the city during those years was incredible. There was much work for artists and architects in the developing city. Moreover, a new generation of artists and architects among the Kyrgyz was needed. Meszaros, the only sculptor, had particularly serious work ahead of him, and he was pleased and happy about it. There was much work to do. In one of her letters, his wife wrote that her husband had gone to the mine for two weeks to sculpt a statue of a miner, adding: "... and all this is particularly well paid, and such business trips are mandatory. I can say that working and living here is indeed humanly possible."

Laszlo Meszaros was particularly proud to be the founder of the first sculptor school in Central Asia. In 1937, he organized a sculptural workshop. A workshop was built for him and the school with the support of the government. Meszaros paid great attention to the education of creative youth and was one of the first teachers at the art studio-internship on drawing, painting, and the basics of sculpture.

Laszlo Meszaros's creative activity was interrupted in the spring of 1938. On March 19, 1938, while on an expedition near the Chinese border, where he was searching for marble, he was arrested. In September 1945, when news came of Meszaros's release from custody, he was no longer alive. He died a few days earlier, likely on September 10-12, 1945.

In the pre-war years, the railway station was the "main entrance" of the republic: it ensured the reception and dispatch of passengers on the few routes from Frunze station to Lugovaya station, from which passenger cars from Frunze were then attached to trains heading west and east.

During the Great Patriotic War, the nature of the work of the railways of the USSR changed. Military transport and the relocation of productive forces of the USSR by rail became of primary importance. The railway in Kyrgyzstan did not have through traffic. The stations located on its territory were the terminal points of the Tashkent and Turkestan-Siberian railways. The railway enterprises at these stations contributed to organizing work to receive and process the increased cargo flow.

The main work of railway transport for evacuation was carried out from July to December 1941, in accordance with the decree of the USSR Council of People's Commissars dated June 27, 1941. Responsibility for its implementation was placed on local party and Soviet bodies and the administration of enterprises. On August 19, 1941, a special commission was created under the Council of People's Commissars of the Kyrgyz SSR, and similar commissions operated under district and regional executive committees to manage the placement of evacuated populations. On November 1, a position of authorized representative of the Council of the Council of People's Commissars of the Kyrgyz SSR for evacuation was established based on the resettlement department. The arrival of evacuated enterprises in Kyrgyzstan began in September 1941 and continued until early 1943. During this time, the main assets (completely or partially) of several enterprises arrived. The production of some enterprises was fully restored.



The meeting of trains with evacuated populations was organized. Representatives of party, trade union, and Komsomol organizations of the relevant ministries of the republic arrived at the station. Authorized representatives of the Council for evacuation, together with the regional executive committee and city executive committee, provided transport for the transportation of equipment and people, while Kyrgyzconsumerunion provided food for the arrivals. After a brief rally and rest, the dispatch and accommodation of people began. In the absence of apartments, single individuals were temporarily accommodated in hotels specially created for evacuees at the Pishpek station. During the war years, the Pishpek and Frunze stations functioned in the military-defense interests, receiving evacuated enterprises and populations.

After the end of the Great Patriotic War, passenger transport by rail increased. On January 29, 1946, the Council of People's Commissars of the Kyrgyz SSR adopted a resolution on measures to improve passenger transport by rail. Passenger cars, station premises, boarding platforms, and station tracks were put in order. The People's Commissariat of Local Industry of the Kyrgyz SSR prepared furniture for the railway station in Frunze as part of the main production plan. The Frunze City Executive Committee improved the area around the station and access roads to it using funds from the local budget in 1946.

In the early 1950s, the work of the Pishpek branch of TurkSib was discussed at meetings in the government of the Kyrgyz SSR in 1951.

Local authorities participated in improving the operation of the railway, conducting activities to improve the stations and access roads to them using local budget funds.

In the last decade, the railway station building has been renovated, and its external appearance has changed. In this case, it is necessary to follow the conclusions and recommendations of specialists (architects, artists, designers) in carrying out such work. The railway station of the Frunze passenger station deserves special attention and study as a monument of architecture and culture of Kyrgyzstan during the Soviet period.