Tucked between modern towers and Soviet monuments of Bishkek’s downtown area stands a small, gated house. A plaque outside humbly identifies it as the Memorial House Museum of O.M. Manuilova. Olga Maksimilianovna Manuilova was born in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia in 1893 and educated as a sculptor in Moscow. The daughter of a military doctor, her […]
Chingiz Aitmatov is best known as Kyrgyzstan’s most beloved author, but he represents much more than that to the Kyrgyz people today. His more than thirty novels represent honestly the Soviet experience and the social and moral dilemmas that Central Asian people endured. He wrote about love, heroism, friendship, nature, inequality between men and women, […]
The Kyrgyz State Opera and Ballet Theater is a prominant fixture in central Bishkek with a nearly century-old history. It is a pride of the city’s artistic and intellectual community and often recommended to SRAS students studying in Bishkek by locals. Below is the history and performances of this great institution as told by American […]
The Mikhail Frunze Museum in Bishkek was founded by the Soviets as part of their tribute to Mikhail Frunze. Mikhail Frunze was a Red Army leader that was instrumental in crushing resistance in Central Asia during the Russian Civil War. In his honor, the city, which had previously been known as Pishpek, was renamed Frunze […]
The Kyrgyz were largely a nomadic civilization up until the 20th century. It should be no surprise, then, that many of Kyrgyzstan’s greatest museums are outside and/or in rural areas. The city of Bishkek also has a number of more traditional museums, mostly established during (and today often unchanged from) Soviet times, including a number […]
Supara Ethno-Complex/Супара Этно-Комплекс Supara.kg 1a Karagul Akmata Str., Kok-Jar village Meals from 340 som Супара Этно-Комплекс (Supara Ethno-Complex) on the scenic outskirts of Bishkek, was developed over the past several years by Tabyldy Egemberdiev, president of the enormously popular Шоро (Shoro) Company, which produces traditional Kyrgyz drinks, among other things. Egemberdiev’s wife, Janyl, was a […]
The editors of Limon.KG, a popular Kyrgyz news and culture site, visited the cozy studio of Eva Dagaz, an artisan in Kyrgyzstan who works with leather and creates original works. The following article and pictures were originally published in Russian at Limon.KG. Translation was performed by Sophia Rehm, a SRAS Home and Abroad Scholar studying […]
The following project was initiated and published by Enot, a Russian-language online publication about local culture, business, food, shops, events, and people in Bishkek that has been popular with SRAS students studying there. Translation was performed by Sophia Rehm, a SRAS Home and Abroad Scholar studying in Bishkek. In the spirit of experimentation, Enot approached […]
New SRAS students at the London School in Bishkek are introduced to the city and some of its major landmarks on a walking tour shortly after arrival. I took this tour on the afternoon of my first day here at the end of August. It was hot, the streets were busy, and little stands along […]
