- Visit Karakol, Kyrgyzstan, Karakol, Gagarina st., 28/26, 722200
- +996 501 451515, +996 551 451515
- info@visitkarakol.com
Karakol yesterday and today
Every city has a past and a present. Let us not run ahead and focus only on the future, but instead take a look at our beloved Karakol in the light of yesterday and today.
Каракол 2
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The city of Karakol represents the region Issyk-Kul with its rich historical heritage and unique architectural appearance. It is a multinational student city, focused on the intellectual and spiritual development of people.
In 1872 there were 150 inhabitants in Karakol, mostly Tatars and Uzbeks. Today there are 92 874 people in the city. In addition to Kyrgyz, Uzbeks, Russians, Dungans and Uighurs (the main population of Karakol), Georgians, Lithuanians, Estonians, Latvians, Armenians, Jews, Belorussians, Moldovans, Chechens, Turkmens, Germans, Ukrainians, Koreans, Azerbaijanis, Tajiks , Turks and Kazakhs also live here. Before the revolution, each nationality settled in separate streets, creating entire districts with their own characteristic buildings. Yes, such an interesting fact.
It is no less interesting that many of the natives of our glorious city are famous people.
For instance, Zabirova Rashid Dzhamalievich (1918-1980): director of the Tien-Shan physics-geographical station of the Academy of Sciences of the Kirghiz SSR;
Rodionov Piotr Ivanovich: General Director of JSC Lentransgaz (1978-1995) and Minister of Fuel and Energy of the Russian Federation (1996);
Grigory Melentyevich Shemyakin: marksman of the 1075th Infantry Regiment of the 316th Infantry Division of the 16th Army of the Western Front, Hero of the Soviet Union;
Chaban Sergey Yakovlevich: Major-General of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, plenipotientary Representative of the President of the Russian Federation for Samara Region.
Tugelbay Sydykbekov (1912 - 1997) was not born in Karakol. But after the death of his father, the mother of the three-year-old Tugelbay, together with her family, moved her family from an isolated farm in Ken-Soo to the city, where she worked as a Russian teacher.
In Karakol the future writer graduated from a five-year Russian school, a ten-year school and went on to study at the agricultural technical school and veterinarian institute. Therefore, on July 1, 2012, by order of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism named the regional library Number 136 after T. Sydykbekov, "the Kirghiz Soviet writer, the People's Writer of the Kirghiz SSR and winner of the Stalin Prize of the third degree (1949)".
Our library is interesting not only from an historical point of view, but also because it is unique. The building contains the Book Museum and the library's fund numbers about three thousand copies! The pride of the department of old books are rare editions of works by Shakespeare and Tolstoy, as well as perfectly illustrated collections of "Life of the Sea" (1896), "Our Ballet" (1899), "Kashgariya and the passes of the Tien Shan" (1888), and many more. Many books stem from the private prerevolutionary collections of famous historical figures who lived and worked in the Issyk Kul area - Y. Korolkova, N. Barsov, N. Przhevalsky, A. Mikhailov, P. Kozlov, V. Roborovsky, B. Kaplun and S. Benediktov. It is from these heavy, leather-bound book donations that the present regional library was formed in the far 1902.
How many more interesting and unusual stories can we tell?
The main source of water supply and irrigation is the Karakol River, which cuts through the western part of the city. Did you know that the first water intake lines were laid in 1955-1957? Today, the vodokanal (water canal)Karakol enterprise provides the city and the nearby villages of Chelpak, Jolgolot and Pristan-Przhevalsk with drinking water.
Not far from Karakol there is an interesting body of water - Lake Issyk-Kul. It is the second largest salt lake in the world after the Caspian Sea (which is a sea only nominally), and in terms of transparency it is second after Lake Baikal. It is little known that scientists have proved that Issyk-Kul is part of the Pacific Ocean, with which the lake is connected through a lot of underground rivers. Here, on the shores of the pearl of Kyrgyzstan, the traveler NM. Przhevalsky is buried and stands the monument to his memory.
In Soviet years, when most of the monuments of tsarist times were destroyed, no-one dared touch the monument to Przhevalsky. It became one of the main sights of eastern Kyrgyzstan and a mandatory visit point for important guests. The first cosmonaut of the Earth - Yuri Alekseevich Gagarin – aslo visited it.
"I was a schoolboy. We were collected in front of the military sanatorium to meet Gagarin. He arrived on the Black Volga or the Chayka, I do not remember. The car stopped near the checkpoint. Gagarin came out and went down the avenue, and we ran to meet him. What I remember well is the skullcap which Yuri Alekseevich wore. I was puzzled and wondered why he didn't wear a Kyrgyz kalpak. Then I read in the newspaper that he flew to us immediately from Tashkent. Here we had a military airfield in Tamga Yak-40. Gagarin arrived there. First he went to Tamga, and he also visited the Barskoon Gorge. Then he appeared in Pokrovka and Karakol. All in a day. But he liked our places. Yes, it's no wonder, we live here, and we cannot stop enjoying our places".
Askar Ashanovich Shakeev, recalling how he saw Gagarin.
The Karakol museum of history and local history, located in the western central part of the city, tells about the history of our region as best as possible. It's an interesting exposition in a small one-story pre-revolutionary house on a street in the style of the 19th century, the so-called "Merchant Passage". The road and sidewalks are paved with stone as they used to be 120 years ago. Lanterns, benches and urns made in the style of the 19th century are installed, and the facade and roof of the building are also completely restored. The museum is located in a building built in 1887, which was once a private house of a merchant of the cattle-breeder MN. Ilyin.
The museum was opened in 1948 on November 1st and will celebrate its 170th birthday in 2018. From 1948 to 1961 the museum was called "Issyk-Kul State Museum named after N. M. Przhevalsky of the Ministry of Culture of the Kirghiz SSR".
On January 17th 2001 the museum was renamed "Historical and Local History Museum of the City Karakol", on the basis of the Resolution of the Karakol City Council of People's Deputies.
In the 1970s and 80s Karakol stood out among other cities of Kyrgyzstan as one of the centers of the food and light industries. The food industry of the city was represented by a fruit-and-vegetable processing plant as well as milk, beer, and grain factories and a mill. Two large enterprises played an important role in the city's light industry: a sewing factory and a shoe factory. They also provided everyday consumer services. The electro technical factory and several workshops were engaged in metalworking; they enabled instrument repair places, workshops of rural local government, car depots and many more businesses. Before the collapse of the Soviet Union, a furniture factory started operating in 1962.
The building of the inter-district base on the street 50 years of Kyrgyzstan (now Kydyr Ake street)
Przewalski Brewery (plant management)
Przhevalska Thermal Power Plant (TPP)
Karakol had an impressive construction industry, represented by a dozen organizations and enterprises for the production of building materials. Amongst others, these were a brick factory, production facilities for reinforced concrete products, construction and installation management, a road-building company, a repair and construction department, and a mobile mechanized column.
Modern Karakol entirely relies on private entrepreneurs. Regrettably, there is no hope that their work will be permanent: Today some shops are opened, others tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow there is neither one nor the other.
Karakol was also considered the largest cultural center in the Issyk-Kul basin. In addition to the teacher's college, an agricultural school trained specialists in zookeeping and technological, agronomic and veterinary sciences and provided the only forestry department in Kyrgyzstan.
There was House of Culture in the city, in which there were seven amateur art groups. In modern Karakol, there is also the House of Culture, but not many people know about its existence...
House of Culture. In this building, a district congress of the Soviets took place on 26.06.18. The city government sat here until 1918
Students in laboratory, 1960
Teachers 1950
Will the city develop? Will it grow? Will its facilities be expanded? Will it improve economically?
We did not want to look far ahead, but we found out that the mayor's office has a vision for the further transformation of Karakol.
This vision sketches the goals which the city wants to achieve in the next 10-15 years. Despite the laconic form, the statement is not abstract and has meaningful content. Developing such statements is a common task for a city and like any other goal, it must be regularly monitored and evaluated. The various elements and their significance are presented in detail below. Together with the indicators, they are targets on the basis of which a future assessment will be possible. Monitoring and evaluation of this vision are also a way of monitoring and evaluating the overall socioeconomic situation in the municipality.
How do you see the city Karakol? In which Karakol you want to live?
We suggest an online survey: A questionnaire of the townspeople to gather information about the opinions of the residents of Karakol. In a generalized form, the questionnaires will be used for the development of public spaces in the city, decision-making in the sphere of culture, improvement of the city, for suggestions to the deputies of the city Kenesh and the mayor's office of the city of Karakol.
Do you know that the visiting card of the city is Ashlyanfu - a dish of Dungan cuisine? The local recipe is famous in entire Kyrgyzstan, so you should try it. Ingredients include noodles, gravy, garlic, vinegar and cornstarch. Ashlyanfu is eaten cold, so it is great for summer heat. And if you order a "meat version", you cannot eat anything for half a day, except that in the evening you will repeat the same thing. It's nourishing and tasty.
The project "Preserving the cultural heritage of Karakol" was initiated by the YVO (youth volunteering organization) "Leadership" in cooperation with the Issyk-Kul Oblast State Archive and the media partner "Issyk-Kul Wave" radio station, with the support of Internews. Project Objectives:
- to contribute to the preservation of the architectural heritage of Karakol;
- to develop an interactive online map showing the historical sites of the city;
- to conduct a thematic media campaign to attract the attention of local residents and to develop civic engagement.
Information about the project: http://www.leadership.kg/index.php/ru/save-karakol...
The team of YVO "Leadership" The YVO (youth volunteer organization) "Leadership" team took part in the Laboratory of Media and Social Innovations in Dushanbe (Tajikistan) from May 21 to 23, 2017, organized by the Internews Network in Central Asia. Lab is a social project for solving socially significant problems and addressing the needs of inhabitants of Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan. Such events are a good tool to stimulate the participation of youth, civil society and the IT community in the implementation of socially significant media initiatives. Our team presented the project "Creating an Internet platform about the historical heritage of Karakol". Following the results of the Laboratory, a team of experts and mentors supported one idea from each participating country. Our idea became the winner from Kyrgyzstan, and thereby we won a grant to implement the idea. We express our gratitude to all the mentors and organizers of the Laboratory - 2017 #inLab2017Link to our presentation of the project during the Laboratory:https://m.facebook.com/story.php…
