Bishkek

Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan

Bishkek, formerly (1862–1926) Pishpek, or Bishkek, and (1926–91) Frunze, city and capital of Kyrgyzstan. It lies in the Chu River valley near the Kyrgyz Mountains at an elevation of 2,500–3,000 feet (750–900 metres). Bishkek is situated along the Alaarcha and Alamedin rivers and intersects in the north with the Bolshoy (Great) Chuysky Canal.

In 1825 the Uzbek khanate of Kokand established on the site the fortress of Bishkek, which in 1862 was captured by the Russians, who mistakenly called it Pishpek (though, to local nationalities, it remained Bishkek). By 1913 the population was 14,000 (mainly Russians), and, though it was the administrative centre of a district, it remained essentially a sprawling, dusty village. In 1924 it was chosen as the administrative centre of the new Kyrgyz autonomous oblasty (province). When the latter became the Kirgiz (Kyrgyz) Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic in 1926, Pishpek became its capital and was renamed Frunze after the revolutionary and Red Army leader Mikhail Vasilyevich Frunze, who had been born there in 1885. It developed rapidly into a modern city. In 1991 it was renamed Bishkek.

Bishkek is laid out on a grid with wide tree-lined streets. It has parks and many orchards, and permanently snow-capped mountains are visible to the south. Besides the various government buildings, there are theatres, the local Academy of Sciences (founded 1954), the Kyrgyz State University (1951), and agricultural, medical, polytechnic, and teacher-training institutes.

The city’s industry developed in two stages: until 1941, emphasis was on the food and other light industries using local raw materials; and, after the evacuation of heavy industries from western Russia during World War II, an extensive machine-building and metalworking industry came into being. Development was particularly rapid in the 1960s. Pop. (2008 est.) 794,300.