Authors
Alun Thomas1; 1 Staffordshire University, UK Discussion
Bishkek’s urban development, its emergence as a major administrative centre during the 20th century, was contingent on hard-fought political struggles during the mid-1920s. Whether a discrete Kyrgyz republic would emerge with Bishkek (then called Pishpek) as its capital was a contentious question for Bolsheviks, Uzbeks and Kazakhs as well as Kyrgyz, in Tashkent and Almaty. The Kara-Kirghiz Autonomous Oblast was eventually created in October 1924, renamed the Kirghiz Autonomous Oblast in May 1925, before settling as the Kirghiz Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic in February 1926. In the same year, the city was renamed Frunze, and with each new iteration of the Kyrgyz territory the governing institutions of the city changed too. Gradually the municipal authorities were separated from those of the surrounding canton. Their obligations multiplied, necessitating new offices, facilities, resources and staff. Having outlined these changes, this paper then asks how the final alteration of the 1920s, when Bishkek became capital of an autonomous republic, changed the economics and demographics of city life. In particular, Bishkek came to govern a rural region of nomadic pastoralists; how was this reflected in the city’s urban landscape and growing population? The paper concludes with some remarks on how 1920s Bishkek might compare to Ashgabat, a city which underwent a similar trajectory in the same decade, emerging as the capital of the Turkmen SSR. 
