Street names in Bishkek are full of significance

The street names in Bishkek are full of significance. After independence, a lot of the street names in Bishkek were changed. Lenin Square and Lenin Prospect became Ala-Too Square and Chui Prospect, after the Ala-Too mountains and Chui Valle. My street, the street once named after Felix Dzerzhinsky, head of Lenin’s secret police, was renamed Erkindik — Freedom — Prospect. 

Most people have grown accustomed to the new street names in Bishkek, although the old name is used so widely for Soviet Street, no one remembers what it’s officially called now. People in Bishkek say ‘meet you at Mossoviet’, the corner of Moscow and Soviet streets. 

Other streets are named after military heroes – Panfilov, Logvinienko, and the semi-mythical Manas – or cities – Moscow, Almaty, Kiev. 

Kalik Akiyeva Street was named after an akim, a Kyrgyz poet, as were Toktogul Street and Bokonbayev Street. All three were sympathetic to the Bolshevik revolution. Bokonbayev’s son Kulubek is now a member of parliament, and he was accused to being too soft on Kumtor after the Issyk-Kul cyanide scandal. He drank a glass of water from one of the rivers flowing into Lake Issyk-Kul to signal he wasn’t worried about cyanide pollution, and also wrote a book, ‘Barskoon: myths and reality’ to exculpate himself.