The city of Osha - memories of childhood in Osh. Osh. Yards of my childhood. “Kyrgyzstan is the country where my diplomatic career began”

Osh is multinational and colorfulcity with its centuries-old culture, it’s impossible not to love this city. And everyone expresses their love for the city in their own way,some perpetuate the beauty of Osh in their canvases, some write poetry and prose, some sing songs, some build friendly bridges between cities. In this material, we asked guests and residents of our beloved city: “How does Osh differ from other cities in the world?”

Consul General of Russia in Osh Roman Svistin:

“Kyrgyzstan is the country where my diplomatic career began”

In 1996, after graduating from the Institute of Asian and African Countries at Moscow State University. M.V. Lomonosov, I received an offer from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to work at the Russian Embassy in Bishkek. After consulting with his family, he quickly gave his consent. This is how Kyrgyzstan became the country where my diplomatic career began. During the entire trip (1996 - 2000), I served as assistant to the ambassador for protocol issues. It was a very difficult and interesting job - being next to the ambassador, I was always in the thick of things. Despite the enormous amount of work, I retained the warmest memories of these four years in Kyrgyzstan. Then there were India and Myanmar, but the first trip abroad for a diplomat is like first love.

In 2016 I was offered to head consulate-General Russia in the city of Osh. I immediately and gladly agreed because I have the warmest memories associated with Kyrgyzstan. Osh reminded me small homeland– the city of Rostov-on-Don, where I was born and raised. Similar climate, dry and hot summers, mild winters. One difference is that there are no mountains in the Don steppes, and I fell in love with them as a child, when I came to the Caucasus as a child. In addition, I like Central Asian cuisine: beshbarmak, pilaf, lagman; I really love fresh hot tandoori flatbreads.

IN southern capital I’ve been working in Kyrgyzstan for six months now, and I’ve been getting great pleasure from my work. I met the leadership of the city and region. Thanks to my first business trip, I understand local mentality, customs and traditions of the peoples of Kyrgyzstan and Central Asia. I am sure that this knowledge will help me in my work aimed at strengthening comprehensive ties between Russia and your wonderful republic.

Consul General of China in Osh Song Liqun:

“I will take warm memories with me”

On August 4, 2015, I began my duties as Consul General. There is very clean air, delicious food, and friendly people. Residents of Osh actively take part in cooperation with China. Kyrgyzstan is a close neighbor in the West with China. In September 2012, Chinese President Xi Jinping put forward an initiative to jointly build the “Economic Belt of the Great Silk Road”; Osh is an important point in this belt.

During the 1.5 years of my work as Consul General, a lot of work has been done in bilateral Chinese-Kyrgyz relations, good neighborly relations between the consular districts and China are being strengthened, the city of Osh has become a sister city with major cities China: Xining, Urumqi, Lanzhou, etc. Common projects are being developed in various fields. In Osh I found many friends, when my diplomatic mission in the city of Osh ends, I will take back to my homeland the warmest memories of the city of Osh.

Representative of the head of the OSCE center in Osh, William Leaf:

“I was fascinated by the Oshans”

I like the city of Osh, it is not too big, but not too small. There is a lot to do in the city. Residents of the city of Osh fascinated me; local institutions and organizations jointly invest their efforts in improving the city, making it clean and safe. I am enthusiastic about this kind of activity. The townspeople, among other things, are very friendly and hospitable to foreigners and it is always nice when shop assistants, taxi drivers or a stranger recognizes me on the street and asks how I am doing, to make sure that the “guest” is doing well.

One of the features of the city of Osh is sacred mountain Sulaiman, which proudly and gracefully rises in the middle of the city, creating a unique flavor leaving no one indifferent, not only because it is included in the World Heritage List cultural heritage UNESCO, but because it includes many aspects of the city of Osh. Petroglyphs carved on mountain rocks tell us ancient history city, the mountain was a milestone of the Great Silk Road - the key to the development of world trade; museums and parks on the slopes of the mountain allow a contemporary to touch the history of the city of Osh.

Damira Osmonkulova, teacher of the department of practical course of Russian language and speech culture at Osh State University:

In 1981, I came to Osh from the city of Tash-Kumyr, entered the philological faculty of Osh State University, graduated with honors from the university and was invited to work as a teacher in the department of practical course of Russian language and speech culture. I have been working at this department for more than 30 years. I had the opportunity to move to another city, but I really love our city. Here I developed as a person, as a specialist in my field, in this city there were ups and downs, I gained happiness, and became a mother. Osh is different, it combines the incompatible, modern and patriarchal, the culture of Europe and Asia. This is very interesting city with its own traditions and way of life.

I went to work for neighboring countries: Russia, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, etc. are very beautiful there, but I always happily returned to my favorite city.

Zhypar Akunova, journalist, poetess, writer:

“Osh brought me happiness”

My husband and I came to his small homeland in 1987 after graduating from university, and here we began our working career; I myself am from Naryn. I dedicated many of my poems to the city of Osh: “Ashik boldum men Oshko” (I am in love with the city of Osh), “Sulaiman Too”, I wrote a collection of poems about the tragic events in the south of Kyrgyzstan.

The first time I didn’t understand some of the words of the local Kyrgyz people because of the dialect. One interesting incident happened once, after the guests had left, my mother-in-law handed me old socks, looking at the place where the soot-black vat stood, and she said: “Wipe my kalyashi” (galoshes) in the Osh dialect, I looked around and could not understand what I had I mean, my mother-in-law, maybe you need to wipe the vat so as not to do something wrong, I asked what is kalyash? They explained to me what kalyash is. And there were many such cases, I decided to write short fictional stories about my first days in Osh on my Facebook page, other girls from the north of Kyrgyzstan who married southerners wrote me their stories, the girls’ stories and mine formed the basis for my book “ Tushtukko tushkon kelin” (Who became a daughter-in-law in the south). I love Sulaiman Mountain, at its top you can see the whole of Osh in full view, I love spring Osh, when it becomes green and fresh, I also love the time when the fields are covered with scarlet poppies. Osh made me happy, because here I became a wife, mother and grandmother.

Maysar Dzyubina, house committee of house No. 143a on R. Abdykadyrov street:

I was born in Margelan (Uzbekistan) in 1967, my family and I moved to Osh. From the first days I fell in love with this warm and bright city; all my life I worked as a plasterer and painter. I proudly walk past the objects where I took part - this is the cotton mill (KhBK), schools named after Nariman and Makarenko, Osh regional hospital, children's regional hospital, Dombyta building, etc. In addition to my main work, I have always taken an active part in the life of the city, I have title of honorary donor.

I have been retired for 10 years, two years ago I was appointed house committee No. 143a on R. Abdykadyrov Street, I work on a voluntary basis, through my efforts the heating system was improved, a playground was installed, road signs and zebra crossings were installed. Every day I knock on the thresholds of various institutions and organizations on one or another issue related to improvement. Now I’m making cute little animals from eggplants - this is for the kids in our neighborhood. Last year, I received a diploma from the hands of the mayor of Osh, Aitmamat Kadyrbaev, for his contribution to the landscaping and improvement of our city.

I would like to express my deep gratitude to the mayor’s office of the city of Osh, represented by the head of the city of Osh, Aitmamat Kadyrbaev, municipal services and organizations for their work and efforts for the benefit of our city.

Kubanych Nurmatov, military man

pensioner:

“Our city has its own aura and its own face”

K. Nurmatov is a native Oshanian who really loves his city in which they took place best years his life, got two here higher education philological and legal, having started his career as a teacher, he ended it as a military man, devoting 30 years to service in the armed forces. At the time of the interview, this quatrain was born.

I rush to this city from all cities and villages,

In that Small town by the briskly running river.

This city is dearer to my entire life,

I always need him, through the years and centuries, despite...

Nazgul Abdyrazakova

The house has a carved gate and a blower. Again the house, teahouse, irrigation ditches. Alley of pyramidal poplars, gardens and fields. Again, house-blowing-house. This is the most typical picture when you drive through the Fergana Valley - be it in the Uzbek, or in the Kyrgyz, or in the Tajik part.

Connected by family, neighbors, crafts and God knows what other ties, the residents of these houses are united in mahallas. These time-tested units of local government are common among all agricultural peoples of Central Asia. In some places, for example in Uzbekistan, they were even given official status.

1.

Uzbek mahallas in Osh. View from Suleiman Mountain (8x magnification) .

In Osh, where for a long time Uzbeks were the most numerous people, “by eye” mahallas occupy almost two-thirds of the entire city. If you look from Suleiman Mountain, it seems that they stretch almost to the horizon.

2.

Mahalla north of Suleiman Mountain.

And if you try to characterize them in a few words, it will turn out something like this: traditionality, solidity, fantastic cohesion and closedness from prying eyes.

3.

Mamajana Street next to the Shai Tep Mosque e . The bazaar is over, mahallas begin.

Here the ditches gurgle, the wheels squeak, chigir And ki, distributing water to the fields, the call to prayer flows from the minaret... Only electrical wires, satellite dishes and Korean small cars parked at the gates remind us of the 21st century .

4.

In the vicinity of Alabastrova Street .

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Between the Shai-Tepe mosque and Kurmanzhan Datki street.

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On Alabastrova Street.

A traditional Uzbek house in Osh is easy to distinguish from a Kyrgyz one: the former has a gate almost always decorated with wood carvings.

However, now we will talk not so much about the Osh mahallas, but about what grew up in their place under Soviet rule. For example, let's take the neighborhoods around the Al-Bukhari mosque, next to which my temporary abode was located.

10.

These neighborhoods are not mahallas of unknown age, but late Soviet buildings. They are faceless and colorful at the same time. Each such Brezhnevka has four, maximum five floors - at the junction of the Fergana Valley with mountain ranges They rarely built higher for fear of earthquakes.

11.

Suleiman mountain and 12th school. View from the window of the Osh Guesthouse hostel on Masaliev Avenue.

Having grown up on the site of demolished mahallas, these houses looked alike like brothers from a poor family - unprepossessing in appearance, but neat and discreetly elegant.

12.

On Jim Street (?), not far from the park with the monument to Kurmanzhan Datka.

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At the back of the Al-Bukhari mosque (at the junction of Masaliev Avenue and Zainabetdinova Street, which leads to the main bazaar).

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Somewhere in the Western region, at the exit to the town of Aravan.

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At the junction of Zainabetdinova Street and Masaliev Avenue. (Nearby is the same house with the Olympic Bear and the Al-Bukhari Mosque.)

Over the years, when the USSR no longer existed, and the city began to become shabby and desolate, the similarity became different - as if on cue, the low-rise buildings were overgrown with vegetable gardens, vineyards and fantastic self-construction, and were equipped with satellite dishes and tandoor ovens. In their new guise, the Osh Brezhnevkas began to resemble their “relatives” somewhere in residential area Dushanbe, Yerevan or Makhachkala than in Middle lane Russia or some Belarusian regional center.

16.

At the intersection of Masaliev and Zainabetdinov. On the right is the same Al-Bukhari mosque.

17.

The backyard of Masaliev Avenue in the Osh Guesthouse area.

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Near the 12th school next to "Osh Guesthouse".

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House 10 on Masaliev Avenue, view from the courtyard.

20.

Walking through the backyards of Masaliev Avenue, one of three main streets of Osh, for a long time I could not get rid of the feeling that I was... in one of the outlying areas on the road to Jalalabad. The same half-dead five-story buildings, the same garlands of washed clothes in half the yard, the same pervasive dust and mixture of smells of barbecue, hot cakes and sewage. But the strange thing is: in general, these places do not create a repulsive impression.

I was not born or raised in Osh, but I got to know Yu This is the courtyard of my childhood. Just like 25 years ago, the entrance doors here are wide open - people still don’t think about the intercom and similar symbols of alienation. They live here almost the same as in mahallas - they go to visit their neighbors, set up tables on the street for common holidays and are not afraid to let their children go outside. And they themselves, grimy and happy, with primitive passion play football or compete in accuracy, trying to knock out a pile of stones with a lamb bone, under which there is a piece of paper worth 50 or 100 soms.

Osh courtyards. Yards of my childhood...

23 Cherven 2010

3 years ago, while traveling around Central Asia, I visited the city of Osh. The city was, in general, a key point, my journey ended there - from there I flew home. Then I, like many other Central Asian cities, really liked it, despite the fact that it does not contain any special attractions. A couple of days ago I was going through photographs from that trip and trying to compare what I saw with the terrible events that are happening in Osh now. I can’t wrap my head around how something like this could happen in such a place...

In general, the reason for writing was this report http://starshinazapasa.livejournal.com/114300.html. From it you can very well imagine what is happening there.

In general, of course, many of those reading this text have been to Osh, and are probably no less worried about it. It was a kind, goofy city, inhabited by a bunch of different peoples. There is everyone here: Uzbeks, Tajiks, Russians, Chinese, sometimes even Afghans. The city has a real Asian atmosphere - good-naturedly relaxed. Thanks to her, it is a pleasant place to be in the city; this is probably one of the reasons why Osh was chosen as the location for the WUA home. You can walk around cafes and markets here for weeks, chat with local population, buy all sorts of crap, and you won’t get tired of it...
The main attraction of the city is the bazaar, one of the largest in Central Asia.

Central Asian children, as always, play unattended in huge numbers

National Central Asian dish flatbread, or “nan”

"I'll give you a white cap"

Famous downshifter barlog_77rus I was also very delighted with Osh and was planning to return here more than once

A funny thing happened to me here, because of which I almost stayed here for a long time... I went to receive a money transfer in Western Union from Dima Meggot, who wanted me to bring him all sorts of spillikins from the local market. I received the money, but forgot my passport at the window where the money was issued. After which I walked around the bazaar all day, bought souvenirs, then came to the hostel, where an English friend of mine had arrived. He began to show me what Central Asian visas look like. I wanted to show him what a Russian passport looked like, and only at that moment I realized that I had forgotten it at the bank. It’s already 18:00, the bank is closed. What added a special piquancy to the situation was that early in the morning I had a plane (which I would not have gotten on without a passport. And the bank would not have had time to open). Like a bullet, I ran to this bank, fortunately it was not completely closed yet, and the guard on duty handed me my document.

Glorious relics of the Soviet past - soda machines! (By the way, I recently saw these in Lviv)

Fashionable trolleybuses with curtains

Slum..

Come in and eat wherever you want

Having been there, it’s even more scary to realize that most of what is in these photographs is no longer there... You look at the people in the photographs and think, what’s wrong with them now, is everything okay? Surely some of them were targeted, and some were forced to flee to Uzbekistan. And here they still don’t know what terrible test they will have to endure in 3 years. But how is it going?
What was it? In some ways this mess is worse than war. In war it is clear where the enemy is and where the friend is. And then everything got mixed up, and it’s not even clear what kind of group of thugs carried out the massacre. How could this even happen in such a seemingly peaceful place (although, of course, perhaps it only seemed peaceful from the outside, but in reality the conflict had been brewing for a long time... But the fact is that there was no aggression in the atmosphere in 2007). There is no anger or aggression on these faces, and the Kyrgyz and Uzbeks and Tajiks and everyone else get along peacefully. They live, work, trade in the market, graze cattle... Yes, similar events happened in 1990, but now at the end of the first decade, the beginning of the 90s seems to be history, a distant past that is unlikely to be repeated. It turns out that it can still be done, and much bloodier than then. After this you no longer know what to expect. It turns out that it can explode absolutely anywhere, especially if there is some kind of social tension. And in Russia, by the way, quite a lot of tension has accumulated...

I continue the story about Osh - the “southern capital” of Kyrgyzstan. If Bishkek is a European city by design, but sunk in Asia, then Osh is an Asian city from the very beginning, and the Russian and Soviet things shown lay on it in a thin layer. In the second part - Uzbek mahallas, mosques of different eras and the foot of Suleiman Mountain with medieval mausoleums and a three-story yurt.

From the almost European park, from the typical Soviet airplane-monument, where we finished the last part, we will go down to the fast river Ak-Buura, behind which the Uzbek quarter begins. An abandoned restaurant on the embankment is a “legacy” of the 2010 pogroms; most likely its owner moved somewhere to Andijan:

Actually, these mahallas clustered around the bazaar and Suleiman Mountain are the real historical Center Osha: after all, as already mentioned in the last part, a hundred years ago more than 35 thousand people lived here, and of these, less than a thousand were Russians, who built themselves a “county town” a few kilometers to the south. The carved decorations of some Uzbek houses are most likely modern, but the line between “modernity” and “history” here is much thinner and less noticeable than we are used to...

3a.

Otherwise, the appearance of mahallas is extremely typical - blank facades on dirty streets, hiding cozy green courtyards from prying eyes.

We walked right through the block. The Ferris wheel in the background marks the place from where we descended to the bridge.

But there are several mahallas in Osh, and they differ slightly from each other. Perhaps there is some kind of “division of labor” between their inhabitants, and for example (conditionally) Uzbeks from the mahalla across the river run cafes and shops throughout the city, and from the mahallas near the bazaar they serve the bazaar. Here is the mahalla between the market and Lenin Street:

The facades are completely impenetrable, and a truck is parked at the door no less often than a car:

On Lenin Street there is no longer a bazaar, but homestead trade:

Here is a man “working from home” - and the house is behind that carpet:

10.

But the most colorful mahallas are between Lenin Street and Suleman Mountain, quiet and patriarchal. Not only is it not a bazaar, but you can’t even find a store here. But the streets are especially narrow and crooked:

11.

12.

13.

These mahallas are clearly remnants of the Old City, and the houses themselves may have been updated since then, but the chaotic streets have not. Most of Osh is clearly built up in Soviet time and looks like this:

14.

Although some beautiful houses you come across colorful owners here too:

15.

In the same area I came across a small mosque:

16.

I thought it was pre-revolutionary, but inside they said it was built in the late 1980s, as soon as it became possible:

17.

As I understand it, the mosques here are not only temples, but also something like “clubs of respectable people” from the surrounding quarter. They even posed for me here. The one on the far left is the muezzin, and he took me inside. I came here five minutes before prayer, and soon I heard the adhan while walking down the street:

18.

Directly above the bazaar is the huge Shahid Tepe mosque ("Mound of Martyrs"?). In the lists it is listed as historical, but God forbid there are a few historical columns and a pulpit left in it, not noticeable from the street. This is a very common situation in Central Asia, and the fact that Moscow Muslims dismantled the old mosque on Olimpiysky to build a new one is quite in the local spirit. This mosque now has the most impressive thing - a courtyard covered with a canopy from the scorching sun:

19.

The Zhiidelik Mosque is in the same mahalla “between Lenin Street and the mountain” on Navoi Street. Here the honest 19th century is already here, especially the buildings in the courtyard... but there are no photographs from there: on the approaches to the mosque, the minaret suddenly began to shout the adhan, and through the gate we saw, in addition to clearly historical building devout Muslims praying either on their knees or standing. I didn’t risk going there or taking photos from the entrance - not out of Islamophobia, but simply “to a strange monastery with its own charter...”

20.

But turning around, in the perspective of the same street we saw a wheel. Behind Lenin Street, out of nowhere, a Dzhupas-aryk ("northern canal") suddenly appears - one of two encircling Suleiman Mountain, and the peculiarity of Osh irrigation ditches is the norias, or as they are called here - chigiri, which have been spinning since time immemorial.

21.

This one over there with rivets is perhaps pre-revolutionary:

22.

An original way to strengthen the bank:

23.

But the southern Jannat ditch dives underground - on it I photographed a working chigir, which in the introductory frame draws the same water from which it spins and drains into a small ditch that irrigates houses in the nearest alley. I don’t know why, but elevators became the most powerful impression of Osh mahallas for me.

24.

Meanwhile, along the Northern ditch we came to the local art museum, attached to the medieval (16th century) Rawat Abdullah Khan mosque:

25.

Its main part is the courtyard:

26.

And in the building the portal takes up more space than the prayer hall itself:

27.

An unshaven white barbarian asks an elder about something (photo darkiya_v ) - restless West and thoughtful East:

Gates with carved doors:

29.

This is practically the eastern “end” of Suleiman Mountain, and around the next turn there is an ascent to the main entrance to the mountain. For now we are passing by, there is still an abandoned skullcap restaurant further on:

30.

And a small but very pleasant park under the mountain, where we went two or three times:

31.

Park yurts are just like in Kazakhstan, only the system is a little different: the cafe counter is under open air, you order there and wait for your order in the yurt. Alas, the cafe is in too busy a place, so 3/4 of the “meat” consisted of bones, and the kumiss was noticeably stale.

32.

In the depths of the park - historical Museum, where we didn’t go, since there is another one right on Suleiman Mountain. The entire building did not fit into the frame, but on the left side there is a tower in the center, but twice as large.

33.

Nearby is a monument to Alymbek-Datka - his widow was the “mother of the nation” and the “Alai queen” Kurmanjan-Datka, the word “Datka” itself is a military title of the Kokand Khanate, like a general. And behind the monument is one of the most wonderful buildings in Osh, the Three-Story Yurt:

34.

“The world’s largest yurt” is the same Central Asian fun as “the world’s tallest flagpole.” Moreover, if the Mongol steppe dwellers recently built the widest yurt in the world, the Kyrgyz mountaineers built the tallest one several years ago. As I understand it, this was done for some holiday, and initially the yurt stood on Lenin Square. Then they seemed to have forgotten about it, it began to deteriorate and fall apart, and finally some official or businessman thought of moving it to the park and setting up a small museum in it:

35.

During the day, the yurt was locked, but in the evening its doors were open - the caretaker turned out to be an intelligent Kyrgyz boy, who honestly admitted that he was just the one looking after the yurt, and during the day he had school. Inside there is a lot of stuff, some of which are not even exhibits, but souvenirs for sale.

36.

38.

In the halls of the three-story yurt:

38a.

The caretaker showed us many of the exhibits in dynamics - be it a lamp:

39.

A mortar for beating kumiss against the backdrop of a magnificent shirdak (see):

40.

Saber or gun:

41.

We go further along the foot of Suleiman Mountain. Behind the museum is a small mausoleum of a certain Asaf ibn Burkhiya. It's all about legends - if Job was allegedly treated in Osh (Ayub-tau - Job-mountain), then Solomon (Suleiman) allegedly prayed in Osh, and in the following parts I will show his legendary footprint on a stone at the top. So, Azef ben Berkiya is either a vizier, or a court musician, or a priest of Solomon, and therefore rumor identifies the mausoleum with his name. At some point, rumors reached a qualitatively different level: here, according to legend, Solomon rests, and scientists say that some sage Ibn Burkhiya from the times of the Arab conquests.

42.

So who actually rests here is unknown - the burial itself is from the 11th century (that is, from the time of the Karakhanid state), and the current mausoleum was built in the 18th century.

43.