Kyrgyzstan through the State Historical Museum

The State Historical Museum as seen from the front. Its
Soviet roots as the Lenin Museum are quite obvious.
Photo credit: Bente Lea Omdal

       This museum in many ways exemplifies the whole of Kyrgyzstan. The first floor consists primarily of souvenir shops, an emphatic nod to Kyrgyzstan's burgeoning capitalism. There is actually a lot of foreign investment in Kyrgyzstan and, at least for small businesses, Kyrgyzstan has one of the world's more favourable climates for starting a business. There are scores of Turkish chains and especially shopping centres funded by Turkish businessmen, for example the VEFA mall mentioned in previous posts. I got a haircut in the VEFA Centre´s Istanbul Salon; the hairdresser spoke Russian with me but Turkish with his wife, who worked at the reception. The whole procedure was somewhat different as well: rather than letting you lean back to wash your hair, you bend over forwards over the sink as they vigorously scrub your head. Nothing by way of a relaxing scalp massage here. At the end of the haircut, I was a little bit surprised as the lighter came out; I hadn't thought they would be allowed to smoke while on the job. As it turns out, he wasn't going to smoke: rather, he used the lighter to burn off the little hairs around and on the ears, the back of the neck, and around a little bit to the front. It was a very interesting experience, and not necessarily in a bad way; just different. Back to the souvenir shops themselves, they aren't really much different from souvenir shops anywhere else: they sell the same sort of souvenirs (hats, slippers, carpets, little wooden figures) you might get at the market, only that they are half or a third of the price at the market. This floor is also supposed to display state gifts of some sort, but that area was cordoned off and no-one really seemed to know what was going on; also typical of Kyrgyzstan and Central Asia in general.

A tribute to the almighty name of Lenin.
Photo credit: Bente Lea Omdal

       The second floor is a reminder of the country's Soviet history, commemorating various "great" and "democratic socialist" wars; it is also a shrine of sorts to Lenin, seeing as the museum used to be, in Socialist times, named the Lenin Museum. The first glimpse of this floor is of a number ceiling tiles, writing out Lenin´s name in perhaps 20 different alphabets. Did they really expect a Thai to come and read Lenin's name written out in Thai? Even for Soviet standards, that seems a little bit over the top. There are also a number of statues depicting actions of Communist heroes, scenes from revolutions and wars, and simply ideal citizens, like a tableau of shapely, short-haired women in work dress carrying the harvest in. Apart from these very Russian-centric remainders of the Soviet era, the exhibits are much more Kyrgyz-oriented, although the requisite pages from Lenin's journal or some such thing are still present. Everything is described in Kyrgyz, and most things in Russian, but many displays need no explanation: guns and swords, coats and hats, baby clothes and instruments, and many photographs, documents, and newspaper articles commemorating the Soviet era. One of the most interesting things to me was the list of all 73 Kyrgyz Soviet War Heroes. Most had Russian names and surnames, but the patronymics, derived from the father's name, were often obviously Kyrgyz. I wonder how many of these heroes believed in what they were dying for, and what the grandparents felt when the invaders, their oppressors, hailed their fallen grandchildren as heroes for the cause forced upon them.

One of the museum's most gripping murals.
Photo credit: Bente Lea Omdal

     
       The third floor is an exhibit of Kyrgyz history from prehistoric times to the modern era. The first thing to be seen on this floor is a life-size yurt flanked by traditionally-outfitted horses and riders. Then the exhibits start, ranging from prehistory to the twentieth century. The exhibits on this floor include artefacts of various sorts, most notably traditional carpets and clothing, the designs of which closely resemble something you might find in a museum of Native American history, but the extensive Soviet-era ceiling murals, both on this and the previous floor, really steal the show. One of the most impressive features a number of presumably American men in long robes and skull masks carrying an upside-down Pershing missile as crowds of solemn citizens and protesters look on, some with English-language, some with Russian signs. Another mural seems to depict Manas, Kyrgyzstan's legendary hero, riding to save the day to the backdrop of a crumbling mosque; this painting has a strangely surreal effect, probably due to various things being a little off: a musician, squatting on the ground, seems to float several inches above it; a pillar of the arch mimics the Möbius strip effect; the hero's horse has a pinkish tint; some characters' feet seem impossibly tangled. Equally interesting, but far more mysterious, is a mural of a huge wedding feast. Surrounding the bride and groom in traditional Kyrgyz wedding dress, all sorts of people can be seen sitting together eating: a young, possibly Kyrgyz, couple cozied up; beside them, a sharply-dressed man clasping an Osama-Bin-Laden-lookalike's hand; at the centre some more traditional Kyrgyz people; on the far right sits someone with mid-back-length dreadlocks; front and centre, musicians playing traditional Kyrgyz instruments entertain the guests. The table is set exclusively with fruit and bread, but in the corner a basket of chicken seems to be on its way. Exactly what this mural is supposed to mean isn't quite clear, but perhaps it's simply there to be enjoyed. And enjoyed it was; the State Museum is definitely worth a visit.

The wonderfully strange wedding. The dreadlocked man is unfortunately
just outside the camera view.
Photo credit: Bente Lea Omdal

Manas entering triumphantly on his pink horse.
Photo credit: Bente Lea Omdal

Protesters demanding peace as
 the eerie procession passes by.
Photo credit: Bente Lea Omdal