Vostok-5 Micro District
My friend Anton had been on google earth and found a street lined with Soviet apartments and a factory centered as the focal point. We were interested in exploring the neighborhood near the factory to get a sense of what life is like today. We follow a few Russian photographers on Instagram who do similar adventures all over the post-soviet republics. Here is what we saw on our adventure to the factory.
Check out @runovvv and @northern.friend on Instagram.
A small restaurant which makes the traditional Central Asian style bread called Tokach.
One of the coolest cars my family has owned. We drove a similar model while living in Japan. Ours had a ladder in the back. Super fun!
Mosque
The Bishkek Central Mosque is located on the east side of the city. It was completed in 2018 in an Ottoman style design. A large majority of people living in the country are Muslim and practice Islam. Islam was introduced to Kyrgyz tribes around the tenth century.
An interesting row of buildings near the Mosque
Mahmoud Al-Kashgar Mosque 
A lot of people drive older European models like Audi and Mercedes. Behind the car sits a newly constructed apartment building with an updated facade of balconies and lightly colored tile. I’ve noticed this color of tile is common in modern builds.
The Neighborhood
This is what a typical Soviet micro district looks like today. A micro district is a planned community consisting of apartment buildings with schools and shops located between them. Only small streets run through them and the districts themselves usually have plenty of trees to shade some the area between the buildings. These districts were cost-efficient and offered a quick solution to solve the Soviet Union’s housing needs during the 1950s and onward. Many of these districts can be found in the southeast part of Bishkek along Aaly Tokombaev Street.
Thanks Anton for finding this street on Google Earth
Many projects such as this apartment seem to take ages to finish. I am working on a story to find out why this is the case.
Bishkek power station generates a good portion of the capital’s electricity needs. The plant was built in the 1960s and uses coal sourced from Kazakhstan. It amazes me how the plant was built so close to the city. My guess was to make it easier for the workers to commute from their apartments in the micro-district.
