State History Museum, Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan
Explore the nation’s Soviet history at State History Museum, a huge modernist cubic building in Bishkek’s main square. Formerly the top-notch Lenin Museum, the institution still displays a collection of colorful realist murals carrying explicit political messages and pastoral socialist scenes. Life-sized bronze statues of Marx and Engels and socialist-realism figural compositions juxtapose the ethnography and archeology section on the top floor. A full-size model yurt and a mannequin horse here keep company to numerous busts of Lenin, mammoth teeth, and a collection of Kyrgyz kalpaks. Photos document the museum’s rich trove of Scythian gold, but originals are kept in the safe.
Epic Kyrgyzstan Culture & Adventure Route © Monika Newbound
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