Ice-cold soft drinks like kvass or chalap can be found on almost every street corner in Bishkek in the summer.

Credit: Lisa Moeckel (Germany)

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A school class is training for the Victory Day parade at the Lenin monument in Bishkek.

Credits: Balzhan & Axel Monse (@infoshymkent, Germany)

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To the south of Bishkek, the Kyrgyz capital, mountain villages, ski resorts and a slowly rusting old propaganda billboard.

Credits : Pierre-Armand Dussex (France)

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Victory Square is a much-visited place in Bishkek. Its immense esplanade is dominated by the monument to Victory over Nazi Germany and its emblematic tynduk, the zenithal opening of the yurt, in the shape of a funeral wreath. There are also other sculptures, such as this pitiful pair of combatants. It is estimated that 120,000 people died in the Second World War in Kyrgyzstan, almost 8% of the population.

Credits : Antoine Cléraux (@antoin_k, France)

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Bishkek musical duo Vtoroi Ka has recently dropped its third album: carnivalesque postpunk in a world where nothing is as serious as it seems. Novastan’s review.

“These post-Soviet cities have already seen quite some nonsense/ But after seeing our Kyrgyz squad up close/ the lockdown has been abruptly enacted for some reason“, says the chorus of the single “Vstrechyaite Govnyukov” (“Welcome the shitheads”), released in February 2023. The retro-aesthetic video shows an exuberant wedding party stirring up the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek. The audience has been warned: the “shitheads” are coming to cause a lot of trouble.

“Shitheads” – Govnyuki in Russian – is what Sultan and Ilya of the duo Vtoroi Ka, currently one of the most exciting music groups in Central Asia, call themselves. They adopted the term from a video blogger who mocked them with it and turned it into something positive. As Sultan says in a long interview with the online magazine SRSLY: “[We are] two shitheads. We’re explorers. The kind that aren’t afraid to try things and are constantly on an artistic quest.”

At the beginning of May, Vtoroi Ka released their third album, Svinaya Poputka, a mysterious title that could literally be translated as “piggy ride” – a not entirely inaccurate description of the listening experience. It opens with the inviting bass line of “Teni ot pal’m” (“Palm Shadow“): “Come take me quickly to where the palm shadows are…”

A cheerful Joy Division

The song, which was released in June 2022 together with a music video filmed in Bishkek and on Lake Issyk-Kul, is the duo’s most successful hit to date. A total of six of the eleven tracks on the album had previously been released as singles, all with funny and colourful videos. Die-hard fans of the group will therefore recognize some of the songs, but in any case Svinaya Poputka offers a musically delightful half hour.

Since their debut album “Den’ Zavisimosti” (“Dependence Day”, 2020), which was still clearly a rap album, Vtoroi Ka seem to be moving further and further back into the musical past. The second album, “Serial” (2022), features excursions into the alternative teen rock of the 2000s, and the most recent tracks are full of allusions to the post-punk of the 1970s and 1980s.

However, the characteristic sound of bass, drum computer and synthesiser, which according to one critic is sometimes even reminiscent of the late Soviet cult band Kino around Viktor Tsoi, does not underpin a dark soundscape as is so often the case. “Vtoroi Ka play post-punk, but their music doesn’t have the depressive vibe so typical for the genre,” emphasises hip-hop magazine The Flow. On the contrary: Svinaya Poputka is full of colourful irony – a kind of cheerful Joy Division, as those who grew up with English-language music might say (especially as Sultan’s bass voice is not so dissimilar to that of Ian Curtis).

Read also at Novastan: Inside Bishkek’s Metal Boom: Portrait of a Music Pioneer in Kyrgyzstan

Musical references and quotations can be found in abundance, whether in the lyrics themselves (“An old cassette, vernissage in the loudspeakers“) or in the musical elements. The reels that Sultan and Ilya use to promote their music on social media are like building instructions. For example, for Dura (dummy), their latest single: “Oh, try singing like Zhanna Aguzarova“, an eccentric Russian-speaking singer who was particularly successful in the late 80s.

Sex, drugs and gangster romance

While Svinaya Poputka takes listeners back to the 80s musically, its content primarily relates to the first decade of independence after the end of the Soviet Union. In the words of another reviewer: “The main characters in these songs are bandits and shitheads from the times of the wild 90s, such country road romantics”.

This is symbolised by the “Tonirovannyi Kaban” (“Tinted Boar”), which is enthroned on the album cover with Bishkek’s skyscrapers and a “Kosh Kelingizder” sign (Kyrg. for “Welcome”) in the background. On closer inspection, you can also recognise a “pig duck” on the sign, the signature of graffiti artist Cherv1, which adorns many a wall in Bishkek. Kaban – Russian for wild boar – is the popular name for the Mercedes W-140, a status symbol particularly popular among the nouveau riche and mafia of the post-Soviet 1990s. However, the bonnet is emblazoned with a pig’s snout instead of the usual star.

The single of the same name, in which Sultan and Ilya stage themselves as music dealers, is also dedicated to the “Tonirovannyi Kaban“: Bakai Kolchaev, director of the Bishkek music label Infinity Music, which also distributes the music of Vtoroi Ka, plays the role of a mob leader in the music video.

But unlike the Russian cult series Brigada, which definitively associated the “Kaban” with the criminal 90s, Svinaya Poputka is not so serious. “We don’t want to be taken seriously – like Skryptonite. We want to be simpler, with irony. Sometimes serious, but with a bit of fun,” says Ilya, summarizing the group’s approach.

Through music, colourful imagery and witty language the actually serious references turn into carnivalesque. A typical example for this is the music video “Dura” (“Dummy”), whose bizarre characters seem to come from Alice’s Wonderland. At the same time, the piece is peppered with allusions to the world of erotic webcams, an equally lucrative and dodgy business in Kyrgyzstan, and a recurring motiv in Vtoroi Ka’s work.

Dura‘s text speaks of “her” admirers (“Ukhazhory“), who “give her money wholeheartedly and so earnestly“, while she repeatedly goes “on air”. The same applies to the extremely danceable “Ona sovsem odna” (“She is all alone”): “Her body is a glossy comic for adults“, and further: “All admirers are wild, with brisk movements, unarmed/ In the chat, uncles over 40 are frolicking“.

The underworld of Vtoroi Ka with its very likeable characters, always on the lookout for the next “Dvizh”, the next adventure, is romantic. In “Boomerang”, a couple hides from unclear dangers in cosy togetherness in anticipation of the next Dvizh: “Here we are an easy target/ Let’s leave these rooftops“, whether meant metaphorically or literally. “We don’t have to die yet”, it says, as in “Teni ot Pal’m”, which tells of a girl who has become a “great shooter“, probably not without allusion to Luc Besson’s Leon – The Professional.

Obviously, if you die, you can’t have fun anymore. Intoxication and artificial paradises run through the album like another leitmotiv. The place of longing, where the palm trees stand, is one “where a kilo of junk for the nose costs a thousand“. Or “Pomyat“(“Crumpled”), a wild piece about the state “when there is nothing to recharge yourself with“. “Bong” stands out in particular with its rock’n’roll rhythm – and is, unsurprisingly, dedicated to the water pipe, which, according to the lyrics, should definitely feature in Vtoroi Ka’s Stage Riders (or that of their fictional characters?).

Flawless craftsmanship

Svinaya Poputka impresses no less with its detailed and flawless production, all handcrafted by Sultan and Ilya, who, by their own admission, like to control “everything from start to finish” when it comes to their songs. Without overloading their songs, they manage to surprise you – even on the hundredth listen – with a noise in the background, an imaginative rhyme or a particularly successful transition. The tracks are entertaining, all around two and a half minutes long, with snappy intros – and therefore fit perfectly into the streaming age. However, if you listen to the whole album in one go, you might get the feeling that you’ve had enough of the interplay between bass and drum machine.

But Vtoroi Ka, who must have felt the same way when they were working, have an answer to this: “We would like to say that we are concluding our post-punk story with this album. From now on, there will be other songs, other videos, maybe a different us.” We can therefore remain curious – and quickly browse through their video library – so that we can still claim to have discovered this gem before it became mainstream.

Svinaya Poputka can be heard on all streaming services.

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Not an uncommon image: a Lada on the road through the mountains on the route between Osh and Bishkek Lada towards the Horizon on the road somewhere between Osh and Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.

Photo: Davide Pilloni

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Panfilov Park in Bishkek might got long in the tooth a bit, but remains a popular meeting place for townsfolk, especially on weekends.

Credit: Lisa Moeckel (Germany)

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Childs playing on Ala-Too-Square cool off on the end of a sweltering day in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.

Credit: Lisa Moeckel (Germany)

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Two women walk through snow-covered Bishkek.Credit: Justine Paci (France)

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Around 30 participants gathered on 20 November the year before last to discuss facets of Central Asian urbanity as part of the online event “The Future of the Past – Urbanity in Central Asia: Tashkent and Bishkek”.This article was originally published on Novastan’s German website on December 15, 2020. Perspectives on the future, living in the past? This is the impression often given by the streets of Central Asian capitals. Alongside prefabricated concrete buildings in various states of disrepair are residential areas consisting of private houses organised around courtyards adorned with fruit trees, in which community life is organised according to traditional patriarchal rules. Standing out from these are extravagant futuristic buildings both from the past as well as the present. Around 30 participants gathered online on November 20, 2020 in order to discuss these facets of Central Asian urbanity. Moderated by Phillip Schroeder (Novastan; University of Göttingen), the two-hour event began with introductory lectures from Maria Petrova (TU Darmstadt) on Tashkent and David Leupold (Leibnitz-Zentrum Moderner Orient, Berlin) on Bishkek (The planned lecture by Kishimjan Osmonova from Berlin on Astana was unfortunately cancelled due to illness). Both speakers focused on the lasting impact of Soviet housing and construction projects, contrasting references to the past and the future, and their associated divisions and conflicts. These divisions differentiate apparent ‘backwardness’ from ‘modernity,’ and arose both because of state or public sector initiatives as well as the resistance of certain sections of society.

Many of the apartment buildings which still stand today date to the era of Nikita Khrushchev (1953-64). In contrast to the Stalin period, the Soviet government under Khrushchev focused on the consumption needs of its citizens. Both speakers agreed that this period was marked by the construction of many apartment buildings across the USSR, which allowed for a certain degree of homeliness. Rather unsightly, but often praised nostalgically, the so-called ‘Khrushchyovkas’ also serve as a material basis for normality in Central Asia, and for shared experiences and affections across national borders. They were, as David Leupold put it, “less a concrete nightmare of grey monotony or a monument to totalitarianism […] but rather a place for real interactions, intimacy, and also comfort.” Typically, they were arranged into ‘microraions’ (large housing estates) with neighbourhoods in which daily life was to be organised. The ‘Khrushchyovkas’ also integrated Central Asia into the Soviet Union architecturally, and replaced the short-lived, pompous neoclassical architecture typical of the Stalinist period. As a result, in Tashkent today both (old) private houses and “multi-storey living” (Maria Petrova) coexist – or even clash – side by side. Read more on Novastan: Kyrgyzstan: Poverty hides behind Bishkek’s smog

Building Soviet modernity

Through the neoclassicism of the Stalin period in Tashkent, as well as the reorganisation of Bishkek, Stalinist fantasies of absolute power were expressed architecturally. While Bishkek was laid out like a chessboard, Tashkent was touted to become the showcase capital of Central Asia, as Maria Petrova explained. The centrally planned construction projects, incorporating classically reworked elements of Oriental style, were accompanied by the demolition of the old town, which in the eyes of Soviet leaders symbolised the region’s alleged backwardness and local way of life. With the arrival of refugees during the Second World War this construction phase came to an end, as all resources were being sent to the front while the condition of local housing deteriorated. Alongside Stalinist neoclassicism, Khrushchev’s tower blocks, and the attempts to earthquake-proof Bishkek, Soviet visions of the future – visualised by David Leupold using propaganda comics – reveal Central Asian (capital) cities to be experimental spaces. These spaces allowed for the creation of a Soviet modernity; city planners were able to realise their ideas almost ex nihilo. The traces of these bygone Soviet visions can be found today, side-by-side with current modernist projects – sometimes even on top of one another, turning the city into a palimpsest. At the same time, it is evident that ‘the’ past became and remains a mobilising force: whether through the notion that the past is a void waiting to be filled, or that physical relics of the past need to be destroyed; or through the construction of roads or earthquake defences; or the evocation of the past to express an expectation for new infrastructure. Read more on Novastan: Uzbekistan: Total Eren’s solar plant fully funded

Looking to the present and future

Some present conflicts therefore seem to be a repetition of history, as Maria Petrova argues in the case of Tashkent. The fusion of economic and state actors (partly a result of corruption) makes it difficult to oppose new construction projects, which are driven forward without the participation of local residents. Political decisions – for example, the complication of the registration process for NGOs – isolate and disempower the population. At the same time, past developments can benefit civil resistance. Residents have fared best in their confrontations with the authorities where they have been able to make contacts, organise, and build communities in their Khrushchevkas and the courtyards connecting them. Both speakers agreed that Khrushchev’s housing policy brought about positive changes, even if the results seem unappealing from the outside. On the one hand, affordable housing became accessible to the masses – even if the extent of the state’s involvement in providing infrastructure remained controversial. On the other, this housing offered the war- and terror-ravaged Soviet population a safe refuge, which also served as the starting point for collective trade. Read more on Novastan: Talas and its people: life by a Central Asian river affected by climate change These developments from Central Asia provide some conclusions regarding socio-political disputes in Western metropolises, even though citizens in the West have greater opportunities for recourse through the state. According to David Leupold, the universality of the (construction) process can be assumed, as is proven not least by the Gropiusstadt housing estate in south-east Berlin. Moreover, it is true both of this and of other housing projects that the residents of such estates typically view them more positively than outsiders do. The prospects for successful resistance in heavily neoliberal cities, with their tendency towards segregation, are greater when the space to be defended has already been designed. Pure wastelands would have it harder. The following videos show the introductory lectures (in German) by David Leupold and Maria Petrova.

Kerstin Bischl Novastan.org

Translated from German by Lawrence Brown

Edited by Timur Khan

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Monumental mosaic in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.Credit: Anir Amsky Find all of our photos of the day here.

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Yandex is a Russian-Dutch company, and taxis and transport are only a small part of the services the company offers. This driver in Bishkek’s rush hour keeps his cool in a traffic jam while transporting passengers. Credit: Nils Dörling

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For many Kyrgyz couples, the most beautiful day in their lives begins in the splendidly furnished registry office in Bishkek.Credit: Michael Wellhausen

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In an ethno-tourist restaurant in Bishkek, a young waiter brings a jar of ayran, a refreshing sour milk drink in summer. Credit: Pierre-Armand Dussex (France) Find all of our photos of the day here.

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The large green areas and boulevards in the centre of Bishkek are a popular place for families and couples to take a walk or spend their free time. Credit: Michael Wellhausen

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As winter arrives in Bishkek, the sun does not shine on Kyrgyzstan’s capital city and the inhabitants have to live in a constant cloud. This is no fog created by winter precipitations, but a grey haze, slowly intoxicating the residents. That smog has become one of Bishkek’s pressing problems over the past few years.

On November 7, 2021, the capital of Kyrgyzstan was the city with the highest level of polluted air in the world, with an AQI of 269 (Air Quality Index), the AQI norm being 100, describes Kyrgyz media Kloop. A year ago, Bishkek was already the city with the highest level of polluted air in the world, pointed Kyrgyz press agency 24.kg, and has been several years in the top of the cities with the most polluted air in the world.

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Illegal settlements are mostly affected

But the smog most affects residents living in illegal buildings, where hundreds of thousands of people from the different regions of Kyrgyzstan live in cramped conditions, says Movegreen. One of these areas is Archa-Beshik, standing in the south-east part of Bishkek. Archa-Beshik is located only 40 minutes from the center of the capital, but it creates a sharp contrast against the background of luxury houses, smooth cobblestones, and trendy coffeeshops of the center.Read more on Novastan : Kyrgyzstan: why Bishkek’s air quality is so poorIn the newly-built neighborhood, roads are uneven: some residents are lucky to have asphalt, others only have gravel covering, and the unluckiest ones have to walk through mud and slush. This also reflects on the architecture of Archa-Beshik, where uniform buildings are chaotically located next to run-down barracks. Occasionally, some rich mansions with covered courtyards can be found among the buildings of Archa-Beshik.The first residents arrived in the late 1990s, and the neighborhood then started to build up, attracting more and more people from the other regions of the country and those in search of a cheap plot to purchase. The plots in Archa-Beshik now cost tens of thousands of dollars, and wealthy people come here to build mansions away from the city fuss.

36-year-old Aliya Baktiyarova (name changed) lives in Archa-Beshik and moved here from Kemin 20 years ago, when the demand for land in illegal buildings was not so high. Aliya Baktiyarova lives here with her husband and mother-in-law, raising up three children and expecting a fourth one.

“When you have nothing to feed your children and not enough money, the smog is the least of your worries”

The family lives on one of the alleys, in a modest single-story accommodation; while Aliya Baktiyarova and her husband are working, her mother-in-law looks after the children. She works as a seamstress, not far from home: every day at 9 am, Aliya Baktiyarova sits down at her sewing machine and only stops working at 9 pm. Now seven months pregnant, with her big belly, under the rumble of the sewing machines, she deftly sews dresses for hours on end, sometimes stretching her sore back.The one rule in the sewing workshops is the following: the more you sew, the more you get paid. And the Baktiyarovs really need money, as the police officer’s salary of Aliya Baktiyarova’s husband of 14 000 soms (£122) is not enough to feed the family.With the cold weather, the Baktiyarov family has more expenses: they need to dress the children and heat the house. The family has been heating with coal for many years; this year, they bought five tons of coal, at 5 000 soms (£43) per ton. “When you have nothing to feed your children and not enough money, the smog is the least of your worries. The smog is not only harmful to the children, but also to old people, who get sick. It is very harmful. But we don’t have a choice, if we don’t heat the house, the children will get sick. We’d rather use firewood, but it burns too fast”, Aliya Baktiyarova explains to Novastan.At the moment, only one company, Gazprom Neft, provides gas supply for houses in Kyrgyzstan. In order to supply your house with gas, you have to build a gas pipe to the house from the main pipes, costing 600 soms (£5.22) per meter. Then, you need to buy a boiler, costing tens of thousands of soms, and pay 18 soms (£0.15) per cubic meter of gas.

Gas is too expensive for most…

In Archa-Beshik, very few houses are connected to gas heating, it is expensive for most of the families living here, like the Baktiyarov family and their neighbors.To bring gas to their alley, the family and their neighbors need to gather about 22 000 soms (£191) from each house for laying the pipes. Aliya Baktiyarova and her husband barely managed to gather the amount for their contribution, but their neighbors are in no hurry for gas supply. “We can’t buy a stove at the moment, because the cheapest one costs 25 000 soms (£217.8). The good ones cost anything from 70 000 soms (£610). In total, altogether with the equipment, it would cost 100 000 soms (£871). If the state had come up with government support, had provided stoves, or at least had conducted them for free, many people would have agreed. So now, until every neighbor on the whole alley does not gather about 22 000 soms, we won’t be connected. On 20 people, five can’t afford to chip in”, Aliya Baktiyarova says.

…but not for everyone

A few kilometers away from the Baktiyarovs, lives another family, the Smanovys: they have been living for already four years in a paved beige mansion. Gulnur Smanova is 55 years old, she is an experienced businesswoman and used to live in Kazan, Russia, where she spent several decades of her life. She moved to Archa-Beshik in search of a quieter place far from the concrete jungle to spend her old age.In Kyrgyzstan, Gulnur Smanova makes things to order and her children sell them in Russia. She lives in Archa-Beshik with her husband, her son, her daughter-in-law and her three grandchildren. She installed gas supply in her house in 2019, as soon as it was proposed to her; it costed her 150 000 soms (£1 307), which was not too big a cost for her. “There wasn’t any difficulty in conducting gas. Everything went normal. Our two-story house is 280 square meters. In Bishkek, there’s only one cold month during winter. Since the house is well insulated, we only pay 15 000 soms for the cold month, and about 9 000 (£78) for the other months [for gas bill]. We’ve been heating the house since October, because we have very young grandchildren”, Gulnur Smanova says to Novastan.According to her, her family no longer goes out for walks in winter because of the smog. On top of that, some of her neighbors constantly heat with coal, causing a black stream of smoke from the pipes to get into other houses. “But I understand them. People have different budgets. Connecting to gas is expensive. It would be better if people and cars would switch to gas. But it all comes down to money”, Gulnur Smanova regrets.

Authorities are selling discounted coal

In Kyrgyzstan, gas is a luxury, and most residents prefer more affordable local coal from Karakeche mines in the Naryn region, in the center of the country. The same coal is also used at the Bishkek thermal power plant, one of the largest consumers of coal.The coal of Karakeche is not only cheaper than gas, but also much cheaper than the coal imported from Kazakhstan. Nevertheless, the ecologists of Movegreen consider it to be brown coal, which has a higher ash content than the imported one. It also has a lower heating value, which means that people need to heat their house more often.Since mid-November, the Kyrgyz authorities have opened a point of sale for coal at a discounted price in order to provide economic support to the citizens. While a ton of coal from Karakeche was sold for anything from 5 000 soms (£43.6), the authorities sold it for about 3 000 soms (£26.1), described KyrgyzCoal (KyrgyzKomur) in a Facebook post.This led to thousands of people waiting in line for several days, hoping to buy cheaper coal. Among those people, Aliya Baktiyarova’s husband waited for several days, succeeding to purchase some of discounted coal. “My husband received two tons, and it was brought to us within a week. There were a lot of people. In order to get more coal, you had to wait in line again. Some people bought this coal for 3 000 soms a ton, and then resold it somewhere else for 5 000”, Aliya Baktiyarova says.

Saving money to buy coal

40-year-old Nurzhigit Kyrgyzbayev, a resident of Enesay estate and a father of five, was also waiting in line. On November 16, the man reported that he used to heat his house with electric heaters, but because of the ban on their use due to the energy crisis, he fully switched to coal. “My position in line was number 1080. I waited in line for four hours. During the heating season, we spend more money, at least 15 000 soms (£130.7) for coal. We start saving money already during fall. There’s a limitation on electricity, and gas is expensive to install. At least they’re giving that. The stress is now on coal, because common people now all use it to heat their houses”, he says to Novastan.While Nurzhigit Kyrgyzbayev was standing in line for coal, a serpentine of people wanting to save money despite the cold and the slush formed. Demand for coal increased in 2021 due to restrictions on the use of electric heaters: Kyrgyzstan faced an energy crisis in 2021 because of seasonal water shortages in the Toktogul reservoir, described American media Eurasianet.

“We will end up with a lot of health issues, like allergies and heart diseases”

The Kyrgyz authorities have repeatedly raised the issue of the smog over the capital’s sky, but it did not go beyond the stage of discussions. On December 16, Azamat Temirkulov, head of the Department for Analysis and Monitoring of reforms of the presidential administration, declared the importance of fighting the causes of the smog, but did not offer any solutions, relays Kyrgyz media Kaktus. “Our citizens are heating with coal in private houses and housing estates. Around Bishkek, there are 47 housing estates located in the eastern, northern, and western parts of the city. Those places are heated with coal. There is also the problem of the vehicles and their exhausts in the center of the capital, as well as chaotic urban constructions and the lack of wind blowing over the city”, Azamat Temirkulov reported, without proposing any solution.During the Parliament convocation in December 2021, legislator Baktybek Turusbekov also declared that the government did not take any measures and did not interact with the Parliament. “Several Prime ministers asked for this issue to be solved, and among them Akylbek Zhaparov. Not a single point of the program for the eradication of air pollution has been resolved, there are only statements. A city with a million of residents is breathing this; we will end up with a lot of health issues, like allergies and heart diseases”, Baktybek Turusbekov declared to 24.kg.On December 22, the economist Kuban Choroyev declared to Novastan that the type of heating used is directly linked to the level of income. According to him, if the price and the policy concerning conducting gas stay the same, Bishkek will continue breathing smog for many more years to come. “Many would switch to gas, because it’s convenient and not more expensive for heating than coal. But if you count installation, boiler and other expenses, it goes up to more than 1,000 dollars. Most people can’t afford it and prefer to spend less money on coal”, Kuban Choroyev explains. “The industry should pursue a better policy, for example, they could connect people to gas for free, and instead charge a little bit more monthly, along with the gas bill. There’s a failure in the industry. […] If the connection policy was changed, the capital could be fully connected to gas in three years.”

Aizirek Imanalieva Independent journalist based in Bishkek

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The city’s canals of Bishkek, most of which are now dry, have been taken over by graffiti artists from the Kyrgyz Capital. Credit: Simon Massicotte

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This plane monument gave its name to a section of the 12th microdistrict of the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek. Credit: Simon Massicotte (France)Find all of our photos of the day here.

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The Lenin statue in Bishkek once dominated the city’s central square, Ala-Too Square. In 2003 a statue for the Kyrgyz national hero Manas was erected in its place – the Lenin statue was moved behind the historical museum.Credit: Justine Paci (France)Find all of our photos of the day here.

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The Konorchok canyon in the Chuy valley, on the road from Bishkek to Issyk-Kul, has a spectacular geology, due to the erosion of particularly soft yellow and ochre rocks. Credit: Pierre-Armand Dussex (France) Find all of our photos of the day here.

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