Notes on the Geography of Uzbekistan: Russian Samarkand

The Russians brought their brand of civilization to Samarkand.  Like colonists everywhere, their influence has outlasted their political power.

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An old photograph of a Russianized Samarkand street.

You can still find plenty of buildings from that era.  Here's a wing of the main post office. Behind those big windows upstairs are rooms full of computers for public access to the internet.

This grander-than-it-looks house belonged to Abraham Kolontarov, who kept it until the Revolution.  For five years it housed the Central Committee of the Uzbek Communist Party.  Now it's a museum of local history.

Inside, there's a fine, imported stove.

Another stove is set into a wall.

One room has been converted into an auditorium.

A block away, one of the main circumferential streets.  Big changes are afoot here.  We'll take a look.

Same street.  In the background is the state-owned GUM department store.

It's hopelessly out of date.

Back on the street, though, you can see the future: not the usual international retailers but local equivalents.

An old shop gets refitted.

Ready for business.

The old theater is cleaned up.

A five-minute walk from those shops, there's this dinosaur on the loose: another fine example of Soviet modernism.

The planners have juxtaposed their center against the historic one, the Registan.  No contest.

The same Soviet complex seen from Bibi Khanum.