Visiting monuments of Karakol.

“At 85 years of age, he retained a sharp mind, excellent eyesight and good health, which allowed him not only to read without glasses, but also to go horseback riding. A close associate of Skobelev and assistant to Przhevalsky, Korolkov was an expert on the region and continued to engage in scientific research, especially climate studies. The author ironically recalls his unusual theory about the causes of the Kyrgyz uprising of 1916. According to Korolkov, the son of the honorable Kyrgyz Shabdan, who left for Turkey after a quarrel with his father, was behind the unrest. During the First World War, the Germans allegedly used him as an agent, supplied him with money and sent him back to Semirechye via Afghanistan. There he bribed the volost governors and provoked an uprising. Although this version seems simplified and conspiratorial, it reflects the specifics of Korolkov's thinking - a man who observed changes in the region all his life and sought to explain what was happening, based on his rich life experience. "

A. Briskin. "In the Land of Seven Rivers: Essays on Modern Semirechye." 1926.

Regional tourism to architectural monuments in Karakol.

Korolkov Yaroslav Ivanovich was born in 1843 in the city of Kamenets-Podolsk in the family of an officer. At the age of 28, Korolkov Ya. I. married nee Griboyedova Varvara, the grandniece of the writer Griboyedov A. S. In 1880, Korolkov Ya. I., at his own request, received a transfer to the city of Karakol as a commander of the 3rd mountain battery.
He organized a meteorological station, first a field station, and then a stationary one.
He sent reports on the work he had done to the Russian Geographical Society, where his works “Life and Economy” were published:
- Report on the inspection of some Tien-Shan glaciers,
- Winds in the Issyk-Kul Valley,
- Precipitation in the Issyk-Kul Basin,
- Beekeeping and Semirechye.
- Artillery course and laboratories of the Fireworks School (authors Korolkov, Johnson).
In the period from 1882 to 1914, on behalf of Semenov Tyan-Shansky, a great deal of work was done in the field of botany and entomology. In 1898, Korolkov was sent to the Far East, where he took part in the war with China. In 1902, after retiring, he returned to Przhevalsk.
Korolkov was not only a scientist, but also a great public figure. Under his leadership, a drama club was organized for the first time, and at that time it consisted of amateurs of the local intelligentsia, he created a battalion brass band, and personally trained the orchestra members.
He also organized the construction of a canal in the eastern part of the Issyk-Kul Valley, which he used to irrigate a large area of ​​arable land. He was engaged in beekeeping. He knew the flora of the local mountains well, and to increase the honey harvest, he purchased the honey plant "Sinyak" and "Goroshek" from the St. Petersburg Botanical Garden.
He devoted a lot of time to lecturing on various topics to schoolchildren and the public of the city. General Yaroslav Korolkov (1843 - 1933) was one of the most original and colorful figures of pre-revolutionary Przhevalsk. For decades, he headed the city's agrometeorological station and played an important role in scientific research in the region.
Retired Major General Yaroslav Ivanovich Korolkov founded the first meteorological station in Przhevalsk, the only one at that time in the Issyk-Kul region, and from September 1881 began systematic observations of temperature, air pressure, precipitation, wind strength and direction.
In 1887, he founded the first meteorological station in Kyrgyzstan, and also organized a number of expeditions to the glaciers of the Teskey-Ala-Too ridge, studying the sources of the region's rivers. His weather maps, pass schemes and data on the state of the glaciers turned out to be extremely useful for Nikolai Przhevalsky's expedition to the Tien-Shan.
A hundred years later, Korolkov's observations of glaciers were used by UNESCO in creating the "Atlas of Snow and Glacier Resources". In addition to his scientific activities, Korolkov actively participated in the public life of the city. With his direct assistance, a city library was founded and a beautiful park was laid out.
He was distinguished by his independent views and in 1916, during the Kirghiz uprising against mobilization, he openly spoke out against the punitive expeditions of the Russian authorities. The commander of a mountain battery, a graduate of the Mikhailovsky Artillery School, a Knight of the St. George Cross and the holder of a personal weapon for the defense of Shipka, Korolkov conducted meteorological research commissioned by Nikolai Przhevalsky. His work was so significant that he was accepted into the Russian Geographical Society.
At the request of Pyotr Semenov-Tyan-Shansky, he compiled the first herbarium of plants and seeds in the Issyk-Kul region. In addition, he contributed to the development of the city: he acclimatized blue spruce in Karakol, and together with his wife Varvara Griboyedova, the writer's grandniece and former soloist of the Warsaw Opera, he contributed to the creation of the first national school in Kyrgyzstan, a library, a brass band, a folk theater, and an art lecture hall.
In July 1903, Yaroslav Korolkov went on a botanical expedition to the Jety-Oguz gorge together with the outstanding researcher of the flora of Central Asia V.I. Lipsky. In June 1907, the Russian Geographical Society issued Korolkov with official permission to conduct scientific trips to the Semirechye region.
His research covered a wide range of disciplines: geography, zoology, entomology, botany and other areas. During expeditions to the Tien Shan, he combined meteorological measurements and topographic surveys with the collection of herbariums and seeds of local plants, which he then sent to the St. Petersburg Botanical Garden.
In addition to scientific work, he recorded Kyrgyz legends and collected archaeological finds related to the history of Issyk-Kul. Yaroslav Ivanovich always maintained friendly relations with the local residents. In a letter to the head of the Przhevalsky district V.P. He wrote to Kolosovsky on November 22, 1916:
- "During my stay in the region, I had the opportunity to cover more than 14 thousand miles on horseback in our mountains. I was never armed - my saber was always with the Kyrgyz who accompanied me. And during all this time, I only met with warm hospitality from them. The peasants said the same thing."
For many years, Korolkov conducted meteorological observations in Przhevalsk and during his travels around Semirechye. Based on the data he collected, he prepared several general works on the winds in the Przhevalsk area, precipitation in the Issyk-Kul Basin and the climate of the Issyk-Kul region.
His research became an important source of information for travelers and expeditions at the end of the XIXth century. For his contribution to the development of geography and climatology, Korolkov was elected a full member of the Russian Geographical Society (April 19, 1889).
The certificate, signed by P.P. Semenov-Tyan-Shansky, was kept by his daughter L. Ya. Strelbitskaya and granddaughter M. N. Lyubimova, who lived in Przhevalsk. Later, on the initiative of the historian V. Ya. Galitsky, this document was transferred to the State Historical Museum of Kyrgyzstan.
Yaroslav Korolkov provided significant support to scientists, travelers and participants of Russian and foreign expeditions exploring the Tien Shan. He actively participated in the preparation and equipment of the Central Asian expeditions of N. M. Przhevalsky, M. V. Pevtsov and V. I. Roborovsky. Korolkov provided meteorological data, shared his own topographic surveys of passes convenient for crossings, helped with the selection of guides and translators from local residents, and also assisted in providing expeditions with horses and other necessary equipment.
His acquaintance with Nikolai Przhevalsky had a special influence on his life. After the death of the great traveler, Korolkov took an active part in perpetuating his memory. He was the first to send telegrams with news of the tragedy, spoke at the funeral, participated in choosing a site for the monument and contributed to its installation.
Thanks to his efforts, a poplar park framed by a hedge of elm was laid out near Przhevalsky's grave. Korolkov's scientific interests were not limited to meteorology. His report on the state of the Tien Shan glaciers, prepared in the summer of 1899, became a valuable contribution to the development of Russian glaciology.
Together with his assistants S.E. Dmitriev and B.P. Korev, he explored the upper reaches of the Chichkan, Aksu and Western Kemin rivers, whose sources are in the glaciers of the region. Having left military service, the major general passed on his scientific works, laboratories and meteorological station to the Kyrgyz people.
However, he spent the last years of his life in poverty, wearing an old general's overcoat. Yaroslav Ivanovich Korolkov died in 1933 at the age of 90. In memory of his services, in the middle of the 20th century, one of the streets in Karakol was named after him.

Authority:
S.V. Ploskikh. National Library of the Kyrgyz Republic.

Photographs by: 
from the local history museum of the city of Karakol.