Weekend tours in Karakol.

“It is far from the route connecting Western Siberia with Turkestan, it is poorly accessible, thanks to such formidable passes as Kastek or the Buam gorge, one of the most poetic and terrible, before which the Georgian military road in the Caucasus pales. Its bazaar, it is true, is sideways, you can find a lot of cattle there and the nature of trade there is more barter. The trade turnover of merchants is significant, but not great. Prices for basic necessities are negligible, thanks to which goods are also cheap, although they are somewhat more expensive in comparison with other cities."

I. I. Geyer. "Turkestan". 1909.

"Even in this embryo of a town there was a Tatar settlement with goods more suitable for the Kyrgyz hand."

"Travel through Turkestan region and exploration of mountainous country of Tien-Shan." 1873.

Trip from Karakol to Altyn-Arashan.

In the district "News about factories and plants" for 1882 it is indicated that three tanneries operated in the Issyk-Kul region plant, where 10 workers worked, and the total volume of production was 6,6000 rubles. There were also six oil mills and three soap factories.
In 1883, the merchant Sh. Mamashev opened a tannery in Pishpek, which was later transformed by his heirs into a tannery (Kh. Gabdrakhmanov). The Tatars in this region were actively engaged in the purchase of cattle, leather tanning and wool processing.
In Karakol, the lower part of the city was called the tannery mahalla, the middle part - the oil mill, and the upper part - the mill. Until the 1980s of the XXth century, one of the streets in the lower part of the city was called Tatarskaya, but was later renamed in honor of Musa Jalil.
The oldest tannery was the enterprise of the merchant A. Karimov from Przhevalsk, founded in 1877. In the same year, the Tatar merchant Karimov opened a tannery in Karakol, which made the city a center of trade, where numerous shops and stores operated, as well as agents of commercial capital.
The St. Petersburg Tatar Muhammadi Ibragimov, who arrived in Kashgar in the early 1870s as a translator, later switched to entrepreneurial activity. Together with Fatih Sulaimanov, he founded the first trading house in Karakol, whose interests extended to Tokmak, Pishpek, Verny and other cities.
Thanks to the efforts of these merchants, a sawmill appeared in the village of Dzhargylchyk, and a small fleet of barges and launches was created to transport goods along Issyk-Kul. Later, both entrepreneurs received the status of first guild merchants. In 1906, out of 102 merchant families living in Karakol, 78 were Tatar.
In the following years, water mills and small trade and industrial establishments specializing in the processing of livestock products, agriculture and minerals began to be built in the vicinity of Przhevalsk and large settlements of the Issyk-Kul region.
By 1913, there were 25 enterprises in the district, employing 168 workers, and the volume of output reached 295.6 thousand rubles. Most of the enterprises were located in the district center, among them only a few relatively large factory and plant production facilities stood out.
The wool washing plant employed 69 workers. At the 11 tanneries of Karakol before the revolution, all work was done manually. Tanning material was sent in large quantities to Central Russia, where it underwent further processing. In return, finished leather and footwear came from Russia.
The remains of tannery production were used to make glue, which was cooked at one of the two glue factories in Kyrgyzstan, located in Karakol. The city also had one of the four intestinal cleaning plants in the country, where raw materials were processed manually and exported to Germany in canned form.
Among the numerous craft and industrial enterprises, the oil mill of the merchant Vorotnikov stood out - the largest in the Semirechye region. The oil produced at this enterprise was supplied to Tashkent, the Fergana Valley and China. The plant was destroyed during the civil war.
The Karakol wool washing plant was considered the largest in pre-revolutionary Kyrgyzstan, employing 100 people. In 1925 - 1926, the joint-stock company "Wool" opened its branch in Karakol, and the restored wool washing plant began work again, providing employment for 65 workers.

Authority and photos by:
https://save-karakol.tilda.ws/page927260.html