OSH SOVIET MURALS AND MOSAICS
Soviet Mosaic and Murals in Osh
The best way to explore Osh is by foot when you can stop to admire the small details. Osh has preserved a lot of its Soviet heritage in the form of the mosaics and murals. The Soviet construction boom in Osh occurred between 1970s and 1980s and therefore most of these works of art are from that period. Most of the Mosaics of Osh are little bit hidden away from the most obvious walking paths but still easily reached by walking in few hours or taking the taxi to cover the largest gaps. There are also some very nicely preserved Soviet buildings in Osh worth mentioning.
Horsepower
One of the most visible mosaics of Osh is the one called horsepower which is at the entrance of the Osh Agrarian Economic Institute building just next to the city’s main square and the enormous statue of Lenin.
Peace
Residential Building
Fabric
Residential Building
Olympic Misha
The theme of the mosaics seems to have taken ideas at least partly from the ongoing or coming events. This is the case clearly with the Soviet Olympic mascot called Mishka from the 1980. The current surroundings of the small bear are rather interesting.
Residential Building
Aeroflot
Mosaics were designed as decoration, but there were also unique advertising mosaics like today’s advertising banners. For instance, one of the houses still has an advertisement for Aeroflot with the old phone numbers for booking the flights.
Osh Residential Building
Drama
Osh drama theater bulding is a good example of Soviet theater architecture with blue tiled mosaics on both sides of it.
Glory to Work
Glory to work is also well visible on one of the most busy crossings of Osh.
Soviet Buildings in Osh
Osh State University
Osh school
Statue of Kurmanzhan Datka in front of Soviet House
Masalyev street, Osh
Osh main square and the city administration
Osh main square is rather ascetic with the large empty asphalt area between the administration building and the park next to it.
Osh Lenin statue
The main Square of Osh still has the country’s largest Lenin with no hurry to move anywhere. It is the second largest Lenin of Central Asia after the one in Khujand.
Osh history museum
Osh history museum might not look like much from the outside but the inside is pure Soviet with the enormous amounts of white marble and large exhibition halls and chandeliers.
Page updated 20.4.2021
