Rot Front (Chui Oblast)

The village was founded at the end of the XIX century by German immigrants. It was called Bergtal (Mountain Valley, also sometimes - Bergalt ), in 1927 it was renamed the Rot Front .

Most of the settlers were Mennonites . The village of Bergtal, one of several originally German settlements in Kyrgyzstan, was founded in the Chuy valley , rich in chernozems, at the foot of the Tien Shan mountains , by families of Baptists and Mennonites who emigrated from East Frisia about three hundred years ago to avoid forced military service. At the end of the 19th century, many of them moved to Central Asia from the Volga and Crimea .

The role of the Germans in the development and equipping of the rural economy is enormous. The construction of large stone houses began immediately. In the village where the Kirghiz also lived, tools and household items appeared, methods of cultivating the land, caring for livestock, cultivating some crops, improving livestock breeds were studied, bakeries and oil mills were working. The first settlers were Herman Jänzen, Dietrich Gamm, the Zukau, Martens, Koopov, Tilman families.

Since the period of Stalinization in the USSR in 1927, the village was renamed in honor of the German Union of Red Front - line soldiers Rot-Front. All religious rites were forbidden.

In 1929, the Germans founded an elementary school, the first teacher was Corney Peters. And then collectivization began. Bergtal and other German villages united and separated several times, especially the "rich", or rather, hardworking people, trimmed land and housing, instead of beautiful stone buildings there were huts, long cowsheds and stables. Collectivization prevailed over aesthetics, beauty and thrift. Chairs were changed several times. The collective farm was mainly engaged in beekeeping and crop production . Alfalfa, wheat, barley, and corn were grown. In 1937, the first tractors appeared.

In 1937-1938 During the Stalinist repressions, more than 40 German men were arrested. 29 people were sentenced to death.

After the Third Reich arose, ethnic Germans living in the village of Rot Front were discriminated against, the authorities were very suspicious of them, although the residents tried to explain that they did not identify themselves with the Germans of Nazi Germany. More than 50 men were taken to the labor army, only 22 returned alive. In 1942, 49 women were mobilized for the construction of the Cheka Canal (Bolshoi Chuisky Canal).

After the war, a united peasant farm was organized - OKH "Rot-Front". The farm had a lot of work. At night, the Germans began to build their "little Germany." Again, they built beautiful houses, buildings of a school, hospital, canteen, club, kindergarten. Here was the only school in Kyrgyzstan with German classes. The streets in the village were buried in flowers and greenery and were paved. Interestingly, the light on the streets of the Rot Front was on until morning. Residents of the village took responsibility for this. They repaired roads and equipment. The farm owned 650 hectares of arable land, 1,000 hectares of pasture and a lot of agricultural machinery. It was considered the best in the republic. Cows, sheep, pigs, horses, birds were raised here. Worked a mill, a dairy shop, an apiary. Each resident had his own plots of land. Members of the association sold honey, wheat, wine, koumiss.

Rural Baptists received financial assistance and spiritual support from America. They knew how to work on conscience, were religious. Faith forbade drinking, having abortions, cheating on spouses, disrupting public order, stealing, and losing one's job. They followed the traditions of their ancestors, lived according to biblical laws. And most importantly - they never isolated, lived in harmony and friendship with others.

"Little Germany" flourished thanks to hard work, the abilities of its inhabitants. But support, of course, was loans from Germany for the development of production, agriculture and social infrastructure.

With the advent of perestroika under the leadership of Mikhail Gorbachev , the villagers were again free to practice their religion. After the collapse of the USSR, many ethnic Germans emigrated from Kyrgyzstan to Germany, since with the collapse of collective farms and other state enterprises, many jobs were lost.

In 1990, about 900 people of German descent lived in the village; By 2012, their number was about 500 people. The Germans who left the Rot Front did not sell their homes. Almost every summer they come here to relatives and neighbors - Germans, Russians and Kyrgyz, they often receive guests from Kyrgyzstan, send them parcels, correspond and call back.

In the village there is a small museum in the school building, created with the financial support of the German government, which contains exhibits telling about the migration of German ancestors to Kyrgyzstan, their past life in their village. Since the early 1990s, the German government has also sent German teachers to the Rot Front national minority. However, the generous financial and material assistance from the German government allocated to the local agricultural cooperative was mainly wasted or used for other purposes.

In 1995, a film entitled “Milch und Honig aus Rotfront” was shot about the life of the German inhabitants of Bergtal.

Today, Bergtal / Rot-Front has the second largest population of people of German descent in Central Asia , although most of the villagers are now Kyrgyz. It is believed that this is the only remaining village in Central Asia with a significant German national minority.

Residents of a village of German origin, being strict Mennonites, continue to abandon the use of alcohol and tobacco products, television, cinema and dancing.

Postal code with. Rot-Front - 725027.

• Zukau Werner. Our homeland was Bergtal in the Chui Valley.