Gulistan

In the 19th century, there was the village of Achchikkuduk (“a well with salt water”), in which there were 40 courtyards, a mosque and a teahouse.

In 1869, by decree of the Turkestan Governor-General K.P. Kaufman, the possibility of irrigating the Hungry Steppe was studied; The construction of the canal began in 1872. The 84 km long canal, named after Nicholas I and brought to Mirzachul (Gulistan), was commissioned in 1895. Of the 7600 hectares of irrigated land, 2100 hectares were allotted to the prince, who lived in the Romanovsky settlement, 3380 hectares to Russian settlers, 220 hectares to the hunger-steppe experimental field.

In the same period, a railway was laid from Samarkand to Tashkent through the Hungry Steppe, its construction was also completed in 1895. The station Achchikkuduk began to be called Griboedovka, since 1905 - the Hungry Steppe, as well as the village.

Excavators who arrived from different places of Russia to build the canal in 1886 formed 8 small Russian villages in the Khodzhikensky district: Romanovsky (Krestyansky), Zaporizhzhya, Nadezhdinsky, Nikolaev, Promised, Nizhnevolynsky, Verkhnevolynsky and Konnogvardeisky (Red Dawn). In 1897, near the station of the Hungry Steppe, the village of Dukhovsky was formed, in 1906 the village of Spassky was created. On the eve of World War I, there were 290 households in these already united settlements; in their place subsequently grew the city of Gulistan.

In 1905, the canal control building and the first Russian-native school in the Hungry Steppe were built in the village. Since 1910, the canal has been called Northern Hunger Steppe.

In 1922, the village of Golodnaya Steppe was renamed Mirzachul; in 1952 received the status of urban-type settlement, was part of the Tashkent region . Since 1959, it has been called Gulistan. Since 1963, it became the center of the newly created Syrdarya region . In 1989, in connection with the unification of the Jizzakh and Syrdarya regions, the city of Jizzakh became oblast. February 16, 1990 , after the restoration of the Jizzakh region , the center of the Syrdarya region was moved from Jizzakh to Gulistan.

Population

• in 1970 - 31 thousand inhabitants ^[1]
• in 1991 - 54 thousand inhabitants
• in 2010 - 77.3 thousand inhabitants.

Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, the Russian-speaking population was gradually replaced by a local one. It should be noted the special mentality of the population of Gulistan. Unlike most of the more ancient cities - in Gulistan there is no discrimination of visitors from other regions. Apparently this is due to the fact that the Gulistani themselves are also visitors in the second or third generation.

There are mechanical repair and oil extraction plants, a house-building plant, several sewing and weaving factories, an elevator-building, metal-processing plants, instrumental electric workshops and much more

Syrdarya Regional Music and Drama Theater.

• Gulistan // The Great Soviet Encyclopedia : [in 30 vol.] / Ch. ed. A.M. Prokhorov . - 3rd ed. - M .: Soviet Encyclopedia, 1969-1978.