Editing Bishkek (section)

==History==
{{see also|Timeline of Bishkek}}

Based on DNA evidence, the area near Bishkek is considered one of the possible origins of the [[Black Death]] between AD 1346 and 1353.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/black-death-plague-that-killed-50-million-in-europe-began-in-central-asia-study-shows-11655305200 | title=Black Death Mystery Solved Centuries After Plague Killed 50 Million in Europe | newspaper=Wall Street Journal | date=15 June 2022 | last1=Woodward | first1=Aylin }}</ref>

===Kokhand rule===
Originally a caravan rest stop, possibly founded by the [[Sogdia]]ns, on one of the branches of the [[Silk Road]] through the [[Tian Shan]] range, the location was fortified in 1825 by the [[khan of Kokand]] with a mud fort. In the last years of Kokhand rule, the Pishpek fortress was led by [[Atabeg|Atabek]], [[Kurmanjan Datka|the Datka]]. In 1844, the forces of [[Ormon Khan]], the leader of the {{Ill|Кыргыз хандыгы|lt=Kara-Kyrgyz Khanate|ky}}, briefly captured the fortress.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Belyakov |first=Yuri |date=2020 |title=Ормон-хан |trans-title=Ormon Khan |url=https://proza.ru/2020/05/02/745 |access-date=2022-10-05 |website=proza.ru |language=ru}}</ref>

===Tsarist era===
In 1860, [[Imperial Russia]] annexed the area, and the military forces of Colonel Apollon Zimmerman took and razed the fort. Colonel Zimmermann rebuilt the town over the destroyed fort and appointed field-Poruchik Titov as head of a new Russian garrison. The Imperial Russian government redeveloped the site from 1877 onward, encouraging the settlement of Russian peasants by giving them fertile land to develop.

===Soviet era===
[[File:Michael Frunze Statue vor dem Bahnhof von Bischkek.JPG|thumb|upright=1.1|right|Statue of [[Mikhail Frunze]] near the railway station]]
In 1926, the city became the capital of the newly established [[Kara-Kirghiz Autonomous Oblast|Kirghiz ASSR]] and was renamed Frunze after [[Mikhail Frunze]], [[Lenin]]'s close associate who was born in Bishkek and played key roles during the [[1905 Russian Revolution|revolutions of 1905]] and [[Russian Revolution|1917]] and during the [[Russian Civil War]] of the early 1920s.

===Independence era===
The early 1990s were a tumultuous time for Bishkek. In June 1990, a state of emergency was declared following severe ethnic riots in southern Kyrgyzstan that threatened to spread to the capital. The city was renamed Bishkek on 5 February 1991, and Kyrgyzstan achieved independence later that year during the [[breakup of the Soviet Union]]. Before independence, the majority of Bishkek's population were ethnic [[Russians]]. In 2004, Russians made up approximately 20% of the city's population, and about {{nowrap|7–8%}} in 2011.<ref>[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3681/is_200407/ai_n9472919 Residential Real Estate Market in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan: Current Conditions and Prospects]  {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090321113715/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3681/is_200407/ai_n9472919 |date=21 March 2009 }}</ref>

Bishkek is Kyrgyzstan's financial centre, with all of the country's 21 commercial banks headquartered there. During the Soviet era, the city was home to many industrial plants, but most have been shut down since 1991 or now operate on a much-reduced scale. One of Bishkek's largest employment centres today is the [[Dordoy Bazaar]] open market, where many of the Chinese goods imported to [[Commonwealth of Independent States|CIS]] countries are sold.