Old postcards Turkmenistan

The Turkmenistan section is so far entirely about Ashkhabad: two sets, from 1974 and 1979. The Turkmen SSR was formed in 1924 and Ashkhabad became its capital at once. The 1948 earthquake destroyed almost the whole city, so the cards of the 1970s show mostly post-war buildings.

The 1974 set is unusual: many cards carry two or three subjects in their captions. The Supreme Soviet of the Turkmen SSR and a card combining the Academy of Sciences, the writer B. Kerbabaev and the main university building sit alongside one that pairs a metal engraver with the dance “Girls’ Games” and a sewing factory workshop. One card combines part of a giant carpet in the Museum of Fine Arts, the Taras Shevchenko monument and the dance “Dzhigits”; another shows Professor I. Berezin performing an operation.

The 1979 cards are closer to a classic city set: Lenin Avenue, the Karl Marx Republican Library, the Karakumstroy administration building, the Mollanepes Drama Theatre and the monuments to the 18th-century poet Magtymguly and to K. Atabaev.

These vintage postcards of Turkmenistan were digitised straight from the Soviet-printed cards, with no retro filter applied. Further Ashkhabad subjects will be added later.

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