Paper abstract:

The town of Karakol was founded on the caravan route on July 1, 1869. Since its foundation, it has gradually expanded, becoming international in terms of the ethnic composition of the population.

This article will be devoted to the formation and development of commercial and industrial entrepreneurship of the city at the end of the XIX and the beginning of the XX century on the example of specific stories of individual famous trading families and their impact on the socio-economic and socio-cultural state, especially on the architectural heritage of the town of Karakol. Among the famous merchants were representatives of the tatar, kyrgyz, uighur, dungan, uzbek and other populations.

Within the framework of this article will be presented the development of entrepreneurship of the uighur and dungan ethnic groups living in Karakol and in the village of Irdyk. The shopping malls built on the initiative of uighur, dungan merchants became the basis of the original appearance of the town during the studied period. The combination of functional purpose and national decorative elements in the architecture of houses and religious temples contributed to the creation of interesting cultural objects (Dungan and Uighur mosque) representing the historical heritage of the town of Karakol.

The main sources were visual materials (photographs from archival collections, museums and private family collections) and information from oral histories of descendants of uighurs and dungans currently living in the town of Karakol and in the village of Irdyk. So, the uighurs and dungans ethnic groups, being carriers of historical memory, in their stories reflect the ethnos' own idea of their historical past and ethnic identity through language, trade practices, stories about the development of family entrepreneurship, customs, traditions, culture and religion, etc.